WoW Character Alignments

(From the WoW RPG book!)

There are nine alignments in Warcraft that make up comprise the moral codes characters follow: lawful good, lawful neutral, and lawful evil; chaotic good, chaotic neutral, and chaotic evil; and neutral good, neutral and neutral evil. These basic philosophies are the building blocks of your character's view of life, other people, battle and so forth.

Most PCs will be of good or neutral alignment, as communities are built upon cooperation and common goals. There are evil Horde and Alliance to be found, however. An evil campaign is difficult to run, and remember: The Warcraft game is about heroes.

If the Horde Attacks, It Must Be Evil
One of the best qualities about the World of Warcraft RPG is that there are many layers of good and evil, right and wrong. The animosity between the races of the Alliance and Horde can put lawful good characters at each others' throats. An orc can be raised within the shamanistic heritage of her people, learn to channel positive energy and become a healer, follow Thrall and her religion's rules to the letter, and still have no compunctions against killing a lawful good paladin who is following his lord's orders to rid the world of the orcs who killed his parents.
It is easy for good characters to be at the wrong ends of swords, and it is just as easy for evil characters to band together to fight the greater good.


Alignment does not mean you must force characters into nine cookie-cutter molds. Personality quirks and life experiences make us all different; it is possible to have a lawful good paladin grumble against the commands of his lord or a chaotic evil barbarian feel the lonely bite of a winter's evening and wish to have a pleasant conversation. Use alignment as a guide that allows shadows of gray to color an interesting character, not as a leash with which to chain your character.

Lawful Good: The best of the best, the lawful good character acts on the side of goodness, righteousness and order. The warrior who is beholden to a lord or a church, the priest dedicated to healing the wretched - anyone who cannot stand by while others suffer. They will chase evil to the end of the world.

Lawful Neutral: The hater of chaos, a lawful neutral character will stick to the letter of the law, whether it is her personal code of rules, her king's or her religion's. This character finds chaos as abhorrent as evil and will not bend her personal guidelines even to help another if it will contribute to chaos.

Lawful Evil: A being who gains power through methodically destroying others is lawful evil. Power comes through order, but one can be orderly about slaughtering innocents. Tradition is important, but goodness is not.

Chaotic Good: The hero of the downtrodden, the chaotic good character cares not for laws and order but only for doing good. If he must break the law to help others, he will do so without compunction. This character will steal to feed a poor family or stand up to his own master to defend a falsely accused servant.

Chaotic Neutral: The true individual, the chaotic neutral character prizes her own freedom above all else. She does not want ties to either good or evil to influence her, preferring to make her own way as she sees fit.

Chaotic Evil: With the drive of pure hatred, the chaotic evil character will do whatever he can to attain his goals. He is bound by no laws, no master and no compassion. While unlikely to run down the street slaying innocents (chaotic evil does not mean stupid), this character would have no regrets about doing so.

Neutral Good: Ultimately a giver, the neutral good character will do what she can to help, working within law or chaos; but ultimately she prefers her own council in the end.

Neutral: A middle-of-the-road character, a neutral character finds it difficult to fit into any other distinction. He does what seems to be a good idea, whether it flows with law or chaos, good or evil. Often a follower, he'll rarely go against the group.

Neutral Evil: A neutral evil character serves only herself. She follows no law but also has no drive towards chaos. She kills or steals as she sees fit to get what she wants.

[World of Warcraft: Horde Player's Guide Copyright 2006, Blizzard Entertainment]

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Contribution from Ratatattat (from my old blog):

While there are characters on both sides that don’t go along with their particular race I always thought the races would fall most closely to certain alignments:

ALLIANCE

HUMAN - LAWFUL NEUTRAL. Generally speaking, the humans are an orderly society with nobles and serfs. They have a solid code of law, but they are also not goody two shoes by any means. They tend to do rash things from time to time, but are certainly neither chaotic nor evil. They are, however, definitely stubborn.

NIGHT ELF - CHAOTIC GOOD. The Night Elves do what they think what’s best for the world (practicing ancient magics and druidism) and generally they try to protect the weak. Although they sometimes have an agenda of their own, rarely do they plan to cause any other race harm unless it’s an enemy faction.

DWARVES - NEUTRAL GOOD. The Dwarves are a hardy race that enjoys exploring, and cherishes treasure. They practice neither law nor chaos, instead going on what feels right at the time. The Dwarves love some good ale, an adventurous tale, and friends.

GNOMES - CHAOTIC GOOD. Gnomes are distant cousins of the dwarves, but share few similarities aside from being generally good people. Gnomes are technological wizards and highly intelligent. They have a silly side, and are playful in nature.

DRAENAI - LAWFUL GOOD. The Draenai have been through a lot, Orcish onslaughts, and the oppression of Illidan Stormrage and the Burning Legion. They’ve remained noble, and have sought out the Alliance to help in their plight. The Draenai are arguably the most pure “good” of all the Alliance races.

WORGEN - NEUTRAL. Worgen essentially humans (who happen to transform into werewolves) who shut themselves off from society to deal with their own issues (lycanthropy) and at the same time ignore the problems facing Azeroth. They don’t have the same rules as the rest of the human race, and are more self-serving.

HORDE

ORCS - CHAOTIC GOOD. While there are still evil Orcs, once Thrall took over and they embraced their Shamanastic heritage things really changed. Now they are basically good, although they definitely do not adhere to any sort of law.

TROLLS - CHAOTIC GOOD. Like the Orcs, the Trolls are a very loose and chaotic society, albeit generally committed to doing good and protecting the Horde. The Trolls are few in number, and are fiercely loyal to Thrall, who came to their aid when they really needed it.

TAUREN - NEUTRAL GOOD. Although the Tauren practice druidic and ancient magic, they do favor law more than any other Horde race. That’s not to say that they are lawful, but they have a spiritual side to them that isn’t chaotic at all.

FORSAKEN - NEUTRAL EVIL. While most Forsaken lean towards neutral rather than evil, their leadership (Sylvanus Windrunner) definitely has a chip on its shoulder. They are only part of the Horde because it benefits them, not because they believe in the good that Thrall is trying to do. In fact, most Forsaken don’t approve of his leadership. It’s more of a truce than true allegiance.

BLOOD ELVES - CHAOTIC NEUTRAL. The Blood Elves have serious magic addiction problems, and their inclusion into the Horde is one of convenience only. They are much more allied with Sylvanus Windrunner and the Forsaken than the rest of the Horde. While less likely to commit truly evil deeds than the Forsaken, the Blood Elves are definitely loose cannons who seem to do more harm than good.

GOBLINS - NEUTRAL. On the surface Goblins appear to be a friendly, gregarious race but in actuality they are greedy and driven by profit vice any need to be good or evil. Whoever pays well has their allegiance, although Thrall is generally respected among Goblin leadership.