OotS #724 is up

[Nyeshet]

I can see Elan's father as lawful in the sense of "I do my duty and follow orders; I help bring and maintain strict order to society; etc" and evil in the sense of being selfish, looking after his own interests above and beyond that of others (albeit w/n the confines of his duty/orders/legal rights/etc), and generally not caring about most others no directly related to him (via blood or similar or higher level in the local hierarchy).

I also recall a campaign I was in years ago in which the paladin detected a local minor lord and patron of the arts as evil. There was nothing overt about the person to suggest he was evil, and in the end it was discovered that the patron had several non-human slaves which he viewed as sub-human rather than demi-human. He was usually kind towards them, but he could be very strict, and as they were non-human he had little care if it was necessary to put one down or sell them to another upon a whim.

I can see Elan's father as viewing slavery as not particularly bad, merely a case of one tier beneath another tier in a hierarchy that promotes order and organizes the masses to complete various major and (in his view) important / significant works. If his overlord is occasionally strict or harsh, well, he is only following orders, and perhaps the slaves deserve their harsh punishments for slacking off and not understanding / accepting their natural place in the order / organization of the world.


If Elan's father had a view point such as this, I can see him being light hearted much of the time, even as he acts with utter ruthlessness when fulfilling his orders.

 

[orsal]

Which was Nale's version of family history so I wouldn't be surprised if something was wrong there.

Really? That's not how I interpreted it. For reference, here's the link. I took it as an omniscient narrator's flashback. It's in response to Elan's expressed puzzlement, but there's no suggestion that any character is narrating that frame. In the same vein, two frames later there's a flashback in response to Nale's expressed puzzlement, but that's clearly not a reply from Elan. After all, how could Elan have remember being beaten on the head by his brother when he had no idea he had a brother?

No, I don't think there's any doubt that their father is lawful evil. It plays on the duality between the brothers -- each one takes after the parent who raised him. I think there are at least two fine explanations for his friendliness, maybe three with a stretch:
(1) Nale may be lawful evil, but he's a traitor to this particular evil power structure. Dad has taken an oath to serve it, and being lawful evil, he takes his oath seriously. Nale is therefore his enemy, putting him on the same side as Elan. Note that seeking supreme power, and faithfully serving another evil power structures are both manifestations of lawful evil.
(2) He's devious (Nale takes after him in more ways than one!) and has a plan that involves Elan. He knows enough about Elan to know how to manipulate him.
(3) Heh, he's lawful evil, but he's also capable of parental pride. Just because he could only get custody of one child in the divorce, doesn't mean he doesn't care about both. I find this explanation less satisfying than the others, but it's not totally unreasonable. After all, family loyalty is also a lawful trait.

There are probably other explanations. I suspect than in another strip or three we'll have more insight into Dad's motivations. I'm willing to bet that when the dust settles he'll be one of the villains. But I don't know how quickly that'll happen.

 

[coyote6]

My theory is that dad decided his role in life was as antagonist, and since he's as genre-aware as Elan, he follows that role. His actual alignment is Lawful Dramatic.