Pacifism

Although probably most people think this opposes the sense of this mod, or even human nature itself, it is possibe to live that way and to play the mod that way. But I tell 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).

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 male adolescent players who like fighting, or strategists who try to reenact the Battle of the Five Armies. But I believe there are also a few that prefer building in peace, adventuring to see new worlds, admire all the new buildings and plants included in the mod and so on.

Cowardice
Probably 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.

When you think for example of the military service: 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 round. In some countries you will go to jail or even get killed if you refuse military service. Now who is the coward then?

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 a NPC, you get negative alignment with it's faction and positive with it's opponent's. 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. Although, when Mevans reads this article, this could be changed.

Doing quests takes much longer than killing NPCs, as you only get positive alignment with one faction by quests, while killing NPCs gives you positive alignment with all of their opposed factions (and negative with all of the allied ones). Just keep calm and have patience.

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, it gets a bit boring 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 to get some pouches. Mostly you get these from fighting, although rarely they can also be found in chests.

A third difficulty is to get experience, as you lack the NPC kills. But you've still left the mob hunting for food, fishing, mining and smelting. I do not include animals in pacifism, as hunting has nothing to do with dealing with conflicts. If you want to do it "hardcore", you could say it's the conflict between the animal's will to live and people's need for food, and refrain from killing animals as well, becoming a vegetarian then. I did not try this out so far.

You see, 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
I could not really figure out, what's the attitude of other, faction loyal players to this way of gameplay. Probably some will consider you a coward, perhaps a traitor or a lunatic. I can live with all of this. This section needs a bit more research.

Armors and Weapons
When you refrain from fighting at all, you probably need no weapons or armor at all. I'd like to wear a wood elven scout armor for speed. It's to travel around quicker and perhaps to outrun an opponent on a server who attacks you despite of you being friends with all factions. You could also add enchantments to your armor. Think also of hostile mobs, like dark huorns, desert scorpions, or bandits, which attack everybody. The same holds for weapons as well, so a decent sword and a good bow would be worth to be taken in consideration.

Iron
Iron is critical. This is why a lot of NPCs demand the delivery of weapons or armor 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 armor for their wars, but if you want to play successful, you've got to make your compromises.

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 Urku-hai orcs), which means first to appease these and their allies (see "making up for mistakes" for how complicated this can get).