Series: Follow the Path: The Scarlet Crusade

"The Scarlet Crusade is what happens when mad zealots take over a good cause. "*

I saw this quadrant/rubric/metric for the first time several weeks ago in terms of Game of Thrones:

I'm not sure I agree with the characterizations, however it's not my thesis paper, so I'm not going to worry about it. In a discussion about the Scarlet Crusade it's important to clarify a comment, or provide some background knowledge, about 'lawful evil'. For more information on Alignment, click here.

Lawful Evil

• A being who gains power through methodically destroying others is lawful evil. Power comes through order, but one can be orderly about slaughtering innocents. Tradition is important, but goodness is not. The Scarlet Crusade and Cult of the Damned is of this alignment.

I won't re-post the entire WoW-Wiki article: it does an excellent job of explaining the history of the Scarlet Crusade, from origins, tactics, and philosophies. However, I cannot help but compare this lore to my own nation, and the parallels many made during some difficult times and egregious acts, and how my own political/patriotic worlds were turned inside out by seeing the leaders of my country respond and promote fear-mongering and censorship. 

"Membership in the Scarlet Crusade is high, relative to the human population of the region. The strong sense of abandonment, futility and fear runs high in all humans on Lordaeron, and the Scarlet Crusade feeds that fear with reassurance that the evil will fall while the good remain untainted."

I am not talking about the military, the first-responders, the families--no - they are my heroes, my true heroes. Unfortunately, this is not unique to any one political party, nation, or times: it is pervasive and repeated. We never learn, do we?

The Scarlet Crusade responds to acts of violence and aggression with more acts of violence and aggression, a fight fire with fire, purge all the Forsaken, and if you are standing close to one, or are in any way suspect, you shall be purged, too. It is not surprising though that there have been a few RP guilds focused on the lore of the Scarlet Crusade: its narrative is deeply interwoven with Azeroth at every level, and continues to subtly influence its future, albeit not as intimately as it once did. For every new Death Knight that is spawned, however, he or she had best know their past, so they can follow their own true path.

Perhaps fitting, of all my characters who managed to pillage the Tabard of the Scarlet Crusade when the Scarlet Halls in their original forms, the paladin and the druid have it in their banks. Luperci looks at it with suspicion, knowing as a paladin there is a place for her in the ranks, but is wary of becoming a zealot without heart or empathy: the druid, Momokawa, hates it for its stiff linen and bloodstains - no healing comes from this cloth, and she tucked it away like a shroud.

Tyranny with the face of faith is a dangerous force. Make no mistake. If the Scarlet Crusade teaches us anything, it is to, in the words of a Draenei, "Remain vigilant." But don't become a vigilante.