Re: Ideas on Death

From: Daniel Koepke (dkoepke@california.com)
Date: 02/21/97


On Fri, 21 Feb 1997 tigerdyr@internet.dk wrote:

> *ponder* Why stay good??? you realize how hard it is to stay good. 
> Take an example, You kill something, what are you?? Evil.. Okay, you 
> can justify it by making it a crusade, that still doesn't change the 
> fact that you're evil. IF! you were to be good, then as I see it you 
> would never kill anything. But merely help people. Killing is an evil 
> act. Of course there's also something that goes away from this : 
> Mercy-Killing, the person is suffering beyond any help, and therefore 
> you have to put the person to sleep. (*eek* This is beginning to 
> sound moralizing.. *ydrk*)

My idea is that man can be neither truly evil or truly good. Man is
the balance between the ultimate good and the ultimate evil, and as
such, can be worked towards the goals of evil or good. No matter
what man does or how he thinks of himself, there is always a bit of
good or evil in him. Whether it be in the form of impure thoughts or
urges (look at priests IRL), or in the case of evil, the backbone of
religion: if you are evil, you go to hell and face eternal damnation.
Thus, morale doesn't need to exist, as it is only a function of the
human mind. They call themselves good because that is what they
envision good to be. They call themselves evil because that is what
they have been taught evil is and they do what they have been taught
evil does. So, IMO, don't bother to code morals, as players, who are
controlled by a (vaguely) human person with a (pretty-much) human
mind, will create them in their head anyway.

> I saw this on a mud once, never thought about imping it, but I like 
> the idea anyway. Story goes, when you die, you *DIE* no coming back. 
> Just like in real life.  This of course means that the mud will be 
> terribly hard, and that might be the reason why they set the levels 
> down to 10. 

In my mud, which doesn't have levels or experience, death is a
permanent function...usually. There are two ways in which one
may survive beyond death: if they are a natural immortal (ever
see Highlander), they cannot die unless they lose their head,
and their wounds heal quickly. Or, if they possess a life orb.
A life orb is a rare magical item that regenerates the person
with their life force before it moves into the greater whole.
Of course, explaining this would require me to explain the world,
beliefs, and settings of my mud, which is not desirable to me.
But, roughly, the life orb takes a part of your life force and
holds it. The life orb is thus bound to you until the life force
inside it is broken. Since part of your life force is taken from
you with the life force, your spirit is weaker. Weaker spirit
detracts from your abilities (eg., you are physically/mentally
weaker). When your life force is removed from your body, the life
orb draws it in and shatters, releasing it outwards to you.
Unfortunately, there is further downsides to use of a life orb.
You lose constitution. When your constitution reaches 0 you die
permanently.

Thus permanent death occurs often, but is not your only way to
survive. I think I should add in saviour by your god. Although,
the life orb idea is already driven by alignment (eg., some life
orbs are good and others are evil -- attempting to use one of
the opposite alignment will cause you to convert over and you
cannot perform actions of the opposite alignment).

This all has to do with the life force of the people, which is
transfered in Quickenings by immortals (when one immortal takes
the head of another). Mortals can survive with the life orb as
it acts in some way like the transference of power with immortals,
although only with the life force of that person. A life force
is the part of the person that is aligned. An evil life orb will
convert the life force of a person to evil (or taint it). Thus,
a Quickening could convert an immortal to good or evil.


--
Daniel Koepke
dkoepke@california.com
Forgive me father, for I am sin.


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