With most of the other classes of Dark Sun, alignment seems to be very mush a secondary issue. You can have good elemental clerics and evil elemental clerics, good paraelemental clerics and evil paraelemental clerics, good and evil druids and rangers, good and evil psions. Even templars have some alignment flexibility. However, I have noticed that regarding wizards, spellcasters are largely locked into good or evil alignments by being a preserver or defiler respectively. Are there any exceptions to this? Also, how would they be played?
Technically you could play a Defiler/Preserver in different ways than originally intended from the fluff. For instance, what if your Defiler was once part of the Veiled Alliance, but has since left due to his belief that the end justifies the means. So instead of preserving he kills Defilers by being a Defiler.
Maybe that Veiled Alliance member wants the Sorcerer-Kings gone so he can become the next dictator and without defilers to ruin his perfect vision for the world he will rule with an iron fist!
I don’t subscribe to alignments though so I might be a bad influence.
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There is nothing that requires Preservers are good.
If you actually look at the behavior and tactics of the Veiled Alliance … they have a very specific set of goals, which justify any means. Numerous times, they’re shown to operate more as terrorist cells or freedom fighters at war with the sorcerer kings. We think of them as “good” because they oppose the Sorcerer-Kings, which we think of as “evil” …
But, really, Good is a rare alignment to find on Dark Sun, and simply not leaving a trail of ash behind you as you cast your spells isn’t sufficient.
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