GuardianLurker
Adventurer
I remember these discussions from back in the day. Gygax even chimed in once in one of his dragon columns if I recall correctly. Monte Cook's Book of Hallowed Might has a great discussion about it.
The "True Balance" Neutral is one option - it was the stance of the 1e druids, officially. And they can make great opponents, and story-worthy untrustworthy allies.
There's also the Blue/Orange neutral axis - where Law V. Chaos and Good V. Evil just aren't part of the world view. Heck Blue/Orange might also have independent axises of Plaid/Solid and Stripes/Dots.
Both of these are completely drowned out by the other neutral faction - "I don't care." Often compounded with "Leave me alone. (And I'll leave you alone.)" These are the people who don't make great and important moral or ethical choices, who don't have a great or important impact on the World, and the ones that the Great Powers of the World tend to ignore.
Note that "Doesn't" or "Won't" is very different from "Can not". The latter is the realm of the non-sapient; animals, beasts, and other mindless beings (like skeletons and golems). Which is another way of saying that to me "Unaligned" is not the same as "Neutrally Aligned".
The "True Balance" Neutral is one option - it was the stance of the 1e druids, officially. And they can make great opponents, and story-worthy untrustworthy allies.
There's also the Blue/Orange neutral axis - where Law V. Chaos and Good V. Evil just aren't part of the world view. Heck Blue/Orange might also have independent axises of Plaid/Solid and Stripes/Dots.
Both of these are completely drowned out by the other neutral faction - "I don't care." Often compounded with "Leave me alone. (And I'll leave you alone.)" These are the people who don't make great and important moral or ethical choices, who don't have a great or important impact on the World, and the ones that the Great Powers of the World tend to ignore.
Note that "Doesn't" or "Won't" is very different from "Can not". The latter is the realm of the non-sapient; animals, beasts, and other mindless beings (like skeletons and golems). Which is another way of saying that to me "Unaligned" is not the same as "Neutrally Aligned".