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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hexmage-EN" data-source="post: 8039680" data-attributes="member: 79428">For me the final say on alignments is "how do the planar embodiments of these alignments behave?" This sets the standard for what the fullest expression of an alignment is.For Lawful Evil you have the devils. They all exist in the kingdom of the Nine Hells. Asmodeus is at the very top of the hierarchy, his archdukes are granted a measure of his power to control their layers, and all devils below Asmodeus have someone to answer to. It is a crime for even greater devils to destroy lesser devils without reasonable cause because all devils are made from souls that are the property of Asmodeus. Devils exist in this hierarchy and follow the strict, consistent system of the Hells because it provides stability and because they want to benefit from it and the power Asmodeus provides his underlings themselves.For Chaotic Evil you have the demons. Unlike the Nine Hells, there are an unknowable number of Abyssal layers. Demons can advance in power and attain greater forms like devils, but this is only a superficial similarity. Whereas devils are promoted, demons may metamorphose by collecting spiritual energy through killing, forcing other demons into subservience under threat of true death, or even by seemingly random infusions of power granted by the Abyss itself. Multiple cities exist throughout the Abyss, but these are primarily located in the Abyssal layers controlled by three of the most powerful demon lords: Demogorgon, Orcus, and Graz'zt. The denizens of these cities obey not out of a belief in a system that they can gain power through as the devils do, but because they have been cowed into subservience by more powerful demons who desire populations that collectively send them spiritual energy and can be deployed in attacking and defending against rival demon lords. The laws of these cities are not strictly codified and amount to whatever the lord of the layer demands at the time, usually with little protection for weaker demons beyond what stronger demons may provide in exchange for the weaker demon's subservience.To digress a little, I think the main problem with alignment is that examples of each alignment are vague, generalized, and don't include a way to indicate just how strong a character's tie to that alignment is.However, this is something the Third Edition Dungeon Master's Guide did to describe the various planes. To use a random example, a given plane's alignment wasn't just given as  "Lawful Good", but as "mildly law-aligned, strongly good-aligned". Hypothetically this is something that could have been done with characters and creatures, perhaps by bolding whichever part of the given alignment had the most impact on the subject's behavior (for the character I'm playing in a campaign now, I think I'd use this idea to express his alignment as Chaotic Neutral).Alternatively, the traditional alignments could be accompanied with a number of more specific examples for how a character of that alignment might act, such as in this example I posted before:[ATTACH=full]123887[/ATTACH]If I take this standard into consideration, I'd list my current character's alignment as "Chaotic Neutral, Opportunist". This character doesn't trust authority but will consult with authority figures if he thinks it will give him useful information or resources (however, he also takes whatever he's told with a grain of salt and isn't particularly inclined to repay the aid of authority figures, trying to get whatever he can from them and giving as little as possible). For fiends, under such a standard I'd define the average demon as "Chaotic Evil, Survivor" and the average devil as "Lawful Evil, Defender" while within the Hells or societies similar to it and "Lawful Evil, Enforcer" everywhere else.</blockquote>

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