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Ladies and gentlemen…
I present… to you…
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A help for creating characters: Alignments.
Have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons? No? Well, let me introduce you to a little thing that helps a surprising lot when it comes to develop characters. I’m talking about the alignments.
The alignment is something that appears mainly in the roleplaying games based on Dungeons and Dragons, and it refers to the ethic and moral perspective of characters and societies in game.
It’s based on two axis. Morality, from Good to Bad, and Ethics, from Law to Chaos. Between these we have the Neutrality, which indicates that the character isn’t inclined to any of these. The result is this:
Moral Axis
| Lawful Good | Neutral Good | Chaotic Good |
Ethic axis | Lawful Neutral | Neutral | Chaotic Neutral |
| Lawful Evil | Neutral Evil | Chaotic Evil |
By giving your character an alignment, you can have a rough sketch of his reaction to moral or ethic problems.
A lawful character has always a code. They will keep their word, respect their honour and judge those who don’t keep their responsibilities. Law implies trust, reliability and perhaps obedience to authority, although this is optional. A lawful character can be lawful because they have a code they never break, even if they don’t answer to any authority. They will be probably stubborn, traditional and judgemental.
A chaotic character is free, flexible, adaptable. They follow their own instincts, prefer new ideas over dogmatic thoughts and don’t have qualms about breaking promises. They will probably stand against any kind of authority, being sometimes selfish and egoistic. Freedom is what they appreciate more tan anything.
A good character tries to protect the others, anyone, whether they know them or not. They worry about every sentient being, usually sacrificing themselves for the Greater Good. Altruism is the word that defines them the best.
An evil character doesn’t care about anyone that isn’t himself. They lack compassion, do wrong to others without remorse, sometimes for their own benefit, sometimes because it’s fun.
Now that we’ve stated the edges of our bidimensional grid, let’s go for the archetypes.
The Lawful Good.
A lawful good character combines honour and the will to help. He’s honest and a nice person. Will act inside the system to try and improve it, taking order wherever they go. They’re determined to fight evil and had a discipline of iron, with a strict code or following the rules of their pertinent authorities. They will probably risk their lives without a thought in order to follow this codes or to do the Greater Good —or maybe both.
The incorruptible policeman, the soldier that turns into a hero by following the rules, or your everyday knight in shining armour willing to save the princess. Captain America from Avengers or John Watson from Sherlock.
The Neutral Good.
This is the best person you’re going to find. They want to help people, and as they’re not particularly inclined to order or chaos, they don’t have a problem if they need to break some rules to do something good. Although they will probably respect the rules of the place they’re in, their will to help is stronger than anything.
People that volunteer with the poor or in general neglect themselves in order to make other people’s life better are neutral good.
We have plenty of examples of this in several novels. Samsagaz Gamyi from LOTR or Aziraphel from Good Omens are obviously neutral good.The Chaotic Good.
A chaotic good character has a kind heart and a free spirit. They’re generous and act following their conscience, not minding what anyone thinks about them.
They usually fight tyrants and unfair organizations, tried to free the oppressed. They usual travel from place to place, rejecting any kind of authority or bond.
Robin Hood is one of the clearest and best examples of this. Iron Man from Avengers or Han Solo from Star Wars can be taken as a reference as well.The Lawful Neutral.
This alignment has reliability and honour without going for any moral aspect. This doesn’t mean that a Lawful neutral character is immoral or amoral, but good or bad are secondary for them in front of their code, tradition and/or authority. This are the things they base their lives on, personal ethics or their support to strong and organized governments.
These characters can be soldiers that obey orders blindly or judges that stick always to the established rules. Mycroft Holmes from Sherlock or Nick Fury from Avengers are clearly lawful neutral characters.
The Neutral.
This alignment can be applied to the majority of people out there. However, unless your character has a very hard to define personality, it’s not usual to find main characters with this alignment. This person will do in each moment what they think it’s more appropriate, without preferences. Animals and beings without the ability to reason are classified as neutral as well.
There’s another kind of Neutral, called the True Neutral. This character seems any extreme as something very dangerous, and defends the equilibrium. He tries to keep himself in the middle when facing any kind of conflict. It’s rare to find a character like this, and a good challenge if you’re a brave writer.
An example of True Neutral would be Tom Bombadil from LOTR.
The Chaotic Neutral.
A chaotic neutral character follow their impulses and are strongly individualist. They value their own freedom above everything, but they won’t care about getting other’s freedom. They avoid authorities, hate to be restrained and fight against traditions.A chaotic neutral can defend Chaos and try to spread it all over the world, but that’s weird. Normally, this kind of character will do whatever he pleases, living his life as he wants and that’s the end of it. A Chaotic Neutral is one of the easiest characters to roleplay.
A thief, contrabandist or minor criminal in general fits in this category. Clopin from the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean or Tyler Durden from the Fight Club are good examples.
The Lawful Evil.
Almost every politician in the world if you ask me —but this isn’t about my personal opinions.
A lawful evil character is organized and methodic and usually a despot. They care about tradition, loyalty and order, but they don’t care about dignity or life. Rules are important, compassion is not. They will never break a promise, but chances are they won’t make any promises to break.
This kind of character is usually depicted as someone with power. Tyrant kings or cruel soldiers with a high rank on the army fit here. Sometimes they have qualms with killing people with their hands, but that won’t stop them from hiring other people to do it. They usually consider their moral precepts to make them better than other people. Sometimes, a lawful evil character can be the dark counterpart of the lawful good knight, defending Evil with the same intensity.
We can find examples of lawful evil characters in Venom from Spiderman (not the one in the movies, the one in the comics) or in Darth Vader from Star Wars. Magneto from X-Men, when he’s being evil, belongs here as well.
The Neutral Evil.
If the Neutral Good was the best person you could find, the Neutral Evil is the worst. Law of the jungle is their thing, the stronger survives and the rest deserve to be in the bottom of a pit.
A neutral evil character cares about their arse. End of the story. They’re selfish and will do anything to reach their goals. It’s a hardcore version of the Chaotic Neutral, and changing from one alignment to other is usual.
Sometimes, blood thirsty creatures without intelligente, purely instinctive, can be classified as neutral evil. Alien would be an example of this.
Saruman from LOTR or Littlefinger from A Song of Ice and Fire go in this category.
The Chaotic Evil.
Have you listened to “When you’re evil” by Voltaire? Well, that song defines this kind of character very well.
The Chaotic Evil represents unleashed destruction, without any kind of moral or ethic barrier. They are agents of Chaos, wanting to cause havoc no matter what the price is.
Normally this character is depicted as violent and agressive with no other reason than being violent and agressive, but that is a mistake. Being destructive doesn’t mean being stupid. A chaotic evil character doesn’t need to be a brute —and I’m going to point out two of my favourite villains.
The Joker, from Batman, and Jim Moriarty from the BBC adaptation of Sherlock. Clearly chaotic evil characters, and yet classy and clever.
A blood-thirsty monster can be classified as chaotic evil as well, but roleplaying it is not very fun if you intend to run a long term story.
With this we finish this little class. This post, of course, is just a guideline. Characters are deeper than this. Sometimes they don’t fit in any alignment and they’re halfway between one an another, and sometimes they evolve from one alignment to another. But it helps to begin to build a character.
This is pretty helpful. I believe Samara from Mass Effect could qualify as a Lawful Neutral, and Kimblee from Fullmetal Alchemist could be a Chaotic Evil. :0
/files away for reference
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