Just _what_ is Negative Energy, precisely?

[Nightfall]

Hit the nail on the head on that one Sejs. People are just too darn quick in their judgments to allow a "grey" area view about certain things. Yes there are moral relevancies and such, but when it comes things that are simply a form or a power source, they are not always "good" or evil. They just are.

 

[Gez]

I'm trying to find a place for PE and NE in my cosmology's Grand Scheme of Things... Not having to prepare sessions (everyone's being very busy) leaves me with time to spend on the setting's depth.

So I'm looking for a way to elegantly solve some of the contradiction that arise with NE, the undead, souls, and all that.

 

[Incenjucar]

I like to think of negative and positive energy like an acid and a base. They both have similar effects in concentration (IE, they kill you), and they react explosively to each other, and have opposite effects, of equal nature (they both toss around protons).

Some lifeforms are designed to handle one or the other to greater or lesser degrees, and all of them usually have a nice neutral coating to keep their energy from escaping. Draining undead tend to lack this neutral coating, and some outsiders have managed to shed theirs for the sake of healing.

 

[Tonguez]

If undead have a massive negative energy imbalance, maybe they feed on life in a vain attempt to restore the balance in their bodies.

-blarg

I like that idea - goes well with the concept that Undead hate there own existence and if they weren't compelled by external factors (or weren't totally insane) they would end it

and yeah PE and NE are two opposing energy forms just like Yin & Yang, Growth & Entrophy

IMC Shadows and similar 'undead' are in fact outsiders from the Shadow Realm (= NE Plane) which is the source of nightmares, fear and death. It isn't evil per se but all mortals beleive it is...

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I tend to think of it in this way:

Positive Energy is the power of Creation. It heals, it energizes. Because Good deities are beings of creation, they naturally favor Positive Energy, as do their clerics. The energy itself may not be Good, but using it often is.

Negative Energy is the power of Destruction. It kills, it negates. Because Evil deities are beings of destruction, they favor Negative Energy, as do their clerics. The energy itself is not evil, but using it often is.

The correlation is there, as I see it, but an inverse of the common assumption. Negative Energy isn't Evil. Rather, Evil creatures tend to use Negative Energy, because Negative Energy is more compatible with their nature. Likewise Positive Energy isn't Good. But Good creatures have a natural affinity for Positive Energy, which is part and parcel of those things Good creatures value (healing, creation, birth, protection.)

 

[Gez]

Food for thought:

One of the worst illness is caused when the organism don't succeed in killing some of its own cells.

I can see NE being responsible, inside an organism, for apoptosis (programmed cell death). It would make cancer a disease caused by a lack of NE, or an excess of PE.

But it seems a bit weird, anyway.

 

[Drakmar]

Negative Energy.. Depression. That's a kind of negative energy. Now imagine if someone could fire bolts of depression at you. eek.

 

[Agemegos]

Negative Energy.. Depression. That's a kind of negative energy. Now imagine if someone could fire bolts of depression at you. eek.

I can do that.

 

[Gez]

And you're proud?

 

[Sejs]

No, he's terribly, terribly depressed.