Lawful Evil and Chaotic Evil, respectively. Alignments in Dungeons and Dragons. Lawful Evil is manipulative evil, typically re-interpreting law to their own benefit without taking responsibility (and indeed, not caring for) the repercussions.
Chaotic Evil is wanton destruction, just a left-and-right-kill-everything mentality, much like the cultists in the comic.
I always thought it was best to be true neutral, until I found I could be killing my friends in defense of the evil horde we were supposed to be killing. O.o?
TN kinda divides into two mentalities. Active Neutral is that kind of “preserve the balance” thing, while Passive Neutral is following some other guidance and not really caring about good/evil/law/chaos unless they come into conflict with your interests. Traditional druids with their focus on nature are an example of that.
Chaotic Neutral is also frequently confused with Chaotic Stupid, as this subthread shows.
The best examples I can think of from GA for CN would be Frigg and Payet Best.
Frigg is personally loyal to her companions but only began accompanying them because it was an easy way to get paid to kick ass (win-win for her). Recall that she challenged Byron to a fight more or less just for the lulz when they first met. She openly defies any source of authority at hand whenever she thinks she can get away with it (like “those guys that suck at chess”), but doesn’t go about randomly stealing and murdering and suddenly pause to help old ladies cross the street (that would be Chaotic Stupid).
Sometimes Best was helpful, sometimes he was more of a hinderance or even an outright obstacle. Even when his actions made others laud him as a hero he wasn’t doing those things for the sake of good but rather his own personal glory. He would often pay lip service to Law and order but was really just playing the system like a guitar.
Frig often acts CN as well, now that I think about it, especi
Actually, I’d say the death toll of LE is significantly greater than that of CE.
They’re organized, after all. Effective is nice in a Rod of Spam Cleaning, but bad in genocidal despots.
In the words of the great general Tarquin
ou can’t make an omelette without ruthlessly crushing dozens of eggs beneath your steel boot and then publicly disemboweling the chickens that laid them as a warning to others.
Yes! Appearing weak… it’s all my plan to enhance my strength!
Just like my ‘dumb act’ enhances my intelligence, my effeminate appearance enhances my masculinity, and my bean burrito diet enhances the sexy aroma in my bedroom!
It isn’t intended to enhance his strength. As he reminds his son, he already is strong, so people assuming he’s weak is an advantage he can exploit. Knowledge is power, and false information is a weakness.
Or I guess at least that’s what the translation that I used said. Anyway, point is not that deception itself kills as much as that successful deception can be massively, almost horrifyingly, effective.
If that’s your plan, it’s probably the adventurers you need to worry about, bro. Hope you have a good plan to deal with them. Adventurers historically have a pretty good track record for finding out about devious plots that happen behind their backs, and almost a 100% success rate at uncovering the ones that were shown to the audience, so you’re pretty much screwed unless you have something really clever up your sleeve.
I’m guessing Taro missed the fact the cultist threaten his life indirectly ‘if’ the cult is betrayed .
Another acceptable short term lost for future gain I suppose.
To be fair to the man, I think his plan involves them all quite dead before they can make good on that. I mean he’s obviously playing with fire here, but he’s got no plan that actually accepts burning his son.
Legacy is important to guys like Iwatani. He’s not selfless, obviously, but he’s grooming his son for a reason, he plans for him to inherit it all and keep the family on top.
I sort of read Taro with the subtext that he was hoping he was going to still get the deaths he was promised rather than hoping it didn’t come to that.
Seers can’t actually SEE the future, silly. They just put ideas into peoples heads, who then bring about the “prophecies” by the work of their own hands.
That said the future is always in motion. Seers typically see the possible future not the definite future since the future is never definite. That also they cant typically control what bits of the future they see.
Tricky part about seers is that you cant expect to really know how much they know of the future. You can assume they know everything but that leads one to overestimate the knowledge of the seer and they can use that to their advantage.
I guess it all depends on how you define “seer”. I thought it’s kind of stupid of Taro to start discussing with his father directly after the seer left. I mean, somone outside the tent could simply eavesdrop. Anyway, Iwatani seems confident enough about his knowledge of seers that I guess I’ll ‘trust’ him on this one.
You’re making an assumption there. This is a world where magic and gods and spiritual power exists. The cultists are able to inflict a magically-levelled-up form of rabies while protecting themselves from it. Who’s to say said Cultist Seer can’t actually see the future in one form or another?
I like how the boy says “But people will die” uh hey little boy who demolished an entire city block in a giant gnomish robot you dont get to talk… You were trying to kill people and didnt care what so ever for the collateral damage including the likely dying and injured people beneath your feet.
He’s trying to understand his father’s plan. After being punished for his mechanized outburst, he would obviously be confused as to why it is okay for his father to endanger lives, but not him.
And in the brown robes, weighing in a two hundred and twenty pounds, we have the reigning World Champion of Douchbaggery, the Connoisseur of Calamity, the Developer of Debauchery, and Co-Champion of ‘Worst Father in the World’, Loooooooooord Iwatani!!
Leave it to Iwatani to calculate the ROI on lives.
It’s $3.86 an hour with an additional 0.01% for each additional life. That’s not including what you can eventual ‘identity theft’ information for…
Well, at least Taro has a Hey, those are my peasants that this guy wants to messily sacrifice attitude. LE may suck, but I like it better than CE.
What are LE and CE?
Lawful Evil and Chaotic Evil, respectively. Alignments in Dungeons and Dragons. Lawful Evil is manipulative evil, typically re-interpreting law to their own benefit without taking responsibility (and indeed, not caring for) the repercussions.
Chaotic Evil is wanton destruction, just a left-and-right-kill-everything mentality, much like the cultists in the comic.
And Chaotic Neutral is the true Chaos: you never know which why they are going to go (more than half the time, neither do
wethey, and it’s great!!!!)I always thought it was best to be true neutral, until I found I could be killing my friends in defense of the evil horde we were supposed to be killing. O.o?
TN kinda divides into two mentalities. Active Neutral is that kind of “preserve the balance” thing, while Passive Neutral is following some other guidance and not really caring about good/evil/law/chaos unless they come into conflict with your interests. Traditional druids with their focus on nature are an example of that.
Chaotic Neutral is also frequently confused with Chaotic Stupid, as this subthread shows.
The best examples I can think of from GA for CN would be Frigg and Payet Best.
Frigg is personally loyal to her companions but only began accompanying them because it was an easy way to get paid to kick ass (win-win for her). Recall that she challenged Byron to a fight more or less just for the lulz when they first met. She openly defies any source of authority at hand whenever she thinks she can get away with it (like “those guys that suck at chess”), but doesn’t go about randomly stealing and murdering and suddenly pause to help old ladies cross the street (that would be Chaotic Stupid).
Sometimes Best was helpful, sometimes he was more of a hinderance or even an outright obstacle. Even when his actions made others laud him as a hero he wasn’t doing those things for the sake of good but rather his own personal glory. He would often pay lip service to Law and order but was really just playing the system like a guitar.
Frig often acts CN as well, now that I think about it, especi
Actually, I’d say the death toll of LE is significantly greater than that of CE.
They’re organized, after all. Effective is nice in a Rod of Spam Cleaning, but bad in genocidal despots.
You can’t make an omelette without destroying a few towns, right?
…what, you don’t need to destroy towns to make omelettes?
Your plebeian omletteering just isn’t ambitious enough.
Talk to me when you’re ready to cook with vision.
In the words of the great general Tarquin
ou can’t make an omelette without ruthlessly crushing dozens of eggs beneath your steel boot and then publicly disemboweling the chickens that laid them as a warning to others.
Yes! Appearing weak… it’s all my plan to enhance my strength!
Just like my ‘dumb act’ enhances my intelligence, my effeminate appearance enhances my masculinity, and my bean burrito diet enhances the sexy aroma in my bedroom!
a line taken from Emperor Palpatine’s autobiography “If I Manipulated It.”
It isn’t intended to enhance his strength. As he reminds his son, he already is strong, so people assuming he’s weak is an advantage he can exploit. Knowledge is power, and false information is a weakness.
“All warfare is based upon deception.” — Sun Tzu
Or I guess at least that’s what the translation that I used said. Anyway, point is not that deception itself kills as much as that successful deception can be massively, almost horrifyingly, effective.
Sun-Tzu would love modern-day media and internet.
“And knowing is half the battle.” — G. I. Joe
If that’s your plan, it’s probably the adventurers you need to worry about, bro. Hope you have a good plan to deal with them. Adventurers historically have a pretty good track record for finding out about devious plots that happen behind their backs, and almost a 100% success rate at uncovering the ones that were shown to the audience, so you’re pretty much screwed unless you have something really clever up your sleeve.
My father never took me sacrificin’. :/
Apparently ‘Iwatani’ is Gastonian for ‘Veins Full of Ice Water’.
That’s why they’re blue-bloods!
I’m guessing Taro missed the fact the cultist threaten his life indirectly ‘if’ the cult is betrayed .
Another acceptable short term lost for future gain I suppose.
I’d be backing Iwatani in that fight.
To be fair to the man, I think his plan involves them all quite dead before they can make good on that. I mean he’s obviously playing with fire here, but he’s got no plan that actually accepts burning his son.
Legacy is important to guys like Iwatani. He’s not selfless, obviously, but he’s grooming his son for a reason, he plans for him to inherit it all and keep the family on top.
I hate these cultists, I hate Lord Iwatani but I hate that kid even more.
I hope they all get their comeuppance in the story.
I sort of read Taro with the subtext that he was hoping he was going to still get the deaths he was promised rather than hoping it didn’t come to that.
Wouldn’t surprise me.
Me too.
Wouldn’t surprise me if Taro is the Omen of the multiple…manifold…discrete…no… ah, the countless!
Can I say I called it? Because I did.
Don Desertion?
Duke of the Double Cross?
Blackboard Monitor of Backstabbing?
Sultan of Selling Out?
…T-word of Treachery?
Tyrant of Treachery? Tlatoani of Treachery?
Tengku/Tuanku…Teigne…
Welsh has the most interesting one for prince: Tywysog.
Those two corpses hanging from the ceiling REALLY brings character to the room.
I agree. Give the room a nice death ambiance.
Wouldn’t the Seer foresee the betrayal though? What if the Seer is playing into Iwatani’s little scheme for some unknown purpose/reason?
Seers can’t actually SEE the future, silly. They just put ideas into peoples heads, who then bring about the “prophecies” by the work of their own hands.
Kind of like politicians.
Hmm, true, but what you described could still be the case here. Iwatani thinking he is in control (when he isn’t).
That said the future is always in motion. Seers typically see the possible future not the definite future since the future is never definite. That also they cant typically control what bits of the future they see.
Tricky part about seers is that you cant expect to really know how much they know of the future. You can assume they know everything but that leads one to overestimate the knowledge of the seer and they can use that to their advantage.
I guess it all depends on how you define “seer”. I thought it’s kind of stupid of Taro to start discussing with his father directly after the seer left. I mean, somone outside the tent could simply eavesdrop. Anyway, Iwatani seems confident enough about his knowledge of seers that I guess I’ll ‘trust’ him on this one.
You’re making an assumption there. This is a world where magic and gods and spiritual power exists. The cultists are able to inflict a magically-levelled-up form of rabies while protecting themselves from it. Who’s to say said Cultist Seer can’t actually see the future in one form or another?
So… it’d be interesting (though not probable) if Iwatani and son received immunity to the madness due to proximity to the virgin sacrifice ritual….
I like how the boy says “But people will die” uh hey little boy who demolished an entire city block in a giant gnomish robot you dont get to talk… You were trying to kill people and didnt care what so ever for the collateral damage including the likely dying and injured people beneath your feet.
I guess hes a racist too…
He might be saying it hopefully.
He’s trying to understand his father’s plan. After being punished for his mechanized outburst, he would obviously be confused as to why it is okay for his father to endanger lives, but not him.
He demolished an entire city block in a GNOMISH town. Obviously to him, they’re not his kind of “people.” If they’re even people at all.
And in the brown robes, weighing in a two hundred and twenty pounds, we have the reigning World Champion of Douchbaggery, the Connoisseur of Calamity, the Developer of Debauchery, and Co-Champion of ‘Worst Father in the World’, Loooooooooord Iwatani!!
They’re discussing their plan to betray the cult while still on land the cult controls? Insufficiently paranoid.