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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6208438" data-attributes="member: 4937">Well, in a sense.  Good and Evil in D&D are not relative.  Whether you think this is 'realistic' depends on whether you think good and evil in the real world are relative or not.The real question is, "If Good and Evil in D&D are not relative, can we still have a realistic debate over what is right and wrong."People who view the real world as not have absolute right and wrong tend to reflexively answer, "No, and that's bad.  Wrong even."People who view the real world as having absolute good and evil tend to answer, "Well, of course, I mean, look at the real world.  It has absolute good and evil, and people argue over right and wrong all the time."For me, the trick is to realize that the people who are Lawful Evil don't view themselves as in the wrong and worthy of condemnation.  They believe that they are in the right, and to the extent that there is any real righteousness in the world it is Order and Might.  Isn't perfectly clear - they would say - that the greater good, the needs of the many, comes before the needs of the one?  Isn't it perfectly clear that protection of Us comes before any consideration or duty to Them?  Isn't it perfectly clear that the 'white hats' are just protecting their own tribe, and are no better than any one else?  Or that peace and justice is predicated on assimilation?  If the ends don't justify the means, then what does?  Good and freedom are delusions, and the real 'sinners', the real inexcusable wrongness in the world, is those dastardly Chaotic Good people.  Likewise, the people who are Chaotic Evil don't see themselves as being in the wrong.  They believe that they are in the right, and its those awful Lawful Good people with their suppression of individuality and taking from the strong to give to the weak who are really the problem.  And so on and so forth.  It's perfectly reasonable for the in game inhabitants of the world to say, "What you call Good, I say is evil.  And what you say is Evil, I say is good."You can make a strong and believable (though maybe not convincing) argument on behalf of each alignment being right.   And because the alignments are laid on a wheel like peers at a round table, the system doesn't really tell you what to believe.</blockquote>

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