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<blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 905423" data-attributes="member: 3146">I don't think that the D&amp;D combination of Law/Chaos and good/evil alignments actually works. In Moorcock's books, for instance, there is no good/evil axis that I could discern. As far as I could tell the absence of any kind of external moral order seemed to be a part of the underlying premise (permitting the pseudomoral law-chaos conflict to take center stage).So, I don't think there is any law/chaos axis to &quot;figure out.&quot; Just pick something, explain it to your players or run it past your DM, and run with it. Just realize that any consistent choice you make will force a re-evaluation of traditional alignment understanding. For instance, law is traditionally associated with both the rule of law--the idea that people are ruled by laws rather than men--and the idea of honor. However, to the extent that there is a correspondence between the two ideas, it seems to be negative. So, if one wishes to retain the honor=law connection, one will come to the conclusion that traditional cultures tend to be more lawful than modern ones.But even so, the only real alternative to revising traditional law/chaos associations according to a somewhat arbitrary definition is doing what I do and completely relativizing law and chaos--no magical detection of magical effects relate to it and it is solely a concept for players to hang their character concepts on.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Elder-Basilisk, post: 905423, member: 3146"] I don't think that the D&D combination of Law/Chaos and good/evil alignments actually works. In Moorcock's books, for instance, there is no good/evil axis that I could discern. As far as I could tell the absence of any kind of external moral order seemed to be a part of the underlying premise (permitting the pseudomoral law-chaos conflict to take center stage). So, I don't think there is any law/chaos axis to "figure out." Just pick something, explain it to your players or run it past your DM, and run with it. Just realize that any consistent choice you make will force a re-evaluation of traditional alignment understanding. For instance, law is traditionally associated with both the rule of law--the idea that people are ruled by laws rather than men--and the idea of honor. However, to the extent that there is a correspondence between the two ideas, it seems to be negative. So, if one wishes to retain the honor=law connection, one will come to the conclusion that traditional cultures tend to be more lawful than modern ones. But even so, the only real alternative to revising traditional law/chaos associations according to a somewhat arbitrary definition is doing what I do and completely relativizing law and chaos--no magical detection of magical effects relate to it and it is solely a concept for players to hang their character concepts on. [/QUOTE]

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