Lawful Evil Narrator

The Dungeons & Dragons Character Alignment system originally defined characters' moral dispositions only on a Law/Chaos axis, with Law seen as usually involving moral goodness, and Chaos, evil. Eventually, Good/Evil was introduced as a separate parameter. One reason for this was the slightly odd but not all that rare case of characters who are clearly evil, but nevertheless organised, consistent, rule-abiding, or maybe even trustworthy and reasonable in their own limited way — in other words, Lawful Evil.

A Lawful Evil character is an evil character who either tries to impose or uphold a lawful system on others without regard for their wishes, and/or adheres to a particular code. They believe in order, but mostly because they believe it is the best way of realizing their evil wishes. They will obey the letter of the law, but not the spirit, and are usually very careful about giving their word. However, there is also the Knight Templar variant, who believes their rules actually make them the good guy — when they and their rules have in truth ended up at the lower end of the slippery slope to evil and tyranny.

Though Lawful Evil characters are often found in charge, these characters also make good henchmen or mooks. Though they lack any moral scruples that may impair their work, a cautious villain will find they respond well to concepts like "loyalty", "duty" and "honour". The caution, however, should be remembered, as these characters also respond poorly to Bad Bosses and Dirty Cowards,note as well as simple incompetence that could lead them to deciding to either find a more worthy master, or take over "for the good of the cause".

Lawful Evil allows for a wide spectrum of character types to work with. Neutral Evil characters tend towards It's All About Me and Lack of Empathy for anyone else being willing to do anything to achieve, what will usually be, completely personal or selfish ends that at best would only incidentally benefit others. Chaotic Evil is even harder to portray as anything remotely sympathetic because even if they have a Freudian Excuse, they usually go so far off the deep end straight into the Moral Event Horizon territory that Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse. Lawful Evil on the other hand allows for many more facets with some interesting types being the Noble Demon who will fight honorably, Affably Evil characters who believe that doing bad things will lead to a better outcome, an Anti-Villain who believes that the cost of their morally questionable actions is worth the benefits to others with all of these types usually believing Even Evil Has Standards.

Lawful Evil tends to be the hardest type of evil to get rid of, especially when it's working within an established system. If the system itself is evil, then it's Inherent in the System, and thus the evil parts can't be changed without major upheaval or the complete destruction of the system. If the system is being used by evil individuals, that's even worse, as these types often perpetrate Loophole Abuse combined with Rules Lawyering to make it impossible to separate where the legal parts end and the illegal parts begin. If legally challenged, the Lawful Evil types will employ the most finely-tuned and detailed legal arguments you've ever heard to counter your loopholes, or even create Legalized Evil to specifically permit their brand of evil by law. Lastly, if the evil isn't part of a large system but rather as a group, it's still difficult to stop; those that are part of the group are generally doing it by following an ideal, and You Cannot Kill An Idea. So even if the current version of the group is stopped, it may not prevent a new version following the same ideals from emerging later on down the road.

Lawful Evil usually comes in at least three types:

Lawful over Evil — This type uses Evil means to achieve Lawful ends. Essentially, any villain who would consider their goals to be Lawful Neutral or Lawful Good, but who is in practice too ruthless or extreme to qualify. They may honestly believe that an orderly society or way of living is the best, but they are ruthless or cruel enough to take a Necessarily Evil approach to enforcing them. This type can be found in- and sometimes even be sincerely loyal to- any kind of society, including Neutral and Good aligned ones; the problem is, they are prepared to commit evil actions for it, and are prone to invoke Moral Myopia or A Million Is a Statistic to justify their deeds. Evil Over Lawful — This type uses Lawful means to achieve Evil ends. A monster with a rigid Code of Honour, or a Card-Carrying Villain who follows a strict set of rules. This is the kind of villain who follows an orderly way of living because they think that this is the best way to achieve their evil desires or goals — For the Evulz with discipline. Some are merely selfish, while others are vengeful, cruel, power-hungry or outright sadistic, with Lawful variants of Dystopia Justifies the Means often falling into this type, but they all prefer to go about their villainy in an orderly manner or with some sort of excuse. They differ from Neutral Evil in that the latter might obey some rules out of convenience or pragmatism, while this type does so out of genuine, if self-serving commitment. Balance Seeker — This type seeks a balance between Lawful and Evil, usually an Evil character who uses "Lawful" as a substitute for "Good". This type likes to dissociate their Evil motives and deeds from the other aspects of their life, using Lawful codes of conduct or honour to achieve this. This category usually covers the more Lawful examples of the Professional Killer, Just Following Orders, the family values and churchgoing villains, Evil Parents Want Good Kids etc. Organised crime tends to default as this category (unless they enjoy being evil too much), as do most who follow a Lawful Evil religion or god (and sometimes those gods themselves), and are often villains who (sincerely) use Nothing Personal as an excuse for their behaviour. They usually do not see themselves as "good" or "evil", except perhaps in the technical sense, but may use Even Evil Has Standards as an excuse for their various misdeeds. All variants are likely to take advantage of Questionable Consent, pushing people into "agreements" and then pushing them to uphold their end of the "bargain".

Lawful Evil characters may not be motivated by anything but a paycheck. Many soldiers and henchmen working for an evil government or ruler fall into the "lawful evil" category by default. Being a genuinely committed member of a military organization makes one lawful by default, and if the government or ruler one works for is evil, then one naturally falls into the category of "lawful evil."

If you have a difficulty deciding which alignment an evil-aligned character belongs to, the main difference between Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil and Chaotic Evil is not their devotion to their evil wishes, but the methods they believe are best to realize it:

Even though there are some situations where they can't always use this method, Lawful Evil characters believe the best way is to have a specific, strict code of conduct, whether self-imposed or codified as a law. Their first impulse when making a moral decision is to refer back to this code; those with externally imposed systems (codes of laws, hierarchies, etc.) will try to work within the system when those systems go wrong. Depending on whether they are more Lawful or more Evil, they will either refuse to break the code even though it would hurt their evil objectives, or else break it only very reluctantly, and only when it would hurt their evil objectives if they kept their code. Neutral Evil characters are indifferent to Order Versus Chaos, and their only interest is in realizing their evil wishes. They will use whatever means will help in realizing their evil wishes, whether that means tearing down a code of laws, following a code of laws, creating an orderly society, causing the breakdown of justice, or staying away from society altogether. Their only goal is to realize their evil wishes, full stop. Most Chaotic Evil characters don't constantly break the law, but they cannot see much value in laws that do not function solely to their depraved objectives. They believe that their own evil impulses are their best guides, and that tying themselves to any given code of conduct would be limiting their own ability to realize their depraved wishes. They do not get along with anyone who tries to instill any kind of order over the Chaotic Evil character, believing these people to be restricting their freedom; Chaotic Evil characters often focus very strongly on their own individual rights and freedoms, and will strongly resist any form of oppression of themselves. In a nutshell, these are a variety of evil characters who don't care if what they do is "heinous" or "horrible", but who will always follow certain rules.

Such characters are, for example:

A warlord who would kill anyone who threatens him — and, let's say, would always spare the enemies that can serve him; or someone who believes in playing by the story conventions; or a villain whose word is absolutely binding but would still kill a pregnant woman; or any kind of evil character that might commit mass genocide but for some reason Will Not Tell a Lie. Or a character who does, without flinching, anything their master orders them to do, anything, because their one rule is absolute obedience. A Lawful Evil character can also be an Omnicidal Maniac just as easily as Neutral Evil or Chaotic Evil can be; in such cases, they usually either hold Fantastic Racism towards all other living beings or they wish to impose a new order by annihilating everything and starting from scratch.

Remember, being Lawful does not imply at all that you have any moral standards, and any one of these character archetypes have just as much potential as a Neutral Evil or Chaotic Evil character to be truly despicable. Being Lawful may involve some kind of ethical values or moral codes, but they're more about abstract rules than actually caring about other people; alternatively, a lawful character may work within and abuse the rules. Lawful Evil is not always the "nicest" of the Evil alignments, though in individual cases the Lawfulness may make for a Noble Demon. It is just the most consistent and orderly. In short, an evil character who feels that the rules is what gives them strength or superiority. This includes upholding Evil as an ideal in and of itself, coupled with a sense of duty to promote it wherever possible and by any means. They're likely to have standards, but they're just as likely to have a warped moral code regardless. Notably, Hextor, the iconic god of Lawful Evil in Dungeons & Dragons is not sympathetic in the slightest. That being said, many, perhaps most evil characters who end up siding with heroes permanently without undergoing a Heel–Face Turn tend to be Lawful Evil, as they are the most likely of the evil alignments to work within the system; type 1s are particularly prone to this, due to their views on order.

Finally, it should be remembered that while many Lawful Evil types may value the law and may obey it in many cases, being Lawful Evil does not necessarily mean that the character will necessarily obey the actual laws of the land — many of them are fully prepared to commit illegal acts or to twist the laws to their own purposes, and even to annihilate entire systems or civilizations. Some may justify this by saying they are trying to create a superior lawful society; others may assume that their own personal code supersedes any loyalty to the authority of mere mortals; others still may think that the only law they obey is that of their own masters. No Lawful alignment is necessarily inclined to obey every law or any law.