The problem of evil

In my campaign setting I replaced "Evil" with "Chaos" a la Warhammer, but it is essentially the same. (Discord and Order are also the nominally evil cosmological factions, but that's largely because of their extreme mindset in trying to benevolently end suffering.) When evil is a cosmological constant, it raises a number of questions. Why is there evil? Who defines it? Why would anyone knowingly serve it if that means eternal damnation? How are so-called evil societies able to function?


I don't know why evil exists and I doubt the Gods do either. Maybe evil exists to define good. If every day was a sunny day, then how would you define a sunny day? I think the idea of a balance between good and evil is absurd, so I prefer to think in different terms. Cosmos represents creation, harmony and a hospitable universe, not necessarily any human conception of good or evil. Where Discord represents change, Chaos represents destruction. Not creative destruction, like forest fires which clear the way for new growth, but pointless unending suffering and destruction without pretense.

If we tweak damnation into a perverse meritocracy where your status is determined by how corrupt you are (using a corruption points mechanic, natch), then it makes sense why people would willingly serve evil and be as evil as possible. If evil was a meritocracy, then why would anyone be less evil than they could be? Perhaps they aren't knowingly serving the cause of evil or simply don't consider what they do to be evil, and therefore don't see the need to maximize suffering. This is where you get the Knights Templar character from: someone who crusades and commits horrific atrocities in the mistaken belief that they are good.

However, constant evil acts are not conducive to a stable society. That's why we don't see societies in real life composed of murderous psychopaths. Prisons are maintained by externally enforced order. Most fantasy campaign settings justify the stability of evil societies by claiming that the evil gods artificially maintain them when they should collapse. I think artificially maintained evil societies are a cop-out. One could instead introduce societies allied to Chaos which consider themselves good.

How could this be? Chaos is evil in all but name. Well, perhaps that society knows that their gods are evil. Perhaps they believe that all gods are evil. The gods prohibit things like gambling, drinking and whoring despite the obvious pleasure. The Chaos Powers are just honest about it. The orcs might go around causing suffering because it satisfies Chaos. If they did not, then Chaos would destroy the world or worse. Attacking and raiding human villages is an act of compassion in their eyes. This doesn't prevent orcs from being caring and tender. They might even adopt the orphans of their raids and raise them as honorary orcs. These maltheistic societies are the logical extreme of the Knights Templar character. If the ends justifies the means, then they maximize suffering to delay the apocalypse.

Putting it all together, I can think of a few ways that whole societies would serve Chaos without falling apart.

• Sin-Eater: They must consume suffering to survive, so their actions serve Chaos regardless of their personal convictions. Even so, they may become heroes in their own right. This is how the demons in Infernum may function.
• Maltheism: They serve out of fear, knowing their gods are evil and may justify their actions as preventing worse harm. This is how many savage humanoid societies are structured: this lets player characters exterminate them without guilt and allows GMs to introduce them as three-dimensional characters later on without suffering Drizzt syndrome.
• Evil Empire: They are indoctrinated to serve Chaos. These societies appear similar to normal societies when viewed from within, but they make it a point to inflict pain and suffering on other species in order to increase their corruption. This is how many "lawful evil" societies in fantasy function: they are simultaneously able to raise their own children with tender love and care while brutally working innocent slaves to death.
• Manifest Destiny: They are self-centered, considering the lives of other species or even other ethnic groups beneath notice. Their actions serve Chaos only incidentally, but often resembles that of an indoctrinated society and justifies its actions similarly to a maltheistic society. This is how humanity in real life has behaved for millennia.
• Blue and Orange Morality: They are delusional. These societies follow bizarre moral codes or "paths of enlightenment" that require them to perform horrific atrocities in order to be considered morally right. This is how the Sabbat in Vampire: The Masquerade is able to function, or the orks in Warhammer 40,000.

You can probably think of more options, but this is what I came up with so far. As you can see, I have a deep-seated difficulty accepting the concept of evil races or societies. Out of character they exist to allow guilt free extermination. In character we have gotten absurd debates about goblin infanticide and orc holocaust. I hope to address these latter on in a constructive fashion.