User:Cedric/Good vs. Evil
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Here layeth the primary dynamic of much the universe: what is good and what is evil? That is: what improves the universe and preserves its order versus what degrades the universe and dissolves it. Even the most evil warlock or sorcerer will need life and continued power, unless they believe the universe itself should die. A various amount of upheaval may be tolerable to the universe if there's considerably new order and growing of value. Some gods even use such warlords to drive new innovation amongst the commoners. Consider it like the rings of a tree or a spiral: always building upon that which came before. This is how it should work, yet maybe the wizards need to see what happens when the universe is allowed to be destroyed, eh?
Consider that you destroyed the LVL 40 evil NPC, but it was actually in use by a LVL 100 demi-god for a larger purpose of good. What then?
XXXYou're mission -- should you accept it -- is to keep the balance between opposing parties until a real insight is gained about the game universe and moral or political theory. That means, as the ALLTHATIS, you don't favor one side or the other, you can deattenuate mana distribution if they threaten some other force, otherwise you should strive to keep both sides equal until resolution occurs.
But, perhaps good and evil is the wrong naming. Were past that now. We're now on symmetry/order and balance. Keeping things balanced until we create the world that we want.` We can conjoin various worlds, like tech, through devices like portals or the separation of Time into Ages. In this way, we can make a unified universe, open to all playstyles, without devolving into chaos. Eventually, some worlds my "fold up" and collapse because the experiment is over to simplify (order) the game-play universe.
Once a direction has been made at the highest levels, whatever goes against this direction is, perforce, evil. On the color spectrum, the rainbow colors get brighter and more defined, less gray or dull. This, then, sets a non-arbitrary, direction, even though it could possibly still be ill-conceived. In this case, rather than the "gods" of WotC admit they made an error, they can refine the understanding to incorporate wha4ever new piece of new data comes from players/below.
When there is a disagreement at the highest level about what is good and right, the question is split between two or more colors and the game must attempt to work things out within the rules established. That is, the all_that_is cannot interfere directly but only give slight adjustments to keep things balanced, while the demi-gods work out by giving a color assignment to them from above. Where things get out of balance, righteously, there must either be some new wisdom garnered from gameplay and the color should shift towards greater purity. (?Depth of color, rather than purity, represents some other axiis of interaction, like a high-level wizard interfering or placing their merit and reputation in the game, like Mordenkainen.)
The color wheel, with complementary colors opposite each other, can serve to hold the dualities of many different directions and desires, keeping them all in play, until questions are resolved about which is better. XXX Anyway, WotC or your local game master (GM) can decide the alignment values of various NPCs on a spectrum of -1.0 to 1.0. When their ideas of what is good or evil fail, this axis flips (the polarity +/- flips somewhere on whatever creature was defining good or evil) and the value is divided by 2 and the game universe continues evolving.
So beneath the value of perserving the universe and growing value (of whatever dimensions the gods are exploring), there is the issue of power itself. This is the next level of exploration, for everything in life gets value from power, the issue is how will it be distributed? There are issues of trust, order, ...
Some preliminary color assignments:
- red vs. green: STR and individualism vs. Nature/WIS and working together
- blue-purple vs. orange-yellow: mystery and magic vs. machines and tech (yellow)
- black/white vs. grey: gods vs. logic and secularism alone.
The Wizards of the Coast can "dream" in the universe by subtle changes to the trust_card of the All-that-Is (nAmman -- the all-father/all-mother). By rewarding the nexzt layer below it, holding the dmei-gods on one half and the demi-goddess, on the other, it can subtly shift things towards the greater order for the universe. It does this by removing part of the trust whenever one side goes afoul and giving it to the other side (or when one side accomplishes something new for the game universe that is novel and interesting and adding it to the side which accomplished it and removing the similar amount from the other side). In ths way, color is preservced (if it is assigned to a (-1, 1) interval). The extreme values on each side are never assigned because there is no absolute to the universe: only order and disorder.
The trust values given to these demi-gods affect how mana is allocated from the soul of allthatis's which is centered on four values: Order, Symmetry/balance, Virtue, Cornucopia (Diversity). ORDER > Diversity and VIRTUE > Balance.
DM Notes:
- This should be the primary dynamic -- the ones that the giants know and the dragons are trained to protect. This was one of the results of the 1000 Years War, I do believe.
- This dynamic is complementary and separate from the other main dynamic of the game: mystery/adventure. These mysteries arise from deep experiences in the soul and shall not be revealed here. Nonetheless, you may know that these mysteries include the nature of magic (is it possible in our world? find out), how the gods work "in mysterious ways" (hint: interdimensionally), deep secrets of where the darkness arises and the nature of various legendary items, and so forth.
