Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to a more modern browser.
True Neutral
True Neutral
Practical and Realistic
“Balance is not the absence of choice, but the refusal to be consumed by either extreme.”
The True Neutral Alignment
True Neutral is one of the many alignments players may choose when developing a character’s history, values, and personal outlook.
This alignment represents characters who are not strongly committed to good, evil, law, or chaos. A more detailed alignment system, including intermediate or half-step alignments, may be used by players who wish to further personalize their characters.
Practical and Realistic
A true neutral character generally acts according to circumstance, practicality, and personal judgment rather than loyalty to a moral or philosophical extreme.
Many neutral characters simply lack a strong commitment to either side of the greater struggles between good and evil or law and chaos. They may prefer kind neighbors and honorable rulers, but they do not feel personally obligated to defend goodness as an abstract or universal principle.
Other true neutral characters consciously embrace balance as a philosophy. They regard good, evil, law, and chaos as competing forces whose unchecked dominance can become destructive. To them, neutrality is the middle path that preserves stability over time.
Those who follow this path often regard true neutrality as the most natural alignment because it permits action without ideological prejudice, moral compulsion, or rigid allegiance.
Its danger emerges when balance becomes an excuse for apathy, when impartiality becomes indifference, or when the refusal to take sides allows preventable suffering to continue.
Common Principles
“Observe before judging. Adapt before committing. Endure without surrendering yourself to extremes.”
- Judge each situation according to its circumstances rather than fixed ideology.
- Avoid unnecessary commitment to moral and political extremes.
- Preserve personal independence and practical judgment.
- Return aid, loyalty, hostility, and respect in proportion to what is received.
- Advance personal survival and well-being without needlessly harming others.
Ten True Neutral Commandments
A true neutral faith, order, or philosophy may express its principles through commandments such as these.
- You shall avoid unnecessary falsehood.
- You shall not kill the innocent.
- You shall not commit murder.
- You shall aid those in need when doing so also preserves your own interests or well-being.
- You shall honor those who show honor to you.
- You shall obey the law unless breaking it can advance your interests without causing unnecessary harm.
- You shall not betray others unless your life or survival is placed in genuine danger.
- You shall aid those who aid you and oppose those who deliberately harm you.
- You shall not promote ideological extremes without compelling cause.
- You shall advance yourself without needlessly harming others.
Ten True Neutral Sins
Listed from lesser departures from neutrality to the gravest betrayals of balance and self-preservation.
- Pressuring others to adopt a firm moral or ethical position without necessity.
- Refusing reasonable assistance to a friend or ally.
- Killing for reasons unrelated to survival, necessity, or immediate defense.
- Breaking your word to a friend or ally when neither survival nor serious necessity requires it.
- Inflicting needless torture or suffering.
- Making a severe and unnecessary sacrifice for someone to whom you owe no responsibility.
- Refusing necessary force when survival clearly depends upon it.
- Betraying a friend or ally when your life is not genuinely endangered.
- Showing mercy to a relentless enemy when doing so creates a direct and severe threat to your survival.
- Taking a permanent side in a conflict that has no meaningful effect upon your survival, responsibilities, or interests.
“Balance can preserve what extremes would destroy, but balance without conviction may preserve nothing at all.”