This post is largely being brought on by an incident I had with a character of mine that I thought displayed a large misunderstanding in how things work.
My character - who happens to be a Malarite - was hassled by a group for his having a pet wolf, basically implying that he was forcing it to do things against its will simply because he's an evil character, and wolves aren't "evil".
First off, the fact that it was assumed that a wolf wouldn't have any interest in hunting is bordering on extreme ignorance. Wolves are hunters, and while Malar is considered evil by human standards, wolves are exactly what a Malarite strives to emulate; survival of the fittest, kill or be killed, live for the hunt. To a Malarite, a wolf - as with most violent beasts - is the natural embodiment of what Malar represents.
Just because an animal isn't "evil" doesn't mean it would rather spend its days frolicing in a forest and smelling flowers; when you stop to think about it, most predatory animals would be considered evil by human standards, they just aren't regarded that way because its their nature, and its what they do to survive.
Example: Ranger comes across a hyena killing an animal. Most people might be bothered by this sight, but they wouldn't call the hyena evil, he's just doing what hyenas do; hunting for food, killing the weak and the sick. These actions would be seen as evil in a human, but in an animal, its just nature taking its course. So, why would a hyena (or in this case, a wolf) have any problem with a human who acts the same way?
To wrap up this rather lengthy post, animals aren't good or evil, but they also have no concept of good or evil, they do what comes natural, and in the case of hunting animals, that includes killing. When your dealing with a "wild" animal (horses and such are a slightly different case) don't just assume that if the character leading it around is evil, he must be standing there, whip in hand, beating the poor beast into submission.
"evil" animals?
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Tierney
Totally agree. Any animal of animal intellegence will have no alignment at all. To be good or evil you have to have knowledge of good and evil, which animals don't have. Wolves would probly love to hang out with Malarites, because of the steady food supply. So seeing a Malarite with a wolf, or any dangerous preditor, shouldn't be odd.
On the other hand, seeing rangers and druids harrassing a Malarite shouldn't be odd either. Seeing as how most nature based faiths are for killing a Malarite at any opportunity, their harrassing is most likly just an attempt at finding any excuse to kill the 'enemy.'
On the other hand, seeing rangers and druids harrassing a Malarite shouldn't be odd either. Seeing as how most nature based faiths are for killing a Malarite at any opportunity, their harrassing is most likly just an attempt at finding any excuse to kill the 'enemy.'
You know its funny I was there and that is not what I got from it. There was a very young druid that felt the wolf was being mistreated and called for help from those of us that were very nearby. But as the story was told the wolves belonged to two people hunting goblins and the wolves fell. My position on the whole thing after watching the arguement persue was that there was no proof that the wolves were mistreated but left a warning to watch them if they were caught mistreating the wolves then they could be delt with at that time.
Nothing was ever said about the animals being good or evil.
Nothing was ever said about the animals being good or evil.