Which nations represent order and good?

[moderation]

Okay, check out the post on evil nations for contrast..

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...0951&type=post

Actually one of the tricky things about Dominions is that sometimes I think all the nations are evil in the sense that they are probably mostly fairly authoritarian and brutish societies and they all want to win at the expense of all the other nations (at least if their pretender god has his or her way).

But if we step back a bit, well there are a lot of neutral nations, a few that fit fairly closely to Judeo-Christian standards of "goodness" or "godliness". Caelum comes to mind - they're a bunch of winged angels after all. Let's just say for now the good or neutral nations are the ones who do not rely heavily on death or blood magic, do not enslave minds and generally treat their people better than the evil nations.

[moderation]

Yeah, I think you are right. The question of what is good is interesting though. Technically if you were one of the citizens of those nations, being good would mean doing what your pretender god wants you to do, even if it meant dealing out some of Old Testament style havoc upon the unbelievers. Of course today, from a humanist standpoint we would consider such acts atrocities or war crimes.

Dominions has some interesting religious implications when you sit down and think about it.

This kind of changes the concept of the game I wanted to put together though. Instead of Good vs Evil, it has become Not As Bad vs Evil. This is the problem I used the idea "Good or Order", which I'm afraid only complicates things

[AlgaeNymph]

I'm not sure how to vote; so many of them benefit from order scales, and I haven't played all of them yet.

I am reasonably sure that LA C'tis and Agartha aren't evil, or are at least ethical for necromancer-based nations.

[Dedas]

Any nation that stops my plan of world domination is evil.

[Sombre]

Who voted for Yomi in EA? I'd love to hear why.

[Cerlin]

Im honestly Bogarus got any votes. While they may have an amount of intellectual "Freedom" Im not sure the religion could be considered friendly, even to their own people.

[Ewierl]

Personally, I consider LA Man to be one of the most positive socities, in terms of internal benevolence (benefits for own people) and a lack of any major sketchy practices (e.g. institutionalized torture or human sacrifice).

In an age when death-magic and world-consuming powerhouses spread widely, with magic on the decline, the nation with strong civic/mundane educational practices has a big edge on the "benevolence" count. While most nations are in decline and decay, Man has turned its decline into a new path that is only just beginning, and would reap serious long-term benefits. Ulm turned away from the path of craft/technology between MA and LA, leaving Man to carry the banner of post-magic progress.

[Edi]

I would generally say that MA and LA Arco, Man (all eras), Eriu, Tir na n'Og, Tien Chi (practically all eras) and Ulm in EA and MA could be characterized as good. Utgård doesn't seem too bad either. Pythium in both MA and LA is also fairly good. MA Mictlan is perhaps the most directly goody-twoshoes nation. Ermor in EA is also a fairly nice one.

Marverni and the Van nations as well, except for the bit about the occasional human sacrifice.

From the point of view of being a citizen of one of them, that is. Hell, I'd pick any one of those for myself when compared to EA or LA Mictlan, any era Abysia, Gath, Hinnom or Ashdod, Yomi, Shinuyama, Lanka, R'lyeh or the other nonhuman nations or Machaka. Marignon is out due to ****ty living conditions and misery in the MA and devil worship and blood sacrifices in the LA.

MA Tien Chi would perhaps be the most tranquil and ordered one, or perhaps MA Ulm, with the greatest safety factor for the average citizen.