oots 639

[Henrix]

There is no such thing as genetic evil in the real world. There is such a thing as genetic evil in D&D.

Please explain that to genociders all over the world.

I've long wondered what the original sin of the Always Evil races was.

 

[wingsandsword]

It's genocide of a genetically evil race.

No it isn't.

No way, there is absolutely zero proof in either the OotS canon or the D&D 3.5 RAW (that OotS generally runs on) that Black Dragons are inherently, genetically evil.

Now, in the SRD they are listed as "always lawful evil", but one thing that people keep forgetting is what alignment frequency definitions mean in 3.x, even by the RAW. "Always" doesn't mean "always", it is a game term to mean that the vast majority are evil but exceptions can and do exist.

It's not like they are animated by an inherently malevolent force (like Undead) or have to devour the sentient to survive (like Illithid), or even an alignment-based force made physicially manifest (like Fiends). Chromatic dragons are big magical flying lizards and the black ones may well have bad temperaments and tendencies by genetics (like a Pit Bull) and a racial veneration of an infernal deity (like Tiamat), but they aren't inherently, automatically evil.

Just because adventurers kill things "just because they are evil" all the time doesn't mean it's automatically a good act. There are evil adventurers looking to justify their actions, and there are an awful lot of neutral adventurers that are more after profit and xp and use "it's evil" as an excuse to harvest XP and treasure from monsters in a societally acceptable way. Good adventurers may well kill lots of Black Dragons, but generally in self-defense, or the defense of their town/kingdom/ect and not just stalking them down and killing them in their sleep and crushing their eggs for no reason other than the color of their scales.

As for using anything Miko Miyazaki said as moral guidance with regards to combat (the "color coded for your convenience" crack she once made), look where her attitudes and conduct got her in the end.

Near genocide of a sentient race with free will, even if the majority of them are evil, is still evil.

 

[CAFRedblade]

I wonder if this could also be considered the right four words to ultimate power for all the wrong reasons?

"She calls it Familicide!"

Casting an epic spell, which might be considered ultimate power for V,
one whose pursuit of arcane might has been the sole focus of her/is
personality and being.

Probably not, but, prophecy is fun, as it can have so many
chances to be interpreted.

 

[Nymrohd]

V already has ultimate power. The prophecy was fullfilled at some point before V accepted the pact, which point is debatable but ultimately meaningless.

By the way the fact that this spell causes glee to three of the most powerful and evil spellcasters in existance should indicate something.

 

[Greylock]

Bunch of damned bunny haters, the whole lot of you.

What did the poor little bunnies ever do to you.

 

[Nyeshet]

Personally, I think the next strip will return back to hell to cover the reactions and opinions of the three arch-fiends. Perhaps this was unexpected and will affect some of their plans. Perhaps Tiamat will come knocking to find out why they gave an upstart monkey so much power - resulting in the death of many (if not all of one type) of her creations / children, the black dragons.

I wonder how this might affect others in the strip. Could the Azure Guild remnants be fighting a half-dragon [black] half-dragon-turtle right about now? What about Xykon? Did he notice the epic spell? What (if anything) did he think of it? What about Redcloak? Will he (or Durkon, for that matter) receive word of this major event in a dream from his deity (or one of their servitors)?

What about in the heavens? Will the former central character of this strip suddenly notice scores of various celestials running about, frantic over some event on the Prime - and learn what V has done? How would he react? Granted, he was willing to accept onto his team Belkar - whom the heavens measure against the love child of Cruela DeVil and Sauron. But still ....

There are just so many potential consequences of this act, one just has to wonder which one will come up first.

 

[Hussar]

Thats one huge karmic backlash incoming.
Its imo pretty likely that Vs mate & children are in some way related to the dragon. Its just fitting.

And I disagree that he killed all black dragons. The original dragon was an ancient one who, during her lifetime could sire quite a few children who by now had children of their own etc.

So, we have V who is now utterly evil and probably soon a dead wife and children. After all I still think that each of the 3 limitations will play a role in this story (no XP gain, no divine spells, duration ends).

Yeah, I was thinking this myself. Why does this have to be "all" black dragons? It's an elder wyrm. It's several THOUSAND years old. 64 offspring? Heck, that's damn near celibate.

 

[hamishspence]

Going by Draconomicon, Its an Ancient female dragon with a Young Adult offspring- puts it at less than 900 years, since female dragons stop being fertile at end of Very Old age category (800), and Young Adult lasts to 100 years old.

Ancient is referred to in-strip. It says it has a talent for magic- would be represented by sorcerer levels, which stack with its own innate spellcasting.

 

[Zimri]

Civilian casualties implies some sort of war. Ultimately, every single black dragon killed was a civilian casualty in the war between one black dragon and V, and that black dragon had already lost that war by being killed by V. They may not be innocent, but they certainly weren't part of any war against V ... arguably few if any even knew of V's existence.

the young adult black dragon was killed by V. At that point the Ancient didn't know who V was. The ancient then found out about V and came after her. Nothing precludes this from carrying on ad infinitum with the rest of the young adult or ancient black dragons family.

While I like the premise of "retaliate don't be preemptive" I'm not sure it actually sells anywhere.

 

[MarkB]

the young adult black dragon was killed by V. At that point the Ancient didn't know who V was. The ancient then found out about V and came after her. Nothing precludes this from carrying on ad infinitum with the rest of the young adult or ancient black dragons family.

Or their friends, or the friends of any of their various slaughtered family members, or anyone who just plain objects to people going around slaughtering entire clans of dragonkind.

Don't make this out as some kind of pre-emptive protective measure. Killing off an entire family line of dragons is far more likely to draw retribution than killing any single dragon - so V hasn't protected hir family, s/he's massively endangered them.

In fact, it wouldn't be uncharacteristic for a dragon-god like Tiamat to simply declare open warfare against all elves in retaliation to an act like that.