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Why is animate dead considered inherently evil?
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<blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 8568997" data-attributes="member: 3400"><p>Among numerous other good reasons above, animating the dead is considered evil because D&D morality draws a lot on real world morality - and in a whole lot of cultures, desecration of the dead, even when the body is just the vessel of the soul, is considered a vile and/or criminal act. The specific reasons vary - some because it disrupts the natural order of returning to the dust whence we come, some because the completeness of the body is reflected by the soul's completeness in the afterlife, a whole lot of variations. And there are numerous examples of messing with someone's dead body as an ultimate act of disrespect for the dead person. Mussolini's corpse says "Hi".</p><p></p><p>It's certainly possible to imagine cultures or find real cultures where there is very little consideration given to the body of the deceased. In a setting like that, animating the dead might be perfectly fine. And if that's what you want in your campaign, that's your business as a DM. But cultures with significant burial or ritualized corpse disposal customs probably wouldn't consider any violation of those norms good behavior, they'd probably consider that evil behavior.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="billd91, post: 8568997, member: 3400"] Among numerous other good reasons above, animating the dead is considered evil because D&D morality draws a lot on real world morality - and in a whole lot of cultures, desecration of the dead, even when the body is just the vessel of the soul, is considered a vile and/or criminal act. The specific reasons vary - some because it disrupts the natural order of returning to the dust whence we come, some because the completeness of the body is reflected by the soul's completeness in the afterlife, a whole lot of variations. And there are numerous examples of messing with someone's dead body as an ultimate act of disrespect for the dead person. Mussolini's corpse says "Hi". It's certainly possible to imagine cultures or find real cultures where there is very little consideration given to the body of the deceased. In a setting like that, animating the dead might be perfectly fine. And if that's what you want in your campaign, that's your business as a DM. But cultures with significant burial or ritualized corpse disposal customs probably wouldn't consider any violation of those norms good behavior, they'd probably consider that evil behavior. [/QUOTE]
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Why is animate dead considered inherently evil?
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