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Message: <blockquote data-quote="HeavenShallBurn" data-source="post: 4229392" data-attributes="member: 39593">Excerpted from the WorldForge d20 Wiki (still under construction, as is the system)AlignmentAlignment is a tool for developing your character’s identity. It is neither prescriptive nor a straitjacket for restricting the acts your character. A character does not act their alignment, rather their acts display their alignment. However alignment is not merely a measure of the views a character has it also shows which side if any they are associated with in the endless struggle between powerful immortals and material spirits of alignment that occur in the Outer Planes. Four major alignments in two axis, each with their own ethical framework. Alignment isn't being a snippy gossip or spitting in the customer's food. Most mortal creatures are Neutral, this represents the innate mixture of all alignments within them that prevent any singular alignment from becoming foremost. In order for such mortal creatures to become aligned away from Neutrality requires significant action.ChaosIt is one of the fundamental forces of creation most accessible to mortals in denatured form, change. Pure Chaos is when 1+1=4, unfettered by purpose or regularity it is creation unbound from stability and in its pure form it can be terrifying and beautiful all in an instant. At a more practical level Chaos is the antithesis of systems or organization.  Chaos is not randomness but lack of adherence to an external process beyond itself. Those who are chaotic do not respect the structures making up a greater whole. While they may be forced to acknowledge and abide by the strictures of Order it is only through force and they will chafe and attempt to harm or topple that structure whenever feasible.EvilWhat is Evil? Evil isn't banal or a minor irritation, egging the neighbors house won't turn you evil. That NPC isn't evil because he feels angry and is mean to people. He's Evil because he steals children to sacrifice to his dark and hungry god. Or sets up caravans to be pillaged by raiders. When the orcs come he's the reason the gate was unbarred at just the wrong moment, and he prefers it that way. It's not kicking puppies for it's own sake. He knows exactly what he's doing and probably has several reasons for it. They could even be damned good reasons, tempting reasons. None of it can change those acts into anything other than an Evil.GoodGood is eternal, it is the state of being in a morally proper relationship with respect to others. Throwing coppers to a beggar or helping a farmer raise a barn will not make you Good. Doing good acts so long as they do not impose hardship is neutrality. What makes one Good is when they do the proper thing even though it is dangerous. Defending the weak, upholding those who are downtrodden, throwing down those who are Evil. Being Good when it matters is likely to get you killed. That is nearly a definition of Good of itself, a character who does the right thing even though it may get him killed is Good.NeutralityNeutrality is not so much an alignment within itself as a state of equilibrium with the other four alignments. Most mortal creatures are Neutral, this represents the innate mixture of all alignments within them that prevent any singular alignment from becoming foremost. In order for such mortal creatures to become aligned away from Neutrality requires significant action. A good measure of Neutrality is that while characters will perform actions of various alignments those alignments are not so singular that the character will do regularly so when it imposes a great hardship or danger on the character.OrderCreation has an underlying structure, all things act in accordance to their nature as parts of creation and may be apprehended by their place within the greater scheme. Order is not about legality though it creates laws, it is about patterns and how all things relate to one another. Ordered characters do not necessarily respect laws, indeed outside the universal laws of cosmic order they are malleable things that may be tainted by any number of disorderly precepts. Characters who have an Ordered component to their alignment seek to prevent breaches of cosmological law. For example breaking a contract is to such a character an act against Order as by breaking the contract it's place in the cosmic system have been weakened. Ordered characters will seek to form concrete systems of relationship between things and prevent things within the system from acting outside the defined patterns set by the system.UnalignedUnaligned is an inherently unnatural state. Even creatures with only minimal intelligence like animals have an alignment. To have none is to be disconnected from one of the fundamental forces of existence. Unaligned creatures come from or have been tainted by the influence of the Far Realm. An inimical place outside the cosmos whose influence can at times reach inside to effect its environs and inhabitants.</blockquote>

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