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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GreenTengu" data-source="post: 6886177" data-attributes="member: 6777454">Alignments are a very poor method for classifying anything. It was a terrible idea out the gate and it would have been discarded to the dustbin, but it became a sacred cow.You see, if you presuppose alignments are a thing then by all means you could create something whose behavior and actions always adhere to that particular alignment.But if once you have a character made organically-- there is almost no chance that you are going to be able to have people universally agree on the alignment of that character. Especially if it is a character who has been thrust in myriad of situations and has had to react to those situations organically based on the character's values, ideals, ethics as they struggle against the challenges presented.Generally speaking organic characters are not going to be as myopic as the alignment system tries to force characters to be.A character could be Lawful so long as the laws they have to deal with are reasonable and to their mind fair, but once things become too bureaucratic or tyrannical they might well rebel against it, particularly if the lives of themselves and those they value are impeded by these laws. And if someone lives within a tyrannical system, it might be natural for them to rebel in every small way they can. But that doesn't mean they are up for tossing the world into 100% complete anarchy-- even if they themselves initially think so. At some point when exposed to enough lawlessness they will find that the situation is unbearable and begin advocating that people at least keep their word and everyone respects each others ability to live freely, particularly within that anarchy someone else begins exercising unfair power over them and there is no social contract to prevent it.Similarly, someone might be good in all the actions they take, be ready to stand up for justice... but once you say they need to forgo clothing and shelter and subsist on nothing but mushrooms in order to avoid having negative impact on other life and bring no suffering into the world, they are probably not going to be good. And if someone wrongs them or those they care about, they might well be willing to engage in evil actions in order to reach justice.Similarly, someone might be labeled as evil because they are primarily interested only in their own enrichment and empowerment and quite content to cut corners and cause others to suffer in order to have that. But that doesn't mean they are going to stand for people causing suffering to others' eternal souls in order to summon demons and desecrate their bodies to turn into meat sack puppets to cause terror to their families... that kind of stuff is a step too far and they are going to fight to stop it.None of these should be considered indications that the character fundamentally shifted so much that their alignment needs to change. It is just that the situation was far too extreme in the direction of this simplistic division of human morality. It is just that the situation has shifted around them.It is even worse when applied to races....We know not all Dwarfs are "Lawful Good" in all their actions all the time because greed, revenge and racial hatred are part of their fundamental concept.Same thing, Elves would not be trained to use weapons and spells that cause suffering if they really were all about being good, kind and polite to all living things all the time.Similarly, if Orcs really were universally chaotic evil in every single action they ever take, there is no possible way they could exist as a people as there would never be a next generation that would be able to be born as helpless infants and somehow survive until adulthood. Where exactly are these big hordes of them coming from that adventurers are slaughtering given that apparently their alignment indicates that they should have wiped themselves completely out?</blockquote>

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