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<blockquote data-quote="Atticus_of_Amber" data-source="post: 372716" data-attributes="member: 2683">Good and Evils as kinds of EmpathyI've always seen the good-evil axis on the alignment &quot;graph&quot; as representing levels of empathy. But with a slight twist.IMC, &quot;good&quot; is the ability to empathises with others, and a desire to live their joys and alleviate their pains. A &quot;good' person is disturbed by suffering in others (and motivated to alleviate it) to the extent they are good.Neutral on the good-evil axis represents an absence of empathy. An extremely neutral character is unlikely to have any emotional attachments to other beings at all. More normally, neutrals are capable of a certain level of empathy, but only with those who are close to them (family, lovers, close friends). Most people are neutral or neutral with good tendencies.Evil is thus not the absence of empathy but a kind of twisted empathy. An evil person feels the pain of others and enjoys it. Thus the classic evils - demons and devils - cause pain and sorrow for its own sake, they feed off it. Less extreme evil usually begins as a kind of neutral selfishness - an attitude of &quot;I will get what I want regardless of who I have to hurt&quot; which slides into &quot;I will make anyone who stands in the way of me getting what I want pay with blood and pain and sorrow.&quot;On this basis, the way to corrupt a paladin would be to make her take pleasure in the destruction and despair of her defeated enemies.And my favourite corollary of this is the idea of an old party ally wizard of LN alignment who, to avoid death by old age, becomes a lich. He thinks he's too intellectual and rational and detached to ever be tempted into depravity, but now he's a lich he gains this inexplicable, sensual, almost sexual pleasure at watching his enemies scream as they are consumed by the flames of fireball spells... He's the same guy - but now with an incurable addiction to watching the suffering of others. And his old friends (the PCs) now have to put down an treasured old friend...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Atticus_of_Amber, post: 372716, member: 2683"] [b]Good and Evils as kinds of Empathy[/b] I've always seen the good-evil axis on the alignment "graph" as representing levels of empathy. But with a slight twist. IMC, "good" is the ability to empathises with others, and a desire to live their joys and alleviate their pains. A "good' person is disturbed by suffering in others (and motivated to alleviate it) to the extent they are good. Neutral on the good-evil axis represents an absence of empathy. An extremely neutral character is unlikely to have any emotional attachments to other beings at all. More normally, neutrals are capable of a certain level of empathy, but only with those who are close to them (family, lovers, close friends). Most people are neutral or neutral with good tendencies. Evil is thus not the absence of empathy but a kind of twisted empathy. An evil person feels the pain of others and [I]enjoys[/I] it. Thus the classic evils - demons and devils - cause pain and sorrow for its own sake, they feed off it. Less extreme evil usually begins as a kind of neutral selfishness - an attitude of "I will get what I want regardless of who I have to hurt" which slides into "I will make anyone who stands in the way of me getting what I want pay with blood and pain and sorrow." On this basis, the way to corrupt a paladin would be to make her take [I]pleasure[/I] in the destruction and despair of her defeated enemies. And my favourite corollary of this is the idea of an old party ally wizard of LN alignment who, to avoid death by old age, becomes a lich. He thinks he's too intellectual and rational and detached to ever be tempted into depravity, but now he's a lich he gains this inexplicable, sensual, almost sexual pleasure at watching his enemies scream as they are consumed by the flames of fireball spells... He's the same guy - but now with an incurable addiction to watching the suffering of others. And his old friends (the PCs) now have to put down an treasured old friend... [/QUOTE]

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