Alignment
| Alignment does not exist in Oath-Bound. The vanilla AD&D nine-point grid presupposes a cosmological moral framework that the Oath-Bound setting does not share. What alignment was attempting to do — provide a behavioral and moral orientation for characters and factions — is handled instead by the oath economy, concord, and fidelity. A character’s obligations, institutional commitments, and relationship to the oaths they have sworn define who they are in a way that a two-axis grid cannot. The substitution is not cosmetic. |
For creatures and animals, alignment served a secondary purpose: indicating default disposition toward humans. In Oath-Bound this is handled more honestly as a behavioral spectrum from adversarial to acceptive. A creature is not evil because it attacks on sight — it is adversarial, by species, conditioning, or circumstance. The distinction matters: adversarial behavior can be understood, predicted, and sometimes changed. Evil is a moral category that closes those questions rather than opening them. Oath-Bound prefers them open.
Alignment Language (p.24) 
Superseded. Alignment language has no referent in the Oath-Bound setting and should not appear in play. Characters, NPCs, creatures, and locations are not described in alignment terms.
Changing Alignment (p.25)
Superseded. Without alignment, alignment change has no meaning. The nearest functional equivalent in Oath-Bound — a character’s relationship to their oaths, their concord, and their fidelity shifting over time — is handled through the Session Journal and the oath economy, not through a mechanical alignment track.
A character’s observance practices and Foundation associations can and do change over the course of a life — through age, inclination, or the pressure of events. This is normal. Someone who observed hearth traditions casually in youth may find themselves drawn to a more demanding Foundation in adulthood, or may drift away from institutional practice entirely. These shifts are biographical, not theological crises. Experienced players expecting mechanical consequences for alignment change will find none here.