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.