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Discussion: Alignments - Chaotic Evil

Tags: #RP:Discussion  #Alignments  #Zonnonn  #RP:Series 
  • Member
    November 16, 2017

    ShinJin said:

    By the way, Z, this has been a fantastic discussion series. Thanks for spearheading this, and thanks for all the insightful participants... great stuff! :D

    Ayyy thanks Shin, I've never really seen a series of discussions in Roleplaying before so I thought I'd give it a crack, and I think it turned out well enough!

    Mercurias said: Chaotic Evil is less about destructive whackiness and more about what lies beneath those extreme examples: Freedom, and the power which allows one to freely exercise that freedom. The power of the individual, the power of the fittest, every man for himself, celebration of self-indulgence...Those would be the highlights of a truly Chaotic Evil character. The closest example of this in Skyrim, in my opinion, would be Miraak, who constantly struggled to break the shackles of servitude and dominate the world around him.

    I very much agree Merc, and your example is spot on as well. While other alignments can, and sometimes excel, in a team, I feel like youd have to be so self-serving to be CE that it isn't possible for them to think of anything else, in the long ter, anyway. Miraak hits the nail on the head - a bad dude who sided with an bigger badder dude, but now that he's got all he can from his ally wants to abandon him. No loyalty, no qualms of morality, just straight up selfishness.

    Loopdiss said: That picture though...(refering to the one from the main page)

    I did do a Roger Moore eyebrow-raise when I saw it... Not that I'm complaining.

  • Member
    November 17, 2017

    There is a link to the 'Alignments' tag list on the site's Twitter page... I'd love to see these discussions revisited from time to time ;D

  • Member
    November 17, 2017

    Why do I feel like Phil chose the picture? He has good judgement, though. Lol

  • Member
    November 17, 2017

    Mercurias said: Chaotic Evil is less about destructive whackiness and more about what lies beneath those extreme examples: Freedom, and the power which allows one to freely exercise that freedom. The power of the individual, the power of the fittest, every man for himself, celebration of self-indulgence...Those would be the highlights of a truly Chaotic Evil character. The closest example of this in Skyrim, in my opinion, would be Miraak, who constantly struggled to break the shackles of servitude and dominate the world around him.

    Miraak as CE, that's interesting. I don't disagree, just have never really classified him. As a former Dragon Priest, his alignment could have been lawful rather than chaotic at one stage, shifting to the latter after being trapped in Apocrypha. From then on his desire just seems to be to escape and be master of his own fate again. It's a hard one because a lot of it could be how we interpret his chant. His dominating of the world around him could simply be a means to the end of escaping his prison, or a desire to rule, or even that the things he learnt in Apocrypha gave him a desire to throw off all shackles from all people. That's the metaphysical view that while in prison he realised the actual extent of the prison, and the significance of his nature as a Dragonborn. Which makes it very hard because it becomes like the Vivec thing from the Sermons - "I will save you all, whather you want it or not."

    That aside, what is fun about the Evil alignments for me is how to portray tenderness and love.

    Loopdiss said: That picture though...(refering to the one from the main page)

    Ebonslayer said:

    ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

    Zonnonn said:

    I did do a Roger Moore eyebrow-raise when I saw it... Not that I'm complaining.

    Rogue said:

    Why do I feel like Phil chose the picture? He has good judgement, though. Lol

    :D Thanks for the encouragement fellas!

    ShinJin said:

    By the way, Z, this has been a fantastic discussion series. Thanks for spearheading this, and thanks for all the insightful participants... great stuff! :D

    Agreed.

     

  • Member
    November 29, 2017

    I just realized something about the design of the alignment chart. On the complete other end of the chart is a complete opposite to another alignment, and sometimes a complete counter. For instance, a chaotic evil is on the other side of the chart from lawful good, the chaotic evil can make the lawful good be restricted by their own code when trying to bring them down but likewise the lawful good has an advantage in that they can work with local law enforcement to help. Same with chaotic good and lawful evil, the lawful evil is normally protected by the law but the chaotic good really doesn't give a shit for rules and will do absolutely everything in their power to take them out but the lawful evil also has the law itself up its sleeve and could arrange an assassination or arrest the chaotic good if they want.

    The neutrals also work with this but less so because they are not counters but still complete opposites. If lawful neutral is a normal citizen just looking to make a living then chaotic neutral is a hermit or survivalist who wants absolutely nothing to do with society or other people, laws either, they are opposites in that regard. If neutral good is s a friendly person who's glad to help others then neutral evil is a secret psychopath who is willing to manipulate others to get what they want.

    The only one not bound by this rule is true neutral who's really in the middle of everything, the middle of morality, the middle of law, even in D&D they are said to keep a balance in everything, killing some things one moment then aiding them the second the balance is upset.

  • Member
    November 30, 2017

    Ebonslayer said:

    I just realized something about the design of the alignment chart. On the complete other end of the chart is a complete opposite to another alignment, and sometimes a complete counter. For instance, a chaotic evil is on the other side of the chart from lawful good, the chaotic evil can make the lawful good be restricted by their own code when trying to bring them down but likewise the lawful good has an advantage in that they can work with local law enforcement to help. Same with chaotic good and lawful evil, the lawful evil is normally protected by the law but the chaotic good really doesn't give a shit for rules and will do absolutely everything in their power to take them out but the lawful evil also has the law itself up its sleeve and could arrange an assassination or arrest the chaotic good if they want.

    The neutrals also work with this but less so because they are not counters but still complete opposites. If lawful neutral is a normal citizen just looking to make a living then chaotic neutral is a hermit or survivalist who wants absolutely nothing to do with society or other people, laws either, they are opposites in that regard. If neutral good is s a friendly person who's glad to help others then neutral evil is a secret psychopath who is willing to manipulate others to get what they want.

    The only one not bound by this rule is true neutral who's really in the middle of everything, the middle of morality, the middle of law, even in D&D they are said to keep a balance in everything, killing some things one moment then aiding them the second the balance is upset.

    Huh, never thought about it like that before. Nice spot Ebon! It's kinda like a ying-yang thing, and I think its nice for balance. Ie a Chaotic _ character isn't inherently more powerful than a Lawful _ one, they can both bring each other down and counteract each other perfectly.