Ramblings of a Villain

Consequence

I love DnD.

Do you play Dungeons and Dragons? I play Dungeons and Dragons. It is an absolute mess, a hogwash, a flustercuck of ideas and concepts that their designers just thought cool and decided to add to their setting.

Garbage, really, but there's so much that it gets right, glimpses of genius around the corner of the next page.

Pick any edition, and when you are going through the process of making a character, you will be asked 'well, what's your alignment?'

'Your what', you may be tempted to ask.

The manual will insistently repeat, 'your alignment!' much to your confusion, 'are you good, evil? Chaotic? Lawful? Or what falls inbetween?'

See, a lot of people don't have the time to confront morality and ethics in their lives. Things juts happen and they deal with everything to the subjective best of their ability - few are the situations where you have to ask yourself, "am I evil?"

Well, are you?

The general understanding of morality is innate. You hammer right and wrong into your young as soon as possible. Clear guidelines to not be a complete sociopath and a productive member of society. It goes on for so long that you naturalize it, you internalize it. You never have to stop and ponder if what you are doing is correct - you see things from your eyes, and in your eyes, you are the hero of your story, the stoic protagonist that does-what-must to survive, a lone figure mistreated by the world, still capable of love and kindness, but one that has known pain, betrayal, marginalization. You are the three-dimensional character that is a human, and a monster.

A 3x3 grid with two axis - one for ethics, another for morality, the spaces in-between representing neutrality. It is not sufficient to accurately represent a real person, but it is sufficient to create archetypical figures, characters that you might easily describe in a few words. A young witch learning the trade; a stern and fatherly knight; an unfortunate boy with demonic blood; an old queen that has yet to decide whether she wants to save or burn the world.

Do you think you could be described so easily? You cannot.

You are not a creature of absolutes. Your nature is murky, chained to what surrounds you. You are a slave to context, a chameleon forced to perform on a screen that is constantly changing color, with a single-sourced string making you dance. Its name: Consequence.

Consequence is all your warden, your best friend, the walls that keep you trapped in, and the walls that keep danger out. You bow at the behest of Consequence, you dance at their mercy, you die by their grace. Without Consequence, you are lost, you are exposed, you are alone.

You are a beast.

Without Consequence, without the tension that it brings to the table, there can be no society, no culture, no civilization. The walls of all that you've ever known were first dried from mud by their dread. The uncooperative rogues that would do you harm, reeducated or disposed of.

Any action since you met them, has been tempered by their presence.

Can you imagine a world without Consequence?

It is a world of spontaneous decisions, of uncertain survival, of arbitrary repercusions. It is the dark world that reigns the animal kingdoms, and you cannot go back to it.

You need order. You need to know that evil will be met with the swift hand of justice. You need to know that Consequence is there, to keep you safe in your cage. Perhaps you can befriend it truly, and it'll let you out from time to time, take a look in another direction when you test its walls. Perhaps you think you are beyond it.

Perhaps you truly live in a world where the warden left its post and never came back.

Perhaps you have yet to meet its brother, Accountability.

Two of many. It is a complicated family, but they all try to do their part, and make sure you do yours.

I hope you are not tired of dancing yet. You will be doing it for the rest of your life.