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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8274338" data-attributes="member: 29398">By our current standards.Indeed; and within such times and-or places those things might not necessarily be seen as evil.The obvious broader question this leads to is whether a character's alignment is determined from an in-setting perspective or a metagame/modern-world perspective.An example: take a setting based on the Roman Empire.  Slave ownership was an accepted part of Roman life and would have no more bearing on someone's in-setting alignment than would the same character's ownership of horses; the affect on one's alignment would come more from how one treated one's slaves rather than from the simple fact of owning some.A modern-day perspective would put all slave owners as some version of evil.  An in-character perspective would have slave owners occupying all nine boxes on the alignment chart based on things other than their ownership of slaves.Same goes for a noble exacting punishment on a peasant.  When your word and whim is the law there's none of this modern legal stuff to get in the way: if you feel that a peasant deserves punishment then said punishment is yours to apply at will.</blockquote>