Quote Originally Posted by NichG View Post
Yeah, I think I'd be in that last group. The only things I can imagine that would be unforgivable are things which are actively, willfully ongoing. It's too easy for me to imagine someone doing something, however horrible, then having their mind be effectively completely rewritten (instantly, through 1000 years of atonement, whatever), and then being asked to believe that even despite that, I should hold that previous act undertaken by a radically different persona against the new persona - just because it happens to be inhabiting the same flesh/mind/soul/whatever as the old one.

On the other hand, if you change the persona like that, and the new one refuses to stop doing the continuing horrible thing, that takes it into a realm where I can start to imagine 'unforgivable' . And even then, for me it'd need to be something purely willful, where the person could actually do differently without any real consequence but still chooses to do the horrible thing. OOC at least (I'm not a paladin after all) I'm willing to at least entertain the argument that there are situations in which something horrible happens to a few people but a much larger number of people are prevented from coming to harm by it.

So what I'm looking for if I'm going to judge someone 'unforgivable' is a willful, continuing set of acts of horribleness that could be avoided but where the person is choosing to do so anyhow.
If you're "completely rewriting" the person, then perhaps yes,they could be forgiven. But that's introducing a new scenario, not proving the existing one "bad." Besides, a lich who was willing to go to such lengths to preserve his own existence would consider such a death of personality at least as unacceptable as actual final death.

The idea behind the utterly reprehensible act which must be committed to become a lich is that you can't do it and be a good person. You can't even be neutral and engage in such willful evil, even once.

Sure, you can construct odd corner cases around this, but they generally are going to involve incredible ignorance or effectively destroying the lich who did it. Want your excuse for a "good lich" who was born as one because the old one's mind was completely replaced by this new, genuinely nice and kind person? Okay, go for it.