The Nine Alignments

The Nine Alignments are an important part of various Artograchian religions, and are also an important game mechanic.

Lawful Good
Lawful Good characters act like you would expect a good, law-abiding person to behave. In the fight against evil, they are devoted, disciplined and bereft mercy. They do not lie, they keep their promises, they help those in need, and they raise their voice against injustice. The Lawful Good character cannot watch a crime go unpunished with a good conscience.

Lawful Good characters frequently have internal conflicts between lawfullness and goodness - they would very much like those two to be one and the same, but sadly, there will always be cases when they will have to choose between injustice in the name of the law, and breaking the law in the name of justice.

The best example to a Lawful Good character would be a policeman, who (somwhat naively) believes that his work is genuinely creating a better, more beautiful, and definitely safer world. Another good example would be a just king, who makes laws that defend the weak from the bullies. Sometimes, Lawful Good characters interprete laws a little bit more strictly than necessarily, often making the mistake of valuing the letter of the law over the spirit of the law, which is the way towards being Lawful Neutral.

The best part of being Lawful Good is the combination of honesty with mercy.

Neutral Good
Neutral Good is someone who does the best of what a good person can do. His or her life goal is to help others. They can work for kings and great wizards, but they don't feel beholden to these people. Natural Good is often called "True Good". Just like the Lawful Good character, the Neutral Good character also strives to uphold the written laws and the ethos that are related to them, but unlike them, he or she does not seek to enforce them letter by letter, instead taking much more value in the spirit of the law, allowing him or her to creatively reinterpret the meaning of the laws to harmonize them with his or her own internal moral compass - this is in sharp contrast with Chaotic Good characters and their tendency to completely disregard the laws in favor of their own internal moral compasses.

The best example to a Neutral Good character would be your well-intentioned Average Joe or Jane, who helps whoever he or she can, and even actively takes part in the fight against evil, but only resorts to illegal means when desperate times call for desperate measures, "for the greater good".

The best part about being Neutral Good is being able to do good without really making a commitment about being for or against the existing social order.

Chaotic Good
Chaotic Good characters do what their conscience dictates, and they disregard what others are expecting of them. They go their own ways, but with kindness and good intentions. They believe in goodness and rights, but they do not see much value in laws and rules. They utterly loathe when people try to apply fear on their friends, or try to thell them what they have to do. They follow their own internal moral compasses through and through, which while definitely drives them to the path of good, it doesn't always align with social expectations - and definitely not with the written laws.

The best example of a Chaotic Good character would be a good-hearted thief, who steals from the rich to give to the poor; a wandering well-doer who heals the sick and gives food to the hungry; a wandering good-hearted warrior who spits on the laws as he frees the slaves and those living under tyranny. To cut to the chase: Chaotic Good characters don't really care about the laws, as they seem them as tools of oppression and tyranny.

The best part about being Chaotic Good is the fact that it unites having a good heart with having free will.

Lawful Neutral
Lawful Neutral characters act the way laws, traditions or even their own personal moral codexes dictate. They always respect order and organization. They can believe both in the idea of personal order, living according to one's own rules, as well as the kind of organization important for everyone - either way, they feel comfortable in a strong, governed and well-regulated system. They are oftne referred to as "True Lawful".

The best example for a Lawful Neutral character would be a policeman, who wants to have every single law, from letter to letter, to be enforced, and doesn't care about how many innocents have to suffer because of this. They are still to be contrasted with Lawful Evil however - Lawful Evil characters relish in the suffering of the innocent, while Lawful Neutral characters do not. In fact, Lawful Neutral characters might even try their best to do everything in their power to minimize the amount of suffering the innocent must endure in the name of the law, but still - the laws are the laws, and the laws stand above everyone. Another good example for a Lawful Neutral "character" would be a dog, who follows its master's every single order.

The best thing about being Lawful Neutral is that one can be both reliable and honourable without being considered a fanatic.

Neutral Neutral
Neutral Neutral characters do what seems to be a good idea at the time. They lack any strong motivation to make a commitment towards either of the sides, whether the choice is between good and evil, or between lawful and chaotic. This neutrality more often means unpretentiousness and a lack of biases and prejudices than true commitment towards neutrality itself. While they would still prefer to have "good" neighbours over evil-aligned ones, and would still very much prefer to be ruled by a good king than an evil tyrant, they still refuse to make a commitment towards the maintenance of the rule of any kind of "good" that is defined by a universal, abstract principle.

Off course, a small minority of Neutral Neutral characters intentionally chose and commit towards neutrality on a philosophical basis. They view "good", "evil", "lawful" and "chaotic" as dangerous extremes, and neutrality as the golden middle-road, which they view as much more balanced on the long run. Neutral Neutral characters are also known as "True Neutral".

The advantage of being Neutral Neutral is the opportunity to be without forcing effects and biases.

Chaotic Neutral
Chaotic Neutral characters go after their own heads. They are individualists trough and trough. They value their own freedom very much, and sometimes fight for the freedom of others as well. They avoid the authorities, and are very much upset when they are forbidden from something. They highly doubt the strength of traditions. Despite all of this however, Chaotic Neutral characters do not strive to destroy organization as members of an anarchist movement - to do this, they would need some kind of motivation either from the good side (which would make them Chaotic Good) or the evil side (which would make them Chaotic Evil) - instead, they prefer to live by the principle "live and let live". They are also known as "True Chaotic".

It is important to note that the behaviour of Chaotic Neutral characters is very often unpredictable, but this does not mean that it's completely arbitrary: the chances of them jumping off a bridge is still smaller than the chance of them going over the bridge.

The best example of a Chaotic Neutral character would be a wayward, autonomous, wandering bard who goes his own way, for whom his own personal freedom is the most important - or a cat, as cats are known to be the most wayward creatures ever.

The best part about being Chaotic Neutral is that it represents freedom, not just freedom from laws and social expectations, but also from the zealotry of the do-gooders.

Lawful Evil
Lawful Evil vilains methodically acquire what they want following their own guiding principles, without any regard for whom they might offend or wound by doing this. Throughout their actions, they take note of traditions, loyalties and order, but they care not for freedom, life or dignity. They play by the rules, but they show absolutely no pity or mercy. They feel good as parts of a hierarchial order, and neraly always have ambitions to attain the position of the ruler, but they are just as glad to be open to service as well. They do not judge others by their actions, but by their race, religion, place of origins or social rank. They prefer not to come into (open) conflict with the laws, and don't like breaking their promises either. This comes partially from their own nature, and partially from the fact that at the end of the day, they depend on the system that defends them from moral-based attacks. Some of these vilains create their own personal taboos for themselves, such as not being allowed to kill in cold blood (a rule that off course, does NOT apply to whoever they hire to do the dirty work for them), or not being allowed to harm children (there are workarounds for this too). They believe that these rules make them higher-tier and more noble than all the other unprincipled evil-doers.

The best exmaple for a Lawful Evil character is an intriguer, a crafty nobleman who constantly expands his power and sucks his own men dry.

Some Lawful Good characters do evil with the same amount of zealotry as knights do good. In addition to enjoying it themselves, to enjoying the fact that they are causing suffering to others and expanding their evilness, they very often commit their acts of evil in the service of some kind of evil master or god.

Lawful Evil is considered one of the most dangerous alignments, because such characters tend to be goal-oriented and methodical, which allows them to succesfully commit evil and get away with it.

Neutral Evil
Neutral Evil vilains do whatever they can for their own ends. To put it simply, they only care about themselves. They can kill out of sport, for benefits, or for comfort, they do not shed any tears for their victims. They don't like laws, and don't have any illusions about the possibility that following laws, traditions and ordinances would make their alignment better or more noble. On the other hand, they do not seek conflicts just for the heck of it, like Chaotic Evil characters would do.

A criminal who steals what he wants and is very capable of killing anyone who gets in his way, would be the best example of Neutral Evil.

Neutral Evil is considered one of the most dangerous alignments, because such it represents commit pure, dishonest evil without any vacillations: a Lawful Evil character might hesitate to kill someone who may or may not come useful in the future - a Neutral Evil character is much more likely to commit the killing blow with no such hesitation or consideration of mercy.

Chaotic Evil
Chaotic Evil characters do whatever their own greed, hatred or desire for destruction forces them to do. They are hot-headed, immoral, arbitrarily violent and utterly unpredictable personalities. They simply put in their full strength to get whatever they want, and are utterly lacking in mercy. Fortunately, such characters tend to lack organization, and any team that such a character joins also nearly always has very weak organization. Chaotic Evil characters generally only co-operate when there is a strong external force forcing them to do so, and their leader tends to only retain his or her post so long as he or she can prevent all the intrigue and assassination attempts.

The best example for Chaotic Evil would be a crazy wizard who seeks to destroy the world for no apparent reason. Chaotic Evil is also known as the "demonic" alignment, as demons are their most perfect embodiments.

Chaotic Evil is considered one of the most dangerous alignments, because its representatives seek to destroy not only life and beauty, but also the order that is required to create life and beauty.

Game mechanics
The nine character alignments were a very important part of the FRPG, where every character had to choose one of these. In later games, the integration of these alignments was planned, but this never happened. In the future 3D game, it is planned that the player character would be able to dynamically move - based off their actions - between order and chaos, good and evil.

Artograchian religions
Both the Titanist and Naturalist religions feature these nine alignments as an important motif.

The traditional Titanist stance is that Lawful Good is the best alignment, as they see a strong order and a society built on laws and rights as the foundation to the rule good, and the imprisonment or destruction of evil. They criticize Chaotic Good, as such people are not only dangerous (with their self-righteous indignation motivating them to uproot the established order), but also heretical, following their own moral compasses instead of the Divine Law.

It is a common stereotype that Wood Elves and Naturalists consider Chaotic Good to be the pinnacle of goodness - this is simply not true. The Naturalist religion criticizes both Lawful Good and Chaotic Good, and sees Neutral Good as the ideal. Both Lawful Good and Chaotic Good are seen as the alignment of naive people. The earlier is considered as such, because there comes a time in every person's life, when they must choose between law and goodness, ultimately revealing the Lawful Good to be either Lawful Neutral or Neutral Good. The latter is considered as such, because the Naturalist religion agrees, that good intentions and self-righteous indignation are not enough to qualify someone as an expert judge of morals, especially when such a person is ignorant of the divine laws. What the naturalists consider ideal instead, is to follow the divine laws, but do so by valuing the spirit of the law over the letter of the law, striking down the enemies of the law, while protecting the innocent.