Why are evil deities allowed to exist Veeky Forums?

I have no clue if this has a deeper meaning or if you're on drugs.

This is a retarded question and op is retarded for asking it.

It could easily be flipped around and become meaningless.

Because when titans directly fight men die in their shdaow

What is good?

Fire Emblem Awakening had a good answer to this.

There was a god of Destruction and a goddess of Creation. Although they could injure the other, it would only make the opposing deity go into a healing slumber. Neither were powerful enough to kill each other. The only way one of them could die was if they themselves or something born of their own power were to kill them

>55330888
>In this imaginary scenario I'm going to make up a bunch of bullshit preceonceived notions but then not share them, then slowly dole out the premises of my scenario so that I may smugly refute other peoples ideas, which I misread anyway

So I don't know if you're trolling or sadly illiterate or unironically being the 'nuh uh I have a forcefield' guy in this game of pretend we had going on, but I've gone from 'intrigued enough to play along and make a post in good faith' to 'wow this user is a pain in my ass'

cya cunt

Evil deities are CLEARLY better at killing, so the question should be why GOOD deities are allowed to exist.

No, no it doesn't we just want to believe it does because we have some arbitrary morality that says that x is good y is bad and so x must win.

None of that is true though, there is no evidence to say that good always prevails, it's just some stupid mantra we repeat whenever things look dark so that we don't fall into some soul crushing despair and give up.

aaaaand I now realize op is a faggot and I took the bait.

>Good always prevails.
Only in stories. In the real world, Good rarely if ever does.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimurti
You don't need drugs to see that good and evil are hands that wash each other. Just stare at the Yin-Yang until it clicks.

That said, I fucked it up- Brahma is the creative force, not Vishnu. It still applies, but the opposites had a better cognitive cohesion.

Because the evil God is stronger. Good gods are small, local, living among the people. Evil is omnipresent.

Because it's more than dualistic alignments.

Gods have portfolios, archetypes, cosmic meanings.

Rather than ask why evil gods exist, why not ask why they are viewed as evil?

A god of fire could be good or evil, depending on their actions and followers. Are they the cleansing flame, whose fire destroys the wicked yet leaves the pure? Are they the destructive flame, whose fire consumes all, and to whom is sacrificed children to feed his hunger?

And what would happen if either were destroyed? Would fire exist without one? Would a new god emerge? Would they return from the ashes like a phoenix?

1. Evil gods just hide better. Or fight better.
2. Both good and evil gods are immortal and cannot kill each other.
3. They live on different planes of existence and only interfere with mortals but not with each other.
4. They feed on their followers' devotion, both good and evil gods have followers and can only be killed by killing all their followers and ruining all temples, and then killing their manifestation.
5. Good and evil deities are not actually good or evil per se, they disagree on some ideas but are in fact friends to each other.
6. They represent cosmic concepts, and killing a deity requires destroying a crucial element of the world. Alternatively, the god that kills a certain deity must become a substitute to what he has killed, i.e. become evil.

OP is an actual mental retard, go easy on him guys

Man. First use some common (fantasy) sense, second read some BASIC god fluff in your setting.

For God to be an absolute Good, there must be an absolute Evil.

its not for lack of trying
most of the time, good and evil are at each other's throats since the dawn of time
they would like to kill the other, but they cant

the usual excuse is that good and evil are equal in power, and even no side, even when allied with mortals, has enough oomph to permanently stop the other, just drive them back temporarily

Becsuse evil deities usually look more sexy, so they might be evil but the eye candy justifies their existence.

>Good always prevails.
Where did you get that retarded idea from

...

If you remove "evil" then "good" no longer has any meaning without an opposite.

Why are good deities allowed to exist on Veeky Forums?

If there are evil deities, shouldn't they just kill the good deities?

Good and evil are secretly best friends. You can't have a God of valor, courage, bravery, etc. without something for him to be brave fighting against. Sure, they're opposites, but they need each other. They might fight and put on a show for the mortals, but at worst they're in a co-dependent toxic relationship and at best they're secretly best bros having the time of their life up in Heaven/Olympus/Valhalla/etc.

Since you are talking about DnD, it's because if they kill the god then they have to mantle the aspects.
See Tempus and Garagos.

>good deities
>kill

It's the other way around:
if there are evil deities, shouldn't they kill the good deities?
And then try to kill each other?

Turn it on its head.

Evil deities are only evil because they were the gods of the people conquered by the dominant culture of the region.

Set is a god of evil in ancient Egypt but was supposedly worshipped by another trip before being merged into greater Egypt.

I understood that part. I was more confused by what you meant by "cloven duality." I look it up, and all I find is some illegible Elder Scrolls shit.

Ha, yeah it is
Think of a cloven hoof: it's bisected into distinct parts. Duality isn't distinct. It's a line so long that you can't see it curve into a circle.

>only Neutral moral relativity
I hate fence sitters

The response to your dumb op should have been, "Depends on the setting."

Killing evil Gods only treats a symptom, not a cause. As long as evil exists, evil Gods will be born from it. So why don't the good Gods destroy the concept of evil?

Because we won't let them.

Ah, now I understand. Two opposites (good and evil, life and death, time and spice) need not necessarily be opposed or even unconnected.

Asking the right questions here user. But it might be best to just kill them all.

Cleave. Now, that's a funny word.
You can cleave something apart, or you can cleave something together.

>If there are good deities, shouldn't they kill the evil deities?
This happened in the backstory of my homebrew setting. Now most of the setting's issues are caused from the residual problems the dying evil gods unleashed to get revenge, good/neutral gods bickering with each other and instigating conflicts, or newly-born evil gods not understanding the previous status quo and screwing over everyone.
True evil makes itself indispensible. No matter how much it might hurt to keep it around, it always makes sure that things will become far worse for everyone if you eliminate it.

Gods exemplify principles. Killing an evil god might weaken evil for a time, but not destroy it and there would inevitably be a replacement.

Alternatively, what's neutral on the cosmic scale can simultaneously be evil on the human scale. The principle of evolution, consumption, etc...

>If there are good deities, shouldn't they kill the evil deities?
Because they evil deities are sexier and fuck like the universe is ending.

When gods fight gods no one wins

If they've got big tits and they claw at each other or blast their tops off then everybody wins

Because without evil there can be no good

>why doesn't good destroy evil?
Because there is always room for forgiveness. If you destroy the heathen, he cannot repent his ways.

Good gods want bad gods to be good, too. And if they kill them, that will never happen. Some good gods might content themselves with merely smiting bad gods, but it's right there, user.

Because without Good there can be no Evil, and without Evil there can be no Good.

They exist in a permanent balance, we knoiw that to be the case as they both exist, it's an example of the anthropic principle, the universe exists as it does and allows us to observe it because if the universe was any other way we would not exist to observe it.

Go home Weiss and Hickman, you're drunk.

...Just go with the Zoroastrian route?

The good god(s) and the bad god(s) are equal or near equal in power and every action mortals make tilts the cosmic balance in favour of one side or the other. Makes more sense than pretty much every other mythology with a good/evil cosmic dichotomy.

Is that supposed to be Lolth prior to her being cast into the Demonweb Pits?

You tell them, user.

Why are evil people allowed to exist, user? Why don't you just go and kill a few evil people and make things better?
Answer: because they have a fairly even chance of killing you instead, and there's plenty of them out there and even an event contest probably results in a 50% loss chance for you, and maybe THAT'S generous depending on how fit you are.

Any fight between deities has a massive impact on the mortal realm. The good gods are good, and are unwilling to force massive casualties upon mortals by starting fights with evil deities.

I thought gods, regardless of alignment, loved the crap out of apocalypses. The more blatant your miracles, the more fervent and fanatical your followers are. Why we haven't had ours yet IRL is beyond me. We just keep getting these everyday 'coincidence' level blips.
Where's your A-game, deists?

...

You don't want to go into a miracle arms race. As long as followers have to work off of faith, you can maintain a steady supply, but the moment Jesus comes down turning water into wine, people're going to start shopping around for religions putting out bigger and bigger miracles.

I mean, apocalypse whatever, the real danger is being run out of business because some buddha comes down and offers eternal happiness.

So it must be good to be evil sometimes!

I can't be the only one who thinks that the practice of "denying (you)s" is the most pathetic thing you can do on Veeky Forums, can I?

>55342787
I don't know what you're talking about.

Epicurean detected. Deploying apologist with papal dispensation.

if gods embody the potential for mortals to act in a certain way as an idealized form of behavior or if the reverse is true and deities exist before the potential of mortals and are responsible for those traits in mortals. Then clearly it's impossible or immoral for the gods to destroy themselves. The former would serve no purpose as the mortals would give rise to new evil gods and if the latter is true than the gods have destroyed a integral part of mortals, nature and reality.
If gods exist independent of mortals, and do not affect mortal traits then it is largely immaterial if there are evil or good gods at all. If all gods were to die then devils and angels would meddle in mortal affairs in their place. Totally destroying one side would fundamentally destroy order in the mortal life. If hell were to be purged of all evil doors then what of mortals? Do mortals go to heaven instead so the cannot become angels? do they get destroyed as soon as they commit crimesm soul and all? By jack winged liberators no doubt. Keeping the world safe of guttersnipe bread thieves, people who cuss too much and jaywalkers no doubt.
The victory of hell is rightly horrific and needs no meanitoning
Imagine being unable to lie or be violent in either self defense or out of anger or rage. Imagine being forced to behave as (good) creatures without fail without choice without that shade of mortal ability.
And even then what happens if they are saddled with two conflicting good imperatives.
No creature could be free without the ability to do wrong, nor would it mean anything if they did.
and i prefer a bit of dangerous freedom to safe slavery

I must protect that smile

No, its just an Eldarin sorceress from a 3.5 splatbook.

If gods battle directly, the Universe starts to come apart at the seams.

Even the Abrahamic set of religions is unironically this. YHWH/God/Allah is a syncretism of the old Semitic sky god cult with ideas from the pre-Zoroastrian "hey, what if my tribe's proto-Vedic god is the one true god, and all the other proto-Vedic gods are actually demons?" thing.

In a world with incarnate gods, though, it's weaker because you can judge them on their actual documented behavior. This is where the "gods are a manifestation of shared concepts" thing fits in so well; the protector may smite the scourge, but there will always be a scourge as long as men fight wars of conquest. (For that matter, the scourge may bring down the protector, but as long as they defend their homes and families there will always be a protector.)

Then you are already lost.
Your soul needs some help user

Only a mortal can kill a god

> ywn receive just wisdom from your own elders, or dance the dog soldier dance
Why live.

Good outright lost in Midnight.

Only took one evil god to do it.

Nystincia by Eva Widerman
eva-widermann.de/project/dungeons-dragons-underdark/

In Christian mythology, Good already HAS won, it just needs to all play out

>If there are good deities, shouldn't they kill the evil deities?

You think they haven't tried?

Incidently, we are talking about stories here.

>In the real world, Good rarely if ever does.

Good may not 'win', but neither does evil. Shit tends to float to the top, every misdeed is eventually exposed.

>believing in good and evil

>Not believing in commonplace things be cause "muh humans made it".

>muh moral relativism

i bet you read nietzche too and post nihilist memes on facebook

No?

Nothing wrong with moral relativism, I myself believe morality is relative, but also that it definitely exists as a sort of informal collective agreement. Denying it's existence is stupid but it can and does fluctuate over time and in different places.

Then help the soul, poser. God may be experiential, but the more you speak of divinity the greater the context they'll have if/when they encounter the numinous.

It's a many-faced god (lowercase) that tells you two incongruous things, yet there is no contradiction because both are true.
Why does water boil? Is it because the water molecules are colliding with each other, or is it because granny wants to make tea? Mathematician's answer.

But it's true. Without evil, there's no need to innovate or strive or do good. You just end up with a big gray blah.

Not really. At least, not in a timespan which actually matters. Most evil people die fat and happy.

Good loses. Evil loses. Death wins. There was never any other way for it to end.

Even the gods must die.

Strange Aeons, etc. etc.

Of course Death will die, when there's nothing else left to die.

Stack up the chairs and lock the door and then... kaput.

That's just proof that evil is winning.

Till the next thing comes around. The universe has a bad habit of making shit from demonstrably nothing. Kalpas, Ages, a new (You)niverse- whatever you'd like to call it.

Death=Evil? How long have you been afraid of death?

Death isn't Evil, user. Good is moral, Evil is immoral, Death is amoral.

Death takes the good, and the bad, and the ugly. Everyone dies, from saints to scourges. Death doesn't care how you use your life, only that your life ends.

I don't know about all that cyclical business, user. Probably just something to make us get our hopes up.

>Death=Evil? How long have you been afraid of death?
How long have you accepted that entropy is inevitable, something not even the Gods can stop? How long have you given up on the idea of a divine kingdom without end?

The existence of death is immoral, though. It doesn't have to be a thing. It's like sand in the divine machine, wearing it down.

No king rules forever, my son.

What is love?

>It doesn't have to be a thing

Do you want the cancerverse? That's how you get the cancerverse. Life, always expanding, unable to die, unable to stop expanding, forever and ever and ever in ceaseless agony.

Hope is funny, y'know? It can be Polaris in the dark of night and guide our way Home, but that same light reminds us just how dark it all is. Do we kindle the fires of hope or try to adjust to the dark? Either way, uncertainty reigns. Fear is the mind killer, the little death, but you can wait it out. Those chemicals rushing through your brain cannot win a battle of attrition against patience.

INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER

>It's like sand
It's coarse and gets everywhere?