Honor paradoxes

One of the best roleplaying confrontations is the conflict of competing goods. For example, a cousin may be discovered to have sworn allegiance to a foreign prince. Does one protect your kinsman or inform your lord that your cousin?s loyalty is elsewhere? Using honor in the game creates many opportunities to pit the obligations of honor against itself or against other values. The romances of the high middle ages are full of choices the hero must make between two honorable acts, both of which cannot be performed, or more directly, a forced dishonor to preserve some other honor.
While such a paradox can challenge any character, its effects can be seen most strongly when confronted by a hero who endeavours to do good while bound by the rules and ideology of the world in which he or she lives. As such, a honor paradox is hardest for a lawful good PC and less of a challenge for a chaotic evil character.