Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 8690981" data-attributes="member: 4937">So, to rain on the parade, from my perspective this doesn't represent a particularly interesting or revolutionary observation.It has always been obvious that the adherents of each alignment generally believe that their own beliefs are right and correct.  Otherwise, if they didn't believe that, most adherents would at least be trying to adhere to some other belief system. It's not at all problematic to suggest that some beliefs are right or wrong.  It's not at all problematic to suggest that some beliefs cause harm or are incorrect.  Everyone believes that.  Most people do not actually believe that all beliefs are equally valid or only circumstantial.  (And if they did, and they lived in a D&D universe, we could classify those beliefs as a variety of true neutrality - all things in balance, nothing is right or wrong except that circumstances make it right or wrong, etc.)So internally to the D&D universe, you can believe that you are Chaotic Evil and also that you are right and correct for adhering to the tenants of philosophy described as Chaotic Evil.  That is to say that you can believe that in being Chaotic Evil you are doing what is right, and that those that are Lawful Good are doing what is wrong.  And there is nothing contradictory about that.  You can in fact think that being Evil is good. Your model in other words changes nothing.  If in the drow language the word for good means dishonorable and strong or whatever other virtues that the drow believe in, they still are Chaotic Evil.  They merely believe that they are right to be so.  It's doesn't harm the cosmological alignment system for its adherents to believe that they are right no matter what they believe.  Nor does it harm it if different groups label the boxes differently.  If two groups with different meanings of the word 'good' start talking, and they realize they define 'good' differently, it will still be possible for them to understand what the other ultimately means.   The fact that they each have a different perspective on what correct action consists of, doesn't change the bucket that that belief system fits into.  You haven't really divorced yourself from the cosmological model at all.What you might be doing is trying to insist outside of the game on which of those buckets in the game is actually the correct one.  In other words, are you actually just arguing, "Lawful Good is not the right and correct alignment.  True Neutrality is the right and correct alignment because belief systems are artificial and everyone believes that they are right from their own perspective."?   Because if you are, that's not really an interesting argument to me about the alignment system.</blockquote>

Verification