Culture and Alignment

Though we often think of alignment as fixed, cultures and societies cycle though the alignments. This is especially true in Kemen. What follows is a description of alignments with attention paid to how alignment relates to groups. In this scheme, the cycle begins with Chaotic Good and progresses in a counter-clockwise rotation around the usual alignment chart. The descriptions below of the individual alignments are listed in a way that facilitates the understanding of their differences rather than the flow between them. This aspect is discussed later.

Chaotic Evil is all about the individual. Rape and pillage, murder and mayhem, for the fun of it. CE has as its central tenets the thrill of doing whatever one wants on impulse, regardless of the 'consequences.' There is no accountability. Street gangs and motorcycle gangs (in the classic sense) are good analogs for CE. There may be a leader, but he (usually) only decides what the group will do, and does not compel membership. When very large groups coalesce, there may be a 'council' of leaders, but this is a short lived confederation rather a permanent alliance. Members are free agents, and follow because they choose to do so. They share this voluntary membership with CG, but without proscription against doing evil.

Lawful Evil is less about the raw emotion involved in evil acts, and more about control, domination, dominion and slavery. This is organized evil. It is insidious, and the true notion of what is usually referred to in the Earth Zero concept of evil. There is a hierarchy whose purpose is to maintain control. It is the focus on control at all costs that characterizes this alignment. In LE, the individual serves the hierarchy (usually a tyranny, even if the leadership is a group). Membership is compulsory. Chaos is seen as desirable only if it is controlled and serves the hierarchy goals. As nations grow, the focus of leaders turns to staying in power and defending the populace from evil and outsiders. Eventually, this leads to merely staying in power. Leaders become Lawful Evil, as the focus is law. While power is centralized, over time population and conquests increase. Parcels of power are issued to maintain control. As time and population increase, even these controls become ineffective and eventually the society disintegrates into chaotic evil. Techno-industrial societies are good examples of LE, as is the movie Brazil.

Neutral Evil is the alignment of the loner. He cares not about group membership and may be found as a part of any evil group, so long as it benefits him. He appears completely self serving, but less open about it as CE, as this could result in things that are undesirable to him. In truth, he is neutral out of fear usually, and sees his own safety, self-preservation and survival as being dependent upon not taking a stand. It is the effect and spread of neutral evil ( in the form of corruption) that tends to be the downfall of LE societies.

Chaotic Good focuses on the rights of the individual and is limited only by the responsibility to avoid doing evil. Control is seen as the first step towards evil. Societies start out as Chaotic Good. Families and 'population centers' are far enough apart to allow people to live in freedom without the interference of others. If life becomes too oppressive, there is room to move away. Altruism originates in the individual's sense of moral duty and 'being a good neighbor.' Law is seen as desirable only when absolutely necessary.

Neutral Good tend to be the unaffected. They are inconsistent followers of law, but are always mindful of what is good. They are often loners. Caine in Kung Fu, is a good example. 

As population increases, more laws become necessary to prevent the spread of evil acts. This restricts individual freedoms, but is deemed necessary to prevent evil. This is generally the start of large nations. This results in the society becoming Lawful Good. Chaos ('freedom') is seen as desirable only if it is limited. In this respect it provides the opportunity for 'wild card' solutions and influences. LG focuses on law as the way to provide limited freedom for the most people, and provide for the common good. Individual rights are considered secondary to the greater good, and may be abridged without recourse or reconciliation. Law is the way to promote good.

Lawful Neutrals are in love with love the law and respect it regardless of whether the result is good or evil. Ever meet a lawyer? 

 

Chaotic Neutral are in a like respect indifferent to good or evil, and respect only freedom.

True Neutrals focus on balance above all else. This philosophy generates only small societies, usually no larger than towns and villages.

	LG	CG	CE	LE
Focus	Law as means to good, common good	Freedom as means to good, individual rights	Individual rights, anarchy, unbridled desire	Control, dominion, mastery, slavery and service
Relation to control	Necessary to achieve good	Hindrance to good	Anathema, directly opposes	Central, primary
Membership	Compulsory	Voluntary	Voluntary	Compulsory
Relation to opposite	Limited chaos acceptable	Limited law acceptable	Limited rules, organization acceptable	Controlled chaos acceptable

Neutral Good, Neutral Evil: Loners, sometimes immersed in society.

Lawful Neutral: Loves law above all, hates vacuum.

Chaotic Neutral: Loves freedom, resists law and control.

True Neutral: balance.

The America Wild West would be an example of the confluence of NE, LN, LG and CN.

“Hang 'Em High” is an example of the hypocrisy of 'law.'

Alignment “Flow and Drift”

Over time, the alignment of a region will usually shift. By “region,” I refer to any DM designated group. It could be a country, a province, a city, town village, tribe, whatever. The important part is that we are referring to some group of people. In Kemen, the flow or drift is generally counter-clockwise.

Note, this is only the usual path! It is very possible that a Chaotic Neutral society may swing to NG on its way to LG, bypassing CG altogether. Some may have a problem with the idea that a society can go from CE to CG. To understand this, recognize that the descent into CE is generally a one way trip because the society disintegrates. The survivors are beginning again, at CG.

This is the way it works in Kemen. Your Mileage May Vary.

You think a lot, don't you? This all seems like a lot of extra work for no productive end.

:) Yes, I do think a lot. For most adventures, this material is pretty much academic. For campaign adventures, where there are events that occur outside the immediate vicinity of the PC's, understanding how things move can help you understand how it got to be the way that it is – whicih provides grist for the mill. Knowing that a current agrarian society (CG) shuns an area of ruins because they are the descendants of the LE citystate that fell into the ruin and anarchy of CE, gives you backstory and direction for the future.

UPDATE: HARDWARE UPGRADE

After many years of hand-me down machines, I finally went out and got a brand new PC. This new machine is much more powerful, and I'm hoping to experience a bump in productivity. The previous machine had a Core Duo processor...

It will obviously be a little for me while I to get used to thing, but I expect to be posting more 3D maps and models soon.

-A

Still Working on it...

March Update

Greetings,

Good grief, where the hell have I been?

Hard at work learning new software. I'm not really that kind of person, you know, that tech guy who is always talking about something in TechnoJive about which most people haven't the slightest glimmer of understanding. But dammit, either this is going to look like I picture it in my head or I'm not doing it. And I'm close.

This is all of course, pertaining to the Grand Temple at Yethlyreom. Wow. It's March now, isn't it?

I have also been a few other places. Kemen is not the Earth, you know. Or perhaps, Kemen is not the Earth you know. Actually, it is located in the Small Magellanic Cloud ( which used to be called the Lesser Magellanic Cloud...). It is an Earthlike planet about the size of Mercury orbiting a G5 star, with two satellites. The combined mass of the two of them is a little less then that of the Earth's moon, though one of them is scarcely larger than a large asteroid. Tides are about the same as of Earth, though more frequent. The orbital period of Kemen is 360 days, with four 90 day seasons. The year is divided into 12 months, but most cultures follow a 6 day week with 5 weeks per month.

Some do not. One culture has a 5 day week and 6 weeks per month, but they also use a base five number system.

There have been some other diversions, as well. I consider most this to be creative work, and I have learned that in creative work if you force it, you create crap. So when my creative wanderlust urges me to make notes about a Thieves Guild that is sort of like Oceans Eleven or that this baron should really be a duke, I yield to it.

If you've seen my Portown model, or the Green Dragon, you have some idea concerning the level of detail I insist upon. Each of those windows and doors was placed individually. That model may as well have been an elaborate, historically accurate, on-this-day, no-not-that blue-this-blue train set, for all the work that went into it. I am a hobbyist.

That said, this damn temple has to have the right look to have the right feel, but it also has to get done. I'm working on it. Mostly.

Trying for monthly updates until the next release,
A.

Update

Greetings all,

Just an update: I'm still slogging away at the Temple at Yethlyreom. Some difficult work, but I think the end result will be worth it.

Best, A

The Coming Year

Greetings and Happy New Year to all those who wish to have one! (Far be it from me to tell you what kind of year to have...)

In case anyone's wondering, I'm working on some 3D witchery -- rather, learning how to use the software (or is it more suited to the times to say "app?"). I soon hope to be able to share the results.

 

In the coming months, you can expect to see the Grand Temple of Yethlyreom in all it's glory. This will put the palace to shame. The palace was a primarily linear affair, while the temple is all about curves and domes. Those familiar with the palace might have taken note of the mosaic of Thasaidon (or one of his personas). There will be an expansion on this theme, a rather dramatic one.

 

Though there were many gods in the Yethlyri pantheon, they only celebrated the ones they did not fear - and whom they hoped would deliver them from the rest. These were

 

• Thasaidon, a fiend yes, likely to make any deal for your soul, but also the God of Magic and Death.
• Mordiggian, The Charnel God, Eater of the Dead
• Alila, Goddess of Perdition and Iniquity; the Goddess of Sin and Treachery
• Ililot, Goddess of Love and Hate; usually appears as a lovely young woman, but don't piss her off, as she avenges the wronged lover.
• Thamagorgos, God of the Outer Void.

As a side note, my reading of the pronunciation here is that <I> alone makes the "ee" sound, but when following <a> gives "ay." <T> appears to be silent unless accompanied with an <h>. Hence, Thah-SAY-duhn, Mohr-DEEG-ee-un, Ah-LEE-la, EE-lee-loh, and Thah-mah-GOHR-gohs.

 

If you've studied Tolkien, you might be aware that history can affect language, and in fact in some ways be derived from it. I have no idea what this might mean for Yethlyreom as yet, but thinking about it is more fun than preparing my taxes.

And Now For Something Completely Different

No, I'm not conducting a class on How Not To Be Seen. I have said elsewhere that I need a break from the Portown Project, and that I would eventually return to it. At present, anything more that I might do with Portown requires a level of skill and knowledge about modeling that I do not possess. I have turned my attention to other projects, but some of these also have some pretty strict requirements regarding how they must look (specifically Aduiltham, an elf compound similar to Rivendell). I need something that I can experiment with, something that is not strictly defined – at least, not as yet.

So we travel about 1000 miles south to Yethlyreom*. An ancient city-state, it is removed both in distance and in time. It is located in the rain shadow of a mountain range at a latitude that gets little rain to begin with. In addition, there is also a dust bowl effect from over farming and forest depletion. As if these things weren't enough, there is a rift valley nearby with volcanoes that throw ash on top of the dust. Even in its prime, water would have been a treasured commodity, except that the Yethlyri feared large bodies of water. In the pantheon of their religion were Cthulhu, Tsathoggua, Dagon and “Mother Hydra” (Blidoolpoolp), and as a result they abhorred the sea, lakes and the like. They prayed to the remaining gods of the pantheon to protect them from these four. Unfortunately for them, the remaining gods of the pantheon were not especially benevolent. Yethlyreom is now a ruined and abandoned city half buried in 1000 years worth of dust, sand and ash.

The city lies in a complex crater (Learn about it here), with the palace, a public square and the temple built upon the summit of the central mound, and the necropolis is built on the rim of the crater (Oh, the plans I have for that...). Due to the environmental factors mentioned above, the ruins of Yethlyreom and the land surrounding it for miles and miles is a dusty, ashy wasteland.

Below is the palace of the King/Emperor/Overlord/whatever-I-eventually decide to call him. I'm especially tickled by the mosaic of Thasaidon on the second floor. I took a picture from the internet, altered it in GIMP, they used the mosaic feature to create a jpg. Then I imported the jpg into Sketchup.

Here also is the same palace, after lots of weathering. Basically, it has been beat to hell by the elements – save water. The wood has survived, but the integrity of the timbers is completely destroyed.

 

Imagine it covered in dust, sand and ash as well. In fact the whole first floor is probably buried.

 

This is an exciting project for me as I am learning things that I can use elsewhere -- like a coastal settlement you may be familiar with. The erosion was done using the Erode extension. I like it, but the finished product is huge in terms of memory. Towards the end, Sketchup became very slow. There are probably many other things to learn. Considering that I've been modeling for about six months or so, I don't think this is too bad.

 

Next up, the temple. With the coming holidays, I wouldn't expect any new posts to appear before sometime in January. I will still be reachable, however.

 

Best to all, A

* Most of the names mentioned in this post come from the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. I am using them for non-profit purposes and without permission or apology.