A viable cleric backstory?

[Username22221]

So a disclaimer to this I'm aware that first and foremost as long as this backstory is ok with the DM then it is a "viable backstory", but I would like to keep the backstory as "lore appropriate" as I can as I feel that's part of the fun challenge of playing a cleric.

So I've got an idea for a Lawful Neutral seperatist archetype cleric of Zon Kuthon who will have the Darkness and Healing (Medicine) domain. They grew up in Nidal and are very experienced and learned in the "traditional" teachings of Zon Kuthon and is also very practiced in "mundane" medicine, i.e treating diseases, deadly wounds etc.

They do genuinely believe in the Kuthite beliefs of using pain to overcome all and that receiving pain and inflicting it is the way to discipline oneself and others to find true enlightenment. Now the part that differs from traditional Kuthite beliefs are they do genuinely have a desire to heal the sick, wounded, and downtrodden (without painkillers of course). They would gladly help any injured peasants free of charge and seeks to make the world a safer place.

Now so far that sounds like a lawful good person which I can't be and still be a cleric of zon-kuthon but this would be counteracted by despite their genuine wish to help people who need it, they would have no issues inflicting unimaginable pain on those they feel wish unneeded harm on those same downtrodden or their allies. And that same wish to help people doesn't extend to when they're dead, at that point their pain has ended and they would have no problem using their body to further my clerics cause (animating the dead and such)

It's a bit of a mishmash but there's a bit of hoops I'd have to jump through to get a cleric of Zon-Kuthon to be a functioning not antagonistic member of a long running adventure.

[DeathlessOne]

It is important to remember that alignment is descriptive, not prescriptive. That means you are Lawful Neutral because you think and behave in certain ways. It does not mean you think and believe in certain ways because you are Lawful Neutral. Every character is going to have areas in which they deviate from the description of their alignment, though those instances are either rare or minor, but frequent.

In your example, Lawful Neutral is someone who believes that order is the best way to go about living in the world. They also have compunction against harming the innocents but have no hard line that would prevent them from doing so if pressed (Good aligned folk wouldn't even consider it, even if it came to them being harmed for it).

For your character, the desire to help and heal the ill and wounded can be a pivoting point were he justifies that pointless suffering does not bring about strength, and they seek to restore the person so that they can once again take on such burdens, and grow stronger. Suffering must have a purpose, and they could simply despise those that inflict such things without a beneficial goal. Their peers might snub them for being soft and argue that those that cannot bear suffering are too weak to survive in the first place, and the world would be stronger without them. Your character could argue that a blacksmith does not throw away a tool when it breaks, they reforge it. A people are more valuable than tools.

[Mysterious Stranger]

Zon Kuthon was not always evil. Before he was corrupted his personality was very different. What if his transformation is not complete and he is still transforming into what he is destined to be. Maybe his final form is something in between his original and what his is today.

Your character could be the prophet for his true form. This would allow you to take the teaching of both personalities and combine them into something different. His original form had similar views to his sister Shelyn. So, maybe take the idea that an artist has to suffer for their art and run with that.

Focus more on the masochistic aspect instead of the sadist ones. You could even take the idea that not everyone is worthy of experiencing the “Holy” ecstasies of pain that grant enlightenment. By healing and caring for people you give them strength to accept the glory of pain.