If you are religious, you have certain ideas about what good and evil are, and where they come from. If you aren’t religious, you also have certain ideas about what good and evil are and where they come from, even if you don’t use those words. Just like getting involved in the “reality” of Paladins is a mistake, so is getting involved in the “reality” of good or evil.

 

Look at your own life, your actual, real life. The people you know and care about. The world you live in. You make choices about how to act moment by moment, and those choices influence how the world turns out. There are ways it could turn out that are better, and ways it could turn out that are worse. Don’t get distracted, for the moment, by things like moral absolutism vs. moral relativism. In other words, ignore anything that sounds like, “But how do you know?” or “But are they -really- better?” Just look directly and honestly. Is it better for someone to be healthy and live a life where they grow in happiness and wisdom? Or is it better for them to be more and more scared and miserable, turning away from happiness and growth, hiding from their lives and poisoning their bodies, until they die, terrified and full of bitterness? Everyone already knows the answer to this. And it doesn’t have to be that extreme. If you say a bitter word to someone and they take that hurt away with them, is that worse than giving them a kind word to carry in their heart? Yes.

 

Good and evil is that simple. Those who enjoy philosophical questions are absolutely welcome to attempt to create a framework for -why- it works that way, but again, this is a handbook for Paladins. Our job is not to understand why, fundamentally, one thing is better than another, it is just to make things better, and you already know how to do that. If you don’t know that you know, don’t worry. This Handbook will help.