I like happy endings. At least, I surely like them when I'm someway involved.
So, in a cosmology like that of Golarion, where Evil seems to outnumber Good at a ∞:1 rate (Demons here, Devils there, Daemons everywhere, Dark Gods below, Great Old Ones above and beyond...), could I really make the Forces of Light grow tired and wrathful enough to all become one and set aflame the skies with holy fire until the very last memory of Evil has been cleansed from the multiverse? All the Demon Lords butchered, the Archdevils torn asunder, the Horsemen dismembered, the Dark Gods enchained in pain, the Great Old Ones crushed under the heel of someone greater... you get the idea.
But I ask for more: could I really do it without making it sound like crap?
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If you are the GM, sure you could. I am not sure you could avoid it being a bit over the top and well... kind of resembling nachos.
I would keep the PCs far from the main action, observing the central action from afar, but may be having a hand in it by completing quests and the such.
I attempted this kind of thing in a Greyhawk campaign once when I was a lot younger. It was fun for a couple of sessions, but you could lose control of it quite easily.
I would suggest may be having a slightly smaller event, say in Mendev for example, that is localised to that region. The big end to the crusade for instance!
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Hurm. Deterrence seems to be more of the good MO. However ...
What you are describing is something akin to a rapture event. Let's use Golarion as a setting for a moment.
- Sarenrae, pressed on all sides by wickedness and evil, conspires with her clergy to unleash the Redeeming Fire. She sacrifices herself, breaking her divinity into a holy flame that her priests carry before them like a brand, turning every which way.
- Her clergy go forth, declaring these the End Times. Political turmoil ensues, as monarchs and councils are asked to accept the end. The wicked (i.e. those with evil alignment) are slain outright. The good that accept the Redeeming Fire are purified, either passing directly to the good afterlife or bolstered to join the crusade. The indifferent must choose a side. The reluctant must be forced into a decision. This is the End of the World, after all.
- Demons, Devils, Aberrations and everything else are scorched and driven back by the Redeeming Fire. Massive damage, will saves to avoid fleeing, fort saves to avoid death ... whatever.
- With that setup, the conflict writes itself. Need some consequences? How about ...
- Sarenrae's actions trigger a loophole in Rovagug's Seal of Imprisonment. And faced with all his long-term plans being thwarted, Asmodeus is quite eager to let the world-destroyer free.
- Followers of other good gods may not be all that interested in Sarenrae's Armageddon. They might be allies and co-conspirators, but maybe this wasn't what they wanted. Neutral deities, naturally, might object to what will ultimately lead to tremendous destruction, not to mention their own awkward place in the middle between the factions of good and evil.
- The Four Horsemen and the Demons of the Abyss would certainly try to run amok. But what would they do? Sarenrae's ultimate sacrifice gives the forces of good a weapon of annihilation against them. Rather than fight the crusade directly, they avoid and harass, destroying as much of the world as they can in as short a time as possible before the crusaders scorch them from the world.
- Does the crusade head into other planes? The consequences for the cosmology of an entire alignment-plane being annihilated or warred-upon could be dire. The Dark Tapestry is out there. Pharasma and Desna have interests in keeping it out there instead of here. And while Sarenrae's actions might scour evil from the world, leaving behind only the righteous who did not wish an afterlife, it might also permit the Great Old Ones to stir or return to the world.
- Can the good remain good when they take people's free will away from them? Perhaps the crusade will implode as its leadership succumbs to the enormity of their task and one by one go Knight Templar? Maybe the crusade reaches a sort of stability, where it ceases to grow but loses regions/followers as fast as it redeems them? Good alignment is hard to maintain when your duty becomes 'forcing people to make a choice about how they want to die'.
In short, I think what a campaign of this sort needs is players who can be persuaded to have faith that what they are doing is, in fact, good. Because otherwise, Armageddon is Armageddon. The destruction will be vast, the implications tremendous. And the further the crusade of good goes, the further the wicked and the neutral will go to defend themselves from it.
Or, as Enlight_Bystand mentions, a Villains By Necessity sort of plot where the bad guys seek to thwart the good guys and their Final Solution.