It is often said that Dungeons and Dragons™ has an alignment system because it is a staple of fantasy literature, that the genre of high fantasy is based around and needs an established and objective moral system in the background.

In some respects, this is upheld within the genre. There are very few high fantasy novels in which the ultimate conflict doesn’t come down to good versus evil. Demons and devils fight gods and angels, gallant knights cross swords with dastardly blackguards and defenders of all that is good and pure stand against the monstrous hordes of goblins and orcs.

But even in these worlds, you generally won’t find local clergy who can read your moral and ethical outlook by staring at you. And this is the standpoint from which the World of Ere looks at things. Even though the world is fully compatible with the alignment system; listing alignment in monster entries, et al, it is recommended that you do not use it when running games in the World of Ere.

Bad Guys and Good Guys without Black Armor and White Hats.

It may be a huge departure from traditional Dungeons and Dragons™ worlds, but on Ere, Good and Evil are not directly represented by living embodiments, not sources of power or knowledge. The people on Ere make up their own minds of what’s good and evil to them and for that matter, so do the dragons and the gods.

This by no means excludes the existence of bad guys or good guys. There are still those who are truly malicious and those who are truly just. But for every truly malevolent being, there are hundreds who truly think, or have deluded themselves to thinking that they are doing what is best or what is right – regardless of the actual case.

Conflicts don’t generally stem from the cosmic conflict on Ere, but when goals overlap, or one group’s justice is at the expense of another’s. There is not end to the number of groups that, for various reasons, be it wealth, idealism, or lust for power, will vie for resources, magical power, or political bargaining tools.

Alignment Doesn’t Matter

It may seem a harsh way to state it, but this is true in the world of Ere. In a place where the beasts and monsters of the forest are a constant threat, where ones own neighbor may suddenly become a serious danger to themselves and others – good and evil are the furthest thing from their minds.

Real, pressing concerns and a need to find new and more powerful means of survival mean that the commoners of Ere are far more willing to accept strange, even sinister beings if they think they will be more boon than bane and these creatures too see the benefit in banding together.

Thus, it is not surprise to see small towns in league with a vampire, farming enclaves working hand in hand with local grigs and hags, and even nations with contracts and pacts with dragons of many colors.

Survival, Reasoning and Benefits; Why Alignment Wouldn’t Help

In the Core Dungeons and Dragons™ game, alignment works because of a few basic assumptions, namely, that the player characters will all be Good and their enemies will all be neutral or Evil. Thus, detecting evil can help tell friend from foe and casting Holy Word will only harm enemies.

This isn’t true on Ere. Adventurers working for the Historical Society of Kinos can easily find themselves at odds with a normally good natured, but deeply territorial Greater Beast, Hessan Clerics sworn to protect a site with force if needed, or any number of other factions.

Further, characters dispatched by the Deyic temple to help protect a village may find themselves fighting shoulder to shoulder with the undead minions of the local necromancer against Kaydan demons.

Thus, it becomes far less tactically and ethically sound to use weapons that attack people for their moral outlook, seeing as how they could just as easily be friend instead of foe.