Revisiting the morality of undeath

In past editions the undead were heavily involved with positive/negative energy and associated planes. These distinctions no longer exist in 5e, being replaced by necrotic and radiant damage which are entirely separate from healing (good riddance!). There are plenty of arguments for non-evil necromancy and non-evil undead, but in the end it depends entirely on the metaphysics the GM has chosen for their campaign. In this post I present a number of "moral options" I have seen proposed...

Power sources for divine strike

The topic of this post eventually spiraled out of my control, but if you want a quick summary...

I covered the following two points: 1) the inconsistent relationship between the energy planes, feywild, shadowfell, and alignment. 2) an idea that clerics get their damage by channeling from energy gates located on specific planes. If moved to the wrong plane they will cause problems the PCs need to fix.

Alternatives to Turn Undead

Turn Undead is a class feature of all clerics with situational usefulness. How often do you fight undead? How often do you fight humanoids?

Yeah, I thought so.

Why are undead evil? Why does necromancy get such a bad rap?

Why are undead always evil? Necromancy is not evil: it includes healing and resurrection! How many stories portray ghosts or vampires as sympathetic? Zombies and skeletons are supposed to lack the free will necessary for moral judgment in the first place. Making undead inherently evil is redundant when you have fiends. I take a morally grey approach, using other sources to derive alignment rather than undeath itself.