Is wanting to destroy the world really all that evil?

[cybertalus]

I guess I disagree with all the people who say automatically evil. You talk about destroying the world and I think "crazy", or "demented", but not necessarily evil. Every reason I can think of why someone would want to destroy the world or all of existence basically boils down to a drastic overreactive solution to a problem. Kind of like killing the patient to cure the disease. Sure it technically works, but it loses sight of the object of the exercise.

With that in mind, if there's no malice behind the destruction, I'd vote not evil. If there's some kind of benevolent intent ("fulfil the prophecy and this world will be destroyed, only to be reborn into a world without pain"), it could even go good. Crazy good, but still good. Of course if the cult is actually right about such a prophecy, then they're possibly not even crazy.

 

[Trainz]

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.

He's not unintelligent, and he's not evil.

 

[Sejs]

Heh, Big G?

Compared to his colleagues, he's downright saintly.

 

[Impeesa]

Heh. I always thought it would be cool (if slightly disturbing) to have a campaign where the goal of the party was the total annihilation of all life. For some incomprehensible cosmological reason, this would be necessary for the greater good of all living souls in the long run, and for related reasons the gods would be powerless to do it themselves. Thus, certain lucky characters get to help set things in motion.

--Impeesa--

 

[arscott]

Honestly, It kinda depends on why they want to destroy the world.

important questions to consider:

Is the world fated to end? When? Depending on the consequences, preventing the end of the world may cause more suffering (and therefore be more evil) than allowing it to happen.

What will happen If the cultists do end the world? Will everyone be taken to Paradise for feasts and revels eternal? Or will fire and brimstone rain down on the globe while the seas overfill with blood until the cowering populace is granted release in endless black oblivion?

What will happen if the cultists don'tend the world? Will life go on as normal? Or is even a bloody armegeddon preferable to the eldritch horrors that are even now creeping inward from beyond the edges of the universe?

 

[Asmor]

Lawful Evil.

They need to follow rules and regulations, hence they are lawful. A cult is pretty much like a church, and like a church, they do have guidelines to follow.

Evil because they are willing to slaughter the entire existence so they give their god a boner. Sounds cliche, but if done right, why not?

Actually, just as an aside (and not meant to mitigate your point), they're a secular organization which seeks to cease all of existence, including gods.

 

[Asmor]

What's in the box?

Actually, a chime. When struck with a matching mallet, it will create a harmonic frequency that will essentially unravel reality, causing a chain reaction and an expanding wave of nothingness. The baddies, of course, already have the mallet. This will expand from the material plane through the transitive planes and out into the outer planes, and not even gods can do anything to stop it once started.

As an aside, "borrowed" (read: blatantly stolen) from the Xbox game Crimson Sea, in which the baddie wants to use the Doomsday Harmonic to similar effect.

 

[cmanos]

My initial thought is chaotic neutral but I guess I'd need to learn a bit more about the organization....like WHY they want to destroy all of existence.

 

[Janx]

Many ways to look at this.

Let's assume that alignment vaguely represents what a good society would label them as. In which case, a normal good society would object to be obliterated, so they would label this cult as evil.

That doesn't mean the cultists have to act the traditional evil. Only that their end goal is evil (and these folks tend to have the "ends justify the means" mentality which will tend to make them do "evil" things to get the job done).

But don't let that stop you from getting creative. Here's some extra ideas:

What if the planet is contaminated? With something unseen that must not be spread. The god knows this (since he doesn't live on the planet), so he's trying to purge the planet to protect other planets.

Use the Saiyuki 2nd half of season one storyline (japanese anime, pretty popular):
a god loses his girlfriend (she got sent to be a mortal)
the god realizes he can re-initiate the world by destroying it (from the current inhabitants viewpoint)
by doing so, he'll be reunited with his girlfriend (who already died)

The god isn't evil, but obviously, a lot of folks wouldn't like his plan if they knew what it was.
From his perspective, people are like ants. Interesting to watch, but not of much consequence in the grand scheme of things. The evil-ness of the act depends on what level you sit in the hierarchy of reality. At the people level, they don't pay much attention to the ant worlds they destroy, but they like their world. At the god level, they don't pay much attention to the people worlds they destroy, but they like their world. It all works out.

Janx

 

[Asmor]

My initial thought is chaotic neutral but I guess I'd need to learn a bit more about the organization....like WHY they want to destroy all of existence.

They believe it is fundamentally flawed.

Why they believe it is fundamentally flawed, and whether they're correct or not (probably not), I haven't decided yet.