In a traditional D&D structure, there is good, there is evil, and there is neutrality. Wyrlde still has good and evil, though they are often more shaded, and less clearly defined. Celestial forces are good, Infernal forces are bad, for example. However, Wyrlde does not have the usual strong lines – every Power is as capable 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.
In Wyrlde, the closest one can come to this is the Benefice and Malefice aspect of alignment, roughly – though not solely – analogous to Good and Evil. 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.
Alignments in Wyrlde are not normative to the PHB. Here there are more forces at work. Instead of just Chaos, Order, Good, Evil, and Neutrality you have seven Aspects to Alignment, and they in turn are used to judge you in the next life and determine where you will be restored in the cycle.
Alignment is optional on Wyrlde. Alignment here more axes than three, and so it is possible, but it will arise from the actions of the players, as they change the world. So, you are the ones who might make that possible. Before you dismiss it, know that Alignment influences the Afterlife of the character, as their life is weighed against the beliefs and their value and their actions, and so can have an impact on spells such as resurrection and reincarnation.
Thus, Alignment keys off actions, not thoughts; this is different from the historic structure of actions keying off alignment. 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 establish some form of order in the 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.
Benefice & Malefice: Benefice is good intention, malefice is bad intention. It is the point where one seeks to do what is kind and copassionate vesus what is cruel and uncaring. Actions may be beneficial or malevolent, as befits the nature of the person.
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 th life.
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.
Unity & Self: Th choice between a community and one’s self, this is where selfishness and altruism lie.
Independence and Dependence: finding a place within the need to stand alone and the need to stand with others.
Life & Death: The decisions between mercy and mercilessness, between sparing and opponent and ending them.
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, for example, is a combination of pattern, malefice, imbalance, agency, self, independence, and death, for every lie kills a bit of the world.
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.
Another key difference is that Wyrlde’s Powers That Be are not personifications of something; they are not Gods of something. They are, like people, themselves, with their own flaws, traits, quirks, and failings.
To choose an alignment, pick the single Choice from each Aspect that applies and record that on your character sheet. Alignment is optional, but it does have an effect on Restorations, Resurrections, and Reincarnations.
