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(Doing this out of order, orignally I was supposed to post on behavior, but decided to write up Alignment instead, so that matters proceed in a thematic fashion.)

As humans we have a bad havit of comlicating matters to a rigiculous degree. We assume they have to be complicated if they ae to be important. The idea things can be explained simply seems to be anathema to many. So how do we explain good and evil, law and chaos?

The good seeks to see that others benefit.

An evil person seeks his own benefit, at the cost of others. Another must be harmed as he gains.

The neutral doesn't care either way. If someone gains, if someone loses, as long as he gains.

For the lawful the world works better if things are in order, if the world runs according to a set of rules. Indeed, in his world everything runs according to laws, even when they are apparently chaotic. It's not a matter of everything being unregulated, it's that we don't know enough to say what those rules are.

To the chaotic things by their very nature are, and must be, random. The very idea of order is anathema, and life is best when one does what one wills.

For a neutral life can be ordered, or disordered, depending on circumstance. Best to be flexible and to adapt to the situation instead of insisting it has to be one way or another.

Now that we have some idea of the differences between the basic alignments we can get down to the differences between natural and assumed behaviors/

Wolves by their very nature are lawful. They fare poorly when they have no direction. Wolves need to know where they feet in their society, who is above them and who is below them. The way they enforce their laws leds us to call them evil, for laws are to be obeyed as long as they benefit the superior.

In contrast cats can be considered chaotic, even though they do have rules for social interaction. For to a cat what matters is what he can and does do, so long as nobody acts to stop him.

When you turn to assumed alignment instead of natural, that is when you run into a whole new set of problems.

Intelligent animals cam behave in a manner different than usual; an orc can behave lawful/good even though his natural behavior his lawful/evil.

A human, nominally lawful/good, can behave differently if the mood so strikes him>

However an animal behaves naturally depends in large part on his intelligence, his normal behavior, even circumstance, especially on how intelligent they are.

Next we'll take a look at animal behavior, then at complex alignment. Seems to be the way to go.