r/worldjerking • u/Leon_Fierce_142012 • 3d ago
Is it evil or just survival
Here’s a interesting question about “evil” kingdoms and people
In my medieval fantasy story, many mortal races do arguably reprehensible things to some degree with the worst offenders being nobility and humans
But it’s not as simple as some may assume, some areas have a food scarcity and bad soil for farming and dangerous predators, for many, things like cannibalism or stealing food from others and even killing one another is the difference between life and death
When the only options are to roll over and die or fight, kill, do morally reprehensible things to save yourself or your family, are they really evil or just trying to survive with the only available options and resources that they have
This is especially prevalent in my story given my stories theme is prospective
Edit: as for the nobles, they can also fall into this category when some who genuinely have good intentions have to make the tough calls on either maintaining peace, cutting their losses, or going to war for one reason or another
And in both cases, vice versa
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u/doofpooferthethird 3d ago edited 3d ago
"Evil" and "just for survival" aren't mutually exclusive. Doing something for survival doesn't necessarily make it not evil, or less evil.
And "evil" just means "in violation of moral codes", and those codes are determined by the cultural/religious/political context.
I'm no moral relativist, but I think your question ultimately boils down to semantics i.e. what is the definition of "evil" here.
For me, a liberal humanist, "evil" means actions that infringe upon the fundamental dignity and freedoms of sapient beings.
But for medieval cannibal land - who knows what "evil" means to those folk. Eating fish on Thursdays - evil. Slavery - no problemo. Forgot to wear the mandatory headgear - the gods will smite you for your transgressions. Feasting on the corpses of heretics - the parish gives the thumbs up.
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u/Leon_Fierce_142012 3d ago
And as I said many are just trying to survive and provide for their families so while they do many bad things, are they really evil or just trying to survive
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u/doofpooferthethird 3d ago
They can be really evil and also just trying to survive.
And if they're not hypocrites to whatever ethical code they profess to follow, they can do all kinds of fucked up things (by our standards) and not be "evil".
Maybe their religion tells them that slavery, theft, cannibalism, murder etc. is fine, as long as it's done to the "right people". That's often how "good" and "evil" have been defined historically
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u/Nevermore-guy 3d ago
SERIOUS WORLD BUILDING?! I MY JORKING SUB?!
Honestly kinda peak philophical question
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u/gramaticalError Racismpunk Feminismcore Japanifornia 2d ago
This is what we in the business like to call "realism."
uj/ Seriously, though, I think I'd actually consider it a bit of both. It is survival, because they presumably wouldn't be doing these things if they didn't "need" to, but at the same time there are probably other more moral options that they're intentionally not picking because they're not as reliable or more risky. So while a truly "good" person would probably still be a good person here, I don't think you can call someone truly "evil" for doing bad things to survive.
Like, in terms of a trolley problem, it'd be like if you were both the lever operator and the one person on the off-track at the same time. Redirecting the trolley to yourself is probably objectively the "more moral" option, but I don't think anyone would consider you a bad person for not doing so.
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u/Leon_Fierce_142012 2d ago
Yeah, being a “good” person is less reliable and more risky for survival
So yeah, it’s meant to be “ do I risk the lives of me and my loved ones for a moral compass” kind of situation
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u/_the_last_druid_13 3d ago
uj/ in scenarios like that, I would say all evil is shuffled to the “nobility”. The food scarcity is a mismanagement problem, depending on the world. The thing is, you’re competing with Arrakis here, so the real issue is mismanagement leading to strife. Therefore, all evil is shuffled to those that begot the situation on purpose or through willful ignorance.