Character Values

Every person has a code that they believe in. This code has Positive aspects and Negative aspects. This moral code is nonbinding but should have an influence on the character as you play them – especially since it will have an effect in encounters with other people. It is the navigating of those many different codes on a personal basis that can often create internal conflicts that are real in the moment.

Each Heritage had a description of a few Values that you should have set down as part of your character’s values. Here, we will add two to four more to it. Each Homeland also has a listing, and there are Moral Codes built into some of the character Professions as well.

All of these will feed into your Moral Code, ideals with which you have been raised your whole life, and these here come from your character’s experiences in life so far, ultimately giving you a set of values, from virtues you have been told to aspire towards to vices you have been told are sinful, or wrong, and this all feeds into that measure, their personal basis for right and wrong. Much of this develops over time, and this is for the creation of a character who is just starting out, so having only two to four right now works.

Like the Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Heavenly Virtues, they gently inform the character’s decisions and choices, and it is the strength with which they hold to this code that may have an impact on their honor, renown, and related scores.

Examples:

The Seven Heavenly Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude, Faith, Hope, & Charity.

The Seven Capital Virtues: Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness, & Humility.

Perhaps Aristotle’s are more to your liking: Courage, Temperance or Self-Control, Generosity, Greatness of Soul or Magnanimity, Measured Anger, Friendship, & Wit or Charm.

The Seven Deadly Sins: Pride, Greed, Wrath, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, & Sloth.

Ponticus offered these: Gluttony, Prostitution, Fornication, Avarice (Greed), Envy, (Sadness at another’s good fortune), Wrath, Dejection, Boasting, & Pride (Self-Overestimation, Arrogance, or Grandiosity).

A moral code has two parts – affirming and punitive.

Virtues

Affirming things are the goals that people strive for in their daily lives, the Virtues of that region, positive character traits people aspire to be and do and live by. They are virtues, the things you are told to try to do more, that you are rewarded for doing, that people are held up as an example for you to follow.

Typically, a person will have five to nine Virtues that they use as aspirational ideals, and that influence their moral code.

Pick two to three things that you feel are worthy for your character to aspire towards.

You don’t have to do the whole collection, like Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Knowledge, Piety, and Fortitude, just a few to start off, because you have a couple already and will be adding a few more soon.

Vices

Punitive Codes are the Vices that people avoid or punish. Negative aspects are things you avoid, you regret, you don’t want to be like or do. They are vices, the things you are told not to do, or shown why it is bad through the examples of others or punished for doing.

The great key to Vices is that they do not need to be the opposite of the Virtues, they can be other things and it can be assumed that the opposite of the virtues are undesired.

Pick two to three things that you feel are worthy for your character to aspire towards.

Selections

Ah, but where do you pick them from, you ask? Well, it turns out here is a list of different Values presented in some kind of order. It is important to note that what one person may think of as a Virtue could be another person’s Vice – often the shared values we have in common with others are dependent on us all receiving many of the same lessons early on. It is our experience with hem that shapes and changes how we deal with and approach and value those ideals.

Gender Based Values

Some folks like to use values based on traditional gender roles for their characters. This is optional, but here are the three major groupings as they pertain to Wyrlde for “idealized” expectations, from a Sibolan perspective. Aztani tend to flip the roles for manhood and womanhood, whereas Durangans apply the same Manhood role to everyone.

Womanhood

Affectionate, Benevolent, Caring, Charismatic, Charitable, Collaborative, Compassionate, Cooperative, Courageous, Cunning, Decorous, Dedicated, Devoted, Disciplined, Empathic, Enduring, Expressive, Faithful, Generous, Gentle, Gossipy, Graceful, Helpful, Honest, Honorable, Humble, Intelligent, Kind, Modest, Moneywise, Moral, Noble Character, Organized, Patient, Peacemaker, Poised, Pure, Resilient, Respectful, Self-Sacrificing, Semi-Divine, Sensitive, Suffering, Supportive, Sweet, Tender, Understanding, Virtuous, Warm.

Enbyhood

Alert, Ambitious, Brave, Collaborative, Compassionate, Cooperative, Courageous, Creative, Dependable, Devoted, Diligent, Direct, Disciplined, Earnest, Empathic, Endearing, Enduring, Ethical, Expressive, Fair, Generous, Gentle, Graceful, Helpful, Honest, Honorable, Imaginative, Impartial, Intelligent, Just, Kind, Knowledgeable, Loyal, Modest, Patient, Perceptive, Prudent, Reliable, Resilient, Resolute, Respectful, Responsible, Self-Disciplined, Supportive, Tactful, Truthful, Understanding, Vigilant, Virtuous.

Manhood

Acumen, Alert, Ambitious, Balanced, Bold, Brave, Caring, Charismatic, Cheerful, Courageous, Creative, Decisive, Defender, Dependability, Diligent, Direct, Dutiful, Earnestness, Enduring, Enthusiastic, Fairness, Follower, Has Initiative, Honorable, Imaginative, Impartial, Instructive, Just, Kind, Knowledgeable, Leader, Loyalty, Mannered, Mellow, Modeler, Patient, Perceptive, Persevering, Prudent, Reliability, Resolute, Responsible, Self-Disciplined, Sound Judgment, Tactful, Truthful, Upright, Vigilant, Witty.