Can You Guys Help Me Get My Head Around Chaotic Neutral? Now with Bonus Material!

[Herremann the Wise]

Hello Everyone,

My campaign has taken an unexpected twist to the Plane of Shadow and in particular The City of Onyx (as detailed in the book: Tome of Magic). Here the Khayal genies led by their Malik rule - although the city itself is very cosmopolitan. Essentially I'm looking to flesh the city out so the PCs can spend an interesting session or two there. So if you know of any sources that may help me with this, that would be really appreciated.

However, my main issue is the predominant alignment of the Khayal is chaotic neutral. On the one hand, I'm really not too sure how appropriate this is as an alignment given their description but on the other, I feel like it's my duty to play along with it and make it an interesting experience for the players.

So, what makes a society such as the City of Onyx work if the predominant alignment is chaotic neutral? Is there any sane way of playing, planning and organising this effectively?

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

Just an addendum:

Firstly, thank you everyone for responding in such a considered way. I really appreciate your thoughts and efforts.

When I posted the original post, I deliberately left out specific details so as to get a general view of a chaotic neutral "society" - by society, I mean purely having numerous people/creatures in proximity. Now though, I thought I'd post an excerpt from the Tome of Magic for more specific opinion on the matter.

The Khayal and the City of Onyx​

This being appears to be a muscled, wiry human. His skin is a dark and dusky grey; his beard, pants, and vest of deepest black. His eyes appear empty, naught but tunnels into the darkest night.

The Khayal dwell apart from the rest of geniekind, who they view with varying degrees of antipathy. They are particularly hostile toward the Jann, with whom they have fought a hidden and sporadic war for eons. Just as the Jann are genies formed of all four elements, sages postulate that the first Khayal were elemental spirits that materialized outside the four elements. Lacking any form at all, they drifted around the periphery of genie society, until they finally bonded their emptiness with the shadow of the elements. Whether this theory is accurate or not, it is undeniable that the Khayal consider themselves apart from others of their kind.

Khayal look down upon most other races, including humans and other humanoids. They think of these creatures as weak and delight in deceiving them. Deception is a fine art among the Khayal, who seem to have dishonesty in their blood. They are consummate liars, but tradition demands that should a “lesser being” ever confront one of the Khayal with irrefutable proof that the individual has lied to him, the genie must then perform a service for that individual in penance for being found out. Of course, some Khayal cleave to this tradition with greater devotion than others. On occasion, the Khayal offer to assist mortals who have impressed them – often with their own abilities of deception – or those with whom they share a common goal. In such circumstances, the Khayal always assumes a leadership role, and might be surprised that the others don’t simple accept him as a superior.

Khayal are usually the size of tall humans. Each speaks common, any one elemental language and any one alignment language.

Khayal are courageous and swift combatants, confident of their prowess and easily offended. They consider the concept of a fair fight to be a ludicrous one and make frequent use of their spell-like abilities, sneak attacks, and ambush tactics. Khayal are willing to retreat in the face of a losing struggle, but they find flight humiliating and hold grudges against those who drive them to it.

Most Khayal make their homes in the City of Onyx on the Plane of Shadow. This is a community of twisted spires and high minarets, protruding in all directions and paying no heed to the laws of architecture or physics. The Malik al-Khayal, the King of Shadows, rules the Khayal from the Grand Palace of Endings. The city’s marketplaces bustle with all manner of races and travellers, individuals who make use of the Plane of Shadow as a byway between other planes, but the centre of the city is off limits to non-Khayal.

The Khayal penchant for deception does not extend to their own race. A Khayal thinks nothing of deceiving a human, an elf, or a member of one of the other genie races, but he never lies to another Khayal. Gender is a relative non-issue among the Khayal; the City of Onyx makes few distinctions between its male and female citizens.

Other Khayal communities exist across the Plane of Shadow. They operate on similar principles, although their rulers usually claim the title of Emir. Nobody but the true King can claim the title of Malik.

Essentially, how do you think the City of Onyx would work in regards to the Khayal's alignment of Chaotic Neutral? Does CN even fit the description given?

 

[mhacdebhandia]

A distrust of authority and an insistence on individual freedoms almost to the point of anarchy. This doesn't mean that chaotic neutral characters won't follow a leader, just that they'll only a follow a leader as long as his decisions seem to make sense, or when it's clear that the character doesn't have the expertise or experience necessary to deal with a situation alone.

They certainly won't cede authority to anyone who hasn't proved they deserve it. "You have to earn my respect" would be a common sentiment, but that respect will be given once it's been judged to have been earned.

Extreme libertarianism, perhaps, of the "If I have a sign up saying No Trespassers, I have the perfect right to shoot trespassers dead" variety, might apply.

Show a chaotic neutral person a social structure, and they'll ask why people can't sort it out between themselves. Volunteer militias rather than government-run police forces will take care of crime and whatnot.

The expectation that people will be able to take care of themselves will be nigh-on absolute. If you have a problem with someone pushing you around, either figure out how to defeat them or find someone who will help you.

Victimless crimes will be perfectly legal: drug use, prostitution, et cetera.

 

[Mark CMG]

Well, looking at what the game suggests is the definition, one might believe that a group all of this make up would be unlikely to found any organized group, despite not being prone to disrupt one.

Chaotic Neutral, “Free Spirit”
A chaotic neutral character follows his whims. He is an individualist first and last. He values his own liberty but doesn’t strive to protect others’ freedom. He avoids authority, resents restrictions, and challenges traditions. A chaotic neutral character does not intentionally disrupt organizations as part of a campaign of anarchy. To do so, he would have to be motivated either by good (and a desire to liberate others) or evil (and a desire to make those different from himself suffer). A chaotic neutral character may be unpredictable, but his behavior is not totally random. He is not as likely to jump off a bridge as to cross it.
Chaotic neutral is the best alignment you can be because it represents true freedom from both society’s restrictions and a do-gooder’s zeal.

However, if there is nothing within any one of a group of people that goes toward bringing them together as a group and keeping them together as a group, then look toward some outside source.

 

[trollwad]

There are many ways to play any alignment, including CN. One way is to become ID Boy. That's right, have a very low threshhold of self restraint. Want to smuggle some gems, sure why not. Want to uphold your promise and be generous, sounds great. Its because you want to, no external authority or morality has too much influence.

 

[sckeener]

You might try Heinlein's Rational Anarchy.

here's an exerpt from The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress

De La Paz states that he is a rational anarchist:

“A rational anarchist believes that concepts such as ‘state’ and ‘society’ and ‘government’ have no existence save as physically exemplified in the acts of self-responsible individuals. He believes that it is impossible to shift blame, share blame, distribute blame . . . as blame, guilt, responsibility are matters taking place inside human beings singly and nowhere else. But being rational, he knows that not all individuals hold his evaluations, so he tries to live perfectly in an imperfect world . . . aware that his effort will be less than perfect yet undismayed by self-knowledge of self-failure.”

Mannie: “Hear, hear!” I said. “‘Less than perfect.’ What I’ve been aiming for all my life.”

“You’ve achieved it,” said Wyoh. “Professor, your words sound good but there is something slippery about them. Too much power in the hands of individuals—surely you would not want . . well, H-missiles for example—to be controlled by one irresponsible person?”
Prof: “My point is that one person is responsible. Always. If H-bombs exist—and they do—some man controls them. In terms of morals there is no such thing as a ‘state.’ Just men. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts.”
​

 

[Slife]

I think the third PotC movie has a good example of a CN society.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

The important line from the description to remember is "A chaotic neutral character may be unpredictable, but his behavior is not totally random. He is not as likely to jump off a bridge as to cross it." A CN person is neither insane nor stupid. They are capable of enlightened self interest like everyone else, can form or follow a plan, can think about the future and assess consequences of their actions.

A society of CNs might be interesting in that leadership roles could be veiwed more as positions of responsibility than positions of power and grudgingly accepted for short periods of time on a lottery basis. I'm thinking of something like The Invisibles, where a group of chaotics, for chaos, nonetheless has to work as a team - to shake things up they occasionally randomly reassign their duties in the group, including the leadership role.

They could also be distinctly non-heirarchical - if you ask "who's in charge?" you get the answer (at best) "Of what?" If the group tells the person what their distinct concern is (defense, medicine, trade) they get a person who can help them. But the idea of one single person "in charge" would be absent. The Buck Stops Here... And Here... And Over There If Its Religious....

 

[pawsplay]

Most large projects would be recruited for rather than mandated. "Let's build a wall around the city" could take a long time, since the residents would be disinclined to have or be slaves or underpaid laborers. But it will happen, if enough people think it's useful.

Leaders and officials have lots of power. They exercise their personal judgment regularly, and expect to be personally obeyed, whatever the the law or precedent might say precisely. Their power tends to be directly proportional to the need for protection or order at that point in time.

Some times, people will seem to be able to get away with murder. Other times, someone could get hanged for stealing a goat. It all depends on who's involved, public sentiment, persuasive ability, and above all, context.

Tolerance means tolerance for other beliefs, including law. In fact, since a chaotic alignment is unfazed by contradiction, otherwise chaotic people will dabble in beliefs or behavior that resemble another alignment.

Zen Buddhism is a good example of a philosophical system that resembles Chaotic Neutral. Jeffersonian government is Chaotic Neutral, as is Roosevelt's "bully pulpit" system. Many 20th century revolutionaries/dictators are fairly CN in outlook. The Gold Rush towns are an example of a CN society. The Jazz Era is an example of a CN alignment becoming a more dominant way of thinking. The fairies from Legend are an example of CN creatures. Oscar Wilde is a good example of a CN historical figure.

 

[sckeener]

Most large projects would be recruited for rather than mandated. "Let's build a wall around the city" could take a long time, since the residents would be disinclined to have or be slaves or underpaid laborers. But it will happen, if enough people think it's useful.

not residents.... They might not be good at building walls. All that rational anarchy means is that if enough people care about something they will get it done. Most likely in the case of building a wall, they would raise enough money to hire someone to build it.

 

[JustKim]

Chaotic Neutral organization is working in an office.

Everyone shows up because it is necessary, but have very little to do with one another because they are all individuals and everyone else is The Hive. Contempt for authority figures is cultivated at all levels from janitor to middle management. Every rule is broken at regular intervals to see what you can get away with, and every week you will see someone doing something idiotic that could easily result in firing, like stealing hats out of the coat room. On the cohesive whole, it seems to be a productive organization of professional people, but every one of us is Chaotic Neutral.