Morality

From NexusWiki

A character's morality score represents his or her position on the ethical spectrum. A score of 0 indicates perfect neutrality: the character is a blank slate as far as damnation or redemption is concerned. All newly created characters begin with 0 morality.

Morality has an upper limit of +40 and a lower limit of -40. Morality is often assorted with Alignment, however the two are not necessarily dependent on each other. An unaligned Sorcerer, for example, may have any morality they please.

Nearly every action the character performs in the game can result in a possible morality shift. For example, attacking and murdering someone may result in the character's morality shifting towards Evil while healing other characters will shift it towards Good. There is not a hard and fast system for this, however, as the mechanics are a bit more complex than that.

In general, however, actions that help other characters and could be seen as a benefit to society will be "good" while actions that are chaotic and selfish will be "evil." Further, fighting and killing "evil" characters will be seen as "good" (unless the character doing the killing is himself evil).

Morality affects several things but its most obvious benefit (or penalty, depending on the point of view) is that it determines whether or not the character is able to ascend into angelhood or descend into the demonic hordes when tier 2 classes open up.

Another thing to note is that morality only registers as good or evil once it has gone down below -20 or above 20. In other words having a morality of 15 will not count as good, but having a morality of 22 will.

Morality is very important to characters who are demons or angels. If the character's morality shifts outside of the range of good (for angels) or evil (for demons), they will lose access to a great number of the powers granted to them by their demonic or angelic status and will be able to only purchase Mortal skills. If the character's morality shifts back into the correct range, however, the powers will be restored.

A list of actions that shift morality is listed below.

[edit] Good

Good characters have a morality between 20 and 40. They stand for order and co-operation, placing the whole above the wants and needs of the individual. Once a character is sufficiently powerful, a Good alignment will allow them to ascend to one of the angelic character classes.

Moral Actions

• Repairing Generators (+2 MO)
• Repairing Power Grids (+1 MO)
• Healing Others (+1 MO)
• Energizing Others (+1 MO)
• Fixing destroyed doors (+1 MO)
• Having Sin Eater used on you (+1 MO)
• Hitting an Evil Character or their pet (whilst Neutral or Good) (+1 MO)
• Killing an Evil Character or their pet (whilst Neutral or Good) (+2 MO)

[edit] Neutral

Neutral characters have a morality between -19 to 19. They stand for freedom of choice and expression. A neutral aligned character will not be able to ascend to an angelic or descend to a demonic character classes, although the equally powerful neutral classes will as always remain open. Neutral actions listed below do not shift morality in any way.

Neutral Actions

• Lockpicking
• Shooting Bottles
• Repairing Damaged (but not "destroyed") Doors
• Reading XP gaining books
• Crafting Items
• For Angels with Hand of Zealotry:
  • Hitting a Neutral character or their pet
  • Killing a Neutral character or their pet

[edit] Evil

Evil characters have a morality between -20 to -40. They stand for chaos and selfishness; the needs and wants of the individual are all. Once a character is sufficiently powerful, an Evil alignment will allow them to Descend to one of the demonic character classes.

Immoral Actions

• Destroying Generators (-2 MO)
• Destroying Power Grids (-1 MO)
• Destroying Doors (-1 MO)
• Using Blood Ice (-1 MO)
• Using Soul Ice (-2 MO)
• Using Sin Eater on others (-1 MO)
• While Good:
  • Attacking a Good or Neutral Character or their pet (-1 MO)
  • Hitting a Neutral Character or their pet (-1 MO)
  • Killing a Neutral Character or their pet (-3 MO)
  • Hitting a Good Character or their pet (-3 MO)
  • Killing a Good Character or their pet (-5 MO)
• While Neutral:
  • Hitting a Good or Neutral Character or their pet (-1 MO)
  • Killing a Neutral Character or their pet (-1 MO)
  • Killing a Good Character or their pet (-2 MO)
• While Evil:
  • Hitting a Good, Neutral, or Evil Character or their pet (-1 MO)
  • Killing a Neutral or Evil Character or their pet (-1 MO)
  • Killing a Good Character or their pet (-2 MO)