I reposted this from below, because I probably should have put it up here.

<<not a pillar some of us choose to follow.>>

Absolutely, you are right. I am glad for this. I love it. I think the diversity in the guild of the characters and persons that play those characters is the reason I keep hanging around, keep vowing to finish the things I want to see in place. To march off the track of the common, however, IS more difficult. It means some people don't understand you, and it requires (from the player) Maturity, Patience and putting up with an acidy stomach and impending blood-bursts in the brain more often than not.

That said -- and my old addage that being a cleric will give you the closest feeling to what it's like to be a GM (all those folks yelling at you, demanding you do this right now for them, rarely being able to see what you are having to deal with at your end <g>) -- I would like to share with you some of my perceptions of the gods, and why defining what following an individual one will be like is SOOO very difficult, and something I approach with caution and some trepidation.

So I will share with you how I perceive the gods ... and how it is crucial I not press too much of my personal beliefs on you, for it may conflict with how YOU see the gods. In the end it is an individual thing, you yourself as the character are the one who will know what your god is, just as every person in RL knows what their relationship to their own spiritual life is. And I feel fairly confident in saying, no two people ever, anywhere in real or imaginary worlds will see it exactly the same. (and that would be boring, at least in fantasy realms if we did, in MY opinion) And though you may WISH us to define them more, it is an INTENTIONAL design of the game that much be left for you to -- Roleplay. We may never give you all the tools you may fantasize about, but the back side of that is that you have more freedom to play as your imagination allows.

The game is structured to support in Elanthia, the gods of life and death. Many aspects of life and death are represented by gods symbolic in their aspects of the things mortals encounter in the process of being born and returning to the stardust they are made of. Sometimes death intervenes, or life intervenes, and there is a cycle of life and death over and over again until one finally becomes one with the comets of the streaking stars. The only thing the One, or if you prefer, the 13 immortals are in agreement about, is that cycle. Life is part of it, death is part of it. Undead are not a part of it. That is an abomination to both Hodierna and Urrem'tier. For the undead cheat death as much as they cheat life. And thus the undead are a common enemy of all the Elanthian gods, and all clerics who advocate those gods.

(Some folks feel perhaps Dergati created undead, but though the Book of the Immortals says if ANYONE created werewolves (if you want to call those undead) and such, she did, but I have it on authority the writer of that postulated and there is no evidence that any of our Immortals are anything but the enemy of undead. You are just going to have to trust me on that.)

Are the positive and negative aspects of the 13, gods in their own right, or merely aspects of the 13, much as Shiva has aspects in Hindu religion? Can you worship Asketi and not at the same time honor Hodierna? Does doing so make as much sense as worshiping the left foot of a god? My personal opinion, based on what the game is structured to and was designed to support, is that you cannot worship an aspect alone solely and not the whole. But that's my opinion. I may be wrong. I am happy to be wrong. And happy to be right. I don't want to make that decision for you, because you may enjoy playing it a different way. And I don't have any problem with that. Will I be able to provide courses to roleplay in detail that allows you to worship the 39 individually, and the 13 with aspects, and the all god, and any other new and interesting gods that may be discovered or rumord to exist? -- no. I'll never be able to in detail provide specifics for you to roleplay 53+ specific different ways. You are going to have to do that on your own. That's NOT to say we can't or won't do a bit more in providing interesting things to do and ways to progress, but please understand that it is intentional (from before I was ever a part of the game) that much of what your relationship with the god is, is to be roleplayed. If not, believe me, the game would have been designed with about..oh..maybe 3 or 4 gods. Or less.

Finally you may say, well at present what IS the life of a cleric? If the gods (ie the computer engine that has a response to what I type) are so silent and we must in our minds create much of what our relationship is to these deities, what am I to be as a cleric? In the guild you are trained as a general practioner. You are to have a broad education. I would like later in life if you wish to be a brain surgeon, or a pediatrician, perhaps that will be possible. At least a bit more than it is now. But in the guild you are expected to know and be able to be in touch with all the immortals, thus all the spells and communes of different deities are available to you, all abilities are required for you to learn. Specialization may come in limited form, but it will always be for you to define much for yourself where your own specialty lies.

"I am a proponent of the gods of life, and that is what I will always strive to do."

"I am a proponent of the gods of death and madness, and I will never interfere where they have struck."

"I may have the powers, but my god speaks to me and tells me what I must do."

.... and as long as it is within the rules of the game, then Alnilam enjoys each and every course you set upon for yourselves.

This may displease you, in which case we seriously may not be the structure you will ever be happy playing in. But the fact that so much of what clerics are is roleplayed, I believe it has as a general rule attracted the most interesting and creative players we have in the game. Those with no imagination or ability to create for themselves rarely are happy playing clerics, and generally are much happier playing other classes of characters. Playing a cleric is not for everyone, and that pleases me very much. I am very happy feeling we do indeed have most of the elite among us. But that may just be me bragging. <g>