Originally Posted by
Vaern
Evil is characterized by satisfying one's own desires at the expense of others. As an evil character you would not likely make any personal sacrifice - bodily, financially, or otherwise - to help a stranger without some sort of incentive, though you might stand by and watch your party help an innocent so long as their sacrifice came at no expense to you. You might scoff at them and tell them they're wasting their time on that worthless meat sack, but you wouldn't be obligated to stop them.
Evil is inherently self-centered, and the fact that each character has his own goals and desires gives the alignment itself the potential to have very personal implications for individual characters. They may want fame, or wealth, or power, or maybe they just enjoy the suffering of others.