The Eight Paths of your character

In the Dreamworld there are so-called Eight Paths: the great principles locked in eternal war with their opposites:

• Path of Light: self-sacrifice for the common good and the destruction of Darkness
• Path of Dark: absolute power and might at any cost

• Path of Reason: intellect, magic, and rational study of being
• Path of Rage: emotion, strength, and passion against the call of reason

• Path of Order: laws, cosmic harmony, and the balance of Creation
• Path of Chaos: absolute freedom and the destruction of Order

• Path of Nature: ecology and the natural course of things, against progress
• Path of Society: progress against nature; technology and the social fabric

• Path of Freedom: denial of all Paths and clans

The Paths are the foundation of your character's roleplay. The point of the Paths is in making choices and accepting certain constraints for your character -- constraints that will help you inhabit your role more deeply. Your every decision, your every step, is a contribution to one of the Paths. Killed a villain? A step on the Path of Light. Mastered a magic spell? A step on the Path of Reason. Grew a tree? A step on the Path of Nature.

Each Path has its own secret qualities, each Path has its corresponding clans, races, and classes, and each Path is watched over by its own pantheon of official religions and secret cults. If you choose to believe in one of the gods or goddesses, they will be able to help you on your Path.

Not every Path is available to every character. A vampire can never walk the Path of Light, a ranger will never agree to trade Nature for noisy cities, and a chaotic thief will fail to become a champion of Order. But a warrior or samurai may well choose the Path of Reason over Rage, while at the same time protecting Nature -- or, on the contrary, developing technology and progress. The choice is yours!

To learn more about the so-called Wheel of Paths -- the friendly and hostile Paths and their relationships with one another -- read the book of the same name in the Midgaard city Library.