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The 'Wonderland'-Inspired Faces of the RAGE OF DEMONS
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<blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 7670756" data-attributes="member: 6677017"><p>The way I like to look at evil in Planescape is that fiends really are evil incarnate...but that doesn't mean they can't be allies.</p><p></p><p>Take a yugoloth. Their core motivation is "what's in it for me?" You can "trust" that a yugoloth will do whatever it considers to be in its own best interest. If your interest and the yugoloth's interest perfectly coincide, you've got a pretty reliable ally (as long as things don't change). I've seen non-D&D fictional presentations <em>exactly</em> like that, and they were quite believable. A lot of the times the protagonists (and the audience) are unsure of how evil the helpful bad guy is--but usually at the end they get betrayed and realize, "Yep, this guy was pure evil the whole time."</p><p></p><p>So that fiendish shopkeeper? Just as bad as any other, but he is smart, he is working as a shopkeeper <em>for a reason</em>, and that reason is best served by not killing people nor breaking (most) laws. My interpretation of Planescape (think about that for a moment...) is bringing up the question, "How many ways can ultimate evil manifest, and are they necessarily a problem to you?"</p><p></p><p>And I don't look at Planescape as "the planes." It is the specific planar culture of Sigil that also bleeds over into certain other locations. Most fiends are much more transparent, most planar denizens don't speak the cant, and most of them probably either don't know about Sigil, or steer clear of it like an insane asylum. Even for inhabitants of the planes, Sigil is <em>weird.</em></p><p></p><p>So the fact that fiends are rubbing shoulders with everyone else there? Just another oddity. Why are they there? What are their real motives? But, to the average guy on the street in Sigil, if that fiend isn't going to eat me on my way home from work, why should I care?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sword of Spirit, post: 7670756, member: 6677017"] The way I like to look at evil in Planescape is that fiends really are evil incarnate...but that doesn't mean they can't be allies. Take a yugoloth. Their core motivation is "what's in it for me?" You can "trust" that a yugoloth will do whatever it considers to be in its own best interest. If your interest and the yugoloth's interest perfectly coincide, you've got a pretty reliable ally (as long as things don't change). I've seen non-D&D fictional presentations [I]exactly[/I] like that, and they were quite believable. A lot of the times the protagonists (and the audience) are unsure of how evil the helpful bad guy is--but usually at the end they get betrayed and realize, "Yep, this guy was pure evil the whole time." So that fiendish shopkeeper? Just as bad as any other, but he is smart, he is working as a shopkeeper [I]for a reason[/I], and that reason is best served by not killing people nor breaking (most) laws. My interpretation of Planescape (think about that for a moment...) is bringing up the question, "How many ways can ultimate evil manifest, and are they necessarily a problem to you?" And I don't look at Planescape as "the planes." It is the specific planar culture of Sigil that also bleeds over into certain other locations. Most fiends are much more transparent, most planar denizens don't speak the cant, and most of them probably either don't know about Sigil, or steer clear of it like an insane asylum. Even for inhabitants of the planes, Sigil is [I]weird.[/I] So the fact that fiends are rubbing shoulders with everyone else there? Just another oddity. Why are they there? What are their real motives? But, to the average guy on the street in Sigil, if that fiend isn't going to eat me on my way home from work, why should I care? [/QUOTE]
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