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Cedric6014
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Alignment/tone of races missing from SC2
« on: November 30, 2009, 11:07:36 pm »

Survey question

Here’s a bit of a matrix which shows where alien races from Star Control II fit in terms of alignment and how funny/serious they are.

                   Funny             Neutral         Serious
Good           Supox              Arilou            Utwig
                    Pkunk             Shofixti          Chmmr
                    Zoq-Fot-Pik                          Syreen
                    Slylandro                             Yehat

Neutral        Thraddash       
                    Orz       
                    Spathi       
                    Melnorme       

Evil               Ilwrath            Druuge          Ur-Quan
                    Umgah            VUX              Mycon
                                                              Kohr-Ah


Where do you think the following SC1 raceswould slide into this matrix, and why?

  • Androsynth
  • Mmnrhrm
  • Chenjesu
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Re: Alignment/tone of races missing from SC2
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2009, 11:19:44 pm »

That's really hard to guess, but I'll try:
Androsynth - neutral neutral or neutral serious
Mmnrhrm - neutral serious or neutral funny (yeah, it could go either way, I just don't see it as neutral neutral)
Chenjesu - good any, but probably serious (well, Chmmr are good from their side, they can easily be serious from the above)
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Alvarin
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Re: Alignment/tone of races missing from SC2
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2009, 12:31:51 am »

As truely stated in Ilwrath dialogue somewhere , GOOD/BAD is only relative to the sosciety , so every race as a race is "good" .
If the question is regarding modern day Earth European/American morality than the topic makes more sence .

For your matrics i have some reservations -
I don't think Ur-Quan are evil ... I'd say neutral serious .
Umgah aren't evil also , neutral .
And I'd move Arilou to neutral-serious .

Androsynth , imo , should be good-serious . The backstory described them as non-violent as they managed to be , with restrictions of their need for freedom ( they defended themselves and positions , but despite having superior technology didn't try to eradicate / attack mankind ).
Mmrnmhrm - serious neutral . No real reason , I just feel this way .
Chenjesu - good neutral . They described with some virtues and no negative traits , as far as I remember .
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CelticMinstrel
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Re: Alignment/tone of races missing from SC2
« Reply #3 on: December 01, 2009, 03:52:35 am »

I'd argue that the Shofixti should be classified as funny...
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Re: Alignment/tone of races missing from SC2
« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2009, 11:10:08 am »

I'd argue that the Thraddash should be classified as evil.
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Re: Alignment/tone of races missing from SC2
« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2009, 12:35:54 pm »

Well, good and evil are not defined, so I will assume that you mean "benevolent/self-interested/destructive"
I'll assume we are looking at the race as a whole and not taking into account individuality vs. corrupt culture.

- The Melnorme have "potentially ominous future plans", by their own admission... They definitely aren't benevolent, since they trade for everything. Neutral at best.

- I don't consider the Vux evil at all. Why should they be? Only Zex is mad. We don't know much of Vux culture other than they are vain.

- Orz, on the other hand, are at best neutral. They are the tentacles of an evil inter-dimensional being, aren't they?. They just happen to be your ally...

- I would consider the Arilou to be not good, more like neutral. Self-interested.

- Thraddash are so stupid and destructive that they might as well be evil.

Syreen are serious? I don't think so. Well, they make some serious love, anyway!

I would consider the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm to be neutral in tone. All the "serious" races have some sort of deep internal trauma that makes them so deadly serious and focused (Chmmr's awkwardness at sudden synthesis, Yehat's shame, kohr-ah and ur-quan madness, Mycon misprogramming, etc... ). I imagine the Chenjesu would have some sort of deep wisdom to offset any seriousness, and the Mmrnmhrm would be robotic and quirky but agreeable.
Androsynth would probably be what syreen or any humanoid are. I imagine them to be super-smart ass-kickers with a sense of humour, but who have also gone thru a lot (exile, ur-quan enslavery). I guess being a slave race might make them grumpy enough to be serious.
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CelticMinstrel
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Re: Alignment/tone of races missing from SC2
« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2009, 02:11:45 pm »

Umgah neutral... yes, that makes sense.
Melnorme should definitely be neutral.
VUX... no idea.
Arilou... I think they should be good, actually.
Thraddash... I'm not sure I agree with them being evil...
Syreen... they are kind of serious, actually.

- Orz, on the other hand, are at best neutral. They are the tentacles of an evil inter-dimensional being, aren't they?. They just happen to be your ally...
Um... the matrix already lists them as neutral...
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Re: Alignment/tone of races missing from SC2
« Reply #7 on: December 01, 2009, 09:22:39 pm »

Heh, some days ago I wondered what alignment each race would be... though my scale was the standard lawful/chaotic/neutral/good/evil one. Of course, these alignments are just the median for the race and don't apply to every individual.
So here's how I envision them: (if two alignments are given, the first is the most represented one, with the second being smaller but still significant)

Androsynth - N, in the same way as earthlings. I don't think that some of them hating said earthlings is enough to call them evil at all. Though they could even be LN if they made a highly structured and managed society (which is plausible).

Arilou - their motivations are not entirely clear. I have no idea on this one, but I don't think it likely that they're evil.

Chenjesu - LG

Chmmr - LG, with more emphasis on lawful than Chenjesu.

Dnyarri - NE (extremely evil)

Druuge - LE, NE

Earthling - N

Ilwrath - CE, NE (extremely evil)

Kohr-Ah - LE

Kzer-Za - LE, LN (emphasis on lawful)

Melnorme - LN

Mmrnmhrm - LN (extremely lawful)

Mycon - can they even be said to have an alignment? If yes, I'd classify them as "evil" purely due to their complete disregard for the well-being of all other races... but this only fits one definition/aspect of evil. Perhaps it's just better to leave them unclassified.

Orz - unsure. Their/its motivations are unknown.

Pkunk - CG

Shofixti - LN

Slylandro - NG, N
Probe - LN (extremely lawful)

Spathi - N, CN

Supox - NG, CG

Syreen - N, CN

Thraddash - CE, NE

Umgah - CE, CN (extremely chaotic)

VUX - LE, NE (not evil to a high degree... almost neutral)

Yehat - LN (slightly less lawful than Shofixti)

ZoqFotPik - CN, CG


This representation is clumsy... it would be much better IMO to use a 9x9 matrix (each of the 9 alignments has 9 subdivisions for better differentiation)
« Last Edit: December 01, 2009, 09:24:34 pm by SuddenDeath » Logged
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