Cosmology: Tolkien's Redeemable Evil vs. Manichean Dualism

So the classic question, "What about the hobgoblin women and whelps" came up in our 2E AD&D game last night.

We were going back into the dungeon to clear out the hobgoblins who had been raiding the local miners. We figured there were at best a handful of warriors and then the women and the whelps.

And so, my character -- a "Neutral Mercenary" elven mage/thief who'd as soon slit a throat as kiss it, asked the party cleric -- a Lawful Good dwarf cleric of the God of Justice -- "What do we do with the hobgoblin women and whelps -- you know, if they are non-combatant?"

After all, I did not want to lose the healing talents of said cleric if his god was going to be pissed at him!

And the cleric's player thought a moment, turned to the DM, and said, "What does my god think?"

And we stumped the DM, who had to delve into his cosmology and debate with himself and us a bit.

Most (European/Western-based) cosmologies basically come down to one of two major types -- either you are dealing with Evil being "Fallen but (usually) Redeemable" (Tolkien's Catholicism, essentially) or Manichean Dualism, in which Good and Evil have always been essentially equal(ish) and utterly opposed, winner-take-all.

Even Tolkien worried over this subject, as he essentially condemned all the warped and (originally) unwilling "followers" of Morgoth and Sauron -- orcs, trolls, etc. -- to Evil, even though they were originally born with Free Will and should have been able to be redeemed (the Valar sure thought they could redeem Morgoth and even Sauron).

If you are in a Tolkienesque setting, killing non-combatants, especially children, and even of an "Evil/Chaos-inclined" race/culture, would needs be EVIL, as you are taking away any chance of their expressing their Free Will and choosing Good. Doesn't matter what "necessity" or "politics" or "expediency" might require, it is still EVIL, and your soul would thusly be stained.

In a setting where the gods are real and "heaven" and "hell" are manifest and not essentially theoretical, this is not a question to be taken lightly.

But if you are in a Manichean Dualist campaign, where there can never be any quarter between Cosmic Law/Good and Cosmic Chaos/Evil, well, slay away.

The DM decided that essentially, their campaign was Manichean more-or-less, though certain factions of the Law/Good side hope to someday redeem a member of a Chaotic/Evil race such as hobgoblins (mostly as a victory for Law/Good than out of concern for the being's soul). Humans and most demi-human races are "in the middle," able to choose between Law/Good and Chaos/Evil. Humanoids are innately Chaotic/Evil. Drow, Duergar, and the like are... in a weird, indeterminate place, cosmologically.

So, very Old School in many ways.