Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Direct Connect: scod.game-server.cc
NWN List
Announcements
Welcome to the forums of Sigil: City of Doors. | New update 5/28/18 - read the update notes here!
Welcome to Sigil: City of Doors. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Multi-Quote Post on Multi-Quote Post off
Add Reply
  • Pages:
  • 1
  • 2
On Factions: Alignment And You; Alignment "can" be diverse...
Topic Started: Jul 25 2012, 03:31 AM (461 Views)
Cadence
Member Avatar
"Act. Do. Be." -Factol Rhys of the Transcendent Order
Dungeon Master
I am a Cipher. You all type too much to be Ciphers.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Captain Vanguard
Member Avatar
Honorary wielder of the Paladin Button.
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
A few other tips:

Mercykillers:
Mercykillers may be Lawful and part of the Triad of Order but they are the least likey to obay their own laws, keep in mind the red death like the hardheads and the guvners are also an independant faction and have their own idea of how law works.

One of the Red Deaths 8 commandments more or less translates to "I can do what the <<I like teddy bears>> I want as long as I say its legal" which is great stuff for a Lawful Evil Mercykiller.

The Red Death were clearly inspired by the crusaders of the old ages, and im not talking about the ones we all remember as inspiring heroes, no, im talking about the dark ugly truth about the fact they used god as an excuse to commite unspeakable acts.

Red Death more or less have the same kinda mindset, they are religious crusaders against the ideals of freedom, liberty and any notion of the right to thinik for yourself. "Punishment leads to perfection" the concept of flagelantism, self abuse untill you are rewarded by Justice (God).

That means even LG Red Death aernt above flagelantism, or punishing others painfully though they might have a more noble reason behind it. A LG Red Death might punish someone unill they confess to their crimes, weep for doing them and appologise.

The other two might be more severe, especially the LE's who simply do it to look for an excuse to utterly break someone legally.



Athar:

Another faction that has a religious aim or a scientific one, it can be quite diverse with no alignment restrictions.

You could technically have a Paladin Athar devoted to the Great Unknown, who seeks to proove that men, not gods can use the source of divine power and teaches others how to use it for the right reasons.

Athar can tap into divine power "without" worshipping a god, the more noble Athar respect gods as powerful individualls but refuse to idolise them in a deific way. The malevolant Athar see Deities as a threat to the free rights of man and go to what ever extremes necessary to assure that mankind is void of any kind of paganistic idealism.

The Evil Athar are a bit more like the Teutonic Order vs Poland-Lithuanian Paganism, they view godhood as a threat to the free rights of the people to tap into the great unknown, their faith. So again, similar to Mercykillers you have a theme of crusaders only this time its more inquisitorial than fanatic.

Neutral Athar would try to encourage people to stop caring about weather gods rule them or not and just live their lives normally without the fear of a divine over their heads. Lawful Athar would try to make it clear to people that even gods have to follow the rules sometimes, and point out the many things gods have done that they have not broken. Chaotic Athar would be more passionate in their crusade to make people believe the gods are frauds and do anything and everything to devalue their faithful.

Only the Good Athar wouldnt truley interfere with religious types, but they would not stand aside and watch a fanatic of an evil god try to force conversion on someone, or a good god either. As long as you dont interfere with the rights of peoples free choice, they wont interfere with worship of deities.



Anarchists:

These guys are the polar opposites of the Mercykillers and that means if Mercykillers are Crusaders, then the Anarchists are the Jihad.

They have a goal and one goal alone which is the total eradication of any heirachy, despite they themselves having many smaller cells they independantly own from one another.

Anarchists generally are chaotic more than often but some neutral Anarchists exist too though obviously none lawful what so ever.

Anarchists of a Neutral ethical alignment are the less extreme or more subtle kind of Anarchists generally prefering to do smaller and stealthier infiltrations and sabotages of factions from within than outright disrupting the established order openly. Only more Chaotic Anarchists are more inclined to show themsleves and do things right in the face of Law weather wearing masks or not.

Good Anarchists might be doing it to remove tyranical powers from influence, neutral anarchists do it for the necessity of all weather they want it or not. The Evil anarchists do it just to see the multiverse burn without leadership or establishment, taking revelry in the lack of social rules and order.

Anarchists are also infiltrators, so remember, being one means you have a false identity, or more than one, you can be a many faced individual who has many different identies, from Carol the Guvner secretary to Jessie the Taker, you can be many people and ultimately nobody can know who you are.

Your goal is to destroy heirachy, inside or outside, so uspet the established order, introduce a little, anarchy.



Indeps:

With Indeps your prolly most likely to find Indeps have the greyest outlook of the factions. The Independant League effectivly dont really see alignment so much as outlook, so its very subjective what you can really say about an Indep.

I cant say much here only that really its up to you, what ever your Indep chooses to be is what they are, independant of others, though Indeps are generally merchants or generic adventuerors if you want a template to follow.


Takers:

Takers aernt evil, they just dont do anything without incentive. A taker will take because he earned it not because he wanted it. He works as a mercinary generally and does hard labour and effort to get his keep, but some takers might outlook their beliefs more opportunisticly.

Lawful Takers see it as earning their keep by doing exactly what they were told, Chaotic Takers might bend the situation each time to make it more advantagious for themselves than their clients or friends. A Neutral taker decides when the best time is to extort the situation and when the best time is to play it safe.

As for morality? Good Takers might do things more for the reputation than the gain, because reptuation is a gain of its own, being liked has its advantages later.

Neutral Takers do it for what ever comes, they reap what they sew and build power and fame and fortune from it, influence comes with the middleground of profit and self gain.

Evil Takers are far more interested in self benefit than anything else, they really dont care if a person dies or not as long as they get what they wanted in the end. Morality matters little in the way of personal benefit, and if you can claim something, you have every right to, the worlds your oyster, dont hesitate, grab it in your palm and pry it open.


Guvners:

Science, Magic, Machines.

Guvners strength is really in your ability to research new magics, build new machines to advance the city or yourself, to progress the system with a mechanical mind and construct the multiverse your way, finding loopholes in the way the multiverse works you can exploit to benefit the outcome of the law.

The Guvners are literally about studying new things, and that doesnt mean paperwork or laws of the city alone, its about science, its about machines, alot of machines, their home plane is in mechanus for christs sake. That means your prolly gonna have a golem or two at your disposal and more than likley have modrons and other automations to do all your paperwork for you.

A guvners primary interest should be in faffing about with the arcane untill you find some new rule that can be extorted, some new way to change magic even if it means risking your life. They love maths, they love science, they love to screw around with the way the multiverse works even if it attracts the ire of certain gods or their faithful.

Good Guvners would try to find exploits that could help the multiverse, such as how to make the sun rise more frequently to help plants grow, or how to make people live longer and healthier lives.

Neutral Guvners would be more interested in how to maintain order, discovering new secrets about how to force people to obay the rules, how to control their minds if they have to, how to bind them to powers.

Evil Guvners believe its a matter of self elivation, discover how to control the gears that turn every persons life in the multiverse and you can more or less dictate their lives weather they want you too or not.

All Guvners are Lawful and enforce the rules of the city as much as hardheads and red death do, but they are generally wizards and or rogues, more than fighters, so its unlikey you'll see alot of heavily armoured Guvners, maybe a few Elderich Knights though.


Signers:

Imagination is one of the other subjective areas really, what can you do if you could use a giant etchersketcher or an endless supply of lego, what would you make with it?

Signers can be any alignment so again theres no real restraint here. Lawful Signers might try to make the multiverse more logical and refined, using their power of imagination to force things to work with a clockwork system that generally work chaotically. Chaotic Signers might try to free everything from any kind of binding, for better or worse, or do what ever they want with their power for everyones gain or their own. Neutral Signers would medium when the best time is to use the power and when it is to conserve it, trying to understand the power they wield more than use it in recklessness.

As for aligment, depends on what you want to imagine. A good signer might try to create a safe haven for is friends by building a multiverse based on serenity and kindness, he might see visions in his dreams of happy marridges and lasting friendships and encourage them in any way possible, subtly tipping people together.

A Neutral Signer would decide what is best for everyone at the time, deciding if the multiverse is too good, too evil, too lawful or too chaotic. They would decide what needs to be fixed and what needs to go, and how best to impliament it, dreaming of things that keep everything in balance.

Evil Signers, as known, are using their powers to their advantage. When you are more or less god with the remote what better way to take advantage than to dominate everyone and force them to obay you, to literally warp them into creatures or beings that serve you unconditionally for order or chaos.

Signers also have dreams of the future and visions of prophecy, they can see things most others cant too, making out patterns and threads in the multiverse, they are excelling thinkers and optimists, though sometimes ignorantly so even if it means having an ego and being apathetic towards others.


Sensates:

Try out every dish in a resteraunt and your a sensate. The ultimate point of a Sensate is that your willing to try new things, not just sex or adventure, but new things in general. Your willing to do something you've never done before and you have a compleatly open mind doing it.

Sensates alignment divercity makes them an ironic faction. A Lawful sensate might be hesitant to try new things quickly while a Chaotic sensate would leap at the chance even at the risks. A Neutral sensate moderates when to try something and when to be careful about it.

Good Sensates might encourage people to try new experiences of a generally possitive attitude. But they themselves might experience anything, including what its like to be evil, so they can better appriciate motivations behind villiany and perhaps inspire people to be heroic instead.

Neutral Sensates dont really care about their actions benefitting others, because at the end of the day they just like to try new things, they dont really mind if its helpful or harmful. They'll charge you for the experiences you want them to go through like any other sensate would and happily record it afterwards to share for everyone to see, for a price.

Evil Sensates are alot more wise with their experiences. You have the power to literally record peoples actions and deeds, you can indulge in new things and blackmail people to do what you want with their embarrasing secrets or darkest thoughts, why not exploit that?

Sensates ultimately pretense the idea of being about experience but where they really excel is in music, performance, bardic arts and drama. They also love to be involved heavily in the plane and prime politics, because they love to learn new things they can later sell to other people.



Harmonium:

Might, makes right, your not looking to be liked your looking to make sure that there is peace, even if it means beating people over the head to remind them.

Your a hardhead, an officer of the force, their idealism however is inspired by military authorotariansim, so think of it a bit like this: Your in a war, a war against war itself, your faction wants to end war by literally forcing it to end. Your fighting to stop fighting, your declaring war against every person, every being and every nation that wants it. Your trying to end all conflict by forcing people to comply with your dogma of peace, which is, stop fighting and we can all live happily together.

Peace is the goal of a Harmonium, but the way they achieve it is heavily subjective.

A good Harmonium is about fighting the good fight for the sake of everyone, they take the necessary risks, go into the heart of a fire, they aernt afraid to get hurt or even killed to protect everyone.

Neutral hardheads really dont care if people are happy with them, what they care about is making sure everything is kept in line, following the rules, keeping the peace, making sure war stops if it means making sure people stop causing it. Sure they might be a bit unhappy but they will thank you in the long run.

Evil hardheads see it more as an excuse, what better way to have fun hurting people than to declare war on war? That means your declaring war on anyone that bats an eyelash at you wrong and your in your right to go up to them, and smash their face in.

So ultimatley, hardheads is really about what kinda attitude you look for in your role might makes right, no matter how you inflict it.


Xaosmen:

Crazy psyco Xaosmen aint necessarily evil but they are downright barmy and they dont care if anyone knows it. Weirdly Xaosmen can be surpisingly sane if they choose to be but thats up to a Xaos, randomness is your goal after all.

Xaosmen dont really care if their actions are sensible or not, they do what they want when they want, they are chaos incarnate, no lawfuls no neutrals only chaos. They are the polar opposite of the Guvners, while the Guvners try to make sense of everything in the multiverse then exploit it the Xaos think, who gives a sod?

The multiverse was MAD from the start, why not just embrace it like Sheogoraths realm? Just have fun, go crazy and dont give a hoot who tells you not to!

Good Xaosmen might be the sanest or at least the gentlest. They are the least likley to ram a knife into your throat because they felt like it. They are alot more likely however to throw eggs at you or paint you in multicoloured paint (which might I add, Xaos paint is hard to remove, since its magical).

Neutral Xaosmen do what ever the hell they want, be it being a pirate one day or being a serial psyco the other. Does it matter? Your chaos incarnate, YOUR A LUNATIC NOW HAVE FUN!

Evil Xaosmen however literally dont care if it kills you or not, they do it even if it hurts, they have fun at the expense of others fun because what better way is there to have fun than watching everything burn with people still inside locked door screaming?

Xaosmen also like to doodle, no one knows why the hell they do it but they love to draw on walls. Hardheads try to arrest them for it but the Ciphers tolerate it on the Gymnasium, praising it as a work of art.


Ciphers:

I suppose its hard to rp a faction that acts more than it thinks but it isnt really. Your not an idiot or someone that just does things your a close minded person with a very narrow focus in life, achieve your perfect cadence with the planes.

Most Ciphers are monks but there are alot of them that practice anything really. Their ultimate strength lies in what they do, they do it commitedly to the very end, they never stop practising their skill untill it is flawless. Its part of the dance of the planes you see, they can hear that music, better than anyone else, like a drum in their head that beats in time with their actions.

They perfect them untill they do them without thinking about it, they perfect themselves into what ever they are, a weapon, a tool, an artist, a musician. They work hard untill they get something right to the very note of the Cadence itself.

I suppose alignment wise, it depends on what your pacing is. Lawful Ciphers might try to keep to a steady and careful routeen while Chaotic Ciphers would drive themselves recklessly even if it meant harm to themselves.

Neutral Ciphers are the most prominant as the factions main alignment is TN, no matter what you do you will always end up TN with the Ciphers.

Looking at morals though, its kinda hard to see what you can do with that. A Good Cipher is probably likley to act benevolantly while seeking their own perfection, a Neutral Cipher probably doesnt care either way because their only goal is perfecting themselves not others. While the Evil Ciphers might take it too literally and try to push anyone that gets in their way out of it.


Bleakers:

Being depressing doesnt make you a bad person, it just means you live in a pretty bleak place with alot of bleak atmopshere with bleak food and bleak kitchens, a bleak orphanage with happy children and a bleak aslyum with mad patients, life is pretty misrable sometimes.

Theres no Lawfuls and few goods in the Bleakers but that dont meant there aernt any, it just means your very unlikley to see them.

Remember, none of what you see is real, everything is just part of the dream, and your gonna wake up from it soon enough when you realise the truth of it. A Neutral Bleaker is likey to take it as it comes while a Chaotic Bleaker is more eager to leave this false multiverse behind.

Morality wise... depends really, what do you want to leave behind in this place if anything at all?

Good Bleakers probably see the multiverse as part of their inner consience, perhaps doing good will reward them with the freedom they seek, they probably try to avoid dragging people into their depression, theres no need to make everyones life miserable and besides, if they aernt real they might be part of your own consience your damaging.

Neutral bleakers are more likley to take it as it comes, they dont really care one way or another, none of its real, they know they are going mad and they dont honestly care if it happens today or tommorow. If other people join them thats their choice, but they wont stop them or encourage them to stay out of it, they really dont mind the company, making other people feel depressed helps you accept your own depression and move on from thise false multiverse.

Evil Bleakers see it as a state of paradice that infuriates them, if the real multiverse is on the other side this place is a nightmare and you want outa t any cost, even if it means doing what ever it takes. Maybe making a few other people go mad will fix you? Maybe making everyone see how depressing this place is will fix everything, do what ever you can, do what you have to! What you may even... want to.



Dustmen:

Is being dead a bad thing? Well yes it sucks that you have bones sticking out and some ligurements dont work how they used to but that doesnt make you a bad person.

Dusties are about acceptance, its about moving on from what your former life was, but that doesnt mean you have to hurry, infact if anything, you "should" take your time and die slowly. The longer it takes the more powerful the embrace into true death will be in your next undead incarnation.

You dont really mind being alive if your not undead yet, because dying isnt something you necessarily "have" to rush.

Lawful Dusties especially think its about waiting your turn when it comes, not about jumping the boat. Neutrals might not entirley agree but understand the point that when death comes it comes. Chaotic Dusties however might not entirley understand true death is a process and might more eagerly seek to embrace it, or get others to.

Dusties can still enjoy life while they do live, theres no rush to loose emotion, its part of your cycle, while you live this incarnation you should embrace it happily while your dying, treat every day like your last and live it to the fullest, and soon enough you'll be part of true death in no time.

Wanna know the best way to die? Thats up to a Dustie based on his alignment see.

A Good Dustie will tell you to live your life to the fullest, telling you its about embracing the long term and accepting a legacy is passing in time, one you will be loved for and missed for when your gone.

Neutral Dusties will tell you its about doing what you can but it doesnt matter if you enjoy it or not. Your not really supposed to care about dying anyway because death is only the beginning.

Evil Dusties think your not dead yet, so perhaps if your so eager to die they can help you with that and themselves in the process.

Dusties also have beef with people that want to live forever, they hate immortals since they just dont get what its about, dying is a process, if you dont embrace it your cheating it, and thats a bad thing.

They also have their dead truce, so dont forget you can talk to the dead aswell, the dead need love too you know!


Doomguard:

Entropy isnt evil its just a stage of existance. Id say Doomguard are closest to people that truley do accept the end of everything. They reprisent the acceptance that change is inevitable no matter what you do to stop it. You can try like a hardhead to keep the world stagnant and force everything to stop moving but a Doomguard would rather keep the wheel turning.

Lawful Doomguard believe entropy is a process that has to be checked in medium, it will happenw hen it should and not before then. Neutral Doomguard believe in a decision of patience, and action, when to do and when to stay around and watch. Chaotic Doomguard are obviously more eager to see the cities and nations fall apart. They love to start a good fire.

As for alignment it depends what needs to go first. It also depends if you really want it to go at all or if it should stay a whlie longer.

Good doomguard are prolly more likley to believe in trying to keep the multiverse together where the more kindly things are needed, trying to keep those things preserved while the bad things end.

Neutral Doomguard honestly couldnt give a shit what ends and what doesnt.

Evil Doomguard, want a match to burn something down, like the woodwork holding a house together. Leaving the poor family outside to starve and die, slowly and horribly.



Godsmen:

Godsmen want to be gods, unlike Signers who think they already are. They believe that its all about dying and comming back, so its really up to you what you leave behind that you deserve to come back a higher being or a lower one.

The alignment is really a subjective element in this. You can imagine alot of hinduistic inspirations here or ideals from buddism because its all about that element of life-death-and-rebirth.

Lawful godsmen might believe in it as a matter of equasions and what they need to do logically to earn that higher place. Neutral Godsmen might see it more as a medium of logic and actual spiritualitism while chaotic Godsmen might just forget the logic and go straight for spirituality trying to embrace who they are at any effort.

Morality is selifshness vs selflessness. How willing are you to be a god that is loved vs a god that is respected.

Thats up to the char really and their alignment. Its up to the more benevolant Godsmen to leave a legacy of love ad the malevolant godsmen to make sure his competition cant elivate above them.

Godsmen are a heavily compedetive faction after all.




Ill cover sects another time but for now that might inspire people again to write new faction characters, do try to, try to get yourself in the mood to, because on day you might find you can make something of that and drag other people into it, so they can have fun too.

A faction is a community, built it, grow it, start it into something great.
Justice must be forfilled, at any cost.
People must believe to be believed in.
One cannot expect power freely.
Imagination is the key to insight.
Industry is born from progress.
Gods interfere with mans ambition.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Join the millions that use us for their forum communities. Create your own forum today.
« Previous Topic · General Discussion · Next Topic »
Add Reply
  • Pages:
  • 1
  • 2