An experiment

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Here is a little experiment.
I am going to write a brief passage between spoilers; please read it, and answer this question: who in this scenario is evil?
After you've had a few days to discuss and decide, I'll expand the passage by one stage, and I will ask you the same question.
Ready?
Interested?
Here we go.

VIEW CONTENT:

Baron Malvoro looked at the man lying sprawled on the floor of his wife's private chamber, his blood ruining its subtle arabesques. Then he turned to his bride, his black eyes meeting her crimson eyes. She trembled when their gazes met, then trembled even more strongly at the cold smile that creased his lips. Behind red velvet and ivory skin, her heart thundered.
"Remember, my lady," he said, the voice that could declaim spells with authority or hide in silence now purring as though he were a great cat. "We employ people to deal with such nuisances as these."
He walked over to the bedside table and took up one of the bells she had never touched; an iron bell with a single ring of gold. One shake of it brought two men running, men wearing the livery of the House Malvoro, but clearly not butlers or footmen. They looked more like retired soldiers, judging by the scars on their hands and their faces.
"M'Lud?" one of them rumbled.
"Take this one out back," Baron Malvoro said, with a casual gesture at the man on the carpet. "Beat him to within an inch of his life; strip him; roll him through the pigpen a few times. Then put him in the coal-cart and dump him somewhere in the alleys east of the river for the human vermin to find."
"s'Foul weather out, M'Lud," the man said, tugging his forelock. "Cold as a witch's womb. 'E might not make it there alive if we drub 'im."
"Then dump him in the woods, for the wolves to find," the Baron replied, shrugging. "I'm not picky."
The man on the carpet opened his mouth to speak, only for it to be filled with a heavy boot and his teeth to go flying. While he was still gagging with pain, the two servants grabbed him by the ankles and hauled him out of the Lady Malvoro's bedchamber. As his screams faded into the distance, the Baron glided over to his lady, pausing only to kick an errant tooth from his path, and pressed a kiss on her unresisting hand.
"Come to my chamber, my love," the Baron murmured in her ear. "You should not be alone on such a cold night."

[Joël of the FoS]

I suspect Lady Malvoro in the bedroom with the candlestick

Fun idea.

Of course the Baron looks evil as hell

[LeMaxul]

The Baron is clearly evil imo.

The servants of the Baron sound like they're neutral, but allowing torture and feeding someone to wolves? If they did that, I'd say they've crossed the "moral line". Considering their employer, they're probably doing it consistently. So, I'd call them evil too.

Lady Malvoro is also evil, I think. The Baron's first words "Remember, my lady...We employ people to deal with such nuisances as these." hint that she may have intended to attack/kill the sprawled man herself, inside the room.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

It definitely seems that the servants have grown accustomed to carrying out such orders. Their only objection is that the dead man might have his suffering cut short by the cold before they can properly carry out the Baron's command. The excessive cruelty of the Baron definitely does not speak to a pleasant personality, nor does the fear he inspires in the Lady, especially if she is indeed also evil.

We don't have a lot of context for what the Lady has done. She may have just hurt the man in self defense. We also don't know if she is with the Baron because she has to be, or if she has chosen to be with him in spite of her fear (assuming that is what her trembling is) for some purpose (selfish or otherwise). Her unusually crimson eyes and the effectiveness with which she dispatched the man do suggest she might be a supernatural being of the more dangerous variety.

I am curious if the phrase "subtle arabesques" is meant to describe a complicated pattern of natural blood spillage, or if the blood has been drawn into intentional designs across the floor.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Alright, we've cleared stage one!
Now, on to stage two.
Same as before, please read the text between spoilers and answer this question: who in this scenario is evil?

VIEW CONTENT:

The Lady Malvoro closed her hands on the chair that had stood by her beside, whirled around, and brought it crashing down on the head of her unwelcome visitor. The man cried out once - a mixture of surprise and pain - and stumbled. Immediately, the Lady hiked up her skirt and kicked him twice in rapid succession: once in the groin and once in the knee already bent from the blow to his head.
Mouth gaping wide in agony, hands clutched to his privates, the man fell on his face. He gagged, attempted to speak, then gagged again. One hand reached out towards the Lady, but she had already moved out of range... towards the fireplace.
"My Lady..." the maid in the corner of the room whispered, eyes wide with shock. She started to move towards the Lady, hands ready to seize and restrain. "You - you can't just...!"
The Lady Malvoro whirled on her and batted her hands away with the fireside poker. The maid cried out once, then ran for the door, clutching her now broken and bleeding hands to her chest.
The Lady ignored her servant's unpermitted departure and strode back to her unwanted guest. He was trying to stand up, but that would not do.
'Crack!'
The man cried out, and covered the bleeding wound on his scalp with both arms.
'Crack!'
Another cry, and the man tried to crawl away from her.
'Crack! Crack! Crack!'
As if by magic, bleeding wounds appeared on the man's body, deep gouges beneath torn cloth. Far deeper than one would expect the Lady Malvoro's slender arms capable of making, even with the aid of a poker. He cried out at every blow, tried to crawl away, but the Lady Malvoro doggedly followed, her cheeks flushed, red eyes hell-bright and teeth bared as she struck him again and again and again - until he suddenly swept out an arm and caught her legs.
A wrench, a twist, and the Lady Malvoro crashed to the carpet. She scrambled to get away, but now it was the man's turn to doggedly pursue. A heavy hand, callused and scarred from swordplay, seized her ankle and he started to pull, to squeeze, the Lady's delicate bones grinding together...
The metal heel of a gentleman's cane came down on his knuckles, shattering them. A hand gloved in black leather seized the Lady Malvoro beneath the armpit and smoothly drew her to her feet.
"Gelaud," the Lady Malvoro gasped, startled to find her husband standing not an inch away from her. His presence overwhelmed her, the way it always did; the strength and the fury fled, and she found herself trembling like a bird before the aura of power and control surrounding him.
"My Lady," the Baron Malvoro said, his voice calm, controlled and precise. Black eyes that gave away nothing stared into hers. "Are you alright?"
Those same eyes glanced at the man rolling around in agony on the floor of her bedchamber. "Who is this?"
'He didn't know!' it flashed through the Lady Malvoro's mind. Of course not; how could he have known? Gelaud had never met her unwanted guest.
"He broke in here," she said, the lie coming smoothly, easily. One lie to pay for them all. "Gelaud... my Lord Baron... my Love. He wanted to... to... I was defending my honour."
The Baron Malvoro looked at the man lying sprawled on the floor of his wife's private chamber, his blood ruining its subtle arabesques. Then he turned to his bride, his black eyes meeting her crimson eyes. She trembled when their gazes met, then trembled even more strongly at the cold smile that creased his lips. Behind red velvet and ivory skin, her heart thundered.
"Remember, my lady," he said, the voice that could declaim spells with authority or hide in silence now purring as though he were a great cat. "We employ people to deal with such nuisances as these."
He walked over to the bedside table and took up one of the bells she had never touched; an iron bell with a single ring of gold. One shake of it brought two men running, men wearing the livery of the House Malvoro, but clearly not butlers or footmen. They looked more like retired soldiers, judging by the scars on their hands and their faces.
"M'Lud?" one of them rumbled.
"Take this one out back," Baron Malvoro said, with a casual gesture at the man on the carpet. "Beat him to within an inch of his life; strip him; roll him through the pigpen a few times. Then put him in the coal-cart and dump him somewhere in the alleys east of the river for the human vermin to find."
"s'Foul weather out, M'Lud," the man said, tugging his forelock. "Cold as a witch's womb. 'E might not make it there alive if we drub 'im."
"Then dump him in the woods, for the wolves to find," the Baron replied, shrugging. "I'm not picky."
The man on the carpet opened his mouth to speak, only for it to be filled with a heavy boot and his teeth to go flying. While he was still gagging with pain, the two servants grabbed him by the ankles and hauled him out of the Lady Malvoro's bedchamber. As his screams faded into the distance, the Baron glided over to his lady, pausing only to kick an errant tooth from his path, and pressed a kiss on her unresisting hand.
"Come to my chamber, my love," the Baron murmured in her ear. "You should not be alone on such a cold night."

[LeMaxul]

A reverse-revealed story? :O So, I still think that everyone except the sprawled man is evil. (I'm kinda expecting him to turn out evil too as the story unfolds)

[alhoon]

All of them sound... believable at this part. The guy was blackmailing the baroness, she beat the crap out of him. The baroness was in a fit, she broke her maid's hand. The baron found a man assaulting his wife, he had him beat up and thrown out. The guards did their job.

On a ranking I would go:

- Inhuman maid-beating lady that is hiding stuff.
- Blackmailer sprawled on the floor.
- Baron (borderline evil; I honestly think many of us would do worse to a man found in our loved one's bedchamber physically assaulting her and then the accusation that he was trying to sexually assault her - but he seems to have enjoyed it too much and he seems quite accustomed to having people beat up).
- Guards. Not evil. Just as thuggish as one would expect from guards in that situation.
- maid

[DustBunny]

*Drags Lemot Juste out from behind the curtain by his ear*

Found them!