Thought, deed, intent

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Reading old threads regarding alignment made me think of something:

Is alignment in your thoughts, your deeds, or your intent?

Lets say you are constantly tempted to do something opposite your
alignment... does that mean you actually -are- of the opposing
alignment, since thats your natural inclination?

Lets say you do things that end up the opposite of what you mean them
to; you pull a woman back before she can jump off a bridge only to
discover that she's pursued by a malevolent spirit and jumping off the
bridge was the only way to escape it, so it kills her. Are you evil for
helping the spirit, or good for acting to save her in what you
understood the situation to be?

Same situation, only you know about the malevolent spirit, and stop her
jumping -so- it can get her.

How about a mole working for an evil or chaotic cause, pretending to be
good or lawful, working with a group and doing nothing but good deeds
all day, waiting for his chance to strike. Is he betraying himself, or
is he perfectly in align?

How about the "good guy" working undercover, forced to do evil or
lawless acts in order to prove his loyalty, always waiting for the order
to come so he can do his part in bringing the bad guys down?

What happens if both these guys end up living their entire lives
undercover and never breaking it.

What if the people who gave them the idea or the orders were actually on
the opposite sides themselves, and knew full well that they would never
give the signal?

Or is it that some alignments find such skulldugery and betrayal in
align, while others would find it the opposite; so the evil guy acting
good is find but the lawful guy pretending to be chaotic is betraying
himself?

Lance

 

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Lance Berg wrote:
> Reading old threads regarding alignment made me think of something:
>
> Is alignment in your thoughts, your deeds, or your intent?

The way I've always looked at it, the first part of the alignment
(lawful, neutral, chaotic) has more to do with your inborn personality.
If you are lawful, then you are organized, compulsive, neat, etc. and
those are just things that you are and that you do without much thought.
You can't help but be that way. The second part of the alignment (good,
neutral, evil) has more to do with your actual decisions. Obviously
there is still a more or less innate sense of good in a good character,
and evil in an evil character, but they can choose these actions more
readily than a lawful or chaotic action.

> Lets say you are constantly tempted to do something opposite your
> alignment... does that mean you actually -are- of the opposing
> alignment, since thats your natural inclination?

This is probably the reaction of a neutral alignment. They're tempted to
go either way. It seems like a good or evil character would just
naturally do the good or evil deed without thought. If there *is*
hesitation, perhaps they are more neutral than they know.

>
> Lets say you do things that end up the opposite of what you mean them
> to; you pull a woman back before she can jump off a bridge only to
> discover that she's pursued by a malevolent spirit and jumping off the
> bridge was the only way to escape it, so it kills her. Are you evil for
> helping the spirit, or good for acting to save her in what you
> understood the situation to be?

I think that's a good example to show that intention has to have
something to do with it. No one would consider you evil if you didn't
know the consequences of your actions, plus the fact that you actually
thought you were doing something good.

>
> Same situation, only you know about the malevolent spirit, and stop her
> jumping -so- it can get her.

Evil?

>
> How about a mole working for an evil or chaotic cause, pretending to be
> good or lawful, working with a group and doing nothing but good deeds
> all day, waiting for his chance to strike. Is he betraying himself, or
> is he perfectly in align?

He'd probably hate what he has to do, but I'm sure he's still evil,
given that he's working toward evil ends, and has evil intentions all along.

>
> How about the "good guy" working undercover, forced to do evil or
> lawless acts in order to prove his loyalty, always waiting for the order
> to come so he can do his part in bringing the bad guys down?

Somehow that's a harder one to deal with. A good character probably
would never do evil deeds, even for a 'good' cause.

 

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"Lance Berg" <emporer@dejazzd.com> wrote in message
news:xKWdnd6IAqxTw8jcRVn-sw@dejazzd.com...
> Reading old threads regarding alignment made me think of something:
>
> Is alignment in your thoughts, your deeds, or your intent?

It's very hard for anyone but you to know your thoughts and intent. It's
practically impossible for a computer program to do.

So I'm thinking that the only thing alignment can possibly be based in is
your deeds.

 

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Lance Berg <emporer@dejazzd.com> looked up from reading the entrails of
the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:

>Reading old threads regarding alignment made me think of something:
>
>Is alignment in your thoughts, your deeds, or your intent?
<snip>

>How about a mole working for an evil or chaotic cause, pretending to be
>good or lawful, working with a group and doing nothing but good deeds
>all day, waiting for his chance to strike. Is he betraying himself, or
>is he perfectly in align?

You mean like this?
http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp05032002.shtml

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr