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<blockquote data-quote="ptrpete" data-source="post: 517718" data-attributes="member: 7125">A nice sounding idea, but it wouldn't work in practise, for reasons others have already explained.&nbsp; But suppose it happened:Idea 1: What if a long-lived LE spellcaster infiltrated the city during the &quot;kill evil&quot; stage, using an item of undetectable alignment.&nbsp; Say, a lich or polymorphed LE dragon.&nbsp; Over the centuries, he would become almost undefeatable:(a) Killing all the evil people gets rid of competition.(b) Killing the chaotics and creating a society with no apparent wrongs will get rid of the adventurers(c) Any evil he commits can be blamed on outsiders, justifying crusades (which will increase his power).(d) No sane person would believe that he could do any wrong.&nbsp; After all, he's at the center of power, with all the permanent detect evil things waiting to go off the second he leaves the path of goodness. So even if the crusades don't work, he won't be blamed.Idea 2: The problem with the society you describe is the leaders are, by definition, right.&nbsp; The people will never see any reason to depose them, as nothing will go wrong.&nbsp; So any corruption or inefficiency will stay there until the civilisation gets too weak to support itself.Suppose this LG civilisation takes over the whole continent, then stops (either they don't know about the other continent, or they don't want to attack for some reason).&nbsp; Wealth is shared equally.&nbsp; No standing armies, as they are not needed.&nbsp; No wizards trained in attack spells of defensive magics, as they are not needed.&nbsp; Better to spend the resources on the common folk.&nbsp; Sure, this realm probable has a lot of weapons and so on tucked away in museums, people will be curious about the past.&nbsp; But they will never be needed again, those barbaric times have passed.&nbsp; Eventualy the wizards will grow lax in maintaining the detection spells.&nbsp; After all, in paradise evryone grows up to be a nice person, so its better to spend the resources on earthquake-proofing every farmstead and hut. Maybe 50% of them still work at the present moment.Then one day, the people from the other continent arrive....</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ptrpete, post: 517718, member: 7125"] A nice sounding idea, but it wouldn't work in practise, for reasons others have already explained. But suppose it happened: Idea 1: What if a long-lived LE spellcaster infiltrated the city during the "kill evil" stage, using an item of undetectable alignment. Say, a lich or polymorphed LE dragon. Over the centuries, he would become almost undefeatable: (a) Killing all the evil people gets rid of competition. (b) Killing the chaotics and creating a society with no apparent wrongs will get rid of the adventurers (c) Any evil he commits can be blamed on outsiders, justifying crusades (which will increase his power). (d) No sane person would believe that he could do any wrong. After all, he's at the center of power, with all the permanent detect evil things waiting to go off the second he leaves the path of goodness. So even if the crusades don't work, he won't be blamed. Idea 2: The problem with the society you describe is the leaders are, by definition, right. The people will never see any reason to depose them, as nothing will go wrong. So any corruption or inefficiency will stay there until the civilisation gets too weak to support itself. Suppose this LG civilisation takes over the whole continent, then stops (either they don't know about the other continent, or they don't want to attack for some reason). Wealth is shared equally. No standing armies, as they are not needed. No wizards trained in attack spells of defensive magics, as they are not needed. Better to spend the resources on the common folk. Sure, this realm probable has a lot of weapons and so on tucked away in museums, people will be curious about the past. But they will never be needed again, those barbaric times have passed. Eventualy the wizards will grow lax in maintaining the detection spells. After all, in paradise evryone grows up to be a nice person, so its better to spend the resources on earthquake-proofing every farmstead and hut. Maybe 50% of them still work at the present moment. Then one day, the people from the other continent arrive.... [/QUOTE]

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