FitzTheRuke
Legend
The Zhents were evil in many previous stories, but the 5e "Faction" version is supposed to be more gray. They're supposed to be more like the average money-grubbing rogue character, with a little Mafia (protect the "family")-type stuff going on.Yeah, the pins have always seemed really silly to me, especially for the harpers, who are ostensibly supposed to be spies… I also never know what to make of the Zhentarim, as their behavior seems openly villainous to me, yet for some reason they’re just… allowed to operate unobstructed? Also, players can join them? Like, it’s one thing to have a designated morally-gray playable faction, but the Zhents just seem straight-up evil to me.
In fact, ALL of the factions are supposed to be gray. Individuals involved in them could be evil (in ALL of them). It's true that MORE of the Zhents (and probably the Lord's Alliance) are likely to be skew neutral or evil than, say, Harpers (who generally fight for freedom from Tyranny, but they could go all the way to Terrorism at their worst, as could the Emerald Enclave as eco-terrorists). And Order of the Gauntlet could go all the way to tyranny or religious persecution. They all could be evil, depending on the acts of their members.
They're whatever the story calls for, or the DM wants. I kinda like them now, and I never did before.
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