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<blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 3695138" data-attributes="member: 20741">I drew this distinction long ago when I was running Rolemaster (a system that gives the bad guys distinct advantages by providing them unique access to &quot;Evil Spell Lists&quot;).The distinction is one between mere selfishness and willing submission and allegiance to an extraplanar evil power. It is a distinction with a HUGE difference.Consider the self-assessment of a brutal self-interested human fighter (who as the local lord may fit the alignment &quot;lawful evil&quot;) and a cleric of the same alignment.While the fighter Lord may simply be a &quot;traditionalist&quot;, who is &quot;competitive&quot;, &quot;superior&quot;&nbsp; and is &quot;born to rule by birthright&quot; who can use all of the interesting terms and weasel word adjectives we have talked about here - there is a great difference between THAT self-assessment and the way the LE Cleric sees himself.The cleric, unlike the fighter, is under no illusions. He knows a portion of the truth. He knows that evil is a real force in the cosmos, and that he has bound his soul to it.Both may be lawful evil - but only one of them has willingly thrown in his lot with Evil with a capital &quot;E&quot;.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Steel_Wind, post: 3695138, member: 20741"] I drew this distinction long ago when I was running Rolemaster (a system that gives the bad guys distinct advantages by providing them unique access to "Evil Spell Lists"). The distinction is one between mere selfishness and willing submission and allegiance to an extraplanar evil power. It is a distinction with a HUGE difference. Consider the self-assessment of a brutal self-interested human fighter (who as the local lord may fit the alignment "lawful evil") and a cleric of the same alignment. While the fighter Lord may simply be a "traditionalist", who is "competitive", "superior" and is "born to rule by birthright" who can use all of the interesting terms and weasel word adjectives we have talked about here - there is a great difference between THAT self-assessment and the way the LE Cleric sees himself. The cleric, unlike the fighter, is under no illusions. He knows a portion of the truth. He knows that evil is a [B]real[/B] force in the cosmos, and that he has bound his soul to it. Both may be lawful evil - but only one of them has willingly thrown in his lot with Evil with a capital "E". [/QUOTE]

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