Sentience
Sentience was the capacity of a creature to think, feel, and act independently. If a creature was sentient, it was said that it could act contrary to its inherent nature by force of will. Although some believed that certain monstrous races, such as orcs or kobolds, were not sentient, there were instances of individuals from "evil" races choosing virtuous lifestyles. However, these instances were so rare, and the pull of evil-begotten races toward their alignment so strong, that most did not include monsters in the definition.
Characteristics of Sentience
In order to display sentience, a creature had to demonstrate three fundamental capacities:
- Reasoning through perceptive intelligence
- Feeling of sensations or emotions
- Acting independently from a design or inherent nature
The third characteristic made for interesting debates among Echelon's scholars. Some considered angels to be sentient; yet when an angel acted contrary to its good nature, it would cease to be an angel entirely. For this reason, many admitted angels to be incredibly powerful and wise, but non-sentient.
List of Commonly Accepted Sentient Races
- With myriad exceptions, the following mortal races were considered sentient by most throughout Echelon's history:
- Dragonborn
- Dwarves
- Humans
- Half-elves
- Halflings
- Elves
- Tieflings
- Tabaxi
- Gearforged
- Zarum (and their descendants, the githzerai and githyanki)
Sentience and Religion
The gods were often said to grant the peoples of Echelon free will, which was traditionally attributed to acquiring sentience. Some translations of holy texts made mention of the gift, calling it a "soul". The Moradindrian equated free will with "reason". Both Glavian and ancient druidic traditions described four fundamental elements of the world: air, earth, fire, and water. Some races were said to be born with a fifth element, or "quintessence", by which those races demonstrated sentience.
Elves
Elven sentience was something of a controversy, especially during the religious schism between the Church of the Tetrarchs and the Seldarine of the late Middle Era. According to manuscripts found by St. Chaka in the Vault of the Ancients, the goddess Avandra "gave [elves] a soul". The Seldarine religion, however, proclaimed that Corellon was the god who bestowed free will on the elves. Many scholars and theologians were forced to reexamine faith structures in light of St. Chaka's discovery, including the definition of sentience.