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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Frostmarrow" data-source="post: 6732521" data-attributes="member: 1122">I've had a train of thought that goes something like this:There is just good and evil. Altruistic or selfserving. A sentient being is one or the other (or inbetween). Lawful and Chaotic represents a being's outlook on society. If you think society (or nature) is evil you are chaotic. If you think society is good you are lawful.This is by no means a core truth. It's just a way of looking at the ethics axis of the alignment chart.So if you are a good person that grows up in a protected town and educated and sheltered by the clergy you are probably going to grow up thinking society is good at it's heart. Lawful Good would be your alignment. However if something very bad happens to you while growing up rocking that belief it might be replaced by a sense that society in truth is malign and cold. You would become Chaotic Good.A great angry orc might be evil and he knows that society (his tribe mostly) is also evil. He would behave towards society in an adverserial untrusting manner. Chaotic Evil, if you will. Might makes right.A gnoll that stealthily lives on the outskirts of a small town might have learned that the towns-people are of no threat to him and that he can take advantage of their naïvety. Lawful Evil.Still, lets say you are a good character brought up in a monastery by warrior mystics and that one day the monastery is razed to the ground and every last man but you is killed by a vile race of humanoid monsters, you could still become Lawful Good. Your outlook on society has not changed due to this outside force, it has instead strengthened your resolve to protect what is good in the world.The model works for background:Dwarves are hardworking, honest, and fair in their dealings with others. Perhaps they are too trusting because it leads to their home being invaded and taken over by goblins. The dwarves expected the elves to aid the dwarves but alas, the trust between dwarves and elves is forever ruined.The elves on the other hand with their long life spans has witnessed how their numbers are diminishing due to a constant threat of humanoids with a complete disregard for the sanctity of life. Over millennia the elves have come to realize that nature is threatening the elven way of life on every flank. If they must chose they must protect themselves first even if it does cost them the trust of dwarves.</blockquote>

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