Alignments

[Cain]

This is a synopsis on the various alignments that exist. Read well, and apply these as needed during your writings as you feel needed.

When looking at the currently existing character alignments we see many, many combinations now. To start, there are two classes to consider when applying a character's alignment. The Alignment itself, and the Alignment Modifier.

The alignment of a character falls into one of four categories. These four alignments are Good, Evil, Neutral, and Stupid. While the alignments themselves are extremely complex, they all have at least one thing that even with circumstance and modifiers in mind keeps them consistent across all genre. To boil it down, the four alignments below have a focus in their execution in regards to story telling:

• Good: A 'good' character generally focuses on the world. They feel that they should be a help to as many people as circumstance, modifier, and personal code allows.
  
• Evil: An 'evil' character is typically focused on themselves. Detrimental effects may vary upon the world at large, but evil characters are largely self-focused.
  
• Neutral: A 'neutral' character focuses on what is close to them. Outside of taking care of themselves and their own they don't care about anything.
  
• Stupid: A 'stupid' character doesn't have focus. They seem to jump between alignments rapidly and without reason
  

Alignment Modifiers on the other hand, determine what 'branch' of alignment a character is. The four modifiers are Lawful, Chaotic, Neutral, and Stupid.

• Lawful: Representative of Honorable characters and characters obedient of the law. Lawful characters believe implicitly in order and its importance in society.
  
• Chaotic: Representative of Selfish Characters who only respect their own judgement. Chaotic characters believe in freedom against rule of law and rebel against the status-quo.
  
• Neutral: Representative of Characters who do not fit comfortably fit under wither category, or act as agents of balance between the forces.
  
• Stupid: Representative of Characters who carry out their beliefs regardless of alignment, code, situation, and with no regard for context or consequence.
  

With these defined, lets look at the general alignments and their modifiers in the order of Lawful-> Chaotic-> Neutral-> Stupid.



Lawful

Lawful Good
Law is good-- the first rule of being lawful good. Order and its rigidness provide safety and context for morality, and that by upholding the law before all else goodness is done. These are the very typical fellows who believe in truth, justice, and maybe take it a little too far. Likely, a lawful good character is altruistic and believes in order for the sake of progression.

Lawful Evil
Evil in order, often the most successful kind of evil which can make it all the more terrifying. This can be because they believe heavily in keeping order at any cost, seeing at as the ultimate form of society. Sometimes, its because systems of Law and Order are far more predictable and thus much easier to exploit. However, most of the time Lawful Evil characters develop a rigid Code of Honor and are extremely reliable when depended upon. In a situation where a character is not a threat to them, they are not terribly dangerous.

Lawful Neutral
Law is more important that simply being 'Good' or 'Evil' to this character. Justice is not their concern, nor is fairness of the law. They simply enforce it. They aren't hostile towards law breakers, nor do they revere the law above man. Rather, they simply strongly support the governing body itself for one reason or another.

Lawful Stupid
This is what happens when the Lawful modifier is taken so far beyond reason that it corrupts the alignment originally intended to have been. A result of poor writing (or perhaps excellent writing), Lawful Stupid characters have an obsession with the law. The law is scripture. The law is infallible. The law is god, for all it matters to them, and even saying harsh words can result in them declaring themselves a walking judicial process whose judgement and perception of the law is absolutely above reproach.


Chaotic

Chaotic Good
Rebels are usually chaotic good, those brave souls who oppose tyrants and oppression. Usually, they believe rigid structures like order get in the way of doing good and willingly cast them aside, acting on impulse and disregarding law to benefit others. Sometimes, they even directly challenge the law to stop them because of their highly idealistic nature.

Chaotic Evil
A truly free spirit, with a twist. A chaotic evil person is completely concerned with themselves, and totally disregards those around them. They do things regardless of who they hurt and sometimes explicitly for the reason of causing pain. Sometimes, these characters will go so far out of their way to break the law it defies sanity. However, most people who are Chaotic Evil are actually more than just sane- they are highly intelligent, calculating, and don't need to slaughter an entire village to make their points (though expect them to casually commit murder on a bad day).

Chaotic Neutral
These characters are all about freedom, and morality can suck it. Sometimes, they can be amoral nuts or normal people with wild sides that rage out of control. This character alignment is generally unpredictable, though they have logical limits in that they focus on what matters to them explicitly, and tangentially in a few cases as well.

Chaotic Stupid
This character is less about freedom and more about embracing the very tenants of insanity and bringing them to life. This character is as likely to hug you as kill you, and likely can without provocation or much time passing decide to do neither or both. Characteristic of these characters is a compulsion to prove their own insanity by practically any means they can devise. Whether this is treachery, murder, theft, or mere pranks depends on the character.


Neutral

Neutral Good
This character is the baseline for most Good Characters. Representing kindness, mercy, and light these characters believe that doing good is more important than upholding the law, but believe that the law itself is not a wholly terrible thing. Just think of a generally nice person.

Neutral Evil
Primarily, these characters are invested in whatever suits them at the moment. They could have fallen to the dark side, or may just be sociopaths looking for something to do. However, above all else, these characters are entirely selfish, and no matter what tend to look out for themselves.

Neutral Neutral (True Neutral)
Characters that have completely forsaken morality, order, and chaos. Usually they are types obsessed with keeping some kind of balance in the universe and side with whatever side of the conflict best suits that perspective. In other cases, they just don't care. For reference, Animals tend to be True Neutral, as does Nature alongside other cosmic forces such as the aspect of Death.

Neutral Stupid
This character is completely predictable,because no matter what they will never, ever take a side even their own. They fail to have even the most basic instincts of self preservation, to the point that were they in a position to move from in front of a speeding truck they would stand and stare as it hit them and ended their life. This is the alignment of most things (living and not) that lack consciousness. When applied to sentient life, this usually only applies to Mortals.


Stupid

Stupid Good
A stupid good character is so good, so kind, and so loving they usually have an inability to comprehend that a person they've met might actually not be good. A friend to everything, usually, even things that maybe shouldn't have friends. This person will be a pacifist that attempts to talk down a charging army and has no way of not dying, or even considered that the action could kill them. Good is not dumb, but this aspect of it certainly is.

Stupid Evil
A character who is stupid evil commits evil for its own sake, even at times wildly inappropriate for themselves. These characters will betray, murder, and even assault stronger villains to prove themselves more evil to the point of suicide. Remember, evil characters are self-absorbed, and acting against their own interests without a plan or reason firmly puts them in this alignment.

Stupid Neutral
This character is so militantly neutral that they can not distinguish between friend and foe. This person plays on the weaker side of a conflict, and the moment things tip in his team's favor he will immediately betray them to the other side so that things stay "fair". Some think that there has to be a cosmic balance between the amount of good done and the amount of evil done. Expect this person to arbitrarily commit crimes and sew good deeds with this logic in mind, trying to bring forth some ultimate form of equilibrium.

Stupid Stupid (True Stupid)
This character is an idiot. No, wait, they're crazy. No, wait. They're both. As impossible as it seems these characters change personalities like a normal person changes their socks. Expect them to never act the same from moment to moment, to the point that reading about this character just leads to confusion, detachment, and ultimately disinterest. They exhibit no rhyme or reason to their activities, and often come off as insane even if they aren't supposed to. These characters frequently engage in activities that have absolutely no basis in any existing sort of logic or ultimate point aside from simply doing them. Usually, these characters will have an alignment that doesn't exist in the realm of human classification, granting them a foriegn type of morality that nobody understands (although, that's usually an excuse for poor writing).