So, Malack...

[pendell]

:kish: The fact that Malack thinks being convicted in an Empire of Blood court makes someone no longer innocent in some morally meaningful way is not to Malack's credit.
:pendell: Really? I don't think so.

My point is that being convicted in an EOB court may very well mean that the person convicted is actually guilty of a moral crime. So I don't dismiss the EOB's courts as morally bankrupt. Lawful Evil, yes. But "Lawful Evil" and "bankrupt" aren't the same thing.

A lawful evil regime imprisons and punish those that break its laws. This means that in addition to the Princess Leias imprisoned unfairly there is any number of murderers, rapists , thieves, necromancers who would be found guilty of lawbreaking in ANY nation and ANY lawful society would punish.

Consider the Bastille , once upon a time considered the ultimate symbol of oppression. But when it was actually broken into, only one of the seven prisoners was a political criminal -- the balance consisted of 4 forgers, 1 person guilty of "sexual misdemeanors", and 1 madman.

If Malack's regime is anything like that regime, then the odds are at least 50% that a person convicted of a crime in an EOB court would also have been convicted of that same crime in Azure City and punished the same way. I think we'll find that the number of innocent people in EOB prisons is strikingly low. After all, in ANY human society selfishness, avarice, greed and brutality is distressingly common enough to fill our prisons. The reason martyrs like Gandhi or Nelson Mandela have such a hold on our minds is precisely because they are rare. There were a LOT of people in South African and British jails at the same time, and most of them were NOT noble activists.

So I have no doubt that if Malack wanted to be picky and dine only on reprehensible criminals rather than good types offending a lawful evil system by being good, he would not starve. Given the character of the citizens of the Empire of Blood as seen on panel, he could probably gorge to the size of the Empress and still not make a dent.

ETA: Although, from a lawful neutral perspective, it probably doesn't matter whether an offense against law was done from a good cause or an evil one. The fact that the laws were offended is sufficient cause to punish the offender -- with imprisonment or death, whether in the arena or by blood-sucking vampire.

Respectfully,

Brian P.