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<blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 8349772" data-attributes="member: 58172">Heh, for me, the idea of &quot;Norse gods&quot; is a bugaboo. It is clear that the Viking Era viewed them as nature beings. They were not Roman-style &quot;gods&quot;.A main difference is, Thor is the literal thunderstorm, one can see &quot;him&quot; plainly up in the sky as rolling clouds, shooting lightning bolts.This is different from a &quot;god&quot;, an immortal being who controls thunderstorms.Likewise a human &quot;friend&quot; of a nature being differs profoundly from a human &quot;worshiper&quot; of a god.It used to bother me alot when D&amp;D players referred to a &quot;Cleric of Thor&quot;. The Viking Era never had priests or temples. (The Hof is a personal shrine in ones own home, and can be to any nature being that a family or an individual forms a friendship with, including alfar, jotnar, or so on.) The Norse did have shamans, but these shamans never seem to mention the sky nature beings, the aesir, and in the sagas, no one seems to &quot;pray&quot; to them. But there are individuals who are &quot;friends&quot; of alfar, of Frey, and so on.But now I think, reflavoring the Cleric can make a pretty good Norse warrior mage, a songster, relating to the Ljodatal. Just think of the Cleric as less a &quot;worshiper&quot; and more like an honorable Paladin. Done. The protective magic itself would be the &quot;sacred force&quot;. Treat the voice of the spontaneous singing as if the &quot;holy symbol&quot;.For me, I want to avoid a new kind of sexism. I want egalitarianism.What is appropriate for one gender is also appropriate for an other gender, and there are many persons somewhere in between.There can be a &quot;masculine group&quot; but sometimes women are part of it. And there can be a &quot;feminine group&quot; and sometimes men are part of it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Yaarel, post: 8349772, member: 58172"] Heh, for me, the idea of "Norse gods" is a bugaboo. It is clear that the Viking Era viewed them as nature beings. They were not Roman-style "gods". A main difference is, Thor is the literal thunderstorm, one can see "him" plainly up in the sky as rolling clouds, shooting lightning bolts. This is different from a "god", an immortal being who [I]controls[/I] thunderstorms. Likewise a human "friend" of a nature being differs profoundly from a human "worshiper" of a god. It used to bother me alot when D&D players referred to a "Cleric of Thor". The Viking Era never had priests or temples. (The Hof is a personal shrine in ones own home, and can be to any nature being that a family or an individual forms a friendship with, including alfar, jotnar, or so on.) The Norse did have shamans, but these shamans never seem to mention the sky nature beings, the aesir, and in the sagas, no one seems to "pray" to them. But there are individuals who are "friends" of alfar, of Frey, and so on. But now I think, reflavoring the Cleric can make a pretty good Norse warrior mage, a songster, relating to the Ljodatal. Just think of the Cleric as less a "worshiper" and more like an honorable Paladin. Done. The protective magic itself would be the "sacred force". Treat the voice of the spontaneous singing as if the "holy symbol". For me, I want to avoid a new kind of sexism. I want egalitarianism. What is appropriate for one gender is also appropriate for an other gender, and there are many persons somewhere in between. There can be a "masculine group" but sometimes women are part of it. And there can be a "feminine group" and sometimes men are part of it. [/QUOTE]

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