Pacifism

“	Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a sky already devoid of stars, the chain reaction of evil—hate, begetting hate waste producing more wars—must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation	”
–Martin Luther King Jr.

“	Pacifism is the belief that any violence, including war, is unjustifiable under any circumstances, and that all disputes should be settled by peaceful means.	”
–Definition by Google

“	Pacificism is the general ethical opposition to war or violence, except in cases where force is deemed absolutely necessary to advance the cause of peace.	”
–Definition by wikipedia.org

“	There are many causes I would die for. There is not a single cause I would kill for.	”
–Mahatma Gandhi

ElfAndOrc — Elves and Orcs can be best friends!

Although you might think this opposes the sense of this Mod, or even human nature itself, it is possible to live this way and to play the Mod in a peaceful way. But, to warn you in advance: This will be harder than you think! Note the difference in the definitions above between pacifism (no violence at all) and pacificism (only violence when absolutely necessary).

Before you start[]

As of Update 35, being a pacifist of any kind has become more difficult. Holding positive alignment with two factions that are mortal enemies now drains your alignment with both at the equivalent rate of one kill per hour. However, alignment drain can be disabled in the configuration to make this type of gameplay easier.

Probably the creator of this mod, Mevans, is right, when he thinks, that pacifism contradicts the way J.R.R. Tolkien has meant his world to be. But who says that everybody has to see the world, how Tolkien or Mevans intend it to be? Thankfully, the configuration still allows you to tolerate pacifists.

Why this page?[]

This Mod emphasizes combat quite a lot. So I wanted to show people who do not want to fight so much, an alternative way in playing it without much or even any fighting at all. I know there are a lot of players who like fighting or think it is mandatory, or even strategists who try to reenact the Battle of the Five Armies and other such battles. But there are also a few that prefer building in peace, adventuring to see new worlds, and admiring all the new buildings and plants included in the Mod and so on.

Cowardice[]

Most people think not wanting to fight is a sign of cowardice. I'd like to explain why it is not. Not wanting to fight is something quite different from being afraid of an opponent.

Think of military service for example: In German Democratic Republic (east Germany) you went for several years into prison, when you refused military service. I think it takes more valor to refuse it and to go to jail instead of accepting it and perhaps hope not to be sent to war. In the Federal Republic of Germany (west Germany), it was comparably easy. Military service was default (for men) and if you refused it, you could do social service (for longer time) after a trial in front of a commission. But caring for old, handicapped or homeless people or for children is harder than "playing soldier" at least in peaceful times. Probably at war times it's the other way around. In some countries you will go to jail or even get killed if you refuse military service. Now who is the coward then?

Civil Disobedience[]

Being a pacifist does not mean that you won't have enemies. So it could happen, that your country will be occupied by a foreign army. Civil disobedience is a way to cope with that situation without actually fighting the enemy. You just refuse all cooperation. You won't tell them anything or even give out false information. You won't support them with food or shelter and so on. This could bring yourself in high personal danger (including death), when your enemy tries to force you into collaboration. But when you look at history, every army of the world somehow relies on the support or at least on the toleration by the population of the occupied country. When they lack of that, their retreat is not so far away.

Starting out in Middle Earth[]

Playing pacifist in Middle Earth means you need to get positive alignment with every faction. That's not so easy to achieve, as when you kill an NPC, you get negative alignment with its faction. As you start out neutral with all factions, you should refrain from killing any NPCs at all (at least in the beginning). You can do quests for all factions you have positive or neutral alignment with. Refuse all killing requests. You won't get negative alignment from refusing a quest or when you cancel it in your red book. Note that this could change if Mevans sees this.

Doing quests takes much longer than killing NPCs, as you only get positive alignment with one faction by quests, while killing NPCs gives you negative alignment with their faction (and killing to get positive alignment is much harder now). Just keep calm and have patience.

There is one exception to the rule that you should not accept killing requests. If a Hobbit or a Ranger of the North asks you to kill Dark Huorns of the Old Forest, be sure to accept the quest, as killing Dark Huorns won't lower your alignment with any faction. Even without a quest, killing Dark Huorns can be a great way for pacifists to gain alignment with both the Rangers and the Hobbits, since the Huorns are hostile to all players and NPCs.

Making up for mistakes[]

Let me tell two examples, to illustrate the difficulties:

When I started on a server, I was given +1 Hobbit alignment -1 Gundabad by choosing to become a hobbit by a command block. To remove this -1 Gundabad alignment I had to

Do some Ranger and Hobbit quests to get positive alignment with both factions.
Sacrifice a fellow Hobbit. Of course, I would never do such a thing in real life (not even close to), but as it was for science and it was quite old and it agreed to be killed, so I decided to end it's electronic life - after all Minecraft is just a computer game.
Do some Gundabad quests despite them calling me "filthy maggot" and "scum" all the time.

After getting some positive Gundabad alignment I wanted to use a dwarven table. So, I thought, one single Gundabad orc won't be missed and killed it. This contradicts pacifism, of course, but I didn't say that I am a pure pacifist myself, just trying to become one. It turned out to be a mistake. I forgot, that by killing Gundabads, you also get negative Angmar and Dol Guldur alignment, now I've got both -1. To make up for this I've now got to

Do some quests for all 3 elven factions. (Also Rangers, but I have done these already.)
Run away from Angmar and Dol Guldur orcs to avoid making things even worse. Remember, that's no cowardice, I know why I do it.
Find and sacrifice one single Wood Elf to appease the Dol Guldur faction (enraging wood elves and galadhrim, high elves won't care).
Find and sacrifice one single High Elf to appease the Angmar faction (enraging all elves and the rangers).

You see making up for mistakes gets quite hard. Here you can notice the difference between pacifism and pacificism: A pacifist wouldn't kill the elves. A pacificist would sacrifice the elves for peace with the orcs. And remember: When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Advantages[]

The big advantage is to be able to walk into every biome day and night and not be attacked at all (except when you make mistakes as described above, or if attacked by bandits). So, one does simply walk into Mordor - you can! The only faction you can't become friend with is Utumno, so stay away from this or get well prepared for it.

Disadvantages[]

Depending on your personality, the Mod can become mundane without any fighting. Although, when you gathered enough positive alignment with all factions, you are able to kill a few NPCs as long as you take care not to let your alignment sink below 0 with any of the factions.

Another disadvantage is the difficulty to obtain pouches. Mostly you get these from fighting, although rarely they can also be found in chests, or be obtained by completing quests.

A third disadvantage is the difficulty is to get experience orbs through fighting, as you have no battles to fight. But you've still left the mob hunting for food, fishing, mining and smelting. As of Public Beta 33, when the vanilla enchanting system was given up, you won't need experience any more, and it got disabled by default.

A big disadvantage is, that you can't pledge loyalty to any faction, as it is not allowed to maintain positive alignment with mortal enemies. This also prevents you from hiring certain troops, getting some achievements etc.

If you are an ultra hardcore pacifist, then you may decide not to kill animals, as that is technically fighting. So, another disadvantage would be the inability to obtain food easily, although this only applies if you'd decide to play without animal death.

Like in real life, there are quite a lot of disadvantages in being a pacifist. It's up to you to decide if it's worth it and if you want to play that way.

Playing on servers[]

Most servers will discourage this style of gameplay. Servers sometimes may have PvP events or wars that will require players to fight other players and mobs, and if you have positive alignment with the enemy, you could wind up in some serious trouble.

One of the biggest problems on servers is, that you can't help other players in fighting off invasions. You might temporarily turn friendly fire "on" and fight nevertheless, if you are not a pure-bred pacifist. Keep in mind not to lose too much alignment in those fights and build it up afterwards.

The positive point in having positive alignment to the invading faction is, that you can easily gather the items your slain friends have dropped, in order to return the items to them.

Armours and Weapons[]

When you refrain from fighting at all, you probably need no weapons or armour. Wearing Wood-elven scout armour for speed is a good idea, however. It helps one get around quicker and perhaps to outrun an opponent on a server who attacks.

Bear in mind that dark huorns, some animals (mainly in Far Harad), and bandits, will attack no matter what. If you are travelling in places that these mobs are present, be sure to bring a sword or bow.

Iron[]

Iron is critical. This is why a lot of NPCs demand the delivery of weapons or armour in their mini-quests, and these are often made of iron. I refrain from all killing quests, but I do all delivery quests. A hardcore pacifist wouldn't even deliver weapons and armour for their wars, but if you want to play successful, you've got to make your compromises. As you earn a lot of money through the quests, you can as well buy some iron ore from the dwarves or a Near Harad mineral trader.

Fangorn[]

As the Ents of Fangorn don't give out mini-quests, you can't earn positive alignment with them that way. The only possibility to get it would be to kill their enemies (Gundabad or Uruk-hai Orcs), which means first to appease these and their allies (see "making up for mistakes" for how complicated this can get).

Wood-Elves and Mordor Orcs[]

Wood-elves shoot at everyone, who has less than +50 alignment to their faction. The same goes for Mordor Orcs, which even attack players below +100 alignment to Mordor.

Therefore it's quite difficult, but not impossible to pick up a quest from them. After getting a quest, you've got to run away from the quest-giver before they get angry. Then gather whatever they want, and turn it in as fast as possible. Otherwise the quests will be deleted. Whatever you do, you'll certainly end up with a lot of arrows sticking in your body, so a good armour and enough food is recommended for this task.

Don't meet Mordor orcs in the dark land at first. They are too plentiful there, and you probably wouldn't survive for long. Rather go to a Gondor fiefdom, where they spawn at night. Try to trap some of them in a way, they can not attack you, but you are able to talk to them. Be aware, that they despawn as soon as you leave them, until you've snatched up a quest from them.

Hired Troops[]

I was long pondering if a pacifist should hire troops or not. A pure pacifist shouldn't, that's clear, but what about pacificists? I decided like this: As I am a pacifist, that does not mean, that my whole folk has to be like me. If I find some people wanting to defend my country, let them do it. So I set up a small guard just for defensive purposes. I never would lead them into war. As hobbit bounders are quite weak, it's more a symbolic act to keep enemies of my beloved Shire at bay. I don't really know if mutual threat really works, but I couldn't leave my homeland totally unprotected.

Gameplay mechanics of the Lord of the Rings Mod

Basic Mechanics:

Alignment • Books • Crafting • Equipment Modifiers • Factions • Farming
Fellowships • Fishing • Gameplay Guide • Menu • Millstone • Pledging • Shire Reckoning
Status Effects • Trading (Respawning, Travelling) • Undyeing • Unit Hiring • Unsmeltery