Alignment of Deities and their Clerics
Permidion_Stark
Member Posts: 4,861
This may be a stupid question, but does a cleric have to be of the same alignment as their deity? I'm asking because I recently created a Chaotic Neutral human Necromancer/cleric (I am using Tweaks to allow humans to multiclass and specialise) whom I imagine to be quite a troubled, impulsive, mercurial person, who makes rash decisions and who often does things that she comes to regret. Clearly, being a necromancer, this character has a dark side but I think she aspires to do good so I don't think she would worship a deity who embodies the aspects of her own character that she wishes she could change. And when I look through the list of Chaotic Neutral deities in the Forgotten Realms wiki I can't find a deity that seems appropriate to the character (especially when you consider that she has spent her whole life in Candlekeep and knows little of the world beyond its walls): https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Chaotic_neutral_deities
Confession time - the real reason I want her to be Chaotic Neutral is so that she can have a cat as her familiar. But I would also like to find the character an appropriate deity to worship.
tl;dr Can a Chaotic Neutral cleric worship a Chaotic Good or Neutral Good deity?
Confession time - the real reason I want her to be Chaotic Neutral is so that she can have a cat as her familiar. But I would also like to find the character an appropriate deity to worship.
tl;dr Can a Chaotic Neutral cleric worship a Chaotic Good or Neutral Good deity?
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Comments
Helm as lawful neutral for example would put emphasis on lawful and has lawful good, neutral or evil followers, so I can imagine being chaotic neutral and worshipping a chaotic good deity might work, neutral good might be too far away.
But as I said, I have no reference to quote from, but maybe others do.
(But if your alignment shifts to something too far away from your god after you're already a cleric, that doesn't seem to be a problem. Anomen doesn't lose his spells if he goes chaotic neutral, after all.)
As for your roleplaying ... rather than a "dark side", how about having this character interested in studying the mysteries of life and death? Academic curiosity, leading them down some questionable paths.
You might consider Oghma, the true neutral god of knowledge. He has worshippers of all alignments who seek knowledge, both good and evil.
If your character likes animals, she might fit in with one of the neutral nature deities, like Sylvanas. I doubt any nature deity would approve of necromancy, though.
Thanks guys. The character I am creating is called Alianna and I imagine her to be quite a troubled young woman. Gorion has told her precisely four things about her parentage (only one of which may be true):
1. That she is named after her mother (true)
2. That her mother came from Silverymoon (I don't know if this is true or whether Gorion is lying about this)
3. That her mother died in childbirth (a lie)
4. That the identity of her father is unknown (also a lie)
My idea is that from this Alianna has grown up feeling guilty because she believes she was somehow responsible for the death of her mother. She has idealised her mother, believing her to have been beautiful and good. In fact, in her mind, her mother has almost become one of the Seven Sisters: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Silverymoon
Having made a paragon of her mother, Alianna feels she is unworthy of her name. She believes that her mother was everything she is not. And it doesn't help that she grew up without playmates and without parental affection (Gorion is a dutiful but distant guardian and she senses that there is much that he is withholding from her).
I'm therefore leaning towards making Alianna a priestess of Sune, because in that goddess she sees the embodiment of everything she believes her mother to have been. And everything that Alianna perceives herself to lack.
"...Grew up without playmates..." Are you pretending Imoen doesn't exist for purposes of this character? I'd be curious where Imoen fits into your backstory. I assume you'll be rejecting her as a companion at the start. Does she just not exist in your story, or is there a reason you don't like and don't trust her?
Imoen is definitely there and is accompanying Alianna. But Imoen doesn't arrive in Candlekeep until Gorion's ward is ten years old so for the first ten years of her life Alianna would have had no friends to play with. I think of Alianna as being somewhat jealous of Imoen, who is popular and good-looking and all the things Alianna is not. So she often goes against Imoen's advice even when she secretly thinks Imoen is right.