Quote Originally Posted by theNater View Post
Yes, Malack almost certainly knows that Tarquin's rule is brutal and oppressive. However, Malack may believe, rightly or wrongly, that the brutality and oppression of living under Tarquin is less terrible than the brutality of incessant warfare. If he does believe that(and we don't know whether he does or not), then supporting Tarquin would be reasonable for a neutral character.
Tarquin is not hiding his evilness to those close to him.
He's torturing women to marry him (which is also some kind of rape), he murders people just he finds it convenient (the husband of someone who could become the next Mr. Tarquin), he also does lots of evilness for fun (dipping people in acid, having anyone murdered who even comes close to show dissent (in the arena or by some Ninja-agent), he burns slaves to give Elan a show, he has a Dinosaur eatING people for amusement of the masses.
Malack knows all that and still is not only tolerating Tarquin "as the end is what matters", but he is close friends.
We are not speaking of "the choice between two small evils" but the choice between "Fully flegded evil empire" and "Fully fledged evil chaos". Supporting any of them for decades is hardly going with a neutral alignment.

If "the means do not justify the end" and we consider Redcloak evil (he is), then Malack also has to be, even if his support of the Empire is merely a "choice of lesser evils" (which it very probably is not Malack's core motivation).

Yes, we do not know. But the option of neutrality is unlikely enough for not mattering to me.