At the suggestion of Iapetes, I recently bought Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It's gotten me thinking. Death knights are cuddly bunny teddy bears in comparison to my character.
Oh sure, as a DK I've killed more than a few civilians, spread disease, corrupted who knows how much of everything. But he did all that while enslaved by an evil being. So sure, they did evil things, but not willingly. These used to be heroes, after all.
I made a custom class that acts something like a ranged rogue. I sneak around, steal, and uh... murder. Before I was so good at sneaking I had to be a bit more confrontational, so in the course of what turned out to be a low-profit robbery, I killed a palace guard. That night I was visited by a man who invited by into an organization of evil murderers who worship Nothing.
I recently pretended to be a gift delivery man to get a list of locations, so I could kill a mother and all her children. Before that I murdered a group of party-goers. Oh, and there was the little tiny thing of killing the original group of assassins who took me in. Then this one time I was sent to fake a murder so a guy could escape another assassin, basically stealing the guy's job so the target could escape. But as a guild rule someone has to die, so we killed his mother, at his suggestion. Did I mention that we do contracts for evil people?
But really, is any of this surprising? I got rewards. We're all used to murder for rewards. So I present to you my one crowning act of evil: before I killed that woman and her children, I killed her dog. Yes, in front of her.
My character is in a thieves guild. They have a rule against killing during their quests. I learned to appreciate this rule and stopped killing people when on my own freelance robberies. I didn't do this out of kindness, but because this one time I found that murdering the house servant days before had negative effects on my bonus when I was sent to discretely kill the owner. Also if I kill everyone, who will buy my stolen goods?
He is, of course, in an illegal assassins guild, which worships a personification of Nothing.
Finally he's in the process of joining the Mage Guild. It's not an evil organization. It even banned necromancy. But since I'm a member I can take stuff without penalty and it doesn't count as stolen, so I can sell it to legitimate merchants. Yes, the one legal organization I've joined is so I can rob it and maybe get some more spells along the way.
Why don't we get to be evil in WoW? I don't think my characters have ever broken any laws, at least according to their own faction. They've killed, but have they murdered? I've been playing a good paladin for a long time. I'd like to give evil a shot.
4 comments:
I think Oblivion was the last non-MMO RPG I played before WoW became almost the only thing I play, I must have made three or four assassin/thief characters. The thing is, I'd normally intend to be a mage or something but the whole assassin's storyline was by far the most compelling and the sheer amount of gold to be made by robbing shops... not to mention the thrill of sneaking out when you hear the owner wake up and walk down stairs. Of all the games that have tried to do a good/evil divide Elder Scrolls did a really good job of it without the need to push it in your face (I'm looking at you Fable).
Another great post Kleps, I really enjoy your blog.
- Reala
I really wish there was more evil in WoW, an evil faction if you will.
Scourge, perhaps Naga as playable race. I think it would make it more interesting. Thats why I liked Warhammer Online, I was evil no if's and's, or butts.
@Reala: Uh... sneaking out? Arrow through the spine!
@River: An evil faction, that could be quite an upheaval. I was thinking of evil ways to play on our current factions.
I spent my time in Oblivion picking flowers and stealing breadrolls from the mages guild. I R SO EVIL.
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