Shattered Kingdoms

I ran Galida as a dark-grey, even though she was aberrant. Being a priestess of Ain, she valued Order over Aura. She understood why Ain delves wouldn't help elves but she would and did. Whenever I KA'd someone, seeing anarchist would make me very leary of the char, just because that is highly chaotic, or at least it was in her mind. I felt then, and still do now, that an orderly grey is needed and would be most welcome in the Ain religion. As of now, there is no grey that fits either side, due to the added chaotic natures of the current grey alignments.

Since I doubt we'll be seeing coding or enforcement to rectify the problem, I see this as the most balanced answer. If you worship a dark god, my Lord sees you as an enemy no matter what aura you have, and vice-versa.

I agree with Brad.
Sometimes irreasonable demands or paths the players take, such as gray following Dark Gods to escqape light aura spells, demant TOO MUCH coding, or something nearly impossible to implement.

It is at these times that the rest of the playerbase must act, and rectify the problem. If i see someone of gray heart wear Algorabs symbol, i see no reason to hesitate to bring him to the ground, in the name of Light.

You can try, but your means will be restricted if he is of gray aura, which is the lame part of the situation. I shall repeat myself: Clergy is supposed to be the pillars of a faith, thus, they should not be allowed to enter a faith of extremes if they are not of the regarding aura.

1st para: True, we agree to disagree Dulrik. However, the fact that you don't believe in Balance/Neutrality as a philosophy does not mean it's not a heavy-duty part of almost every fantasy realm ever created. Check out most nature/monastic orders and you'll find it right there.
2nd para: A good way to put it, but you take away the very important element of enjoying evil beyond the advantage it brings. In the same way a really "good" guy will help others for the sake of doing so, so does an "evil" guy harm others because truly... he enjoys it/feels complete by doing so/finds it natural. It's not selfishness alone that will accomplish that. Nor its absense.

In the same way, are all characters who aren't selfish automatically good? There might be some guy who has gotten not to care about himself at all. But he could feel the same way towards others. A lot of similar cases are not covered by having the middle ground be labeled as "selfish".

I think that's an obvious, and objective flaw of the current system.

PS: Brad's suggestion sounds good, even though it effectively elevates one's worshipped god above his own personal ideals/ethics on good and evil. I think it's worth it, if we are going to have more freedom of movement and variety. I wouldn't mind if only laity could be a different aura than the god's.

I can almost agree, but let's play devil's advocate for a moment:

I think when people are arguing about grey auras in dark faiths (or light faiths for that matter - this isn't just limited to the dark side) they tend to think more along the lines of the hellion/paladin religions and not the others. I could easily see an aberrant priest/ess applying to enter Thuban's or Sadr's clergy (though the current clergy philosophy might not allow it anyway).

I think the idea of focusing alignment based spells to check religious affiliation is a good one, and that we should most likely take it a step further to include cabal affiliation as well. Then the only people who will be truly safe from a spear of faith or whatever other spells are being dodged would be grey tribunal members who follow a grey god/dess. I say this because from what I have seen thus far, there really isn't a cabal that's truly neutral (though the Harlequins might claim it...they tend to lean towards dark from what I've seen and read on these forums...).

Bleh, asking for all this coding is only a pathetic excuse for us, the HFs of the pbase do our job right. It's as simple as that: DO NOT INVEST GRAY CLERGY IN EXTREME FAITHS. My 2 (two) cents kthnx.

Yup. We discussed back when I was rolling out Ain. Originally, the Order sphere was intended to be a grey aura sort of deal to be the direct counter to Chaos, also a grey aura sort of deal at the time. But I couldn't find any grey alignments that fit the Order concept at all. The only one that would is the theoretical one described by Dulrik in this thread. Instead, it occurred to me that the best fit for the Order sphere would be aberrant... or principled. And thus, the dual cult concept was born. At first, people hated it. I'm sure some still do. But it's nice to see that it stuck and has seemingly caught on nicely now, a couple years later. I still think it's an intriguing and, therefore, entertaining, concept.

Good to see Ain's pioneer priestess still playing, too.

Peace,
Bux

what about greys that are HFs of extreme faiths?

I really hate too much red tape, especially on a mud where roleplay and creativity is a must. Being the said grey aura player being hf of Sargas let me give my two cents.

Firstly, I don't see a reason coding needs to be done for grey priest who represent lighty or darky faiths. They may be immune to a paladin's bolt of glory and spear of faith. But in turn they have drawbacks to a darky or lighty priest. Their own spear of faiths are mediocre, and their holy words hit everyone, even allies. They carry all the weaknesses and strengths other grey priests have, and if a grey priest in a darky religion is overpower and needing coding to be rectified, then aren't all grey priest in such a category?


Secondly, I don't see a problem with grey auras in lighty or darky religions. On a case by case basis. Firstly, some churches like Alshain may never ever accept anything not lighty. But a churches like Aludra or Sargas carries spheres that aren't alignment specific. Leaving the door open for other auras then the gods themselves to be roleplayed out. This also regards to an active imm, who can run their churches all the way they want. I for one lead a faith that has no imm to run it, so I am left with a lot of leeway and I can follow my own agenda. (much to my enjoyment)


Thirdly and lastly, a orderly grey alignment would be awsome. I'd also like the unprincipled alignment helpfile have the statement that they certainly canditates to overthrow a tyranic leader, cut. Since the rest of their alignment describtion not necessarily make them such a person. And to say that all unprincipled characters overthrow tyranic leaders makes that alignment far too specific. I rather see help files say what certain alignments usually react to and act, but not exactly what they will do.