Alignment
In understanding the Nine Alignments
(Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral, Lawful Evil, Neutral Good, True Neutral, Neutral
Evil, Chaotic Good, Chaotic Neutral and Chaotic Evil), one must first understand
one, simple, basic concept: Motive. This is often overlooked. One cannot
assign alignment to a person or action without knowing motive. For instance,
stealing is usually considered 'evil.' But what if you steal bread to feed your
starving family? What about Robin Hood, who stole from the rich and gave to the
poor? These distinctions can only be made with motive in mind.
If you remember nothing else about alignment, please remember that.
The second biggest problem in understanding alignment is to properly define the
five cores: Good, Evil, Neutrality, Law, and Chaos. All of the nine alignments
are made of some combination of these five. The first word in an alignment deals
with Law and Chaos. The second word in an alignment deals with Good and Evil
(e.g., Lawful Evil).
You would think these five cores would have deep, complex definitions. They do
not. They are so simple, I will post them right here and now.
Law - To live by a set of rules (Order)
Chaos - To live by whim and choice (Freedom)
Good - To help others (Altruism)
Evil - To help yourself at the cost of hurting others (Selfishness)
Neutrality - To maintain the balance between the other four cores
Pretty simple, huh? The real confusion comes with the word 'neutral,' however.
Because really, it has two definitions: The one given above only applies to
the True Neutral alignment. In any of the other alignments, if you see the
word 'neutral', it means, basically, 'not applicable.'
Remember I said that the first word in alignment regards Law and Chaos, and the
second word regards Good and Evil, right? So Neutral Good is not someone
who is both good and neutral. That makes no sense. No, it is someone who is
neutral regarding Law and Chaos, but is still good. In other words, Law and
Chaos hold no meaning to a Neutral Good person. Likewise, Good and Evil hold no
meaning to a Chaotic Neutral person.
Another way to look at it is that the four 'partially neutral' alignments
(Neutral Good, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Neutral and Lawful Neutral) are actually true
alignments. Think of them as True Good, True Evil, True Chaos and True Law.
Now that we have that out of the way, let's take a look at Law. Law is order. It
brings civilization and peace. However, too much law takes away choice and free
will. One of the biggest misconceptions with Law is that it only applies to
government law. This is not the case! A lawful person simply lives by a set of
rules. Whether they be the laws set down by the government, the dogma of a
church, the rules of an organization or simply a personal moral code--if a
person lives by a set of detailed rules, they are lawful.
There are three Lawful alignments: Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral, and Lawful Evil.
Lawful Neutral is the easiest alignment to play, in my opinion, because it
leaves no room for moral dilemmas. There is a clear cut, set of rules that state
what is right and wrong. Morality doesn't even play into it. For instance, a
person who believes smoking marijuana is wrong only because it's illegal
but would change their mind if it was legalized would be Lawful Neutral. For a
LN, the law (in whatever form it takes) is always right. If the law says its
okay to have slaves, then it is. If the law says murder is wrong, then it is.
Good and Evil do not come into play.
A Lawful Good person is someone who believes that law and good go hand-in-hand.
Laws are created with people's safety and well being in mind. It's against the
law to park in front of a fire hydrant, because it blocks fire engines and they
need those to save lives. Judaism states its wrong to eat pork because pork was
not all that safe to eat back then. To a Lawful Good person, society needs laws
to grow and prosper, but these laws must be there to help people. A law that
hurt people would not sit well with an LG person. LG can be hard to play,
because so often the conflict of doing what is lawful and what is moral often
creates dilemmas.
A Lawful Evil person, however, abuses the law or simply abides by laws that
benefit himself. A mafia lord may ignore government laws, but he would strictly
follow the laws he set down for his criminal buddies (hence the term,
"organized crime.") A priest who hates a particular group for personal
reasons and tries to use the teachings of his religion to persecute that group
also would be LE.
Think you have the idea so far? Let's try an example. Look at the three examples
below. Then decide whether they are Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral, or Lawful Evil.
*A lawyer who defends his client with all of his might, even though all of the
evidence shows he clearly is guilty of murder.
*A traffic cop who insists on ticketing every offense he sees, no matter how
minor or trivial it might be.
*A pastor who attempts to legislate laws from his own religion, so that
everyone--even those who don't follow his faith--will have to obey his god's
dogma
So which is which? Figure it out yet? Is it really easy or really difficult? If
you found it very easy, then guess what? You haven't been listening to a damn
word I've said. Why? Because all ready you've forgotten the one thing I told you
not to forget. MOTIVE. You cannot apply alignment to any of those three examples
unless you know why they do what they do.
Does the lawyer honestly believe every man, regardless of evidence, should get a
chance to defend himself? Or does he just want to earn some cash and prestige,
even if it means letting free a murderer? Or is he just doing his job, seeing
that the law is followed to the letter, not caring whether the man is really
guilty or innocent? Is the traffic cop so meticulous because he believes someone
might get hurt if the law isn't followed to the letter? Is he just doing his
job? Or did he have a bad day, and now he's making himself feel better by
punishing others? Does the pastor really think he's saving people's souls? Or
does he just think his way is the right way and he wishes to stomp out all
dissention? Or does he see his dogma as 'the law' and just believes that 'the
law' should always be followed, regardless of faith?
Now back to the essay. Next up is Chaos. What is Chaos? Chaos is Freedom. Chaos
is Choice: The ability to do what you want, to think what you want, to feel and
believe as you wish. However, too much chaos brings anarchy. Society crumbles
and it's every man for himself without any Law at all.
There are three Chaotic Alignments: Chaotic Good, Chaotic Neutral, and Chaotic
Evil. A Chaotic Neutral person believes that no set of rules or laws can
possibly apply to every given situation. Laws are rigid and binding and take
away freedom. He acts on whim, on instinct, or even on the roll of the dice.
Chaotic Good is someone who believes in freedom and in helping others. While LG
believes that laws are good for society, CG believes they hinder. The forces of
good should not be tied down by a set of arbitrary rules. If Good is in anyway
hindered, then Evil might just get the upper hand. Thus, CG dedicates themselves
to helping people regardless of what any law, dogma, or code states.
Chaotic Evil is someone who takes freedom to a twisted extreme. As Evil itself
is more or less, pure selfishness, throwing Chaos into the mix really makes a
volatile combination. A Chaotic Evil person believes that they should be allowed
to do whatever they want to help themselves, even at the cost of hurting others.
They abhor rules, and always want to do everything their way. This, of course,
makes it difficult for CE characters to work together.
Now let's talk Good. Good is, very simply, helping others. Many people will have
different definitions of 'Good.' But when you cut out all of the politics, Good
at its core is just helping as many people as possible. It is pure altruism.
There are three Good Alignments: Lawful Good, Neutral Good, and Chaotic Good.
Neutral Good is True Good--pure benevolence. A NG does not care about law or
chaos, order or freedom. These things do not get taken into account. All a NG
cares about is whether people are healthy, happy, and well treated. For
instance, let's say a NG came across a slave. Even if slavery is illegal, if the
slave were being well-treated, if he was happy, and if he would have no chance
of surviving on his own (he has no skills, no one would hire him), the NG would
not try to release him. Yes, the slave has no freedom and cannot make
choices--however, he'd probably die if put on the streets. Therefore, it would
be immoral to free him. On the flip side, if slavery were legal but the slave
was being beaten, starved, or worse--the NG would do everything in his power to
free the slave.
Evil is the very opposite. Evil is helping yourself by hurting others. Note the
second part. Simply helping yourself alone is not evil. Only if it brings harms
to others can it be called that. For instance, 'lying' is traditionally thought
of as being 'evil', but if I feel miserable while standing in line at the store,
and the checker asks me how I am doing and I reply "I'm fine,” obviously
I'm lying. But it hurts no one, so it cannot be called "Evil."
There are three Evil Alignments: Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, and Chaotic Evil.
Neutral Evil is True Evil, that is, pure selfishness and greed. All they care
about is themselves and how to better that. A NE might have friends, not because
he cares for them, but because he needs them. Everything an NE does is done with
a 'What's-in-it-for-me?' attitude. Law and Chaos do not come into play. An
NE would follow a law to the letter or outright break if, whichever would be in
his best interest.
That just leaves True Neutral. Neutrality is all about balance. A TN would
believe that good and evil must be balanced, as should law and chaos. Too much
of either is bad. Law requires Chaos; Good requires Evil. Too much Law is
boring, rigid, and omits free will. Too much Chaos is anarchy. Too much Good
brings prejudice and intolerance. Too much Evil brings death and suffering.
Thus, the TN takes the side of the underdog.
Let's say, as an example, a TN learns of a robbery that will take place that
evening at the museum. What does he do? If there is too much Law in that city,
he might aid the criminals. If there is too much Chaos, he might alert the
police. If there is a perfect balance, he would do nothing and simply ignore it.
And that about covers it. Lengthy, I know, but hopefully it makes things much
easier to understand. However, one should always keep in mind that our
characters, like people, are very complex things and sometimes these broad
labels cannot do them justice. Alignment is not a straitjacket, after all. It's
very possible for a LG to slip and break his code or for a NE to fall in love
and put someone else ahead of themselves. It is these situations that cause the
moral quandaries that help develop our characters--the dilemmas we must all
struggle with in our daily lives. However, if the changes become the norm (the
LG starts to ignore his code completely or the NE starts caring about everyone),
then an alignment shift occurs, which results in a nasty XP penalty.
So what happens if your character is caught up in a situation that simply cannot
be narrowed into such simplistic terms as Law, Chaos, Evil, Neutrality, and
Good? What happens when you have no idea what you should do to stay within
alignment? Easy. Just ask me, your friendly neighborhood DM. I'll help you
figure it out.
