D&D 5E Why the heck does D&D have Hecate as Chaotic Evil

[Henadic Theologian]

Spelljammer preview video has Hecate as Chaotic Evil, which has going WTF?

Out of all the faiths that believe in Hecate, only in certain Gnostic & Satanic (no I don't know why some Satanists worship Hecate, but they do) sects is Hecate viewed as evil. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Hecate is referred to tender hearted. The Chaldean Oracles called her The Mother of Angels. The Neopatonists viewed her as omnibelevent.

For those of you who wonder why I wanted to see Jesus statted up with a loot table in the Biblical 5e setting, this kind of stuff is why.

And despite praying to Hecate daily, I'm not offended, a little blasmphy keeps Zealotry at bay and is spiritual valuable, I'm just disappointed that they have such a naughty word understanding of Hecate. If they wanted a Chaotic Evil Greek God, that is what Typhon is for.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Yeah that's a pretty pathetic holdover of the worldviews of the early creators of D&D, frankly.

Hecate is CE because she's associated with witchcraft and witches are evil, right? I mean that's basically the logic. It's particularly dim-witted because as pagan gods go, Hecate is fairly popular today, so this is not un-akin to picking a minor Hindu deity, putting them in the game, and making them evil. Making her CN or CG would have made infinitely more sense.

Absolutely right re: Typhon, he's unequivocally CE - you could also easily say Chronos was. If we're going to say Hecate is CE, then really the Olympian gods should solely exist in the Evil spectrum.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Spelljammer preview video has Hecate as Chaotic Evil, which has going WTF?

Out of all the faiths that believe in Hecate, only in certain Gnostic & Satanic (no I don't know why some Satanists worship Hecate, but they do) sects is Hecate viewed as evil. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Hecate is referred to tender hearted. The Chaldean Oracles called her The Mother of Angels. The Neopatonists viewed her as omnibelevent.

For those of you who wonder why I wanted to see Jesus statted up with a loot table in the Biblical 5e setting, this kind of stuff is why.

And despite praying to Hecate daily, I'm not offended, a little blasmphy keeps Zealotry at bay and is spiritual valuable, I'm just disappointed that they have such a naughty word understanding of Hecate. If they wanted a Chaotic Evil Greek God, that is what Typhon is for.

The disclaimer at the start of the Deities section states that they're not going for 100% historical accuracy, but to create complete pantheons based loosely on the deities in question. So, gods are going to be shifted around, sometimes quite substantially...

 

[Lanefan]

I'd never have put Hecate as CE, mostly because I see her as far too Lawful. I do have her as LE, though: a Goddess of Knowledge to whom the ends - knowledge and learning - justify almost any means.

For a CE Greek deity, look no further than Ares.

 

[Jer]

Spelljammer preview video has Hecate as Chaotic Evil, which has going WTF?

Which preview video is this? (I'm trying to figure out how Hecate even fits into Spelljammer and how it would come up).

Yeah that's a pretty pathetic holdover of the worldviews of the early creators of D&D, frankly.

Truth. Probably nobody on the dev team has a pagan friend (which is weird, given that they live in Seattle and I'd think there would be some pagan practitioners there. Even here in Ohio I have friends and acquaintances who are Wiccans).

 

[Jer]

The disclaimer at the start of the Deities section states that they're not going for 100% historical accuracy, but to create complete pantheons based loosely on the deities in question. So, gods are going to be shifted around, sometimes quite substantially...

I think the point is that they should be treading a bit more carefully around historical accuracy when statting up a deity that modern day religions still venerate. Getting Marduk wrong doesn't carry the same weight as statting up Vishnu and getting him wrong, for instance.

 

[Lanefan]

Truth. Probably nobody on the dev team has a pagan friend (which is weird, given that they live in Seattle and I'd think there would be some pagan practitioners there. Even here in Ohio I have friends and acquaintances who are Wiccans).

Either that or they're quite intentionally changing it all up so as not to tread on the toes of actual worshippers.

For my part, I mostly use the Xena-Hercules versions - far more fun!

 

[Reynard]

::mutters something in atheist::

 

[Scribe]

Are they actually covering Gods in this set as well?!?

I didn't think Wizards would do it.

 

[Seramus]

Are they statting her up as a God or a Titan? Either way, definitely not chaotic evil.