History DarkIsNotEvil / TableTopGames

** There's also Hell. Heaven in Nobilis restricts its love to

** 4E has an ''embodiment'' of the trope as a ''basic character class'', the theurgy-inclined Warlock. The three paths they have to their particular brand of Pact Magic are, as follows: Making a literal DealWithTheDevil for more offensive BlackMagic, consorting with TheFairFolk for PsychicPowers and various trickery, or making a contract with an abomination for a mix... and they are quite as capable of being good as any other core class, although the book mentions they have great capacity for evil as well, but that's the same for all other classes. There's even the Dark Pact in the Player's Guide to Faerun, in which you make deals with shadowy beings of darkness, and you are no more forced to have any alignment restrictions either (though it does promote acting like a dick in some cases).

* The ''Nightbane'' RPG from Palladium books is about characters who are gifted with incredible superpowers that they use to fight off demonic forces that secretly rule the world. Except the superpowers all relate to darkness or blood, and they have to transform into hideous freaky-deaky monsters to use their powers.

* Everything in the titular city of {{TabletopGame/Mortasheen}} fits under this trope, as they usually show a decent amount of respect to their fellow citizens and keep their depredations on each other outside of the city. Yes, this includes the [[EldritchAbomination sanity-blasting Unknowns]], the [[PuppeteerParasite crazy parasitic Wormbrains]], and the horrifying Bosch-inspired [[MindRape mind-raping]] [[TheHeartless Devilbirds]].

* Though ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' tends to be pretty bad for "dark equals evil", this is not ''always'' the case. Even necromancy isn't always evil; while most of the necromancy-themed prestige classes don't allow you to be ''good'', they don't require you to be ''evil'', and a wizard specializing in necromancy may be of any alignment. Basically, in most settings there used to be three main types of people who chose Necromancy knowing what they want: some came there to create {{undead}} and drain life, some for [[WhiteMagic healing/resurrecting]], and some to [[TheHunter ward off and destroy undead]]. Old [[http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=9256 Complete Necromancers]] put raising mindless undead as such in "gray" subdivision (while unappetizing, it's just walking remnants), anti-undead and defensive spells in "white".

* In TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}, the otyugh is portrayed as being a huge, ugly scavenger that many immediately assume is evil because it eats "waste" and isn't a nonsentient animal. However, it's not inherently evil so much as bestial and non-human; all it wants is an ample supply of garbage to eat and decorate its lair with, and it's quite docile if this desire is sated and nobody tries to hurt it. It's often purposefully hired as a living garburator by non-humans.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' the Black Templars and Dark Angels Space Marine Chapters are... no ''more'' evil than their peers, although the Dark Angels are one of the shadier Chapters of Space Marines, more concerned with personal redemption than serving the Imperium itself. Though, the Dark Eldar are definitely a lot worse than the Craftworld Eldar.
** The Black Templars are [[KnightTemplar even more fanatical]] than usual and the Dark Angels...[[MysteriousPast well]]. It's also not fair to label all the SpaceMarine Chapters as "evil" - the Ultramarines and the Imperial Fists are examples of a couple of the more genuinely heroic chapters. The Raven Guard are a better example of DarkIsNotEvil.
** The Soul Drinkers are a dead-straight example: their name sounds pretty nasty by itself, their motto is "Cold and fast", and as a pleasant bonus the vast majority of them are mutated in some way, with their Chapter Master having the legs of a giant spider. They're the closest 40K gets to NeutralGood, fighting both the destructive madness of Chaos and the tyranny of the Imperium.
** Then there's the Space Wolves, who all look like [[NinjaZombiePirateRobot large, wolf-fanged, viking Space Marines]], who are all pretty damn pissed that the administratum decided to wipe out the remaining survivors on a planet they had just saved. Needless to say, they are probably the least tolerating towards the administratum's actions of all the chapters still in the Imperium.
** The Salamanders have jet-black skin and glowing red eyes, but are actually concerned with protecting innocent people instead of just slaughtering the bad guys (and whoever gets in the way).
** In the novel ''Literature/{{Eisenhorn}}'', the eponymous Inquisitor is surprised that a Librarian of the Deathwatch Chapter is a very erudite, even ''nice'', guy, despite being a veteran xeno-fighter with Terminator honors.
** In ''Literature/BrothersOfTheSnake'', the distinction can be drawn between two of the senior marines. On one hand: Librarian Petrok, a walking CMOA and superhuman killing machine whose attitude towards those around him, particularly Priad, could nevertheless be described as 'chummy'. He is given to occasional whimsy, and likes to "remind himself that he has a soul". On the flipside of this, there's Hero-Captain Phobor, a more conventional Astartes in that he's a humorless, unrelenting psychopath who is 100% devoted to warfare and nothing else, and is contemptuous of weakness to the point of sentencing the officer corps of an Imperial Guard regiment to penal legions for failing to win a battle of attrition.
** The ones in black armor and face-concealing skull-painted helms? Those are SpaceMarine [[BadassPreacher Chaplains]], whose job it is to maintain their brother's faith through exemplary leadership.
** There's also the enigmatic Legion of the Damned, a Space Marine chapter notable for their black armor decorated with flames, skulls and bones. [[BigDamnHeroes They jump into battles to help the Imperium's forces in times of great need, curb-stomp the enemy forces, and then leave as quickly as they turn up]]. It is believed that they're the survivors from the long-lost Fire Hawks chapter, which was lost to the Warp a long time ago.
** Speaking of bone, the harlequin death jesters wear black, a skull mask, and bone-studded armor, and fight with a minigun shooting envenomed "shuriken". The harlequin are sworn foes of the Ruinous powers and will occasionally appear seemingly out of nowhere to aid those fighting Chaos.
** While they are hardly particularly good (to other races, they tend to do well enough by their own) the Black Guardians of Ulthwe are veteran foes of chaos and were allied with the Imperium during the latest Black Crusade.

* The Golgari Swarm in the ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' setting of Ravnica are a cult of elf and human necromancers who use zombies as labor... but they're also an indispensable part of Ravnica's society, providing food and waste disposal services. A lot of them are indeed black-hearted knaves who sacrifice unwilling people to raise them as undead, but one of the heroes of the tie-in novels is the leader of the Golgari, who's working to reform them after the death of his evil sister.
** What about Black? Its iconic creatures are zombies, vampires, and demons. But they aren't defined as strictly evil, only greedy or ambitious. In theory anyway. In practice it's also heavily associated with sadism, desecration and murder.
** However, Kamigawa's main protagonist, [[AntiHero Toshiro Umezawa]], is black, while its main antagonist (among mortals, at least), Konda, [[LightIsNotGood is white]].
** Mark Rosewater discusses Black's ideology at length [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr109 here]].
** The vampire planeswalker Sorin Markov is another black AntiHero. He's scheming, vicious and paranoid...but at the same time, he managed to work together with two other planeswalkers to seal the Eldrazi in their [[SealedEvilInACan can]].
*** In fact, given that he is singularly responsible for nothing less than the [[spoiler: '''creation of at least one virtuous god-figure''',]] purely to defend the humans of his home plane, Sorin is capable of remarkable compassion and foresight (although in this set, he is part-white, unlike before, though this might be due to his use of plains magic, as mana cost often isn't entirely accurate to the character's personality).
** To a lesser extent, gargoyles. Although they are technically White, their appearance is [[http://www.abugames.com/images/products/5thedition/abbeygargoyles.jpg quite]] [[http://magic.tcgplayer.com/images/article/gargoyle.jpg demonic]]
** ''Magic'' has gone back and forth on this when it comes to Black. It didn't help that the ultimate BigBad of the setting for the first several years, the Clockwork Hell of Phyrexia, was mono-Black. Obviously, the team recognized their DarkIsEvil problem of the past, because the New Phyrexia is five-color.
** Avacyn from the Innistrad Pack. Seriously, [[http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/daily/arcana/864_unhbhpaqaq.jpg look at her]]! Would you guess a gothic woman with deathly pale skin and black leather would be the guardian angel of mankind? (Of her plane, of course. She can't planeswalk)
*** The PAX video heavily hints that her dark look was acquired due to her stay in the Helvault with the demons. If that's the case, this definitely this trope, as the demonic influence had no effect on her morality.
** Chainer is another Black aligned protagonist (before being corrupted, anyway), as is the Sapling of Colfenor, Teysa, and, as of Innistrad, [[spoiler: Liliana Vess]] (who was just an anti-heroine in her previous appearances anyways).
** Very prevalent in the Theros Block, in which the mono-Black god, [[EverybodyHatesHades Erebos]], is one of the most reasonable and kind (albeit not without his moments of anger and pettiness), as are the Green/Black Pharika and White/Black Athreos; the Green/Blue god Kruphix is definitely the most benevolent of all of the settings deities, and he appears solely as a LivingShadow.
** Though the Tarkir setting plays DarkIsEvil up with the most evil of the clans being the Black-centered Sultai, it also features prominently benevolent aspects to Black. The Abzan are part-Black and definitely one of the most positively portrayed clans, with their mono-Black cards being unambiguously benevolent as they portray loyal [[OurOrcsAreDifferent orcs]] and protective ancestor spirits. Meanwhile, [[spoiler:in the new timeline created by the setting's time traveling shenanigans, it's eventually revealed that Kolaghan, the Black/Red dragon, is originally most benevolent of the bunch, being the only of the five brood leaders to not enslave the clan they shared their lands with, instead inviting the Mardu to keep up with her in her travels. Later averted into straight DarkIsEvil after 1, 280 years in which the clan becomes [[TearJerker a horde of murderous cannibals under Kolaghan's influence]].]]
** The Aetherborn of Kaladesh are an interesting race in that they represent black's elements of hedonism rather than its cruelty. Each one is born knowing exactly how long it's going to live (four years at most, although some can [[VampiricDraining steal more from others]]), and that acute sense of mortality motivates them to make the most of their short time. While some are more sinister, most love nothing more than a good party and tend to be excellent hosts thanks to their empathic abilities.

* The ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' world has a few examples, notably the followers of Mohr, god of death. His paladins dress in armour carved from obsidian, but are as heroic as anyone in [[BlackAndGreyMorality this]] [[CrapsackWorld setting]]. Oh, and they really hate the undead.
** Ditto for the wizards of the Amethyst College: in spite of their dark robes and nasty-looking scythes of office, their aim, just like the other Colleges of Magic, is to serve and protect the Empire.
** The Empire itself certainly qualifies, as it follows a dark Germanic/Gothic theme in its architecture, units and art, but is depicted as a much fairer place for the ordinary person to live than [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} the Imperium of Man]] and a truly noble force in the world, [[GoodIsNotNice though still brutal]] to its [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy extremely]] [[TheUndead horrid]] [[ReligionOfEvil enemies]].
** Speaking of ''Warhammer'', the undead themselves sometimes qualify for this trope themselves. Blatantly obvious are the Tomb Kings, who for the most part just want to be left alone and be left to rest. The Vampire Counts, on the other hand, can range between anything from the occasional AntiVillain to the far more common rogue, mainly because they are a far more varied bunch than the Tomb Kings.
*** A ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'' supplement has a short story about a scholar from the Empire who traveled to distant Khemri, braving the burning sands and the restless dead to explore the ancient city of Bel Aliad. He was caught when his guide foolishly decided to do a bit of tomb robbing, and soon a squad of skeletal soldiers escorted them both to an ancient throneroom, where they met the mummified Tomb Prince who ruled the city and a Liche Priest who spoke fluent Reikspiel. The prince, through the priest, asked why the scholar had traveled so far to steal his possessions, and the scholar explained that he wasn't here for treasure - his wife had been poisoned by a rival, and he hoped that this legendary city of healing might offer a cure. When this was translated back to the mummy, the prince sat in silence for a moment, then gestured at the guards, who promptly cut of the thieving guide's head. Then the prince smiled, spoke with the priest again, and left with his retinue. The priest gave the scholar a message: "My lord commands me to tell you that he, too, loved once. He too would've gone to the ends of the world to save his love. I am to show you the wisdom you seek." And thus the scholar was brought to a secret chamber and allowed to return home with the knowledge to save his wife.
** While we're on the subject of the undead, we have Abhorash, the first Blood Dragon. See, he was a pretty decent guy and never actually wanted to become a vampire but Neferata turned him into one against his will. His initial attempt to resist his HorrorHunger ended in disaster when he murdered a lot of people in a blood frenzy, and afterwards he was ''really'' sorry about it, so much he developed a policy of never drinking the blood of innocent people, only [[BloodKnight worthy challenges]] and [[PayEvilUntoEvil people who deserved it]].
* ''[[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Ally_of_Justice The Ally of Justice]]'' set of cards from the ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' card game are DARK attribute. Also worth noting, ''[[LightIsNotGood they hate light with every fiber of their being]]''. (Ironically, in the anime, these cards are used by the [[DeceptivelyHumanRobots Diablo army]] unleashed by Placido, whose intentions [[CrushKillDestroy are not good at all.]])
** They were created to fight the [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Worms Worms]], which are [[StarfishAlien horrendous]], [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent reptillian]], LightIsNotGood [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]].
** There are also the Dark World Fiends, which are an odd case. They were villains in the anime, where they were clearly evil, but the flavor text of [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Zure%2C_Knight_of_Dark_World Zure, Knight of Dark World]] and [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Renge,_Gatekeeper_of_Dark_World Renge, Gatekeeper of Darkworld]] portrays them as renown heroes, while the ''Master Guide 2'' support book claims that they aren't evil at all. Obviously this was a case of AdaptationalVillainy on the anime's part.
** The reason the Ghostrick entered the Yu-Gi-Oh fray was because fewer people believed in them and they were lonely, and they seem to be more interested in scaring people than fighting. Their tactics of bypassing their opponent's monsters using their Field Spell supports this.
** The Inzektors are based on ''Franchise/KamenRider'', and many of them seem to be heroic types. They're also all Dark.
** Implied with Sephira Naga and Sephira Roots. Both members of the Shaddoll Archetype. The other 4 archetypes supported by this one are more heroic, Especially notable with Naga who resembles Evilswarm Kerykeyion, one of the two monsters to have killed [[GodIsEvil Sophia]]. Note that these two are the only Shaddoll monsters without any discernible strings.

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** Though the Tarkir setting plays DarkIsEvil up with the most evil of the clans being the Black-centered Sultai, it also features prominently benevolent aspects to Black. The Abzan are part-Black and definitely one of the most positively portrayed clans, with their mono-Black cards being unambiguously benevolent as they portray loyal [[OurOrcsAreDifferent orcs]] and protective ancestor spirits. Meanwhile, [[spoiler:in the new timeline created by the setting's time traveling shenanigans, it's eventually revealed that Kolaghan, the Black/Red dragon, is originally most benevolent of the bunch, being the only of the five brood leaders to not enslave the clan they shared their lands with, instead inviting the Mardu to keep up with her in her travels. Later averted into straight DarkIsEvil after 1, 280 years in which the clan becomes [[ TearJerker a horde of murderous cannibals under Kolaghan's influence]].]]

** Though the Tarkir setting plays DarkIsEvil up with the most evil of the clans being the Black-centered Sultai, it also features prominently benevolent aspects to Black. The Abzan are part-Black and definitely one of the most positively portrayed clans, with their mono-Black cards being unambiguously benevolent as they portray loyal [[OurOrcsAreDifferent orcs]] and protective ancestor spirits. Meanwhile, [[spoiler:in the new timeline created by the setting's time traveling shenanigans, it's eventually revealed that Kolaghan, the Black/Red dragon, is the most benevolent of the bunch, being the only of the five brood leaders to not enslave the clan they shared their lands with, instead inviting the Mardu to keep up with her in her travels. Definitely a stark contrast to the usual portrayal of Black/Red.]]

** Speaking of races, drow serving Eilistraee (ChaoticGood goddess) managed to implement ''both'' DarkIsNotEvil and GoodIsNotNice: they are supposed to be more benevolent than one would expect from an average surface elf, let alone drow, but frequently are too paranoid, aggressive and/or even HolierThanThou to be a good company.

*** That's because the Dark Pact has a modified version of CastFromHitPoints applied to it; some of its spells can be made more powerful by draining HitPoints from allies, while others cause a penalty to allies in exchange for working. And what about the Vestige Pact, which revolves around drawing upon the spiritual remnants of powerful forces and entities that displayed either great authority or awful capabilities in life? Or The Sorcerer King pact from DarkSun, based around getting power from the horrible wizards who get their powers from draining the lifeforce of the planet?

** It's downplayed with the rest of everything, though

** Overall, however, both games avert it. You are dark, and you are evil - not always quite as evil as the rest of your race, and the fact that becoming evil generally means losing your character doesn't help, but at the end of the day, you're either a blood-drinking/power-hungry/absurdly territorial monster if you don't have any qualms about killing for your own ends, or dead if you do. The requirements for maintaing a 10 in humanity, among which include never having a selfish thought, are just dripping with the sarcastic thought that you would make it there in the first place.

** Ditto for the wizards of the Amethyst College: in spite of their dark robes and nasty-looking scythes of office, their aim, just like the other Colleges of Magic, is to serve and protect the Imperium.
** Speaking of Warhammer, the undead themselves sometimes qualify for this trope themselves. Blatantly obvious are the Tomb Kings, who for the most part just want to be left alone and be left to rest. The Vampire Counts, on the other hand, can range between anything from the occasional AntiVillain to the far more common rogue, mainly because they are a far more varied bunch than the Tomb Kings.

** In a thematic sense, there's the mercenary [[http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Gray_Death_Legion Gray Death Legion]]. Their colors are two-tone gray camouflage, while their emblem is a grinning gray skull on a blood red crest. Pirate marauders? Bandit raiders? Nope, they're one of the most ethical, morally upstanding, self-sacrificing mercenary groups in the setting.

* In spite of its [[RageHelm terrifying visage]], the ''[[http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Atlas_%28BattleMech%29 Atlas]]'' of ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' is not an inherently evil machine--in fact quite a few of the setting's heroes are shown to pilot one, and an ''Atlas'' was one of the two 'Mechs that iconically took down the mad usurper Stefan Amaris, the game's equivalent of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. Even the creepier looking specimens like the ghoulish ''[[http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Cadaver Cadaver]]'' or ominously named ''[[hhttp://www.sarna.net/wiki/Blood_Reaper Blood Reaper]]'' are piloted by day-to-day warriors just looking to get by. A side character in the novels is an unquestionably morally upstanding pilot whose machine is called an ''[[http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Exterminator Exterminator]]''. For contrast, the game also employs LightIsNotGood--the ChurchMilitant Word of Blake, responsible for an intergalactic war where nukes, chemical weapons, and bio-bombs were used indiscriminately and trillions of civilians died, uses machines named after angels and other holy icons.

** The shadowcaster base class in 3.5 blends this with DarkIsEvil -- the fluff observes that they deal with dark powers ("magic often thought to be evil") and have to adopt an alien, skewed perspective of the world to advance in their branch of magic, and as a consequence good shadowcasters are exceedingly rare. ''However'', exceedingly rare means exactly that -- rare, not non-existent: shadowcasters have no actual alignment restrictions, they can explicitly be of any alignment, and there is no real indication there are more evil than neutral shadowcasters.

** Of course, don't forget the fact that 4E is one of the few editions where Undead are not AlwaysChaoticEvil. In fact, in the upcoming Heroes of shadow, they have a Necromancer wizard build.

**** The Doomguard, who believe in entropy and the inevitability of everything that exists eventually crmbling to dust with nothing remaining at the end of time. Some extremists believe that they should speed up the process as much as possible, while others support the constructions of new buildings, because it includes chipping away mountains and cutting hundreds of trees, and the new building will only last for a few hundred years if it doesn't burn down much earlier.

* Everything in the titular city of {{Mortasheen}} fits under this trope, as they usually show a decent amount of respect to their fellow citizens and keep their depredations on each other outside of the city. Yes, this includes the [[EldritchAbomination sanity-blasting Unknowns]], the [[PuppeteerParasite crazy parasitic Wormbrains]], and the horrifying Bosch-inspired [[MindRape mind-raping]] [[TheHeartless Devilbirds]].
* Though ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' tends to be pretty bad for "dark equals evil", this is not ''always'' the case. Even necromancy isn't always evil; while most of the necromancy-themed prestige classes don't allow you to be ''good'', they don't require you to be ''evil'', and a wizard specializing in necromancy may be of any alignment. Basically, in most settings there used to be three main types of people who chose Necromancy knowing what they want: some came there to create {{undead}} and drain life, some for [[WhiteMagic healing/resurrecting]], and some to [[TheHunter ward off and destroy undead]]. Old [[http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=9256 Complete Necromancers]] put raising mindless undead as such in "gray" subdivision (while unappetizing, it's just walking remnants), anti-undead and defencive spells in "white".

** By 3.5 core rules, very few Necromancy spells are evil. The Evil Necromacy spells are any that create undead creatures, causing disease via Contagion, making unholy water (the opposite of holy water, natch) via Curse Water, the life-draining Death Knell, the torturous Symbol of Pain, and the "Evil Eye" Eyebite. Oddly Deathwatch is described as Evil even though the only effect of the spell is to know how close nearby creatures are to dying. Strangely, not even instant-kill spells like Finger of Death are given the "Evil" stamp by the game - and most of the Evil spells are available to priestly Clerics.

*** That's because the Dark Pact has a modified version of CastFromHitPoints applied to it; some of its spells can be made more powerful by draining HitPoints from allies, while others cause a penalty to allies in exchange for working. And what about the Vestige Pact, which revolves around drawing upon the spiritual remnants of powerful forces and entities that displayed either great authority or awful capabilities in life? Or The Sorceror King pact from DarkSun, based around getting power from the horrible wizards who get their powers from draining the lifeforce of the planet?

**** Though since their appearance back in the early editions of the games, tieflings have been described as being 'mostly evil.' {{Planescape}} stated about 90% of tieflings are, in fact, evilly aligned. Which leads to a curious disparity; apparently being demon-blooded makes you less likely to be evil than just being [[AlwaysChaoticEvil born into certain completely natural, mortal races.]]

** {{Planescape}} also has jabs at Clueless such as "they think everything with horns is Eeevil".

**** The Dustmen faction are basically all creepy goths who hang around with the undead, but their faction philosophy is akin to Buddhism and they're responsible for Sigil's funerals, proper treatment of the dead and counselling those left behind. The undead they hang out with volunteered to have their bodies reanimated.

** The sharakim in ''D&D'' 3.5 are a race of orclike humanoids who are mostly kind and goodhearted. Likewise, the mongrelfolk, who go back to 1st edition, are deformed mish-mash hybrids that look like man-eating monsters for the most part, but they really just want to be left alone.
** Another 'not evil' race from D&D, possibly from {{Mystara}}, were the Diaboli, who basically look like an entire race of wingless [[BigRedDevil Big Purple Devils]] -- cloven-hooved goat-like legs, small nubby goat-like horns, forked tongues, bald or hairy or in-between, long tails with [[BewareMyStingerTail curved toxic stingers on the end]]. The twist? They're peaceful people from the Plane of Dreams who are exiles after evil beings (Nightmare Spirits) took over their dimension, and the reason they seem to be so secretive and isolationist is that they find US disturbing and demonic to behold. Even their stingers only inject sleeping venom, and their racial alignment is Usually ''ChaoticGood'' (the vast majority of those who aren't are ChaoticNeutral or NeutralGood, with ChaoticEvil being a very rare occurrence).

**** Also Saulofein in Baldur's Gate II. Throughout the quest he is involved in, he is extremely rude to you, takes every opportunity to insult you, he is sarcastic and seemingly just as heartless and cruel as all the other drow in the city. At the end of the quest you are supposed to deliver a silver dragon egg to the matriarch, who will use it to gain favour with a greater demon she will summon. You yourself are on a quest to actually save the dragon egg. You are provided with an opportunity to do so when the Matriarch's daughter gives you a fake egg, which will anger the demon, who will kill her mother, after which she can then offer the real egg. But just before you can go on, Saulofein will show up, and reveal that he has been spying on you, and if you have secretly performed good deeds before, he will have noticed. But instead of attacking you, he reveals that he is actually secretly a worshipper of Eilistrae, and his whole rude, insulting, sarcastic character was just a ruse. He then gives you a second fake egg which you can switch with the real egg. When both the Matriarch and her daughter offer their eggs to the Greater Demon in turn, hilarity ensues.
** The ''Al-Qadim'' campaign setting went out of its way to embrace this trope, such that goblins, orcs, ogres, and other races that are just there for the heroes to kill in other settings were actually peaceful, productive members of society; the only races that were AlwaysChaoticEvil were explicitly supernatural, like the yuan-ti, yak-folk, and noble efreet. Likewise, the ''{{Eberron}}'' setting played goblinoids as aggressive but not inherently evil, while the orcs were actually responsible for protecting the world from monsters. And, of course, the draconians in ''Dragonlance'' were ''created'' to be the vile servants of the Gods of Evil, but once the gods went away, a lot of draconians realized that not being willing tools of evil has its ups.

*** Old ''[[http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2942 Lords of Darkness]]'' mentioned things like skeletons marching out of crypts to save their descendants. ForgottenRealms officially had at least two undead paladins -- didn't consider the grave important enough to stand between them and the duty and all that.

** The ScarredLands setting has a location known as Hollowfaust, aka "the City of Necromancers"... which defies every stereotyped expectation of such a city. Normally the only undead seen are mindless [[DemBones skeletal undead]] (animated skeletons and bone golems), because zombies are seen as both too disturbing and too unhygenic, the populace are some of the wealthiest, healthiest and all-around best off in the setting, and there are strict laws against the abuse of the populace -- necromancers who seek undeath are actively discouraged from joining TheMagocracy that rules the city, and only the worst criminals are allowed to be used as "test subjects".
* The gods and demigods that make up The Dark in ''TabletopGame/{{Nobilis}}'' are harder to characterise as Not Evil than their opposite number are as [[LightIsNotGood not Good]], since they believe above all else in inducing humans to suicide. Their work generally involves systematically destroying everything a given person cares about. However, they have some redeeming features: They are arguably a fundamental and necessary part of human nature, having sprung from the fruit of the Garden of Eden. They will almost never kill, since a murder is a suicide prevented, and may even step in to avert needless death. The more someone resists their tortures, the more likely they are to simply leave them alone for an easier target, effectively [[EvilutionaryBiologist purifying the gene pool]]. Some believe that the point of their work is to make those they test stronger. However, as the book points out, cruelty for kindness' sake can be much more thorough than the other kind...

** In the novel ''Literature/{{Eisenhorn}}'', the eponymous Inquisitor is surprised that a Librarian of the Deathwatch Chapter is a very erudite, even ''nice'', guy, despite being a veteran xeno-fighter with Terminator honours.
** In ''Literature/BrothersOfTheSnake'', the distinction can be drawn between two of the senior marines. On one hand: Librarian Petrok, a walking CMOA and superhuman killing machine whose attitude towards those around him, particularly Priad, could nevertheless be described as 'chummy'. He is given to occasional whimsy, and likes to "remind himself that he has a soul". On the flipside of this, there's Hero-Captain Phobor, a more conventional Astartes in that he's a humourless, unrelenting psychopath who is 100% devoted to warfare and nothing else, and is contemptuous of weakness to the point of sentencing the officer corps of an Imperial Guard regiment to penal legions for failing to win a battle of attrition.

** There's also the enigmatic Legion of the Damned, a Space Marine chapter notable for their black armour decorated with flames, skulls and bones. [[BigDamnHeroes They jump into battles to help the Imperium's forces in times of great need, curb-stomp the enemy forces, and then leave as quickly as they turn up]]. It is believed that they're the survivors from the long-lost Fire Hawks chapter, which was lost to the Warp a long time ago.

*** ''KindredOfTheEast'' introduced 'vampires' who were more like Asian hungry ghosts than anything else, feeding off of chi energy. One group had a karmic imbalance towards virtue and duty, and were driven by those emotions. They're still undead, soul-siphoning abominations who use powers which range from rather creepy to outright [[{{Squick}} squicktastic,]] but their souls and powers still feed off their sense of righteousness and obligation. Even the Devil Tigers were portrayed to usually be doing some sort of 'good' by visiting their vast cruelties and depravities on people who need to suffer such things.

** To a lesser extent, gargoyles. Although they are technically White, their appearence is [[http://www.abugames.com/images/products/5thedition/abbeygargoyles.jpg quite]] [[http://magic.tcgplayer.com/images/article/gargoyle.jpg demonic]]

*** The PAX video heavily hints that her dark look was adquired due to her stay in the Helvault with the demons. If that's the case, this defenitely this trope, as the demonic influence had no effect on her morality.
** Chainer is another Black aligned protagonist (before being corrupted, anyway), as is the Sapling of Colfenor, Teysa, and, as of Innistrad, [[spoiler: Liliana Vess]] (who was just an anti-heroine in her previous appearences anyways).
** Very prevalent in the Theros Block, in which the mono-Black god, [[EveryBodyHatesHades Erebos]], is one of the most reasonable and kind (albeit not without his moments of anger and pettiness), as are the Green/Black Pharika and White/Black Athreos; the Green/Blue god Kruphix is definitely the most benevolent of all of the settings deities, and he appears solely as a LivingShadow.
** Though the Tarkir setting plays DarkIsEvil up with the most evil of the clans being the Black-centered Sultai, it also features promeniently benevolent aspects to Black. The Abzan are part-Black and definitely one of the most positively portrayed clans, with their mono-Black cards being unambiguously benevolent as they portray loyal [[OurOrcsAreDifferent orcs]] and protective ancestor spirits. Meanwhile, [[spoiler:in the new timeline created by the setting's time travelling shenigans, it's eventually revealed that Kolaghan, the Black/Red dragon, is the most benevolent of the bunch, being the only of the five brood leaders to not enslave the clan they shared their lands with, instead inviting the Mardu to keep up with her in her travels. Definitely a stark contrast to the usual portrayal of Black/Red.]]
* In the ''MutantsAndMasterminds'' third party setting ''Halt Evil Doer!'', the principle hero team features Splotch, a darkness manipulator who looks like a walking ink blot test. Not only is he one of the good guys, but he's also an Expy (or CaptainErsatz depending on your point of view) for SpiderMan.

** There are also the Dark World Fiends, which are an odd case. They were villains in the anime, where they were clearly evil, but the flavor text of [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Zure%2C_Knight_of_Dark_World Zure, Kight of Dark World]] and [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Renge,_Gatekeeper_of_Dark_World Renge, Gatekeeper of Darkworld]] portrays them as renown heroes, while the ''Master Guide 2'' support book claims that they aren't evil at all. Obviously this was a case of AdaptationalVillainy on the anime's part.

** The Inzektors are based on ''KamenRider'', and many of them seem to be heroic types. They're also all Dark.
** Implied with Sephira Naga and Sephira Roots. Both members of the Shaddoll Archetype. The other 4 archetypes supported by this one are more heroic, Especially notable with Naga who resembles Evilswarm Kerykeyion, one of the two monsters to have killed [[GodIsEvil Sophia]]. Note that these two are the only Shaddoll monsters without any discirmable strings.