Nietzsche, Drizzt Do’Urden, and The Morality of Good and Evil Races in Fantasy
an excerpt:
“
PART 6 – FANTASY RACES/SPECIES AND MORALITY
The first question is, ‘Do individuals within that species have free will?’ Mindless pawns and automatons don’t make choices, so their morality is a mere reflection of the being that controls them.
In the Tolkien world, all ‘corrupted races’ were ultimately controlled by Morgoth/Sauron and ultimately were without free will. They were predatory, expansionist beings dedicated to spreading darkness and conquering the parts of the world that were still good and uncorrupted. They were evil in the Christian/slave sense because they violated various human moral rules as found in the real world, but good to the degree in the Roman/Master sense to the degree that they produced worthy challenges for the adventuring Fellowship.
Ultimately they existed as cannon fodder for the good guys to overcome, and for simple stories, maybe that’s good enough. Maybe it’s not important if the random kobold troop bandits your PCs encounter on the road to Waterdeep have deep, meaningful inner lives where they wrestle with existential questions and self-reflect on their place in the wider world.
But then again, maybe it’s more fun if they do. It could be interesting to do a kobold campaign where there’s dissent in their ranks and different leaders are fighting for control”