this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
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Evil isn't the desire to harm others. Devils don't desire to claim people's souls for the lulz, they do it for power. Everything they do is to gain power, for their own benefit. They don't care if the souls will become lemures or a snack, they just try to convince people and scheme for their own benefit anyway.
Demons are way more brutal, they don't really gain pleasure from pain per-se, they also want power, but their approach is way more direct. If they can gain power by killing all those people and bathing in their blood, thay will forcefully do it, not by deceiving the human through a shitty contract, but by forcing their power.
Devils are LE, demons are CE. All in all, evil is the disregard of moral consequences when finding ways to benefit yourself.
Deceiving someone to sign a shitty contract so they now must slave away for you? LE.
Kidnapping someone and forcing them to do stuff to your benefit? CE.
Reaching a fair accord so that you allow people in need to work for you for a fair price, where both parties give a bit so no one is really getting taken advantage off? Either LG or LN depending on the context.
Offering to kill the bad monster that is terrorising the town for free, and disregarding the lucrative offers from it because it's the right thing to do? Any good alignment.
Any of those people could have desires of harm, it's how they channel their wants that puts them in different places in the alignment chart.
Not all evil is just about personal gain. That's way oversimplified. Sure, some is and that can be part of it, but sometimes it isn't.
Bhaal is the lord of murder, and not usually doing it to gain anything. "Bhaal only lived to hunt and kill, the presence of the living instilling in him an overpowering desire for death and destruction. He was at all times a cruel, violent and hateful being, though his behavior could vary from cold and calculating ruthlessness to a savage thirst for blood."
Evil is basically desire to do harm or to have power over others (which I'd argue is the same thing). Tyranny is evil because it removes others ability to do what they want, which is harmful. It's about a desire. A desire to have power over someone, or to harm someone, or to kill someone, etc. Gaining power over someone isn't the disregard for consequences, it is regarding them and choosing tyranny.
However, good actions also often do this. You kill bad people, imprison criminals, etc. It's good because you were trying to help/protect someone. Not good would be anything else, which both neutral and evil have to fit in there somewhere. Neutral must be without regard, and evil must be with regard and intent to do the opposite. If not, what is neutral or evil if it's not those?