All these anti-alignment and metaphysical alignment peeps, tisk tisk. You all are dismissing the best part of the alignment chart. I ♥ Evil. But why? Because evil is the best way to enjoy your campaign. There's a reason evil campaign stories are so great. And you can play evil, so long as you aren't dumb about it. The real world is full of evil people who are personable and successful.
Lawful Evil: Do you like living in a society? Of course you fucking do, and society is built upon violence. Only the rule of the sword is going to keep degenerates and psychopaths in line with the rule of law. Do you like honoring your enemies? Then Lawful Evil is for you, because while lots of people are dumb the would-be heroes are just mislead about the way things should be. It's a shame, because those of such will are excellent for achieving greater purpose. They don't deserve ire for a lesser philosophy, and they may be brought to see the light. Why would you want to let the worst among us hold us all back? It is for the good of everyone that the great rule over the small. The smartest and the strongest have the right to rule, because by following them all will prosper. Everyone has a part to play, and for sensate sewer rats that part is most certainly not deciding for the common welfare. Yes, it takes strength to lead the whole, even when they complain about the minor inconveniences that provide the best outcomes for an imperfect world. Do you have that strength?
Neutral Evil: You're wasting away. Every second of every day, your time left ticks down, inexorably, unstoppably. One day, that time will be up, and you will be gone from this world. But that's alright, as long as you find your meaning, your fulfillment. Unfortunately, the world is filled to bursting with those who insidiously desire to turn you away from yourself, and to serve their own power. Religion, politics, "morality", they are all greater causes that beseech you with the same message: "Forsake yourself, and spend away this life so that We may succeed in our great project!" Do you wish to die with nothing but the knowledge that you were part of a long and endless chain in but one faction in the war of ideas? There will be no end to it, not while you live, and not ever. By definition it may never end. These things are their own purpose, and what they hold in common is that there is no room for your good. So forsake your comrades, and your countrymen! Live for your own self, for your own sense of the world! Consume what you want, and do what you want, because the only real for you is this, here and now! Laugh, and grow fat!
Chaotic Evil: Almost all, at some point or another, find themselves caught in the dilemma of freedom. Oh, they talk big about being free. Indeed, freedom is inherent to life. Even when oppressors come, and place their boots on the necks of the world, they cannot always watch. They cannot always control. They are limited by their mortal senses and abilities, as well as the ever-shifting collective thoughts of Right Action. They pursue a great folly, and in all irony give themselves away in trying to limit the desires of others. But I shall say this: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." It is the only real law we have ever had, because to truly enforce a law it must already be a part of our desires. Otherwise, the dissenter and the secret defiler will always persist beyond the eyes of the watchful, in the dark crevices of society where they see not. That's where the real essence of our lives and our happiness is. We're descended from a world of chaos, a world where you took what you wanted, and if some other motherfucker wanted you to lay down and die, you made him lay down and die instead. Do you know why soldiers want to return to the field of battle, even when bad things, horrible things happened to they and their fellows there? It's because that life is a taste. Just a small taste. But a taste nonetheless, of what it is like to really live, to abandon this shadow life and feel your blood flow. Once you've tasted the fruit of life once, you can't help but come back for more. You see, you can hate me all you like, but I'm the only one really trying to help you. I'm the only one trying to make you understand that the only one who can really keep you a slave, is you. If you understood that, you probably wouldn't want to kill me like you clearly do now, writhing around like that. Or maybe you still would. That's the point. That you can decide for yourself, truly for yourself, and be free. So no ideology! No greater good! A true freedom, without constraint, and without limit! Our ancestors lived in the dirt and died every day, but they were happy. Happy because they had no construction demanding they be a cog, that their freedom be tempered by the times. When a person eats, and fucks, and kills, and dies long before their time, they can still die happy, because they did it for themselves and of themselves, instead of for another. You all think you live, but you're plagued constantly by doubt and sorrow. It's because when you lie awake at night, when all is silent, you hear what you deny in the world of light. So much wasted. So much undone. And somewhere, deep in your heart, you already know the answer I'm giving you now.
Oh, but how I see the look in your eyes. Deny it all you like. It's this, and no less, that I want for the whole world. What can I say? I guess I'm just a good samaritan.
tl:dr Evil is viable, tell your friends.
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Topic: D&D Alignment discussion (Read 36880 times)