Why Good Characters Worship Evil Gods (and vice versa)

St. Athilda’s is the church of Crowfield. There is no doubt that this is a temple to Hume. As soon as you enter the narthex, you can see the larger than life sized statue¹ of Hume enthroned in the apse.

But there is a large, black cast iron gate on the narthex’s northern wall. Most of the time, most of the people shun this gate. On the other side is a temple to Gob.

Why do Gob and Hume share the same building? Why does such a lawful town have a temple to Gob? Why do good people pay homage to such an evil god? The answers lie in this statement I made back in June when I said:

…there are two major deities: Hume and Gob. Hume is the goddess of life and love, while Gob is the god of power, war, death, and destruction. Many people would say that Hume is the goddess of good and Gob is the god of evil; this isn’t entirely inaccurate, but it is somewhat of an oversimplification.

Crowfield isn’t an evil kingdom, but you don’t have to be an evil kingdom to be involved in a war. If you are involved in a war, you don’t pray to the goddess of peace on the eve of battle. Rather, you make sacrifice² to the god of war.

Likewise, everyone dies. If you’re hoping for a gentle death for you or a loved one, then you might make a sacrifice to Gob.

The reverse is also true. Even followers of Gob will pray and sacrifice to Hume to be cured of illness or for a safe childbirth.

Clerics

The vast majority of clerics are neutral in alignment. As part of their clerical training, they are taught the proper worship and rites of both deities. Some (lawful) clerics and some clerical orders prefer Hume and eschew the worship of Gob. Likewise, the situation is reversed for some chaotic clerics and orders.

Note that upon attaining 7th level, a cleric must pick one of the deities to serve over the other. As the original rulebook says “…Clerics of 7th level and greater are either ‘Law’ or ‘Chaos,’ and there is a sharp distinction between them.”

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1. Don’t think of this as a piece of white marble. The statue is painted in life-like colors, and is draped in actual clothes. Many commoners think that it is the actual goddess. Even those who know it to be a statue think of as something of an avatar of the goddess.↩

2. Sacrifices to Hume are usually grain, fowl, and livestock. The sacrifice is made, the offal is burnt, and the meat is used to feed to poor. Gob will take animal sacrifices, though he prefers humans. Evil tribes will capture prisoners for sacrifice. Good towns use these sacrifices as a form of capital punishment for people that have been condemned to death anyway.↩