Originally Posted by
Tergon
Chipping in a little late, but I don't think that Sithis counts as being evil, really. He's simply the opposite of creation. Nothing as opposed to Something. The Dark Brotherhood don't go around plotting genocide or wiping out all life; they simply go hunting after those who have been named for Sithis to feed on. By no means does this make him good! Rather, I just think that Sithis is something so alien, so utterly outside the concept of morality, that "Good" or "Evil" no longer apply to him. He's not openly malevolent, he's not remarkably destructive, he's just there, on the other side of creation, perfectly content to sit and wait for all eternity knowing that everything will return to nothingness in time. His servants may be evil, and their methods may seem evil, but Sithis himself I don't think counts.
Really, what measure do we have for Evil in the Elder Scrolls universe? Half of the Daedric Lords aren't even malevolent, they just obey their natures and do what is required of them in their role as the physical embodiment of the power they wield. The Aedra aren't much better - oh, sure, Kynareth is the kind and pure God of the wilds. So go ahead, take off your armour and weapons, put on an Amulet of Kynareth, pray at a shrine for the blessing, and then go see how friendly that Cave Bear is now.
For mortal beings it's no less gray. Theft, murder and manipulation are all things that a moral person can end up doing over the course of the games. Ripping out the souls of sentient beings is a casual occurence. Killing good people who've committed no crimes, well, what side of the civil war did you fight on? And how many soldiers did you kill who were "Just doing their jobs"?
Even most of the monsters you end up fighting barely count. Werewolves and vampires are scary, yes. But they're sentient beings infected with a disease that even the most moral person can catch, and which will force them to transform against their will. And the transformation makes them hungry. They need to feed. It just so happens that what they eat is people, but is that their fault? You can say that if they give in to their natures and attack the innocent, that's bad... but they're simply killing weaker beings for their own benefit. Is that more evil than a wolf killing a rabbit? Or than the Physical God that is the Dovahkiin storming a cave full of confused, frightened bandits and slaughtering them all with magic and steel and The Voice, just to gain some gold and experience?
The only being in all of Tamriel who has a case for being called truly evil is Alduin, who wants to dominate all creation before devouring it for no other reason than because he can. And even he is only doing this because that's the nature of his being as the son of Akatosh. To him, ending the world is about as dramatic as stepping on an anthill. Needlessly and pointlessly destructive, but something that's so far from significant to him that it might legitimately have never occured to him that it could be wrong.
I'm just saying, if we're going to say that someone is evil, you have to have a clear picture of what exactly "Evil" means in this universe, and I don't think that it's really fair to put that label on anyone.