If you listen to CCP, which is usually not the worst path to take, the cluster's four great empires are not divided along moral lines: It isn't Good against Evil, it is a conflict of ideology with all sides having their fair share of flaws and virtues.
I call bullshit.
Originally I wanted to go over the four empires in some sort of detail and then compare them, but I started out with the Amarr and then found the whole process to be far too exhausting and depressing to continue. So instead I present a review of the history of the Amarr Empire as CCP has presented to us through PF, with a focus on the morality they present.
Amarr Empire
Ye Olde History: Conquered their entire planet, enslaved anyone that said boo about it. Freed people when they converted to their religion, mostly to justify the enslavement in the first place. Did not enslave the Khanid, on account of them never saying boo and taking to the Faith really well.
Well ok that's... That's pretty evil. I mean the religious angle might make them look more misguided than anything, but that was tacked on as an excuse after the fact which makes it a lot crappier of an excuse. I mean sure they didn't automatically enslave the people who were willing to help them of their own volition, but that's not really "Being good" so much as "Not being the biggest dick".
Ye Less Olde History: Encountered, and enslaved, the Minmatar. Encountered, and considered enslaving, the Gallente. Decided against it due to the Federation actually having a fleet. Encountered, and attempted to enslave, the Jove. Got their asses kicked due to the other Empire actually having a really good fleet. Lost most of their slaves to the Great Rebellion, gave the Minmatar who helped them out a stretch of space between them and the Republic to take the heat off of them. Allied with the Caldari because they both hated the Gallente.
I'm beginning to see a pattern here. They sure do love them their slavery, huh? Cool that they gave the Ammatar some space for helping them out, even if it looks to be entirely so that they could use them as meatshields. OK, no, no that doesn't make it good at all, that makes it an underhanded ploy.
Oh hey also, looking at it, it seems when they got their asses kicked by the Jove they put all the blame on the people they threw into the meatgrinder, then posthumously dishonored them and stripped their families of their titles. That's a special kind of dick.
Ye Recente History: Stopped enslaving anything that moved because CONCORD forced them to, so now they only enslave criminals and POW's. Emperor spent most of his life trying to broker peace agreements, then died. New Emperor came in, did some cool stuff, then got killed. Fat, hypocritically atheist, murderous, pedophile gets put in charge, does some horrible stuff so far as everyone involved is concerned. Get invaded by an Elder Fleet, lose even more slaves, look to be royally (heh) fucked until one of the 'dead' candidates comes back in a sacrilegious clone body and blows up about a third of the fleet away. Atheist Heir claims it was all a miracle, gets elected empress because the other four heirs (Three of which seem to also be entirely atheist) don't want to risk dying. Empress declares all seventh-generation slaves to be freed. Empress catches, then kills the fuck out of, the fat man.
Wow. Wow.
Wow.
When that started, it looked like it was getting better. I mean, sure the Empire were super-dicks in the past, but it seemed they might be getting better. A society that has been evolving from black to gray isn't too bad, but once Baron Harkonen was put in charge things just started going downhill. The pedophilia part was just horribly unnecessary. We get it: He's the bad guy, you didn't need to write scenes of him having prepubescent children licking his bits to make that clearer. What. The. Fuck. I'm actually a little worried that some mod is going to come in and edit the post/ban me just for referencing it, that is how horrible that is. But I'm going to reference it because, honestly, you've killed my will to live a little.
OK, so the Empress, who is now most definitely an atheist. And also the other Heirs, who are also mostly atheist. Because being in charge of a fascist, racist society just isn't evil enough unless you're a hypocrite as well. Obviously. You know, the one saving grace of the Empire, and Amarr in general, was that if they actually believed all of this stuff than at least they're only misguided. But by removing that excuse, they have nothing. They're just a bunch of fascist, racist slavers.
I have an idea: When one of the main factions in your 'grey on gray' world is an entirely religious society, keep writers who hate religion away from it. Maybe that would work? Like, I understand you can't depict them to all be happy, benevolent people who are only ever in it for their poor downtrodden brothers, but maybe making them less obviously evil than Stalin would work. Can we go with Castro? He's pretty controversial, he's a guy that's done some good and some bad in the name of his beliefs, can we go for his level of morality?
Well I ask that question, and then they have the atheist empress in charge of a theocratic society release all of the seventh-gen slaves. Which sounds like the answer is "Yes", until you realise that it is taking these people more than seven lifetimes to convert their slaves, to enough of an extent that we have this massive exodus of people whose great-great-great-great-great-grandparents were enslaved to save their souls, and nowhere along that line was a single slave considered 'saved'. Russian Roulette with a gun that's only missing one bullet has a better success rate! This is clearly more than an issue at the top, it's a level of hypocrisy that's seeped into pretty much the whole of society.
Summary
You know, as an Amarrian RPer, I often forget just how horribly the Amarr have been treated. This is because I, like most others on 'my side', wrap myself in a comforting blanket of half-truths to try and justify what it is 'we' do. I take the PF more as a suggestion than anything, a fixer-upper that just needs some love to be made into something that can support human life.
Jakiin is very interested in the welfare of his slaves, both their bodies and souls. He will point to the not-supported-by-PF-at-all 'fact' that drones would be more profitable as evidence that his intentions are good. He abhors TCMCs, and finds Vitoxin distasteful. He's in it because he wants to help these poor people... And if that means stripping them of every last bit of dignity and freedom they have, then he's not going to hesitate for a second. He is diplomatic and seems relativist, but that's only because he thinks that an alliance with the State is the quickest way for the Amarr Territories to get back up to 'take over the world' strength. At the end of the day, regardless of his intentions, he wants to have every man, woman, and child who won't convert on their own enslaved. All of the smiles and handshakes and oftentimes genuine affection for the nonbelievers would be put aside the second force became the most effective method. That is how I make him 'grey', how I make his psyche interesting to play.
But CCP seems to intend the Amarr as textbook villains, with the majority of Holders lacking any sympathetic qualities to speak of. Is that realistic? Well, yes. Historically speaking when you give people that sort of power they become corrupt, and historically the marrying of politics and religion has in every scenario I can think of sullied the religion and restricted the politics. But it's not interesting, at least not to me. Once again: I'm not saying that the Amarr should all be like Jakiin, as all of anything becomes boring. I'd actually be immensely pleased with an even split between true believers and people who are just in it for the power, with the two sides battling for control. Instead when we see the Heirs, those great representative of what it means to be Amarrian, the pinnacle of Holder society...
One is psychologically comatose because he did all kinds of stupidly evil things, and his aide vouches that above anything else he'd want to live. Doesn't really suggest belief in any sort of soul.
Two are focused entirely on keeping their power, because they're not ready to die yet either. The sacrilegious nature of Sarum's return is immediately apparent to them, and immediately dismissed as insignificant.
One is absolutely frothing with rage over the whole thing, which suggests he might actually believe the things he has used to justify the enslavement of millions or billions under his domain, but there's nothing that really proves it: He might just as easily be a stodgy old man protesting at change in any form. The lack of faith from his comrades makes this as good a bet as him being the only religious person in charge of a theocratic society.
The fifth, Jamyl... I covered the important parts already.
Sigh
OK. This started out well intentioned, but kind of turned into a rant that's been building up for a long time. Let's try to get back on track.
Let's compare this to the other empires.
Caldari
Pros: Dedication to the State is admirable
Cons: Were led by a bunch of corrupt hypocrites before, and are being led by an honest psychopath now as part of a grander scheme.
Gallente
Pros: Love Freedom, Apple Pie, and the Western World Way in a sea of dictatorships and xenophobes.
Cons: Have the same issues as any developed world country, and are also hedonistic. Because hedonism is a bad thing? Oh, also they did some pretty bad stuff three hundred years ago, in what they consider to be their nation's dark age.
Republic
Pros: Former slaves which gives them the underdog appeal, believe in personal liberty, but also respect the importance of tradition (These traditions, by the way, almost never being offensive to us)
Cons: Have a tendency to commit terrorist acts to try and free all of those people the Amarr enslaved, which puts them just above 'Union Forces in the American Civil War' and right below 'Gandhi*' in the descending list of perceived assholery.
*Who was apparently a racist.
I can't think of a good outtro, so let's just go with: Discuss.
Author
Topic: Jak's Musings/Rant on the Morality of New Eden (Read 5275 times)