Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-7232811-20130620224607/@comment-6078851-20140502141842

for orks and tyranids the question of morality doesn't enter their minds, as mentioned they simply follow their nature.

while necrons may be immoral by the majority standard, they definitely don't think of themselves as such. they're following their own (subjective) codes of morality.

dark eldar and followers of chaos seem to do exactly the opposite to the majority of shared morals - the further from morality their actions become the more pleased they are by it, so by our subjective views of morality they are unquestionably evil.

the eldar were never evil, by any subjective view of morality. they may have ruled a galactic empire, but that's just it - they ruled, they didn't subjugate, and they didn't exterminate if a race wasn't intrinsically hostile. they became morally ambiguous once they reached their zenith which led to the schism of their race, but on the whole the (pre-fall) eldar were almost certainly good guys.

the imperium's tricky - as humans the majority of us will associate ourselves with the imperium (with them being human and all), and as such will feel that we have shared morals, considering that what the imperium does is for humanity's benefit. given that humans have such a vast number of people in the galaxy it could be argued that the majority standard is most in favour of humans, except that the imperium's morals dictate the extermination of anything that isn't human, which is flat-out immoral. granted there's a lot of hostile races in the galaxy and respite will never happen unless some of those races are wiped out, which, morally speaking, could be a good thing for many. but the imperium wipes out every intelligent (or near-intelligent) race it comes across with almost no exceptions (jokaero being one such exception). even non-hostile races suffer from this and then it's not only immoral but could actually be viewed as actively evil. for these reasons i definitely don't think of the imperium as good, neutral, or even moral.

the tau, in my mind at least, are the most moral (not talking good or evil here) of 40k. despite whatever shenanigans people think the ethereals are up to the basic fact is that every single species has the chance to live in peace together under tau rule. and despite whatever strictures are placed upon citizens (foreign and domestic), people are allowed to retain their own beliefs and live their own lives in peace as long as they contribute to the greater good. now the tau empire may be a pebble compared to the imperium's tectonic plate, but to me the majority standard isn't about numbers alone - while the imperium is the most numerous in bodies, they want to be the only race, but the tau want every race possible to live together. it's maybe not ideal, and in 40k what is? :P but in terms of morality the tau leave everyone in the dust - the imperium wants to leave everyone in the dust, but in a far more violent manner.