Help with chaotic evil

[Dankus Memakus]

So I've played many an evil character and my favorite thing to do is once the party realises the monster they are they love said character too much to kill them and it's ended with some epic stories. My problem however is all of said characters have been LE so they have honor and I can humanize them pretty well and make it so from their point of view they almost seem like a good guy. So lately I have decided to go out of my comfort zone and with the glorious death of my most recent character I think I wanna delve a little more into chaos. However I'm not sure how to handle chaotic evil. All that comes to mind is a murder hobo (Which I have a strong distaste for) and CE just seems like an inhuman beast man with no soul left him. So I would like to hear any ideas on making a CE PC who can do these things.
1. Function in a mostly neutral party.
2. Seem human. Not just a bag of meat with an urge to commit atrocities because it can
3. Have maybe a redeeming quality or two.
4. Add an interesting part to the story.

Please tell me of your ideas so I may steal them :)

[JNAProductions]

Function in a neutral party? Be friends with the party. Chaotic Evil people are still people, and they'll protect their friends.

Seem human? Easy, be act human. Chaotic Evil=/=stupid. Restrain your baser urges when you have to, and keep them hidden as best you can from your less morally bankrupt friends.

Redeeming quality? Up to you, really. Maybe he has a soft spot for adorable puppies.

Interesting part of the story? That's up to you roleplaying it well.

Above all, though, TALK TO YOUR PARTY AND DM IN ADVANCE OF THIS! See if they're okay playing with a CE member.

[Honest Tiefling]

You don't kill them because you don't want to. They're your buddies! Anyone messes with them, they mess with you because they say silly things like 'mercy' or 'innocence' and you need your entertainment fix.

Everyone else? Kill them when you get the chance. It's amazingly easy to justify a few bandit murders even when wandering around with a paladin...Even if many bandits are probably forced into it by circumstance. Let's go kill that orc village, they gotta have some evil worshippers there. Free pass!

Or your character isn't concerned with power or strength. Maybe they just want to have a good time and you need money for that...Time to mug some people because they're green for happy hour!

[Dankus Memakus]

Function in a neutral party? Be friends with the party. Chaotic Evil people are still people, and they'll protect their friends.

Seem human? Easy, be act human. Chaotic Evil=/=stupid. Restrain your baser urges when you have to, and keep them hidden as best you can from your less morally bankrupt friends.

Redeeming quality? Up to you, really. Maybe he has a soft spot for adorable puppies.

Interesting part of the story? That's up to you roleplaying it well.

Above all, though, TALK TO YOUR PARTY AND DM IN ADVANCE OF THIS! See if they're okay playing with a CE member.

Our party accepts everything its just the only CE we see dies in the first session cuz a LN fighter or something cuts them down for trying to kill the friendly merchant. My party is fine with it I just dont want my head removed.

[JNAProductions]

Our party accepts everything its just the only CE we see dies in the first session cuz a LN fighter or something cuts them down for trying to kill the friendly merchant. My party is fine with it I just dont want my head removed.

Then don't play stupid. Your character might be Chaotic Evil, but he's smart enough to know that's frowned upon by most people.

[Honest Tiefling]

Another idea is to be racist. Your family was killed by orcs, so you're going to kill all orcs. Just...You aren't in it for good reasons. But any warrior that would potentially kill orcs is worthy of respect, even if they have strange ideas.

Unless someone in the party is a half-orc, it's not going to come up immediately. Even then, you could just RP that your character has sympathy for half-orcs as they aren't...Always made in the happiest of circumstances. They didn't ask for it. For a fun twist, make your orc-hating character a half-orc who wishes to avenge their mother. That'll be a surprise!

[Dankus Memakus]

Another idea is to be racist. Your family was killed by orcs, so you're going to kill all orcs. Just...You aren't in it for good reasons. But any warrior that would potentially kill orcs is worthy of respect, even if they have strange ideas.

Unless someone in the party is a half-orc, it's not going to come up immediately. Even then, you could just RP that your character has sympathy for half-orcs as they aren't...Always made in the happiest of circumstances. They didn't ask for it. For a fun twist, make your orc-hating character a half-orc who wishes to avenge their mother. That'll be a surprise!

...that actually is a really fun idea.

[Honest Tiefling]

...that actually is a really fun idea.

Make him really chauvinistic towards women (in a more chivalrous, if annoying sense), with the idea that the world might change his opinions on such. Perhaps his mother was a humble priestess of healing, so the idea of him trying to stop female PCs or NPCs from touching icky or diseased corpses and tries helping them onto their horse has a reason even if the setting isn't like that. It'll give you an automatic arc to resolve for character growth, and it'll make for an interesting contrast when he goes full murder-hobo on the orcs.

[LordEntrails]

Yea, CE is a risky proposition. It all has to be about why they are who they are and that it happens that such an outlook on life is CE.

To me, CE is typically to ultimate selfish person. Nobody but themselves matter. But that doesn't work well in a party. Other personalities that might be CE;
- A bully who has a vendetta against all outsiders. The party are his gang/peeps/family, everyone else is unimportant.
- The psychotic person who has a irrational hatred towards x, y, or z. Perhaps it is the family vs. non-family. Perhaps is it a racism based thing. Perhaps anyone who tries to "take" something that the character thinks they are entitled to.

But whatever the personality is, you have to make sure it works with a party. The "family" approach is easiest to do this where the party is all considered "family"

[Dankus Memakus]

Make him really chauvinistic towards women (in a more chivalrous, if annoying sense), with the idea that the world might change his opinions on such. Perhaps his mother was a humble priestess of healing, so the idea of him trying to stop female PCs or NPCs from touching icky or diseased corpses and tries helping them onto their horse has a reason even if the setting isn't like that. It'll give you an automatic arc to resolve for character growth, and it'll make for an interesting contrast when he goes full murder-hobo on the orcs.

You think he would be a fighter? Or maybe a conquest paladin or something

[Honest Tiefling]

You think he would be a fighter? Or maybe a conquest paladin or something

I wouldn't go paladin. I am not saying your group will metagame, but it'll decrease the impact of the OOC surprise if they see conquest abilities. Unless...You could go Oath of the Ancients. Unless Silvanus changed a lot from his older editions, he has always been okay with murder, particularly of those who despoil nature...Which is usually orcs. Alignment is a bit of an issue, admittedly. Oath of Vengeance is even easier to explain, especially if your character gives out a sob story about how their home village has been raided multiple times, but might give a hint to the players.

Ranger or Fighter would also work for the concept very well, and doesn't have pesky oath restrictions. I could see a half-orc ranger trying to take care of all wildlife and animals with a rather naive view of things suddenly going full murderhobo very jarring. The fighter also fits because they would be denying their heritage and using discipline to hone their strength instead of submitting to feral ferocity. Double points if you go Bannert to really seem like a civilized half-orc.

[Pharaon]

I would consider racism or chauvinism to be LE since it is "within the limits of a code of tradition, loyalty, or order" and not arbitrary, like suggested under CE.

[Malifice]

So I've played many an evil character and my favorite thing to do is once the party realises the monster they are they love said character too much to kill them and it's ended with some epic stories. My problem however is all of said characters have been LE so they have honor and I can humanize them pretty well and make it so from their point of view they almost seem like a good guy. So lately I have decided to go out of my comfort zone and with the glorious death of my most recent character I think I wanna delve a little more into chaos. However I'm not sure how to handle chaotic evil. All that comes to mind is a murder hobo (Which I have a strong distaste for) and CE just seems like an inhuman beast man with no soul left him. So I would like to hear any ideas on making a CE PC who can do these things.
1. Function in a mostly neutral party.
2. Seem human. Not just a bag of meat with an urge to commit atrocities because it can
3. Have maybe a redeeming quality or two.
4. Add an interesting part to the story.

Please tell me of your ideas so I may steal them :)

Watch HBO's Rome.

Titus Pullo is an excellent example of a chaotic evil protagonist.

[Dankus Memakus]

I would consider racism or chauvinism to be LE since it is "within the limits of a code of tradition, loyalty, or order" and not arbitrary, like suggested under CE.

I mean it doesn't say you can't have a code of you are CE does it? Like Anakin Skywalker (or more Darth Vader ig) coulldnt kill his own kid but man he could murder babies if he had to.

[JNAProductions]

Alignment is tricky and weird. Especially Lawful versus Chaotic.

[Dankus Memakus]

Alignment is tricky and weird. Especially Lawful versus Chaotic.

Do you think chauvinism is lawful?

Edit: I'm open to all opinions here, not trying to start arguements

[Honest Tiefling]

I would consider racism or chauvinism to be LE since it is "within the limits of a code of tradition, loyalty, or order" and not arbitrary, like suggested under CE.

Eeeh. I could see that, but I don't think it can't be done, either. For instance, if he only hates orc that fall within what he feels is Orcishness, he's not really obeying a code as much as his own whims deciding what is and is not an orc...Which he already bent due to being a half-orc and perfectly willing to kill others of orc blood.

The chauvinism could be explained that due to his upbringing he thinks that's how one shows respect to females, because he wants to show respect to that particular female not because he feels like he has to.

[Ratter]

so they way alignment works IMHO is
Chaotic= does what they want when they want,
neutral=does the logical thing,
lawful= does the thing according to their code
good=this will benefit people
neutral= this will benefit me
evil= this will harm people

so theoretically a chaotic evil would do whatever they want, and that thing will generally hurt people, to make an example, lets say evil characters try to take over a kingdom, a lawful evil character consults their code and decides that the thing that most goes with their code is to gain a following and hostile take over the kingdom, the neutral evil realizes that in order to take it over he should topple the government first by doing a private assassination, while the chaotic neutral decides he wants everyone to suffer as much as possible, so he screws up kingdom relations, might force a bad monarch into power and would lie to the people as a fake civil rights activist to cause a civil war. therefore, the lawful character took the approach that he likes based on his code, the neutral character got a hold of the kingdom quickly with no problems and the chaotic character created a chaotic war.

[Tanarii]

Chaotic evil creatures act typically, but are not required to always, nor consistently, act with arbitrary violence, spurred by their greed, hatred, or bloodlust. That's all the PHB has to say on the matter.

My personal approach to handling Alignment is: Take that, take the rest of your personality traits, and use them together to think about how you make decisions for your fictional PC in the game.
Keep in mind, you don't have to do it all the time, and other personality traits can be in conflict with that. But keep in mind your character is predisposed to arbitrary violence, not necessarily physical or fatal, based on specific emotions.

IMO CE PCs are very likely to generally be disruptive, even if they don't get into it with other PCs directly. But if the table has bought in to allowing them, the table is accepting that's going to happen.

[Ovarwa]

Hi,

For me, when considering alignment, I find it useful to think of most people's real world alignment as CE, doing what they can get away with, paying lip service to law and order, believing that they are not CE, held back by cowardice while claiming and even believing that it's really their virtue.

That guy who cut you off on the freeway? Me and you? CE.

Lawyers? No, they're not lawful: We have them to help get away with breaking the law or twisting the law, not for upholding the law. Naturally, we don't respect them!

Not the epic kind of CE, because we're just not epic.

How does a CE party get along? It's like just another day at the office.

Anyway,

Ken

[Tanarii]

For me, when considering alignment, I find it useful to think of most people's real world alignment as CE, doing what they can get away with, paying lip service to law and order, believing that they are not CE, held back by cowardice while claiming and even believing that it's really their virtue.Only problem is, that's clearly nothing to do with what 5e Chaotic Evil means. Unless you think most people act with arbitrary violence, spurred by their greed, hatred, or bloodlust?

[JellyPooga]

Chaotic Evil =/= bloodthirsty and violent. It can mean that but doesn't have to. I recently posted in another thread about a chaotic evil Bard that is genuinely a nice giy up front, even gives money to the poor...but doesn't give a thought or a care to the consequences of his actions, which are decidedly destructive in the grand scheme of things. He seduces wives with no thought to their families, persuades nobles to give money reserved for charitable or defence needs to an orphange or the church and so forth. The emphasis is on the chaotic part of his alignment, not the evil.

[Tanarii]

Chaotic Evil =/= bloodthirsty and violent. It can mean that but doesn't have to.Yup. Individuals may vary significantly. Says so right in the PHB.

But if the character never, ever, match the typical behavior, and always match another one, it's probably worth the player re-considering if they've selected the right Alignment for the PC. (Not saying that's the character in question. Just a general comment on Alignment & associated behaviors.)


The emphasis is on the chaotic part of his alignment, not the evil.Every time I see this, I think about 5e Ideals, since they are the personality trait associated with one aspect of Alignment. I'm curious, does this character have a specified Ideal?

[Rhedyn]

Take Chaos to mean freedom. You don't hate the party, you are just trying to set them free from all those silly moral qualms.

[GlenSmash!]

I think in 5e CE does mean you act with arbitrary violence, spurred by their greed, hatred, or bloodlust. That's like the definition in the PHB.

The question to me is how often. What if you are a mostly decent guy who occasionally acts with arbitrary violence spurred by bloodlust? Like you've really only do a bit of random murder and butchery here or there. Are you Chaotic Evil?

I say, of course you are. No amount of day to day decency can make up for a little bit of sporadic homicide?

On that count it's pretty dang easy to be play CE. Just play it like any other alignment but occasionally role a d20. On a role of 5 or less, murder someone at random.

Edit: In my experience this will actually make a more compelling character than a complete idiot that tries to steal from or murder everyone that is guaranteed to annoy the rest of the party.

[Grey Watcher]

Chaotic Evil isn't the same as unrestrained Id. Yeah, you have no scruples or codes holding you back, but that doesn't mean you're obligated to transgress every law and custom you come across. Heck, you'd probably spend the day being a perfect boy scout just to spite someone who suggested such a thing! You don't want to just murder that merchant; he has cool stuff! And will likely acquire more and different cool stuff if you let him live!

Or maybe you have a more philosophical bent: you're not out to indulge your whims, you're out to show people what a sham "society" and "planning" are. At least in terms of outlook and wordlview, you're Heath Ledger's Joker or post-delirium Belkar: truth, justice, honor, and the like are for suckers, you're either going to show them up and laugh in their faces or you're going to scam the sheeple for all they're worth because they're just too dumb to think outside the box like you.

A cruel sense of humor, a particularly ruthless sense of pragmatism, a "me first" attitude towards life. Lots of ways to play it.

[Tanarii]

I think in 5e CE does mean you act with arbitrary violence, spurred by their greed, hatred, or bloodlust. That's like the definition in the PHB.It also says individuals may vary significantly. So it's entirely possible to have a character of an Alignment that does not match the "defined" typical behavior.

(I know. This seems kinda weird at first glance.)


I say, of course you are. No amount of day to day decency can make up for a little bit of sporadic homicide?The high-grade Evil of the rarely occurring behavior outweighs the low-grade Good behavior the rest of the time? :smallbiggrin:

[KorvinStarmast]

Please tell me of your ideas so I may steal them :)
The selfish slacker ranger (SSR) who gets disturbed by the strangest things sometimes.
Background: Outlander (Bounty Hunter) would be a good fit.

Most of the time, SSR (who started his life as a hunter, and then put down some poachers who were killing elephants, because, ya know man, Elephants!) is pretty low key. He does whatever costs the least effort, he picks and chooses with whom he associates because he doesn't like to be obliged to people he doesn't like. He might contribute to the orphanage fund raiser, if it strikes him, or he might tell the blacksmith trying to raise money to back off if he doesn't want a knife in the face.
It depends on how he feels that day.

As a party member, he's happy to do what someone else suggests, and also happy to suggest that "that's a stupid idea, where's the fun/money/joy in that?" Appealing to something in his self interest is how to get him interested. You can seem some decent CE ranger work in Belkar in OoTS, though one need not be quite the homicidal maniac that Belkar is.

A key personality trait is that when he gets crossed he takes it personally. (Dude, if you harsh my groove you are gonna regret it). In this way, consider "The Dude" from The Big Labowski but with the penchant for occasional violence that Labowski doesn't have.

Also, when he pays back, he pays back without necessarily accounting for other people's concerns or feelings. He'd rather finish it once and for all so he doesn't have to be bothered with that crap again.

Party Druid: Yes, SSR, you killed the bandit leader but you also, in the volley of arrows, took out a couple of hostages.
SSR: So? That dude had to die. Mission accomplished. Go heal / raise those people if they matter to you. The people I care about (a few of the other hostages) are OK.

He can get attached to people/places/things for irrational reasons. (A little nod to Kevin Kline's character in Silverado (Paden) on this one ... you never know what he'll get attached to).

There's a dog on a nearby farm that he's developed a little rapport with. Someone kicks the dog.
SSR beats him within an inch of his life, and then rather than the last blow being to knock out (which you can do) he makes it lethal.
'Cos, like, you kicked the dog, man, you are using up good people's air.

The next day someone kills an orphan's puppy and he's like "too bad, go find another one " because he had no connection to that puppy.

Hope that's of use.

[MxKit]

so they way alignment works IMHO is
Chaotic= does what they want when they want,
neutral=does the logical thing,
lawful= does the thing according to their code
good=this will benefit people
neutral= this will benefit me
evil= this will harm people

I have a similar but not completely identical way of looking at it.

Chaotic = Values freedom highly, either their own or everyone's. Doesn't care to be restrained by laws, but (imo) may have lines they've personally decided not to cross, so long as they don't feel it's being imposed on them.
Lawful = Values structure, law, and tradition highly, even if it's only their own (a code).
Neutral = Sees value in both, can be difficult to pin down (sometimes acts by personal codes, sometimes breaks them), and/or just doesn't want to pick a side. Lack of extremes is why most people are assumed to be Neutral.

Good = Cares about and wants to help other people, even above themself.
Evil = Cares about themself above all, so long as they get what they want/they get theirs they don't care how it affects other people.
Neutral = Can be difficult to pin down. Can want to help others but has moments of selfishness, or is mostly selfish but cares about other people. Hasn't crossed major evil lines, at least not repeatedly (I agree that someone being a murderer but helping little old ladies across the street doesn't balance out all the murder.) Lack of extremes is why most people are assumed to be Neutral.

So Chaotic Evil? So long as you care about yourself first and foremost and don't care about how that affects 99% of the world, because so long as you get yours **** 'em? That's the Evil part taken care of. Don't want to be be told what to do, willing to break any law they want if they can get away with it because they think they're above it? That's the Chaotic part.

So a character that cares about a member of the party, or the entire party, and has a selfish bent to even that caring (they make the character feel good!), who otherwise doesn't give a **** about anyone who's outside the party, is willing to leave innocents to die or kill someone who's probably just an innocent if they're in their way even if there's another way... That'd have you covered, I think. They may well even restrain themself at times simply to avoid too much friction with the rest of the party... or try to do things without the rest of the party there; they're not Chaotic Stupid. And making them capable of caring about a small number of people while being sincerely ****ed-up-levels of uncaring about everyone else would both humanize them and underscore how... well, how ****ed up they are.

[JellyPooga]

I think in 5e CE does mean you act with arbitrary violence, spurred by their greed, hatred, or bloodlust. That's like the definition in the PHB.

If you take "violence" to mean something more ephemeral or abstract than just physical violence, then yes. Otherwise, I'll say it again; Evil =/= killing (otherwise many Good characters would have the wrong alignment). There are many flavours of Evil and being Chaotic does not force you into one narrow category of it.

A ruthless merchant that frequently takes risks, fleecing his customers and suppliers alike, utilises slave labour in the most brutal manner, who takes pleasure in claiming on debts that leave a family destitute, actively pushes narcotics on the youth to form addictions that he can exploit, changing his business focus on a whim, hiring and firing at the slightest provocation, breaking deals to further his own gain...that guy is Chaotic Evil. He can also hate the thought of directly harming a person physically; he never wants to lift the whip or draw blood, let alone kill a person himself. He might give an order that results in death, but might not ever do so with the direct intention to do so. He doesn't care if someone dies or is physically hurt, but also doesn't care to do the deed himself; it's just not on his agenda.

[GlenSmash!]

Watch HBO's Rome.

Titus Pullo is an excellent example of a chaotic evil protagonist.

And a great Character. He really has an impressive character arc.

[Malifice]

Lawyers? No, they're not lawful: We have them to help get away with breaking the law or twisting the law, not for upholding the law. Naturally, we don't respect them!


Hey! I resemble that statement!

Lawyer personally. If I had an alignment in DnD I'd safely call myself CN.

[Malifice]

And a great Character. He really has an impressive character arc.

Most of us would put him firmly in the CE camp (rapist, murderer, hitman, torturer, thief, insubordinate, gambler etc). Clearly the kind of guy that advocates 'acting with arbitrary violence'. Murders a slave out of jealousy. Murders the man sleeping with his friends wife (but not before torturing him). Does his own thing mostly, but has a grudging respect (and strong friendship) with Lucius.


Titus Pullo: I have simpler tastes. I like to kill my enemies, take their gold and enjoy their women. That's it. Why tie yourself to one? Where's the flavor? Where's the joy?
Vorenus: Pullo, when is the last time you had a woman who wasn't crying or wanting payment?

He's a really good example of a CE protagonist.

I think we can equally agree that Lucius Vorenus is LN.

[Laserlight]

My CE warlock had no qualms about lying, killing, etc, but he didn't transgress when the consequences might inconvenience him.

His loyalty was entirely to himself, his patron and his family; he took care of the rest of the party purely because they were valuable assets that were helping him achieve his goals.

[Ovarwa]

Only problem is, that's clearly nothing to do with what 5e Chaotic Evil means. Unless you think most people act with arbitrary violence, spurred by their greed, hatred, or bloodlust?

Held in check by cowardice and indolence.

Exactly.

I'm not saying it's true (or false), just *useful*.

It certainly serves to explain much of what goes on in the real world.

CE isn't about *continual* bloodlust, greed and hatred. Just when mood, opportunity and convenience coincide.

A bit pat? Sure. But so is alignment.

[Ovarwa]

(Rome, btw, was awesome.)

[GlenSmash!]

He's a really good example of a CE protagonist. Yes. He is a compelling CE protagonist. Very entertaining to watch.

I think towards the end he had curbed his arbitrariness, at least somewhat. Whether or not this warranted a change in alignment is up for debate.


I think we can equally agree that Lucius Vorenus is LN.

Oh yeah, to a fault! His rigidity, and his family's fear of it leads to their downfall. And a nasty downfall it was.

I also wonder if he had slipped toward LE in the second season. Edit: or tried to convince himself he was evil.

[Ovarwa]

I think he *tried* to be lawful, but was really repressed and utterly stressed out.

By the end of the series, he knows he is not the man he wanted to be. His conversation with Antony about sharing symptoms comes to mind.

[Vaern]

I've mostly played 3.5, so I don't know how the definition of alignments have changed from them to 5th edition, but to me the good-evil axis has always been about personal morals while law-chaos is more a question of their vision of an ideal society. Good characters will put themselves in harm's way to help others, evil characters will put others in harm's way to benefit themselves, lawful characters respect authority and would ideally like a bureaucratic society where the law defines every aspect of life, and chaotic characters respect freedom and would ideally like a society where people choose their own way of going about their life. That being said, here's how to be chaotic evil without the concept of chaotic evil being devolved into a bloodthirsty serial killer:


Evil characters are driven to seek personal gains such as wealth or power. Evil characters have no qualms with harming or killing people who get in their way, but this doesn't mean that they'll murder someone in cold blood if there isn't some significant gain in it for them. An evil character doesn't necessarily enjoy spreading pain, but those that do are very much aware that their actions have consequences and will not commit atrocities on a whim.

An evil character won't generally turn on his party so long as they are working towards the same goal. He knows that his traveling companions are more valuable to him alive than dead, though if he finds it absolutely necessary he won't hesitate to sacrifice one of them to save his own skin. He won't be keen on the group insisting that he should go out of his way and risk his hide to help some random NPC. But then again, monsters often have loot, and a good reputation may bring him some respect that can bring him into power... the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, as they say.



Contrary to what many people think, chaotic doesn't define a character as impulsive and unpredictable. Chaotic means that your character does not respect structure and authority. They'll actively try exposing corruption within establishments such as churches or the government and try to bring such establishments down, granting more freedom to the people. This doesn't necessarily mean that they'll do something simply because it's illegal, of course. They'll do as they see fit regardless of how the law tells them to behave.
Chaotic characters don't have a rigid code of honor like lawful characters, but they pride themselves in being free and liberating others from oppression. A lawful character may refuse to kill a surrendered opponent because a code tells him to be merciful, while a chaotic character in the same situation may refuse to kill the same surrendered opponent simply because he believes that doing so would be wrong. Is one more honorable than the other?

A chaotic character often won't cooperate well with a group. He may actively conflict against a character - especially a lawful character - who attempts to assert himself as the "leader." Likely, he will insist on a more democratic approach, such as each party member giving their idea on how to handle a situation and having the group vote on which route they think to be best. Even so, if he strongly disagrees with the option that the group has chosen, he may yet ignore what he has been told to do and go about the job in the way that he thinks is best.


Chaotic evil doesn't mean you're a ravenous murderhobo. It means that you are cold, self-centered, and proudly independent of others. The evil aspect of your alignment may compliment the chaotic aspect: Being concerned primarily with your own well-being, you may be more likely to ignore the suggestions of your party and do your own thing than a chaotic neutral or chaotic good character.

Perhaps your character has escaped from a region where commoners are practically treated as slaves, and believes that the structured government resulted in officials dehumanizing their subjects so that they were seen as tools rather than people, thus explaining your pride in exercising your free will as an individual and your hatred of bureaucracy [Chaos]. A life of fearing for yourself - how you'd be getting your next meal and whether the nobles you stole it from would have you beaten for it - would also explain a distaste and distrust for other people, thus resulting in your self-centered nature [Evil].
And perhaps you don't care about others, but the sight of people suffering from oppression brings back painful memories of yourself in their shoes, and thus you may be compelled to perform the occasional deed that someone else may call "good," though your true desire is not really to help them but rather to make their oppressors suffer. And now you have both a background story that will explain your alignment, add humanity to your character, make your party pity you, and gives you reason to perform actions that make you seem like you can be redeemed.

[JellyPooga]

(Post I like)

'Nuff said really. Vaern sums up my position pretty completely.