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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celtavian" data-source="post: 1293018" data-attributes="member: 5834">reI feel good and evil are arguably concrete in the real world. As far as people in game, they determine good and evil in the same manner we do. Good is those things we know in our heart to be good. They are not all listable, but they are fairly simple to determine. For example, protecting a child from being harmed by a person seeking to hurt them is a good act, whether or not that child is later found to be a demon. Murdering another person to take their common possessions is an evil act even if good should come of it later. If societies encourage such things, then they are in general good and evil. Very easy to determine IMO. No. The Empire of Thay has existed for numerous years as a bastion of evil, which means that diplomacy has failed. It is logical to assume that those enslaved have already protested peacefully or tried other diplomatic means to persuade the rulers of Thay to change. It has not availed them.Want to know why? Diplomacy can only be successful if there are other mitigating factors to support it such as military or economic power. Diplomacy by itself will fail 99% of the time if the country has no leverage for negotiation. We can assume that the slaves of Thay have little to no leverage to negotiate a peaceful change within the society, even a peaceful protest will result in the extermination of a large number of them and their subsequent return to service as undead.Yes. If that reasonable chance is exhausted, you had better have the will to back up your diplomatic requests or you will be viewed as weak and easily appeased. Eventually you will seem false to your own people as well as those you tried to help.My argument suggests that apathy is worse than war. War can be good, not necessarily the killing part, but the justification and the end result as well as many of the inbetweens. I believe any sane person has reservations about going to war. The human cost is high as is the financial and envioronmental cost. A good person or group of people will be willing to make the sacrifice if the cause is just and good. For example, if Cormyr decides to go to war against Thay for no other reason than to free their slaves and topple their evil empire, that is a great sacrifice on the part of Cormyr for a just and good cause. The Cormyrean's are engaging in a good act for another group of people with very little chance of personal benefit, an altruistic act. I see that as a good war.</blockquote>

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