Alignment

Alignments in Wyrlde are not normative to the PHB. In a traditional D&D structure, there is good, there is evil, there is chaos, there is order, and there is neutrality. Five aspects to Alignment, nine possible combinations, a simple and easy to use guidepost for character behavior, such that actions key off one’s alignment.

Here there are more forces at work. Instead of just the 5 Aspects of Chaos, Order, Good, Evil, and Neutrality, you have 14 Aspects to Alignment. Additionally, on Wyrlde, alignment keys off Actions – how you respond in various ways to the nature of these challenges, these ongoing tests of character and morality across each of these seven arenas, is what determines your alignment, instead of your alignment determining them. This last bit is why Alignment on Wyrlde is Optional – your DM may not want to keep track of how you are responding to the challenges the Sisters have woven for you.

In Wyrlde, the closest one can come to the original Good versus Evil is the Benefice and Malefice aspect of alignment, then the elements of Pattern vs Chaos. Neutrality is not a position the Powers or forces that shape the Realities can achieve, in part because of the core conflict that exists at the heart of neutrality. Rather, there is a search for balance and a search for imbalance, which becomes the rough equivalent for neutrality.

However, on Wyrlde every Power is just as capable and as likely of good as they are of evil, and the same falls to the mortal coils. Even a Devil may be capable of great good if it serves their purposes, and even an Angel can be unimaginably evil in the cause they espouse. Benefice is less about good and more about kindness and compassion. One can be very Good and lack those traits. The interactions between these different Aspects, the ease of joining them together and of balancing them, is nuanced, for those are not absolutes and merely universal ideals.

A lie (deceit/dishonesty), for example, is a combination of pattern, malefice, imbalance, agency, self, independence, and death, for every lie kills a bit of the world; yet that same lie may serve benefice, chaos, balance, structure, unity, dependence, and life. It is not the intent, but the outcome, the action, not the thought.

To choose an alignment, pick the single Choice from each Aspect that applies and record that on your character sheet.

Before you dismiss it, know that Alignment influences the Afterlife of the character, as their life is weighed against their beliefs and their values and their actions, and so it does have an effect on Restorations, Resurrections, and Reincarnations.

There are seven Aspects, each having a Choice, and the choice is based on which of those things one would decide to act on in any given situation. These Aspects are:

Pattern & Chaos: A pattern seeks to derive some form of order from the manifest universe. As an aspect, it is the desire to shape forces larger than yourself into a way that makes sense. Chaos is without pattern, a formlessness, a disorganized state that exists without pattern. Pattern and Chaos is bounded by Shadow and Nether.

Benefice & Malefice: Benefice is good intention, malefice is bad intention. It is the point where one seeks to do what is kind and compassionate versus what is cruel and uncaring. Actions may be beneficial or malevolent, as befits the nature of the person. Benefice and Malefice are bounded by the Celestial and the Infernal.

Balance & Imbalance: Seeking a path around the often present desire to avoid sitting on a fence, the point of choice, comes on the razor’s edge between balance and imbalance, where one Aspect is favored over others, throughout the life. Balance and imbalance is bounded by the Celestial and Nether.

Agency & Structure: the power of the Individual against the power of the System, and the idea that one person is just as important as the system above them all. Agency and Structure is bounded by the Shadow and Infernal.

Unity & Self: The choice between a communtiy and one’s self, this is where selfishness and altruism lie. Unity and Self is bounded by Necrotic and Celestial.

Independence & Dependence: finding a place within the need to stand alone and the need to stand with others. This is also reflective of the interconnectedness that all people have, and the ways that they need to rely on each other – for clothes, for food, for equipment and belongings – even though they may never see or meet each other. Dependence is bounded by Shadow and Radiance.

Life & Death: The decisions between mercy and mercilessness, between sparing and opponent and ending them. This is where the choices between Death and Life lie. Life and Death are bounded by Radiance and Necrotic.

Each Dimension is said to have its own variations within the greater Planes themselves,

How does judging work?

According to my friend Rafael, every act you engage in is weighed and measured along the many different axes of the whole. Not acting is a choice, but still an action, as well. The whole of your life, from Childhood to death, is measured and weighed along these factors, every action you have ever taken leaving a mark upon your Anima, the combination of Spirit, Soul, Mind, and Heart that is all of you. Where the majority of your actions fall is where your soul heads in terms of the mortal planes, and they in turn are used to judge you in the next life and determine where you will be restored in the cycle. As with the Planes and Dimensions, these forces are held and measured and structured by the Pale, and it is from them that we get the human elements of character, virtue, sin, personality, and emotion.

Mind, Body, Heart, Spirit, and Soul comprise the whole of a person, but the Body is always a part of the Mortal Realm.