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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9366821" data-attributes="member: 42582">In Gygax's PHB (p 33) and DMG (p 23), True Neutral is very similar to some real world orientations (eg some approaches to Stoicism and Daoism):The "true" neutral looks upon all other alignments as facets of the system of things. Thus, each aspect - evil and good, chaos and law - of things must be retained in balance to maintain the status quo; for things as they are cannot be improved upon except temporarily, and even then but superficially. Nature will prevail and keep things as they were meant to be, provided the "wheel" surrounding the hub of nature does not become unbalanced due to the work of unnatural forces - such as human and other intelligent creatures interfering with what is meant to be. Absolute, or true, neutral creatures view everything which exists as an integral, necessary port or function of the entire cosmos. Each thing exists as a part of the whole, one as a check or balance to the other, with life necessary for death, happiness for suffering, good for evil, order far chaos, and vice versa. Nothing must ever become predominant or out of balance. Within this naturalistic ethos, humankind serves a role also, just as all other creatures do. They may be more or less important, but the neutral does not concern himself or herself with these considerations except where it is positively determined that the balance is threatened. Absolute neutrality is in the central or fulcrum position quite logically, as the neutral sees all other alignments as parts of a necessary whole. This alignment is the narrowest in scope.It is a "naturalistic" ethos, that is, it holds that "nature will prevail" and ensure the status quo, which cannot be improved upon: the intentional action of "human and other intelligent creatures" will just unbalance what was "meant to be". This sort of person therefore regards paladins as a risk - they engage in a lot of intentional action, trying to achieve righteous things and defeat evil!I think it's interesting that Gygax describes TN as "the narrowest in scope" of his nine alignments, whereas the tendency probably since the mid-80s or even earlier has been to treat true neutral as very capacious. I associate this change with the more general tendency away from the approach to alignment that Gygax sets out, to instead seeing it as a set of personality or value descriptors unmoored from actual ideas of good and evil and their relationship to human action.</blockquote>

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