Alignments in Frandum

A matter of churches and faith

There are three alignments in Frandum: good, neutral and evil, each with its own deity and views on life, death and morality in the world.

In order to join a church, you should first have sufficient knowledge about the world and the three alignments. By performing quests, you achieve the former, and by speaking to wizards of respective alignments, you achieve the latter.

So, why join a cult? Well, being on good foot with a deity is a way of gaining power, since all kinds of magic have their roots in them (and magic is, if used properly, a quite powerful tool for an adventurer!), as well as it may help you to further form your character (from the roleplaying point of view). You will also see the benefit of having other powerful players of the same alignment act nice toward you.

Good Neutral Evil
 

Galanhir

 

Reset

 

Shezael

 

Good

Galanhir represents the goodness in Frandum. Following Galanhir is equivalent to being nice to people around you. A society under the bright star of Galanhir is a society where laws are strictly enforced, and the weak lean on the strong. Community is very important, honesty and trust likewise.

The follower of Galanhir is a sworn enemy to all that is evil, and he is not very happy about neutrality either: Galanhir is the only god worthy of worshipping. People that don't understand this are looked upon with suspicion.

The goal of goodness is to make every being in Frandum respect the other, and thus create a world where there are no fears, only happiness and beauty. In reality, however, it is not always like this. The clergy tend sometimes to be corrupt and use their doctrines to rule people according to their own will.
Though this is not true goodness, it is an obvious example of what can happen when the weak have to depend on the strong, and the hearts of the strong are not as pure as they should be. In this manner, the kingdom of Valea waged war upon its neighbouring kingdoms in the Third Age, for the good of the rulers and not for the people, and with religion as an excuse.

In order for a world where goodness reigns, to exist, all such corruption must be outrooted and people must embrace the true spirit of Galanhir. This is harder than it sounds, since there still exists corruption among the leaders of the cult, though this is mostly seen with human worshippers.

Apart from humans, elves of every sort (exept the drow) also worship Galanhir, though with another approach more contemplating than the human one. This is, however ineffective for a government, a way closer to what Galanhir had intended, since there is little to no chance of corruption. The worshipper is one with himself and with Galanhir, and this union is said to be stronger than that of the good warrior fighting evil.

An example of an all-out good act would be to help someone in need, regardless of what dangers you may put yourself in, and expect no reward whatsoever. This goes for all the Galanhir worshippers in Frandum, and is not limited to just one kingdom or one way of worshipping.
The use of strict law enforcement is seen by the general worshipper to be the government's own interpretations of the good doctrine, but it may differ from that of an individual. In such a case, if the individual thinks that he may achieve greater goodness by transgressing the law, there should be no doubt in his mind, since answering to Galanhir for opposing his will would be worse than opposing the will of the government.     

There is one guild that only followers of Galanhir may join, and that is the one of the paladins, being the legacy of the legendary Valean ruler Aemir I. The paladins' task is to, by force, exterminate all evil in the world, something that is in itself very typical of the ancient days of Valea... Though, not mentioning the power and wisdom found with the clerics of the Ordo Dei Optimae would be unfair, for it is a power to be reckoned with as they heal and try to convert people to their ways.

Apart from this, it should be known that the Cult of Galanhir is the one with the most followers. That does not mean that it is the most powerful cult, though: the Scales of Balance are ever shifting, and since goodness has to depend on organization for its order to be strong, the works of evil may have great impact when organization is lacking within the good ranks. Therefore, goodness can never rest, lest the world should succumb to evil.

Neutral

Reset represents neutrality in Frandum. Following Reset is equivalent to striving for harmony and balance between good and evil, serving justice and preserving nature. A society under Reset would thus be a society where good and evil are treated equally, and where none of these two would ever be completely outwiped. In order for neutrality to exist, there can be no extinction of either good or evil.

There are many different ways of being neutral. The most rumoured and mystic way would be that of the druids. No one outside the neutral cult knows much about them, except that they have put their souls into preserving nature and upholding the balance therein. Druids keep out of cities, leaving these in the hands of just and steadfast governments, where the Hammer of Justice is making its voice heard.

The followers of Reset have sworn to fight on the side of good in evil times, and on the side of evil in times when goodness has the upper hand. This is fundamental, and without it goes lost what is known as true neutral behaviour. So, if in happy times a good kingdom is besieged by some great, evil dragon, don't expect the neutrals to do something about it!

Being neutral is a hard task, since you have to behave in the opposite direction of that in which the cosmic balance is leaning. Finding peaceful solutions between goods and evils proves a fine sense of neutrality, as well as does handling a scenario like the following:
Warriors of Galanhir have gathered to destroy the remaining squadron of a tribe of orcs that have been ravaging a small mountain village for six months. Neutrals of Lean decide that this act, in a world where the cosmic balance is already leaning greatly to the star of Galanhir, is unacceptable. Therefore they muster their strength and side with the orcs and drive their would-be slayers away. Should the balance have been perfectly neutral already, finding a peaceful solution would have been more desirable, as would siding with the humans yet keeping themselves in the background, only to wipe out the good warriors right after the last orc had fallen.
Dishonourable it may be, the latter option, yet in a way it serves neutrality to the fullest. It is a delicate business, deciding what is the best act for a given situation, so judgement is something that Reset demands in his disciples.

As mentioned earlier, the druids are a mystic force of neutrality. Their guild can only be entered by people that go with the blessings of Reset. They are closely bound to nature, and through their efforts they give both good and evil a hard time when trying to unsettle the Scales of Balance.

In numbers, Reset has the least amount of power of the three deities, yet when joining either side to amend the hurts made by the opposite faith, they are always at an advantage. The neutrals have the hardest task to accomplish, since it would involve converting all the races of Frandum into worshipping Reset, whereas goods and evils are satisfied with simply overwhelming the other two alignments. Will they ever be able to accomplish this?

Evil

Shezael - the Dark Queen - represents all that is evil. Following Shezael is equivalent to acting for your own good without giving much heed (if any?) to people around you, or acting for no one's good, meaning that you would sacrifice your own life if it meant that other people would suffer. Destruction of all that is good is on the evils' agenda. What is alive should be dead, what is dead should be worshipped. Evils show no mercy when it comes to the lives of non-evils. There are even evils who don't care for the lives of their fellow worshippers.

In all, evils strive to make the world a place where people's minds are consumed with fear, where law and order don't exist (or laws are used to oppress the weak): a world where the strong rule and the weak follow, whether they like it or not. It is very common for evils to think about world domination, and lesser evils overthrowing authorities, as long as there is a chance of success, is not as uncommmon as one would think. If, however, the lesser evils are very weak in comparison with their authority, they show loyalty that few non-evils can match. Though this is mostly out of fear of what would happen if they disobeyed, it is just the way the powerful evils want it.
Evils usually don't care much for honour and trust if they don't need to show it in order not to be disposed of by their masters. Not all evils are like this, though. Some believe that being trustworthy has its benefits, and thus they put on a face that may be trusted, yet what motives they may have in truth may not be revealed until the very end.

Of the Three Faiths, evil is probably the most liberal one. There are not many rules in their faith that evils have to follow, aside from not doing acts of goodness. If you want to be honourable, this may be applied to the Dark Way, as well as being trustworthy and even fair. There are some characteristics that are pretty much the same for every evil, though: getting revenge at all costs, seeking power to master instead of being mastered, fighting goodness wherever they may come across it, glorifying death rather than life, and striving for destruction rather than creation.

The Necromancers are evils that have taken their death-worship to a deeper level. They are mostly powerful spellcasters that perform horrible experiments on both the living and the dead, to gain greater understanding of life and death. They have the power to control the dead, and thus are in charge for the undead legions of Shezael. Skeletons, zombies and malicious ghosts are most probably results from the necromancers' research.
Their guild only accepts beings skillful in the dark arts, and thus non-evils are strictly forbidden to even enter their underground facility, where horrors that would freeze even the blood of the bravest adventurers are created.

The goal of all evil is to destroy goodness and neutrality, in all forms they may exist. Chaos shall replace order, death shall replace life, a powerful leader shall replace all those feeble governments held by goods and neutrals... This would not mean that the world would be a peaceful place once the enemies of evil were eliminated, since evils make plenty of enemies within their own ranks, and there would always be at least one powerful evil creature plotting the downfall of the current regime. In short, this means that if evils ever reach their goal, the world of Frandum will never know peace again.

So, if you don't like to follow strict rules of faith, then Evil may be something for you. If you want power and will not hesitate to grasp it, whatever its price may be, then Evil may be something for you.

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