View source for Alignment

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{{for|ways to change your alignment rating|alignment record}}
'''Alignment''' in ''[[NetHack]]'' is a trichotomy: '''lawful''', '''neutral''' or '''chaotic'''. The following things have an alignment:

* [[Monster]]s
* [[Altar]]s
* [[Quest artifact]]s
* [[Artifact weapon]]s
* [[Dungeon branch]]es
* Your [[Player|character]]

In addition to your character's alignment (whether you are lawful, neutral, or chaotic), your character also has an ''[[alignment record]]'', a number referred to as <tt>u.ualign.record</tt> in the [[source code]]. Some spoilers refer to this number as your "alignment", creating ambiguity.

Altars to the evil god [[Moloch]] are considered '''unaligned'''&mdash;that is, not lawful, neutral or chaotic. Additionally, some artifact weapons are non-aligned; this only means that they express no preference for the alignment of their wielders, not that they are in some way allied to Moloch.

The interactions between objects of different alignments are many and varied. Two things are '''"co-aligned"''' when their alignments are the same, or '''"cross-aligned"''' when they are different.

==Your alignment==

[[You]] choose your alignment during character creation. If you choose any race except [[human (starting race)|human]], your alignment is assigned implicitly: [[dwarf (starting race)|dwarves]] are lawful, [[Gnome (starting race)|gnomes]] are neutral, and [[elf (starting race)|elves]] and [[orc (starting race)|orcs]] are chaotic. Humans may explicitly choose their alignment, although most roles have restrictions on permissible alignments. For example, [[Barbarian]]s cannot be lawful, [[Cavemen]] cannot be chaotic, and [[Knight]]s must be lawful.

There are two ways to change your character's alignment. Wearing a [[helm of opposite alignment]] changes your alignment temporarily, and sacrificing at a cross-aligned [[altar]] under certain circumstances can convert your alignment permanently. If you permanently change your alignment before doing your [[quest]], however, the game will be [[unwinnable]].

===Lawful===
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====Lawful advantages====
* Easy access to [[Excalibur]]: dip a long sword into a fountain after you reach experience level 5. This does ''not'' unrestrict long sword [[skill]], but see below.
* You may receive [[Grayswandir]], the coveted [[artifact]] silver saber, as a [[sacrifice gift]].
** If you don't receive Grayswandir and your role doesn't have a guaranteed first sacrifice gift, you will receive some sort of long sword. This unrestricts your long sword skill, allowing any lawful [[role]] to competently wield Excalibur.
* The [[Gnomish Mines]] will have more peaceful monsters, so that branch is easier.
* White [[unicorn]]s are slightly more common than other colors to compensate for [[Gehennom]] preventing lawful monsters generating within, making it easier to gain [[Luck]] early on.
* Some nasty monsters - such as [[titan]]s, [[golden naga]]s, and especially [[Archon]]s - are co-aligned and will most often be peaceful.
* You can reliably use a [[helm of opposite alignment]] on the chaotic high altar.
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====Lawful disadvantages====
* The [[mysterious force]] is harsher.
* Because more unicorns will be coaligned, you may have more difficulty obtaining a [[unicorn horn]].
* Other than Grayswandir, lawful sacrifice gifts are lacking in general-purpose damage.
* You lose [[intrinsic]] [[telepathy]] and two points of [[Luck]] if you commit [[murder]].
* You get a &minus;1 alignment penalty for directly [[stealing from shops]].
* You get a &minus;1 alignment penalty from using [[poison]]ed weapons. ("You feel like an evil coward for using a poisoned weapon.")
* You cannot ascend on the neutral high altar.
* Your [[crowning]] gift can neither [[drain life]] nor [[instakill]] enemies, and is thus weak against [[covetous]] monsters.
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===Neutral===
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====Neutral advantages====
* You have a wide selection of [[quest artifact]]s available by [[wish]]ing. [[The Eyes of the Overworld]] and [[the Eye of the Aethiopica]] in particular grant effects available nowhere else.
* Neutral sacrifice gifts include the powerful [[Cleaver]] and [[Mjollnir]], and the useful utility weapon [[Magicbane]].
* [[Air elemental]]s, a very dangerous monster, may be generated peaceful.
* [[Domestic animals]] may be generated peaceful, so you can keep them alive and return to tame them when you need them.
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====Neutral disadvantages====
* You lose [[intrinsic]] [[telepathy]] and two points of Luck if you commit [[murder]].
* Using a helm of opposite alignment to ascend on a different altar is not reliable, unless you test it first.
* Your [[crowning]] artifact does less damage than the other alignments' and does not provide [[drain resistance]].
* A large number of low-level always-hostile monsters are neutral, giving neutral characters no alignment record gains for killing them, which may be a problem for [[protection racket]] runs.
* Due to the nature of the formula used, neutral monsters which can randomly be generated peaceful have at most a 50% chance of being so.<ref>The formula uses the absolute value of monster alignment, which is at least one for lawful or chaotic monsters but always zero for neutral ones.</ref>
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===Chaotic===
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====Chaotic advantages====
* There is no Luck or telepathy penalty for [[murder]]ing peaceful humans. You still lose alignment record, however.
* [[stealing from shops#Direct theft|Direct theft]] from a shop gives a +1 alignment bonus (''unless'' you are a [[Rogue]]).
* You decrease your [[prayer timeout]] more quickly by sacrificing.
* You can [[sacrifice]] your own race at [[altar]]s. When you do, your [[god]] dispatches a peaceful unique [[demon lord]] to the altar, making one less demon to fight in Gehennom. This may also summon a peaceful [[foocubus]].
* Sacrificing your own race on a cross-aligned altar will automatically convert that altar to chaotic.
* The mysterious force is more merciful.
* You can reliably use a [[helm of opposite alignment]] on the lawful high altar.
* The blessed [[Book of the Dead]] can tame [[undead]].
* If you are not a Rogue, you can wish for [[the Master Key of Thievery]].
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====Chaotic disadvantages====
* [[anger|Angry]] chaotic gods are more difficult to mollify, demanding better sacrifices to reduce anger points.
* Chaotic sacrifice gifts are of very little general use, with the exception of [[Stormbringer]], which has a major (if surmountable) drawback. The other chaotic quest artifact, [[the Longbow of Diana]], is rarely worth wishing for.
* {{of|potion|Holy water}} will not cure your [[sickness]]. It does cure [[lycanthropy]], but you take damage when quaffing holy water.
* Most of the more dangerous chaotic monsters are always hostile, regardless of your alignment.
* You cannot ascend on the neutral high altar.
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==Monster alignment==

A monster's alignment is entirely different from the player character's alignment or alignment record, and is used primarily to determine whether it is peaceful or not toward you.{{reffunc|makemon.c|peace_minded}} Monsters can be lawful, neutral, or chaotic; the [[Wizard of Yendor]] and [[Aligned priest|priests of Moloch]] are unaligned.

Alignment is determined by the integer <tt>maligntyp</tt> of <tt>struct permonst</tt> declared in [[permonst.h]]; a positive integer is lawful, 0 is neutral, and a negative integer is chaotic. Thus, while monsters of the same type actually have the same alignment, some lawful monsters are more strongly lawful than others, for instance, while some chaotic monsters are more strongly so than other chaotic monsters. A neutral monster in this context is simply any monster that is neither lawful nor chaotic.

White [[unicorn]]s are lawful, gray ones are neutral, and black ones are chaotic. Unicorns are especially important, as your [[god]] expects you to respect co-aligned unicorns, and sacrificing cross-aligned ones is highly valued.

==Altar alignment==

Co-aligned altars can be used to [[pray]] and offer sacrifices to your god. Cross-aligned altars can be converted, but this is not always wise if there is an attendant priest.

==Artifact alignment==

Most artifacts have an alignment. If the artifact is not intelligent, then you have only a {{frac|4}} chance of being [[Artifact blast|blasted]] if you have a different alignment from the artifact or have a negative alignment record, or are in the form of something the artifact specially attacks; damage is 4d4 (2d4 if you have magic resistance). If you have enough [[HP]] to survive the blast, you will be able to use the artifact.

[[Intelligent artifact]]s can emit much stronger blasts; they might also "evade your grasp", meaning that you are unable to use them.

==Dungeon alignment==

[[Branch]]es of the dungeon can be aligned in the sense that monster generation in that branch is biased toward monsters of that alignment due to adjusted [[monster frequency]].{{refsrc|dat/dungeon.def|17|version=NetHack 3.6.1}}

*[[Gnomish Mines]]: lawful
*[[Oracle (level)|Oracle]]: neutral
*[[Sokoban]]: neutral
*[[Medusa's Island]]: chaotic
*[[Vlad's Tower]]: chaotic
*All other levels: unaligned (no particular alignment bias)

==Origin==
{{Wikipedia|Alignment (role-playing games)}}
The three alignments of ''[[NetHack]]'' probably originate from the first edition of ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''. ''D&D'' gods have a specific alignment, and their worshipers are also of that alignment. Later ''D&D'' editions include a second axis of alignment: good, neutral, or evil. This results in nine combinations, such as "chaotic good" or "true neutral".

Before ''D&D'' introduced the good&ndash;evil axis, some players had equated "lawful" with "good" and "chaotic" with "evil"; games like ''[[ADOM]]'' follow this idea. Perhaps this is why ''D&D'' added the second axis. Many computer games, like ''NetHack'', did not include this complication.

Unlike ''D&D'', which has numerous plots, ''NetHack'' always follows the same story of taking that [[Amulet of Yendor]] from Moloch. Thus, in ''NetHack'', alignments can be compared by how they relate to that story.

For a lawful character, think ''law and order''. Perhaps the surface world has evil Knights and Samurai supporting tyrannical empires, but it is hard to believe that our [[Knight]] or [[Samurai]] seeking the Amulet is anything but good. They avoid murder and shoplifting, the Knight keeps a code of conduct, and the Samurai maintains honor. Perhaps other lawful roles need not act so good.

A neutral character does not much care about alignment. Most of the special effects of alignment are for lawful or chaotic characters. The neutral character just wants to obtain the best artifacts and win [[immortality]]. He or she might be planning from the start to take a [[helm of opposite alignment]] to the [[Astral Plane]] and just [[offer]] the Amulet to the closest high altar.

A chaotic character aims for convenience and cares not for order. In contrast to the lawful characters' like of social settings and orderly group activity, chaotic characters prefer individual action and are perhaps most suited to a one-player game like ''NetHack''. Chaotic characters can keep [[pet]]s as well as lawful and neutral characters can, before they take out [[Stormbringer]].

Every [[elf (starting race)|elf]] is chaotic. ''NetHack''&#39;s elves may be the size of humans, but they are not of Tolkien. Of elves, the [https://alt.org/nethack/mirror/www.spod-central.org/%257Epsmith/nh/rgrn-FAQ.txt rec.games.roguelike.nethack FAQ] says that "there's hundreds of years of tradition of the land of Faerie being one where human concepts of law simply do not apply".

[[Major demon]]s are both lawful and chaotic, based on how ''D&D'' divides its fiends into lawful evil "devils" and chaotic evil "demons".

"Unaligned" implies that Moloch and his followers subscribe to some alien morality completely removed from the lawful-neutral-chaotic trichotomy. However, a reference in the source (unused in vanilla NetHack) lists the guiding principle of unaligned as "evil"{{refsrc|src/role.c|765|version=NetHack 3.6.6}}. If taken as canon, this means that chaotic and evil are indeed distinct from each other. This would explain why actions such as abusing [[Elbereth]] and killing your [[pet]] are frowned upon by even chaotic gods.

==SLASH'EM==

In [[SLASH'EM]], lawful characters get much more powerful minions than others, and they can get minions by praying with low HP as well as sacrifice. However, lawful characters will anger their god if they drink a [[potion of vampire blood]].

Elves are always lawful or neutral. There are also five new races in SLASH'EM; their alignments are as follows:
*Drow: chaotic
*Doppelganger: neutral or chaotic
*Hobbit: lawful or neutral
*Lycanthrope: chaotic
*Vampire: chaotic

There are also many more special levels and dungeon branches in SLASH'EM. Their alignments are as follows:

*Gnomish Mines: lawful
*Mall: lawful
*Oracle: neutral
*Sokoban: neutral
*Grund's Stronghold: chaotic
*Lawful Quest: lawful
*Neutral Quest: neutral
*Chaotic Quest: chaotic
*Wyrm Caves: chaotic
*Black Market: chaotic
*Lost Tomb: chaotic
*Spider Caves: chaotic
*Sunless Sea: chaotic
*Temple of Moloch: chaotic
*Giant Caverns: chaotic
*Medusa: chaotic
*Vlad's Tower: chaotic
*Frankenstein's Lab: chaotic
*All others: unaligned

==References==
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