D&D 5E Why the heck does D&D have Hecate as Chaotic Evil

[DarkCrisis]

Willow from Buffy thought she was okay. So she must be alright.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I mean, this is all from the 2014 PHB, where there is an explicit disclaimer that says that they are just taking inspiration while filling out the various alignments and spheres of influence that the game requires:

Sure but that's just a bad excuse for inept-ness, especially the Pantheons absolutely failed at "serving the needs of the game", and succeed only at "reflecting the world views of a bunch of ageing white men who are rather ignorant of the subject matter".

 

[Vaalingrade]

Hecate is like Hades, the sad target of a centuries long pop cultural hit job.

 

[Parmandur]

Sure but that's just a bad excuse for inept-ness, especially the Pantheons absolutely failed at "serving the needs of the game", and succeed only at "reflecting the world views of a bunch of ageing white men who are rather ignorant of the subject matter".

The really funny thing is that the Magic side does this right, but for entirely greed-motivated reasons: Theros has entirely made up gods so that they can trademark and copyright them, they don't invest in public domain properties in Magic if there is a chance that a profit can be made.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The really funny thing is that the Magic side does this right, but for entirely greed-mktivsted reasons: Theros has entirely made up gods so that they can trademark and copyright them, they don't invest in public domain properties in Magic if there is a chance that a profit can be made.

Yeah exactly. They actually created a relatively interesting pantheon for Theros, and one that's a bit more self-consistent than the Greek mythos.

But yeah it is pretty funny that was just so they could trademark their names. At least they realized it before creation and didn't have to go retcon it on! Games Workshop only realized it long after their creation of WHFB and 40K and one of the factors for ditching WHFB for AoS was simply that they couldn't trademark a ton of WHFB stuff, so we got horror shows like "Aelves" for "Elves" and "Duardin" for "Dwarfs" and so on. With 40K they've been trying to force people to use the pig-latin versions of names for stuff, like the un-trademark-able "Imperial Guard" have to be the "Astra Militarum" (ugh, it doesn't even mean Space Guard, let alone Imperial Guard - it means Star Wars!).

 

[TheSword]

Hecate is a companion of the Erinyes which clearly in 5e mythology makes her evil.

She also enjoys the sacrifice of dogs… which is clearly one of the most evil things a person could do so

[Insert meme of puppy with doe eyes here]

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah exactly. They actually created a relatively interesting pantheon for Theros, and one that's a bit more self-consistent than the Greek mythos.

But yeah it is pretty funny that was just so they could trademark their names. At least they realized it before creation and didn't have to go retcon it on! Games Workshop only realized it long after their creation of WHFB and 40K and one of the factors for ditching WHFB for AoS was simply that they couldn't trademark a ton of WHFB stuff, so we got horror shows like "Aelves" for "Elves" and "Duardin" for "Dwarfs" and so on.

The Magic design team had some missteps on this way back when: the second Magic Set ever was "Arabian Nights" and...well...it's just the 1001 Arabian Nights as cards. And they figured out it was silly to pay for art to develop something they didn't own

The Kaldheim not-Aesir and the Amonkhet not-Egyptian deities are also pretty well done and interesting...and different enough from any real world religion to avoid weirdness like the OP.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The Magic design team had some missteps on this way back when: the second Magic Set ever was "Arabian Nights" and...well...it's just the 1001 Arabian Nights as cards. And they figured out it was silly to pay for art to develop something they didn't own

The Kaldheim not-Aesir and the Amonkhet not-Egyptian deities are also pretty well done and interesting...and different enough from any real world religion to avoid weirdness like the OP.

Interesting! I did not know that re: Arabian Nights. I guess their learning moment was sufficiently early on.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Hecate is a companion of the Erinyes which clearly in 5e mythology makes her evil.

She also enjoys the sacrifice of dogs… which is clearly one of the most evil things a person could do so

[Insert meme of puppy with doe eyes here]

Maybe people around her called them 'doggos' or 'fur babies' all the time. Or lectured her about how their favorite breed isn't like exactly how their dog is acting right now, right beside them.

The worst thing my generation ever did and we murdered hundreds -- from tuna to mayonnaise to paper towels -- none of which you can fine at all on the shelves anymore, so brutal was our regime.

 

[Parmandur]

Interesting! I did not know that re: Arabian Nights. I guess their learning moment was sufficiently early on.

That was so early on, WotC even thought Magic was a limited run game that would flash and go away...