My mc likely has the same view of Hector that Hector (and Ganelon, yes that kid’s betrayal in particular really hurt my mc) have of helots: therefore "he’s barely human at best".
Then we simply must become eldritch furries, right?
Does that “pretty horrible shit” include the R-word though? As from my personal experiences I’d say those survivors often try to distance themselves both physically (moving to another city, or even country) and psychologically from their (former) abusers.
That’s mostly to convince themselves they even have any power at all, some dictators who have (had) oodles of power have tended to dress relatively (though not to the "high" sparrow standards of my mc, admittedly) modestly, particularly compared to their direct underlings, Hitler and Mao among them. As opposed to the “bling” of some dressing modestly can also be a sign that you have nothing to prove.
Ugh, well lets just say that my mc would truly hate having to wear fancy outfits and the only way they’re ever going to get his measurements for the damned things would be if Simon (or another lover he has come to trust somewhat) surreptitiously takes them in his sleep as there really is no way that my mc is going to let so-called professionals near him with scissors and needles.
He may well have to make the uncomfortable compromise (literally and figuratively) of having to wear some at some point in the future but it defintely would not be a pleasant experience for him.
Dissociation is a godsend, let me tell you. I don’t even know who I am or what I did today at any given moment. It’s as if everything I see and do is from behind a wall of glass. Even the things I touch and taste feel watery and dull, as if I’m experiencing something with a fold of clingfilm over it… it feels as if my body is a video game character, and I am just controlling them from a distance, watching them interact with others from behind a screen. I can barely remember anything at all nowadays.
That’s gonna be a bit heavy, don’t you think? Also once we do gain control and avoid the anarchy cliff the state we lead will likely be dirt poor, at least compared to what it is now.
Like with most things however his distaste of fancy clothes is obviously greatest for whatever was in style among the nobility near Rim Square during most of his life. The further something deviates from that the more likely he’ll be to tolerate it, though as I’ve explained before there are a multitude of reasons why he’ll never actually like wearing needlessly fancy clothing, of any style, himself.
This has given me another thought about clothing in the game-world though. @Havenstone do theurges/mages actually need the blood they use to come into contact with the skin of their hands?
If so I could imagine that etiquette might dictate most mages, unless they are the highest ranking one present may be required to wear gloves when in the presence of each other or the nobility, the magical equivalent to peace-bonding a sword perhaps?
My mum wanted to wear my cat’s testicles on a necklace. She thought they were too fluffy and huge to be wasted.
I told her she had to wear her own cat’s testicles on a necklace if she wanted cat ball amulets. I get to choose where my boy’s gonads go, and they’re going in the bin.
Her cat’s balls were tiny (the vet thought he was an intersex male for like, two days as she could only find one tiny nut at first), so Mum didn’t bother. She never did get her dual cat-bollock pendant.
But blood is much more complex than the metal of a hammer. I had ideas in mind, but I forgot them. And I can’t really explain how only human blood would work, other than a special connection to Xthonos and Xaos, maybe. Maybe the fact that humans can experience both the virtues of Xthonos and the vices of Xaos? I’d need to read the game details on Theurgy to find out more
Your mom is something else, remind me never to go near her.
Sounds like religious claptrap of the kind the ecclesiasts might peddle to me, I think it rather more likely that Xthonos and Xaos do not exist, at least not as gods or sentient forces behind the universe. They might both have their place as laws of physics in this universe, but that does not make one good and virtuous and the other evil and sinful, or at least that’s what I think my mc might have to say when pressed on it.
On the other hand if @Havenstone does want to go all midi-chlorian on us in the next game then my character must bring balance to the whole thing by firmly siding with Xaos cause he really cannot stomach what has been done to him and millions like him in the name of Xthones and the “merciful” angels.
@Havenstone what about that other thing, besides the scars from the “gentle care” of the overseers and alastors that my mc would like to get rid off eventually, does the helot mc have any tattoos or brands on them?
We should really put this up in a FAQ, with the revised chapter 2 you need to have an anarchy rating of 20 or less, not kill the de Merre’s if you do the noble estate raid and don’t turn the temple raid into a horror show cause Simon doesn’t take us delivering the priests the Angel’s brand of “mercy” that is their rightful due very well.
There are however legends from pre-Hegemonic Shayard about southern werefolk – jackals, wolves, and bears – who came to steal children and turn them into beasts, but were chased away by the bold knights of the Gryphon. So an INT 2 character would have reason to believe that the Abhumans predated Theurgy and the Xaos-lands.
To date, I’ve not considered tattooing or branding to be part of the Karagond slave culture. I think at this point I’d probably say LIM.
Whatever the metaphysical status of Xthonos and Xaos, I hope it’s clear that the game doesn’t equate order with good and chaos with evil. The religion of the Hegemony does, yes. But it’s a monstrosity, and one clearly based in Order – the nearly literal divinization of the existing social order, of That Which Is. The fact that the Xaos-lands (apparently) offer an opposite nightmare doesn’t mean that the message of the game is that the Order-horror is better. It just elevates the stakes of trying to find a middle way.
The Ecclesiasts recognize that compassion doesn’t neatly fit the spectrum, that it is in many respects a force of chaos more than order. They may find this to be troubling… but there’s no reason that the reader should.
