Shattered Kingdoms

This is the part I'm focusing on Rodwen. Hard coding cabals and tribs...no. Also to my knowledge the Talons have never accepted a necro in so that wouldn't be an issue. However let's look at druids for an example. You can have an elf super awesome lightie tree huggy person and a necro. The elf is bound by aura not to assist the necro but they can be in the same cabal.

I can think of a necro that was in the Talons.. I'm pretty sure he was a Talon, at least.

My memory may also be foggy.. Not 100% sure, but pretty sure.

It's been a while, but this issue is dear enough to me for a comment:

Seeing a darkie as head of the Talons moved me to quit a character and move on. It's not that there's anything wrong with a darkie seeking to lead the Talons. Rather, it's OOC for a theocratic empire managed by light and grey priests, and protected by griffons, to tolerate such a leader long-term.

One of the things that makes SK work as a role-play environment, is adherence to a common world through the help files. Unique snowflake characters can be great OOC fun for all concerned. But ICly, PC and NPC resistance should make them lose at least 99% of the time. That we can talk about necromancers in the Druids with a straight face, shows how little interest there is in enforcing roleplay.

The sort of immortal protest I've seen before is that "It's different, so it's fun!" It can be fun without breaking down the gameworld. There's no reason an MC leader can't bring a griffon into his cabal - as a patsy to be used, not a serious ally. That's a more interesting story than ignoring conflict because it's OOCly inconvenient for someone.

There's a hellion of sargas on the council of blossoms.

omgggggggggggg

At it's core, alignment/faction disputes often come down to the fact that factions themselves do not have alignments, merely goals: And sometimes even those goals themselves can be stretched. What's more important is not a hard-coded "this is what alignments are allowed in this cabal" kind of ruleset, but rather, what sort of behavior is appropriate for someone to publicly display whilst in a faction. I also think that as best as is possible, the actions of an entire cabal and of individual players should be roleplayed out IC by immortals, and OOC punishments should only be reserved for someone who refuses to acknowledge the IC consequences of their actions. If a cabal as a whole does not accomplish it's purpose, I think it's completely within the realm of the IMMs responsible to dole out IC punishments such as disbanding the cabal or displacing its leaders. If a paladin sexes up a deep-elf, then it's completely within the IC realm for the patron IMM of that paladin to hand them out a righteous beatdown, up to and including pfile deletion.

The biggest problem that stems from the perceived notion of someone who "isn't playing alignment" is when players take their viewpoint of someone else and attempt to make an OOC judgement and call for OOC action against that player, when nine times out of ten, they have no idea what they're talking about and should just be handling things ICly. If you think that someone is acting in an unfitting way, then you are free to log those events and report them to the IMMstaff, but don't think that your adversary is going to end up deleveled or deleted because of it, if anything at all. The vast majority of the time you only get to see one chapter of a much longer novel.

A great example of this, in my opinion, is Pilnor Versus Ciadel. Ciadel, in both my OOC and IC opinion, was a horrible excuse for a Peacekeeper justiciar because his idea of "protecting" taslamar was to freely pardon everyone who he was at war with and threaten to banish the Hammer members who were being attacked in Taslamar. In fact, Ciadel actually went so far as to blanketly deport, no questions asked, every single Hammer member because the Black Hand said that they would freely attack any Hammer members they saw in Taslamar. Ciadel also actively wanted to remove the Hammer of Light HQ from Taslamar. At one point Ciadel actually watched as Keleza repeatedly murdered his own judge and guards in front of him and chased me around Taslamar while outlawed, and all Ciadel did was sit and talk to Keleza in the process. However, despite the fact that I truly felt as if I was dealing with someone who was either purposefully trolling me OOCly or just unbelievably blind to anything resembling truth, I played the entire ordeal out ICly, and actually managed to get a meeting ICly with Queen Serena. Once Queen Serena said her peace and "resolved" our conflict, Ciadel was instructed to immigrate all the members of the Hammer who wished to be back and not to ever deport people on grounds of the Hammer membership. In the midst of this, I still took it all ICly, and I thought it was a pretty enjoyable RPed event, although clearly Ciadel didn't like it as much as he felt that it was an attack on his playstyle and that the "powers that be" conspired against him. Ciadel seemed to carry resentment about that all the way up to the deletion of his character later, because if you read his afterlife thread he was still clearly sore about it and never figured out why his RP of the leader of the Peacekeepers threatening war on the Hammer and deporting all of their members blindly while overlooking and pardoning the Black Hand for murdering every citizen and guard that got in their way.

In short, if your RP doesn't go directly against your alignment, nor directly against the RP of your faction, just play your character ICly and don't freak out about people's OOC reactions. However, the other end also holds true. If you don't like someone's RP according to their alignment or faction, then feel free to report it, but don't expect that your point of view is perfect nor that an IMM who decides to investigate your report will feel the same way. Just play your character and get over it. Heck, I inducted a lightie into the Midnight Council as Turon (I think it was grep's sorcerer), and would have kept her in for a while, but apparently grep read some forum threads whining about him and ended up deleting. Pansy move.

You're welcome jennbo. Also Necromancers stink in PvP now.

Can't say I'm surprised. I imagine his/her input is greatly appreciated by all the Council priests.

I don't rule out a sensible IC explanation, but past experience keeps my optimism well-bridled. It's a legitimate choice if SK prefers not taking alignment or the gameworld too seriously. I just don't see much reason to create a character that does.

+1 Edoras

The problem, Edoras, is that there are certain elements in the staff who think factions DO have alignments and auras, and are perfectly willing to [REDACTED] in cheerios to advance that agenda.

I'm still pretty convinced y'all is trolling. Nonetheless, if I'm being called out, might as well speak up a little.

Every decision made in creating a character will have its own consequences. As such, if someone makes a character who simply will not abide the leadership of a character who is of an opposing alignment, and this ultimately bars that character from serving in an organization, then there is absolutely NO ONE to (OOCly) blame but the person who made the aforementioned character. If your character has a problem with it, handle it in character. There are some restrictions that are in the help files that we must abide by, and there's no getting around that. However, there's nothing I read in any alignment files that mandates opposing auras to never work with one another.

Given, I agree that such "allegiances" should be shaky with much suspicion of the other party at its very BEST (outright conflict and in-fighting at its worst), but these are simply more opportunities for RP, storytelling, and character development. If you want to whine and complain about how your precious little character just couldn't get into the Talons because a big, mean darkie is leading it, then I suggest either A) make a character that could begrudgingly work with a darkie for a bigger cause (the protection and service of Zhenshi) or B) stage conflict, be it verbal, political, or martial in nature to depose the leadership.

As for claiming it's "OOC" or implying that it's poor form for lightie guards to serve a darkie is frankly rubbish. That's a call for the imms (who implement the rules, such as how alignments work) to make; NPCs are the characters of the imm-staff, and for anyone to tell them how they should play a character is nonsensical to me. Unless someone is outright violating rules or alignment expectations, telling others how to play is pathetic. I don't like how many people play the game. I don't like a lot of play-styles out there. I really don't dig the "this is my wife, and our five children, and we are getting married in a big temple" house RP. But I sure as hell won't tell anyone else how to play, so long as it fits the confines of the game's rules. I'll never refuse to interact with them or engage them just because they have a different view of "fun" than I do. Certainly, if I make a character that can't mesh with the current affairs of any organization, then that's on me for making such a stubborn character. Either I use that stubbornness to fight (ICly) or I slink away and keep my trap shut.

Furthermore, before anyone goes on a "unique snowflake" rant, I have two bits to say: 1) who cares if someone is unique or not? Yes, I think the 'stereotypical' characters ought to be represented in the game, but why [REDACTED] on someone else's parade if they're not actually doing any damage? 2) As far as my current character goes, I never made her with the intent to join, let alone lead, the Talons. I knew Zhenshi had a darkie population, and I loved Zhensh culture, so I decided to make a darkie in Zhenshi (le gasp). I had another character in a cabal, so I never even thought about any organization for this darkie I made. Over time, she ended up being my main character, and others mentioned to her ICly that she should consider a position in the Talons. She went with it, and others spoke of promoting her. It actually would have been against the hellion vow to not seek power through ambition. Not that I feel it necessary to explain myself to the short-sighted naysayers, but I thought a summary of what went on might actually sit well with some folks.

tl;dr: got a problem? Handle it ICly or contact an immortal. Also, cry more.