When you're an "evil" person, what non-evil term do you use to describe yourself?

[pallandrome]

I know evil. I call him Dad!

He knows evil too, but he calls me Son.

 

[painandgreed]

So let's say you've got a party of D&D classically defined "evil" characters. Someone in their group casts an alignment revelation spell. ... How do they perceive or interpret the information about themselves?

As evil. Not only is evil an objective quality, but good and evil are two diametrically opposed philosophies. Good can generally be boiled down to the beleif that self sacrafice and mutual aid is the best for themselves or society, while evil is prone to seeing that taking what they want and forcing the weak to do as they desire is the best for themselves or society. When a character is evil, they have concisouly chosen that philosophy. They see no real point to denying it. An evil party for the most part would see themselves as evil, just as a good party would see themsevles as good. Their view of each other may not be the same as they see themselves as good is seen by evil as being weak and setting themselves up to be victims and good sees evil as being factious and self destructing. However, calling an evil character evil isn't any more insulting that calling a cold war Russian a communist.

Still, the world is not without regret. The main mass of people are torn both by the desire to do good unto others and to take to benefit themselves. The average person might steal food from a starving person for themselves just to selflessly share it with another the same day. The borderline cases are the ones that might try to deceive themselves. The villager that likes to think that he is good and would preform good acts but all to often gives into temptation, or the rogue that finds himselvf giving up treasure to help children. These are the people who might not like what they see in a detect spell, but barring mental issues, there isn't any real denial of what they discover. They may accept their path or not like what they see and attempt to change it.

 

[orsal]

An evil party for the most part would see themselves as evil, just as a good party would see themsevles as good. Their view of each other may not be the same as they see themselves as good is seen by evil as being weak and setting themselves up to be victims and good sees evil as being factious and self destructing. However, calling an evil character evil isn't any more insulting that calling a cold war Russian a communist.

I think that's a reasonable way to construct the good-evil axis, but if you do, you should still find different English words to use. In the language your players speak when they're not pretending to be druids and sorcerers and whatnot, "evil" is more a term of judgement than description. In the real world, if I hear A call B evil, I've learned nothing about what B is all about, and everything about A's opinion of what B is all about. If the in-game concept of evil is very different from that, the use of the same word is unfortunate.

 

[I'm A Banana]

As evil. Not only is evil an objective quality, but good and evil are two diametrically opposed philosophies. Good can generally be boiled down to the beleif that self sacrafice and mutual aid is the best for themselves or society, while evil is prone to seeing that taking what they want and forcing the weak to do as they desire is the best for themselves or society. When a character is evil, they have concisouly chosen that philosophy. They see no real point to denying it. An evil party for the most part would see themselves as evil, just as a good party would see themsevles as good. Their view of each other may not be the same as they see themselves as good is seen by evil as being weak and setting themselves up to be victims and good sees evil as being factious and self destructing. However, calling an evil character evil isn't any more insulting that calling a cold war Russian a communist.

Still, the world is not without regret. The main mass of people are torn both by the desire to do good unto others and to take to benefit themselves. The average person might steal food from a starving person for themselves just to selflessly share it with another the same day. The borderline cases are the ones that might try to deceive themselves. The villager that likes to think that he is good and would preform good acts but all to often gives into temptation, or the rogue that finds himselvf giving up treasure to help children. These are the people who might not like what they see in a detect spell, but barring mental issues, there isn't any real denial of what they discover. They may accept their path or not like what they see and attempt to change it.

Word.

I think that's a reasonable way to construct the good-evil axis, but if you do, you should still find different English words to use. In the language your players speak when they're not pretending to be druids and sorcerers and whatnot, "evil" is more a term of judgement than description. In the real world, if I hear A call B evil, I've learned nothing about what B is all about, and everything about A's opinion of what B is all about. If the in-game concept of evil is very different from that, the use of the same word is unfortunate.

D&D was never meant to model the real world. In most heroic fiction, Evil isn't an opinion, it's an objective force (not unlke the Dark Side of the Force).

 

[painandgreed]

I think that's a reasonable way to construct the good-evil axis, but if you do, you should still find different English words to use. In the language your players speak when they're not pretending to be druids and sorcerers and whatnot, "evil" is more a term of judgement than description. In the real world, if I hear A call B evil, I've learned nothing about what B is all about, and everything about A's opinion of what B is all about. If the in-game concept of evil is very different from that, the use of the same word is unfortunate.

I really don't see a reason to find a different word to use for evil. Evil is objective and evil acts are evill by eveybodies standards. It is good that evil people would find a different word for. Good/evil are objective terms, but good/bad are subjective ones. An evil person can look upon his works and find them good, as opposed to bad, and still call them evil. Thus, if you want to have an evil person act superior and redefine semantics, then I suspect he'd come up with a different term for objective good rather than call himself something other than evil.

 

[orsal]

D&D was never meant to model the real world.

No, of course not, and I didn't intend to suggest it should. Quite the opposite: it is precisely because of the huge difference between the meanings of the world "evil" in the real world and in painandgreed's (and others) D&D campaigns that I would prefer not to use the same word.

 

[Drakmar]

Some evil people say things like this : "But you don't understand!!! I'm doing this for the greater good!!"

Think of any movie where you could actually empathise with the villian. Where you actually feel sorry for them.

Or watch that episode of the Simpson with Scorpio in it.

D.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Realistic
Practical
Pragmatic
Persecuted
Justified
The "chosen" one(s)/few/bloodline/race/tribe/nation/faith/whatever
Revolutionary
Progressive
Liberal
Forward-thinking
Efficient
Respectful/honouring of tradition
Unsentimental
Sentimental
Permissive
Just
Open-minded
Free-thinking
Holy
Gifted
Insane
Noble
Privileged

And many more, of course.

 

[Driddle]

After reading this thread, I've decided "evil" is anyone who doesn't agree with me.

 

[I'm A Banana]

No, of course not, and I didn't intend to suggest it should. Quite the opposite: it is precisely because of the huge difference between the meanings of the world "evil" in the real world and in painandgreed's (and others) D&D campaigns that I would prefer not to use the same word.

Might not be a horrid idea, but if the word wasn't "evil," it would be something substantially similar.

I'd rather tell players that evil has a specific D&D definition separate from the world's use of the term, just like it uses the term "druid" and "plate mail" in a specific, different way from the rest of the world. The game already casually uses real-world terms to define specific in-game things, and "evil" isn't going to be substantially different.

Of course, YMMV.