The Fifth World:Ethos
From The Fifth World
Ethos (ἦθος) comes from a Greek word originally meaning 'the place of living' that we can translate into English in different ways, like 'starting point', 'to appear', 'disposition' and from there, 'character'. From the same Greek root originates the word ethikos (ἠθικός), meaning 'theory of living', and from there, the modern English word "ethics."
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[edit] Examples
Every fictional world implies an ethos—a philosophical understanding of the world reflected in the fictional world. Storytelling games create an ethos partially created by the game designers, and partially by the storytellers. By way of example, Fine[1] defined the ethos of Dungeons and Dragons™ as:
- The Principle of Unlimited Good. Success is open to all, and one person’s success does not imply the failure of another.
- The dichotomy of Good and Evil. There is no middle ground.
- Evil as any action outside the moral boundaries of a given society.
- The thematic importance of Courage.
Hughes[2] defined the ethos of Call of Cthulhu as:
- Survival as Triumph.
- Survival through the nurturance and support of others.
- The arbitrary nature of moral labels.
- Knowledge as Power, Knowledge as Danger.
- The Futility of Physical Effort.
- Inconsequentiality of human striving and human values when measured against the universal scales of Time and Space.
[edit] The Four Virtues
The "official" ethos of The Fifth World comes from Jeff Vail's "The Four Virtues."
- The First Virtue: Own only that which you must presently use, for all else is deceit. Use little, as virtue is derived from experience, not consumption.
- The Second Virtue: Simplicity is virtue. The most beautiful form of simplicity is the elegant circle of self-sufficient consumption and creation. In all forms of accounting, do not consume more than you have already created.
- The Third Virtue: Virtue is found not in secrecy or in the constraint of freedom, but in acknowledgement, and accepting responsibility for all costs of one's actions.
- The Fourth Virtue: Understanding the universe of connection is virtue. Connect with space through silence. Connect with time through experience. Free yourself from ego through awareness. Protect transcendent beauty.
This ethos provides the guiding principle of all three levels of The Fifth World project:
- Infrastructure. The technological infrastructure we use, the game mechanics we develop, etc.
- Structure. The Fifth World setting should reflect the Four Virtues. Major themes should follow from the Four Virtues. Compliance with the Four Virtues should lead to good ends; abandonment of them should lead to ruin.
- Superstructure. The way in which our community and groups organize themselves should reflect the Four Virtues as a standard of behavior, etiquette and social expectation.
[edit] References
- ↑ Fine, G. A. (1983). Shared Fantasy: Roleplaying Games As Social Worlds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- ↑ Hughes, J. (1988). "Therapy is Fantasy: Roleplaying, Healing and the Construction of Symbolic Order." Cranberra: Australian National University.
