Shattered Kingdoms

One of my favorite aspects of roleplaying is the ability for a character to grow and change as things happen. Is there any mechanic set up for a character to 'fall' or 'rise?' It seems like there isn't much by way of change once you have a character concept set up. You're good for your entire life, or you're evil for your entire life. How would you go about changing like that?

There are no real 'mechanics' behind it - you can't change your alignment or anything of the sort. However as long as you're not an elf that decides to go evil...you pretty much have room to do whatever you want with your character and how it develops within reason (as I said before, no evil elves, no evil griffons, no delf + elf friends, those things are just too ingrained.)

If you belong to a religion, you can get blemished, losing the favor of your god. This is devastating if you're clergy (paladin, priest, hellion), as you cannot cast spells past a certain level. I think this is the only coded way to "fall."

Characters are supposed to be fallible, but neither your aura nor your aligmenment can change. Stepping outside of your alignment to rp a fall could be risky, as you could be punished for breaking alignment. Nonetheless, it sounds like an interesting idea and I would encourage you to try it out, as long as you keep in mind that the character's alignment really cannot change.

Okay... so there is no way to apply for an alignment change? No way for a character to go through such horrible things that they are now evil? Or to have a "Christmas Carol" experience?

I ask because I'd like to play a character who thinks people can change, but I know realistically... I won't be able to keep that up if I know that people actually can't. I'm okay with it being hard. I'm okay with it being near on impossible even. Being a missionary trying to change the world isn't supposed to be easy.

You can go through horrible things and become emo rather than evil. People do that all the time, in real life and in the game.

I have seen, only once ever, a character rp this out going from evil to good. There was Imm involvement at the time and they changed their race and aura. So it is not impossible to do it now, just extremely rare and time consuming to put in the RP work behind it.

Unfortunately, you can't change alignment. Believe me, there are some concepts I'd love to see this happen. However, there are lots of things you can do to fall. Friendships can be made/broken, alliances can turn to wars, your concept can turn to something you didn't intend. Trust me, there's plenty of ways. Throw a character to the wind, and you might be shocked how fast he can fall.

sleeps

You can final strike an inn and have everyone hate you...

I've seen some characters do the 'change of heart' roleplay. How they did it was roleplay it out and the immediately delete, with the idea in mind that the change is so spiritually demanding that it destroys the physical body or something along those lines. Once in a blue moon this is done tactfully and is a pleasing end to the life story of the character, the rest of the time it's an aggravating, selfish character explosion

But really there are so many ways for a character to change within their alignments. Alignments need to be hard-coded otherwise people would be able justify anything they do with a 'change of heart' excuse. But that doesn't mean that characters are stagnant or do not struggle with their own ideals.

This raises an issue I pretty much laugh at the MUD about lately, and that is how relativism is only something evil characters get to benefit from in the eyes of 'public' reception.

Drow can quite literally give out candy with as laudable (read: laughable) an excuse as "I am making it difficult for the lighties to hate me kekeke!" while, at the same time, lighties get cursed for so much as associating with evil persons over tea and crumpets. Yes, I said drow. No, its not going to change.

That being said, am I underexposed, or are roleplaying restrictions only really enforced for inherently good (especially elf) characters?