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An Ontology of D&D Alignment
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<blockquote data-quote="Big J Money" data-source="post: 7866193" data-attributes="member: 70533"><p><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>II. Mythicality</strong></span></p><p>Is Alignment a Mythical, Cosmic Force or simply a Mundane description of a character's history of behavior? A wholly mythical alignment is circumscriptive -- the being in question doesn't have totally free will, and by their nature they are bound to act according their alignment. A wholly mundane alignment is simply a description of typical behavior as displayed by the being’s actions.</p><p></p><p>This feature can be binary or scalar. For example, you might imagine Evil or Chaos as a corrupting, cosmic or mythical force. Some creatures could be fully corrupted (binary) while others are only partially so, to a greater or lesser degree, and possessing a chance to act of free will, however unlikely.</p><p></p><p>In all editions, D&D publications to me do not suggest either direction along the mythical scale for monsters, leaving this distinction open to interpretation. For PCs, all editions strongly indicate a mundane alignment -- or at least a mostly mundane alignment for demi-humans -- giving PCs free will over their behavior, yet encouraged to take a particular allegiance and stick to it.</p><p></p><p>N.B.: It could be interesting to tie this mythicality to something, such as immortality, or simply years lived. As a creature ages, its alignment becomes more “solidifed” and unchangeable.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Big J Money, post: 7866193, member: 70533"] [SIZE=5][B]II. Mythicality[/B][/SIZE] Is Alignment a Mythical, Cosmic Force or simply a Mundane description of a character's history of behavior? A wholly mythical alignment is circumscriptive -- the being in question doesn't have totally free will, and by their nature they are bound to act according their alignment. A wholly mundane alignment is simply a description of typical behavior as displayed by the being’s actions. This feature can be binary or scalar. For example, you might imagine Evil or Chaos as a corrupting, cosmic or mythical force. Some creatures could be fully corrupted (binary) while others are only partially so, to a greater or lesser degree, and possessing a chance to act of free will, however unlikely. In all editions, D&D publications to me do not suggest either direction along the mythical scale for monsters, leaving this distinction open to interpretation. For PCs, all editions strongly indicate a mundane alignment -- or at least a mostly mundane alignment for demi-humans -- giving PCs free will over their behavior, yet encouraged to take a particular allegiance and stick to it. N.B.: It could be interesting to tie this mythicality to something, such as immortality, or simply years lived. As a creature ages, its alignment becomes more “solidifed” and unchangeable. [/QUOTE]
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