D&D General Inherently Evil?

[Maxperson]

The Call of Cthulhu is a first person narrative. Therefore malevolence is only the narrator's interpretation, not Word of God.

A first person narrative about experiencing the malevolence of Cthulhu, yes.

 

[Vaalingrade]

First wolves, now the unknowable boring squid. We will morally judge just anything here.

Every animal is going to the Bad Place, let me tell you.

 

[Maxperson]

First wolves, now the unknowable boring squid. We will morally judge just anything here.

That's what humans do.

Every animal is going to the Bad Place, let me tell you.

Meh. I missed the wolf argument(and probably disagree with it), but we know from the account in Call of Cthulhu that Cthulhu was malevolent, even if we can't know why.

 

[Oofta]

First wolves, now the unknowable boring squid. We will morally judge just anything here.

Every animal is going to the Bad Place, let me tell you.

It's the difference between little Timmy stepping on an ant hill he doesn't see and little Timmy the budding psychopath using a magnifying glass to fry the ants because it's fun.

 

[tomBitonti]

So … we should be careful about a terminology shift to “malevolent“. That means “having or showing a wish to do evil to others”. As we are (essentially) having a discussion of the meaning of “evil”, we can’t use “malevolent“ as having a definite meaning.
TomB

 

[Scribe]

It's the difference between little Timmy stepping on an ant hill he doesn't see and little Timmy the budding psychopath using a magnifying glass to fry the ants because it's fun.

I was telling a story like this to my son after walking the dog one day.

He went to do his business, and of course has to plant on the 3 legs, while holding the pose.

Well as he went to do so, a large ant was walking across the sidewalk. My dog didnt care, didnt notice, and put his paw down and crushed it.

Thats more what Cthulu is to me. Not doing it out of intent, but because its all beneath notice.

 

[Voadam]

First wolves, now the unknowable boring squid. We will morally judge just anything here.

Every animal is going to the Bad Place, let me tell you.

Not true.

All dogs go to heaven.

 

[Lyxen]

All dogs go to heaven.

Whereas cats are obviously inherently evil, but they are really cool, so everyone forgives them...

 

[Scribe]

Not true.

All dogs go to heaven.

But not the ant.

 

[Voadam]

Whereas cats are obviously inherently evil, but they are really cool, so everyone forgives them...

I did recommend them earlier as a basis for an inherently evil race if you took their normal genocidal murderbot and torture small helpless things for fun attributes and made people with those characteristics and drives. Always be wary with Tabaxi.

Nature does give lots of options for things that would be evil in people.

The whole hundreds of thousands of parasitic wasp species for example.