Alignment (Dungeons & Dragons)

• 1. Origins And Evolution

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  Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, introduced the alignment system in 1974. The original game allowed players to choose among three alignments: lawful, chaotic, and neutral. Lawful implied honor and respect for society's rules. Chaotic meant rebelliousness and individualism. Neutral sought a balance between these extremes. In 1976, Gygax published an article titled "The Meaning of Law and Chaos in Dungeons and Dragons and Their Relationships to Good and Evil" in The Strategic Review Volume 2, issue 1. This work added a second axis of good versus evil. The 1977 release of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set incorporated this model. Characters could be lawful and evil at the same time, such as a tyrant, or chaotic but good like Robin Hood. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ran from 1977 to 1979 and kept the two-axis system. The 1981 version of the Basic Set reverted to the earlier one-axis alignment system. AD&D 2nd Edition arrived in 1988 and retained the two-axis structure. A character performing too many actions outside their alignment faced penalties by losing experience points. D&D 3rd Edition released in 2000 maintained the same alignment system. The Eberron Campaign Setting appeared in 2004 for 3.5 Edition and subverted established tropes including alignment. Evil beings of traditionally good races were encouraged alongside good beings of traditionally evil races. Keith Baker noted that in Eberron "alignment is a spectrum." D&D 4th Edition launched in 2008 and reduced alignments to five: lawful good, good, evil, chaotic evil, and unaligned. Wired magazine highlighted how 4th Edition's de-emphasis of alignment allowed for more PCs with unknown motives. D&D 5th Edition returned to nine alignments in 2014 and added a tenth option called unaligned for creatures operating on instinct. Starting with Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden in 2020, player and monster races no longer had preassigned alignments. Official errata in December 2021 removed suggested alignments for playable races in 5th Edition sourcebooks. Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse arrived in 2022 and revised roughly 250 previously published monsters. Creature stat blocks now state they can be any alignment while other monsters like demons feature the word typically next to their alignment.

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• 2. Law Versus Chaos Axis

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  The law versus chaos axis predates good versus evil in the game rules. Originally the rulebook defined law as the belief that everything should follow an order and obeying rules is the natural way of life. Chaotic behavior meant believing that life is random and chance rules the world. Lawful characters were driven to protect group interests above individual ones. They strove to be honest and obey just laws. Chaotic creatures embraced the individual over the group and viewed laws as unimportant. Neutral creatures believed both groups mattered and felt law and chaos were equally important. They maintained balance between extremes and often acted from self-interest. The third edition D&D rules described law as implying honor, trustworthiness, obedience to authority, and reliability. Lawfulness could include closed-mindedness, reactionary adherence to tradition, judgmentalness, and lack of adaptability. Those promoting law said only lawful behavior creates a society where people depend on each other. Chaos implied freedom, adaptability, and flexibility. Recklessness, resentment toward legitimate authority, arbitrary actions, and irresponsibility marked its downside. Promoters of chaotic behavior claimed unfettered personal freedom lets individuals express themselves fully. Someone neutral with respect to law and chaos had normal respect for authority. They felt no compulsion to follow rules or rebel against them. They remained honest but could be tempted into lying if it suited their needs.

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• 3. Good Versus Evil Conflict

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  The conflict of good versus evil serves as a common motif in Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy fiction. Player characters generally oppose evil even when adventuring for personal gain. Third edition rules defined good as implying altruism, respect for life, and concern for sentient beings' dignity. Good characters made personal sacrifices to help others. Evil implied harming, oppressing, and killing others. Some evil creatures killed without qualms if convenient. Others actively pursued evil by killing for sport or duty to malevolent deities. People neutral regarding good and evil held compunctions against killing innocents but lacked commitment to protect others. Neutral people were committed through personal relationships rather than abstract ideals. Altruistic heroes like angels counted as good within the game. Villains and violent criminals qualified as evil along with inherently evil creatures such as demons and most undead. Animals remained neutral even when attacking innocents because they acted on natural instinct. In fifth edition this appeared as labeling beasts unaligned. Greg Littmann noted that predetermined alignment assignments meant monsters were good or evil by nature. The rules allowed individual variances permitting a red dragon looking to defect to the side of good. While some monsters had strong associations to given alignments, nature ultimately determined by the Dungeon Master. Good characters could show no hesitation chopping up tribes of orcs despite respecting others. A party of good characters might char a tribe into smoking hamburger without regrets.

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• 4. The Nine Alignment Grid

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  Nine alignments form a grid combining law versus chaos with good versus evil. Lawful good characters act with compassion while maintaining honor and duty. They regret actions violating their code even if recognizing them as good. Gold dragons, righteous knights, paladins, and most dwarves exemplify this alignment. Neutral good characters act altruistically without regard for lawful precepts. They cooperate with lawful officials but feel beholden to none. When doing right requires breaking rules they suffer no inner conflict. Celestials, some cloud giants, and most gnomes represent this path. Chaotic good characters do whatever necessary to bring about better change. They disdain bureaucratic organizations hindering social improvement and value personal freedom highly. Copper dragons, many elves, and unicorns embody these traits. Lawful neutral characters believe strongly in concepts like honor, order, rules, and tradition. They follow personal codes alongside or instead of benevolent authority. Soldiers following orders, judges adhering mercilessly to law's letter, disciplined monks, and some wizards fit here. True neutral characters remain neutral on both axes seeking balance between extremes. Druids frequently followed this dedication under Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. Lizardfolk, most druids, and many humans exemplified true neutrality. Chaotic neutral individuals followed their own hearts shirking rules and traditions. Their own freedom came first before good and evil considerations. Barbarians, rogues, and some bards represented this alignment. Lawful evil characters saw well-ordered systems as necessary to fulfill personal wants using them to gain power. Tyrants, devils, corrupt officials, undiscriminating mercenaries, blue dragons, and hobgoblins typify this path. Neutral evil characters were typically selfish with no qualms turning on allies-of-the-moment. Assassins, henchmen plotting behind superiors' backs, and yugoloths embodied this alignment. Chaotic evil characters respected neither rules nor other people's lives. They valued personal freedom but disregarded others' lives or freedoms. Higher undead forms like liches, violent killers striking for pleasure, demons, red dragons, and orcs filled this category.

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• 5. Mechanics And Roleplay Shifts

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  Richard Bartle noted in Designing Virtual Worlds that alignment helped players categorize characters alongside gender, race, class, and nationality. Alignment defined role-playing by establishing a character's outlook on life. Players decided how characters should behave then played accordingly. A lawful neutral character performing consistently good acts shifted alignment to lawful good. Dungeon Masters decided when alignment violations occurred since the process remained subjective. Parties with both good and evil characters might turn against themselves. Bill Slavicsek and Richard Baker wrote in Dungeon Master for Dummies that groups of good or neutral characters worked better. Their motivations made adventures easier while group dynamics stayed smoother. Zachary Pilon commented for Comic Book Resources that 5th Edition alignment became more storytelling tool than mechanical benefit. Wizards of Coast unlikely to remove it entirely though current nine options remain outdated. The variety of ways each individual alignment can be interpreted leads single characters viewed as several alignments. Individual interpretation means players upset where Dungeon Master places their character or setting applies objective morality to subjective views. Since 2018 the system popularized as Internet meme with users creating charts humorously categorizing objects, fictional characters, celebrities, animals, abstract concepts. Online communities formed around the meme such as r/AlignmentCharts dedicated to sharing charts applying format to many themes.

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• 6. Cultural Impact And Memes

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  The Dungeons & Dragons alignment system occasionally referenced as moral classification outside gaming contexts. Salon television critic Heather Havrilesky analyzed HBO series True Blood using D&D alignments. She identified protagonist Sookie Stackhouse as chaotic good and vampire boyfriend Bill Compton as lawful neutral. Eric Northman appeared lawful evil while Lafayette Reynolds counted chaotic neutral. Eugene Porter from The Walking Dead season 7 episode Hostiles and Calamities described himself not good nor lawful neutral or chaotic. The alignment chart Internet meme humorously categorized various items often pop culture characters in three-by-three grids. Researchers used computer role-playing game Neverwinter Nights 2 inheriting D&D alignment system to study avatar creation. American undergraduate students selected avatars similar to own moral values according to findings. Zachary Pilon noted for Comic Book Resources that alignment history meant Wizards of Coast unlikely removing it entirely though current nine options outdated. He suggested adapting Magic: The Gathering's five colors of mana with 32 unique combinations corresponding to outlooks. Since 2018 the alignment system popularized as Internet meme with users making their own alignment charts. Online communities like r/AlignmentCharts formed around the meme sharing and creating charts applying format to many different themes. Different alignments introduced within these community spaces.

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