Lawful Evil

Descent Into Avernus has been dominating my D&D brain discourse lately, and  alignment is one aspect I'd like to talk about.

In D&D, devils are Lawful Evil, demons are Chaotic Evil, and they fight each other in an eternal conflict called the Blood War. I always thought this was a bit weird. When you look at religion and mythology about evil creatures of Hell or the Underworld, there may be variety but not competing factions. So why does D&D do this?

Lets go back to the beginnings of alignment in D&D, when it was just Law & Chaos. While the second Good/Evil axis was added shortly after, the Basic D&D line kept Law, Neutral, and Chaos as the three alignments, making it the introductory alignment system for anybody introduced to D&D through one of the Basic box sets (including me).

This has a lot of merit for a particular type of campaign. Law is associated with civilization, honor, and supporting a rightful ruler. Chaos focuses on what an individual wants over the needs of society and others. This works really well for a romanticized medieval society, in fact its perfect for a King Arthur-esque campaign. It also clearly leans towards Law as the side of Good and Chaos as the side of Evil, but is flexible enough to allow for Chaotic player characters who aren't capital-E evil.

However, adding the Good vs Evil axis gives us 9 alignments and some flexibility. It also has to define Law and Chaos as equally compatible with Good and Evil. Gary Gygax's idea of the multiverse is very organized and balanced, so there needs to be a Lawful version of Evil and a Chaotic one on the other side. Fleshing out the idea, you get the Blood War where orderly, contract-dealing devils fight against wild, solipsistic demons.

You even have Mordenkainen in Descent Into Avernus stating that the Blood War keeps the infinite demons of the Abyss from overrunning the planes, so in a way the devils collecting souls to expand their armies is a good thing for the universe in the long run. Mordenkainen was original Gary Gygax's player character in Greyhawk, I don't know how much of that statement is Gary and how much is flavor text that's developed over the years to justify the Blood War.

So that's why you have a lawful vs chaotic dichotomy among fiends in D&D. It goes hand in hand with the alignment system and gives an excuse to have both scheming, sell-me-your-soul devils and rampaging demons.

Next question is, what is Lawful Evil? The most common answer I see is that a Lawful Evil person does things for their own gain, but uses laws and codes of honor as a tool to get what they want. This has always struck me as an odd way to put it, because it addresses How They Do Evil but not Why.
Related, its also strange to me when Lawful Good is described as wanting to do good, but following laws to do it. Both imply that being lawful is an add-on to being good, like it could be dropped if you just presented a better option. Its also implied that a Lawful character follows ANY laws, which seems wrong if Law is a universal concept. Either Law doesn't change (which creates a paradox if your setting has two very different Lawful societies--one must be wrong), or you follow the laws of your society and stick with that. And why do you follow those laws?

That led me to the answer--because you believe those laws go hand in hand with, and support, your morals. A righteous knight doesn't follow laws because they just like rules, they think the code of chivalry upholds all that is good, and would see a Chaotic Good person flouting those laws as dangerous even if they agreed their heart was in the right place.

Same for Lawful Evil! A devil or tyrant's depraved morals might be "help myself at the expense of others", but they stick to law and order specifically because it supports what they want. They want to oppress others and use codes of behavior to keep others in line. For the ultimate Lawful Evil arch-devils, they want to subjugate the universe and rule everything. Who cares if everyone else is miserable, as long as I'm happy and in control?

By the way, I think that being Lawful means adhering to an existing system of law and order established by society. You have to think the system is better for your morality and everyone would be better following it for it to be Lawful. It doesn't have to be the system in control, you could be from a fallen knightly order or idolize an ancient empire, but you still have to believe in it.
If you have a personal code of honor that you adhere to but don't expect other to follow, you're Neutral or even Chaotic. That's right--Batman ain't Lawful Good, nerds!

I'd still rather there be one Hell full of devils (fallen angels vying to overthrow Heaven) and demons (manifestations of evil thoughts). Its a horrible place where everyone is miserable and damned souls are tortured. Demons are dominated and forced to serve devils, but some demon lords put up resistance.

Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus review

Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus is the latest hardback adventure book for the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop roleplaying game from Wizards of the Coast. Its a series of adventure setups that can form the basis of a campaign, taking characters from 1st to 13th level.

The archduke of Avernus, Zariel. Art by Tyler Jacobsen. 

The adventure starts players in Baldur’s Gate, a city in the Forgotten Realms setting made popular by a series of video games. It sets a dark tone right away by encouraging the group to come up with a dark secret they’re hiding, and being sent on missions by an amoral mercenary company trying to maintain law and order by any means necessary as the city deals with chaotic events. There’s a gazetteer for Baldur’s Gate that would be useful for any campaign set in the city, and also includes options for backgrounds to tie a character to the setting.

The only downside is that the rest of the adventure is so awesome you’re going to want to skip the city stuff and go straight to Hell.

Around 6th level players will have to travel to Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells, and become involved in the eternal war between devils and demons. Again there’s lots of detail given to the setting, with descriptions of strange horrifying things that can happen in Hell, what makes the place truly awful and hopeless, and a glimpse at the psychology of devils and why they’re so miserable. There are various paths to success and multiple possible endgames outlined in the book. Redemption can be a means to defeat evil instead of hack-and-slash combat. Its a sign of the game’s popularity and maturity that its embracing the infernal themes it avoided during the height of the satanic panic in the 80’s.

Besides the adventure itself and the previously mentioned gazetteer for Baldur’s Gate, the book also includes new magic items and creatures, rules for diabolical contracts, and vehicle rules for Infernal War Machines! Travel across the war-ravaged plains of Hell gets more interesting when you have a fantasy equivalent of an armored motorbike or big rig. There’s also a removable double-sided map with a ridiculous level of detail.

Overall, this book continues the trend of increasing quality in hardback adventure products from Wizards of the Coast. There’s helpful outlines, more ways to tie characters into the story, new useful tools that can be used in this adventure or any game. The art continues to be amazing, from the cover art to several double page spreads and various character portraits throughout.

Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus releases on September 17th, with alternate covers by Tyler Jacobsen and Hydro74. Also available is a Dice & Miscellany set that includes custom dice, double sided cards with art for various devils and demons, and a fold-out map.