The idea that I had in mind was that, generally speaking, a cleric or priest is not necessarilly bound to the worship of a single god, so the gods don't have to dictate or perfectly match the cleric's or priest's alignment. I think there are gods that are Neutral in dispostion, but worshipers and cults may be of many stripes. That being said, I tend to agree with Yora's statement -- if the deity is Neutral, and the cleric or priest is in tune with his her deity's ethos, then it only makes sense that the cleric or priest is likewise allowed to be Neutral, too. Dave Prata and I just had this conversation about a week ago, and we agreed to address this in the future printing, perhaps relaxing the cleric / priest alignment restrictions, or clarifying exceptions.

I guess I hadn't noticed that the restriction on Neutrality for clerics was there in AS&SH since the gods divide into Lawful, Chaotic, and Neutral. That said, I'd probably go ahead and let PC clerics be Neutral. It seems like the smartest PC alignment in Hyperborea. It also seems to give access to pretty much all of the gods, depending on what you need.

I have a player now with a LG cleric of Yig! He's Ixian and came up with a rationale, so why not. He venerates the generative, combative, adaptive principles of the snake, thinks Yig worship has been corrupted by his own people, and feels necromancy is a perversion of the elemental snake. Good enough for me.

My players haven't really been too polytheistic yet, venerating whatever god happens to be at hand, but I think they're starting to pick up on that flavor.