Tell me about your clerics!

[cptcuddlepants]

I realize I haven't interacted with (or seen) many clerics or divine-magic types over the entire time I've been playing here. I'm very curious about how others played/play their clerics and capabilities, what they were like, and what their characters accomplished.

I wish I could do this IC, but so far Jad's search has been unsuccessful except for finding a single book about a paladin?'s teachings.

[Emotionaloverload]

Two of my favourites were Joshua Colt and Birgitta "Birdie" Swordhill.

Joshua was a sworn paladin and champion of Tyr (trained in the Order of the Merciful Sword). Through each stage of his growth he adopted stricter and stricter vows such as being unable to tell any lies, chastity and having no worldly possessions that weren't required to fulfill his duties.

He worked to bring back the impartial use of law in Cordor during a time when magistrates were non-existent or biased. He also prompted the building of the Temple of the Triad (With the help of the Council) by gathering all the Triadists on the island into one faction.

He slew evils (Dm based and PCs), tried to convert the wayward and cataloged all the evil deeds, peoples and plots in one spot to help the dispensing of information.

Birdie had a lot more to work with since I could draw on the entire hinnish pantheon. Even though she was a priestess of Arvoreen, she dipped into all the hinnish faiths when it was needed to console, advise or take action on any matter.

She worked to bring back hinnish traditions to Burrowhome when many of the hin there didn't know them such as Safeday, shunning and ceremonies. She also strived to build the Dale's alliances through treaties and general neighbourly goodwill (since having allies is the best defense!) which culminated in the Dale signing the Coalition Treaty.

With both (and really all my divine based characters), faith was the starting point of every single point of view because the characters had to work considerably hard to get into the rank that they were in which ended with their duty being their lifestyle.

With a character that learned all her divine based skills IG; Kaylessa Dree the Champion of Bane, I mostly bothered the hell out of the banite ranks with questions, tasks and trials to bring Kay from criminal scum to the most lawful banite I could muster. With her, she spread around the word of Bane by showing that they aren't all the worst people ever.

She fought wars for her cause, even managed to ally with the Grove, sacrificed paladins and tried to preserve the Temple's efforts for future generations of Banites.

I hope that helps.
-S

[Echohawk]

I mean, you've met my character. I'll admit I don't have Sarina associated with a temple or rooted establishment and I really do play her more as a wandering entity of wisdom, healing, etc.

RP without direct God interaction is a challenge I won't lie, but that's something of the situation we're rather given. We have to be a bit more open minded into how dogma might be twisted and enforced in our own right. (It does kind of go along with the whole play along RP where people do have to be a little open minded and flexible.)

In a way it'll always be a matter of what you want the character to 'be' as it were. Clerics/Priests/Priestesses of different Gods have vastly different lifestyles and expectations. Even adjustment from God to God I don't feel would be taken lightly as it's a major aspect's to the character's identity and belief system usually. (Of course there will be exceptions but I figure in the most typical sense, kind of a big deal.) Faith in itself can move other characters in vastly different directions, and with enough people behind a cleric that can make for some pretty important movers and shakers in the right conditions.

Even for evil characters one could RP healing and restoring people as ensuring that the weak have the chance to thrive and grow to their full potential, ie "We're not done with you yet". It's kind of a vague inquiry but obviously I'm no veteran of the server I only speak what I know from other RP experiences.

Obviously I prefer to refer to the cleric spells as blessings and prayers as much as possible, but it's all about the details and flavor you implement I feel.

[OverTheSeaToSkye]

Storm: "Being kind and being nice are not the same thing. Don't confuse them."
Ches: "Lolth help me, I am surrounded by idiots."
Sila: "Yes, dear. But how does this benefit *me*?"

I don't have a type for clerics per se. But the characters tend to find their groove and run with it. I judge what happens to and around them, and that influences their behaviour, their faith, how they use their god's teachings.

[Memelord]

Lessee, I've had:

Edric Chellain, cleric & paladin of Nobanion (you ought to have interacted with him enough to know how he was, Cuddles.) An occasionally awkward fellow who struggled to find a balance between being professional and diligent - and attempting to ooze camaraderie; with a case of sometimes near suicidal commitment to whatever he viewed as his personal duty. He joined the Guard, was tortured by Cyricists, took many a beat-down for his friends, and attempted to teach Jadoth how to be courageous. He would later join up with the main contingent of Nobanionites in Guldorand and lead their militia for a time, helping to rebuild it and bring new strength and spirituality to the Skull Crags with sermons and constant lecturing/advice for his 'flock' (though "Lions make terrible sheep".)

Duncan Branno, cleric & paladin of Tyr (wow, I'm starting to see a real pattern here) who joined the Cordorian Guard at a time when a fair few of his colleagues viewed Cordor, Cordorian politics, and Cordorian service with disgust. Was always quick to offer assistance to whomever was in need, and always quick to spout off a particularly Tyrable pun. He climbed his way through the ranks and was constantly at loggerheads with the Council over legal reforms (they'd groan whenever he entered a meeting, because they knew it meant he had 2-3 pieces of legislation, new or reforms, to put before them) and even helped an infernalist or two find legal loopholes in their contracts that freed them from service.

[This is not for you.]

For me it's Daddy Marshal; a reformed hardened criminal who found God and repented to become a preacher of Ilmater. Despite Ilmater teachings of non-violence he tended to struggle with his old habits. He was a neat character I really enjoyed. Did a lot of preaching and sermons which Id like to try and do again.

Then there's Hannah. But she was more like Jad in that she struggled to find her passion past the initial "lol killing people is fun" angle.

[Jack Oat]

Leo of Torm was my (debatably) successful Cleric/Paladin. I played him as a firm believer not so much in the power of his God as much as a believer in the same ideals as his God. He held loyalty, duty, and good above everything else in his life and sought to influence others along the same path. To that end, he was a Cleric more along the lines of convenience than anything else. When he prayed, it was for help to spread the influence of his already prevalent beliefs which, in my opinion, is how faith should be done. I think I wrote the book you were talking about on Leo (though I could be wrong), and it was an exploration of what it meant to be virtuous and what it meant to sin-- all wrapped in the guise of a Holy book.

He went from a teenage boy playing Priest a little too hardcore to a middle-aged man devoted ferociously to his cause, and went from not being certain (much as Jadoth is now) to being confident in his beliefs.

For me, playing Leo was a mixture of the Paladin/Cleric of Torm cliches and what it meant to strive to be a true white knight in a grey world where answers aren't always obvious. To be part of the Faith, without being susceptible to the drama/internal workings of the Faith. To hold oaths and vows, and understand why those oaths and vows needed to be upheld, and where the bounds of reason met the stone wall of strict lawfulness. To understand that duty is duty, regardless of how painful it may be, or what the personal costs may be, or how grim/unpleasant it was to uphold.

That, and Village People antics for days. I still can't think of him without "Macho Man" playing in my head.


I think that Joshua Colt and Marshal are honestly two of the best Clerics of the Triad that I've seen, as well.

[flower]

Jadoth can always ask Brizshala when encounters her.

[gilescorey]

The only cleric I've ever played was Su'lern Ormkal, who was a half-orc cleric of Yurtrus. He was okay.

For those who don't know, as I'm unsure where exactly Yurtrus ranks on the metaphorical scale of obscurity, Yurtrus is the Orcish god of death and disease for Orcs, fulfilling a sort of mix between Myrkul and Talona, albeit without the necromancy, an aspect that belonged to Shargaas instead. Yurtrus also was the being who you would appease with offerings to keep your tribe's food and water safe from pollution or sickness, seeing as how those were -- or so the orcs thought -- under his control.

His clerics were vaguely independent of the tribal "totem pole" of authority, feared entities for their role of an intermediary to Yurtrus; after all, the Rotting Hands were the cause of far more Orcish death than any non-Orc could ever hope to achieve. Orcs were kept in constant fear by Yurtrus, and by extension his clergy.

Su'lern's thoughts were that death was an inevitable, awful thing that robbed people (Orcs) of their dignity and their warriors' honour. Being a half-Orc, and generally smaller and weaker than his tribe, he decided that he wanted to represent this unstoppable force and take some of its power and the fear it brought for himself. It integrated him fairly well with the local Andunorian orogs, and he worked with them for a while.

I planned on his activities being celebration of the two Yurtrusian holidays, both involving a great deal of ritual sacrifice, and trying to spread invented plagues, poison and disease onto the "weak humans" (some kind of mild self-hatred thing I wanted to work into his personality, owing to his half human heritage) and to appease Yurtrus.

Yurtrus' specialty clergy were known as "vrashoi," or death lord, and when I decided I didn't want to play him anymore I had him take his rites to become one by ingesting some painful toxic substance; the survivors were favoured of Yurtrus and the dead were failures. As you probably realise, he died.

Mostly, he was a cowardly, selfish and ugly creature with few redeemable qualities beyond how pitiful and petulant his real motivations really were. It was pretty cool in hindsight, and I think regret rolling him so soon.

[WanderingPoet]

Yeto - you know Yeto! He is a priest of Akadi the Queen of the Air, Lady of the Winds. He has become an Airwalker, a specialty priest in her faith (Healer!). Overall he is pretty quiet about his faith, not trying to shove it down anyone's throats. Although he has 0 love for earth elementals and will happily destroy them or Grumbarians in his Lady's name.

Akadi is a rather... Distant Goddess, but she protects him. She has saved him many times and gifted him with powers. Powers that let him wander, explore, see new sights and grow. It is that aspect that he has let be his council - the concept of "Paths".

He spends a good amount of time healing people, and a good amount of time advising people - often this advice comes in the form of a 'path'. The Path of Struggle for those at the low point, the Path of Emotion for lovers, the Path of Truth (which he walks) for those seeking more. Each person walks their own path in life, many paths for with a choice at the road. Sometimes it leads to greatness, sometimes to nothing - but it is important that each walk their own path and grow and become better.

Or atleast that is what Yeto believes~

[Rogaku]

I played a Cleric on here pre-Split with Amia by the name of Jiharu Kusama, she was.. an odd bird but a dedicated servant of Lathander.

[MoreThanThree]

Ingeborg's the closest thing that the Tempites have to a cleric and will fight anyone who disagrees.

[Ozzy.nl]

James bloodstone is my second priest I just created him. He is a priest of bane though it is hard without him actually allowed to preach in cordor he does try to teach others of his take of the life of a banite. He has a slightly different view and some already call him a twat priest.

My first ever priestess was a drow essay of lolth she was more a brutish personality though she would leave no chance unused to speak the word of lolth. This was before the sinking of Udos druxen

[flower]

Brizshala

She evades conflicts as god demands. Others think she would not fight, or even pile up their bully attempts. When it comes to the point, she fights furiously and gives no mercy. Takes no prisoners, as she is not allowed to harm them (dogma), fortunetly noone yields.

When she is forced to the fight (taunt, attacked), she bashs corpses with no hesitation (you get what you asked for!) if the foe is evil. Because, she rarely begins the fights (If she started it she minds the foe, actually)!

She fights not evil Drow if meets them, unless they do an evil thing (and drives them off surface) or are known murderers (dogma).

She holds no grudges or hate but never forgets, when someone hurts her close friends, nor forgives, even when this crosses the dogma.

She despises priests who suffer some kind of tragedy and quickly switch to other god to find shelter, unwilling to face a challenge.

And she is still a drow woman, prideful, and self confident, dominant, all things her Brother keeps bitching about

[Xarge VI]

I played Joron, a priest of Umberlee. He started out as a street preacher. Preaching about the fury of the sea and demanding people coins and other valuables as a sacrifice in return of blessings. It was great fun and caused a lot of conflict. Eventually he was banned from preaching in Cordor if I recall right. Then he sought being hired by various ship captains as a lucky charm and it naturally evolved into piracy. As the angry priest grew ever angrier.

He kept the practice of demanding sacrifice in exchange for blessings all through his career demanding it even from warding party members and especially if somebody died they would owe a service to Umberlee. Many people who knew this rather used a scroll than let Joron resurrect them.

He grew in power by shamanistic rituals, usually requiring blood sacrifices. And often he used Umberlee related entities to call for power rather than the big goddess herself. Often the entities were just made up by myself. It helps to create the sense of mystery that a cleric is someone who knows deep secrets of the divine realm and calls down their powers.

And as a fitting end he was sacrificed to Umberlee himself.

[Nyuunie]

Clerics seem to be my most played class for reasons that escape me.

Tinde was my first real character on NwN, and I figured it'd be simple to play a holy person after transitioning from doing the same in GW2. She was a half-elf who had a lot of self loathing for herself and her parents. She cursed being a "half-breed", and her elven father for leaving her mother. It was a dissonance that she never really could shake and caused a bit of conflict in deciding who exactly she should be worshipping - someone of the elven pantheon? Or maybe from the humans?

Eventually she settled on Ilmater, mostly as an excersize of compassion. It was a quality she heavily lacked, but desired, and thought that becoming a devotee would help in that regard. And it did. Sorta.

Despite Ilmater's preachings of non-violence, she identified a lot more with his ideals of suffering for your companions and exacting swift, unmerciful justice against those that would commit evil acts.

Ironically, she met and befriended who people would eventually know as Horace. He was once a nice person. Noble and generally non-confrontational even if he carried his sword out at all times. She rebelled against the corrupt guard on his behalf and continued to stand by his side even after achieving a marked status to be killed on sight.

She loved him. And it would have broken her heart to know the atrocities he had committed in full - if only because morals would have dictated he be slain if he didn't repent. It did get to the point where she heard whisperings of some things he did, but she never quite believed them. And I stopped logging on her shortly before Wharftown got nuked, so nothing really wrapped up with her.

---

Chetare Tannesen is... just a very basic Helmite. Curt and overprotective of her wards.

---

Currently, I'm playing a gimped build abomination named Gulmyr. I intend to actually write about his history on the forums under IC Stories, so I don't want to spoil too much here.

In short, Gulmyr Ouss'eth is a priest of Kiaransalee. As expected, he's really quiet about his position gained from a small enclave of her followers on the mainland since Lolth worshippers would likely beat him in a hot second.

But he's not secretive at all about worshipping her - he carries around his mother's mummified hand and wears a number of simple silver rings on his left digits. When people speak of death as though it were some terrifying thing, he has a tendency to interject with how honored he would be to die, and how it makes him feel that much closer to his "beloved Matron".

He also comments, at rather inappropriate times, that someone (who is usually physically strong) would make a wonderful thrall in death. And occasionally he'll ask if he could use their body if they perish, and then tack on "Your consent doesn't actually matter. It's just polite to ask."

Overall, he's a creep with clearly twisted motives. And I love it since most necromancers are goodly or "neutral".

[Rockstar1984]

Well you've met Alice and see her from time to time, but Jadoth once commented that he hasn't seen enough of Alice to be able to judge her, so:

Alice is an extremely compassionate and selfless person. Although she can be very proud and quite vain about her own appearance she is quite altruistic and her vanity doesn't get in the way of her ability to help others. Every line of Sune's dogma she takes to heart, and upholds it as best as she can. She's one of those stereotypical half-elves who was motivated by her parents' love to serve Sune. She's very bubbly and energetic, rarely making a frown. Some say that her aversion to violence is cowardice, but some have said that for a woman to face the dangers of Arelith without armor and a strong will to fight makes her more courageous than any warrior.

Alice has opposed the Zarite Bernadette very passionately and she tended to the victims of Bernadette's hate. A handful of elves referred to Alice as sister instead of cousin, ever since she stood up to Bernadette. Alice also has very strong feelings when it comes to slavery, especially after hearing stories of how families and lovers have been separated because of it. Thus she takes freeing slaves as a holy mission on behalf of Sune.

Alice's greatest strength is her ability to rally others to her. Whenever she is in trouble with just a few messages she can summon her own small army to her aid. Her beauty probably helps a little bit, but it's largely because she's such a caring and compassionate person who has made many friends that her friends are always ready to fight beside or for her. She does her best to inspire and motivate others to believe in and act out of love, and she has done precisely that for quite a handful of other characters. Then again people have criticized her as well, even some good aligned characters have.

There is so so much more that I could say about Alice and I have plenty of clerics and religious characters to write about but I don't wanna turn this post into a novel.

For the class in general:
The cleric class and it's various forms in different rpgs, is my favorite kind of character to play. I play my clerics as having a very personal relationship with their deity. When something isn't going right Alice will look to the sky with a hand over her heart and desperately pray to Sune in the moment. It's also fun to come up with curses and swears in the deity's name. For example Alice often says "For Firehair's Sake" which so perfectly abbreviates to FFS. Even better, if you come up with a curse that uses the name of an enemy deity because a curse in an enemy's god name is more shocking and serious like "Loviator's Lashes!" (credit for that one goes to MoreThanThree).

At the end of the day regardless of a cleric's personal beliefs they are sworn and initiated to uphold their deity's dogma. HOWEVER clerics can disagree with one another on what that means and how they should approach a situation. One Sunite might try to help two arguing lovers settle their differences and thus make their love stronger, while another Sunite might decide to put a wedge into the relationship and further drive them apart because she believes they aren't right for each other. Just like you see IRL, religious leaders and their flock will often argue over the same text or dogma and this often results in conflict that creates different sects of a larger faith. Alice argued quite a lot with a paladin of Sune, whose actions she regularly disapproved of but despite that they still respected each other and helped one another. So each cleric should have an interpretation and their own understanding of their deity's dogma, or perhaps a character has no deeper answer and is searching for it while they serve with what little understanding they have. And although clerics have high wisdom that doesn't mean every cleric is Mr. Miyagi and has sagely advice for everything. Alice can empathize with others very well and can counsel others on all sorts of matters, but when it comes to her own judgement on how she should behave she is prone to giving in to temptation without thinking of the consequences. Having a high wisdom doesn't mean a character's mind and heart are flawless.

[Covex]

Sven Eicher Cleric of Thoth

He's more a Build then a Character really but he still has a person

Backstory
at the age of 20 He started in Cordor after some time He was taken by a Wizard to Wharftown stayed there for a few years became a Soldier/Milita for 4 years,left for a year,went back in the year 127, joined the new Wharftown Goverment, became a Commander during the Cordor-Wharftown War.

Personality
neutral and smart has the will to fight untill his death strong at the core loyal to those he respects,
most of his traits show depends on his agenda doing both good and evil.

there's alot more to him but that's about what his like.

[cptcuddlepants]

Thanks for the stories, everyone

It's good (and a little relieving) to know that there are/have been differing types of clerics around, with differing personalities. I've gotten a lot of bewildered "Jad's a cleric?!" tells in the past. I guess it's because I don't really RP him as a traditional preaching priest who wears his faith on his sleeve.

I've noticed an unusual amount of IC disdain/dislike towards clerics and priests. It might be because of mechanics and current server balance, but it gives off a very strong OOC impression that if you're playing a cleric you're already doing something wrong.

I didn't realize Storm was a cleric for a very, very long time, I didn't know Hannah was a cleric at all (she gave me very strong ranger vibes) and I've always thought Sven was a blackguard or paladin.

I think I wrote the book you were talking about on Leo (though I could be wrong), and it was an exploration of what it meant to be virtuous and what it meant to sin-- all wrapped in the guise of a Holy book.

If it's "Tenets of the Loyal Fury" then yes, it was written by Leo. Jad's been holding on to it for IG years now, slowly losing hope that he'll ever meet the writer.

[Hunter548]

I played Pelagius Castillian, a cleric/BG of Bane.

His entire worldview was, in essence, that the world was almost irredeemably bad. People do some pretty terrible shit, and pretty much anything that proclaimed to be trying to solve this was either getting their panties in a twist over doing what needed to be done and largely ineffectual because of it (The Triad, paladins), or were generally incredibly naive for not recognizing that if you give humans an inch, they'll take a mile and then overthrow the government for anarchy (Harpers, CG types).

He was, in essence, a facist: He thought that people were at their best when united within a strict hierarchy and everyone more or less accepted their place in that heirarchy. You could move up it by doing well in whatever your job was, but trying to break away from it, or otherwise subvert it, meant you had to very messily be made into an example for others. Lasting, true peace was only attainable through everyone in the world submitting to this hierarchy, with Bane at the top as befit his status as (In Pelagius' eyes) the only deity actually both trying to improve things and willing to do what was necessary to get there.

So, in essence, while he found laws, oaths, etc very important to be kept and honored, if they conflicted with what he saw as the will of Bane (Read: Everyone being banites and subject to his church), then he'd break them if he had to. He didn't like it, but the ends justified the means. In a large way, despite being a very evil dude, vaguely genocidal and killing or wanting to kill quite a lot of people over religious disagreements, he viewed himself as a hero, for trying to improve the world (In his mind) without ask of thanks or reward.

[gilescorey]

I've noticed an unusual amount of IC disdain/dislike towards clerics and priests. It might be because of mechanics and current server balance, but it gives off a very strong OOC impression that if you're playing a cleric you're already doing something wrong.

I haven't ever noticed this. What do you mean? What kind of treatment are you getting? Clerics aren't really anywhere obstinate on the balancing scale, no matter how you build them.

[cptcuddlepants]

Around Cordor and the Tower, mostly. There's been a massive influx of wizard characters (probably due to all the new paths) and some of them have that "arcane > divine, non-mages are foolish scum" mentality.

... I might have just answered my own question.

[gilescorey]

That doesn't sound like anti-cleric sentiment so much as it does snooty mage "non-magic plebs" sentiment.

You should smite them.

[Hunter548]

Yeah, I feel like your problem there is you're a cleric who spends a large part of his time around wizards.

[Iceborn]

That doesn't sound like anti-cleric sentiment so much as it does snooty mage "non-magic plebs" sentiment.

You should smite them.

u wot m8