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<blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 6385670" data-attributes="member: 2205"><p>I don't, because in the real world there's no such thing as orcs and orcs are not meant to stand in metaphorically for any real world population or anything like that, i.e., there <em>isn't</em> a moral dimension to that implied setting that is translatable into morals in the real world anyway.</p><p></p><p>That said, just because I don't find it disturbing doesn't mean that I like it, because I don't. I think the notion of orcs being, by essential nature, nothing but cannon fodder for the "heroes" is incredibly uninteresting. I like the notion that orcs are <em>humanoid</em> (as per their creature type) and humanoids at least, if not necessary every other monster type, is capable of sufficient moral independence to be more than an alignment caricature.</p><p></p><p>Their <em>culture</em> might well be violent and evil, and the same could be said for many real-life cultures anyway (my hobgoblin empire is a cross, in most respects, of Imperial Rome with Nazi Germany with more feral beasts of burden, like increased size hyenas as mounts for cataphracts, etc.) But to say that all individual hobgoblins <em>must</em> be lawful evil because of hardwired alignment standards imparted by their god just isn't a very interesting concept to me to explore further.</p><p></p><p>Then again, and this is a conversation for another thread, I don't really have much use for alignment anyway at the best of times. Once you get rid of alignment, <em>a lot</em> of blatant and latent D&Disms start to stand out. Too many of them are based around alignment to make any sense in a game that doesn't really use it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Desdichado, post: 6385670, member: 2205"] I don't, because in the real world there's no such thing as orcs and orcs are not meant to stand in metaphorically for any real world population or anything like that, i.e., there [I]isn't[/I] a moral dimension to that implied setting that is translatable into morals in the real world anyway. That said, just because I don't find it disturbing doesn't mean that I like it, because I don't. I think the notion of orcs being, by essential nature, nothing but cannon fodder for the "heroes" is incredibly uninteresting. I like the notion that orcs are [I]humanoid[/I] (as per their creature type) and humanoids at least, if not necessary every other monster type, is capable of sufficient moral independence to be more than an alignment caricature. Their [I]culture[/I] might well be violent and evil, and the same could be said for many real-life cultures anyway (my hobgoblin empire is a cross, in most respects, of Imperial Rome with Nazi Germany with more feral beasts of burden, like increased size hyenas as mounts for cataphracts, etc.) But to say that all individual hobgoblins [I]must[/I] be lawful evil because of hardwired alignment standards imparted by their god just isn't a very interesting concept to me to explore further. Then again, and this is a conversation for another thread, I don't really have much use for alignment anyway at the best of times. Once you get rid of alignment, [I]a lot[/I] of blatant and latent D&Disms start to stand out. Too many of them are based around alignment to make any sense in a game that doesn't really use it. [/QUOTE]
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