As a sort of continuation to Exaythes guides to Good and Evil I decided to write a bit about how to bring depth into characters by having good heroes commit evil deeds, having evil villains do good, how to change sides from evil to good or vise versa and why it is difficult to roleplay a true neutral character. I recommend reading Exaythes The Guide to... GOOD and The Guide to... EVIL before this one. In here we go past the simplified good and evil, leave the white and black behind… Welcome to the Shades of Grey.
Alignments:
This is mainly a guide on how to play your character beyond the limits of conventional D&D alignments and thus the D&D terms (like Lawful Good or Neutral Evil) are not used. In the following text the terms “good” and “evil” are used in as in conventional morality. For example, to kill is evil (sometimes a necessary evil, but still something that should ultimately be avoided if possible), to help people in need is good (sometimes impossible but you should always strive to do so) and so forwards.
When Good does Evil:
Good characters commit evil things all the time. People lie, steal, commit violence and kill in the name of their religion, family, friends, country or just plain old “common good”. The thing is that a Good character should never do evil things without some sort of emotional response. When your good paladin is forced to kill fellow humans to defend Stormwind against Defias Brotherhood he should feel at least a bit bad about it. He doesn’t kill other humans because he enjoys it, or because it makes him feel powerful. He kills because he has to and he feels bad about it. He asks the Light to forgive him for all the slaying. He tries to find other methods instead of solving all problems with violence. At least he should… otherwise he isn’t really good anymore. Remember, very many things your “good” character does will be evil objectively and (especially) subjectively. It’s not the actions, but the motives and the emotional responses that define your character as one of the good guys.
How to play good doing evil:
- Don’t just think what your character does, think how he or she feels while doing so.
- Hesitate when appropriate. A hero who hesitates to kill but does it when necessary not only seems more real, but also more heroic than a robotic automaton who kills without batting an eye.
- Speak and discuss options, even when you already know what must be done. Sometimes you know you must lie, steal or kill because it’s the only option. You should still discuss it and say that you don’t like being put into that situation.
- Show mercy when appropriate.
- Don’t be afraid to bend the rules for good purposes. Laws might be harsh and sometimes even too harsh… Don’t be afraid to break laws if your character feels it’s the right thing to do. Still, you might feel a bit guilty for not acting according to laws as was expected of you.
- Never, ever do evil just because your character “enjoys” or “likes” it… Unless you are ready to change your character from Good to Evil. Do it because you "have to", "its the right thing to do" or, preferably, because "its the only choice left".
- Its alright to play desperate, disillusioned and cynical... and still have a "good heart"
Example #1 Hunters choices:
Naroin is a troll hunter who lives by the ancient traditions and customs of the Darkspear tribe. He hunts animals for food and leathers to make clothes. He defends his tribal territories. The Darkspear see him as a good troll warrior with a heart and soft spot for troll children who he takes hunting to teach them the skills and customs of the hunt. However, to Alliance Naroin is evil incarnate itself. Literally dozens of alliance humans and dwarves have been found in the forest , slain by Naroins arrows. Almost always the bodies, when found, were mutilated.
This is because Naroin believes he must defend his homeland against alliance invaders and he the Loas might curse his family and tribe if he does not kill those who disrespect the Loas by wandering into holy ground without giving the required sacrifices. After killing a human or dwarf he always cuts open the bodies to help the spirit escape the body, easing its passing from the land of the living into land of the dead. He doesn’t want to leave any ghosts around, after all. Sometimes he cuts a piece of flesh from the fallen and eats it. In this way he makes them part of himself and ritually shows that he killed them not out of hate or loathing but out of necessity. During his travels Naroin sees many humans and dwarves and most of the time he just watches them from the shadows, waiting and hoping they would go away. Only when they step into holy grounds and start to dig the ruins for treasures he intervenes, quickly slaying the trespassers, before they can anger the Loas and bring a curse on everyone.
For all practical purposes Naroin is actually a good character, but he does evil things both objectively (he kills because he believes it is necessary and regrets it) and subjectively (alliance see him as a true monster who murders people, mutilates the bodies and eat them).
Example #2 Deathknight who cares:
Katya was a human mercenary who was captured and killed by Lich Kings troops and made into a deathknight. Along with her Ebon Blade companions she rebelled against the Lich and later joined the alliance forces to fight the Scourge. Her methods are far from those used by Stormwind troops or Argent Crusade paladins. She regularly uses ghoul, gheist and gargoyle allies, treating them as a cannon fodder, and is known to kill Twilight Cultists, necromancers and plague ridden humans without hesitation. Most of alliance think she is crazy, depraved and evil. The speeches she gives about only wanting to revenge Arthas for what was done to her do little to sway the general opinion.
However, Katya has served unwillingly in the Scourge troops and knows exactly what they are capable of. She resurrects dead bodies as ghouls and gheists with little concern because she doesn’t want to give any new troops to Scourge. She thinks it is far better for her to raise the dead to fight the Scourge… otherwise Lich King would do it anyway. She kills “lost” humans like cultists and necromancers with little hesitation because she wants to save them from Scourge infection and eternal damnation of the undeath. After all the distrust people of Stormwind have show her she rarely bother to explain herself deeply, its far easier just to say she is doing this to get even with Arthas. Simply put she does what she thinks must be done to save the Azeroth. Sometimes late in night she sees horrible waking nightmares and cries for her lost life, humanity and everyone who has been sacrificed to stop Arthas. Katyas motives are pure and good (all she wants is to stop Scourge) but her methods and appearance make her seem like a monster.
Example #3 The Last Line of Defence:
Kamakhya is a gnome warlock in service of the gnomish secret service (and thus the king Magni Bronzebeard of Ironforge). She sees demonic magic as a sort of “engineering specialty” of hers. Some people study electricity or steam power or the basic concepts of mechanical engineering. She studies the twisting nether, the outlands and the demons. Her most famous inventions so far include “how to use Void Walkers as a semi-portable source of energy” and “how to use imps for instant messaging service”. In addition to making inventions and finding new uses for demons she also studies methods for banishing demons and warding places and people against demonic influence.
Lately she has been often tasked with spying the Horde and fighting against Horde incursions in Arathi Basin. She uses these opportunities to test her demonotronic inventions and magic in combat. She is confident that if the Forsaken would try to attack Ironforge the gnomish secret service arsenal of demonic magics is necessary to save the people of Ironforge. She has also been a part of secret project to mine the Deeprun Tram so that if Stormwind would ever fall to enemy the gnomes could blow up the tunnel, cutting the enemy from reaching Ironforge through the Deeprun Tramway. She is worried that if the time came to destroy the tunnel, it would be filled with refugees who would die horribly in the explosions and the collapsing of the tunnel but she hopes this plan will never need to be put into action.
In reality Kamakhya is pretty much as good as you can get in the secret service. After all, she is just a normal scientist with a bit of a strange job and even stranger specialty. She works lojally for king and country to protect thousands of dwarf and gnome civilians… At the same time she is inventing demonic weapons of mass destruction, planning a demolition of Deeprun Tram and killing of hundreds or even thousands of innocent human refugees.
When Evil does Good:
Only the very depraved and psychotic do evil without any motivation at all. Almost everyone have some reason for it and most of the time the motive might be very different from the results. Its easy to see an evil character as evil because he maims, mutilates and kills just for bloodlust and hatred, but what if the reason for his horrid deeds isn’t so simple? What if his motives are pure but his methods are unsound and he has started to enjoy his bloody work, embracing evil methods even when other options are available? Yes, he is “evil”… but with a twist. Also, not all evil characters are lone, sociopathic killers… Actually in MMORPG you’d wish most weren’t. Lone monsters are pretty one dimensional and boring for other players… and not really contributing to story or the fun. Even evil people have friends and family who they might care about. And sometimes, just sometimes, even the truly twisted and evil must do something good that ultimately leads to greater evil. That’s the really fun part.
How to play Evil doing Good:
- Think of what your character wants and craves for, but do it in secret.
- Do good things just to keep up appearances.
- Be friendly and helpful to your own friends and family but refuse to help people you don’t know
- Expect to be rewarded or gain something for yourself when doing something good… But never say it aloud.
- You can be petty, vengeful and bitter if your good deeds are rewarded with simple “thanks” instead of “thanks, here is 10 gold for your troubles”
- Communicate OOC with other people. You are *playing* a double-faced, ungrateful and greedy bastard but you don’t need to *be* one.
- Always have ulterior motive. Always. Don’t reveal it too easy but let your evilness show a bit through the façade.
- You don't need to be evil all time and in all things, you just need to be evil when it really counts.
Example #4 “The Good Shepherd”
Niles is a priest of light in Stormwind. He is a good speaker and listener and finds it easy to gain the confidence and trust of others. He has helped many people by just being there for them and being always ready to listen to their worries. He is also a one of the best “recruiters” for the Church of Light in Stormwind and has managed to convert dozens and dozens of people to join the Church of Light. Most people who came to the church for him feel eternally grateful for Niles.
Inside, Niles is a greedy, power hungry and deceptive. He loves the feeling of control he has over all the new converts and he craves for the respect and recognition his converting gives him amongst the other priests. Sometimes if he fees a convert hasn’t shown enough gratitude and respect for being guided into the church he will use his position and knowledge to humiliate and hurt them. He likes to keep his own hands clean and will always try to manipulate one of his more “loyal” coverts to do the actual dirty work.
When meeting law-breakers, heretics or cultists Niles won’t hesitate to set the guards and paladins on their tail. He will always demand for maximum punishments for criminals and likes to show himself as a “firm and unflinching defender of justice and faith”. Secretly he revels in the power and control his position gives him. Niles could easily make your confess your deepest secrets, comfort you for a moment, give you absolution and send you home more relieved… Just to judge you next day when the Stormwind guards kick down your door. And the last thing you would see before being dragged into dungeons would be his patented “holier than thou” smile.
Example #5 The Physicist
Sir Morgan was a talented and respected physician and alchemist who kept his own clinic in Lordaeron... That is, untill the Scourge came. First turned into undead by the Scourge he was freed from Lich Kings servitude by the Banshee Queen Sylvanas and joined the ranks of the Forsaken. Free to pursue his own destiny as one of the Forsaken he found out that there wasn't really anything left for him. Lordaeron, his family, his town, even his King were all destroyed. Every day he found himself sinking deeper into madness, but one day he got a revelation: He would find a new land, a new town and continue his life as nothing had happened. The only problem was that he wasn't welcome amongst the humans anymore... but he had a solution. He would find his dream town and infect it in secret, turning all its inhabitants into undead forsaken. Then he wouldn't be no different from them and they would accept him as one of them.
The only problem remaining was how to infect a whole village easily at once? Sir Morgans answer was simple, he kindnapped a young high elf child, hired a couple of blood elves to act as the childs "family" and started to move the pieces across the table. His plan was to give the children a normal, happy childhood with the surrogate family while slowly building up the childs tolerance to his alchemical plagues. In a few years the child would have enough tolerance to carry aa huge dose of extremely virulent plague without being killed too fast, dose big enough to infect a whole village full of people if need be...
To blood elves and most of the Horde Sir Morgan is just like any other forsaken, except that he seems unusually sane, polite and friendly to the outside. He seems unusually tolerant of the living and even saved an orphaned high elf child from the Scourge, bringing it to Silverymoon and seeking out a young blood elf couple to raise up the orphaned elf. He seems to care for the child very much and regularly gives the child medicinal mixtures to keep it healthy. At least this is what Sir Morgan wants the horde to see... and very few blood elves would be cynical enough to suspect anything as horrible as the real truth is.
The truth is that Sir Morgan has been lost in his own madness and cares for nothing else except his absurd dream of getting his own undead dream town to live peacefully in. The fact that he is raising up an innocent child to be a biological weapon and might easily infect a good few thousand of blood elves don not worry him one bit. If anything he loathes all of horde and wants nothing to do with any of them but hides his true feelings behind a mask of polite and friendly behavior.
Example #6 The Sentinel
Amanya Nightbreeze is a night elf sentinel known in the Darnassus city as fair and just sentinel who is always ready to defend the night elf lands against invaders and who is enthusiastic keeper of the old night elf traditions. In Darnassus or Teldrassil it is almost impossible to find a night elf who would speak against her. Outside the safety of Teldrassil things aren’t quite the same, however…
Amanya has dedicated her whole life in defense of the night elf lands and to keep the old traditions alive. This also means that any meeting with her in Ashenvale or Stonetalons is likely to be swift, lethal and the last meeting you ever have unless you are a night elf. She kills all orcs, trolls, tauren, forsaken and blood elves without a second thought and wouldn’t shed a single tear if tasked with killing a village full of orc civilians… Actually she has done that several times, already, purging orc logging camps in Ashenvale. She is very racist towards other alliance races, too, any dwarf, gnome, human or draenei met in Ashenvale is likely to never even see Amanya, even if they are in trouble. She thinks anyone trespassing into night elf lands pretty much deserves to get lost in woods and be eaten by local beasts. If she must intervene she will do so quickly and decisively and won’t forget to chastise the outlanders for their stupidity in coming to Ashenvale.
If you are a night elf serving in Amanyas regiment you would probably find her as the best commander you’ve ever met. She is just, supportive and always ready to help people learn more. As long as you are a female, that is. As a strict traditionalist Amanya despises any male night elves joining Sentinels. How could such a big, clumsy thing like male with mind lacking the cunning of a female brain ever expect to be a Sentinel?
As a loyal Sentinel Amanya would never openly act against Darnassus Council so she won’t kill alliance members or kick out male sentinels without a reason, but for curiously enough so far no male has survived the tests to join Sentinel regiment Amanya commands and it is quite clear that her regiment has reported only a handful of situations where they’ve assisted alliance members in need of help. Her regiments enemy body count, however, is one of the highest of any Sentinel units and the other regimental commanders suspect that Amanya regularly lists orc civilians as “enemy combatants” in her reports.
Falling into Darkness and Redemption:
One of the most interesting things in long term roleplaying is to have your character develop. People attitudes and priorities change during the life and even a persons whole outlook on life can change over a time. This means that given time and opportunity a good person can become evil and evil person can become good. Changing your alignment is a difficult porsess to roleplay correctly but it can also be very rewarding for yourself and everyone involved in the storyline.
The first thing you must remember is that a person must always have a reason why his outlook on life changes. Something has happened that made him or her change his priorities. It maybe a one-time traumatic event or a longer process but there is always a reason.
Possible reasons for Good to turn into Evil:
- Revenge for traumatic loss of friends, family or loved ones
- Being disillusioned with his or her own part in the world
- Losing faith (in God, Church, king, government...)
- Mental disorder
Possible reasons for Evil to turn Good:
- Falling in love
- To repay some evil he or she did not really want to do
- Gaining faith (in God, Church, king, government...)
- Wanting to be remembered for something good
- Having children and wanting to make the world better for them
- Being disillusioned with his or her own part in the world
Second thing you must remember is that no-one changes overnight. A do-good paladin doesn't start to kidnap children and chop them up in dark cellars in a blink of an eye. A dark undead lord won't change into a eccentric but good hearted mage in one week. The process of slipping into darkness is a gradual one and climbing up from the dark side to the good is slow and painfull.
How to play Good becoming Evil:
- Delay emotional responces when committing evil things. Act increasingly cold-hearted and feel guilty only when someone else shows you what you have done.
- Always explain away your evil deeds with "necessity" and "it had to be done"
- Grown increasing impatient and take the shortest, most effective answer (for example violence) because "you can't waste time"
- Adopt increasingly extreme methods over time: At first phase you arrest cultists... next you torture them to get them give up other cultists... In no time you find yourself kidnapping families of suspected cultists, terrorizing whole communities and executing civilians for "protecting" people who might be cultists.
- The goal becomes more important than methods... everything is allowed for you
- Start to speak and act as if there is no end goal... This war will continue forever and there will always be new enemies to meet
- Lose hope
- Involve other players well ahead so they know what the story is and can act accordingly when they notice your character slowly slipping into evil
- Get unhinged... Even though the reason you turn to evil wasn't mental disorder your actions may have started to break up your mental health. Acting increasing strange and psychotic also lends to the correct atmosphere of your "Good falling into Evil" -theme
How to play Evil becoming Good:
- Have a solid motive
- Involve other players and have their reaction affect your development (be friendly when they are friendly and so on)
- Have lapses. Sometimes you still stick to your old methods and attitudes.
- Feel bad after lapsing into evil.
- Find hope
- Start to speak and act as if you had future plans and goals (not involving world domination and destruction of your enemies)
- Increasingly question your methods even when the goal is right
- Sometimes act desperate and tired because world doesn't change even though you do.
- Act friendly and even funny when appropriate. Evil characters are hardly ever funny as light atmosphere isn't really right for them... But when you start to become Good you will want others to be more relaxed and comfortable around you to give the situations the positive spin the "Evil becoming Good" -theme needs.
Examples:
You can find reasons and motives in any of the previous examples to change alignment. For example:
#1 Naroin could lose his family and village and go into bloody spree of revenge. Or he could start to enjoy killing alliance a bit too much, slowly lapsing into madness and killing spree.
#2 Katya could lose hope... Scourge just won't end, Lich just won't die. She could get even more extreme and desperate with here methods and stop caring about who she has to kill.
#3 Kamakhya could be absorbed too deep into the shadow world of epionage and secret plans. She could lose her mental health, become and paranoid and start to use those "Last Line" plans and weapons beforehand... Just to be sure.
#4 Niles could fall in love... or maybe commit some evil he didn't want to. He could start to see the suffering he has caused and try to fix things.
#5 Sir Morgan could find people who accept him... Maybe befriend a group of Forsaken or blood elves and realize that his plans won't get him anywhere
#6 Amanya could find a good-hearted friend who will make her see her methods as evil. Or she could fall in love with human or draenei... which would certainly be traumatic enough to force her chnage her outlook in life and world.
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