You Be The Judge
Aug 15, 2006 13:05:05 GMT -8
Post by Daos on Aug 15, 2006 13:05:05 GMT -8
This was something that was pretty popular at another forum I visit, and I thought I'd try it out here. The idea is to present a sticky moral dilemma in AD&D, and then have everyone try and figure out what the 'right' thing to do is. It's fun, and it gives a pretty good idea as to how you view the nine alignments.
Remember there isn't really a right and wrong answer, it's mostly perspective.
Selenia the Planetar (angel) has traveled to the Prime Material Plane at the command of her deity; apparently his worshipers in a woody, thinly populated region are praying up a storm for divine protection. As soon as she lands, she seeks out the local high priest and asks what's going on. He tells her two armies have been raging through the woods for the last month now, staging battles and hurling deadly spells at each other. The forest-dwellers are scared out of their wits, although both armies have made it a point not to involve or endanger any civilians - until now.
Selenia decides to go find these armies and see what the battle is about. If one side is good and the other evil, she can settle the matter by adding her strength to the good and driving away or defeating the evil.
The first army she finds is led by a Paladin of her own deity! Sir Namord tells her that he has gathered his army over years of adventuring, battling evil creatures wherever they appeared and thwarting their wicked plans. Just ten years ago, he even tracked an evil half-fiend Wizard down to a hidden village of beings tainted by the Lower Planes; tieflings, half-fiends and what he describes as 'other mongrels and insults to pure bloodlines everywhere'. He detected many evils in the village and demanded that they be handed over to him for trial and execution. The villagers decided to fight him instead and were soundly defeated; Sir Namord moved on and continued his mission, although he regretted having to kill some beings that were probably neutral. After all, they sided with evil and tried to kill him. Then, two years ago, a Wizard started going after him; at first, the tiefling wretch just tried to snipe him with spells at a distance, but later he started gathering troops of his own and making attacks on Namord's army. Finally, it has come to the point where the two forces are fairly matched and they are engaged in prolonged battle in this distant forest. Sir Namord is content to wage the battle here, where there aren't many people to be endangered. He is sure that he will win with the support of his deity - and now of Selenia.
Being a fair-minded being - and perhaps hoping to end the battle singlehandedly by defeating an evil Wizard in single combat - Selenia next seeks out the other army. Though comprised of a mishmash of races, classes and social standings, it is surely as formidable a force as Sir Namord's. Selenia is surprised to be welcomed with all courtesy and soon receives an audience with the army's commander, Wizard Reaper. To Selenia's surprise, Reaper registers as Good to her senses.
When asked why he is waging war here, Reaper responds that he doesn't want a war. All he wants is Namord. When Namord wiped out that village, ten years ago, he didn't get all the townspeople; they'd hidden their children away as soon as they heard an army was coming and Namord's scouts never found them. Now Reaper has come of age and he still has vivid memories of the carnage that Namord's forces wrought in the only home he knew; he saw the bodies of his adult relatives hacked apart like pork in a butcher's shop and the sight haunts his dreams. He wants to stop Namord, who he considers to be a homicidal madman, before he can butcher anyone else's family. If the coward would only come out and face him in single combat, Reaper would be perfectly content; he has no taste for prolonged warfare and no desire to endanger the people who have joined him in what he considers to be a matter of honor and simple sanity.
What should Selenia do ...? Who is in the right and who in the wrong? And what would you do?
Remember there isn't really a right and wrong answer, it's mostly perspective.
Selenia the Planetar (angel) has traveled to the Prime Material Plane at the command of her deity; apparently his worshipers in a woody, thinly populated region are praying up a storm for divine protection. As soon as she lands, she seeks out the local high priest and asks what's going on. He tells her two armies have been raging through the woods for the last month now, staging battles and hurling deadly spells at each other. The forest-dwellers are scared out of their wits, although both armies have made it a point not to involve or endanger any civilians - until now.
Selenia decides to go find these armies and see what the battle is about. If one side is good and the other evil, she can settle the matter by adding her strength to the good and driving away or defeating the evil.
The first army she finds is led by a Paladin of her own deity! Sir Namord tells her that he has gathered his army over years of adventuring, battling evil creatures wherever they appeared and thwarting their wicked plans. Just ten years ago, he even tracked an evil half-fiend Wizard down to a hidden village of beings tainted by the Lower Planes; tieflings, half-fiends and what he describes as 'other mongrels and insults to pure bloodlines everywhere'. He detected many evils in the village and demanded that they be handed over to him for trial and execution. The villagers decided to fight him instead and were soundly defeated; Sir Namord moved on and continued his mission, although he regretted having to kill some beings that were probably neutral. After all, they sided with evil and tried to kill him. Then, two years ago, a Wizard started going after him; at first, the tiefling wretch just tried to snipe him with spells at a distance, but later he started gathering troops of his own and making attacks on Namord's army. Finally, it has come to the point where the two forces are fairly matched and they are engaged in prolonged battle in this distant forest. Sir Namord is content to wage the battle here, where there aren't many people to be endangered. He is sure that he will win with the support of his deity - and now of Selenia.
Being a fair-minded being - and perhaps hoping to end the battle singlehandedly by defeating an evil Wizard in single combat - Selenia next seeks out the other army. Though comprised of a mishmash of races, classes and social standings, it is surely as formidable a force as Sir Namord's. Selenia is surprised to be welcomed with all courtesy and soon receives an audience with the army's commander, Wizard Reaper. To Selenia's surprise, Reaper registers as Good to her senses.
When asked why he is waging war here, Reaper responds that he doesn't want a war. All he wants is Namord. When Namord wiped out that village, ten years ago, he didn't get all the townspeople; they'd hidden their children away as soon as they heard an army was coming and Namord's scouts never found them. Now Reaper has come of age and he still has vivid memories of the carnage that Namord's forces wrought in the only home he knew; he saw the bodies of his adult relatives hacked apart like pork in a butcher's shop and the sight haunts his dreams. He wants to stop Namord, who he considers to be a homicidal madman, before he can butcher anyone else's family. If the coward would only come out and face him in single combat, Reaper would be perfectly content; he has no taste for prolonged warfare and no desire to endanger the people who have joined him in what he considers to be a matter of honor and simple sanity.
What should Selenia do ...? Who is in the right and who in the wrong? And what would you do?