On the topic of Good versus Evil

I believe that many are confusing the words Evil and Good with Wrong and with Right.

Long have we all known people who use Good to do terrible Wrongs and those who use Evil that have done tremendous Right things.

We all remember stories of just laws being used to punish wrongly and of great suffering stopped by a well placed blade. Let not fear of words stand in our way for Right action.

I am glad someone else went ahead and stated this. Kormyrians seem to believe that you're simply good or evil, or that your actions are right or wrong.

This is simply not the case, more often than not there is no right or wrong, there's what must be done.

-FenR i

I think you are misquoting the man. He is bringing up the dichotomy of the words Evil and Good and the means used to express them. You can do wrong to promote Good, and do Right to promote Evil in his viewpoint. I disagree with this, of course, but no where in his words did the word 'Kormyrian', occur. Your bias is your own. Do not place it in the mouth of another.

The idea of 'what must be done' is often a justification for something horrible. Be it done for Good reasons or Evil, what must be done is often a matter of perspective rather than a fact. It says more about the person saying them, than it does the Nation you malign, or the Ethos being originally discussed.

Your words say very little therefore.

Gunnar, I use a separate note, to make clear I hold your words as worthy of their own response.

Long have we all known people who use Good to do terrible Wrongs and those who use Evil that have done tremendous Right things.

'Use Good' is a misleading and I think counterproductive term. You dont use ethics, you let them instead guide you. If by that measure Good is guiding you, you will not knowingly commit Wrong. In the same vein, if you let Evil guide you, Right is not your aim either.

What I think you are meaning to say is that Good men sometimes commit Wrong in the name of a result they claim is Good. This is also a fallacy, but I concede happens with a depressing frequency. Good men who justify wicked acts are deluded into thinking that the ends justify their means. They do not.

I will so say they cannot be Good men who willingly place the means as insignificant to the end. If we were to live by such a fallacy as the 'ends justify the means', we would descend into barbarism with the idea that our gains of wickedness would then be used for good purposes. We do not live just to die. We live as fully as we may until our time comes. By fully living, we mean here that we live as we wish to be. If we live well and with moral purpose, we then die with that as our epitaph.

We should all endeavor to go before Galladel with the acts of our lives blameless and reach the paradise of Eodra. Galladel does not suffer fools who justify their acts of barbarism as balancing it with a result of the Greater Good. Valos does not look upon a war criminal with favor, just because his vile actions later saved lives. None of the Light Gods favor those who commit heinous acts in their name.

Aldric,

I chose my words with great care. Allow me to clarify them in my own terms so that you may understand better my intent.

Fiona is the source of all things Good and Miranda is the source of all things Evil. The powers of the light and dark gods and light and dark Paladins flow from these two sources. This is what I have been told to be truth by many sources.

To use good power to do right then is to use the powers provided from these sources in the pursuit of undertaking actions that are morally correct.

To use evil power to do wrong then is to use the powers provided from those evil sources in the pursuit of undertaking actions that are morally incorrect.

But not all actions taken with the powers of good are inherently morally correct. Just the same not all actions taken with the powers of evil are inherently morally incorrect. It is just as easy for any one of us to make the right or the wrong choice on any day, regardless of which deity we worship or if we worship none at all.

One could arrive before Galladel having done nothing wrong and still be judged lacking for having done nothing right either. One could also take a path that was imperfect, making mistakes and atoning for them, learning through a full life lived authentically and, despite having done morally wrong at times, be judged fit.

I think that this conversation would not be so complicated if we were to say Fiona was the source of all Blue power and Miranda the source of all Red power. The power itself just is.

We choose how the power is used. We choose as a community how those acts are judged.