Which goes back to some of my previous comments.
Though, in terms of D&D, it does pose an interesting question: how do you reconcile the fantasy idea that some beings are inherently evil with real-world sensibilities?
In Tolkien's writing, orcs were automatically predisposed to darker desires because they were corrupted and created that way. To some extent, D&D follows some of that thinking, but not entirely.
(In the 5E story of Gruumsh, the gods of the other races seem like the bad guys to me.)
Contemporary orcs do not necessarily follow that template.
What of demons and devils? Supposedly, those beings are inherently evil and do not have the free will to choose otherwise. However, there are D&D stories of "
redeemed" devils and demons.
I've thought about that a lot recently, and wondered if if it should become a blog...
Now, for intelligent humanoids (drow, duergar) it's a bad idea to have them be inherently evil. Even predominantly evil has its issues as they're classically dark skinned. I think we've seen a move away from that in recent editions. Duergar and drow are a medium grey now, and much more light skinned than in the past.
But this gets harder with more "savage" humanoids like goblins or orcs. The question of whether they're inherently evil and uncivilized or if that is the product of upbringing. If they're just the humanoid equivalent of "undomesticated", like wolves or foxes, and no amount of careful raising will prevent them from being a wild animal.
There's no easy answers here. It's horrible all the way down.
If it's
nurture, then all the humanoid civilizations have a long history of oppressing goblins and orcs. There's shades of colonialism and systemic abuse. And adventurers going into orc/goblin villages and killing everyone are perpetrating hate crimes and ethnic cleansing.
And man is that not a good take.
If it's
nature than it avoids the above. Orcs may not be inherently evil, but they're inherently chaotic: irrational monsters that you can kill for the good of innocents.
However having it be their nature invokes some pretty horrible real world analogues, where certain peoples were considered less advanced or evolved. How orcs are seen is a little too close to comfort with how people of African decent were seen just a hundred and fifty years ago. (If not even more recently.) This can be really upsetting for some people.
This makes it really awkward to have disposable action scenes. Because it is still a game and you want to have the occasional combat. For some players, that's their main reason for playing.
There are some inherently evil beings (demons and devils) along with beasts and undead. But even then things get fuzzy. There are good vampires in D&D. Who hasn't seen the druid try and tame or negotiate with an owlbear? Should the pack of wolves be murdered because they're hungry: they have just as much right to live.
It can works with regular humanoids, but even then it's because no one stops to question the bandits or ask if the minions of the Evil Overlords were volunteers or conscripts (or victims of propaganda). Let's face it, if any PCs ever stopped to ask why someone became a highway man, the answer isn't going to be pleasant.
As such, I'm still inclined to have it be "nature" in my world and games. Because of the needs of the game. You need to accommodate some level of murder-hobo behavior and it's preferable to have easy action without moral consequences. In the same way
Buffy the Vampire Slayer purposly chose to have vampires lose their souls, to avoid questions of whether vampires could be redeemed and if slaying them immediately was good or bad.
