Morality

In Gygaxia, the euphemism “alignment” is generally preferred over the term “morality.” Alignment is a peculiar concept which refers to an individual’s ethical system as rated on a two-dimensional scale of “good” to “evil” and “lawful” to “chaotic.” Some governments are run by oligarchies or dictators who espouse a particular alignment, and often democracies offer voters a choice between two or more different alignment “parties,”either of which is generally regarded as a relatively legitimate choice despite its being frequently and colorfully lambasted by the other side. Many people ignore the concept of alignment altogether; these individuals are often considered unethical by those who specifically choose an alignment.

Lawful vs. Chaotic

“Lawful” people believe in some kind of specific code of conduct, usually having to do with absolute honesty, perfect adherence to authority and tradition, and just generally being an obtuse reactionary. Chaotic people generally avoid adherence to a specific formula governing behavior, preferably by acting in a manner that displays flexibility, careless indifference to rules, and, ideally, reckless disregard for consistency and fairness. People who are neutral subscribe to the radical notion that these determinations must be made on a case by case basis. Lawful and chaotic people tend not to like each other very much; chaotic people refer to lawful people as “awful” (as in, for instance, “awful evil”); for their part, lawful individuals refer to their chaotic brethren as “psychotic” (as in, for instance, “psychotic good.”) Both lawful and chaotic people often dismiss neutral people as whackos and extremists.

Good vs. Evil

Considerable confusion surrounds the nature of good and evil. Some good people prefer to define good as respect and love for others and a willingness to help and make sacrifices for them when this seems justified. Other good people conceptualize doing good as the militant enforcement of cultural taboos or the process of creating and maintaining social systems which ensure extreme disparities of power and wealth between different groups of people. Whatever one’s concept of goodness, evil is generally regarded as the opposite, but even within this paradigm there is considerable controversy over whether evilness entails just being selfish or in actually sacrificing oneself to serve the Greater Evil (see the section on the organization EVIL for more on this).

Issues Irrelevant to Alignment

Some things virtually everyone will agree have nothing to do with morality, however, are issues pertaining to romantic behavior. Some people are romantic with their own gender, some are consensually romantic with more than one person at a time, and some are just not especially interested in romance. It would not occur to anyone in Gygaxia, good or evil, to describe such things as moral issues.

Previous: Undeath Next: Prejudice