I have been thinking a bit about
capture the flag setups. I am not sure if there are more, but Sathonys seems to have at the very least two "flagposts" (insect portal and undead portal).
Both of these have an IC background, and both have an impact on the game flow.
Both are a danger to society (at least to the more or less good areas) - in other words:
Truly good characters can not "ignore" them at all as ignoring them would mean that other good beings would be in danger.
In my opinion capture the flag scenarios have
advantages, and
disadvantages.
One advantage is that it provides more reason for IC conflicts, while also giving an IC background and connecting to the game world history (see Eal-Deliah, which I think is the best area in game even if it is mostly an area for good characters. Eal-Deliah provides a huge IC reason for several things.).
To name a (possible) disadvantage of capture the flag areas: such areas put
constraints on what many playercharacters can actually do, without becoming inconsistent.
Please keep that constraint in mind as I continue with this lengthy note.
From Elvandar's point of view, especially the nearby undead portal must be a huge threat. If undeads can come out, more or less led or aided by Sathonys clerics or other evil people, then it really is not possible to ignore such a threat for a good character anymore. It most definitely is not for Taniel clerics either, but I would rather focus on
areas than guilds for now.
Elvandar also has the Eal-Deliah background, so that adds in one more constraint on what can be possible from a good character's point of view. (You can skim through some logs for this background, but it most definitely is there. I guess most parts of the Eal-Deliah background could actually be considered as general knowledge at least for the elvish population in Elvandar, and at the very least the queen and her protectors. They can't ignore the background of Eal-Deliah for instance, which puts a constraint on them of course.)
To a lesser extent - from Elvandar's point of view at least - the
insect portal is also a problem. Sure, the insects more or less focus on giving Arborea a hard time, and Elvandar could ultimately not care much about that human town.
But - roaming insects influence many aspects. They certainly kill guards, and hinder commerce between areas. They also seem to help Sathonys' cause, and elves definitely used to fight together with Arborea at one point in history, so it would be very hard for the elvish society as a whole to remain completely "
neutral" here altogether. Or in other words, they can't really be legitimately "
neutral" in the sense of to "not care about it". It makes a lot more sense to aid fighting against the evil plague rather than being neutral and hoping that the evilness just goes away silently, disappearing just like so.
I am saying that this reason is a
lesser extent, because I could easily see elves who don't like humans, especially extremely arrogant elves. But,
even then, if forced to pick a side, I think we can rightly assume that elves will remain on the good side entirely (and only darkelves being on the "other" side, the evil side). This I think is another constraint, because the society structure will keep them most definitely on the good side (or on the neutral side temporarily), but never the evil side.
Additionally, at least one Sathonys concept, if taken to the extreme, basically means that
everyone is an enemy (or slave) to Sathonys, ultimately.
Why not, if the endgame would be to turn everyone into undead slaves anyway.
Perhaps I am wrong here, and there may be more concepts for Sathonys, but the turn-everyone-into-undeads concept seems to have a very, very big influence among all the players of Sathonys clerics, and further limits what choices may be possible. It also depends on the players of evil characters of course, as everyone more or less plays differently. But even then, I think there exists a "common theme pattern" which will be repeated a lot again and again, even if different players play in a certain setting/theme.
I can not find one of the notes anymore, but there were two quite interesting notes here on the forum. One was the older one by @Golub, which I think in essence still has some valid points -
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=323&p=2775#p2775
The other one I can not find was a relationship between Sathonys, Sathonys clerics, and tshaharks. If I remember correctly, the IC reason was that Sathonys hates tshaharks. I do not know whether this was pushed forward by wizards/admin, or player regulated. Because if players pushed forward with that concept, then I could easily see another IC reason to handle such things.
If anyone wonders, I'd reason that yes, tshaharks were created to combat insects, but they now EXIST, and you can't easily kill them all, so why not make them sway, switch sides, corrupt them and so forth. It would seem to aid Sathonys agenda partially at least. Also it seems as if quite some time has passed, enough time to think about applying another strategy.
With that being said, I have no idea at all if there were more limits imposed against this. I mean, if Sathonys himself somehow sent a message or informed his clerics that this is how he thinks about it, then I can see that this is a restriction which can not be overcome at all. It would not be possible to be a "good" cleric, and ignore the deity's wish or agenda. But, if it was player driven, then I would easily see ways to workaround such restrictions.
Anyway, this is no stab at all against players of Sathos. I just would like to keep a focus on
constraints - both self-constraints (player imposed), and those put onto characters with IC background and the code environment.
So, I was wondering whether Sathonys followers (or Lilith followers) could be treated slightly differently than clerics, and I also wondered a bit about the paranoia or the extreme IC distrust about spies. I don't think there was a big problem with spies back in the days of Glorfindel - perhaps I am wrong, I just can't remember OOCly.
The Lilith followers as such are not so much a problem right now, in my opinion, because they simply don't have an active clergy, and don't really seem to have a capture the flag area putting IC pressure constantly. (Ok, they have Ironhold, and the old livequest, but other than that they don't seem to put as much pressure into the game world right now compared to Sathonys)
But now, if you think about it, at least for Sathonys followers and good characters ... then there is no real IC reason for a paranoid good character to lower guard if someone follows such a deity. The gods are extremely setup against each other. I mean, can you really ignore an evil character if he could act as spy or his actions would cause an army of undeads march towards Elvandar eventually? You can't allow too much leeway here.
I think there was some other note, about wizards who might want to prefer that individual evil players be treated individually (I could be wrong here, can't seem to find that note now).
Which is fine, and I thought especially for followers of evil deities this might be possible.
But I am no longer really sure that this is possible. There just seem to be too many constraints, and an extreme polarization.
Whether this is good or bad depends on the point of view.
My personal preference would be to depolarize slightly, and perhaps even think about the general capture the flag areas more. From an IC point of view, for a good character, it makes perfect sense to stand strong, and actively work to diminish all signs of evil. Because that is a lot better than to do nothing, and eventually have an army of undeads march right into Elvandar.
I am not sure if this was just rambling or somewhat coherent thoughts. But at any rate, I wrote a bit much lately here, so I'll take an out-time from writing stuff here.
On the other side I should have time again soon to actually play, probably starting this weekend.