Character Morality Guide

[TheBareSheet 194]

Character Morality

Written by Firespirit44 of the Guide Team

 

This is a slightly different guide altogether, this is a roleplaying guide to give you character more depth. What makes a person feel alive?

 

1. Idiosyncrasies/Habits

2. Aspiration

3. A back story that actually affected the character's personality (Fear of eating beef because he saw one turn into a demon? Heh.)

4. And of course the topic of today: The character's morality.

Now a character's morals heavily depends on what race and what environment he/she was brought up in. If a character was a Orc, they would not have found it odd or morally repugnant to kill dwarves and humans, for they were brought up in a society that hated humans/dwarves.

 

Morality is largely affected by society. We say what is 'right' and what is 'wrong' based on the established code of conduct present in society. In Oren for example, it is morally 'wrong' to perform sodomy upon a cow. No we're not arguing if you have the right to rp sodomising a cow(ITS A EXAMPLE. PLEASE DONT DO THIS.), but rather would your character do it? Was he brought up in an environment that required the sodomising of cows? If so- why?

 

Now that was just a joke, but let me put it from another perspective. Let’s say Sam, a orphaned from young, learned the blades from a sensei in the woods, now seeks vengeance on orcs.

 

That sentence has outlined the character's aspirations, maybe touched a bit on bio, but the important thing is- What happens to a moral of this orphan? His only link to society was a crazy old hermit in the forest, hence why he would choose to emulate all the crazy hermit's habits, which may include snoot-eating as a sign of affection(yuck). To those who made a wonderful backstory, ask yourself.

 

What environment was my character brought up in? Dismiss any notions of the person behind the screen, holding the character. No, this is wrong. We want to breathe life and make our puppets into pinocchio. Humans, they seem to find that racism is 'wrong'. But tell me, who ever made that notion? What society made you think that 'racism' is a bad thing?

 

Nationalism was a big thing back in the medieval ages, and in LOTC all major nobles so far have been to a degree, racist. I find it baffling sometimes that humans would randomly side against elves they don't know, just because the offender was 'racist'. Unless your character was born and raised in Aegis, which the humans were quite accepting of other races, now is not the case. Elves, and orcs are looked down upon, treated as second-class-citizens. Dispel the notions that elves might be beautiful, society conforms you to deem this is heretical, that its unnatural. You should fear them, if you haven't met a elf before in your bio.

 

Racism is just a excellent point for me to bring up, seeing as it is a modern evil. Sexism is another. Unless your character was brought up in a society where women were the leaders of the clan or something, you would generally find the females to be subdued in Oren. Again Sexism is 'wrong', but in the Oren human society, it was not treated that way. Just that usually the females ended up much like in medieval times, tending the homes. Might be you want to rp a strong-willed-female/male-who-believes-in-feminism. That is acceptable. But you must understand the consequences of supporting such a act, and where did you get inspiration to support this? Did a female knight beat you in a duel, hence your fervent worship of feminism?

 

Case in point, do not attempt to personify real life moralities into LOTC unless it makes sense. Feel free to rp a equal female in orcs, dwarves, and elves, seeing as their society is founded on strength. Oren too is, but the male scene is quite dominant now.

 

Question yourself why, why and why, when a character does something. It goes all the way down to the fundamental aspect of society that we all try to fit in: "Is this the norm in society?".

 

There is possible further reading on Character Alignment, explained here.

[JCmarine 11]

*slow claps

[Aedan The Bard 350]

In all my years role-playing (soon-to-be 10, to be precise) I never heard of people not understanding RP is nowhere near superficial, and that morality is one of the most important things to consider (LotC is the exception to this, but I don't quite count it in my curriculum). Then again, this is most people's first RP experience, so a guide doesn't hurt. Thanks for contributing this to the community. Hopefully they'll read it and give it some thought.

[Rat Hat 612]

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This is Shia Labeouf.

Shia thanks you for this guide.

 

 

 

 

Thank you, Ive met people who do not understand and will surely link this to those people.