Re: Elven Alignments

In a message dated 98-02-02 12:44:45 EST, you write:

<< "straight jacketed" into following all laws.  Indeed, one
 of the duties of a Paladin would be to uphold "truth and justice" while
 smiting evil, especially those who practise evil laws (eg.  LE, of which
 the Nazi Regime is an excellent example)

 It's also possible for a chaotic organization to have "Laws" or "Rules"
 at least - I mean, just look at most HUGE private corporations (Any
 slights to those corporate folks out there unintentional ;-)!)

 The IEN heirarchy could be interpreted much in the same way as the Drow
 "House" System (see the classic module D3).  Elves *may* have a strong
 interest in their individual freedom and goals, giving an average
 CE-CN-CG alignment spread for the species as a whole.  However, they can
 still cite an allegiance to a ship, nation, House or whatever, and could
 still follow rules (which may be quite complicated, disorganised, etc.,
 but still a sort of set of Laws).  There would, of course, be
 individuals who ARE indeed more orderly (LE-LN-LG) and I would argue
 these would tend towards leadership roles, especially within the IEN.

 Remember that the alignments in the MM, especially for races who can
 become PCs, are just the racial "mean".  For those statistically minded
 out there this would perhaps represent, say, 80% of the population, with
 the remainder spread out over the rest of the alignments.  This makes
 the game more interesting anyways, doesn't, especially when PCs
 prejudices turn out to be dead wrong in an encounter?

 -JDS
  >>

As Sturm Brightblade once said "Power Corrupts".  The elves in power are evil,
they norm are good (Elves could very well wanted this war to have ended long
ago).  So, with the new generation of elves gaining power, the elves are
shifting from evil to good.