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Good, Evil, Nature, and Druids
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7597905" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>Nature, per se, at least in the sense that you mean it, is neutral. The universal framework or character of the universe has an alignment and nature is a product of that. Morale philosophers can argue over whether the universe is good, evil, chaotic, or lawful, or else leans towards one of those things, or else should lean toward one of those things. But nature itself is indifferent to it and makes no choices about it, but rather simply acts out its own nature. Nature is not conscious enough to make choices about it. Druids themselves, in the typical D&D cosmology believe, perhaps correctly, that the universal framework in which nature resides is morally neutral, and the neutrality of nature is proof of this, and that the universe is and ought to be neutral. Balance and harmony are perceived by not allowing sentient beings to upset this neutrality and shift the universe too far from its natural state. </p><p></p><p>Heretical druids, as it were, perceive that this is short sighted, or that the universe is already out of balance and has to be made to tilt hard in one direction or the other to right that problem. For example, I can imagine a hypothetical evil druid deciding that sentient beings are inherently unbalancing and don't belong within the natural order at all, and therefore they all have to be eradicated.</p><p></p><p>I should note that the Druid as a class, if not necessarily as a philosophy, has been itself eradicated from my homebrew world, and is replaced with the Shaman which I consider more flexible and to fit better within the setting.</p><p></p><p>One bit of philosophizing further, it seems to me that the Good/Evil axis and the Chaos/Law axis differ in that Chaos/Law seem to differ mostly over what the universe is, where as Good/Evil seem to differ mostly over what the universe ought to be. But I suppose of course there might be exceptions to that, for example someone agreeing that the universe is chaos but asserting that it ought to be lawful. However, for my part, if you assert the universe is chaos but ought to be lawful, or the other way around, then your tending toward asserting that the universe as it is ought to be destroyed, and unless that statement contains or is followed up with some sort of rescue plan, then it is fundamentally hard to distinguish that position from the position of absolute evil.</p><p></p><p>Nature on the other hand is just there, and if it actually reached the point where it was conscious enough to start asking these questions, it wouldn't be 'Nature' as you mean it any more.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7597905, member: 4937"] Nature, per se, at least in the sense that you mean it, is neutral. The universal framework or character of the universe has an alignment and nature is a product of that. Morale philosophers can argue over whether the universe is good, evil, chaotic, or lawful, or else leans towards one of those things, or else should lean toward one of those things. But nature itself is indifferent to it and makes no choices about it, but rather simply acts out its own nature. Nature is not conscious enough to make choices about it. Druids themselves, in the typical D&D cosmology believe, perhaps correctly, that the universal framework in which nature resides is morally neutral, and the neutrality of nature is proof of this, and that the universe is and ought to be neutral. Balance and harmony are perceived by not allowing sentient beings to upset this neutrality and shift the universe too far from its natural state. Heretical druids, as it were, perceive that this is short sighted, or that the universe is already out of balance and has to be made to tilt hard in one direction or the other to right that problem. For example, I can imagine a hypothetical evil druid deciding that sentient beings are inherently unbalancing and don't belong within the natural order at all, and therefore they all have to be eradicated. I should note that the Druid as a class, if not necessarily as a philosophy, has been itself eradicated from my homebrew world, and is replaced with the Shaman which I consider more flexible and to fit better within the setting. One bit of philosophizing further, it seems to me that the Good/Evil axis and the Chaos/Law axis differ in that Chaos/Law seem to differ mostly over what the universe is, where as Good/Evil seem to differ mostly over what the universe ought to be. But I suppose of course there might be exceptions to that, for example someone agreeing that the universe is chaos but asserting that it ought to be lawful. However, for my part, if you assert the universe is chaos but ought to be lawful, or the other way around, then your tending toward asserting that the universe as it is ought to be destroyed, and unless that statement contains or is followed up with some sort of rescue plan, then it is fundamentally hard to distinguish that position from the position of absolute evil. Nature on the other hand is just there, and if it actually reached the point where it was conscious enough to start asking these questions, it wouldn't be 'Nature' as you mean it any more. [/QUOTE]
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