The Gods of Good and Evil

ArchivedUser

We know there are 10 gods, half of them good, and half of them evil. We also know that doing certain activities will release them. So, which activities do you think are good and which ones are evil? I'll start. 

Good
Religion - obviously
Farming - good for the environment
Science - medicine
Crafting - it's nice, maybe
Peace - good

Evil
Combat - killing is not good, war = bad
Commerce - greed
Mining - destroy the planet
Logging - destroy nature
Fishing - kill animals

Science could go either way, but it makes medicine so I said it's good. Crafting I don't know. 
If your town is peaceful for a long time it could unlock Pax, god of peace. Religion unlocks Verra, goddess of love.  Ares god of war, stuff like that. The giant statues on Verra could be the gods and they break apart and come to life when they are unlocked. That would be a really cool thing to see visually. 

ArchivedUser

what we may think is good or evil may be different from the gods. they are a fickle bunch like that

ArchivedUser

I just want empire of ma-I mean kaelar to have good patron god incase of undead incursions.

ArchivedUser

Sonicfani said:

I just want empire of ma-I mean kaelar to have good patron god incase of undead incursions.

whistles innocently

ArchivedUser

Gods of War being bad is pretty dumb honestly, this is fantasy world with lots of races so conflict is inevitable, a god of war would oversee combat and most likely things like honor, duty etc. So not mistreating prisoners of war would be kind of part of his thing ? Well gods can go screw themselves...being the weaklings that they are.

ArchivedUser

I don't think there will be POWs. You just fight till it's over.

ArchivedUser

sunfrog said:

I don't think there will be POWs. You just fight till it's over.

This is a sign that the god of war isn't evil.

It'll be interesting to see what gods we end up with. There are plenty of domains they could be pulling from.

ArchivedUser

Vote for me #1 Supreme Deity

ArchivedUser

IMO I believe any god has the potential for both evil and good depending on personal interpretation 

ArchivedUser

Where did the devs say the gods are Good and Evil.
Pretty sure Ashes is about Purity and Corruption; not Good and Evil.
But, if you have a quote for Good and Evil, please share.

ArchivedUser

I do. It'll be in my video on YouTube tomorrow. It's already uploaded but it's scheduled to post tomorrow morning.  The video is about the mysterious lore of Ashes of Creation. Everything we know so far. I'm learning how to use YouTube's scheduling function.

ArchivedUser

The thing is with gods is that they are so beyond human and what we may see is good or bad is just irrelevant to them

ArchivedUser

That's a super interesting thing to say. I'll be thinking about that for a long time. 

ArchivedUser

Good and evil? I quote Sir Terry Pratchett (R.I.P.):

"The smug mask of virtue triumphant could be almost as horrible as the face of wickedness revealed."

"The evil might want to chop your soul up into little pieces, but at least it doesn’t tell you that you haven’t got one."

ArchivedUser

Sir Terry Pratchett was a great person and it helps that he made mort ^^

ArchivedUser

Or some "Bad" God's like this:
God of war and murder
God of schemers and change
God of physical physical corruption
God of Decant and debased

ArchivedUser

drdebica said:

Or some "Bad" God's like this:
God of war and murder
God of schemers and change
God of physical physical corruption
God of Decant and debased

I have no idea what you are talking about 

ArchivedUser

Good and Evil, Chaos and Order are relationships that define very human concepts.  In the fantasy environment of AoC, I would guess that the deities would reign over domains that in essence are pure, and have been interpreted by the ancients of Verra as more mortal ideas.

Given the game is "Ashes of Creation" I would say the prominent domains are creation and destruction.  Destruction as a means of purification (think Phoenix fire) and as a means of annihilation (think Pompeii).  Creation of new life, for wonder and awe, or even creation of new horrors.

Following from this, the deities we call "Good" would likely be concerned with Creation of awe and wonder.  The deities we call "Evil" would further Destruction towards annihilation.   These are the two extremes, where there is little leeway.  I imagine these deities would have the most frequent contact with the mortal races.

Those who have less contact with the mortal races would be those whose domains are more ambiguous.  That is, destruction for the purpose of renewal, and creation of horrors.  The spectrum between the extremes of Good and Evil would likely populate the "Neutral" parties, and their allies.

ArchivedUser

well, there better not be a god of 'balance' that tilts to the 'good' part of the equation... what kind of balance is THAT?

Either way, most pantheons have the very basic gods, and some of them I think would fit in quite well.

I think each side would have 4 gods and their 'ruler' making it 5 on each side and 10 in total.  Perhaps with every race having a natural affinity with ONE 'light-sided' god over the others..  ( Humans, Elves, Orcs and Dwarves )
.
God of Justice, law & order God of Strife and/or Chaos
God of Pride and Culture vs God of Intrigue and Trickery
God of Peace and Fate vs God of War
God of Creation and life, vs God of Death/ the Underworld
God of creation would also be a patron of the Artisan or something..

and their leaders, respectively 
God of Light vs God of Corruption or something along those lines.

I'm not saying I think these terms could be used to specify the gods,
but I think something like that would fit reasonably well with what I know about the races and the land at this point, which still isn't a lot, but..

ArchivedUser

As Magnus once said the gods represent ALL emotions. The good the bad and the ugly so while a god of change may backstab you just for the fun of it, he is also the force of change in the world and without that everything becomes stagnant and that leads to decay in society and technology. 

Then we have the god of death. It may want everything to die which to us that's terrible but to him its something that must be done as with no death there can be no new life so in truth its just part of life. Could you imagine if no one died and we just kept making more people? it would not end well

A god of war may seem simple minded and only want bloodshed but it also has the traits of honour, duty and standing up for people. War has been part of our lives for over 10000 years and in that time war may have changed but the core ideas have not like the bonds people share.

Trying to understand the gods as we would see a human is impossible as they are the extreme of ourselves, and until we know ourselves fully we will never understand them.

ArchivedUser

Good gods may seem to do good things but this may lead to bad things.
Other good gods may have accomplished good things but have done terrible things in order to do so.
How do we now that the evil gods are evil? Maybe they are doing good things and only the legends say that they're evil. Or that the seemingly bad things they are doing are leading to good stuff.

Except of course some kind of god raising an army of the undead to wipe out all life. Thats just pure evil. Necromancy in general is pure evil.

ArchivedUser

nagash said:

As Magnus once said the gods represent ALL emotions. The good the bad and the ugly so while a god of change may backstab you just for the fun of it, he is also the force of change in the world and without that everything becomes stagnant and that leads to decay in society and technology. 

Then we have the god of death. It may want everything to die which to us that's terrible but to him its something that must be done as with no death there can be no new life so in truth its just part of life. Could you imagine if no one died and we just kept making more people? it would not end well

A god of war may seem simple minded and only want bloodshed but it also has the traits of honour, duty and standing up for people. War has been part of our lives for over 10000 years and in that time war may have changed but the core ideas have not like the bonds people share.

Trying to understand the gods as we would see a human is impossible as they are the extreme of ourselves, and until we know ourselves fully we will never understand them.

Say what you want, I know I am the only Supreme God over here, the rest have gone for holidays...

ArchivedUser

Augentier said:

Good gods may seem to do good things but this may lead to bad things.
Other good gods may have accomplished good things but have done terrible things in order to do so.
How do we now that the evil gods are evil? Maybe they are doing good things and only the legends say that they're evil. Or that the seemingly bad things they are doing are leading to good stuff.

Except of course some kind of god raising an army of the undead to wipe out all life. Thats just pure evil. Necromancy in general is pure evil.

Not really there are some chases where necromancy is "good" it just depends on the long game really

ArchivedUser

"There is no good or evil... there is only power - and those too weak to seek it."

ArchivedUser

nagash said:

Augentier said:

Good gods may seem to do good things but this may lead to bad things.
Other good gods may have accomplished good things but have done terrible things in order to do so.
How do we now that the evil gods are evil? Maybe they are doing good things and only the legends say that they're evil. Or that the seemingly bad things they are doing are leading to good stuff.

Except of course some kind of god raising an army of the undead to wipe out all life. Thats just pure evil. Necromancy in general is pure evil.

Not really there are some chases where necromancy is "good" it just depends on the long game really

Ok you could do good things with it.
But imagine someone enjoying his Afterlife. Probably in a hottub with a beer or something.
And suddenly he is in his old rotting corpse again and has to do things for you. You ruined his long time vacation and enslaved him. Not nice....

ArchivedUser

Augentier said:

nagash said:

Augentier said:

Good gods may seem to do good things but this may lead to bad things.
Other good gods may have accomplished good things but have done terrible things in order to do so.
How do we now that the evil gods are evil? Maybe they are doing good things and only the legends say that they're evil. Or that the seemingly bad things they are doing are leading to good stuff.

Except of course some kind of god raising an army of the undead to wipe out all life. Thats just pure evil. Necromancy in general is pure evil.

Not really there are some chases where necromancy is "good" it just depends on the long game really

Ok you could do good things with it.
But imagine someone enjoying his Afterlife. Probably in a hottub with a beer or something.
And suddenly he is in his old rotting corpse again and has to do things for you. You ruined his long time vacation and enslaved him. Not nice....

I feel like im missing out now ^^s 

ArchivedUser

Good and bad is not a matter of fact, but one of perspective.
It all depends on how you wish to live (also in relation to the ones around you).
Whatever is good for Tribe/City/Guild/Group A, may be disastrous for B.

Also, Necromancy is good from the perspective
'Life is the plague that corrupts the world with color and joy.' 
If you're gloomy enough to take that perspective, I guess.Sikuba said:

"There is no good or evil... there is only power - and those too weak to seek it."

Sounds like a Sith thing..
And it's not entirely true..
Some perspectives are better than others.. Simply because they get people consistently close to desired results, which are shared among huge swaths of population. <It's when people write some down that rigid religious rules are born>

sunfrog said:

We know there are 10 gods, half of them good, and half of them evil. We also know that doing certain activities will release them. So, which activities do you think are good and which ones are evil? I'll start. 

Good
Religion - obviously
 

Obviously? I think not.
Depends on which god(s) you follow, what you do in the name of those gods.
In ashes of creation, if you choose to follow a 'bad' god, well it's already implied. It's bad.

If the idea is: What action would prompt positive things to happen in the world, and what would prompt horrible things to happen..
My guess is.. Everything.
Practicing religion may bring favor of your gods on your city.. It may piss other gods off..
You may be a dark cultist and practicing religion means you sacrifice virgin npcs to the blood god. who knows..
Even Peace isn't guaranteed to yield good things.. It may piss off the God of War.

ArchivedUser

nagash said:

Augentier said:

nagash said:

Augentier said:

Good gods may seem to do good things but this may lead to bad things.
Other good gods may have accomplished good things but have done terrible things in order to do so.
How do we now that the evil gods are evil? Maybe they are doing good things and only the legends say that they're evil. Or that the seemingly bad things they are doing are leading to good stuff.

Except of course some kind of god raising an army of the undead to wipe out all life. Thats just pure evil. Necromancy in general is pure evil.

Not really there are some chases where necromancy is "good" it just depends on the long game really

Ok you could do good things with it.
But imagine someone enjoying his Afterlife. Probably in a hottub with a beer or something.
And suddenly he is in his old rotting corpse again and has to do things for you. You ruined his long time vacation and enslaved him. Not nice....

I feel like im missing out now ^^s 

I know a pretty good exorcist if you ever feel like the afterlife’s gettin you down. Quick, painless (relatively speaking), and poof! From undead overlord to beer and hot tubs instantly! (Side effects may include eternal damnation. You are not guaranteed either beer or hot tubs. Excellent Exorcisms is not cannot compensate or refund dissatisfied customers)

Let me know if you’re interested and I can hook you up!

-Sikuba