Dungeons & Dragons is known for a lot of things. Elven Warriors fighting against floating eyeballs. Magical musicians that want to sleep with any living creature. Edgelord orphans who’s parents were killed by orcs, and was raised on the streets, and can never trust anyone again. But one of the most common things from this game that has reached the public consciousness, is the alignment chart.

Of course, just like everything in this game, eventually it was seen as an unnecessary aspect of character creation, and even a hindrance to the stories we could tell. So let’s take a look at where Alignment began, and how it can be used today.

Original Idea

In the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons, the alignment chart was less of a chart, and just three options: Lawful, Chaotic, and Neutral. At this point, the classic fantasy characters that Gary Gygax was trying to…