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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9366825" data-attributes="member: 42582">Here is Gygax on CN (PHB p 33, DMG p 24):Above respect for life and good, or disregard for life and promotion of evil, the chaotic neutral places randomness and disorder. Good and evil are complimentary balance arms. Neither are preferred, nor must either prevail, for ultimate chaos would then suffer.

This view of the cosmos holds that absolute freedom is necessary. Whether the individual exercising such freedom chooses to do good or evil is of no concern. After all, life itself is law and order, so death is a desirable end. Therefore, life can only be justified as a tool by which order is combatted, and in the end it too will pass into entropy.The CN does not uphold good (life, truth, beauty) nor seek to promote evil (ie unfettered pursuit of one's own selfish ends). They value absolute freedom, randomness and entropy/disorder.Whether or not they lie would seem to be like whether or not they take life seriously - truth-telling and lying are both tools by which order is combatted.[USER=59]@Old Fezziwig[/USER] is correct to say that, within the Gygaxian framework, when a CN person does lie than they are using evil rather than good as their tool to combat order.As per the PHB, LE scorn truth. It seems to me that someone who scorns truth will freely lie.The idea that lawfulness and truth are connected, wherever it comes from, doesn't seem to me to be set out in the AD&amp;D core books.Scanlon's What We Owe To Each Other. I'm thinking of his discussion of the difference between promising, and swearing on the Reindeer Code.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9366825, member: 42582"] Here is Gygax on CN (PHB p 33, DMG p 24): [indent]Above respect for life and good, or disregard for life and promotion of evil, the chaotic neutral places randomness and disorder. Good and evil are complimentary balance arms. Neither are preferred, nor must either prevail, for ultimate chaos would then suffer. This view of the cosmos holds that absolute freedom is necessary. Whether the individual exercising such freedom chooses to do good or evil is of no concern. After all, life itself is law and order, so death is a desirable end. Therefore, life can only be justified as a tool by which order is combatted, and in the end it too will pass into entropy.[/indent] The CN does not uphold good (life, truth, beauty) nor seek to promote evil (ie unfettered pursuit of one's own selfish ends). They value absolute freedom, randomness and entropy/disorder. Whether or not they lie would seem to be like whether or not they take life seriously - truth-telling and lying are both tools by which order is combatted. [USER=59]@Old Fezziwig[/USER] is correct to say that, within the Gygaxian framework, when a CN person [I]does[/I] lie than they are using evil rather than good as their tool to combat order. As per the PHB, LE scorn truth. It seems to me that someone who scorns truth will freely lie. The idea that lawfulness and truth are connected, wherever it comes from, doesn't seem to me to be set out in the AD&D core books. Scanlon's [I]What We Owe To Each Other[/I]. I'm thinking of his discussion of the difference between promising, and swearing on the Reindeer Code. [/QUOTE]

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