The term "alignment" reflects how your character chooses to interact with other beings. In the world of Alter Aeon, character alignment is not so much a manifestation of his philosophy or attitude as it is a result of your character's actions.

A character can be good, evil, neutral or anywhere in between. "Good" represents values such as altruism, generosity and justice. "Evil" is indicative of malicious, covetous or downright murderous behavior. The term "neutral" usually means a lack of commitment to either good or evil, but a few actively promote neutrality as a balance between good and evil and a force in its own right.

Statistically, your character's alignment is a number between -1000 and 1000. The actual number cannot be viewed, but when the 'score' command, 'show alignment' or simply 'alignment' is used, a description of your alignment will be given. Each description encompasses a range of alignment numbers, shown as follows:

Description	Number Range	Alignment
You are prime evil itself.	-1000 - -900	Evil
A cloud of evil surrounds you.	-899 - -700	Evil
An evil aura radiates from your body.	-699 - -501	Evil
You are evil.	-500 - -351	Evil
You are neutral with tendencies toward evil.	-350 - -201	Neutral
You are neutral.	-200 - 200	Neutral
You are neutral with tendencies toward good.	201 - 350	Neutral
You are good.	351 - 500	Good
Goodness exudes from your body.	501 - 650	Good
You are a saint.	651 - 750	Good
Holy men come to you seeking insight into goodness.	751 - 900	Good
You are angelic.	901 - 1000	Good

1. Equipment - First and foremost, alignment affects what kind of equipment is available for your character to use. Some pieces of equipment have alignments flags, such as ANTI_GOOD, ANTI_NEUTRAL, ANTI_EVIL, GOOD and EVIL. A piece with an "ANTI" flag cannot be used by a character of the corresponding alignment; for example, an evil character cannot use an ANTI_EVIL piece of equipment. As for GOOD and EVIL flagged equipment, those pieces cannot be used at the same time as pieces with the same "ANTI" flag. For example, if you equipment a GOOD flagged item, any ANTI_GOOD equipment you might be wearing would fall off. A piece of equipment may have multiple alignment flags.


2. Mobs - Some mobs will attack characters of a certain alignment. For example, a group of evil vampires may tolerate the presence of other evil characters but will attack good-aligned characters. It is also easier to bribe mobs of similiar alignment to yourself.


3. Spells - Your character's alignment will determine how certain spells and spell-like abilities affect him. Some spells will manifest a certain color depending on your alignment, and equipment effected by an 'enchant armor' spell will gain alignment flags reflecting the alignment of the enchanter.


4. Other - A very few quests and waypoints are affected by alignment.

• Good - Affected by 'ward good' spell. Does reduced damage against demon type mobs. Not affected by 'conceal alignment' spell.


• Neutral - Not affected by any ward spells. Not affected by 'conceal alignment' spell. No other special effects.


• Evil - Aura detected by 'detect evil' spell. Affected by 'ward evil' spell. Does reduced damage against characters with the 'protection from evil' spell. 'Conceal alignment' spell manifests the user as neutral with regards to 'detect evil' and 'know alignment', and mobs that normally attack evil characters will believe that you are neutral instead (so if they attack neutral characters, they'll attack you). Angel type mobs do increased damage against.

You can choose an alignment preference using the 'alignment goal' command, followed by the alignment you desire. (Until you make a choice, your alignment goal will be neutral.) You can choose a number between -999 and 999, or you can choose a descriptive word that describes your goal alignment, such as "angelic" (-999), "saint" (750), "good" (450), "neutral" (0), "evil" (-450), "cloud" (-750), or "prime" (-999).

Once a goal is set, you are not done yet! Your character's alignment won't simply change on its own; you have to work toward your goal. There are three ways to change your alignment:

1. Kill Mobs - The most sure-fire way to change your alignment is slay mobs of the opposite alignment that you want. Killing evil mobs will make you more good, and killing good mobs will make you more evil. To maintain neutrality, kill a mixture of good and evil mobs. Killing neutral mobs will change your alignment toward neutral. Players who are killing mobs in order to try and change or maintain their alignment are said to be "running align".


2. Equipment - You will encounter some equipment that has an ALIGNMENT effect. Wearing such a piece of equipment will cause your alignment will occasionally change in accordance with its effect, positive or negative. For example, if you wear a piece with an effect 'ALIGNMENT by 2', your alignment would occasionally go up by two. Some players incorporate pieces of equipment with ALIGNMENT effects into their regen sets to help them maintain their desired alignment, whereas others have a complete set dedicated to "regenning alignment".


3. Quests - Some quests will modify your alignment by a small amount upon completion.

The game attempts to keep a ratio of 15% good, 70% neutral, and 15% evil amongst the playerbase. In order to achieve this, the game measures the alignment of all players and calculates an offset. The alignment offset can be viewed using the 'who -level' command. If the offset of evil players is high, the game will favor positive alignments and it will be easier to move your alignment toward good. If the good offsets are higher, the game will favor lower alignments and it will be easier to become evil. Unlike other game offsets, alignment offsets can change rapidly.

Maintaining extreme alignments like angelic or prime evil can prove difficult. Players attempting to do so often must "run align" or at least "regen align". If you do not make efforts to keep your alignment, inaction will slowly erode it back toward neutral.

Each alignment has its own pros and cons, and enough equipment exists in the game to accomodate every player role of any alignment. As it stands, alignment is pretty much a matter of personal choice. If you're still unsure which alignment you want your character to be, you can always stick with neutral.