HYPERBOREA / Neutral Gods and Their Clergy's Alignment

**Posted by Blackadder23** 6/03/2014 3:14 pm

This is one that only occurred to me recently. When running AD&D, I've always played it that clerics have to exactly match the alignment of their gods. So clerics of Zeus must be CG, and clerics of Asmodeus must be LE. This works to a point in AS&SH. Clerics/priests of Chaotic gods can be CG or CE, those of Lawful gods can be LG or LE, and those of Thaumagorga can be LE or CE. The issue arises with Neutral gods, since clerics and priests aren't permitted to be Neutral. Does this mean Neutral gods are worshipped only by druids and shamans? This makes perfect sense for gods like Yoon'Deh, Helios, and Lunaqqua, but it seems odd that "sophisticated" entities like Rel and Yikkorth would only have rustic worshippers. Or is it the case that Neutral gods have both Lawful and Chaotic clergy?

I'm curious both how other people have been handling this, and what Jeff's original intentions were. Maybe the gods of Hyperborea just aren't that interested in alignment at all...

**Posted by Yora** 6/03/2014 3:53 pm

Isn't it usually "clerics can not be Neutral, unless their god is Neutral"?

**Posted by Ghul** 6/03/2014 4:10 pm

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.

**Posted by Blackadder23** 6/04/2014 10:34 am

Ghul wrote:
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.

Thank you, I think that addresses my concern. I'll allow Lawful and Chaotic clerics of Neutral gods, although probably not clerics actually opposed in alignment to their gods (so no Lawful clerics of Chaotic gods, for example).

Ghul wrote:
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.

FWIW I would vote for just allowing clerics and priests to be any alignment. Neutral gods need priests too!

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 6/04/2014 10:58 am

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.