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axis shows up for a trial
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Nirvana probably won't win this trial.

That's okay; Nirvana argues for lots of trials they won't win. There are trials where the goal is to get someone out of Hell, into Axis, or even from Hell into Abaddon, where at least the petitioner has a choice. This one will be to try to get the petitioner to Elysium, or maybe just the Maelstrom if the Abyss does a good job.

If the court decides that the petitioner is morally Neutral first, then Nirvana will be forced to argue that she is also systemically Neutral—because then the less stringent requirements for sorting petitioners who might otherwise be considered True Neutral apply. Nirvana can only argue for alignments that aren't Neutral Good once Neutral Good has been ruled out. Nirvana probably won't try hard for True Neutral, even though Neutral Good would probably be better for the petitioner's soul than Elysium, because the less stringent requirements could also put her on the side of Evil.

Which argument should Nirvana push first, systemic or moral? If moral goes first, then if she's found Neutral morally, Nirvana can back off on arguing for systemic Neutrality, and if she's found Evil, Nirvana can at least try to give the petitioner the choice of Evil afterlife by arguing for systemic Neutrality. Whereas no matter what happens, if systemic goes first, Nirvana can't adjust strategies. It's always optimal to argue for Good.

Okay, moral first, then systemic.

Althur, Nirvana's representative, looks up.

Who else has arrived?

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Elysium is here, represented by a giant part-tree part-lion angel, blowing in a nonexistent wind, and bizarrely shrunk down to be the same approximate size as the rest of the representatives.

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The Maelstrom is also here, represented by... a bicycle stuck in a tree.

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The abyss is also here, represented by a fairly typical demon.

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That's everyone Althur expected.

The Elysium and Maelstrom representatives are relatively weird for their class of outsider. And have bicycles even been invented yet in the world the petitioner is from?

The Abyss has a more conventional representative. It looks like a predator, which means it's almost certainly an ex-mortal of some kind. (The never-mortal ones are weirder.)

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The Judge appears and surveys the gathered representatives clustered on one half of the alignment chart.

"All right, I'm going to get the petitioner now. Any arguments before I bring them?"

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"Your honor, Axis v. The Abyss, -13701, ruled that outsiders are forbidden from revealing technology unknown to a mortal's world without an allocatur from a Pharasmin court. The representative of The Maelstrom is in the form of a bicycle, which I believe is unknown to Golarion, and I don't believe any such writ was provided in the pre-trial brief?"

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"The decedent is not a mortal but a petitioner, a type of outsider. The precedent doesn't apply"

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"A petitioner is bound by that requirement if there is a chance of resurrection. The bound for, quote, displaying reproductions of technology or blueprints of technology with the accuracy required to reproduce said technology, unquote, requires a lower chance of resurrection than required to hold a trial."

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The bicycle shifts until it is no longer a functioning bicycle, merely two wheels, some gears, and a chain, held together by an assortment of metal tubes.

"Acceptable?"

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"Acceptable."

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"Very well then."

The Judge disappears from the courtroom for twelve seconds, and when he reappears—

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—a second before he reappears, an origami axiomite appears at the desk reserved for representatives of Axis—

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—he has with him the decedent. She doesn't have the shaken look nor the confusion of some petitioners who died a violent death.

"This court is now in session, in the matter of In re Safira.

"Do you know where you are?"

    "The Boneyard."

"Does it sound to you like we are speaking in a language you understand, using words you are familiar with, at a speed you can follow?"

    "Yes."

"Do you understand that you had, while alive, the capacity to take actions, and that those actions had effects on the world and on other people?"

    "Yes."

"Do you understand that the purpose of this court is to determine your alignment and which afterlife you are assigned to?"

    "Yes."

The Judge looks at the four original representatives, not turning toward the previously empty lawful side of the courtroom.

"I'm prepared to hear opening arguments now."

 

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One of the lions that makes up the form of the representative from Elysium looks at the axiomite and raises an eyebrow, an uncanny imitation of a human, but doesn't hesitate to begin speaking.

"Your Honor, the decedent didn't participate in any large scale acts of Good or Evil, so we turn to everyday acts. The decedent never took direct action to harm others, and in many cases took direct action to avoid harming others or prevent others from coming to harm. She's Good."

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"Not taking direct action to harm others is not a Good act, it's a Neutral act. And the cases where the decedent took action to prevent harm to others or to avoid harming others all took place within a society which would have punished her for most of the counterfactual lack of action. That's a clear contaminant of overwhelming self interest, and so all the acts you described were Neutral."

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"Elysium and The Maelstrom overlook one large-scale act of Evil: committing suicide. The decedent ended her own life, which is Evil, In Re Halfling Slave #293, -9657. As this is the act in her life with the most moral strength, it overrides the everyday acts, and she's Evil."

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"The act in question was not suicide, as it was not intended to end her life despite having the consequence of her own death, In Re Issachar, -6806."

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"But the act was legibly to the decedent likely to end her own life, and she did not accept the risk of death in expectation of positive utility relative to dying, which is still Evil, In Re Emalliah -6112."

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"She did accept the risk in expectation of positive utility. The counterfactual circumstance she considered was either being taken back to her family, or escaping across the ravine she tried to jump. She valued her freedom more than she disvalued dying and disvalued dying less than she disvalued being taken back to her family. People are allowed to have outcomes they value less than dying, In Re Omitsue -5291."

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"Omitsue explicitly disclaims using those valuations as justification for suicide."

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"Yes, but this wasn't a suicide. It was an accidental death which was risked but not intended while fleeing a fate worse than death."

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"Propose a test to distinguish this death from suicides if you think there's a significant difference."

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"There was a plausible-to-the-decedent effect of the action that resulted in a state better, by the decedent's values, than death. Suicide by poison or falling on a sword does not have a plausible resulting state better than the decedent's values than death. Best case scenario, they die, worst case scenario, they fail and are in the presumed-worse-than-death status quo. This decedent risked death to achieve her freedom, and if she had made the jump, she would have considered that scenario better than death."

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"So, what, any suicidal and delusional idiot who can convince themself that jumping off a cliff could solve their problems doesn't count as suicide?"

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"As a secondary criteria the court could discard cases where the decedent self-deceived about the chances of success in order to avoid Halfling Slave #293."

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