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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 9314613" data-attributes="member: 2067">And to an LG person, that's not desirable. Sacrifice for a greater cause? Perhaps. Sacrifice for another person? No, you are de-valuing yourself.This is supported in game. The Athar in Planescape play with this idea a bit, via the idea that devotion to a god is never a Good thing, even if it's for a Good god. You are more valuable than that. Respect for life means self-respect. Sacrifice violates your own value, and should never be expected or required.In a world where there must be soldiers who risk their lives, a Good person believes that a soldier's duty should not be to their king. Their duty could be to the people of their kingdom, perhaps through the method of the king. To the greater idea of peace and harmony. But the king is not more valuable than the soldier. LG might believe that the kingdom as a whole - its order, its compassion, its role as a beacon for peace in the world - is more valuable than the individual soldier. If the kingdom is up to their standards. A CG person might believe that the entire idea of a "soldier" is dehumanizing - a kingdom is not something to be loyal to, it's something to dissolve. An NG person might believe that a soldier could be committed to the greater cause, but shouldn't, like, give up too much for it. Put the mask on yourself before you put it on your king, buddy.In the Athar perspective, the god is not more valuable than the worshiper. If you value peace and harmony, the Athar would argue that the gods are demonstrably WORSE for achieving that than mortals without the gods, what with all the divine wars and disputes. This can also apply to kings and emperors, who are not exactly known for peaceful interactions with other kings or emperors.Real people don't have alignments. D&D characters do.Modern people are giving D&D characters alignments. It's a fantasy RPG. Questioning the need for a "strong king" is anti-monarchal, but it's not inherently anti-order or anti-structure.This isn't true, historically, in reality. So I wouldn't assume it to be true in our fantasy RPG."Lawful" is bigger than civil law, is bigger than any particular social structure. Kings and codes and merchants and money are all choices. Fantasy protagonists can certainly see different possible choices (and influence their societies to make better ones!).No, spoken by someone who is playing a fantasy RPG, where we only have to deal with civil wars if we want to.</blockquote>

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