The Grave Robber's abilities made me wonder about the discard piles.

While they are put to one side, do they remain face-up or are they put face-down?

Also, the Lightbearers alternate ending states that all characters are good.

For clarity, does this include the Dark Cultist who is always evil?

Not sure I understand ur first question and I don't know to the second.

What is set to the side? The grave robber discards to the bottom of the discard pile, face up, just like the rest of the discard pile.

I think the characters chosen must be good alignment only, tho I suppose you could make the other characters good at start but this may alter game play on some.

The Grave Robber's abilities made me wonder about the discard piles.

While they are put to one side, do they remain face-up or are they put face-down?

You can do as you wish. If you don't want to draw discarded cards by mistake, you'll discard cards faceup as everybody does without any official instructions. The Grave Robber discards at the bottom of the pile, meaning he won't be able to draw the same card again and again except in the very first turns of the game.

Also, the Lightbearers alternate ending states that all characters are good.

For clarity, does this include the Dark Cultist who is always evil?

Lightbearers is an Alternative Ending. Such Endings often showed some weak points when played or carefully examined.

The ending says that "all players start the game with characters of good alignment". This can either mean that you have to choose among good characters, or that all characters in the game are considered to be of good alignment. The first option restricts the number of characters eligible for a Lightbearers game, but I think it's the best thematic choice. Playing with Ghouls and Vampiresses as Lightbearers would be quite weird.

The Dark Cultist cannot change her alignment by any means and the forbidding effects always prevail over other effects, both in the basic rules and in special rules.

You have to see Lightbearers as an unusual game where characters are limited ot good ones and the usual Talisman PvP gameplay is completely subverted. However, this Ending has big holes and uncertainties and I don't think it's playable at all. I've never considered trying it in a game.

Ah.

My initial interpretation was that all characters are good regardless of alignment, but having a re-read, it seems more likely that only good characters can be used which does mean restrictions unless you have all the expansions.

I also came across another alternate ending from the Dragon expansion.

The Dragon King alternate ending says that if you roll a 3 or 4 all characters take turns attacking the Dragon King, but doesn't say what happens if a character is defeated or has a stand-off.

Does the next player continue to attack the Dragon King or does play resume to the next player?

Having a game and just drawn the Boneyard card which just answered my discard pile question.

It says that if the top card on the discard pile is an enemy, it is put on the soace.

therefore how can one know if the top card is an enemy if it's face down.

Discard pile case closed!

Ah.

My initial interpretation was that all characters are good regardless of alignment, but having a re-read, it seems more likely that only good characters can be used which does mean restrictions unless you have all the expansions.

I gave you my impressions but there has been no official version of this. Of course playing it with only good characters is thematically more appropriate and eliminates some problems like the Dark Cultist and maybe others.

I also came across another alternate ending from the Dragon expansion.

The Dragon King alternate ending says that if you roll a 3 or 4 all characters take turns attacking the Dragon King, but doesn't say what happens if a character is defeated or has a stand-off.

Does the next player continue to attack the Dragon King or does play resume to the next player?

If you roll 5-6 the character on the Crown attacks the Dragon King alone and this works exactly like any other "boss" Ending; if you win the combat, you attack him again immediately until you are defeated, have a stand-off or win the game by beating the King.

When you roll 3-4 all characters, starting with the character on the Crown, attack the Dragon King. Since there are no instructions about attacking him again if you win the combat, it should be treated like any other combat which ends with a defeated opponent or a stand-off. The process continues until all characters have fought with the Dragon King, then the turn passes from the character on the Crown to the next one.

Having a game and just drawn the Boneyard card which just answered my discard pile question.

It says that if the top card on the discard pile is an enemy, it is put on the soace.

therefore how can one know if the top card is an enemy if it's face down.

Discard pile case closed!

Just wanted to add one oppinion on this one. We always play with all discard piles face-up, except the spell discard pile which is face-down. This is mostly a legacy from the old days when we just had the base game and spells where very limited and we agreed that it would be no fun to see which spells had been placed on the discards by other means than being used. If you were desperate for a certain spell it would be no one to know if it had been discarded by someone else.

We played with Lightbearers alt. ending one time.

I only play 2 player games (me and wife), so it was not that bad. I could see where more players would bring in more questions and concerns.