Law & Chaos
Although Erce has simmered in the visions of authors like Zelazny, Poul Anderson and Moorcock and in many ways seeks to make sense of the original Law/Chaos dichotomy of old D&D (such as presented in Keep on the Borderlands ), the primary inspiration for its alignment structure (and developed well before my encounter with the OSR inspired me to take things up a notch) is Nordic mythology. A brief sketch of their worldview will go a long way towards understanding the worldview of Erce - The Aesir , the gods, were the upholders of Law, who kept humanity safe from the Chaos of the wilderness (which is full of predators, Jotun and monsters) and even built great cosmic walls to keep them at bay. The Aesir may rule the roost before Ragnarok, but they are essentially usurpers of the cosmic order and self-aware of being so (they know Chaos will get the upper hand again at Ragnarok), having killed the first Jotun to shape the world and subjugated the rest to fit their world order. In