I'm trying to portrait a monk's monestary that is shifting from the lawful neutral Irori style of monk to the lawful evil asmodeus style of monk. corruption from within the ranks, even the monestaries ancient master gets poisoned by one of his own. but all this happens behind the scene and I was hoping for some advice on how to portrait subtle hints in this alignment change before revealing any big changes?
thanks in advance for any advice offered.
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Here are some ideas. Some of these would only be noticeable to someone who was already a member, while others might be noticeable to people who had dealings with the monastery:
-The formation of cliques/factions within the monastery, who each try to push their agenda not by debate or other straightforward methods, but instead by undercutting members of other factions such as accusing them of disloyalty.
-Instead of recruiting new members based on merit, recruits are selected based on willingness to pledge loyalty to specific individuals or factions within the monastery, or if they [recruits] have useful influence or connections that the monastery would like to gain.
-Change in how the monastery interacts with its surrounding communities and/or outsiders. If it kept to itself previously, now it might be more likely to offer its services or resources to individuals/organizations for a price. Since the monastery's sliding toward evil, certain members may be secretly training to be assassins that can be clandestinely hired out to interested parties.
-As a corollary to the previous idea, training regimens might start changing; methods & techniques which were forbidden before due to their unsavory nature may start being taught to members, either secretly or openly, depending on how to want to portray the monastery's shift.
-Appearances start becoming more important than actual moral character or truth. Advancement within the monastery could start being determine based on the image members are able to project, not their true character, ability, or actions.
thanks, these are some great ideas!
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The place slowly starts shifting laws that benefit the leaders and their allies while harming or disabling those who are not within the inner circle. Shifts wealth and power upwards; promotions are given to allies instead of those who deserve it. Blame for anything that goes wrong gets shifted towards scapegoats or the lower ranks. The lower the rank, the better. Building gets burned? It's the vagabonds and the poor, which justifies this new law banning poor folk or requiring them to pay for services (to keep them out).
Services which help the poor start to wain or become more expensive (free services start charging, and the price starts increasing).
Basically, the entire place starts to become an old boys club and those who don't toe the line pay for it.
Edit: ninja'd. That's what I get for taking a short drive before hitting submit.