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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6407421" data-attributes="member: 2067">Worth repeating! At least in PS, all of these things have their origins in some validity. I am fond, for instance, of <a href="http://easydamus.com/alignmentreal.html" target="_blank">this interpretation of how each alignment sees itself</a>. While I wouldn't necessarily claim it is authentic or canon or anything, I find it very much informs how I approach the alignments in D&D, and is a very thoughtful treatment on how one would "realistically" play these alignments (which are little more than short-hand for heroic and villainous archetypes, functionally). This is something that PS introduces into the system, I think, but it is something that really makes me enjoy the setting. Someone might describe Elysium as the Plane of Perfect Good, but that says more about the describer than it does the plane. It's certainly peaceful. But so's a graveyard. The flip side of that: someone who believes that the only way for them to truly get what they want out of life and maximize their personal pleasure is for them to have the autonomy to do so. Such a Chaotic Evil person might burn Rome to the ground to make the hills fertile and ready as their personal playground, with no one standing in their way, their own pleasure paramount, enabled only by the personal freedom of others. Such a character might never set up their own warlordship, knowing that the head that bears the crown is heavy -- they'd rather chop off any head that tries to wear the crown, since kings have a tendency to try and tell them what they can and cannot do. "Your brother was spreading vicious rumor about the king, weakening the peoples' confidence, and must be made an example of!""So he's guilty of running his mouth. It's HIS mouth. You don't get to tell him what can come out of it. I'm not leaving here without him."*gets out manacles* "Have it your way."*gets out sword* "That's all I ever wanted."**FIGHT!**Part of what I really like about PS is that it takes the black-and-white, red-vs-blue, moustache-twirling ugly evil vs. pretty white glowing sparkly good that D&D is kind of made for (what with alignments and demons and all) and turns it right on its ear. It could abandon alignment, sure. It doesn't NEED to, and it actually USES alignment to help cement one of its big themes. When someone tells you that something is Good, it is up to the heroic PC character to understand that Good means different things to different people, and the glowing sparkles with the blue lasers doesn't mean that the person is RIGHT. The Ultimate Home of Justice And Good ain't all it's claiming to be, and only a fool would swallow the brand without question.</blockquote>

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