Re: IEN Fascists?

On Tue, 20 Jan 1998, Adam Miller wrote:

> 	This happens with almost any pre-modern war, and with most modern
> wars.  What I dislike about your arguement is that it seems you are
> holding the IEN to standards that even the modern US military cannot
> uphold.  Though elves live a long time, they can and do make mistakes.
> Though I hate to use the term (but I can't think of another), elves are
> only "human."  They have emotions and feelings, just like everyone
> else.  How would you feel if these savage orcs attacked and burned Texas
> (or any other state) to the ground, killing and eating everyone the met
> (including, for arguement's sake, members of your family?  Your
> parents?  Your wife?)?  You'd want to kill them all.  I know I would.  I
> would use every weapon at my disposal to wipe their kind from the face
> of the Earth.  By the fact that the elves showed any restraint (by not
> using captured marauders) should prove their "good intentions."

The point here is that the elves fired first.  That is one of the reasons
the goblinoids developed (among other things) Witchlight Marauders.  They
SAW the elves attack and destroy their worlds.  They SAW the elves murder
their wives, their children, their friends, and entire communities.  They
fought back just as brutally as the elves who started it.  They did "want
to kill them all".  They did want to "use every weapon at [their] disposal
to wipe their kind from the face of the Earth".

I'm not trying to hold elves to "standards not even the modern US military
can uphold".  I am trying to hold them to the standards they hold
themselves to, according to everything I have read about AD&D elves.
Worldsmashing, treaty-twisting, and genocide are not part of the elven
code of ethics.  Justifying them by claiming "the orcs did it first" when
the elves actually started the war is no justification at all.

The goblinoids are evil.  I'm not claiming otherwise.  I am saying that
the elves, by sinking to their level and using ther methods, became what
they were fighting.  Once that happened, there was no difference between
the two sides.

Rich Gant