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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ninjayeti" data-source="post: 8444151" data-attributes="member: 6789120">I don't think it is hard to imagine a sentient fantasy species that was incapable of experiencing empathy or comprehending human morality, or even one that experienced pleasure (endorphins or the magical equivalent) from inflicting suffering. Whether or not that that makes them "inherently evil" or not really depends on your definitions. For example, a chromatic dragon is raised from an egg by adventurers who feed it well and let it nest in their collected treasure pile.  It doesn't eat them because it benefits from the relationship and genuinely enjoys their company.  It doesn't kill random townspeople because that would make its friends mad, and the local noble would hire other adventurers to come kill it.  But it would enjoy killing people - they are delicious and their screams would give it pleasure.  However it refrains from killing people for pragmatic reasons, rather than because killing is wrong.  The party bard reads the dragon moral philosophy textbooks every day (a la Chidi from the Good Place) but it is total nonsense as far is the dragon is concerned.  Now you could say the dragon was inherently evil.  You could also argue that it never committed an evil act, and even if it did eat people that can't be considered evil because didn't understand the difference between right and wrong, or was just following its biological instincts.  So instead of a vague pronouncement like "inherently evil" I think you should have a more specific idea in mind.  Do they have an alien mentality (thri-kreen)?  Do they have urges to do evil which they may or may not resist (vampires)?  Are they just incapable of empathy or anything beyond a "might makes right" reasoning?  But just saying "inherently evil" is just going to open up a philosophical discussion about what that means.</blockquote>

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