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There have been lots of discussions about who is evil or not.
But it might be just really simple. Do they use decorative skulls ?
[Edit] Only to be used for Human factions.

All factions in WH40k are evil in some way.

Tyranids, pretty arguably evil, don't use skulls. Tau, pretty evil in their own mindcontrolling way, don't use skulls. Orks use skulls, but they're the only good guys, as they're not xenophobic jerks.

It would probably best to exclude xenos species for this test since they have other cultural backgrounds that would likely result in other sorts of symbolism.

 jreilly89 wrote:
Tyranids, pretty arguably evil, don't use skulls. Tau, pretty evil in their own mindcontrolling way, don't use skulls. Orks use skulls, but they're the only good guys, as they're not xenophobic jerks.

I'd argue that the Tyranids are no where near evil. It's akin to calling a cat evil for eating small birds and mice. They're just doing their thing.

Tyranids are basically animals. Not evil, just hungry. Orks are really just a force of nature, kind of like the galaxy's immune system. Dheyz jes lukin' fer a gud fight! It ain't der fault da Humies ain't so good a fightin'.

Orks have the "Orange and Blue" morality trope going on that makes them hard to judge as being good or evil. Orks find fighting fun and they don't understand the appeal of peace or why somebody wouldn't want to fight. Combine that with a "Might makes Right" kulture and social hierarchy that makes a world without conflict boring, confusing, and even agonizing for them.

Nids are just alpha preditors that run the hunt/eat/reproduce cycle at an incredibly fast rate across numerous planets in a fairly coordinated manner.

Our concept of evil is entirely based on human perception of good and bad and is compared to our human values. Many xenos have to be exempt from this due to not only cultural differences but also genetic makeup. Orks are the best example of this and fall under the orange/blue morale category. Their growth and physical well being is directly tied to fighting and winning. For their race it would be evil to not fight. If the race as a whole decided to become pacifists they would all die off as lowly puny defence less snots.

Edit add: Vank ninja'd me

 Griddlelol wrote:

 jreilly89 wrote:
Tyranids, pretty arguably evil, don't use skulls. Tau, pretty evil in their own mindcontrolling way, don't use skulls. Orks use skulls, but they're the only good guys, as they're not xenophobic jerks.

I'd argue that the Tyranids are no where near evil. It's akin to calling a cat evil for eating small birds and mice. They're just doing their thing.

Cats don't eat mice, rats, anything that moves, and savagely reap the earth of any and all organic material, leaving a chunk of rock behind.

Cats are beneficial to an ecosystem by controlling vermin populations.

Tyranids don't really have that justification. There is no ecological benefit to stripping a planet bare. Comparing the two on the basis that they are predatory lifeforms isn't quite accurate in that instance.
They are more like galactic parasites than predators.

Which mind you, isn't really evil. Disgusting, but not evil.
Unless you are willing to apply morality to malaria.

And yet both are following their instincts to perform the actions they need to do in order to survive and breed.

in a way tyranids are the galactic predators. strip entire worlds of biomass, but hey life will probably regrow there and they can come back later and eat that too!

but really orks and space wolves might be the only good guys as they are either space Vikings or soccer hoolagins looking for a good time. Salamnders probably also count as good guys as they seem to care for the weak. either way everything in 40k is a shade of grey with the darkest being the inquisition

 G00fySmiley wrote:
in a way tyranids are the galactic predators. strip entire worlds of biomass, but hey life will probably regrow there and they can come back later and eat that too!

but really orks and space wolves might be the only good guys as they are either space Vikings or soccer hoolagins looking for a good time. Salamnders probably also count as good guys as they seem to care for the weak. either way everything in 40k is a shade of grey with the darkest being the inquisition

Would life grow back? The nids seem to take everything from a world. I don't thing there will be enough resources left to sustain life.

The boundary between reality and the warp is pretty unstable in the milky way. Due to the nature of the warp there will always be extra terrestrial flora and fauna popping out from it travel or even a combination of flora and fauna such as ork spores.

Good and evil is all from a certain point of view. As xerics said, each army is evil to another.

Actually, cats are catastrophic to an ecosystem, depopulation all of the small birds and ground animals necessary to support larger fauna. Cat are in effect cuter, slower spreading, more adorable Nids.

SJ

 jeffersonian000 wrote:
Actually, cats are catastrophic to an ecosystem, depopulation all of the small birds and ground animals necessary to support larger fauna. Cat are in effect cuter, slower spreading, more adorable Nids.

SJ

Just about any predator species, when taken out of its natural environment, can be devastating to a ecosystem in the right scenario. I view Nids to be more in line with locusts than alpha predators. Alpha predators don't eat and destroy everything, they just don't have any natural predators of their own, they are the top of the food chain. Locusts descend onto a crop and eat everything until nothing remains, and then move on to the next crop.