>evil in their eyes. Good and evil are relative concepts and
>there are no clear absolutes in real life. Good and evil
>depend of the standpoints of the person declaring something
>good or evil,


So Chucky Manson is good because he says he is?

This is the central, fatal flaw of relative morality, IMHO. If the only thing you judge are judgements and standards, they cease to exist when these things are the 2 basics by which all morality is determined. Relative morality is oxymoronic because the former undermines the latter.

Ironically, though, that point of view would work very well for a neutral character, because you stop believing in traditional notions of good and evil but would work very badly for, say, a Maran. Again, in my opinion.

Anyhow, leaving that can of worms behind, I've viewed CF as more solidly twords the absolute side in notions of good and evil. Orcs are evil because they are made of whatever the "stuff of evil" is. Doesn't matter that they think hacking up orphans and elf children is good clean fun, they're still evil.

You can "try to understand his anger" all you want and an Orc will split your skull in two while you're navel-gazing. Offer him a "hand of peace" he'll laugh before biting it off because....he's just dag nasty evil.

There is still wiggle room, of course, and actions strongly play a part of this, as posted above and here's another example.

Minoutars.

There are some IMMs, I believe, that don't want paladins killing neutrals for gear or just for the heck of it. Minoutars can be neutral so it's not unreasonable to assume that if a paladin walked up and killed one, knowing he wasn't evil, they'd be punished for it.

However, I, as a mortal and probably when/if I get a religion, will *demand* that people kill Minoutars because of what it says in their help file:


" they cannot reproduce among their own kind; every minotaur is male and they can only further the race by polluting the wombs of human females during their violent rites of blood sacrifice and procreation which leads to their rarity in the realm."


Alarian never considered that their motivations for doing so might be neutral, simple bestial drives rather than evil ones. Rape is evil. Period. They're just like orcs, in his mind, twisted in their souls and born with the desire to do evil acts.

Your aura could be the grayest of grays, but if you violently rape human women, this human paladin is going to hunt you down and end your life, never travel with you, and treat you with total contempt.

Who's right? What if I had found a celibate Minoutar? Would I have treated him like a Orc who "claimed" to turn his back on violence when I *know* that doing that vicious act is as part of him as breathing?

This is the fun of RP, clashes like this amongst different viewpoints, IC. CF would be more boring if we didn't have these, I think.