About the spells used by the different philosophies:
Why not use a "heroes of might and magic IV" type spell system. Imagine Schools (or spheres in this case) of spells that are shared by the various philosophies. Good/evil or Chaos/Lawful would not share spells but Good/lawful could share the healing spells and Chaos/evil the destruction spells. Maybe you could create 8 shools: four shared and four unique? Or just four Speres (I should stop using "Schools" when talking about priestly magic) where any philosophy is prohibited from using the opposite sphere?
Typical Lawful/Chaos type spell would be things like calm or enrage humanoids (ooh, Morrowind reference) or clarify/obscure.
About the paladins: A chaos paladin could be a thieving character. Bit like the religion of Mask perhaps? While lawful paladins are more in the direction of the inquisition. Important for these classes is the indifference to good or evil. For them it is not a considiration. Lawful should mean strict and following the rules. And I mean the letter, not the spirit, of laws, rules and regulations.
As you point out in 3, I think the restrictions should be loosened. The only important aspect of a paladin is his "goodness" for a Chaos paladin only his "chaoticness" (is this a word? Don't think so). A paladin has to be good, no matter whether he is chaotic/neutral/lawful.
About the EP beings:
Maybe they like a philosophy and decide to further its cause by guiding the believers. Or they just like the influence they can get by guiding these mortals? And maybe a bit of divine power?
I agree with Stratos that if the philosophy is strong enough, the difference between it and a religion/deity disappears. The only question that remains is whether there is some sort of incarnation of the philosophy. Maybe the EP beings can act as avatars?
Man, these posts get long. Feels a bit like ranting.
And it is just a lot of talking about my thoughts, don't know if they are in the least bit usefull. Feel free to ignore any of them.
