[MUD-Dev] Alignment

[Phillip Lenhardt]

On Wed, May 03, 2000 at 10:21:16AM +0100, Mordengaard wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Phillip Lenhardt <philen at monkey.org>
> To: <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
> Sent: Monday, May 01, 2000 4:41 PM
> Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] Alignment
> >
> > I'm not sure what case you are covering by "two wrongs don't make a right."
> > but I for one have no problem with helping an evil creature being an evil
> > deed. Why would healing a demon while it is battling a paladin be a good
> > deed?
> 
> And yet, there are many cases in fantasy when the young hero(ine) helps the
> evil adversary in their hour of need, remaining pure themselves while
> reducing the emnity of their enemy... for at least a chapter or two.  I
> agree that if someone aids the demon while the paladin is trying to defeat
> it, then their actions are evil, but shouldn't there be some scope for mercy
> (a "good" quality if ever there was one) outside of combat?

I would say that the hero(ine) does weigh their soul down with evil through
actions helping the villian. But the ultimate act of harming the villian
takes the evil off.

I lean heavily towards algorithmic analysis of a character's intentions being
an impossible task. So I favor the implementation of morality being as
mechanical as combat or physics is. For special cases, a character could
perhaps appeal to an immortal, who can be as capable of bending the moral
laws of the universe as she is of bending the physical laws of the universe.

Also, the fact a good deed done for an evil creature is an evil act has a
certain tragic appeal to me. After all, greek tragedy is full of situations
of just this sort (Oedipus, Heracles, etc).



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