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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Primitive Screwhead" data-source="post: 6458882" data-attributes="member: 20805">This ia a very interesting thread, and I appreciate the civil discussion present. Threads like this are why I really appreciate EnWorld!On to the topic. In my opinion there are a number of things tied into this question that should be seperated and handled individually:Good and Evil as game artifacts.  - In the game world, Good and Evil are real, tangible, and not up for discussion. A Paladins 'Sense Evil' is a true/false detector, not a 'eh, maybe?' detector. If a creature is Evil, they are infused with the game reality of Evil.    Good and Evil are abosulute truths, to the point where the very essense can be made into a weapon.    Note the capitol G and capitol E.Game genetics - There are two generation types: Full blood and Half-blood. The former is from the mating of two of the same race. The latter is from the mating of a Full Blood of one race and someone not Full blood of that race. - Humans are genetically anomolies. When mating with other Full Blood race the result is a Half-Blood of the other race. When mating with a Half-Blood the result is a Full blooded human.         This means large numbers of like minded non-Humans are needed to establish new societies, wheres human societies are easier to create.Racial and Societal norms, as listed in Pathfinder and other editions: - Drow are an evil race. This means the majority, 99%, of encountered drow are less concerned about morality *as seen by others* and more concerned about the end result than the means. Slaves are the cheapest way to accomplish a lot of things. - Drow society is evil.  This means that the majority of Drow culture encounterd, 99%, is also more concerned about the end result. Turning warriors into Driders provide society with a more effective defender despite the torturous process that is involved.Your game table assumptions.  Either:  A) Drow are Evil, capitol E and are inheringly evil. Individuals may act against their inner nature but never in such numbers to affect the Drow society as a whole or break off and create a new civilization. Nature wins over Nurture. or:  B) Drow are evil, no capitol E. Nurture wins over Nature. Those Drow raised outide of the majority culture may become good, but in generaly these Drow are assimilated into their adopted culture and do not create new civilizations due to the game genetics. or:  C) Drow are just like humans but they live underground and have cool magic.Only in option C do you have the game world scenario where you can have a non-evil Drow society, however in this option you lose the simplicity of a black and white world. You also turn Drow {and other races} into 'humans with prosthetics' and make designing adventures harders.  In the other two options there are a myriad of moral dilemnas and situations, as well as depth to the world that doesn't have to be explained to the players in a huge campaign setting read-ahead. To me the whole point of saying 'drow are evil' is to simplify campaign setting design and get the PCs into the adventure.   Yes, its stereotyping. No, it has nothing to do with real-world races.Taking this a step outside of the Prime Material: talk about demons and angels.  In a real-world religion there are fallen angels.  In the game world, once a mortal spirit becomes morally aligned they move into the associated plane and become demons or angels depending on which plane it is. There are no fallen angels.  Good and Evil are absolute truths.Side note: Real-world military forces and mercenaries would be categorized as 'Lawful Evil' in the alignment system. This is definately the case of a lower-case E, and a pretty good framework to use for fictional Evil society structures.</blockquote>

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