Severoth
Hey nice post Sev. One thing I see when I see Lawful Evil players is that the real life people consider LE'ers to be completely independent and on their own, but by nature you (LE) live within a society in a strict rule. Will Severoth work with other people or will he be guild related only?
Severoth has evolved along way in the evolution of Argyle. He has had over two years to grow and evolve, so I suppose I am lucky that I can truly feel a bond with his personality and his goals and beliefs. The one thing that has evolved constantly is his rigid code of beliefs and the way he works in given situations.
I chose LE as to me it offers the "most" friendly evil persona that one can have. I didnt want to go for the pure out for himself view (NE) or a more random violent nature (CE) Also Severoth is an intelligent individual, having been submitted to the harshest punsihment that the elves can inflict upon an individual of their race. He betrayed elves to achieve revenge upon humans who killed his father, and then was cast out for causing the loss of elven lives. He could not believe that they did this, and went from being a young elf obssessed with seeing revenge upon his fathers murderers to one who now has a seething hatred for elves for not reasoning that one of their own should have been avenged, no matter the cost. He pleaded to his mother, and she turned his back on him. So in the course of a week he lost his father, his mothers love and was exiled from his race.
He became a truly embittered individual.
Severoth is evil, he has no compunctions about murdering someone to protect his image or to cover his tracks, and at the same time wouldnt commit an act that would betray him and cause him to come into the open. He has some very long reaching goals, though I wont go into them here
Lets save them for the game. He considers every move, possible allies, people he can exploit and will do everything to achieve his goals. He has a few select people that he has met over the course of his life that he does trust, and would lay his life down for. They earned his trust and have helped him out in dire situations and he in turn would repay them when they are needed.
As for the whole society bend, due to his intelligence and cautious nature he enjoys the stable structure, knowing it is something that he can carve a position out of. He would work with people if he thought it would benefit himself. He might even help out for no payment, coming back later when you least expect it to ask for that favour to be returned. I personally plan to build up a huge list of NPC and PC contacts so I have access to resources and people that I wouldnt be able to normally.
One point though, I wont deal with elves. There are many reasons for this of course.
Saigo: Great post as well, I look forward to hereing how your guild performs in Argyle and I hope that you have alot of fun with them all. I think that you are right in saying that any member should be able to play any alignment and offered valid arguments for it.
I think Sev's post on evil should be mandatory reading for anyone playing an evil character. Okay..., that may be taking it a bit far, but I agree with his philosophy on evil individuals and how they should be played. It is important to give reasons for what they're doing, as well as set limitations on what they'll do. On that vein, I'd like to add a bit more.
Thanks Rail! I like to try and encourage people to think twice before they take up the role of an evil character. Like I mentioned above Severoth, although evil wont be seen dead commiting an evil act. Just because you are evil doesnt mean you have to butcher every person. A true evil mastermind will act in a different guise altogether as he slowly moves forwards on whatever plans he has. These could be as simple as earning enough money through whatever means to "retire" happily to something in what Severoth views. Not world domination but it will be interesting to say the least
I think the most important thing to remember about being evil is that you are still a hero. It doesnt matter what alignment you take we are all heroes. We might have different modus operandi but we still put our lives on the line to achieve greater goals, and lay our marks upon the land. And that is the ultimate purpose of a character, it doesnt matter if you are going out to avenge your fathers death or to carve out an empire. You decided to pick up your gear and venture out of your safe places. Heroes take risks, they live their lives upon the throw of dice and court lady luck as well as possible. As a hero you may find yourself with companions who in most circumstances would try to carve you up. Fate can be interesting though, and sometimes evil and good end up fighting upon the same side, even though it may be a short alliance. Just because your evil doesnt mean you wont have friends, and wont ally with good or vice versa.
As soon as you left your house and set your feet upon the path that is covered by shadows on either side you decided that you will live life as your code dictates. Along the way you might end up making friends, enemies and even having enemies become your friends or your friends becoming your enemies. Heroes attract like and other heroes will be there whether you want it or not. Who knows what the future will hold and what will happen?
We all decided to make that step and circumstance can make for some funny bedfellows, but remember good or evil we are all heroes....