vos and alignment

[Craig Dalrymple]

- ----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Cooper

>
>How do you portray the Vos society - Lawful, or very chaotic?
>
>I'm having a problem in that, while I can see that the Vos culture
>supports a very chaotic view, aren't they supposed to follow a rigid
>code of honor and such? Wouldn't following this code of honor, then,
>make the Vos lawful? To the outsider, of course, Vos are seen as only
>one tiny step up from goblins and orogs (and this is debatable) - yet
>there is this code thingy. How do all you DMs out there present this?
>I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around this one ...
>

I have found that it is very difficult from the DM's perspective to apply
just one alignment blandly over a whole nation to categorize it. There
are a hundred people out there who have devised other alignment
systems to better remedy this situation, but I try to KISS.

I only use one alignment to describle anything. Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic,
Good, or Evil. I should say "one worded alignments". In my view, the Vos
are very Lawful. They have a strict code of honor and if you violate that
code, you will pay dearly. This is a very lawful response.

A truely chaotic person in the Vos lands would either die or be hunted.
They could not maintain a strict code of Vos honor.

Now this is a very biased and one sided view of things because even
Chaotic Good Rangers have a code of honor.

The largest thing to keep in mind is that all characters are driven by
one axiom of alignment to a larger degree (or perhaps two), but
have a part of them all inside.

I treat alignment like genetics. :)

Hope this helps.

Craig

[Kenneth Gauck]

>Now this is a very biased and one sided view of things because even
>Chaotic Good Rangers have a code of honor.


There is a difference between a person code of honor and a socially
instilled one. Every person has their own pattern of behavior (unless
mentally ill, perhaps) , it is conforming to the social standard of behavior
and putting the group above the individual which tends more towards
lawfulness.

In other alignment news, January's Atlantic Magazine has a very good article
on Evil.

Kenneth Gauck
c558382@earthlink.net

[Jim Cooper]

Kenneth Gauck wrote:
>There is a difference between a person code of honor and a socially
> instilled one. Every person has their own pattern of behavior (unless
> mentally ill, perhaps) , it is conforming to the social standard of behavior and putting the group above the individual which tends more towards lawfulness.<

True ... so, are Vos selfish or are they more clan orientated like the
Rjurik? Which comes first (in a moral sense) to the average Vos dude,
'me' or 'my clan'?

Cheers,
Darren

[DKEvermore@aol.co]

In a message dated 1/20/99 3:11:41 PM Central Standard Time,
Jim_Cooper@bc.sympatico.ca writes:

> True ... so, are Vos selfish or are they more clan orientated like the
> Rjurik? Which comes first (in a moral sense) to the average Vos dude,
> 'me' or 'my clan'?
>
> Cheers,
> Darren
>
I would say, for Vos, Me comes first.

- -DKE