What does alignment mean? Objectively speaking, I don't know. The books kind of leave room for interpretation. Part of the problem is they leave it a little too abstract. This causes confusion and arguments which leads to people hating alignment which is a shame because it's actually a good tool for describing your game. You need functional definitions. You need to nail them down with concrete examples. You need to define what alignment means in your setting for your players. If I say I'm lawful good, that needs to mean the same thing to everyone. Why have terms if we disagree on the definitions?
So, what does alignment mean in my setting?
Before we being it's important to note that we're discussing a low technology, low culture, fantasy setting. Please suspend your modern cynicism and progressive views. In other words, have an open mind and play along.
First, let's look at Law vs Chaos.
Law vs Chaos describes a setting where forces of law are in conflict with forces of chaos. Society against barbarians. Forces of law may oppose other forces of law, like the police vs the mob, and forces of chaos may oppose other forces of chaos, like two gangs in the waste lands. The big distinction is that the world has these divisions of the tamed world and the untamed wilderness. There are lawful places with lawful people and there are lawless places with lawless people.
Lawful alignment is about having an alignment to something, the question is what. Lawful alignment it is not about alignment to the abstract concept of law or lawfulness; that's stupid! Being lawful means YOU have loyalty, possibly sworn loyalty, to a homeland, country, or a faction, to it's leader or leaders, and to its people.
Religions are organized with rules, structure, and hierarchy, and therefore lawful, and so anyone belonging to a religion is inherently lawful. You can assume all religions require even their lowest ranking members to take some sort of vow in front of witnesses. Druids are members of a nature religion; it might be a very loose organization with very flexible rules, but if you're loyal to its cause and if you observe its practices, you're lawful. Organized criminal factions such as thieves guilds are lawful. Cults may or may not be lawful. Stay tuned.
In a feudal society, the King owns all the land. He grants that land to a class of nobles who rule parts of the kingdom like governors. In exchange, nobles are required at their expense to provide the king with soldiers to defend the kingdom. A count is a noble in charge of a county. A counts permits the citizens to live on that land. If you live in that county, you benefit from the protection of the counts laws and soldiers which maintain safety and order. In exchange, you follow the laws, pay taxes, and possibly provide military service.
A lot of times, religion was in bed with government even if the heads of government and the heads of religion were in conflict behind closed doors. The people had a different relationship with their government than they had with their religion, like how kids had a different relationship with each parent. One authority figure could use the people against the other and vice versa, or if the authority of one figure was in question, the other authority lend it their credibility.
Historically, this was a good deal. It worked. Peace and order were maintained. People can say they prospered from it, therefore, people thought this was a good thing.
Generally, the laws of kings are just and fair, but even if the laws are unjust and unfair, you still owe your loyalty to your king. In fact, having loyalty is part being an honorable person. Crappy laws are favorable to no laws. Questioning your king's laws may be an act of treason and treason is a good way to get kicked out of society.
If you are of lawful alignment, other lawful people respect that fact even if your societies are opposed. Why? Because being a part of a society implies that you're a valuable, contributing member of that society. And if you're from the same social class, your lives probably have a lot more in common than you think.
What does Neutrality on this spectrum mean in my setting? It means you're probably a wanderer, a vagabond, a hermit, or a member of an itinerant people who just go where the opportunities are. You don't have a home and so you don't have a homeland, even though you might have a people who you're loyal to, like the gypsies.
If you are neutral, you may be perceived by lawful people as having no loyalty to anyone, and that's bad for you because if people don't know whose side you're on or that you follow laws, then why should they trust you? Neutral people usually have their own code of honor and definition of dignity, but you're a stranger with no name or reputation to precede you and tell us who you are. You could be a criminal or a ne'er-do-well. You might be liable to steal or desert.
Also if you're neutral, how do I measure you're worth? Ne'er-do-well doesn't mean evil bad guy, it means someone who doesn't earn anything by contributing to society. Basically it's a mooch. Laziness has always been frowned upon. So are people who don't pay taxes.
Unfortunately, neutral people are unpopular with lawful people.
Chaotic alignment means you are not an accepted member of any lawful society, or if you are you're probably a known trouble maker and you become outcast eventually. You might be an outlaw like Robin Hood or maybe you were born in the wilderness like Conan the Barbarian. Chaotic people have few laws if only one law, and it'll simple like Survival of the fittest or right by might. That sort of thing. Chaotic alignment describes people who are opposed to laws, or to following laws, and in general, they are apposed to societies of laws. They might even be opposed to lawful people because lawful people represent the law.
Tribes of hunter-gathers or warrior clans of faiths who live simple lives in greater or remote areas of the wilderness are lawful if they have their own laws and hierarchical structure. Such people are instead chaotic if they are anarchistic and are kept together by a collective need for family, community and survival.
Therefore, instead of just writing "Lawful X" for your alignment, you would also identify the land, clan, tribe, religion, or faction you're aligned with.
Keep in mind, we haven't begun to discuss good vs evil yet! Chaotic people can be good. Lawful people can be evil. In my setting, law vs chaos is about a formal allegiance to something, but good vs evil is more about your nature or your personality type.
OK, so let's talk about good vs evil. We're all a little good and a little bad. With extreme exception, no one is purely one or the other in real life.
Would you describe yourself as being primarily good or primarily bad?
Good means kindness, compassion, and empathy are a part of your psychology. You generally try to do the right thing by other people. Maybe you like the idea of being a good person or maybe you get a feeling of satisfaction out of being good. You want to treat others the way you want to be treated: fairly. Good people are generally honest. They tend to fight fairly, allow retreating enemies to flee, and they treat prisoners with dignity. Good people rarely permit or apply torture. Good people are generally good even in extreme situations.
Neutral on this spectrum may describe different people. It may mean someone whose selfishness exceeds their compassion, someone who is numb or indifferent to the suffering of others, or someone who is not primarily good or evil but an even mix of both. More than anyone else, neutral people have the capacity to be genuinely kind when they're happy or cruel when they're desperate. Someone neutral doesn't make a selfless decision to risk their life to save people, thought they might do it when there's something to gain. The player needs to define what kind of neutral they are for their DM.
Ferral beasts (which is not a slight against animals, that's just how people typically describe untamed animals) are neutral, neutral aka true neutral.
Evil means you're some sort of sicko or psychopath who has limited or no capacity for empathy and sincere kindness. Evil means you have a cruel or wicked nature. You like seeing people suffer and you might like causing suffering. Monsters are evil. Monsters are not people. Evil natures occur in people less commonly or even rarely in lawful places, and more common in choatic places. In a lawful society, an evil nature is something concealed for self-preservation.
This explanation exceeds three whole pages. Now I know why the books don't get into this much detail - no one would want to read it!
