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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andor" data-source="post: 4383608" data-attributes="member: 1879">The law cannot be biased about good vs evil? Nonsense, there are good laws and bad laws, meaning laws whose intention and effect are for the public good, and laws whose intentions and effects are against the public good. So the concept of law is neutral in that sense, however we don't hire judges with the intent that they are just as willing to do evil as good, merely that they are willing to judge all men equaly so that greater good can be achieved by giving even an unpopular figure a fair shake and making a popular figure pay for his crimes. So a hypothetical (3e style) Paladin of Erathis would have to be able to deal fairly even with an evil figure, but he doesn't have to be blind to his nature. Or in other words I think Law is a good concept. We invented laws to make life better for most people. The application of law must be unbiased to achieve good but the God of Judges should or at least could be good. The problem is that there really is no such thing as man living without attempting to control nature, because that is the nature of man. Beavers build dams. Humans build, shape and control their enviroments. When we've learned a local eco-system well, it often benefits from our activity. For example the Native Americans (often held up as the sterling example of living in harmony with nature) in most areas burned off the undergrowth every fall. This is good for the ecosystems. It encourages diversity of plants and animals and prevents the buildup of the large fuel stores that allow really destructive fires. It is however managing wilderness as surely as irrigation and terrace farming. The middle age societies we like to model in fantasy games intensely governed their local forests and enviroment, often in ways we sometimes assume were modern inventions. Now there is probably less of this in D&D because while european peasants had to put up with wolves, lions and aurochs, those are still not much compared to Grey Renders, Ankhegs and Green Dragons. So I suspect that a Goddess who expects people to "not fear or condemn the savagery of nature." probably frowns on the walls, pallisades, moats and paving that any sane farming village in a D&D world would use just to keep the damm bulettes away. And where does that leave anyone who want to avoid both Melora's wrath and the belly of the beasts?</blockquote>

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