Clerics are Lawful Part 2

Print PDF

Yesterday I decided that it makes all the sense in the world to make all clerics’ alignment lawful, provided you are playing in an old school sword and sorcery campaign where Law and Chaos are the important axis of conflict. I think this makes even more sense if you are playing LotFP Weird Fantasy, where all magic users and elves are aligned with chaos.

Mages and elves tap into chaos to get power and further their own ends, but clerics are ‘given’ power and must stay within certain boundaries in order to get that power. The gods are order manifest in various forms. They might be considered agents of a common source, inhabitants of a Plane of Law or anthropomorphic templates of competing laws. Even a god of luck or a god that seems fickle or destructive is lawful.

Law is mind. Chaos is mindless.

"Yes"

Where does that leave druids? Good question! They are on the side of nature, which is neutral because it is made up of the two and is caught up in the struggle. A druid gets her power from hugging trees and cutting holly branches.

In the setting I am creating, the world is in a time period where the power has tilted away from chaos and is moving back toward the middle. The gods will be getting their power back and renewing ancient feuds, requiring artifacts found in old ruins and secret places. Great orders of knights and clerics will begin rooting out the agents of chaos, dispelling their miracles. Sorcerers and madmen will look for portals through which to summon chaos, the stuff of power. Druids will hope to protect the world and maintain the balance. The elves will fight for survival, questing for long lost elven magic, which was far superior to the human spells they’ve had to learn. Halflings will try to take control of the land from tall men and dwarves will hide below, hoping to avoid the whole damn showdown.

But that’s all big picture malarky. Adventurers? They’re hoping there’s some coin in it.

Everyone is excused from the rest of the post, but if you are interested in using some of the gods I’ve posted before, I listed them below as I checked for a chaotic god.

Adu and Adu-Nunna: Struggling to take over or free the world of suffering. Lawful (evil/good)

Owrox: Soul ransomer, devil. Lawful (evil)

No-God: Doesn’t exist, but the only follower believes in order without gods, so lawful (neutral).

The Six Gods of Slorrs: Ok, rolling randomly to see which deity you serve today might seem chaotic. But they each have their own rule and punishment for wayward clerics so they are each lawful (varies). Wow, I reread this one and pity any PC cleric who picks the Six!

Pallas is her own high priestess, so that sort of bootstrapping go-getter would be lawful (neutral).

The Church of the Aesir and the orthodox Odinites are lawful (varies).

Yuchen-Domma is lawful evil in the extreme. She works to bring the world under the spell of her dirge.

Poor, tortured Vantus grants spells under duress, but the clerics who have him captive are definitely lawful evil.

The Order of the Holy Rest (Crom) are lawful quiet.