Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

No. Malar is CE. If you want to play an LE follower of Malar, you can do that, your character can be a particularly lawful follower of Malar, advocate some more codified take on his faith, but Malar himself, and his mainstream church (and thus clerics), are CE.

And Malarites don't have any 'hunter's code'. They follow two laws: Anything that Malar commands, and when he is silent, the law of the wild: The strong do as they please, and the weak flee, obey, or die. And even then, he's a chaotic god. Different cults (different hunts) are going to have their own rules and beliefs, dictated by the strongest members of those cults.

To be Chaotic does not mean you do not have things you believe, rules you follow. It means you do not value those things simply because they are rules. You value them because something strong enough or charismatic enough to earn your respect imposed those rules. Malar's rules are followed because his followers see those rules as an expression of strength, and in turn seek to impose their own strength on others. Every chaotic god has some principles they believe in. That does not make them lawful. Malar, and Malarites, do not care about tradition, loyalty, and order. They do not play by the rules. They are not comfortable in hierarchies, and are not willing to serve. They will absolutely break laws or promises. Malar is about strength. Might makes right, not order. Those who serve and follow rules, do it because they're too weak to challenge those rules, or because they respect the strength of the person who created those rules. Not because they believe that the rules in and of themselves are of worth.

If you want a hunting god that cares about code and order, there's Nobanion for that.

Altmer wrote: ↑Fri Dec 10, 2021 3:10 pm

A lawful evil villain methodically takes what he wants within the limits of his code of conduct without regard for whom it hurts. He cares about tradition, loyalty, and order but not about freedom, dignity, or life. He plays by the rules but without mercy or compassion. He is comfortable in a hierarchy and would like to rule, but is willing to serve. He condemns others not according to their actions but according to race, religion, homeland, or social rank. He is loath to break laws or promises.

I was wondering about if it would be agreed by the community to allow Malar be taken as a Lawful Evil due to the hunter's code. They do everything correctly in the name of the dogma. Set the hunting with no care of life, freedom or dignity, just for the sake of the hunting, worship and carry on with the traditions of the cult and the hierarchy in the cult of Malar even though they seem like beasts.

It's also known that those who survive the hunting are set free and cannot be hunted by malarites, so they wouldn't betray the dogma of Malar or they'd be betraying the cult itself. Even though I'd say Malarites can be chaotic as well. Some are psycopaths and some are simply thugs.

https://frc.fandom.com/wiki/Malar

Dogma:

Survival of the fittest and the winnowing of the weak are Malar’s legacy. A brutal, bloody death or kill has great meaning. The crux of life is the challenge between the hunter and the prey, the determination of who lives or dies. View every important task as a hunt. Remain ever alert and alive. Walk the wilderness without trepidation, and show no fear in the hunt. Savagery and strong emotions defeat reason and careful thought in all things. Taste the blood of those you slay, and never kill from a distance. Work against those who cut back the forest and who kill beasts solely because they are dangerous. Slay not the young, the pregnant, or deepspawn so that prey will remain plentiful.

so looking at dogma, and looking at how a lawful evil person exists.

He is comfortable in a hierarchy and would like to rule, but is willing to serve.

He is loath to break laws or promises.

Malarites are by nature chaotic, because they hate to serve, and even within their own cults, are in a constant state of struggle to prove they are stronger then the others, because the Dogma says if you are weak, you deserve to die. So as much as their High Hunts where they work together to slay are there, they are also in constant conflict with each other to prove who is the most dominant. That is not a signifier of someone who is comfortable in a hierarchy, that is the opposite.

Malarites also don't care about any laws of man, only that the strong should survive, and the weak be culled. They are not restrained by any laws, and abhore civilization's orders and hierarchy because they protect the weak. As a result they only follow "The Law of the Jungle" so to speak. This is a sign of someone who does not care about law and order, just chaos and strength.

Also, by their dogma, it basically means to slaughter everything that is weak, but has one constraint, and that simply exists so there is something in the future to hunt. If you kill everything, there will be nothing to hunt. If it wasn't for that singular line, they would, by dogma have to kill children, because they are defenseless, weak, and are deserving to die.

Slay not the young, the pregnant, or deepspawn so that prey will remain plentiful.

Now as Rhifox said above, there is nothing stopping your own character from being lawful Evil, and worshiping Malar, but he would find himself opposed to his faith when inside a city that has laws against murder, and some sickly old human wanders in front of him. By Malar's decree that human should be struck down, but his lawful nature would prevent this, not wishing to break the laws of society.

Lawful vs chaotic is more about following the rules of society vs following one's own convictions against the norms.

A Lawful Evil character will bend laws, and use loopholes to benefit himself at the determent of others. A Chaotic Evil character just doesn't give a damn about the laws, and only seeks to benefit himself and his own personal code.

Anrilor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 10, 2021 3:37 pmNow as Rhifox said above, there is nothing stopping your own character from being lawful Evil, and worshiping Malar, but he would find himself opposed to his faith when inside a city that has laws against murder, and some sickly old human wanders in front of him. By Malar's decree that human should be struck down, but his lawful nature would prevent this, not wishing to break the laws of society.

Well, no, not necessarily struck down. Nothing so binding. What is demanded by Malar's dogma, is respecting strength, and dismissing weakness. That sickly old person is so weak that he doesn't even merit the Malarite's attention, and if the Malarite *did* decide to kill him, he would be perfectly within his right to. But it does not mean he *must* kill him. He is the stronger, it's his will whether the old man lives or dies. His wants, his desires, are what's important, as long as he has the strength to impose them.

Lawful vs chaotic is more about following the rules of society vs following one's own convictions against the norms.

Lawful's less about following the rules, more about believing that society *should* be governed by rules. Both lawful and chaotic may or may not follow the rules of society, but they'll do it for different reasons. Lawful will do it because they believe that order is important, and if they dislike the form that order takes, they generally believe that the best way to change it is through orderly processes, going through the system, but they will violently oppose it if they believe the only way to impose the order they believe is needed is outside the established system. Chaotic people follow the rules of society because breaking those rules would get them punished, or out of respect for the person who imposed those rules, or because they just personally agree with those rules. The rules aren't important to a chaotic person, it's whether or not the chaotic character personally benefits in some way from those rules. If they don't benefit, and there's no good reason why they should follow them (eg, punishment), then they don't care about those laws. The individual comes first, to a chaotic character.