Poll: Moral Choice Thread: Necromancy Edition NOTE: read post #15

[kommando367]

If you had to defend a city with hundreds of people in it and had to accept the help of a powerful necromancer to succesfully defend it, would you?

Let me explain;

Let's say that you're in a fantasy RPG world and you have to defend a city from a powerful force on short notice.

A powerful necromancer offers to help defend it with his/her army of undead for free.

This necromancer isn't "generic evil necromancer villian #125", he/she is an anti-hero.

He/she kills the members of the evil factions of the world (including other necromancers)
and reanimates their bodies to use in his/her armies.

Without his/her help, you and your small milita get overrun and the city falls,
costing hundreds of lives with you among them.

With his/her help, the city is succesfully defended, The town people give their thanks/reward to you, your militia, and the necromancer. The necromancer then bids goodbye, raises up your fallen enemies to strengthen his army, and goes off to kill more bad guys.

Which option do you choose?

I'm trying to fix the poll It's supposed to count for opinions on necromancy(hence the other options), but it only shows the first 3 words. Since I can't can't fix the poll, all votes for first 3 options will count as the same thing

 

[TheIronRuler]

You can't think long term here since if you won't accept his help there will be NO long term.
Therefore you need to accept his help and try to capture as many as possible alive.

 

[Sandernista]

Uh, accept his help. (The first one?)

I wouldn't have any problem with it, I might be squick'd if he raised a loved one to use in his army. But otherwise, what's the problem?

 

[Joey Wonton]

Why wouldn't you accept help?

You're doomed unless the dead can save you. And I don't see whats so wrong about using corpses to fight. Even though you could just use a minigun.

 

[TonyVonTonyus]

Without sounding righteous, the evil must be punished and being reanimated into undead slaves to do the bidding of a "good" necromancer sounds like punishment enough.

 

[Richardplex]

Man does not kill the innocent to gain members for army?
Richard does not see problem.

 

[Canid117]

Why would I refuse? I don't care if he has scary looking foot soldiers as long as he isn't helping take over my town. And could I really stop him if I wanted to?

 

[Arsen]

Well, here's the thing: There's no negative option for using the Necromancer or his army for help. Is there some catch? Some inevitability that he could potentially forsake his oath? Is he a turncoat, working for his own needs and methods? Are the dead pulled from the afterlife to seek service in his diabolical skills?

How do you know, in his choice to be the "necromancer", he has not committed automatic, unholy evil?
What "sect" or "religious belief" does this necromancer procure?
What will be the repercussions of your actions?
Who down the road will see what you have done and decide to go against you for nothing other than association with the man, if not for the good of the city?
What social turmoil will it cause should the populace and public gain knowledge of such a thing?
Could such knowledge be used against you?

 

[FalloutJack]

-When we last left our heroes...-

The term 'railroad' comes to mind.

 

[Vault Citizen]

How is this a moral choice? Man with means to help offering to help and the only consequences are that more bad guys die than would have and less innocent people die than would have otherwise.

Am I missing something or is this a poorly constructed question?

 

[Chappy]

Accept his help? Heck if he's an Anti hero who isn't reanimating innocents and is killing the aggressors I'd make a Permanent Alliance.

Put me down as a yes to accepting the Necromancer help.

 

[The_Vigilant]

It would be a much more interesting question if the necromancer was, in fact, a villain. And you knew that as soon as the battle ended he would terrorize the city, steal a few virgins for his experiments, and take everything of value. So that in effect, by defeating one evil with his help you would be strengthening another (him). But at least the town would survive, albeit in a state of despair and poverty.

 

[kommando367]

I originally intended the thread for those under the the impression that "Necromancy is by default evil and those that practice it are all evil or are doomed to be corrupted by the power" or something like that.

I wanted to see the general opinion of necromancy weighed against a potential necessity for it and because of the lack of text space on the poll, I couldn't get the answers I was looking for.

 

[JaceArveduin]

Chaotic Neutral disposition says I arbitrarily help the town with his help. I then proceed to wreck the next town over to balance out my karma.

 

[Not-here-anymore]

I like not dying. Give me a necromancer. I'd just make sure that any battle plan involved throwing undead at the enemy, because fuck it, they're already dead. Hopefully that would limit the pool of recently deceased my new morbidly inclined friend would have access to. Just in case they do decide to use their new army to assault my further weakened position. I'd also ask them if they had some kind of fail-safe magical item in case of demonic possession/actually being a closet evil bastard. I would then test this item before the battle, just to make sure it didn't actually make the undead hordes stronger when they were fighting me.

It's not that I automatically distrust anyone playing with death magic, it's just that years of fantasy stories' insistence that necromancy is bad, coupled with zombies, leaves me a little wary.

 

[Not-here-anymore]

I'm trying to fix the poll It's supposed to count for opinions on necromancy(hence the other options), but it only shows the first 3 words. Since I can't can't fix the poll, all votes for first 3 options will count as the same thing

Apologies for the double post, but I don't know if edited-in quotes still notify people... Could you not just write in the first post what the options were meant to be, so people can see them?

 

[Laser Priest]

I kill the bloody bastard and take control of his armies.

Trying to raise another army of the dead in my territory? Who does he think he is?

 

[badgersprite]

Depends on the type of character I'm playing at the time. In most cases, yes, I probably would accept the help.