Which nations represent order and good?

[SelfishGene]

Eriu is one of the closest nations to being good, as the Sidhe and a few lingering Tuatha have volunteered to return and aid their conquerors in the wider world. Generally water-magic or nature based nations are more closely aligned to being on the side of "good" than "evil"; Pangaea is not so much evil or good but amoral, emotional, and animalistic. The nations of Tir Na N'Og aren't really all that bad despite a warlike past, as they celebrate art and poetry as much as war. The Tuatha/Fir Bolg are a much less warlike version of the Van of Vanheim, and are more quickly banished and defeated (whether ironic or intentional, i also have a much harder time making Tir or Eriu work in-game than any of the much more effective Van nations.)

Of the three subsea nations, Oceania is by far the least sinister. Atlantis is strange and monstrous, but Ryleh is of course evil and alien.

Tien Chi is probably a reasonably good empire; it's failings are ones of external conquest, but it's underpinnings of the "way" remain.

Ulm and Marverni aren't so much good but proud half-civilized marginal nations. Marverni sort of wishes they could commit atrocities but aren't particularly good at them.

Man could be considered good if you don't think too hard about their past . But as a feudal nation they're good only in the broadest sense of the word.

Pythium and Arco are probably a good nation insofar as an Empires can be considered good. Marignon gives in to the fear of death and makes pact with the "lesser" evil; Ulm is somehow corrupted (the nature of the "Night of Treason" isn't explained or foreshadowed much in 2nd age Ulm) and becomes a dark shadow of it's former stern self.

[Kuritza]

Since 'good' is a rather undefined post, lets make it more simple. Imagine you're an indie villager and your province is about to be conquered. You'd prefer your new masters to be...
(choose a nation).

I think most nations will be ruled out because they either make you a slave, sacrifice you, kill you just to make room for their offspring, eat you or make you a zombie. Some nations certainly feel 'acceptable' though, many others seem better than most. For example, LA Vanheim seems better than LA Mictlan, and Man is always preferable to Marignon.

[Agema]

I find it extremely hard to characterise many of the nations as "Good". What you call "good" - using a Westernised RL definition - is a nation that you perceive that looks after it's population reasonably fairly, and potentially treats other nations humanely.

You could draw from Pythium and Marignon's description, for instance, they are trying to save itself from the corruption of Ermor, the former probably much more benevolently than the religious zeal of the latter. MA Ermor might have been corrupted by death magic from EA, but they're trying to fend it off (and we can gather they fail from LA).

[Professor_Dyar]

It's been said before, but I'll say it again:

There are a handful of nations that are obviously evil, but most of the nations in Dominions can be largely good, largely evil, or mixed, depending on who their god is, and the vast majority of nations in the game have access to both good and evil gods (e.g. the master druid versus the lich).

Consider EA Arcocephale for instance, which is nation 0 on the list and probably one of the first nations we become familiar with. Apart from institutionalized slavery, EA Arcocephale has all of the hallmarks of being a good nation: priestesses that study healing and nature magic, an alliance with noble nature spirits of the mountains, and a culture that values knowledge and learning. Combine all of these with a Virtue or an Athena-style female titan and you have a kingdom of goodness and light. But what if your pretender is a Moloch instead?

[SelfishGene]

That's true - you could make an apologetic Dom-4 Pretender with full good scales for Ashen Empire Ermor. She's not trying to kill you, sorry about that whole death dominion thing! Or take Tir Na N'Og with full Misfortune, Drain, and Death, and make a monster SC pretender.

Which points out that the nation might tend towards one side or another, the god that you choose to create for them reflects their current alignment more than their historical background.

[Deonmag]

Evil trying to be good are doomed to destruction by even greater evil.

[Alderanas]

I would say Pangaea is a good nation even if they have to kick us lousy humans on our asses a few times to rebuild nature. haha