The answer is that you do what your god/spirits/saint/whatever want you to do or did themselves. So it's pretty easy to be an Orlanth initiate or a Yelm devotee because they define what is right in society; if you do it, it's good -- of course, some of that may be "evil" when done outside the society. Similarly, the Waha-worshiping Beast Rider tortures his captives because that's what Waha did and likes to see being done, no Beast Rider would see this as odd or evil, although it would be unpleasant to be on the receiving end. The orderly of St. Gerlant might burn down an enemy's home, because that is good in the eyes of God and the Burning Saint; an Orlanthi would view burning a foe in his home in a very different light. More extremely, some cults do things that are shocking to their societies but are acceptable and necessary for that god/spirit/etc. -- various gender-role-defying groups, Storm Bull's craziness, Maran Gor's cannibalism, and so on -- the society tolerates these behaviors because the worshipped being gives something back.
The "complete outsider" beings, whether Chaos or just nasty, call for abhorrent actions without giving the greater society anything -- Thanatar steals knowledge from people, that's what he does; if you worship him (because you want power or because you're really sick), you are going to be stealing knowledge and heads and stuff. Society (outside of the cult itself) doesn't benefit from Thanatar worship in any way, so it's always evil. It occurs to me that almost all of the Chaos cults involve essentially one-way transactions -- to worship them you steal something from other people: their lives, their sense of self, their knowledge, their trust, whatever. Maybe the Lunar rehabilitation of these beings involves finding some way for society to benefit from them so they can move from "evil" to "unpleasant." I'm not sure how, mind you, and I doubt that, in most cases, it's a good idea, but, if virtuous Tarshites can eat human flesh in a holy manner, then maybe there's a way....
Peter Larsen
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