DA:O NPC Alignment (spoilers probable)

[dragon wench]

I'm not sure if this has already been done here, but I'm replaying DA:O and I started thinking about how a lot of the NPC's are a bit less black and white than in BG2. For example, Lelliana, on the surface, appears fairly sweet and somewhat innocent. However.... she isn't exactly innocent. Equally, Morrigan can seem entirely sarcastic, cold and self-serving. But, if you dig a bit deeper you discover something much more complex.

This started me thinking about traditional D&D alignments, so I decided to see if I could place the NPCs (recruitable and not).
These are my current thoughts:

Sten - Lawful Neutral. Yes he ended up slaughtering an entire family but by his own admission the loss of his sword (the equivalent of his soul) temporarily drove him beyond rational thought. He is very conscious about following the Qunari code, so hence I think he is Lawful. He's neither LG nor LE, so LN is the only thing that really seems to fit.

Zevran - I think can be easily placed as Chaotic Neutral.

Oghren - He's a berserker, doesn't seem overtly good or evil.. so I also place him as CN.

Morrigan - I feel she best fits Neutral Evil with leanings toward True Neutral.

Wynn - Neutral to Lawful Good.

Allister - Neutral to Lawful Good.

Shale - this was a hard one but I think Chaotic Neutral is probably the closest.

Lelliana - Dashes of Neutral Good and Chaotic Good, I found her a bit difficult to place.

Dog - True Neutral since he's an animal.

[Garriath]

What a fun idea for a thread.

I totally agree with you about Sten, Shale, Leliana, and Zevran.

Oghren - He's a berserker, doesn't seem overtly good or evil.. so I also place him as CN.

I never really understood the argument that berserkers need to be chaotic, as if the way one acts in combat defines one's inner morality. I agree that he's not really good or evil, so neutral certainly fits him best. He's not lawful, though I'm not really convinced he's chaotic. Still, chaotic or true neutral seems to fit him best, though I'll admit true neutral carries some odd connotations.

Wynn - Neutral to Lawful Good.

Allister - Neutral to Lawful Good.

I feel pretty comfortable looping them into lawful good. They're both pretty sharp on what they feel is evil, or wrong. Alistair never really gets over being around apostates, and Wynne will attack you on first sight if you're using blood magic (or, if I recall correctly, admit that Morrigan's an apostate). Likewise, Alistair's insistence that Loghain receive his proper execution points to what I see as a very lawful point of view.

Morrigan - I feel she best fits Neutral Evil with leanings toward True Neutral.

Really? I find Morrigan to be an incredibly interesting character, but there's no question in my mind that she qualifies as evil. The way I read it, good people use their skills to help others, while evil characters use it to help themselves, and, as you find out at the game's end, every single action she takes in the game is dedicated to the ultimate goal of enhancing her own power, specifically through spawning a child with the soul of an evil god. I'll agree that she becomes more sympathetic in her romance, but the fact that she still abandons you in the end only reveals her dedication to her (really undeniably evil) cause. She's constantly pressuring you into pursuing similarly evil acts (leaving Redcliffe's peasants to die, executing the circle, etc.). Likewise, her growing up in the wilds and ultimate abhorrence of the templars and any sort of institutionalized law points to chaos. I really can't see her as anything other than chaotic evil (though an admittedly chaotic evil she is!)

[Nymie_the_Pooh]

I think you are pretty spot on. Lelliana is hard to place as she can go quite dark if you work on her a bit. She is trying her hardest to be neutral good or even lawful good at the start of the game. She isn't lawful good, but she does come across as if she feels like she should try to be lawful good. She doesn't want to be who she was so is working on changing her alignment when you meet. She is just coming out of a very structured environment where she was protected from being able to sabotage herself too severely. If you work on her she can end up in the chaotic neutral range leaning toward being a step or two away from evil. She is extremely malleable.

[Kaer]

"Allister - Neutral to Lawful Good."

Hardening Alistair is fantastic, totally drops away from being Lawful and even away from being entirely morally good, and is definitely worth trying once or twice. His conversations change, he's willing to do a lot more, and the ending of DA:O feels significantly different.

Or you can do it to have a four-way in the Pearl and him relent to it regardless of his affection for you. There's that too.