@TheEdVerse I'm curious as to how you handled alignment languages in your game. Was the ability divinely bestowed? Did creatures in your Realms know their "alignment"? That's an aspect of the 1e rules that I've always struggled with wrapping my head around.
— AdamDravian (@AdamDravian) May 7, 2019
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Creatures knew their alignment if clerics told them (having used know alignment spells). Alignment tongue is a shorthand code, not a full, expressive language; can be used to identify others of same alignment if they understand what you’re saying; it’s a way of…#Realmslore 2)
…sharing concepts/dogma central to a particular alignment (e.g. "obedience to order stultifies" or "all things are best balanced"), and must be recognized to 'unlock' it in your head. So divinely bestowed but asleep until used. I asked Gary Gygax about it back…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 8, 2019
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…at GenCon 8 (my first), and described how I was handling it (elaborating on the bare bones I've just set down here) and he agreed: yep, you're doing it right.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 8, 2019
Thank you so much for the response, but I'm not clear on this: "must be recognized to 'unlock' it in your head. So it is divinely bestowed but asleep until used." Are you saying you have to hear someone else use your alignment language in order to unlock it?
— AdamDravian (@AdamDravian) May 8, 2019
To you the character, some words and phrases in your head seem like private, personal idle nonsense your brain came up with. Until you hear someone else speak some of them and realize they're not a private, personal code, they're a shared code. Between beings with…#Realmslore https://t.co/9ksG8SxpLk
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 8, 2019
Wow, that’s fascinating. Thanks, Ed! Does the resurrected subject know why they returned to life? Do they retain afterlife memories? And do other folk freak out about them returning?…the same outlook (alignment). The gods implant the words/phrases AND the knowledge of what they are. It's the knowledge that's being unlocked ("Oh, I get it; these are words Chaotic Good beings share.") And they're just that: a few words/concepts/phrases, NOT a full language.
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 8, 2019