Asheron's Fall: The Power of Ten, Book Six

He took a breath that might have been just a little ragged, his eyes a bit bright, but no tears fell. “I miss me lady every night,” he admitted, reaching over to touch the Sword leaning at his side again. “We talked about a family, we decided it was time to try...”

“And then life drove a dagger into your balls.” I looked away myself, inherited memories rising up of their own. Apocalypse, treachery, the laughter of uncaring gods and Entities, the horrors of Creation come to call… “Yes, I’m quite aware of just how shockingly unkind life can be, Master Mick.”

“Aye. Unkind. Ye know the feeling well,” he nodded slowly, his grin mocking us both for what we’d gone through.

“I do. And when you have this Markspace active, everyone else realizes everyone else knows it, too. Sharing makes it easier to endure."

He nodded slowly, relaxing minutely. There were things we shared, and things we did not. “The Blue, then?” he asked, pointing at the Holo of the Alignment Chart.

“Law. Order. The triumph of civilization over barbarism. The ordering and directing of reality. Obedience and obeisance to those above you, fealty and loyalty from those below you. One set of laws, one set of rules, one perfectly regimented way towards that future that it will grow to encompass and set all to harmony and understanding before the law.”

He didn’t miss the twist in my words. “Sounds like a bunch of pricks with sticks up their arse telling other people how ta live their lives,” he noted. “I didnae hear no responsibility to those below ye...”

“Yes. For all that, it is a terrible force when it goes into motion, for it believes in itself to be right above all things, that Laws and Rules are holy things to be obeyed simply because they exist, and to follow them is what makes them great.

“In reality, it gives a lot of people the excuse to not have to think about why they are doing things. They need to obey, the ones underneath them need only obey, and life will be fine.”

His dark eyes glittered as he nodded slowly. “Slaves t’ the system they live inside. An Alignment for a lot of government workers an’ soldiers, I imagine?”

“Yes, and a lot of common folk, too, and particularly uptight churches who don’t want their flocks following any other rules. For all that, they stick together incredibly well, they are often very disciplined and highly-trained, and they form the root of Empires and Kingdoms of most kinds, as someone has to run the things, and it best be them!”

He smirked, knowing the mindset. “And we complete the trip with the Red. Law an’ Evil...” he trailed off thinking about that. “That… raises me thoughts to those of Viamont. Their way, or the sword. Conquest for the sake of conquest, of ruling the world, with them on top, an’ all others beneath them, with rigid rules an’ castes an’ fierce competition ta be on the top...”

“Most Empires eventually fall from White, if they ever were, to Blue and Sapphire, and then as they become more self-absorbed and decadent, to Red and Ruby. It is the Alignment of Tyranny and Conquest for the sake of Conquest. Its weapons are unbending ruthlessness, ever-increasing striation and layers of authority and power, discrimination, racism and specism and sexism, and uncaring morality of deeds and choices, as long as the laws and rules are followed.

“It’s a very popular alignment for militaries, as it excuses all actions against enemies and civilians as naught but reasonable and pragmatic. It enshrines discrimination based on any metric you care to assign, be it skin color, birth, race, species, magic, wealth, age, gender, military service, education, religion, and any and all other measures, with more being invented to keep those in power in power forever, endless hurdles placed in front of those who might seek to rise up and replace them.

“Devils are the poster children of Ruby, and the great Empire of Hell is the most malevolently grand in all Creation. Only the fact it makes war and pursues Conquest all the time, costing it blood and power, means it is NOT the greatest of such Empires, as it makes enemies of everyone, in the end.

“It is also the prime sponsor of true underworld Thieves’ Guilds and the like that have managed to legitimize themselves, as under-kingdoms are still kingdoms, and such places thrive on death and backstabbing inside their hierarchies as much as any empire in the sun.”

“People who follow the rules, and then exploit them all to backstab ye if ye get in their way. Aye, might have known a few of them in me time, them thinking as long as it is not expressly disallowed, it be totally acceptable. Laws become weapons to use against those they should be protecting...”

“Them’s the types. It’s the most seductive and easiest kind of Evil to fall into, clad as it is in the bright armor of ‘I followed all the rules, it’s you who is the problem, not me!’” I just tossed my head. “When you follow Good, you realize that Laws that don’t help the good are just rules made by someone else, and it’s time to make your own and ignore the ones they are attempting to foist on you.

“Which often leads to a lot of violence, but that’s true of most interactions between the Alignments,” I sighed and waved my hand dismissively again.

“Aye, I can see that. Standing up for what’s right tends ta require a good strong arm to do so,” he agreed with a sigh of long experience.

“And then it all gets corrupted by self-interests and what’s ‘good for someone’ instead of ‘good for all’. Life.” I just shook my head.

“And there ye have the middle. A Neutral Alignment?” he asked, spreading his intact hand’s fingers. “That would make five, no?”

“No. Neutrality is not an Alignment, it’s an absence of them, a position standing between them. There’s no active Profound Force called Neutrality. You don’t call upon the power of Neutrality to do anything.

“Neutrality is choosing not to stand with an Alignment, or being below them.” The layered Colors of Clear, Brown, and Green extended out from the central position, and he squinted at them in interest as I pointed to the first.

“Clear. If you look for the Alignment of a tree, a rock, or a true Elemental, it’s usually Clear. They have no ability to choose a way, and so they simply exist. Things with little ability to think, or none at all, truly ‘natural’ forces, are Clear.”

“They cannae choose, so they have no Color representing that choice. Okay,” he nodded. “Brown?”

“Brown is what is called False Neutral, things that live on instinct. They can technically think, they have some thought or self-awareness, but simply operate on programming.

“Almost all animals are Brown. This includes humans who ‘just want to be left alone’, and don’t think about their moral and ethical choices at all. Being able to think and not making a choice makes you little better than a dog or rat, and you are Brown thereby. It doesn’t mean you are savage, it means you just react and go on, you don’t consider anything regarding your choices.

“Basically you’re Brown because you’re standing in the middle of the road, and you don’t make the choices to move away from it. You’re just there.”

He considered that for a long moment. “I’ve the feeling a lot of humans fall under this Color?” he speculated.

“Aye, they do. That’s where religions and gods and philosophies come in, as they get people thinking about the things, and swaying people to the Alignments. Which brings us to the last Color, Green and Emerald. Thoughts?”

“Well, by the other two, it be people who are actively rejecting the Alignments, no? They choose to be Neutral, they choose to be in the middle and not cling to any direction, follow any one path’s dictates. It seems… pretty reasonable?” he had to say.

“It does, right up until the Alignments come crashing into you, not caring of your Neutrality. There’s no ignoring or avoiding the conflict, the Alignments are All That Is. Your sitting in the middle just opens you up to assaults physical and spiritual from all sides.

“The Alignments are as impartial as gravity. They don’t care if you don’t want to be involved, the choice is not yours. You don’t define them, they define you. Dying Green usually means you have a Divine force backing you which allows for some manner of afterlife or reincarnation cycle or something, but not always.

“Sometimes, depending on where it is, it means you die with no more relevance than an ant on a sidewalk. You can have all the high-minded ambitions you want, but in the end you’re just someone who chose to stand in the middle of the road, and you’re going to take your lumps as the Alignments fight.”

He gave me a curious look. “There be gods out there? Truly, really? Afore the things I be seeing that called themselves gods, didnae deserve the title…”

“Yes, there are gods. That is one hundred percent fact, not opinion, not blind faith. That is, of course, subject to what a person considers gods. But the gods themselves define themselves thusly…

“Gods wield Divine power. True gods are not finite anymore. Gods represent Spheres of influence, tropes, and beliefs, like sentient, thinking aspects of Creation. Gods can both harness the power of Faith and return it to the Faithful in the form of Miracles. Gods have dominion over the souls of those who believe in them. Gods represent extensions of mortal choice and free will in Creation, and choosing your god and following them is directly choosing your place to stand in the War of Alignments.

“Some parasitic mass of tentacles feeding on souls and sharing eldritch secrets with short-lived mortal ants who feed it is not a god, but the power discrepancy is wide enough that idiotic mortals can be fooled into believing it.

“True gods are not even finite. They have the power to end worlds, quench stars, collapse realities, and the like. They mainly exist to stave off the creatures outside Creation who seek to worm into reality and prey on it, much like T’Thuun and its associated Aberrant things, or whatever forms the Virindi, empowers the Shades, or gave Grael its power.

“Such things can be very powerful, but they are finite, and they don’t have true dominion over souls, nor do they have true Spheres. When they run into true gods, they tend to run like little shits.”

“Huh!” He looked at me strangely. “I’ve spoken with priests afore...”

“Real priests, channeling the attuned Will and power of a god, or people serving in a religious organization who happen to have magic others can’t use? Those aren’t the same thing.”

He bobbed his head, thinking. “Well, they came across as money-grubbing parasites trying to leverage their unique magic inta more gold, power, an’ influence, as long as ye believed and listened t’ them, some airy benefit with nothing behind it would be yers!”

His scorn was real. Being in a magical world without true gods backing you would rapidly result in questioning most religions. “Aye, most such things are little more than philosophies backed by extremely powerful entities willing to share personalized or unique knowledge you can’t use without their approval. True gods define them as cults.

“Superficially, they are very similar in types of power, I won’t argue that point with you, and if all you care about is results, well, you’re not going to see much difference.

“But you know your soul has a Color now. That Color determines your afterlife. Pledging your soul and belief to a non-god gets your soul grabbed by them, and they may not have your Color at all. Nothing says an Aberrant can’t lie continuously to its faithful to harness more souls, after all.”

His face twisted. “Ye’re killing your argument here, lass!” he grinned hard.