Alignment and ethos
Characters in Avendar choose both an alignment and an ethos upon creation.
Your ALIGNMENT is a measure of your character's moral compass. Your alignment can be good, neutral, or evil.
If your character is . . .
GOOD, he or she will tend to not place their own interests above those of others.
NEUTRAL, he or she will tend to not take a firm moral stance. They might choose to distance themselves between the turmoil that surrounds the fight between good and evil, or to crusade actively to promote a measure of balance.
EVIL, he or she will tend to act in whatever they perceive as their own best interest, regardless of the cost to others.
Your ethos determines their attitude toward laws and
the nature of society.
Your ethos can be lawful, neutral, or chaotic.If your character is . . .
LAWFUL, he or she will tend to follow the established rule of law. Lawful characters are typified by the idea that for whatever reason, society should in general be governed by a code of laws, and that they personally should do their best to exist within the confines of these laws.
NEUTRAL, he or she is indifferent to the laws and rules of society. There actions and attitudes toward the laws will depend more on their other beliefs rather than any explicit opinion for or against the law.
CHAOTIC, he or she the laws of society as a whole as a hindrance to their beliefs or goals in life. Chaotic individuals tend therefore to place more importance on the ideas and opinions of individuals, and to place their faith more in chance and fortune rather than order and pattern.
For more help on alignment and ethos combinations, see the following help files: LAWFUL GOOD, LAWFUL NEUTRAL, LAWFUL EVIL, NEUTRAL GOOD, NEUTRAL NEUTRAL, NEUTRAL EVIL, CHAOTIC GOOD, CHAOTIC NEUTRAL, CHAOTIC EVIL, ALIGNMENT2
Alignment2
To give you an idea how various alignments behave, here are a series of hypothetical scenarios, and some typically responses from various alignments/ethoi:
Suppose that a party of adventurers come upon a town, which is being raided by goblins from a nearby dungeon. The townsfolk, in dire need of help, beg the adventurers for assistance.
A lawful good would probably agree whole-heartedly. Towns and cities provide the most protection from the innocent, and therefore need to be defended. He or she would probably help the townsfolk organize their defenses in a more coordinated way. Failing this, he would try to organize retaliatory strikes against the goblins.
A neutral good person would also agree, but might consider more options. He might be more concerned with directly fighting the goblins (such as leading his group to fight them), rather than protecting the fabric of the town itself.
A chaotic good person would agree, but we might go about the problem in radically different ways. He would be far more concerned with getting rid of the evil threat (goblins), than he would be protecting the laws and walls of the township. Their means of finacing their quest might be a touch unorthodox as well - stealing from evil citizens of the town, or a wily plan to trap the goblins.
A lawful neutral person would probably do what he could to protect the town. The preparations he employed might be similar in form to that of the lawful good person, but he would be more concerned with protecting the integrity of the town and its capacity to function as a society, rather than individual innocent lives.
A true neutral person would be inclined to consider the offer very carefully. He would most likely be more concerned as to the reasons for the goblins raiding. Has the town recently infringed on the territory of the goblins? Or have the goblins grown out of control recently? The answer to these questions will heavily influence the nature of the response. They might prefer not to intervene, not wishing to upset the delicate balance that might exist between the townsfolk and the goblins. Or, they might decide goblin in the activity in the region is too high, and needs to be curbed. They might even see that the townsfolk are being too aggressive in their exploitation of the world around them, and *they* are the ones who need to be foiled.
A chaotic neutral person's response is perhaps the most difficult to predict. They would most likely go along with the opportunity for further adventure, but if the person had been doing a lot of goblin hunting lately, the prospect of helping the townsfolk might not appeal to him. He might, for a lark, side with the goblins if they would have him - not out of malice, but merely for a change of pace!
A lawful evil person would look for appealing methods to turn the situation to his advantage. He certainly would only help the townspeople fight off or attack the goblins if some reward or other sort of compensation were offered. Depending on the predilictions of the person in question, they might even take this opportunity to try to insinuate himself into a position of power within the township. And, if the opportunity presented himself, he might also not be averse to assembling and controlling a goblin army . . .
A neutral evil person would size the situation up carefully. Which side would have the most to offer him - the townsfolk, or the goblins? Who is most likely to win? Would it be more profitable to just sit back and let them fight it out, and take on whatever faction was left in the end? Regardless, the neutral evil person's actions would be completely motivated by their own self interest, with no concern for the others involved.
A chaotic evil person would most likely side with the goblins if at all possible. The idea of aiding someone just because they asked them (an admission of weakness) would probably be anathema to them. While if a large reward were proferred they might attempt to destroy the goblin, but they would be more likely to try to pocket the money and run, or let the goblins burn the town, then kill the goblins.
Related Help Files: LAWFUL GOOD, NEUTRAL GOOD, CHAOTIC GOOD, LAWFUL NEUTRAL, NEUTRAL NEUTRAL, CHAOTIC NEUTRAL, LAWFUL EVIL, NEUTRAL EVIL, CHAOTIC EVIL, ALIGNMENT
Resonance (Aura)
Resonance is a quality of an individual's soul related to both the divine and the practice of sphere magic. The term aura comes from the various early magics of spirit and void which perceive the state of others' souls in the form of a coloured aura. This colour scales from black to silver; as the bulk of the range is either red or gold, the auras are colloquially referred to as such.
Resonance is primarily affected by what one kills or which gods one sacrifices to. A strong resonance is referred to an alignment. Sacrificing to a god will move your resonance into alignment with that god's, and killing something of a particular resonance will move your own in the opposite direction. Alignment can be an accurate indicator of what someone has been killing or which gods they have been sacrificing to, however shuddeni and ch'taren will always have red and gold alignments, respectively.
Aura grades are somewhat large ranges, and are as follows:
Black (maximum red aura)
Dark Red
Red (maximum red aura for a neutral character)
Faint Red (maximum red aura for a good character)
None
Faint Gold (maximum gold aura for an evil character)
Gold (maximum gold aura for a neutral character)
Bright Gold
Silver (maximum gold aura)Certain spells, particularly of the void, spirit, water, and fire spheres, will either improve if the target has compatible aura or fail if the caster has an incompatible one. Other effects are possible; individual spell helpfiles should be consulted in these cases.