How can this not be evil?

[billd91]

Do they know that the destroy souls?

And I agree with TB, you have break eggs to make omelets. THe greater good they do is worth the cost.

I disagree. "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one" is a Lawful Neutral axiom. It makes no promises to those whose needs are outweighed and only concerns itself with the overall collective. LG, because it is good, places limits on the damage that can reasonably be inflicted on the outweighed few. Cavalierly sacrificing innocents is never something good characters should be comfortable with. Sometimes it is necessary, but to be avoided.

 

[Sammael]

That is indeed textbook LG behavior, and souls be damned.

 

[robberbaron]

Maybe, the people the spheres used to take over were willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of their people and the spheres simply take this for granted.

And who says LG can't hurt anyone? So long as the cause is just and their god agrees (or, at least, their clerics agree [same thing in practice]).

 

[JustKim]

I don't see how rebuilding a dead nation by eradicating the souls of countless innocents is any kind of greater good. Good is sacrificing yourself for others. Evil is sacrificing others for yourself, and that is what they're doing. If innocent souls had to be destroyed to save the world from a meteor, let's say, the greater good would be to sacrifice those souls, but it would be a job for lawful neutrals and not lawful goods. Destroying souls simply to rebuild what you lost is strictly evil- the desiccated lich who destroys souls to cling to life is evil, no matter what he might be working on in his tomb. This culture is just as evil.

 

[Stone Angel]

I would say that this is typical in the form of a lawful orginization that means to do good. Sometimes things are overlooked in order to see the means.


The Seraph of Earth and Stone

 

[DevoutlyApathetic]

I don't see how rebuilding a dead nation by eradicating the souls of countless innocents is any kind of greater good.

Err...where did 'countless' come into it? It sounds like a finite amount of these spheres exist.

When was innocent mentioned? For all we know it could have been a cabal of evil assassins who had been dispatched to destroy the spheres forever. I think it was most likely looting adventurers who didn't know what they were doing.

Good is sacrificing yourself for others. Evil is sacrificing others for yourself, and that is what they're doing.

It actually looks like they're doing it to recreate a large benevolent empire. A place that would do good to the legions of people who live there. I've gotten no idication that they're doing this because they want to 'stretch thier legs a bit'.

If innocent souls had to be destroyed to save the world from a meteor, let's say, the greater good would be to sacrifice those souls, but it would be a job for lawful neutrals and not lawful goods.

Now you're just advocating Lawful Dumb. Sure the good guys would rather use willing people, most likely themselves. Just because they're good doesn't mean they'll let a million people die simply so another person can die fifteen seconds later.

I really think the key is that the good people wouldn't be happy about this and it'd probably haunt them. Which sounds like a rather cool way to spin this whole orb thing. Champions very much devoted to good all knowing that every good thing they do from now on will have been paid for in blood... ever striving to make those acts worth the price that's been paid for them.

Destroying souls simply to rebuild what you lost is strictly evil- the desiccated lich who destroys souls to cling to life is evil, no matter what he might be working on in his tomb. This culture is just as evil.

I'm unaware of any particular trait of a lich that destroys souls. Barghests....that'd be the ticket. Of course Barghests eat souls to gain personal power not to bring an utopian paradise about.

 

[frankthedm]

What makes you think they are lawful good? The ill thought out print of a 3rd party publisher?! If i was using them and kept the soul destroying part, then they would be Lawful evil if they new, and LN or LN [[favoring good] if they did not know.

Of course the "fates" would conspire to have the possesers find out, likley through a group of charismatic heros who are tasked by a higher power to convive the possesers to vacate before the souls of the possesed suffer fates worse than death.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

. If innocent souls had to be destroyed to save the world from a meteor, let's say, the greater good would be to sacrifice those souls, but it would be a job for lawful neutrals and not lawful goods.

So the LGs of your world would allow it to be completely destroyed so they could remain 'pure'? That is simple cowardice and hypocrisy. thank gawd for LE's then. At least they would have the 'good' sense to wipe out a few thousand to save a few million (and exsistance at they know it).

 

[Zappo]

Wha? Destruction of souls? Dudes, if that isn't evil then I don't know what is. It just might be neutral if they were taking care to only possess the bodies of formerly evil or non-sentient creatures, or if they were doing it to save the world, or if the first thing done after getting the body was to cast wish and rebuild the soul. This doesn't seem to be the case.

If they were truly Good, they would strive to find other ways to obtain their goals, and there are plenty. At the very least, they could possess just one body and then contact other Good creatures to help them (from doing the work themselves, to building golem bodies, to whatever). That's what being smart and Good is.

What they are doing is taking the quick, easy and exploiting way - textbook Evil. Let me guess, the first time they have a revolt in their supposedly benevolent empire, they will quench it in blood in the name of "greater good"? After all, the reasoning is the same...

 

[DMH]

Exactly- why the spheres were not made to be used with dead bodies, constructs, or something else I have no idea.