The [Hellfire] series of realities acknowledge Evil as a valid moral and philosophical choice.  Some aspects of the [Greyhawk] continuity intersect [Hellfire], and there are forks off of [Mainline] which tend strongly in that direction.  To present these properly, there must be an understanding of how one can be Evil without being bad:

* First, one can make an obvious demonstration that the character's motivations are philosophical. The key recommendation here was self-abnegation. A character who inflicts suffering to advance their personal agenda is classically "evil". A character who embraces corruption and suffering but gains nothing from it has a clear, if twisted, morality.  Pain is weakness leaving the body.  Enhance and strengthen Creation by adding to it appropriate weak points, and stress-testing all the rest.

* Human success rests on subverting the natural order; human existence derives from the natural order. Self-destruction is therefore intrinsic to the human way of life.

* One can hurt or kill others, such as humans, without ceasing to love them. "Love inspires greatness; it does not prevent venality."

* Suicide and self-preservation arise from the same aspect of human nature.

* In suicide, a human achieves absolute control over their life. Any other form of death robs them of this.

* In general, go for a philosophy which can be argued about over dinner (or at swordpoint), rather than simplistic devotion to extraplanar gribblies, or banality in place of Evil.


Embracing such as this makes interparty conflict much more likely, which is something that many players (including myself) find distasteful.  I've occasionally been struck by the realization that if I were my character, my most logical action would be to beat the living hell out of someone or something, but I couldn't do it for player-level reasons.  Should I try to curtail this feeling? --trhyne

This is (sort of) a universe-hopping campaign.  It's possible for, say, Mank to grab hold of the universe and twist it into his image.  The above are notes about how an "evil"-aligned or group could be structured.  They're not intended as general role-playing advice; my continued request that characters a) be heroic and b) work and play well with others remains active. If you feel your character really would beat the living hell out of another character, please, either go for it (and likely get smited by the party sooner or later) or drop the intra-party conflict entirely.  The halfway state of "Hates and fears some spellcasters" is driving me nuts.  --bts

Sigh...  From most perspectives I've discussed, the Thwak spell-casting-reeducation method seems perfectly reasonable, in character, and non-excessive.  When combined with a few codes of honor, it's usually the best I can come up with.  It's a "some spellcasters" thing for situational reasons.  Those who don't get it get it...  I really don't see why it's considered arbitrary, inconsistent, or suspect.  --trhyne


"Some spellcasters" or "all the spellcasting characters played by some players"? -Kat

Good question, and quite possibly and maybe even coincidentally, "both"... -Merry

Occured to me a few days ago, as an interesting "evil" philosophy:

To wake someone from sleep, the most effective method is to hit or slap them.  Men dreaming of falling awaken just before impact, and men chased in dreams awaken when the terror behind is about to catch them.  If the world we see before us is a dream, the effort of every man should be to awaken himself, and as many of his companions as he can, using the same methods that allow us to awaken to this state from our nightmares.  The [rimary teacher of such a philosophy may ever have claimed to have wakened, and voluntarily returned to sleep for the purpose of awakening others.  It's sort of a very, very twisted buddhism.--jesse cox.

Ooh.  People tend to become Adepts under stress, so I should stress as many people as possible to create as many Adepts as possible to fight the Horrors... so I'll start summoning Wormskulls into major urban areas.  --bts