Editing Alignment (section)

===Neutral Evil===
{{Topquote|I think my mask of sanity is about to slip.|Patrick Bateman, ''American Psycho''}}

The asshole alignment. <strike>Follows</strike> ''Hides behind'' the law as long as it helps them, then breaks it when it doesn't. Ingratiates themselves to people, before betraying them. Does good deeds, until they cease to elevate them. Social acceptance never really comes into it with these guys. There's some variety in how willing they are to act on their evil impulses; on one hand, you can have someone that slits people's throats and purses for a living, but on the other, you can actually have a NE individual that goes through his entire life without directly killing someone, not because they haven't thought about it, but because they know the circumstances they find themselves in make getting away with murder flawlessly more trouble than it is worth. The latter are also the reason why Paladins can't just go around using their "[[Detect Evil]]" ability and throwing everyone that tests positive into jail; not everyone who has the potential to be a murderer will do it (in fact, most won’t, they'll just be garden variety assholes instead). Generally speaking if a particularly evil bastard is in charge of a bad guy faction and it isn't a case of genuine believer like Magneto or violent psycho like, well, a lot of them; you can bet your ass it will be a Neutral Evil hypocrite who doesn't practice what is preached or is a restrained psychopath who has enough restraint to play the long game of [[Pretend]] and stay on the top (or as high as one can climb without feeling pressured to somewhat care if they also lack personal discipline to some degree). Basically, NE rulers of equivalent influence are like LE rulers in their ability to read the room and adapt to it, but with a far more selfish and opportunistic mindset. The LE ruler will stick to their guns no matter what and uphold their codes and laws like their Evil Democracy; the NE ruler alternates between telling you what you want to hear or gaslighting you, and will drop their acts the moment they can get away with it, like doing away with their Evil Democracy.

If he's being an insufferable prick, you should probably just kill him; nobody will question you. If he's generally acting like a good guy, you should definitely just kill him, ''he's up to [[Just as planned|something]]''. Beware of [[Stupid Evil]] if they are of the more impulsive variant or are arrogantly confident in the current situation.

:;''Example(s)'': A greedy merchant that would rather let someone die on his doorstep than give away his coin for the more restrained version, a serial killer putting on a facade to continue his deeds for the more unhinged one, and a lowlife thug who doesn't have any moral qualms about murdering people for money but is restrained enough to know that doing this is a bad idea most of the time for a more balanced variant.

:;''Iconic Character(s)'': A merc with an eye that got shot up — Deathstroke (in the comics and the TV series), Gordon Gekko, Emperor Palpatine (who was a hypocrite/psycho who never cared about his Lawful Evil minions and was only in it for himself, instead of the Sith Lord variants who were Lawful Evil warlords devoted to the Sith Empire), and Cersei Lannister from ''Game of Thrones'', who unlike her Lawful Evil father Tywin is much more conniving and petty in her evil deeds while still scheming and plotting.

:;''Expected Personality'': High-functioning (selfishness helps prevent impulsiveness to some degree) sociopath, or narcissistic personality disorder when not currently in a rage.