Today's blog will cover a part of one of the most complex systems in Eternal Wanderer; karma.
In order to create a system based on karma we first have to understand what karma is and where the term originated from. According to the Hindu scriptures karma is a being that serves out justice. It is the definition of action that causes reaction. You have to kick the ball in order for it to start rolling. If someone for example harms someone else then according to karma there is no justice until the victim harmed the other person back. The victim can also choose to forgive in order to nullify the karma, because whether you like it or not, you will eventually end up in a situation with the person that made you a victim. But that is not everything, karma isn't all about punishing bad people and nullifying their deeds. Karma can also arise from good deeds. People that for example donate money to charity to help other people will receive benefits from it. And that is not all, this subject is very deep and complex and goes even further. We haven't even scratched the surface, but now we at least know that karma is about justice.
The second part that pretty much goes hand-in-hand with karma is reincarnation. Reincarnation happens because not all karma that you develop can be justified in a single lifetime. The stage needs to be set. The circumstances needs to be proper. The parties involved need to be present and it can take time (by time I mean lives upon lives) until everything is perfect. Some karma gets stacked up so that you can receive 1 massive slap to the face and nullify something that maybe took 30 bad actions at once. So as you can understand karma and reincarnation are both quite the complex subjects. Eternal Wanderer will use the most simple part of those 2 in order to make from the foolish king a wise hero.
The karma system will be tracking the king's activity ranging from taking care of his health to the people he has killed and the kind of people they were. This will all reflect back in future lives. Maybe you as the king decided it to be wise to rob a store from wealth. As some lives pass you might end up getting robbed. Since most people will most likely have a difficult time understanding this there will be simple graphs after each life showing what kind of life you have led, what kind of karma you have developed and what you can expect. If you for example help out sick people and give funds to the poor you are most likely going to become a descendant of a rich and healthy family in one of your next lives. It will also have a lot of positive side effects.
Now you might wonder, why implement such a system at all? That is because this gives the player strategy to manipulate the system in such a way that the player can get the body with the conditions he/she wants in order to achieve a specific goal in the kingdom. There will be various puzzles and hurdles to overcome and some require crafty solutions. A system like this will eventually make the player more consciousness about the actions he/she does in the game. That can also affect the person his/her behavior in real life for the better.
In the future there will be plenty more blogs about karma and the execution of it in Eternal Wanderer with some visual examples. But for now this is it.
