Mages, Drow, Nature, and Chaotic Good

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I see the combination everywhere these days.

Mages

-Elminster, most powerful, intelligent, and, ah, "active" wizard of the Forgotten Realms. He's got, what, some 40 levels plus the Chosen of Mystra template. Yeah, he's Chaotic Good.

-Alustriel, ruler of Silverymoon (which happens to be a city of big magic that happens to be Chaotic Good), Chosen of Mystra, archmage, yadda yadda yadda. Chaotic Good.

-Have you ever read Tome & Blood? Just about every damn example wizard and sorcerer in there is Chaotic Good! The homely old pair that live in the old manor? Chaotic Good. Head of the superpowered mage guild that for some reason hasn't taken over the world? Chaotic Good. That wandering sage? Chaotic Good.

-Elves practice wizardry. I mean, their favored class is Wizard. Of course, they're Chaotic Good.

-Hell, my gnomish sorcerer in Gnolyn's game is Chaotic Good. And I'm willing to bet that Lokken's character in the campaign is Chaotic Good as well.

-Ever read a fantasy book? The misunderstood sorcerer, or the kindly witch, or whatever. Chaotic Good! Sure, they don't say it directly, but ya sure as hell can tell. Especially when you have Greenwood and Salvatore, who are more likely to reach for a D&D rules book than a thesaurus.

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Drow

-Drizzt. Chaotic. Good. Big hero of the Realms. Has his very own set of trilogies, quartets, septuplets, whatever. Dammit, man, he's Chaotic Good!

-Soulafein. Remember that Drow in Baldur's Gate II? Yeah, he's one. Secret worshipper of Elistrae. Chaotic Good (well, actually maybe Chaotic Neutral; don't exactly remember).

-Other (important) Drow. Evil my ass. You see a Drow on the surface, you should immediately assume it's just like Drizzt; the renegade Drow on the run from Lolth, worshipping Elistrae in secret, and so forth. Every single rogue drow is Chaotic Good; there's an entire goddess devoted to 'em!

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Nature

-Have they considered making Chaotic Good an option for Druids? You know, the entire druid grove saving the goody-goody grove from destruction by the evil orc loggers. Chaotic freaking Good.

-Unicorns. White, pure ones. You find me an fantasy-enjoying person who won't connection 'corns to nature. Chaotic Good. Shudder.

-Fey. Dryads. Nymphs. Sprites. Whatever. Chaotic Good. Dammit, these people are supposed to kill you when you see them. But noo, Chaotic Good.

-Drizzt is a Ranger. Of Mielikki. Yeah. A nature goddess.

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Society is falling apart here! Chaotic Good wizards, druids, and drow will eventually band together, take over the world (or maybe just FR), and have Chaotic Good Drow Nature-loving Wizards destroy society, burn those innocent strongholds down, thoughtlessly slaughter those poor pilgrims of Bane, and simply turn the whole world into Chaos! And like you didn't see it coming. Chaotic Good.

So what's up with this? Anyone else think that Chaotic Good is being too, ah, glamorized?

[ February 25, 2003, 03:14: Message edited by: C'Jakob ]

 

*Ahem*

What can I say?

We Chaotic Good types are just so cool!

 

So why are the Realms still in ballance with all these chaotics in places of power running about?

 

I have a difficult time whenever I see a priesthood or ruler that is classified as Chaotic good. To lead or have some form of organization, you would have to be at least Neutral, IMHO. As for Chaotics banding together, well, by their very nature they are not likely to do that for any length of time, right?

 

Aikanaro: because it's the Forgotten Realms, that's why. It's a world where level 40 Chaotic "Good" characters are too lazy to save the day, entire cities can be Chaotic Good, entire societies can be Chaotic Evil, and so on.

 

Thinking about it...

I know!

Lawful and Neutral types tend to work in larger groups. They have to share all that XP.

Chaotic types like to solo more so they get all the XP and become much more powerful.

That's why so many of the great Heroes are Chaotic Good and the great Villains are Chaotic Evil.

 

A chaotic people will have some ally too, they won't charge blindly in adventure! anyway it's just that, They wanted "good" heroes without being Zealot, so Chaotic good, could been Neutral good though... anyway My opinion is that Chaotic Neutral is the best aligment period

 

Druids CANNOT be chaotic good

They are always neutral and in 2ed. they can only be True neutral. IIRC in 3ed. they can be evil and good as well but still neutral.

And if all the powerful people of the Realms would be chaotic good where would the balance go??
And if there would be mayority chaotic good the druids would take the role of the evil ones IMO.

 

That's true; I was making the point that they act Chaotic Good plenty of times, especially if you've read any FR novels. Not to mention that most nature-aligned entities (Fey, Unicorns) are Chaotic Good as well. And when's the last time you didn't see a Chaotic Good Ranger?

Hell, there is no balance in FR (or in plenty of fantasy worlds), which is my complete rant. Look at the elves. They're all Chaotic Good, but they have a big developed society where they're all in touch with trees and magic and crap. And look at Silverymoon. An entire city that is Chaotic Good.

 

Ok, mages- they deal with the weave, is there anything more chaotic in Faerun?

Good Drow- they have a tendency to adopt similar mindsets as their surface brethren, that of Chaotic-Good. That's just the nature of elves.

Druids- by the same right that druids fend off evil forces, they won't let a Lawful-Good or Lawful-Neutral kingdom encroach on their terrain either. A paladin walking through a druid grove? Not bloody likely. There have been several instances where druids basically told large, expanding, good kingdoms, that if they kept expanding, the druids would take hostile action.

There are a lot of Chaotic Good entities, yes. There are also a lot of Lawful and Neutral Good entities, too. Paladins, Good clerics, the average human peasant? And of course there are lots of evils. Chaotic-Neutral? Rogues, barbarians, bards. Lawful Neutral- monks. Etc. All you basically did is point out what types of people tend to fit that alignment. Yeah, there are a lot. There are a lot of all alignments. And magic users have a great tendency to be in the CG group. Especially sorcerers.

The balance isn't static nothingness, its an equilibrium. Constant struggle between all sides that no one side dominates.

 

If they're all constantly struggling then evil isn't doing a very good job of it. Doesn't it say in the DMG that CG settlements are only likly to be small farming towns or something?