Editing Alignment (section)

===Alignments in Real Life===
A lot of tabletop game mechanics exist to simplify complex things down to a few simple things you can work out with a calculator. There are a lot of variables in the outcome of Ned the Knight being hit with a sword IRL in regards to angle of impact, area of impact, blunt force trauma and similar, but in a game it comes down to a pair of dice rolls and a loss of eight hit points. Alignment is a lot like that that. There are questions which are generally easy (is killing a random innocent child good or bad?) but there are a lot more that are complex. For example a civil war breaks out because a monarch attempts to centralize the kingdom and some noble houses object to this centralization. Is the monarch a power mad tyrant opposed by houses defending tradition and their smallfolk against the crown's overreach, or is the monarch a modernizer seeking to improve and stabilize their realm opposed by obstinate lordlings concerned only with their own power bases at the expense of the kingdom and it's people? Both could make the case, especially given the limited information given and people will come to different conclusions.

From basic primate social instincts to various religious figures, lawmakers, philosophers, commentators, political theorists and behavioral psychologists there have been a lot of factors which shape how people see morality. To function a society needs some form of morality but the permutations can be radically different, compare Confucius (highly traditional and concerned with hierarchic relationships and societal harmony) with John Locke (highly individualistic, concerned with individual rights and generally non-interventionist) as an example.