Vigilantism and the Lawful Alignment in OotS

[Carry2]

Whether the party is good, evil, lawful, chaotic aligned, or (as usual) all mixed up, having adventures means they are mixing themselves up in chaotic conflict.

I don't disagree with this assessment, I just think that it is possible, in theory, for individuals caught up in such conflict to have other qualities that outweigh or counteract the chaos, as far as alignment assessments go. Law/Chaos have a lot of different facets.

Amongst his friends and associates, he does. People he considers on the outside of his circle of friendship, though, he doesn't. His long spanning plan is practically impossible without trust.

Well, if he's building trust with a small handful of individuals, and destroying it with anyone outside it, I don't see how that's a net win for 'trust'. (Or maybe he's building trust with all the soldiers that work for him, but that's very difficult to do without exposing the fact that he basically runs the place, which defeats the purpose of shuffling the cabinet every few years. Organisations depend on information.)

Carry2, since you have apparently returned to this thread but not responded to this:
Can you describe your concept of an unambiguously Lawful Evil character who is not insane?

Kish, I think that because I have (A) pointed out that Tarquin commits many Chaotic acts, and (B) that Lawful Stupid exists, and is still Lawful, you are jumping to the conclusion (C) that nothing exists between these extremes. I have frankly been reluctant to respond to this notion on the basis that it's beneath you. But, FWIW, here is how a hypothetical alt-Tarquin might have responded to events in the strip:


"General, might I suggest setting some of our prisoners on fire to spell out a welcome message to your son?"
"That would be an inefficient use of transport resources. Crucify them in their home districts as per standard protocol."

"General, your son Nale has returned, having been captured skulking about the palace."
"Nale and his associates are guilty of sedition and rebellion, and too dangerous to be kept alive. Extract any useful information from them under torture, then execute them at dawn."

"General, the bounty hunter is demanding compensation due to misleading information on the reward posting."
"It was highly unlikely Elan would be on this continent, and I will not be extorted from due to factors beyond my control. Update the reward postings and ensure the proper paperwork is filed, but throw the bounty hunter out."

"General, the envoy from the Free City of Doom is petitioning we send relief forces."
"I will agree to send a legion of our men, provided she agree to a permanent military base within the city and yields a regular tribute of slaves and gold. If she refuses, tell her we will ally with her enemies instead."

"General, interrogation of the prisoner has revealed the coordinates of a so-called 'Gate' that may hold the key to world domination."
"Assemble a platoon of crack troops so that we may seize the location at once. Place a double guard on Elan and his associates to ensure they do not leave the city pending the investigation- their interference raises too many uncertainties."


Now, there's no guarantee that this alt-Tarquin would be (A) as entertaining or (B) as effective at unifying the continent. But he'd be a lot less ambiguously Lawful.

Anyway. At this point the debate is only going to wind up going in circles (or, rather, being forced to continually re-quote old arguments because nobody wants to dig through 20 pages of dense wall-of-text.) So I'll just call it quits at that.