Café de Nuit

I just realized something... Nuitari the dark Moon of Sithicus is like, wow the only thing in Ravenloft that actually honestly works to verify people's alignment on the good/evil axis, or at the very least will separate the neutral/good who can't see it from the evil who can.

Granted you then have to find a way to figure out if someone is telling the truth or not about being able to see the moon or not, and dragging them all the way to Sithicus is a task and a half... and it's not exactly the most obvious thing that a random person is going to know (most of the elves probably just assume that Sithicus has no moon) but still, Soth doubtlessly knows/knew (he knew how Nuitari worked back on Krynn and the version of it in Sithicus doesn't differ much) so how many people did he tell, and who might they have told in turn?

As I recall with Inza taking over the domain got a more normal moon, but as I recal it is a normal moon in addition (if its gone completely then so much the better but I don't think it is...) to Nuitari.

So yeah, am I wrong, or is Nuitari actually a perfectly functional way to detect evil in Ravenloft where just about every other possible way doesn't work?

Nuitari isn't gone, but to alignment-specific characters it looks like a "rosette" or something. It doesn't necessarily reveal an alignment, it just looks that way to those characters.

And people who can see the rosette can simply lie about it, given the problem with divination in this world.

Especially for those who are either: A) natives of Sithicus who are aware of the 'manifestation' or B) those with the knowledge about the odd 'manifestation' in the skies of the nearby lands and maybe its connotation as well.

Yeah, in keeping with the domains theme of self-reflection and guilt, I think Nuitari's fine as is, and that only the person viewing it would know for sure if they can see it. The usual prohibition on mortal magic divining alignment would shift in this case to blocking divination of the truth. Your detect lies won't tell you if someone really sees it or not. If you somehow can see through their eyes, you see it or not based on your own alignment. etc.

I suppose if a group of evil people wanted to check that someone was evil (and that person wanted in the group, so was willing to volunteer the info), they could have them point out where it is with a sextant or something to prove their evilness. But even then, there's no proof it's not a lucky guess. Better to go with the standard proof: kill this captive in cold blood, please.

Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:Yeah, in keeping with the domains theme of self-reflection and guilt, I think Nuitari's fine as is, and that only the person viewing it would know for sure if they can see it. The usual prohibition on mortal magic divining alignment would shift in this case to blocking divination of the truth. Your detect lies won't tell you if someone really sees it or not. If you somehow can see through their eyes, you see it or not based on your own alignment. etc.

I suppose if a group of evil people wanted to check that someone was evil (and that person wanted in the group, so was willing to volunteer the info), they could have them point out where it is with a sextant or something to prove their evilness. But even then, there's no proof it's not a lucky guess. Better to go with the standard proof: kill this captive in cold blood, please.

Even then they might not determine that with killing the captive. 'Trickery' on killing said person and/or killing them 'for the greater good' might come into play then. Of course that's a slippery slope anyways.

Killing a person in cold blood for the "greater good" of joining an evil organization, even to harm them from the inside is a very evil act. And speaking of evil organizations... they don't care about your alignment since that's game mechanics.
If you're willing to kill an innocent that looks at you while gagged with fear in zir eyes, begging for zir life with his gaze... you're good-to-go for the Kargat\FoS.

Also: Ravenloft prohibits alignment to be detected with magic. If you spend 2 days talking about morals and ethos with a person, you'll have a pretty good idea whether they're good or evil.

alhoon wrote:Killing a person in cold blood for the "greater good" of joining an evil organization, even to harm them from the inside is a very evil act. And speaking of evil organizations... they don't care about your alignment since that's game mechanics.
If you're willing to kill an innocent that looks at you while gagged with fear in zir eyes, begging for zir life with his gaze... you're good-to-go for the Kargat\FoS.

Also: Ravenloft prohibits alignment to be detected with magic. If you spend 2 days talking about morals and ethos with a person, you'll have a pretty good idea whether they're good or evil.

Though again for all you know this isn't an innocent man/woman who may have commited a crime. I'm sure the Kargat/FoS wouldn't tell you one way or another, but it's alot easier to pull someone no one would care about off the streets or a petty thief, or with organizations like the Kargat Criminals(most likely evil). But yeah that was the situation I was implying. Join the Evil to either Curve or destroy from within. In Ravenloft it's highly unlikely one would achieve such a goal I think but got to keep the hopes up! XD

On a possibly unrelated topic, I just found out that I have these darklord smileys hiding in my Photobucket account!

Awesome!

Dion of the Fraternity wrote:On a possibly unrelated topic, I just found out that I have these darklord smileys hiding in my Photobucket account!

Nice! permission to add them to our collection?

Dion of the Fraternity wrote:On a possibly unrelated topic, I just found out that I have these darklord smileys hiding in my Photobucket account!

Is the green color of Inza's scarf just because it matches her eyes or is it actually canon someplace? (Checking my version of Gazetteer IV and can't find it, asking because I was planning on doing some stuff involving Inza before too long and am curious.)

Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:Nice! permission to add them to our collection?

As long as credit is clear, sure.

Dion of the Fraternity wrote:As long as credit is clear, sure.

Finally figured out how to add a credit in the smiley box, so now they are up! Thanks, Dion! (Any more lying around?)