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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41339
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41339
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

First, I will direct you here, because the questions overlap some (but are not duplicates).[How to present an alien culture with different morals, without it coming across as savage?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/41333/how-to-present-an-alien-culture-with-different-morals-without-it-coming-across)

You can't keep the reader from labeling the actions as "evil" if that's what they wish. And perhaps you don't want to stop them. Human sacrifice is pretty awful, at least to our modern minds.

Present your world matter-of-fact. This is how it works. This is why it works. Show the reader these things by how you describe them, not by sitting them down and explaining it.

Your characters might enjoy parts of the rituals, but they aren't doing all of this for kicks. They're doing it because it serves a purpose. Several purposes. Show those purposes.

One example is religious. They (some of them anyway) believe that these actions will please the gods and this in turn will benefit the society. Group ritual actions also bring a community together. They also reinforce social and class stratification in a community, something that leaders may consider necessary for the economy. They empower leaders and give them status. They reward certain families and sub-communities and elevate their status. They distract the people from things they ought not to be concerned with (problems with government, a disaster that could happen, etc). And they reduce leisure time where citizens could be out making trouble. Those are just a few examples.

The reader will take cues from you, the author. If you show these actions as normal (within this context), your reader will suspend disbelief. Of course, when contemplating the book, the reader may think very differently about the moral choices of the characters. And that's okay. You're presenting a world, with all its blemishes. Another route is to create dissidents in your world (it would be odd not to have any, but showing them is your choice). How you portray them, if at all, will help guide the reader as well.

Original score: 4