Overview
Lawful Evil is one of nine unofficial alignments used to describe a character's personality and ethics sway.
Wikipedia says* on characters of this alignment: "[They] show a combination of desirable and undesirable traits: while they typically obey their superiors and keep their word, they care nothing for the rights and freedoms of other individuals. Examples of this alignment include tyrants, devils, organized criminals, those with samurai-like aspects, and soldiers who follow the chain of command but enjoy killing for its own sake."
On the law vs. chaos aspect, they are lawful in an undesirable way. A bureaucrat who abuses the red tape for his own gain, an evil monarch (such as the prince that Robin Hood famously opposes), and the stereotyped subjects of 'lawyer' jokes, would all be lawful evil. Sometimes it is simply to be 'above' the other evil types (the untrustworthy, backstabbing chaotic evil and the petty, casual neutral evil). Sometimes it is a desire for control and orderliness in their lives, or as a defense mechanism, to set up enough rules and regulations to keep themselves safe from good characters. For all of their lawfulness, they are not only apathetic towards life, but downright despicable in regards to life and pleasure of others. The fictional Cardassian race of Star Trek have a very lawful evil government.
On the good vs. evil axis, they are evil. They enjoy the suffering of others but generally must find some kind of excuse to cause it in accordance with whatever codes they've willfully imposed on themselves. (Compare to the lawful neutral, who uphold the law without moral reason, but still do not wish to cause unjust harm to others). while trustworthy in contracts, they may turn around the promises and writs of others to take advantage of them, or wring a foe gleefully through a corrupt court system.
Their downfall is that they safety net can be undone by any character who simply doesn't follow the law. Even a fellow evil character, if not lawful, can upset the finely-crafted systems that the LE obeys, causing unrest with the uncontrolled injury they dose out. An LE's antithesis is the chaotic good character, who will constantly be opposing not only their scheming, overcontrolling tactics, but their zealous pursuits in destroying life.
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Characters who are LE:
Keket
Koorukai
Malystrics
Tanis
Teliah
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