Anderson, Moorcock, and the history of alignment

[Qenymin]

I've been thinking quite a bit about law and chaos lately. They might work into a (probably-GURPS) campaign setting that's been percolating in my head for some time. I've developed a theory about D&D alignment and I would appreciate it if some of the old-timers would confirm, refute or revise it; I only came to D&D at 3e, myself.

Since I read Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions and Moorcock's Elric series, I've come to think of the various takes on Law and Chaos as lying on a spectrum. On one end is Anderson's world, where Law and Chaos are closely associated with Good and Evil. The line then runs through Elric, where Law and Chaos are somewhat associated with morality, but ultimately independent forces. At the other end you have the 3e version (consistent with AD&D 1e and 2e, as I understand) where Law/Chaos is orthogonal to Good/Evil.

From what I've read, it sounds like D&D alignment started close to Three Hearts, moved a bit past Elric with Gygax's essay on alignment, and then blew way past Elric with 1e's 2-axis system. Is this accurate?

In that case, grognards, how did one-axis alignment affect your games? How did you construe it then and now? How did various products (e.g., Arduin) construe it? I'm curious about the history, but this also looks like a rich idea mine.

 

[RandomCitizenX]

As a long time Eternal Champion fan, I think it fair to point out the MM's take on Law and Chaos goes beyond what is presented in the Elric stories. The moral associations were really dependent on the situation and the person. In some worlds, the lords of law have a clear advantage and the world has become stagnant. In other worlds chaos has the upper world and is quickly making it uninhabitable. Sometimes the lords of Chaos are the good guys, while other times it is law.

 

[Qenymin]

You'll get no argument from me on that point. But in the context of the world Elric inhabits (most of the time), chaos is not-infrequently called evil, and that's the general association I got from his saga. MM does take care to show that this is not the same in all worlds, certainly.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

The only things I'd add are already mentioned in the Grognardia piece you linked to - that having Law/Chaos and Good/Evil as orthogonal axes was part of Gygax and Holmes' "blue box" basic set, but that there were only five permutations (Law, Chaos, Good, Evil, Neutral). What 1E AD&D added was the ability to be ranked on both axes, so that you could be Lawful Neutral etc.

Here is a post on how Jeff Rients uses Law & Chaos in his old-school game. Here's my creationist take on the concept in my White Sandbox campaign.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Louise Cooper did a fantastic series, Time Master, that featured law and chaos.

The World of Time Master | Louise Cooper

 

[Qenymin]

Here is a post on how Jeff Rients uses Law & Chaos in his old-school game. Here's my creationist take on the concept in my White Sandbox campaign.

Great stuff; this is just the sort of reply I was hoping for. Thank you.

Louise Cooper did a fantastic series, Time Master, that featured law and chaos.

Is there any place on the web that explains its take on the matter? It might find its way onto my to-read list eventually, but I'd like to mine its ideas in the mean time.