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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 9528784" data-attributes="member: 6779196">Ok, I have an idea on how, but it’s specific to the way I prefer alignment to work in D&D, which is going to require some explanation, and some folks probably won’t like this take.In my preferred approach to alignment in D&D, alignment is prescriptive for immortal beings like gods and devils, and descriptive for mortals. An Angel is lawful good by nature, and cannot act against its nature. A mortal is not any alignment by nature, but becomes an alignment by their deeds. Behaving altruistically makes a mortal good, and acting egoistically makes one evil. Acting in support of social order makes a mortal lawful, and acting in opposition to social order makes a mortal chaotic. Passivity is neutral, so a mortal who does not actively behave in accordance with good or evil, law or chaos, will gradually trend towards neutrality.In a recent conversation in another thread, [USER=6748898]@abirdcall[/USER] disagreed with this approach, and in expressing that disagreement quite rightly pointed out that this model would make it impossible for mortals to maintain lawful good alignment within a lawful evil society. When evil is enshrined within law, to oppose that evil would be chaotic, and to not oppose it would be neutral with regard to good and evil. So, how does one resolve this paradox? Well, a mortal who is ideologically committed to law and good would have to temporarily suspend their commitment to one axis or the other for the sake of long-term preservation of those ideals, either allying with agents of chaos to put an end to the evil social order, or  working within the evil legal framework to change the system from within. But, immortal beings don’t have that luxury. A lawful good god would be unable to exert any influence within a lawful evil society at all. And as for their immortal agents? This is where fallen angels come from.Notably, this vulnerability is pretty specific to lawful good. Law and good are by nature more restrictive than evil and chaos, so it’s much easier for evil to exploit a lawful good society’s rules to its own ends, and there’s no internal conflict in a lawful agent opppsing a chaotic society. But this vulnerability ends up making mortal agents essential for lawful good gods. If infiltration by evil forces can end up locking them out of lawful society, they need mortal servants who have the unique power of moral agency, and can make the decision to prioritize good over law or vice versa when those things come into conflict.So, here is where I think there is room for muscular neutrality. Mortal actors who are ideologically in favor of law and good, but recognize this critical flaw in the cosmic system, and actively work to prevent it from being exploited. They oppose evil and chaos due to their ideological convictions, but recognize that the total victory of good over evil or law over chaos would make the world more vulnerable on the perpendicular axis. Muscular neutrality then is a purely pragmatic position, maintaining balance not because it is ideal, but because “good enough” is easier to defend against chaos than ultimate good, and “lawful enough” is easier to defend against evil than ultimate law.</blockquote>

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