My "Hidden Religions of D&D" posts got me thinking about a new way to view alignment in D&D, and that is not as personal ethics or even (necessarily) cosmic forces, but rather as placeholders for religions within a campaign setting. Old D&D gives us some detail on the generic "Church of Law" so it would be interesting to expand that idea to other alignments--however many one wants to use.
A Lawful Neutral church would be one that holds to the supremacy of cosmic order. They would focus on the duties of individuals and society to uphold and harmonize with that cosmic order. Here are Lawful Neutral faiths that would represent these ideas in different ways.
Universal Harmony
This faith believes there is an Eternal Order that has always existed on some idealized plane, but through the process of Law that encompasses both the working of the cosmos and the virtuous behavior of the beings with that cosmos, must be made manifest. The obligations of the humanity in this work are laid out in the religion's holy text, the Formicarium.
The common person is urged to be content with their roll in life and work to make society as whole more orderly and harmonious. The contemplation of greater mysteries is left to ascetics who sometimes provide guidance on important issues to the communities they serve. Those involved in the legal system and the formulation of laws are likewise members of the clergy as law flows from and is a facet of perfect cosmic Order.
The Formicarium mandates that the ruler of a state should be a dispassionate vessel for law. Their job is to insure those under them proceed with honest and transparency, and punishment for transgressing the law is swift and impartial.
Upon death, adherents look forward to an ultimate oneness with the universal process, so that they neither suffer nor desire.
Zurthonism
Zurthon is viewed as the first principal, the transcendent god of time, space, and fate. Zurthon is sometimes called a "machine god"--a being without passion or compassion, and above concepts of good and evil. The faithful seek to divine the path Zurthon has predetermined for them from the beginning of the universe by the study of the Heavens. Zurthonist astrologer-priests plot a child's horoscope from birth. The faithful do not seek to avoid or change ill-fate but rather use this for knowledge to allow them to prepare for the future, the better to display their submission to Zurthon's divine plan.
There are heretical sects of Zurthonism that view predetermination as an excuse for licentiousness or abandon (and thus become a cult of Chaotic Neutral), but orthodox belief promotes a stoicism in all things.
3 comments:
Is there war in lawful neutrality or only an organized muscular defense? Otherwise in the perfected LN society conflict may not be possible (replaced with bureaucratic or legalistic processes, "mediation" or some other system) . . . what happens if, for example, Zurthon and Universal Harmony encounter each other? We can imagine an intricate consolidation path as they agree to align their interests in principle but then need extra time to combine all the uh moving parts.
I feel like Lawful Neutral could justify a war. It's a system run by humans, after all, i.e. not perfected.
That's a good question on UH and Zurthonism. I would imagine UH would see Zurthonism is being in error, but would try to "reason" them out or have their mystics meditate on a harmonization.
All these words sound like monk-on-monk violence to me, in which case sign me up!
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