I'm creating a new campaign setting and work now on the basics. One thing, which is different to the "default setting", is the handling of the alignment. For the understanding a short description of the world creation:
At the beginning was nothing and everything at the same time. Out of that mixture two forces began to separate - Good and Evil. After both powers were fully developed, they recognized a deep hatred against each other and they began to battle. It didn't take long to notice, that both were equally strong, so no power could reach supremacy about the other or could even really hurt with the powerful weapons being used. Eventually Good decided: "If I can't destroy Evil and live afterwards, then I will destroy it with my life!" Thus Good formed out of its own essence a horrible weapon and hurled it at Evil. But instead to explode immediately, the weapon wrested Evil oh its essence and vanished in the space, where it eventually died as a supernova - and created a new universe.
Therefore is everywhere in the world the essences of Good and Evil, just in different amounts. And that's where my interpretation of the alignment issue begins. Normal races don't have really an alignment like in the core rules, only the expression of their tendencies. Only beings and races with a lot of essence have an alignment - it is possible to gain essence through the use of the Soul Ore, the materialised essence of the powers (I don't like the name Soul Ore - has someone a better suggestion?). The detectable alignment is the result of the judgement after the morality of the powers themselves, not after the personal moralities of individuals. My goal is it to have definitions for the powers moralities, which are commonly known, but still allow a possible misinterpretation, why someone is marked as neutral, good or evil. Look at the next design notes for a more detailed example:
Normal people have just enough divine essence, so that detection spells will show only a faint aura of good, neutral or evil - the lawful-chaotic-axis can't be seen. This faint aura depends solely on the perception of the Greater Powers, so it is entirely possible, that someone has an evil aura, because his morality isn't aligned with the Good Power (e.g. the thinking, that goblin kids can be killed, because they will kill as adults, can make an otherwise good-hearted man look like a simple murderer). The aura has for people with few divine essence always the same strength, regardless if the scanned person is a psychopathic mass murderer or a single, old, bitter woman, whose only delight is making the lifes of her neighbours miserable.
Check if someone with alignment wants to do something out of alignment, except persons, who have a 50/50 mixture of Good/Evil, have a free will. The Greater Powers mark people because these have either the same morality or haven't a morality which is aligned enough with one of the Greater Powers - in the latter case something must be considered by a marked person as allowed which is directly opposed with one of the Powers views. The lawful-chaotic-axis is always one step in strength below the good-evil-axis and is simply considered as a mark for knowing the general tendencies.
So, what could be the definitions of the powers behaviour? The Good power having a strict paladin morality?
At the beginning was nothing and everything at the same time. Out of that mixture two forces began to separate - Good and Evil. After both powers were fully developed, they recognized a deep hatred against each other and they began to battle. It didn't take long to notice, that both were equally strong, so no power could reach supremacy about the other or could even really hurt with the powerful weapons being used. Eventually Good decided: "If I can't destroy Evil and live afterwards, then I will destroy it with my life!" Thus Good formed out of its own essence a horrible weapon and hurled it at Evil. But instead to explode immediately, the weapon wrested Evil oh its essence and vanished in the space, where it eventually died as a supernova - and created a new universe.
Therefore is everywhere in the world the essences of Good and Evil, just in different amounts. And that's where my interpretation of the alignment issue begins. Normal races don't have really an alignment like in the core rules, only the expression of their tendencies. Only beings and races with a lot of essence have an alignment - it is possible to gain essence through the use of the Soul Ore, the materialised essence of the powers (I don't like the name Soul Ore - has someone a better suggestion?). The detectable alignment is the result of the judgement after the morality of the powers themselves, not after the personal moralities of individuals. My goal is it to have definitions for the powers moralities, which are commonly known, but still allow a possible misinterpretation, why someone is marked as neutral, good or evil. Look at the next design notes for a more detailed example:
Normal people have just enough divine essence, so that detection spells will show only a faint aura of good, neutral or evil - the lawful-chaotic-axis can't be seen. This faint aura depends solely on the perception of the Greater Powers, so it is entirely possible, that someone has an evil aura, because his morality isn't aligned with the Good Power (e.g. the thinking, that goblin kids can be killed, because they will kill as adults, can make an otherwise good-hearted man look like a simple murderer). The aura has for people with few divine essence always the same strength, regardless if the scanned person is a psychopathic mass murderer or a single, old, bitter woman, whose only delight is making the lifes of her neighbours miserable.
Check if someone with alignment wants to do something out of alignment, except persons, who have a 50/50 mixture of Good/Evil, have a free will. The Greater Powers mark people because these have either the same morality or haven't a morality which is aligned enough with one of the Greater Powers - in the latter case something must be considered by a marked person as allowed which is directly opposed with one of the Powers views. The lawful-chaotic-axis is always one step in strength below the good-evil-axis and is simply considered as a mark for knowing the general tendencies.
So, what could be the definitions of the powers behaviour? The Good power having a strict paladin morality?
