Justifications

"It is done." said Nym quietly as she returned to where she'd left her father. Silently the two half-elves and their companions slipped through the forest back toward the cottage. Light filtered through the dense canopy and undergrowth onto Nym's skin. She noted that their passage through the trees was so quiet, not even the forest animals were stirred by their movement. Nym soon became absorbed in her thoughts on the boar's death.

...If I hadn't killed him, the plant would have. But does that make it right? Is that justified? ...The vine needed the boar to live much like a morning glory needs the other flowers to climb to the sun. Should I interfere with life like this? Who am I to become the judge and executioner? What right have I to decide who, or what, lives or dies?

And what of the creatures we killed in Baldur's Gate? Yes, they killed, but what right do I have to decide they should be killed? Do wicked deeds deserve to be returned in kind? Even if they do, who am I, who is anyone, to be the punisher of the wicked? Who is not wicked, at least in part?

And what of the men from the Sea Star? Surely they were not all that evil, and yet we killed them. We killed all of them. I killed the first mate myself. Surely they had family, friends... How am I so much better that I should have killed them? Why should any of us be allowed to decide who should live and who should die? If murder is approved by the many, is is not still murder? Am I any better than those who killed my friends in Thay?

Nym could think of no justifications and no answers that were in any way satisfactory.