color wheel alignment chart (GLOGtober)

01 Nov, 2024

It should come as no great surprise, given that today is the last day of GLOGtober, that I'm skipping straight from prompt 3 to prompt 7, which is "Color." That's all you're getting from me this time around, but let's end it on a high note.

Let's fix¹ alignment.

The highland spirits known as DWARFS are incapable of telling lies! Almost as unchanging as ghosts, and almost as selfish as devils, they distrust and avoid elfs, and will drive them out with planned attacks.

DEVILS are universally sadistic hellspawn! Almost as straightforward as dwarfs, and almost as tyrannical as dragons, they fear saints, naturally.

The colossal DRAGONS demand worship and tribute! Almost, but not quite, as selfish as devils, and almost as instrumental as inevitables, dragons hold kings in contempt and seek to prove them unworthy to rule.

INEVITABLES? What're those? Beings of flora. Plant men. They're almost as tyrannical as dragons, and almost as natural as animals. They exist to keep wizards in check. Imagine the Green Knight, but most of them are less charismatic than that. They come in all shapes and sizes.

ANIMALS are not quite so instrumental as inevitables. Nor are they as adaptive as humans. They do shun terrors, denying them a foothold in reality.

Do I need to explain HUMANS? They're not as natural as animals or as ambiguous as elfs. They fear ghosts, as they should.

The lowland spirits called ELFS are incapable of telling truths! Almost as adaptive as humans, and almost as selfless as saints, they pity and infantilize dwarfs.

SAINTS aren't humans or elfs, or dwarfs, or even kings. To be a saint is to walk a different path altogether. They're almost as ambiguous as elfs, and they're almost as fair as kings. Their true wrath is reserved for devils alone.

The fairest in the land are KINGS, that's just a truism. They're almost as selfless as saints, and they're almost as manipulative as wizards. An interesting combination, to be sure. They abhor the injustice of dragons, and send forces out to kill them.

WIZARDS are nearly as fair as the kings with which they often conspire, but not quite. They're also nearly as unnatural as the terrors with which they often conspire, but again, not quite. Always scheming, the wizards are, to outsmart the inevitables. None have succeeded yet.

The abominable TERRORS corrupt all! Naturally, they're almost as manipulative as wizards and almost as unchanging as ghosts. Unnaturally, they warp and mutate animals they can catch, turning them into more terrors.

GHOSTS are unable to move on. They are almost as unnatural as terrors, and they are almost as straightforward as dwarfs. They take human lives but can't keep them.

Alignments work with each other according to the number of shards between them.

0 shards (adjacent): Easy friends. Commonly spoken of in the same breath.

1 shard: Will cooperate, but some fundamental difference ensures that it will only ever be temporary and conditional.

2 shards: They can be made to cooperate by extreme circumstance, but many conflicts will arise as the coalition teeters on the brink of collapse.

3 shards: They may be convinced to get along for very brief periods, but realistically, the best you can hope for is that they won't attack on sight.

4 shards: They will never get along. In rare circumstances a temporary cease-fire may be negotiated, but never peace.

5 shards (diametrically opposite): Open hostilities at all times.

While I'm certain that 99% of this will be plain as day, and that you will feel I've put into words what you knew in your heart all along, it's possible that some small aspect of the wheel might seem out of place or unintuitive. I'm sorry, but you're simply mistaken. A model as perfect as the color-wheel alignment chart can't be wrong.