"Nirvana requests that the defendant only speak when answering questions posed by this court."

"Hell objects. Defendants often have important context on their own actions that the court is not necessarily aware of and may not think to ask directly about, as demonstrated in In re Ninio Bianchi among others."

"The defendant may speak on his own behalf, provided he does not disrupt the proceedings."

"...We want to hear if he has any more explanations for his actions."

It's irritating when the Abyss manages to beat you to something potentially important.

"Very well. I believe the actions most at issue in this case were the murder of Gregorien Caracies, the subsequent murder of Raibeart Hamnet and framing of Milites Caracies for his murder, and several hundred incidents of deliberately manipulating a trial with false evidence or subversions of the trial process. Is there anything you wish to share about those actions?"

...At least the judge is giving him an actual question rather than just an open-ended prompt??? With many people that would be worse but Menas seems like an exception.

"Gregorien Caracies was a fool with no understanding of what it meant to be a court-assistant. He was constantly fussing about ensuring that everyone had a chance to 'prove their innocence,' even when they were clearly guilty, and even when his efforts meant that the court system was substantially delayed.

"On the day of his death, he had convinced a local judge to levy a penalty against me for my conduct, merely because I had attempted to skip the formality of a Zone of Truth. Later, there was a small earthquake, and several buildings collapsed. When I returned to the site of the courthouse, I found him, as well as two others, unconscious and trapped inside a room. I realized that I had the chance to ensure that he would never interfere with my efforts again, and that he received what he deserved for his constant meddling efforts to prevent people from being convicted.

"In order to complete my revenge against the elder Caracies, I took in his son and raised him as my own. To kill Milites would result in him being sent to the same afterlife as his father, or possibly to the Boneyard, where in either case they would most likely be reunited. If I took in Caracies and trained him as a competent court-assistant, I could turn him against everything his father had willed. Unfortunately, he was as spineless and weak-willed as his father, and all my efforts proved for naught, save only that it seems exceedingly unlikely, at this point, that he will ever be reunited with his father. I therefore decided to complete my revenge on Gregorien Caracies, while simultaneously eliminating one of the few loose ends that could be traced back to me.

"I believe I have already explained the use of false evidence adequately, Your Honor. There is nothing more I wish to say."

She's met Gregorien Caracies. He showed up at a Nirvanan lawyer training nearly the moment he arrived, and wouldn't listen to anyone who told him that it might be a bad idea to rush into taking a trial over someone's immortal soul so soon after his own death. He's still in training, of course, but Bellina thinks he'll be a great lawyer someday.

None of this is relevant to the case at hand. No one deserves to suffer.

"Hell moves that this court declare the defendant Evil, as it should have done from the beginning."

"Nirvana objects. In Nirvana's view, a defendant's opinion of their own actions can have limited value to the determination of their alignment. For example, it is common for slaveholders to believe they did nothing wrong in owning slaves, and less common but not unheard of for people who are unambiguously Good-aligned to feel guilt over failing to donate all of their earnings to a temple, even if they were very charitable. Menas Karam's testimony should not be decisive."

"The Abyss thinks he's super evil even if you ignore literally everything he said."

"This court is prepared to render a verdict for Evil. However, there is still the entire question of his systemic alignment to decide."

"Fucking finally."

"Nirvana stands by our earlier position. If the defendant is evil, then he is specifically Neutral evil, and should go to Abaddon."

"If he so chooses, you mean."

"If he so chooses."

"If the defendant were Lawful or even Neutral, he wouldn't be going around constantly fucking up the legal system, duh."

The Abyssal demon is unusually competent, for a representative of the Abyss, even discounting the ones that show up to just yell "flesh" the whole trial. Most likely the Abyss believes they actually have a chance at this one.

Well. Even the best Abyssal demon-lawyers can rarely match Hell's skill.

"Your Honor.

"No one in this courtroom believes that the defendant is Lawful in the way that Axiomites are Lawful. It's true that he acted deceptively, and true that in some cases, he failed to follow the procedures set out by his government for his occupation.

"But that is far from the only factor that matters. 

"First, we must consider his philosophical convictions. We've heard a number of different accounts of his philosophy over the course of this trial, but a few things are clear. The defendant was dedicated to the pursuit of personal perfection. The defendant was dedicated to living up to his personal duties. And the defendant was dedicated to serving what he saw as the interests of the local authorities.

"Second, we must consider his occupation. The defendant was not merely an agent of Taldor, but of Taldor's courts. That fact shaped his conduct and behavior, both in the ordinary aspects of his day-to-day life and in the specific incidents that have been raised in this trial. In the vast majority of his Evil actions, the defendant wielded the law to serve his ends. Law turned to Evil is the essence of Lawful Evil.

"The objections raised by Nirvana and the Abyss are insufficient to counter these simple facts. They point to him having broken the law, but it is far from uncommon for petitioners to be judged Lawful despite this fact. They point to him having pursued revenge, but Calistria's status as goddess of revenge is hardly sufficient to mean that anyone who seeks vengeance is necessarily Chaotic. They point to him undermining the justice system, while ignoring that his actions were largely in the interest of maintaining the function of the justice system.

"They have no argument. They're just hoping that if they make the same point enough different ways, it'll stick."

"Your Honor, Nirvana does not contest that the defendant sometimes behaved Lawfully. Everyone sometimes behaves Lawfully. But-- it's easy to be Lawful when being Lawful is to your advantage. We need to consider the defendant's actions when being Lawful wasn't to his advantage.

"Even if this court finds that the defendant behaved Lawfully in attempting to frame innocent people for crimes they did not commit -- a legal theory that is tenuous at best -- we need to consider what happened in cases where he couldn't frame people for crimes. Take, for example, the murder of Gregorien Caracies. Due to Gregorien's status and reputation, it would have been relatively difficult for the defendant to frame him. But rather than even considering abandoning his goal, the defendant decided to handle this by murdering him at the first available opportunity.

"Working for the courts doesn't make him Lawful. Caring about perfection doesn't make him Lawful. What determines whether or not he is Lawful are his thoughts and deeds, and those prove that he was perfectly happy to abandon Lawfulness the moment it was inconvenient for him.

"The defendant isn't Lawful. He just finds it useful to pretend to be, sometimes."

"I believe I am ready to hand down my verdict. Menas Karam, do you have anything you wish to add?"