# Alignment Charts Alignment Charts repurpose the Dungeons & Dragons nine-box moral grid, sorting fictional characters, snacks or inanimate objects into cells like Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil[1]. The joke drifted out of tabletop forums into image boards during the late 2000s, and by August 2017 a bread-storage version on Twitter had helped push the format into mainstream feeds. ## Origin The alignment system comes from the 1974 release of Dungeons & Dragons by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson[6]. A 1977 revision locked in the two-axis structure, pairing Lawful, Neutral or Chaotic with Good, Neutral or Evil for the nine permutations still used in the meme[1]. Fan comparison posts likely took off after the 2007 D&D sourcebook Complete Scoundrel printed sample alignment lineups[3]. 5×5 charts are a purely online invention. The earliest known example came from DeviantArt user DoASpotCheck on June 5, 2011, slotting subculture characters into a 25-cell grid with the four extra axis points coined by the artist[2]. - **Platform:** Tabletop sourcebooks / DeviantArt and Twitter (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2007 ## Overview Each cell on an Alignment Chart holds one image captioned with its two-axis label and a short justification, mimicking the demotivational poster layout that ran forum culture in the mid-2000s[3]. A standard chart is three by three, giving nine slots that start at Lawful Good in the top left and end at Chaotic Evil in the bottom right[1]. Creators pick a themed subject, like horror movie villains, breakfast cereals or coworkers, then argue the picks in replies. Fans later stretched the grid to 5×5, adding the invented axes "social" and "rebel" alongside "moral" and "impure" for a 25-cell variant with no official rulebook backing[2]. Single-cell edits and one-off demotivational posters for a specific alignment are also common. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Alignment Charts? Alignment Charts are meme images that slot subjects into the Dungeons & Dragons nine-cell moral grid labeled Lawful Good through Chaotic Evil, usually styled like demotivational posters[1]. ### Where did Alignment Charts come from? The underlying system comes from the 1974 edition of Dungeons & Dragons by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson[6], and the 5×5 variant started on DeviantArt in 2011[2]. ### What does Alignment Charts mean? Each cell combines a Lawful-Chaotic reading with a Good-Evil reading to classify a character, object or idea with a joke caption, giving nine possible alignments[1]. ### How do you use Alignment Charts? Creators typically pick a themed subject, place one image per cell on a three-by-three or 5×5 grid, and caption each with its alignment plus a short reason for the pick[2]. ### Is Alignment Charts still popular? The format still gets regular posts, with a dedicated subreddit at r/AlignmentCharts and user templates still indexed from older platforms like Polyvore[5]. ## References 1. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignment_%28Dungeons_%26_Dragons%29]() 2. [https://www.deviantart.com/doaspotcheck/art/5-by-5-Alignment-Chart-211890094]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/alignment-charts]() 4. [https://twitter.com/tinysubversions/status/889294023965462536]() 5. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160827233712/http://www.polyvore.com/make_your_own_alignment_chart/template?id=128711]() 6. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_(1974)]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/alignment-charts Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library