Character Consciousness: Personality, Ideology, Interests, Desires, And Secrets
What data does do NPCs operate with and how is it all connected
Consciousness
The Character class in the source code has many sub classes but a key one is Consciousness. This represents a variety of information about the Character. Especially their Ideology, Personality, Interests, and Desires. I may or may not move Relationships here.
Personality
So Personality is sort of like Ideology except it deals with who the character *is* rather than who they *want to be*. So you have various spectra just like in Ideology for Ambitious-Content, Impulsive-Deliberate, Cruel-Kind, and all that stuff. Now obviously for the player character they will do what the player wants but as discussed in one of my other recent posts this can result in Dissonance.
A short non-exhaustive list of the personality spectra:
Deliberate-Impulsive
Kind-Cruel
Patient-Fractious
Brave-Cowardly
Shrewd-Foolish
Diligent-Apathetic
Charitable-Miserly
Joyful-Gloomy
Genial-Aloof
Courteous-Churlish
Fastiduious-Slovenly
Forthright-Duplicitous
Loyal-Fickle
Dependable-Flighty
Frugal-Extravagant
Naive-Wordly
Interests
Interests are things that the character enjoys. So characters can have an Interest in Animal Husbandry in general and/or Horses specifically. Perhaps they enjoy Martial Combat in general and/or Swordsmanship specifically. They might also enjoy various Art and Musical disciplines, debating Philosophy or Politics, carousing in inns or taverns or brothels, and so forth. Perhaps they enjoy History, or Language, or Alchemy, or Magical Research.
An inexhaustive list of General Interests:
Husbandry
Athletics
Music
Art
History
Magic
Craft
Science
Horticulture
Architecture
Cuisine
Fashion
Socializing
Armaments
Nature
Language
Desires
Desires are similar “Ambitions” in the Crusader Kings series but much more expansive and detailed. If you are on the left of the Studious-Cretinous perhaps you want to make a discovery in a scholarly interest like Alchemy, Magic, or History. Basically Desires will have requirements such as an Ideology, Personality, and/or Interest and then characters will generate Desires based on this information. Characters can also gain Interests from Relationships.
A list of some examples of general Desires:
Romance
Friendship
Fame
Glory
Wealth
Knowledge
Titles
Travel
Pets
Children
Stability
Talent
Power
Recognition
Acceptance
Skill
So Skill could be anything from martial training to magical or occupation training. Recognition could be the respect/positive treatment of peers. Acceptance could be related to race or culture or from family. Travel is typically when a character wants to see the world or expand their horizons. This is a common motivation for young characters in fantasy and can be generated by confinement in youth or seeing something spectacular like dragon knights guarding a foreign envoy or w/e.
Many Desires are assigned at random from a list of qualifying options. Your Interests, Ideology, and Personality combine to give you a chance of getting a particular Desire. It is important to note that there are also Desires that are rolled for as a Character lives their life both Youthful Desires, if we can call them that, at a lower chance, and new Desires related to Family or social position.
A character will roll twice, at birth and at majority, for Offspring Focused Desires. So a character who wanted to be a parent and who has many positive “virtues” might wish for a daughter to have a happy marriage, something I’ve given as an example before, or for a son to succeed at his goals. So a doting parent basically.
A character who wanted kids but has a more selfish/negative Consciousness might pressure a child to succeed at their own goals. I’m sure everyone has seen parents like this even in boring middle class western life. Sometimes depending on circumstances you’ll get a child who always chases parental affection and tries to meet expectations and sometimes a rebellious child push back, testing boundaries, and who will often get a Travel or Freedom related desire or a desire for friends or a lover who will not see them as a tool.
Secrets
Many desires function as Secrets although some are always public information and some may become public information later as discussed in the Intrigue/Intelligence Network post. Interests can also be Secret, especially in the case of “Hidden Interests” where an authority figure or society doesn’t approve. This is more common for minor characters but adult characters can take these feelings into later life. This kind of thing is quite common in character focused fantasy stories.
Conclusion
I hope this information is helpful for potential players to understand the social framework of Axioms. Obviously Characters are contrasted with Populations and so the vast majority of “people” in the game don’t have this level of representation but even in smaller worlds with less total population characters number in the low 4 digit range. The intended world size should support high 5 digit numbers of characters.
A separate post is coming up later today, or perhaps I’ll publish it tomorrow so I don’t make people feel like their inbox is getting spammed, that deals with the practical ramifications of this detailed character model. I’ll basically describe a general character going through a year of game time, and then add some additions for specific kinds of characters. There’s no real hardcoded separation in character “types” but it helps a bit to separate high noblity from merchants or mercenary mages or dedicated spies and so forth.