Just _what_ is Negative Energy, precisely?

[francisca]

Never really considered it much, but now you've got me thinking, Gez.

After a little bit of consideration, I've come up with the following half-baked idea. I'm sure it has many, many holes, but maybe it can serve as a kernel of an idea for you to pickup and run with.

Negative energy is not an energy type, per se, rather, it is a null field completely devoid of what we normally term positive energy. It acts as a power sink for positive energy, and will conduct it away from any source, like living creatures. Think of a lightning rod drawing down electrical energy from a cloud. While the lightning rod works because of opposite polarization, you get the idea.

Undead, then, are conductors of positive energy which drain it into the void. The weakest (zombies, skeletons) are essentially non-conductors, while progressively nastier monsters are better conductors. Some undead conduct very well and are able to tap and channel some of the energy for their own purposes.


Now that I think about it, I am pretty sure this is similar to the 1E MotP explanation. I'll have a look when I get home.

 

[DragonLancer]

Negative and Positive are the energies of life and death. Living beings are composed of positive energy and when subjected to negative energy (usually by the touch of undead) they suffer for it, and vice versa.

 

[Particle_Man]

IMC, I had the positive energy plane be the thoughts of the creator god (let there be life), while the negative energy plane is the unconscious thoughts of that god (which perversely says "let there be no life"). An evil god happened upon the negative energy plane one day, and since this evil god (a Nerull type) wanted to destroy life, created undead as a means to that end.

That said, I only allowed undead that were both corporeal and were actually using bodies formerly powered by positive energy (so no shadows, no nightshades, etc., but bodaks, vampires, liches, ok)

So on that ruling, undead are evil because they are created for an evil purpose. The neg. erergy itself is not evil, but is "anti-life" and hence not a nice thing to be messing with, if you might be exposing living things to danger from contact wiht it.

But all of this is IMC. I take it you are still deciding what to do with it in your compaign. Best of luck!

 

[Thanee]

Yep, I also see positive and negative energy as the energies of life and death.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Sejs]

That said, I only allowed undead that were both corporeal and were actually using bodies formerly powered by positive energy (so no shadows, no nightshades, etc., but bodaks, vampires, liches, ok)

Personally, in my games the way I do it is, while I have incorporeal undead, only incorporeal undead can bestow negative levels with an attack. Vampires for example, can still do con damage thru drinking your blood, but their slam attacks can't energy drain. That and there's no bodaks, heh. Instant kill gimmick monsters are kinda lame in my oppinion.

Then again, when I run Turn Undead exists solely to fuel divine feats, so *shrug*

 

[The Sigil]

Here are my thoughts, slightly tangentially related to the question of "just what is negtive energy," from some time ago.

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=808188#post808188

 

[Savage Wombat]

Let's add an idea I had to the table:

Positive and Negative Energy flow like a river, from the beginning of time to the end (and back again - much like an electrical circuit, I suppose.) What humans perceive as Time is actually the flow of this river. Entropy, decay and death are the result of Matter's ride down the river towards the Negative Pole.

I have also thought it would be amusing to have two gods, one for each river. But they're not merely Good and Evil - they're the ones who decided what Good and Evil ARE.

 

[eryndel]

What humans perceive as Time is actually the flow of this river. Entropy, decay and death are the result of Matter's ride down the river towards the Negative Pole.

That's an incredibly cool idea that appeals to the physicist in me. So, to further postulate... Since time is perceived as moving only in one direction, does this imply that Positive energy inexorably flows into negative energy and not vice versa. The negative pole serves as the ultimate energy sink, the positive pole as the ultimate energy source. Thermodynamics would seem to agree with you.

Myself, I've always perceived it as two distinct entities as opposed to have Negative being the absence of Positive. I've seen it as sort of a throw to the Tao Te Ching just as the elemental planes are throws to Hellenistic philosophy. Us primes are made of mixtures of all the elemental stuff, including negative and positive energy.

Perhaps in energy draining attacks, positive and negative energy are mixed. A wraiths touch passes negative energy to the recipient granting positive energy to the wraith. The negative energy causes disorder and decay, causing a loss of attribute or losing experience (memory loss?). In return, the wraith is bolstered and strengthened by the influx of positive energy.

This conflicts with the idea that positive energy harms undead and negative energy heals. Perhaps this is because a positive energy effect is not an exchange per se and more a direct assault of energy disrupting the primarily negative energy of the undead creature.

Or maybe I shouldn't wax philosophical on a forum while deep in fever.

 

[Gez]

To the contrary, you should! That thread is there just for that!

I'd like also to find what's the mind and what's the soul. It's not clear whether they are separate or the same thing... Undead are immune to mind-affecting effects "because their soul is on the NE plane" ?

 

[DmQ]

Energy is like air. Positive and Negative energy can be characterized in a way as Positive and Negative Air Pressure. Its all energy, it’s just a difference of potential.