My solution to that problem is to decide the alignment system is a real thing in the context of the milieu, a set of actual forces as real as gravity, magic and the elements. It doesn't have to make sense because it isn't a description of personality traits. Rather, it represents a metaphysical tie between a mind and a fundamental force of creation.
There is some disagreement among Paizo on what's appropriate for good gods. Sarenrae, Erastil, and Torag have all had some morally darker stuff attributed to them such as slavery and misogyny that some among the staff did not want in the good gods and has been toned down over time. As a company however they have chosen to be deliberately very LGBT friendly and positive in their material. I think they are taking the same tack as modern Doctor Who which puts out prominent interracial couples and LGBT characters without usually making the issues be relevant to the plot or story, just a normal part of the scenery and setting without bringing in condemnation or disapproval or struggle based on race or orientation.
I've divided some of my responses into labeled spoiler tags due to length or irrelevance:
The morals of those alignments are arbitrary because they are subject to the whims of the writers and their own real world political views, which are completely subjective because objective morality does not exist in reality. Paizo was insensitive about fictional portrayals of what would constitute human rights violations and offensive caricatures in the real world, including slavery, racism, genocide, infanticide and children-by-rape. All of this was ignored in favor of focusing on being LGBT friendly. That's more offensive than glossing it over entirely.
I say that as a person who *gasp* is LGBT. I cannot put into words how offended I am when Paizo says that denying an orc the right to marry an orc of the same sex is worse than enslaving orcs, denigrating orcs, or murdering orcs and their children. You may say the latter two are justified because orcs are evil, but that's only because Paizo says so and even then it doesn't apply to a vanishing small percentage of them.
[sblock=Paizo's rape monster meme]Not only that, but Paizo has a disturbing tendency to add what they consider dark and edgy to be "mature" but is really just immature.
As Bogleech notes, Paizo turned the Adherer into a monster that must reproduce by kidnapping human beings and forcing them into sex. That isn't mature, that is hilariously over-the-top grimdark on top of being offensive to people sensitive to portrayals of rape in media. It would have been a lot more mature to have the adherers reproduce with
willing human partners, partners who are so psychology warped that they get off to having sex with a hideous slimy monster. Well... not completely mature, but more mature than the pervasive rape monster meme. Simply replacing every instance of forced sex in the monster entries with consensual sex while doing very little to change the rest of the content would be far more mature and edgy. Every hideous evil monster in the books that previously forced victims into sex would become a hideous evil monster than has sex with totally willing partners who get off to this sort of thing. There are canonically whole civilizations of human beings where every citizen is evil, so why not have them display their evil by being the paramours of monsters?[/sblock]
[sblock=Fantasy cultures]The vast majority of fantasy worlds in fiction, including Golarion, is a fantasy version of Earth. Humans are divided into the same range of skin tones and other features as people on Earth and there are races/ethnic groups that are not in some way based on those of Earth; there are no races of humans with dark skin, white hair and red eyes with a culture loosely based on the ancient Hebrews, for example. The different cultures and civilizations are for the most part directly based on Earth cultures. The races, ethnicity and cultures line up the same way they did on Earth; you'll never see black people with a Han Chinese-flavored culture or white people with an Ashanti-flavored culture. I mean,
it's not like a change as simple as Carthage defeating Rome in the Punic Wars couldn't have resulted in an alternate history where black people colonized the world.
On Golarion specifically some are based directly on fantasy novels popular at the time, like the "Russian Westeros" (Brevoy) which
Paizo proudly admitted was one writer's fanfic.
[/sblock]
Many of the iconics are taken from real world minorities, but the fact that Golarion is not Earth make their minority status completely nonexistent in their world and they only look like minorities to the audience (that is, us).
I am totally in agreement with this, because the art needs some diversity to appeal to a more diverse audience and I am sick of Hollywood casting bland white bread as heroes.
[sblock=prejudice in fantasy]But the world these characters live in, Golarion, is one where prejudice as we understand it has never existed. Oh sure, there's racism between dwarves and elves, "justified" genocide against baby orcs, cruel matriarchies of drow, and so on, but there's never been institutionalized prejudice against humans/elves/dwarves/halfings by other humans/elves/dwarves/halfings because of sex, gender, skin color or sexual orientation. Pretending that prejudice doesn't exist except through fantastical sublimation is childish wish fulfillment. Especially in a game where most problems are solved by stabbing them or worse. A bigoted villain who is the relative or significant other of a minority PC is far more refreshing and visceral than Sauron-wannabe #1953728. The question then becomes "do you kill them or try to change their view? If the later, do you change their view by magically violating their mind or do you start an actual debate?"[/sblock]
[sblock=magical transhumanism]If you can use magic to turn people into physical and mental shapeshifters for whom the very concepts of race, sex, gender, orientation and so on cease to apply,
should you? For example, isn't this the default life experienced by the proteans, the exemplars of chaos? They can change any and every aspect of their being with a thought. They have no racism, sexism, or any other -isms because those concepts hold no meaning to them. Would they not come to view humanity as poor wretches who deserve to be liberated from the tyranny of fixed modes of thought and form? This is a far more fascinating mental exercise, given the clear possibility of transhumanism.[/sblock]
[sblock=utilitarianism]On the subject of moral ambiguity, if you had no option to prevent the universe from being destroyed except by committing horrific atrocities forever, would you commit those atrocities or would you let the universe be destroyed? Which choice would be considered good, evil, lawful and/or chaotic and why? But I digress...[/sblock]
The "Free peoples" type races are unique in that they have the capacity to choose which force to Align with (and may even do so subconsciously). Which races constitute so-named Free Peoples varies based on the campaign. I have done it where it is anything intelligent, where it is only humans, and everything in between.
Orcs are not inherently evil, evil is just the norm for them. They have free will and individuals can choose to be any alignment.
The new campaign setting supplement on the Hold of Belkzen probably has lots of info on the biggest concentration of orcs on Golarion. I understand it has lots of CE orcs but also tribes with some different cultures and alignment norms. I haven't read it or the Orcs of Golarion book so I can't comment that much on the cultural specifics that would make chaos and evil the norm for Golarion orcs beyond what is there in the bestiary though.
That seems decent for explaining CE as the norm.
Having 99% of their population be evil is little different than being born evil. The writers still made baby killing kosher. Why not just give orcs a non-evil society and make the bad ones into bandits? They make great fantasy klingons.
[sblock=There are better choices]There are already so many better choices than gobins and orcs and drow, like actual demons or monsters that must kill sapient beings to survive. Slavery of people can be replaced with the slavery of constructs, which do not complain and do not tire and are unlikely to revolt. Racism against orcs can be replaced with the prosecution of orc bandits and raiders ostracized from civilized orc culture. Genocide of orcs can be replaced with genocide of Rakshasa, since they are literally born evil due to retaining their memories and personalities from their evil past lives. Rather than killing goblin or orc babies, kill Xill babies because they must lay eggs inside innocent people to reproduce. Instead of all half-orcs being rape-babies, use half-fiends instead because their fiend parents are literally made of evil. Sure, by real world standards Xills aren't actually evil because they don't reproduce out of some sadistic enjoyment, but try telling the villagers that. Do not offer chances of redemption to the designated loot fountains.[/sblock]
[sblock=Yes, I am a social justice warrior, but this is an industry-wide problem]I admit that I sometimes get carried away with acting like a social justice warrior, but these problems are unique to the tabletop industry. Video games and even wargames have long since gotten past the stereotypes and offensiveness.
Warcraft has good orcs and good drow to much critical acclaim.
Warhammer has orcs who, while not good, go around constantly fighting stuff because they live to fight everything (including killing innocents simply for being physically present) but they aren't jerks who force victims into sex.[/sblock]
Instead of dragging PF/Paizo through the mud on your personal social mission (which seems more like a protest...) why not talk about what You WANT in a setting?
The OGL is free as is the PF license IIRC. You could even create and publish your own setting that meets your criteria.
Instead of griping (to no effect) you could lead by example. If people dig your passion and approach, you could find a nice following of customers who appreciate the same things you do.
Yeah, I get carried away with the social justice warrior stuff. I will, at some point, complete a campaign setting that offers everything I want. Moral ambiguity, magical technology, non-evil undead/orcs/drow/what-have-you, realistic prejudice, transhumanism, re-imagined traditional fantasy races, yadda yadda and not anything like a literal adventurers' guild with tens of thousands of superheroes as members.
[sblock=This is not Paizo's fault, they are the victim of a vast conspiracy by consumers]This isn't to say Paizo is badwrongfun for writing this. They are selling product to consumers who want that product, no matter how absurd, banal or cliche. They are successful in that regard. That Paizo refuses to innovate except where political correctness is concerned is a tragedy that is out of their hands. It is the fault of the consumers for not demanding something new, innovative and remotely logically consistent, and indeed often deriding anything that does attempt to buck tradition. "I hate Drizzt clones," "fighters don't deserve nice things," "
NPCs need to be at least 4th level just to survive their daily lives," and "
the PCs are not demigods past 6th level even though they fight monsters that can destroy whole armies on a regular basis and take on those same armies themselves single-handed if so inclined" doesn't even begin to cover it.[/sblock]
Golarion does have
birth control, there is night tea for women and bachelor's snuff for men from Adventurer's Armory.
And according to the book birth control for both sexes is a black market item. So close, yet so far. Let's not mention that the Elixir of Sex Shifting is too expensive for 99.999% of transgender people in the setting to ever buy, despite the fact that you could make a much cheaper version costing 300 gp (a whopping 87% cheaper!) using
alter self, which can change the user's sex.
Undeath is typically powered by supernatural [Evil]. All undead creation spells are [Evil]. There is some correlation of negative energy to [Evil] and positive energy to [Good] from undead and clerical channeling energy but the correlation are not one to one across the board. It used to be in 3e that all undead detected as evil regardless of their alignment, in pathfinder only evil undead detect as evil and they detect as evil more powerfully evil than mortals, but less than outsiders or cleric types. In 3e mindless undead were neutral like in AD&D, in 3.5 they changed this to inherently evil. Pathfinder kept this change. I pictured it as uncontrolled mindless undead in 3e would just stand there until commanded to do something by someone with power. Evil 3.5 undead and pathfinder undead that are uncontrolled will become wandering monsters that mindlessly attack living creatures on sight.
The only way evil undead make any sense in the rules is to assume they're demon-possessed corpses. See
my other thread discussing how souls work in the rules. In summary: everyone has two souls, dead is dead and what comes afterward is not you.
I feel the entire idea of a role-playing setting having to "make sense" or be politically correct is pointless. Orcs are (mainly) evil because the stories I tell need evil humanoid enemies. They may be stand-ins for my personal hate-group in humanity, but even if they are, it is still an improvement to persecute virtual orcs instead of real humans. By thinking and acting upon thought-constructs, I channel my destructive tendencies against something that is immune to harm because it does not exist. It is also something I can agree with everyone to hate, precisely because it has few characteristics other than being evil. People who I don't know and whose values I may not otherwise share can share my hatred of orcs and immediately know what I am talking about when I say "orc". My personal belief is that it is much better to ventilate these base instincts, and to act them out in safe virtual spaces, than it is to let them fester.
Perhaps you should find a less antagonistic way to sublimate your inner racist? Many, many other people have written long dissertations about how orcs are really a metaphor for black stereotypes. While the similarities are compelling and disturbing, I do not agree that this is true nowadays. While it may have been true in the past because of Gygax's upbringing, nowadays its just perpetuated because people lack imagination and hate change rather than any subconscious message being involved. I am against it for the same reason Tolkien was: my philosophical beliefs do not allow for anyone who isn't a soulless puppet to be inherently evil. I always thought it would be best to have villains be evil because of their actions, but to treat their race (such as orc) the same way humans, elves, dwarves and so on are treated: every race is divided into sizable societies for every alignment and no race is pigeonholed into a single alignment.
[sblock=How I would write orcs across alignments]While orcs may be stupid and prone to violence due to their racial traits, they can easily be of any alignment and have societies based on any model. For example:
- CE evil orcs are bandits and raiders with no culture to speak of. These are the orcs in the bestiary.
- NE orcs are assassins, dishonest businessmen, cutthroat merchants, and so on. These orcs could serve Sauron, but would be the most unruly and self-serving of his subjects.
- LE orcs are the kinds of orcs that would serve Sauron. They have a pragmatic code of honor, are able to sit down, shut up and follow orders, but still commit reprehensible acts (within reason).
- CN orcs are vikings and barbarians who enjoy drinking, fighting, whoring and generally having fun.
- TN orcs are pragmatic and can be found in a variety of societies and environments. Desert nomads, peaceful farmers, city builders, etc.
- LN orcs are dedicated to the law above all else, but lawful is not the same as good. While they build stable societies, there may still be odious but not extreme prejudice against minorities in these societies.
- CG orcs are vikings and barbarians who go on quests to save the world from evil.
- NG orcs are friends and countrymen who value the safety of their people and neighbors above all else.
- LG orcs are dedicated to the protection and promotion of truth, justice, love and the last slice of pizza.
[/sblock]
Or we could go the simple rote and change goblins to plants that require human blood to grow. The goblin baby problem never comes up because there are no goblin babies. Wash, rinse and repeat for all other evil races.
