Thoughts on Neera's alignment
Necomancer
Member Posts: 622
I remember a debate I've seen on Neera's alignment on another thread, and I thought about it today at work. Instead of derailing said thread with more debate I decided to just make a new topic for people to discuss it.
I realized the main problem is people are thinking of alignment on their personal terms. I've had characters in my DnD games who came out as bad whom were just greedy thieves, and characters who were good who had a simple good nature about them.
I decided to think in terms of how Baldur's Gate seems to define alignment. First, I thought of how it defines evil. Every evil character that came to mind had one thing in common. They were willing to murder people to get what they want. In this way they were all undeniably evil, even characters who just seemed selfish, rude or greedy did not come off as evil. You had to be genuinely think of murder as a practical solution to problems.
But the question isn't "Is Neera evil?" its "Is Neera chaotic good?" and after thinking about it, I've had a change of heart. Shes not chaotic good. The reason is a character who is evil must be undeniably evil, therefore a character who is good must be undeniably heroic or, at least, willing to be self-sacrificing and do the right thing even if its not the smartest or wisest decision.
Neera doesn't mean harm but her goals are hardly heroic in nature. While, to me, neutral is a character who does both good or bad things, in the Baldur's Gate games its defined as someone who is not heroic or villainous in their actions, and Neera is certainly neither of these. Therefore the chaotic neutral alignment is fitting.
Also, apologizes if someone brought up this argument before.
I realized the main problem is people are thinking of alignment on their personal terms. I've had characters in my DnD games who came out as bad whom were just greedy thieves, and characters who were good who had a simple good nature about them.
I decided to think in terms of how Baldur's Gate seems to define alignment. First, I thought of how it defines evil. Every evil character that came to mind had one thing in common. They were willing to murder people to get what they want. In this way they were all undeniably evil, even characters who just seemed selfish, rude or greedy did not come off as evil. You had to be genuinely think of murder as a practical solution to problems.
But the question isn't "Is Neera evil?" its "Is Neera chaotic good?" and after thinking about it, I've had a change of heart. Shes not chaotic good. The reason is a character who is evil must be undeniably evil, therefore a character who is good must be undeniably heroic or, at least, willing to be self-sacrificing and do the right thing even if its not the smartest or wisest decision.
Neera doesn't mean harm but her goals are hardly heroic in nature. While, to me, neutral is a character who does both good or bad things, in the Baldur's Gate games its defined as someone who is not heroic or villainous in their actions, and Neera is certainly neither of these. Therefore the chaotic neutral alignment is fitting.
Also, apologizes if someone brought up this argument before.
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Comments
I see Garrick as a "free spirit" - he is an artist and he does not care who provides the epic tale, as long as he is treated with respect.
My thinking, most people are True Neutral.
They prefer good over evil in the way that people prefer good neighbors over bad. They obey the laws they have to or they agree with and ignore the laws that they can get away with or find too odious. They take care of their own friends and families and are rather indifferent towards people outside those groups.
So working from there, any sort of strong sense of Good and Evil or Right and Wrong or Tradition or Liberty could push someone into one of the other categories. You don't need to be a paragon of an alignment to still qualify for that alignment. The difference between Robin Hood being Chaotic Good and Chaotic Neutral is a fairly fine line and to my mind comes down to the fact that while he started his personal crusade for himself, he continued it for everyone else who was being oppressed .
On topic: My opinion; She is CN. Wild mages are chaotic in nature, and she is self serving. It doesn't matter who she joins up with as long as they get her out of her troubles and debts. She is looking more for protection while she flaunts the laws of magic then to make a difference in the world - good or bad.
Now do hope there is some option to sway her over to CG in the course of BG2 (via interaction with a good aligned PC, especially if she's involved in a romance with a good PC). But we will need to see some changes in her outlook to accompany that, like at least some remorse for the trouble she's caused!
So she'd end up wearing black leather and some kind of corset?
I'll go roll up an evil PC.