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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 5534756" data-attributes="member: 26473">There's no reason chaotic good beings can't, or won't, take prisoners.The difference between lawful and chaotic in this instance is where the authority to imprison comes from. In a lawful society, it comes from duly-constituted institutions, such as king's magistrates; in a chaotic society, it's vested in the judgement of a respected individual like an elder or a chief.I'm not going to interpret the rules of a game in terms of real-world moral and ethical considerations. That way lies madness.All else being equal, a good-aligned watchman shouts, "Who goes there?" and attempts to take a miscreant prisoner if possible. A neutral-aligned watchman does what's expedient. An evil-aligned watchman may shoot first and ask questions later, or never. All of this gets shaded by the influence of law and chaos on the watchman's alignment.Good-aligned beings take life in the protection of life. That doesn't mean they do it proscriptively, or preemptively, or indiscriminately, however.The taking of prisoners isn't affected by alignment - the treatment of prisoners is.That's a social more which can be found in any alignment on the law-chaos axis; it has nothing to do with good or evil.If the good-aligned ruler of a kingdom felt that gaining control over another largely good-aligned kingdom would improve the quality of life for the latter, he has a number of other means at his disposal, such as politicking the dynastic succession, like backing a rival claimant or marrying into the dynasty.Good-aligned beings act with restraint because of their respect for life. Evil beings do not show this same restraint.And I'm done threadjacking; the last word is yours to take.</blockquote>

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