Alignment

Alignment is the measure of a position held on the law-chaos and good-evil ontological axes, held either by an individual, institution, or any given ideoligion. While lived experiences and perspectives are necessarily subjective, alignment creates objective observations about the ethical, moral texture of behaviors espoused by all people and creatures.

In The Domains of Dread, alignment is an important fixture as the Realms of Terror seek to pull exceptional individuals to axis extremes whether they are good or evil, lawful or chaotic. Yet beyond the Misty Border conclusive assessment of another’s moral alignment is made uncertain. Whether the Mists conspire to do this so to abet evil by making the quality of being evil harder to definitively determine or to ironically force subjective judgment about such matters are questions best answered by the philosophers.

The following serves as a replacement for any instruction or prior literature concerning alignment as it appears in vanilla Third Edition sources. No information not contained within this article is applicable to alignment in The Domains of Dread. It should be assumed that no playable character will have detailed knowledge of alignment as a metaphysical concept except for the existence of good, evil, chaos and law.

Alignment as Pattern

A character’s alignment is, at its most fundamental, a statement about how they will behave in an environment where their behavior is unforced. It is a reflection of their innermost self without regard for polite persona. In the Realms of Terror it is in fact the rule rather than the exception that its greatest evils will have the presence of mind to be charming in public, even superficially helpful—but when allowed to be as they really are, such pleasantries melt away into the Mists.

As such, alignment functions as a pattern of behaviors which carry ontological weight. People in the Realms of Terror do not often “snap” into another alignment from any single choice—however chafing against their nature brokers internal conflict. Should a person feel that they have violated their inner selves to the point of believing that they have become someone other than, no further action need be taken: the Mists will have made it so. Absent of such catastrophic revelations, people shift alignment as the result of continued actions over periods of months or even years.

Intention in Alignment

Intention, though having a role to play in the Realms of Terror regarding alignment, is far from exonerating. Objective misdeeds are objective misdeeds, even if performed for subjectively good (or at least feasible) reason. A character who does something for the easy pleasure of doing will receive more of an alignment slide toward the position held by that action than someone who does so with regret, ignorance or gritted teeth—but both slide.

The Nine Alignments

Lawful Good (LG)

A lawful good character acts with the certainty of someone as benevolent as they are honorable. They oppose evil vociferously wherever it may be found, unable to be passive in its presence except to work toward that evil’s ultimate destruction. Yet they also help those in need, knowing that code and creed is useless unless it serves the benefit of common people. Lawful good is the rarest alignment in the Realms of Terror as the Mists scheme to create nothing but obstacles to those who cling so stubbornly to their ideals, challenging them again and again. Few who survive with this alignment die old, happy or fulfilled beyond the Misty Border.

Neutral Good (NG)

A neutral good character understands that pursuing good in the Realms of Terror is subject to a level of discretionary complexity. Though they make for honest public servants, healers and scholars, they do not feel an inherent offense to the rule of law nor the need to stand for the rule of law itself. Many are content pursuing the betterment of their communities in small ways as individuals without lamenting societal structures or the bigger picture.

Chaotic Good (CG)

A chaotic good character cannot stand idle by injustice. Though not dissimilar to lawful good in this respect, a chaotic good’s reasons for this incompatibility could not be more different. Where a lawful character may see a poisonous law and seek to change it, a chaotic good character will find offense at the very institutions which produce these laws themselves, arguing that a government is first a tool for tyranny, not order. Though not necessarily advocates for total anarchy, they remain disobedient and suspicious of authorities, speculating as to their true intentions.

Lawful Neutral (LN)

A lawful neutral character champions codes and standards without quandary over their moral structure. They believe that carving exceptions where exceptions might be made creates long term doubt in the strength of a society or organization to what is right by their own traditions. This is often the alignment of ecclesial churches, their adherents, and the platonic ideal of governments even as the nature of the Realms of Terror often make such dispositions difficult in practice.

True Neutral (TN)

Most people are born true neutral in the Realms of Terror and, beyond the exceptional few who are attracted to other alignments as they mature, remain that way through their lifetimes. While the demiplane produces the greatest heroes and enables the most wretched villains, if not for the thousands of common folk who go about their lives simply and plainly, those heroes and villains would cease being so great or so evil. True neutral characters live to live, and do so without zeal.

Chaotic Neutral (CN)

A chaotic neutral holds themselves only to the needs and wants of themselves as an individual, rather than any code or creed. They guard their freedoms greedily yet won’t fight for the freedom of others, should they think about “the other” at all. They do not make intentional disruption in the fabric of order as to do so would imply greater philosophy or purpose, which they would not espouse. Instead they are stubborn individualists, placing the ultimate premium on behaving how they would ever so please.

Lawful Evil (LE)

A lawful evil character exacts what they need within the barest limit of their code of conduct, no matter who it hurts. They might care about tradition, loyalty and order, but not freedom, dignity or life. Many institutions in the Realms of Terror are lawful evil when understood as a collective - though the alignments of their rank and file may vary, they serve ultimately evil masters under the guise of "following orders". While a valuable smokescreen for debating others, the Mists remain canny to hand down their objective judgement.

Neutral Evil (NE)

A neutral evil character is content to do whatever they think they can get away with. In this way neutral evil represents perhaps the most dangerous kind in the Realms of Terror—an often matter-of-fact, banal evil not bound by base urges or the clarion call of higher order. They have a special knack for embedding themselves into positions of high society, allowing themselves to appear as they are not until the opportunity to express their inner, horrible ambition.

Chaotic Evil (CE)

A chaotic evil character abhors the sanctity of life and the premise of order itself. They are often thrust by mad, hungry compulsions that inure tremendous destruction whenever unopposed. Though they may put on the airs of someone else as to better survive, their lack of discipline makes any charades difficult to maintain long term. Many undead in the Realms of Terror are chaotic evil, representing their disdain for the life they were denied and today consume.

Alignment in The Domains of Dread

A character’s starting alignment is chosen during character creation. Alignment values are obscured when viewed in the character sheet or using the !menu chat command. Only actions assessed by Game Masters may slide alignment—no automatic mechanisms are in place to slide alignment without a Game Master present. If a character’s alignment impacts the viability of a class archetype such as with Paladin or Cleric, the Game Masters will caution if an alignment slide imperils them to falling. Consequences of falling are described on the class page.

Some templates, such as Dread Figures, slide alignment. This slide is gradual until the character reaches the prescribed alignment for that template.

Detecting Alignment and Alignment-Based Spells

As the Mists conspire to make determining moral alignment uncertain, many mechanisms common on Prime Material worlds either fail to function or are modified to determine ethical alignment on the law-chaos axis instead. For example, Paladins cannot detect evil—they detect chaos, and their smite special ability activates on anyone of any alignment instead of only on the evil.