Is wanting to destroy the world really all that evil?

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

I don't know. I could see good-aligned fanatics having a very twisted view on this. Perhaps they believe that the material plane is inherently corrupt, and that by destroying it and killing everyone, you release their pure souls into heaven. They might see world destruction as a sacrament.

There's plenty of real-world cults that followed this doctrine (maybe not to the extent I'm talking about), and I doubt many of them considered themselves "evil", per se.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

Evil ? YES

Lawful? Not really - sounds like an extremely Chaotic plan to me. Don't think that chaotic organizations don't exist or thrive...

What's in the box? A scroll with the ritual spell that will enable the triggering of the destruction process.

How to stop them? A really high bluff check, convincing them that the best way to accomplish thier goal is to start with themselves

Could be fun if the PC's discover what was in the box AFTER the baddies steal it from them...

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

What's in the box?

How about a chunk of antimatter contained in a powerful force effect, and the "ritual" is a massive cooperative-cast dispel magic...

 

[Darkness]

A cult is pretty much like a church

That really depends on the cult in question.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Let's also bear in mind that being able to justify destroying the world to yourself doesn't make it any less evil. Nobody (well, almost nobody) thinks of themself as evil. The fact that Tarkin could justify it, or a misguided cult believed they were doing it for the greater good, doesn't make it any less evil in the absolute morality system of D&D (or, I would hazard to guess, the subjective morality system of most individual people and cultures).

 

[Umbran]

Well, the question isn't so much "is it evil?" as "Do you want to hold on to your current definition of evil?"

Personally, I think your definition of evil is too narrow. While one path to evil is through selfishness, it isn't the only one. Evil is about hurting people who don't deserve it. Whether it's because you are selfish, or because you're callous, or for some other reason.

But what I think isn't the main thing. What do you think?

 

[argo]

Yeah, the cult you describe sounds evil to me. Remember, just because they don't think of themselves as evil/have justifications for what they do doesn't mean that they aren't evil.

Though I will say that destroying the world does not nessicarily have to be evil. I recall a short story I read once where a computer programer is hired by an obscure order of monks whose ancient quest is to discover the true name of god by means of trying out every possible permutation of letters. They are very close now, only a couple hundred years away at the rate they have been going, and they want him to program a computer to help them power their way through the last few million permutations. Well the programer does what they want and as the program spits out the final, true name of God the world begins to shake and come apart. The programer, fearfull asks the monks what's going on and they calmly explain to him that the ultimate purpose of mankind's existance has always been to discover the true name of God. Now that that purpose has been fufilled there is no longer any meaning to existance and so, obviously, it is right and natural that this world ends and something else come to replace it. The End.

I would've called that bunch of monks LN. They are simply working diligently to uphold the natural order of the universe. Of course the important thing that makes them not-evil here is that within the logic of the story they were right. The end of the world was the natural order of things. Most fantasy presumes that the end of the world is against the natural order. Even if some diety supports armageddon there is usually another diety who opposes him thus reducing the end of the world to a simple power struggle between gods. It might be interesting some time to run a campaign though where it is made explicitly clear that the apolcaplyse is supposed to happen and the PC's oppose it not because it is right to do so but because they simply don't want to die. Mortals rebeling against the will of the heavens and the power of destiny....

Later.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

If the world is the home of an Evil God, then it could be a Good act...

 

[ivocaliban]

The entire concept reminds me of Tharizdun, really. God of Entropy and Madness who seeks to undo existence. Sounds pretty selfish to me, regardless. It's essentially promoting your wants and desires above all others. Your cult wants and desires the end of everything which obviously, eventually, includes themselves. Just because you're not around to enjoy getting your way doesn't make you any less selfish or evil. Of course, his followers are more than likely Chaotic Evil.

I do, however, remember the Wakers of the Beast cult in Dragon #296. They sought to raise the Tarrasque for the purposes of "cleansing the world through destruction" or something to that effect. They were Lawful Evil, I believe. Either way, it's hard to get around evil when you seek to destroy other's property and lives...not to mention all of existence.

 

[Sejs]

The only thing I could see getting away with destroying the world/ending all existance and not being evil would be something unintelligent. Something huge that just consumes being as a function of what it -is-, rather than out of some want or plan.

Its servants would be evil, definitly, but the thing itself could slide by as Neutral. More a force of unmaking than a creature.

Anything else? Yeah, choosing to destroy the world plops you smack dab in the middle of evil country, mister.