Folians alignment

[drakogear]

This has been perhaps one of any things that has been nawing at the back of my head for a long wile and I'm sure one of the answers I'm going to be getting is "The gods work in mysteriousness ways" but still... gotta ask.

Folian is set as NG yet I'm finding little to no examples of how he is neutral. Good perhaps but not much to say neutral.

Mainly from the statement on his main LORE page which just about describes the basics of a wolf pack which in my opinion is actually more towards being organized and orderly (Lawful) than being wild and independent. (Chaotic) as everyone in the pack has a place, purpose and responsibility in the pack and above all follows the Alpha. (pack leader)

Another reason to this question is of a powerful follower who lived in the vale (can't seem to find LORE page anymore) and despite being a follower of a good deity he himself was Neutral Evil. (Malefactor.) Pretty much the exact opposite of Folians current alignment. :\\

So my question is, Why is Folian NG instead of LG or even LN?

[Dorganath]

Not all organizations that follow a structure are Lawful in alignment. Beyond that point, Folian S'pae is one of the nature-oriented deities and they trend toward Neutral in one way or the other typically.  Also, if you read down into the dogma, you will see some words about adapting to change and about how each season is a new test for members of the Pack. This sort of mindset would lean more toward Chaotic than than those who subscribe to the notion of doing things the same way all the time.  The somewhat implied notion of doing what needs to be done to defend their grounds also makes them lean away from pure Lawful, despite the organizational structure of a pack.

As for your more specific example, without a name, it may be difficult to comment. However, it's worth saying that followers of any faith can be any alignment. It is only the clerics of a given deity who must adhere to the "one step" rule.

[Lance Stargazer]

I do think that the issue there is the scope we are taking about the Neutral part of the alignment.  A Neutral guy alignment means that they are quite respectful of laws as well, as long as those laws are good for the people in general, They respect the laws but may at times work out of them to achieve a greater good. If you read [LORE]Neutral Good[/LORE] you'll see that they share a lot with the [LORE]Lawful Good[/LORE], the diferences are slight, but they tend towards the order cause the order is fair for everyone.

Originally from [LORE]Folian S'pae[/LORE]
There should be enough food for all, but care should be taken to not hunt to excess and never only for oneself.

That thoughts represent quite what i am saying as an example of Neutral good the focus is on the fairnes for all. but it is not centered on the society but on each individual, that is the diference beetwen the two alignments.

And yes .. the gods works in mysterious ways .

My two trues

// Ninjaed by Dorg ..  *goes and mutters about him writting novels as threads at times *

[Nehetsrev]

Another way of thinking about it is that if Folian's 'pack' is modeled after a wolf pack, there is a degree of chaos inherent.  In a wolf pack the strongest (the Alpha's) lead.  However, if the alpha were to sicken, even for just a short time, it is conceivable that another might challenge and/or kill the Alpha, taking it's place and causing a sudden shift in the politics of the pack, as it were.  In wolf packs, even below the Alpha level, there is a degree of in-fighting (certainly not often to the death, but rather to establish lines of dominance) between pack-mates to determine the pecking order.  You could say that this bit of chaotic anarchy is what builds the lawful order of the pack, together bringing a neutrality along the lawful/chaotic axis of the pack behavior as a whole.
 
Now to examine the good/evil axis you could look at the individual behavior of a typical pack-member.  It balances to neutral because a pack member instinctively realizes or thinks along these lines, "I want to be as tough as I can be because I want to be the Alpha and have the privileges that entails (a greedy and thus 'evil' mindset).  Yet, I do not wish so much to harm others in the pack because I know our food, and thus my own food, comes from our ability to work as a team (that's not to say that given the opportunity I won't snatch a bit more meat when I can get away with it).  Knowing much of my own health and well-being comes from the overall health and well-being of the pack, I'll do my best to protect the others from outside threats and enusre that the pack as a whole stays strong (more of a 'good' mindset in that the individual sacrifices of themselves for the others in their society)."
 
So there you can see that as an individual a pack-member has both selfish (evil) and selfless (good) qualities, to overall balance out to a more neutral position along the good/evil axis of character alignment.
 
Just my own analytical two True worth here.