Creating undead as a good cleric in Dark Sun

Question

Suppose that in the Dark Sun setting, I have a good-aligned cleric who follows the ideals of one of the elements (fire, water, earth, air) and has chosen to channel positive energy.

My question can be split in two points:

1. Is there any rule that forbids said cleric creating undead by casting miracles cleric spells such as Animate Dead? I don't think that the cleric's deity forbids him to do so since he doesn't have a deity, but I'm not sure.
2. Is there anything in the Dark Sun setting that prevents the cleric from creating undead?

Also, how are undead seen in the world of Dark Sun?

Any pointers to source material are welcome.

The GM ruling in my group is that such a cleric cannot create undead like that because it runs contrary to the ideals of the elemental clerics, but I'm highly interested your answers.

Edit: I misused the term 'miracle'. I didn't mean the spell 'Miracle' I meant cleric spells in general; my bad. Updated the question.

Answer 1

The 2nd edition Dark Sun supplement "Earth, Air, Fire and Water" describes the duties and role of elemental clerics in a bit more detail. It mentions the following when discussing the turn undead ability:

Because the undead, by their very nature, lie outside of the natural dominion of the cycle of life and death, the elementals consider them to be abominations ... Evil clerics may control undead as usual, but should eventually return them to the ground in order to fulfill their agreements with the elemental planes.

So I would say a good elemental cleric should certainly not be creating them!

Answer 2

Independently of the setting, from a strict rules POV, the spell has the [evil] descriptor.
This means that while you may be able to cast it if it's available to you, it is considered a really evil act to do so (as found in the Alignment rules here). As usual, the GM's word is law as to what that means for you and your character's alignment, but the rules are here nevertheless.

Answer 3

I agree with Nigralbus' answer, but I would also, as a DM, take the following opinion: The creation of an undead creation is inherently an evil act. Undead are the antithesis of the positive energy your cleric will channel, being creatures of negative energy. Further, by it's very nature, the good alignment in general cherishes life. Again, undead creatures are taking what has, or had, life and twisting it into its inherent opposite. That is a clear definition of an evil act.

From a strictly rules standpoint, I would rule that you cannot bypass the evil nature of creating an undead by casting a miracle spell. The miracle spell clearly states that you "duplicate any cleric spell of 8th level or lower". This would include duplicating every aspect of that spell, including it's evil descriptor, in this case. I would also rule that no diety or power of good is going to answer your miracle spell request to create an undead creature because, again, the creation of undead is an evil act.

The way I would play it as your DM is that an evil power or god would probably answer your miracle request, but it would require a price from you of some sort. A very high price, probably to be required of you at a time that is very inopportune for you and your party. Perhaps it would be something such as sacrificing a party member in the middle of a difficult combat. I'd probably wait weeks or months, maybe even years in a long campaign, before collecting that debt.

As a secondary consideration, I also agree with your DM's ruling on undead being contrary to the ideals of an elemental cleric. I would probably recommend that you focus on summoning elemental creatures rather than creating undead, for those situations that you had envisioned making use of an undead creature.