Morality

In Heimr, good and evil are words that describe the morality of actions. What is good and what is evil are not things thought up by mortal philosophers. What is good and what is evil is strictly defined by Ratish, the god of morality, this is stated in Genesis 1 verse 1 sentence 5.

Ratish defined a "good" act in the following way:

• Acts that you think are helping others fulfill their desired goals with the only needed intend of enriching their existence.
  or:
• Acts that you think are protecting others from harm with the only needed intend to keep their lives from eroding.

Both form of actions are good actions.

"Only needed intend" is defined as in "if all other for you positive factors where excluded from the act, you would still do it."

Their is no place for misinterpretation in this definition.

The following actions are examples of good aligned actions:
With the only needed intend of enriching that person his existence...
... giving a person resources.
... giving a person advice on how to pass an obstacle that he wants to pass.
... physically helping a person pass an obstacle that he wants to pass.

This includes:

• Stealing from the rich with the intend to give everything to the poor.
• Giving a person bad advice, if you didn't knew it was bad advice.
• Killing an entire village of innocence because you feel this will please your dark master.

Especially the last action needs some clarification: This is only a good act if you truly only intend to please your master even if he would give you no reward for it and doesn't threaten you with punishment if you do not do it. This only happens if you are misguided and therefor innocent yourself. You might be under a spell. You might have been kept in a basement with your master as your only compagny never learning that killing people, although making your master happy, makes other people sad. This situation is extremely rare and will probably never happen on Heimr without clouding the mind of the one acting with the help of magic... or foolish love.

The following actions are more examples of good aligned actions:
With the only needed intend of keeping that persons his existence from eroding...
... sheltering a person from physical harm.
... sheltering a person from mental anguish.
... protecting him from his own mistakes.

This includes:

• Killing a person that is going to kill another person.
• Lying to your lover so she doesn't find out you are cheating.
• Locking a person up because he will go to drug parties otherwise and you think the drugs will hurt him more than locking him up.

Especially those first two need some clarification: Killing somebody to save somebody is only a good act if you would also have done it if your truly only needed intend is to save the other person.
You hate elves, therefor you want to kill them.
You love trolls, therefor you want to save them.
If you kill the elf to save the troll, you have two intends, one killing the elf because you hate him and two saving the troll because you love him. But if you did not hated the elf would you still have killed him? And if you where certain that you would never again see any trace of the troll you saved would you still have gone trough the trouble of saving him? What if you dind't hated elves and where certain you would never see any trace of the troll and their is no other reason that you can think of that would make you perform this act apart from keeping the trolls existence from eroding for his sake, would you still have done it? If the answer is yes, it is a good deed.
Lying about cheating is a good act because you shelter a person from mental anguish, but it is only a good act if that is the only needed intention. You probably also lie about it because your lover would be angry at you if you spoke the truth. But if that is all gone. If their would be no harm in it for you for telling the truth... would you still lie for the sake of your lover? If yes, than the act of lying is a good act. The act of cheating however... might be Evil . (If you cheat with the only needed intend of making the person you cheat with happy, you are actually performing a good act.)

This definition means that your good acts together with ignorance could make the world a horrible place. But the more you know the more chance their is that you will make the world a better place with your good acts. So knowledge (usually of other peoples wishes and intentions) is often sought after by people that understand this principle.

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