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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9718684" data-attributes="member: 4937">I think it would be a mistake to imagine the authors of D&D as complex moral philosophers offering coherent takes.Probably the single biggest problem with alignment that has plagued it since the beginning is that it was a moral system without any real underpinnings or without a lot of discussion to get everyone on the same page about what it meant.  Gygax I think was the least incoherent, but he was also very brief and it's not clear what he's going for as it sounds like tautology to most people -"Good promotes weal."As such, I think you are very much going to be on your own here.If there is some unifying indestructible substance than let's call that "spirit".  You might also do some reading in Plato and his adherents as much or more than Planescape.  I think it's fair to say that D&D alignments correspond in some fashion to Forms, but you are going to have to deal with the fact that the realms of pure forms in D&D aren't themselves pure, implying there is some deeper structure to the universe that is unexplored.One problem you are immediately going to run up against is that D&D frequently borrows ideas from real world beliefs systems but divorces them from the cosmologies that support the terms it is talking about.  So for example, it borrows "fallen angels" as an idea but not the world views that constructs that idea, leading I think to the idea just not making any sense.  I personally detest the idea that outsiders are just fancy sorts of mortals with similar and relatable desires.D&D is a kitchen sink universe and you are going to have a hard time making it so that it doesn't have contradictions.  One approach you can take is that the writings about how things work, to the extent TSR/WotC ever provided such, represent in universe writings that are biased or inaccurate or incomplete understanding.  But as much as I approve of your project to create a coherent metaphysical framework for your setting, I think you are ultimately homebrewing.  Published RPG material is going to be little use to you.</blockquote>

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