Specialized Character Classes.

So there's a "Fire Giant" who's obviously evil, that says he's a cyclops, and is eligible to group with my Healer.
I guess I'm a bit confused, since the MUD still displays the character as a Fire Giant, why wouls this not appear as Cyclops instead, and how are opposites (Lawful/Evil) allowed to be groupmates. It worked out in my favor at this time, since we went Eq hunting, but I was very confused by the possibility.

Can someone tell me what I've missed here?

So, the fire giant in question wants to be a cyclops as I understand it and probably hasn't been given the flag yet. That takes time, but the roleplay is still required.

A while back, there was a decision made to allow evils/goods to group together, to encourage role playing. Was there role play involved with your encounter? If not, this person is likely in trouble. If so, well, it still can be a pretty touchy subject. Regardless of all that, so long as the effort is made to roleplay it out, you will be fine.

Likely waiting for his custom race to go through... That's all that a "Cyclops" is. Still a Fire Giant, just looks different in the WHO list and something to RP with. You can still do a "WHOIS <player>" and it will show you their ACTUAL race. Although a Fire giant and a healer grouping together is messed up regardless, unless it's some sort of Cabal/Coterie type of thing, in my opinion.

a cyclops is just a giant with one eye, he's probably just a fire giant cyclops. If I was him I wouldn't even bother asking for a custom race I'd just update my description

you can join a group with anyone but if you're a good character and you're grouping with weird monsters that's a little strange on your part

if I'm an evil I have no problem grouping with goods, but realistically you can't do it because they have huge incentives to gangbang you if you do and huge disincentives against not doing it

I feel that there was a significant level of roleplay on his part. I'll say he did a very nice job staying in character, and even later on, following up the previous interactions with appropriate conversation when we were on again at the same time later.
He did well also to speak in a manner that was appropriate for what his race type would be expected. Thanks for the input. Like I said I was a little confused, but that's largely because I thought I remembered from years ago, that good & Evil couldn't group at all.

Cyclops is a totally viable custom race. We even have lore on it.

Does the cyclops have one giant eye so dirt kick always works?

he has an integrated windshield wiper so it only works at normal effectiveness

RE: Why would a healer group with a Fire Giant?
It was a "look, you can pay may X gold and I'll help you out...or you can ignore me and I'll take you out whenever the chance arises", sort of scenario.
At the time, gold was the least of that character's worries. So the thought there was, well...if he turns on me, and attacks, I'm in the same place I'd be if I said no. Why not try to get some eq out of the deal.
His roleplay was that he was basically misunderstood, and wasn't like the steriotypical Fire Giants Race that I was used to.

Took an extended conversation before I decided to do it for sure. Definitely not something I'd normally dive into.