Alignment has long plagued my thoughts in the various iterations of D&D. Specifically, it's that alignment has been used to represent different things across the editions. In some editions, it's about what "side" you're on in whatever grand cosmic conflict is raging in your campaign. In others, it represents your character's moral and ethical codes, and acts as a guideline for their behavior. I've struggled at times to square that circle, but I think now that I've cracked it, at least to my own satisfaction.
Long ago in the elder days of my youth I was obsessed with gamebooks. Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf, Grail Quest, you name it. They were the perfect blend between fantasy literature and D&D, and aside from video games maybe the best way to experience a solo RPG. One of the lesser-known series' I latched onto was the Cretan Chronicles, a trilogy of books set in mythical Ancient Greece. In it you play Altheus, the brother of Theseus, and it's your quest to avenge his death at the hands of the Minotaur (that story having gone a little south for ol' Theseus in this version). They're very good as I recall, a bit more mature in style and theme than most of their contemporaries. But the aspect that's relevant to today's topic is that of divine favour.
At the start of the series you pick one of the Greek gods as your patron, and it gives you a little benefit. Ares grants a +1 in combat, that sort of thing. During your adventure various actions on your part will earn the favour or disfavour of various gods, which can have all sorts of consequences up to and including death. It does a very good job of modelling the fickle nature of the gods in those stories, and their meddling in human affairs.
Now, we come to D&D alignment, which is often used to define a character's morals and behavior. But now I'm thinking about it in reverse. It's not the alignment that defines your actions, but the actions that determine your alignment. Or, more specifically, your actions define which powers hold you in favour. Act in a lawful good fashion consistently, you will have the favour of the Lawful Good powers or deities, and the disfavour of those on the opposite side. The same goes for Chaotic Evil, etc. Neutrals are those who have managed, through actions deliberate or unknowing, to avoid the favour or disfavour of any particular powers.
Those are my quick thoughts, which I just dashed off at the end of my work shift... I'm sure it's not exactly revelatory, but it makes sense to me in a way that alignment never has before. Now if I can just wrap my head properly around the problem of alignment languages...
