Vashar of the Nine Alignments.

[Xuldarinar]

As written, the vashar are.. Nothing short of irredeemably evil. Atleast, that is what they are on the surface.


For a brief overview, and do correct me if I am at all wrong: They lack any concept of morality, at least in terms you or I would relate to. Benevolent actions and concepts are largely alien to them, and malevolent ones are central to them. Traditional taboos are acted upon without a second thought, and the concept of showing anything less than utter to contempt towards the gods is aberrant at best. In fact, their revulsion of the gods is such their society works as a democracy rather than being run by the most powerful among them.



That having been said, I've long wondered what approaches one could take among the alignments with this proto-human race. Without concept of morality and an intrinsic rejection of the gods, how could vashar (or vasharan) be reflected in each of the 9 alignments?

[Necroticplague]

That having been said, I've long wondered what approaches one could take among the alignments with this proto-human race. Without concept of morality and an intrinsic rejection of the gods, how could vashar (or vasharan) be reflected in each of the 9 alignments?

Since they're all pretty maltheistic, I imagine they would ascribe to more humanistic philosophies of morality. There are some that can provide pretty compelling reasons for doing Good things when only thinking of one's own self interest without any diety handing down guides. Just grabbing the 4 basics:

Good: Starts with self-interest, moves on to enlightened self-interest, and from there to typical Good traits.
Evil: Starts with self-interest combines with economics to produce power structures and a desire to be on top.
Lawful: Knowing how the world is ruled over by being that wish them ill, they form rules based on more down-to-earth subjects and practicality than many other races.
Chaotic. Free of the constraints many races came into the world with, they realize that the only rule is those they made.

[T.G. Oskar]

Vasharan are designed with the idea of being irredemably evil, for as the gods created them, they literally went and did unspeakable evil. They're no different than demons or devils in that regard, and current humans were done as an attempt to fix that. They're also oddly misotheists, though they would have a pretty supportive god (Zarus, god of humans, was from the "first" humans, which are most likely the Vasharan).

A Vasharan inclining towards the Good alignment, thus, is the ultimate exception to the rule - one who truly realizes the virtue of being Good, rather than being evil. Since being benevolent is so alien to themselves, the Vasharan that will eventually (highly unlikely, but for the sake of argument, possible) become Good will attempt to study Good to realize why people would intend to be Good - thus, it would become a sort of philosopher who seeks to understand why people would turn Good, much as a human philosopher from a Good-aligned society would attempt to "know" Evil. More often than not, the Vasharan might find utter repulsion to the idea, even if it finds some similarities to their way of life, but there's a much higher possibility that, if the Vasharan changes alignment, it becomes Neutral; that is, it finds things in Good that work, but cannot abandon what it has believed during its entire lifetime to be the right thing. At most, it'd be the seed for scientific Illumination.

Lawful Vasharan and Chaotic Vasharan can be seen through the lens of evil. In fact, if you wish to see the differences between Law/Order and Chaos, the Vasharan shows a good example of how. Lawful Evil Vasharan understand the need of restraint - they believe in their own superiority to that of the gods that created the other races (and thus, of the other races themselves), but temper their hatred with discipline. Chaotic Evil Vasharan turn on their creative juices for purposes of utter depravity, and are closer to a twisted force of nature than a rational being, while still being rational (in fact, it's their ability to think and be driven by emotion but not by guilt what makes them so dangerous). Neutral Evil Vasharan redefine the concept "I look for Number One, having crushed all other Numbers".

The way the BoVD depicts them, a Vasharan that is something other than Evil is just difficult to imagine. Possible, but difficult. Even a one-in-a-million LG Vasharan may end up as a Knight Templar of sorts, and utterly self-loathing, even if it follows no deity whatsoever; it would have to find something worth following Good for that entirely shatters its intrinsic worldview.