Paladins and Good Aligned Folk In War - Are Orc Children Slain?

[haakon1]

It says that orcs are "Often Chaotic Evil."

IMC, Orcs are usually LE. Sometimes LN, sometimes N, never seen anything else, but it could exist, theoretically.

 

[Sundragon2012]

Sorry dude, I meant to take that back. I guess you were writing while I was editting. Opps.

Don't worry about it. It's all good.

I want you to know that for the most part, by what I read in your posts, you run your campaigns largely like I do....high fantasy with clearly marked lines between good and evil. I am all for Tolkienish Aragorn vs. Sauron good vs. evil battles. However, I think that sometimes in worlds that are quite like the ancient world or medieval world that certain realities can effectively be brought home to the players by way of the "grey zone" where deeds that can and often to raise eybrows or emotions take place. I believe that the kinds of grim realities take place off camera in nearly all settings where races have been enemies for hundreds of years if not millenia.

I just think that it should, from time to time, be on camera. Not that the PCs should ever be asked to participate directly, but to let them know this is what happens and that even a just and noble battle against a species bent on wiping your people out has with it some unpleasant realities. Nearly all violence has terrible side effects.

I remember in the movie Troy that the greeks were going to conquer the city with these great heroes amongst them, heroes we all know about. I think Paris said something about the women being sold into slavery and the babies tossed from the walls. Horrible, Horrible stuff but no doubt stuff that happened. What I am suggesting isn't even as heavy as reality, it is an attempt to add a bit, just a bit, of historical accuracy in regards to what happens after a war. I would go this far because IMC orcs and others like them have something intrinsic in them that makes them fiercely agressive, prone to violence and predation with a natural taste that tends to the brutal and course. They are no all automatically evil and some tiny percentage do turn out to be good or neutral.

IMC it is not only their culture that drives them to be raiders and killers but a natural aggessiveness that is supported by an violent and evil culture. Orc younglings can be raised to become good or neutral but will still tend to violence and wrath. However, for good or ill, there are in most settings no one that take a large number of these creatures in and in the vast majority of cultures no one willing to do so.


Chris