I do enjoy the "which god/civ/whatever would you follow in Erebus" threads. But in the civ thread, most people chose neutral or good civs... for obvious reasons. But what if you had to choose one of the evil civilizations to live under? What would be the least of Erebus' myriad evils?

For me, it'd have to be the Balseraphs. Life would be dangerous, yes. I'd have to either keep my head down and avoid getting noticed by the wrong people, or do my best to get noticed by the right people and try to become a nobleman entertaining the mad king and amassing personal wealth. It would be an interesting life... just hopefully not interesting in the wrong way.

I have 2 choices:
Svalts under Faeryl Rule and FoL religion, should be some fighter/assasin/ranger. Ranger prolly. Fighting with my panteras defending ancient woods that save in their deeps occult glades of Unseelie witches.

2nd is Illian ranger, as opposite bringing silence to wrld and fighting for great stasis.

I think I answered this before but definitely the Balseraphs (yeah I know, what a shocker). The beautiful thing about the Balseraphs is that there is room for people who are not themselves evil. Either a sommelier who serves wine to only a select few nobles or a play-write who crafts theater used to subversively encourage minor disention. As long as I do it in an entertaining way I'm sure Perpentach will let it slide.

I love the Balph. It would be awesome.

Infernal.

No fear of death (you would have already of died...), no fear of enemy troops (they would fear you though...), and a chance to serve Hyborem....

Balseraphs. Imagine the posible thesis from linguistic and literature you could defend ...words that destroy your ability to think in the same way as normals...phrases that trap you inside your own dreamed words....plays that unsleash postmodern haze of changing identites upon their audience....Idioms that make you see the world in a grain of sand...

i would join the svartalfar. they seem to be evil in that they treat any outsiders cruelly while for the most part they treat their people fine. i may be way off on that though.

In rough order:

1) The Illians. Yeah, they're pretty much fascists. So? It's not like anyone else is much nicer to foreigners, and at least they're all united behind promises of a glorious future. Besides, Mulcarn was always the least evil of the Evil Gods.

2) The Svartlafar. I imagine you could just keep your head down and get by okay. You won't get backstabbed so long as nobody views you as a threat. Or an inconvienence.

3) The Balseraphs. So long as you don't draw the attention of Perpentach, you're relatively safe. There's also lots of fun stuff to do in the Balseraph lands, and you never lack for entertainment. They're ranked below the Svartlafar and Illians only because your next batch of entertainment could randomly turn out to be the one where your soul gets stolen or you get mutiliated horribly and cast out of society.

4) The Clan of Embers. Everyone on Erebus hates you, and your society is savage and warlike. You also mostly lack the comforts of civilization. These guys come in fourth because the next three are even worse.

5) The Doviello. Much like the clan, except there's not a trace of noble savage in your society. These people are crazy. If you're weak under the Clan, you might be considered worthless; if you're weak under the Doviello, you get eaten. Plus they use the corpses of their enemies as improvised weapons, for Junil's sake.

6) The Calabim. Far, far worse than any of the above, because the society is saturated with despair. There is no hope for escape. There is no hope of finding meaning in your life. You exist for the sole purpose of being eaten by your vampire overlords.

7) The Infernals. Your will is stripped from you, you are tortured and twisted into an unfeeling monster, your world is filled with horrible flames and sulfur, and your only desire is to spread your misery on to others in what amounts to a petulant child's dramatic act of protest.

why no actual poll? heh

mew missed sheaim

id go calabim if there was any hope of becoming a vampire, and svartalfar if not

why no actual poll? heh

mew missed sheaim

id go calabim if there was any hope of becoming a vampire, and svartalfar if not
*facepalm.*
I felt like I forgot something.

Yeah, I'll go svart too. They're not too bad, and I can hide my nationality in case anyone asks :p

Svartalfar. Their evil lies in mischief and harm to others, mostly others who did not necessarily ask for any trouble. But I think the Svartalfar treat their people fairly well. And there are few people dumb enough to try to bring the pain to the Svartalfar, so you are comparatively safe from hostile takeover.

I have to say I agree with Sureshot, with Balseraphs being third.

Most likely I would choose the Balseraphs because Svartlafar society is a very dangerous place no matter what especially as a guy. With all the backstabbing and treachery it would be very hard to trust anyone. At least by going Balseraph all I would need to do would avoid attention and the truly insane.

Calabim, if there's any chance of being a Vampire or at least a Moroi

If not then the Balseraphs because as long as I blend in by being outrageous, not to much as that might draw attention, I'd be safe.

If I were a woman, the Svartalfar would be an easy choice. Sure, the society is treacherous, but predictably so. It wouldn't be an enormous effort to learn how the society worked and live an reasonably pleasant existence. As a man, however, the choice becomes more difficult (as the Svartalfar are strongly female-dominated). The Illians don't seem too bad, although perpetual cold isn't all that pleasant. The Balseraphs are also probably not bad at all provided you stay far away from Perpentach and Keelyn.

Probably Sheiam or Ilians. Your average Sheiam probably has a (relatively) decent lot in life, given that crazed murderers are often what passes as rulers in these evil societies. The one issue would be all the burning corpses walking around, not to mention the demons that show up from time-to-time...

Ilians because....well, it's not great, but it sounds better than the others, especially the Calabim. Unless, of course, you have no problem poisoning thousands like Losha...

Svartalfar because it seems that the actual elves are treated well. I imagine the entire race imagines itself superior to all others, so while outsiders are betrayed, decieved, and tortured, elves are treated with respect.

It's sort of a toss-up between the Illians and the Sheaim for me as well. Auric is about as sane and reasonable as one could hope for among the Evil leaders, and life would probably be all right provided I didn't mind the idea of returning the world to eternal winter.

Meanwhile, at least I'd get to experiment with cool world-destroying magic before I died horribly if I were among the Sheaim. That'd be all right.

I imagine most women would have no problem with the Sheaim. Probably not Svartalfar, either.

Remember that death in a fantasy world is different to death in the real world (for all I know).
With the whole souls thing and gods existing, I imagine there are lots of niches that involve a life (and, especially, death) not worse than one in a neutral or good civ.
At the very least, life would be very, very interesting :P.

Balseraphs sound very interesting in that they aren't evil due to any evil agenda, but due to their chaos, unpredictability, and lack of morals. The civilopedia entry of Garrim Gyr (?) is a prime example of this.
Besides, the insanity would be centered around Perpentach and Keelyn, so I suppose as long as one wouldn't draw their attention (or engage in power struggles with the "normal" leaders), one would be fine. And as has already been said, there would be real entertainment, from the normal to the insane, but entertaining in any case.
I figure the Balseraphs would follow OO, so as a priest of that religion, one would be kind of fine, too. One's own insanity would blend in well with the insanity of the civ :P.

Calabim society sounds nice with becoming a vampire, but if that's impossible/not certain, this is probably the last choice. If it isn't, I guess this (or life in a Sidar civilization) would be far better choices for those who want nothing to do with the gods than the Grigori (after all, when you die, they kind of get you back, don't they?).

Sheaim with the AV sound great, too. You get incomparable magical power and ancient forbidden knowledge, trying to bring about the world's end (which might involve your death, but not necessarily your end, although I'm not sure what the possible outcomes of a successful Armageddon in respect to one's soul are).
This society would probably be among the easiest to rise up in power, too, seeing how their magical secrets are shared openly. Then again, power always has a cost...but not having power would be much more costly in a society that sacrifices the weak.

Svartalfar society sounds rather humane to its own citizens, as has been said previously, and I figure being a priest (of CoE or FoL) or a druid might give a male the best chances to survive in a female-dominated society of backstabbers. Or simply leading a normal life without being in a position of power.

The Luichuip Leader you're thinking of is Beeri Bawl.

The Calabim, absolutely. Of course I am a vampire. If I can't be on the top of the food chain, the dullness of my current life will do. And as the hunter feeds, he will live to feed again. (And forget that sunlight crap, vampires are just superior to humans in many way and have no specific weaknesses, except perhaps numbers. And soon Kael will say they instadie in sun...)

It has been explicitly stated (because of a curse from Lugus, an acolytle of whom was Alexi' first victim) that the sun weakens vampires and causes them pain, but is non-lethal.

Illians, I would choose, they're the less dystopian of all the Evils. Followed up by The Kingdom of the Good Ol' Clown Perp, the Balseraphs (they're second because I dislike completely random things, and even more if they can be deadly) and the Sheaim, powerful wizards that can destroy anything they want, and have the power to do so, Oh yes, I would want to be one of these.

And at the Bottom of my list are, the Calabim (I dislike both being cattle for some overgrown vampire bats, or being a bloodsucker), the Doviello and the Clan (I'm not a tough person, so these societies would dislike me) and the Infernal, Fire is an element that I dislike.

I think the Calabim are getting a bit of bad press here....

At least with the Calabim you know the score, yes, you're potential food, but for the most part a law abiding citizen will likely be left to their own devices. Indeed, it's possible to imagine that it'd be possible to rise through the ranks without the gift - the farmer who improves yield (...and thus bolsters the foodstock of the upper crust), the bureacrat who keeps the census. The Calabim would be looking for the most gifted (and loyal) to join the heirarchy.

Contrast that with the horror of the Balseraphs - where an ordinary person going about their business could find themselves being entertained one moment, and then being the entertainment themselves the next.

Three possibilities, although I'd love to live under a new Civ that would be a mixture of all three: Balseraphs (for their insanity), Sheaim ("A free chance to destroy the world? Hell sure I'm in!") and Calabim (vampires!). Just like everyone else, I see.
Or the Bannor (or the Malakim, saying that) with Evil Decius.

I would live a short life under Faeryl -- it would be nice to be an elf, even if I had to be the kind of elf that always fears a knife in the back and poison in the food.

I would probably choose Illians, because men are not treated very well in a Svartalfar society.

Though Doviello or Clan of Embers societies would in my opinion be the opposite of civilization and so less desirable, i wouldn't either be tempted from living in a Balseraph society. It's just too sinister and probably any sane man would just go crazy really soon in that kind of society. Hyborem is not an option ;), while Sheaim is just pure craziness.

Or the Bannor (or the Malakim, saying that) with Evil Decius.

I could live in an evil Amurites civ (AV or OO), as long as I was not the subject of the experiments . . .

Sometimes I think some of the more good civs are evil. Especially when it comes to crusades, burning witches, and "Well, we only have a 1% chance of being right that they are a witch, but we'll burn them anyways to be safe".

For me, I'd perfer to live with either Calabim (I am smart, I'd invent 10000 FPS suncream lotion), or under the Balseraph but only if Keeyln was the one in charge, because she is less likely to put a sword in my face and say its a gift of good luck.