Have you ever created a workable lawful evil or neutral evil country?

[Twowolves]

The Scarred Lands has more than one Lawful Evil nation, and not conincidentally it is loosely based on ancient Rome. Highly efficient, with roads and laws and a highly organized military, but with decadent leaders, slavery, and oppression.

Now Neutral Evil is a little harder to draw up without heavy fantasy influence. A nation based on the concept of "evil above all"? Maybe if it was run by a horror movie producer.

 

[Piratecat]

Removed by Admin.

"What's one of EN World's cardinal rules, kids?"

"No politics, Unca Piratecat!"

That's right. So please refrain from making real-life modern-day political allusions. Shoot me an email if you have any questions.

 

[Nlogue]

Please ignore.

 

[green slime]

Well, I have three LE empires. IOW: All the empires are basically LE: They all promote survival of the fittest.

One closest to home is based on the Roman Empire: It has all the appearances of a being a traditional well-meaning empire: Provides bread for the poor (all citizens are guaranteed food (helps keep the number of riots down)), public bathing houses (helps prevent the spread the disease, and keeps peasants from smelling too atrociously, games in the colliseum (pervents people from thinking too much about foreign affairs), a senate (your vote really does matter... I'm sure), service in the army grants you land at the end of your service. Worship of unlawful deities is discouraged, and all forms of Necromancy are strictly banned, upon pain of death. The follow a greco-roman subset of gods, with some powerful Cults following various demons or devils.

It has eradicated the Dwarves from the continent, and wages a centuries old war against the Necromantic Empire to the east (on and off, of course). The senate is weak, corrupted, and basically only concerns itself with trivial petty rivalries between senators. The emperor is apparently young but knowledgeable, well-guarded by his battle-proven personal guard. In reality, the emperor has been ruling for several hundred years by possessing his offspring's bodies (one at a time, obviously).

The Empire of the Eastern Wastes is a monotheistic theocracy, Worshipping a god of Death and Undead. All defer to the Great One. There is no Law but the Law. Service is Eternal. Freedom through Submission. It is possible in this state for a person of common birth to reach the utmost level in society through dilligent hardwork, serious religious and/or metaphysical studies and intelligence. The less intelligent will make good zombies when they die. The law provides a minimum of protection for the servile.

The last empire is one of Reptilians based on Mesoamerican Mythology. It is the most bloodthirsty of them all. Very strict heirachy, and almost no social mobility whatsoever. Nobles are always nobles, farmers farmers, and soldiers soldiers. Customs requires sacrifice.

 

[Piratecat]

Bold is mine for emphasis. I was just trying to make a point above. Sorry if I ruffled feathers, but I find the idea of communist and dictatorship going hand in hand to be slightly politically inflammatory myself is all.

Good news/bad news time.

1. You're right about the communist dictatorship (and my reminder about no politics applies to that, too!) But the thing to do in that case to is let us know about the problem by clicking that little exclamation point in the bottom left of the post. That'll let us deal with it as needed. Making a political reference yourself to drive home the point is probably more fun, but escalates the problem instead of addressing it.

2. Next time something like this crops up, please email the moderator (by clicking on their user name) instead of bringing it up in-thread. We have strict rules about not calling out mods and discussing moderation in the thread. Strict rules that I'm currently ignoring; bad admin! Bad!

But you get the idea.

Now, we return you to your previously diverted thread.

 

[Fenes]

Lawful evil? Take any country, and turn up the number of laws a notch or three, add draconian punishments for most offenses, combine it with a more or less efficinet enforcement of laws, and add a reason to invade their neighbours, and/or oppress part of the population, and there's your average lawful evil country in my campaigns. The "evil" part is taken care of by the invading/oppressing others, without it, it'd be a lawful neutral country in myworld.

Works as well as any other country too, in my campaign.

 

[Wolfwood2]

I've always been unclear on how a nation can be considered as having an alignment at all.

Individual people can have alignments. Rulers can have alignments. You could say that X% of people in this nation are alignment Y.

But what does it even mean to say that a nation has an alignment? When you say, "Nation X has Alignment Y," what does that mean in practical terms? A "nation" does not have free will. It's just a collection of social compacts.

 

[Piratecat]

But what does it even mean to say that a nation has an alignment? When you say, "Nation X has Alignment Y," what does that mean in practical terms? A "nation" does not have free will. It's just a collection of social compacts.

It has to do with what the laws and traditions of that nation dictate, enforce and encourage. For instance, imagine a city like Ribcage (from Planescape) where the slightest infraction is handled cruelly with a punishment disproportionate to the offense. That's generally considered Lawful Evil, even if there are some kind people who live there.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

But what does it even mean to say that a nation has an alignment? When you say, "Nation X has Alignment Y," what does that mean in practical terms? A "nation" does not have free will. It's just a collection of social compacts.

I've always looked on it as how the country generally behaves in its official actions, and how those actions are considered from a legal POV. Individuals make the decisions, but when those decisions match the country's alignment, they are rarely remarked on or disputed.

 

[noretoc]

I have an oriental land, that I concider Lawful Evil. It is clan based, taking the clans from oriental adventures, but is also caste based. The caste is based on how well you can fight. For every equal duel you fight you earn a patch. The highest cast are Gai-dan. There are the greatest warriors in the country. They are lord who rule families. The next are the Kolpar. these are warrior who are good enough to be on thier own (no gai-dan) but not good enough to be a Gai-dan. Next are Sun-tai. These are warriors who status depend on that of thier gai-dan. if there are two Sun-Tai of equal patches, the one with a higher Gai-dan would be higer on the ladder. After Sun-tai are Jin who are non fighters that have earned the respect of a warrior. Not as high as a warrior but better than any other non warrior. Next are Tau-lo. These are warriors who can no longer fight because of injury or age. Then are merchants, and craftsman. Last are service workers, servants, etc. Below them are the dishonored, who are ridiculed and pitied. It is illeagal to harm them, but otherwise anything else is open.

Shugenja and Mages have a status of thier own somewhere in the middle. The lord of all the land is called the Sai' Gai-dan. He is protected by a spirit (The Sai' Gai-don that he killed to get his status.) Honor is very important. Thievery is almost non existant, though assasination is common. Assasins have a special status, as they can be anyone, even your family. Going up in rank is purely done by duels, and deference to a person with a higher status is mandatory. The society came about by a bunch of mages who were trying to train bodyguard and protectors, for the mage lord. They manipulated the whole society so that the greatest fighter could be found. The warrior then turned on the mage.

I have a ton more, but never put it together in a doc, so if ya want to know more, let me know.