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Worlds of Design: Chaotic Neutral is the Worst
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<blockquote data-quote="Jay Verkuilen" data-source="post: 7816075" data-attributes="member: 6873517"><p>As a friend of mine described his cat once, I think "beneath good and evil" captures that. However, I'm not sure that's what True Neutral is. TN requires a choice whereas most animals don't actually make a choice. 4E added the idea of "Unaligned" as being a reasonable alignment for sentient creatures and I do think that's not a crazy alignment for many people IRL. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Lawful Evil isn't hard to come up with. The characteristic is a belief in a hierarchy but focus on dominance and cruelty. Organized criminals are a very good example. There are plenty of others, though. I think many people in the era of chattel slavery in the United States would have qualified and I'm also very sure that that type of person shows up in the right kind of bureaucratic organization pretty often. </p><p></p><p>Chaotic Good is also not especially hard to come up with. I've met folks I think qualify. They're the types who "commit random acts of kindness" but really can't abide being in an organization. </p><p></p><p>It's tricky perhaps to find an example of True Neutral IRL but one way to think of it might be in the concept of "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_of_power_(international_relations)#History" target="_blank">Balance of Power</a>." For example, during the 18th and 19th Centuries British diplomacy in Europe was very oriented around the notion that no Great Power should become too powerful on the continent. (I'm not saying "Perfidious Albion" wasn't seeking their own advantage. Clearly they were.) </p><p></p><p>Someone who's TN in a world with transcendent, supernatural powers might consider that the victory of any aligned power would be horrible for humanity. In the World of Greyhawk, the Circle of Eight represents this notion as they are actively concerned with seeing any of the powers get too big and start off a continent-wide war. It also fits well with a Moorcock-ian kind of notion of the Cosmic Balance. I'm currently playing a character who's aligned to the Balance in a now fairly high leveled game, having seen the consequences of what happens to worlds when either Chaos or Law become too powerful.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jay Verkuilen, post: 7816075, member: 6873517"] As a friend of mine described his cat once, I think "beneath good and evil" captures that. However, I'm not sure that's what True Neutral is. TN requires a choice whereas most animals don't actually make a choice. 4E added the idea of "Unaligned" as being a reasonable alignment for sentient creatures and I do think that's not a crazy alignment for many people IRL. Lawful Evil isn't hard to come up with. The characteristic is a belief in a hierarchy but focus on dominance and cruelty. Organized criminals are a very good example. There are plenty of others, though. I think many people in the era of chattel slavery in the United States would have qualified and I'm also very sure that that type of person shows up in the right kind of bureaucratic organization pretty often. Chaotic Good is also not especially hard to come up with. I've met folks I think qualify. They're the types who "commit random acts of kindness" but really can't abide being in an organization. It's tricky perhaps to find an example of True Neutral IRL but one way to think of it might be in the concept of "[URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_of_power_(international_relations)#History']Balance of Power[/URL]." For example, during the 18th and 19th Centuries British diplomacy in Europe was very oriented around the notion that no Great Power should become too powerful on the continent. (I'm not saying "Perfidious Albion" wasn't seeking their own advantage. Clearly they were.) Someone who's TN in a world with transcendent, supernatural powers might consider that the victory of any aligned power would be horrible for humanity. In the World of Greyhawk, the Circle of Eight represents this notion as they are actively concerned with seeing any of the powers get too big and start off a continent-wide war. It also fits well with a Moorcock-ian kind of notion of the Cosmic Balance. I'm currently playing a character who's aligned to the Balance in a now fairly high leveled game, having seen the consequences of what happens to worlds when either Chaos or Law become too powerful. [/QUOTE]
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