What alignment is Ianna?

What alignment is Ianna, and are there any alignment requirements for Blade Dancers?
Ianna seems to be inspired by Ishatar, the Babylonian Goddess of Love and War. As a product of the first civilization, I can see her as Lawful, but the capricious nature of both love and war suggest Chaos as well.
I’m inclined to lean towards Neutral and allowing clerics of all alignments, partially because Ishtar is listed as Neutral in ye olde Deities & Demigods book, but mostly because I like the idea of religious schism and Blade Dancers of opposed alignments having bloody and vicious duels.

Hi luftmensch! Good job spotting the inspiration for Ianna.
Ianna is a goddess of the Auran Empire and is Lawful. That said, there’s no hard-coded alignment restrictions on Blade Dancers and you could certainly have Neutral or Chaotic ones.
Here’s some official info:
Ianna: Ianna is the Lioness, goddess of love and war. Her symbol is an eight-pointed star and her sacred animal is the lion. She has two orders of priestesses, the Dancers of the Veil and the Dancers of the Blade. The veil-dancers serve as courtesans, temple dancers, and sacred prostitutes during the Feast of Fertility. The blade-dancers are highly desired as bodyguards by the nobility.
Ianna is commonly called Istara and Ishtar in the Sunset Kingdoms. As Istara and Ishtar her symbol is an ankh and star. In the north she is known as Hanna to the humans and as Andraste to the elves; both symbolize her with a sword upraised.


In the Auran Empire campaign setting, Ianna has a Chaotic counter-part:
Nasga: Nasga, The Serpent, is the demon princess of seduction, adultery, and decadence. Nasga is known as Jezebel, Lilith, the Mistress of Pain, and the Unchaste in the Sunset Kingdoms, and as Loviatar in the North. As Nasga, her holy symbol is a medusa’s head or a serpent with a woman’s upper body. As Lilith, it’s a black rose; as Loviatar, a white dagger in a pallid hand.

Thanks for the info, Alex! I really like the idea of a Chaotic counterpart to Ianna. I may very well have to include something similar in my “Lament Not Lost Lemuria” campaign.
Dancers of the Veil, eh? Now the women in my group are going to ask me if there’s a Sacred Prostitute class somewhere.

It’s in the ACKS Player’s Companion - Priestess class. She gets an Enthrall spell and some other fun stuff.

Very cool. One of the girls at my table specifically asked if she could play a manipulative courtesan when we did chargen this week.
Now, to head off to Quickstarter…

Yeah, a Priestess with the Sacred Courtesan template would work really well for her, then.
Sacred Courtesan
Mystic Aura, Seduction
Holy symbol (9-pointed star of Ianna), stiletto, gold silk cloak, veil, and sash, scarlet silk chiton, long leather gloves, gold bangles (20gp value), gold earrings (20gp), high boots, backpack, 2 week’s iron rations, 17gp

I have a player that is new to rpg’s that made character who is a bladedancer of chaotic alignment. In that regard I have some questions and it’s the dreaded alignment debate.
(It has been touched upon in another thread but since that thread is an AP thread I don’t want to derail that thread too much.)
In the past I have dropped alignment all together because the good vs. evil aspect where the all good, altruistic and benevolent leaders stand against the wicked, all evil threats against their communities is just not my cup of tea. Since ACKS do not go down that path I’m incorporating alignment this time around.
However with the new player playing a chaotic character I feel I have to discuss with the player what chaotic means for his character. Now in ACKS you talk about lawful/chaotic as having chosen a side in a cosmic struggle. There is also a passage says evil is all-too-human in every civilization, but Chaotic is something both less and more than human.
If you look at the alignment as taking sides in a cosmic struggle I have a problem conceptualizing a chaotic bladedancer since Ianna is lawful. Wouldn’t that be a bit like siding with the Axis and fighting on behalf of Allies?
I have less of a problem conceptualizing the bladedancer devouring the liver of every man she goes to bed with and beyond that act normally.
So what do I tell my player? You have made a conscious choice to fight on behalf of chaos should it come to that, but your god is fighting for the other side. Or pick an inhuman trait (or traits) for your character, preferable something that doesn’t make it too hard to cooperate with you in an adventuring party.

Ackrembra, in general, a bladedancer of Ianna should be lawful. Because of how the alignment system works (alignment = side), a divine spellcaster should generally be the same alignment as her deity.
So if the bladedancer is chaotic, she is serving another deity. In the Auran Empire, that would likely either be: (1) Nasga, the Serpent of seduction and treachery; or (2) Bel, the Slaughter Prince of war. She might be secretly serving one of those gods while pretending to serve Ianna, or she might be openly serving those gods.
What you should tell your player will depend on the alignment and context of the campaign. If the rest of the party is Neutral, then they are unconcerned with Law v. Chaos and just after profit. In this case, you should tell your player that her goal is to advance Chaos while enriching herself and she should look for opportunities to do so. (I’ve found that often the Neutral characters in the campaign will over time switch to that of their most powerful cleric-type, because that’s the best way to ensure they get raised and healed.) But if the rest of the party is Lawful, that’s much tougher. A Chaotic divine spellcaster does not generally do curative spells on Lawful creatures, for instance.

Once again thanks for some helpful advice Alex!
Serving some other god makes more sense and was something I had thought about but I wasn’t sure if the bladedancer belonged exclusively to Ianna. Since it’s not it would make things easier.
We’ll have our second session soon and I hope to get an AP of that posted. The first one was very brief so not much to write about. Hopefully I’ll not butcher the English language too much since it’s not my main language.