Thoughts on post-Ritual culture

[Vaz]

Once, I briefly played a character who feared the Gift because it took away the meaning of death and therefore the meaning of life. Although someone managed to convince her that being Gifted was not like being undead, she never got over the feeling that Gifted aren't in the same category of being as the Living (which isn't to say she believed that Gifted people were lesser individuals - she herself was Gifted, albeit one who avoided dying after her first death, to the point of retiring to the quietest and safest sort of life she could find).

Conversations with some trainers and guards reveal hints of resentment toward the Gifted, or at least doubt that their efforts are as virtuous as efforts of non-Gifted. There is nostalgia about the times when death had meaning; it was glorious and challenging to fight at the risk of paying the ultimate price for defeat; it was an honor to make the ultimate sacrifice for one's cause, whereas now even a coward and/or a criminal will do so if they happen to be Gifted. Indeed, many Gifted have self-centred allegiances and live as mercenaries acting only for pay or fun. A few are so spoilt that they whine during Withered Aegis invasions about the deaths they experience and retreat from the battles.

In contrast, some view the Gifted as heroes. Guard Barak and his men, for example, view those who come to their aid in the defense of New Trismus against its deadland as welcome and a great boost to morale. If it weren't for the Gifted Istaria might have fallen to the Aegis by now, and everyone appreciates that, even the people who do so (be)grudgingly.

The non-Gifted accord the Gifted privileges like free vault space (at the Commoner's Vault level). This is perhaps a gesture of gratitude for the services of the Gifted, but also a practicality: If the Gifted can store their equipment and resources easily, they can train more efficiently up to the strength/power required to combat the higher Aegis, therefore as a whole they can protect the non-Gifted more effectively.

On top of artificial privileges, Gifted have numerous Ritual-given traits that benefit them but may have unforeseen side-effects:

• As mentioned before, they don't need to eat. They don't need to pause their activities to snack, they will never feel the pains of starvation, and they don't have to worry about maintaining a food supply of three meals per day. If a Gifted biped becomes pregnant with a non-Gifted fetus, does their not eating harm or kill that fetus? If a Gifted dragon has some non-Gifted hatchlings in their clutch, will they remember to have food on hand when hatching time comes and afterward continue to feed the hatchling(s) frequently enough until the hatchling(s) learn to obtain food for themselves?
  
• Can survive long falls. When traveling with a non-Gifted person, a Gifted person doesn't consider the other's inability to do so. I played a non-Gifted hatchling whose own mother led him over a drop that nearly injured him.
  
• Can be awake for extended periods of time, but at the price of unpredictable sleeping patterns including sleeps that last years. A Gifted person thus cannot be relied upon in time-sensitive situations and is in many cases incapable of adhering to a schedule with certainty.
  
• Can and will do a lot of killing. Their lives are filled with violence at minimal risk to themselves, and most of them don't give that fact any thought. They often hunt not for food or materials, but just to get better at killing. Even when they do hunt for resources used in cooking or crafting, they only take one or two different things off carcasses.
  
  Fortunately the animal populations are mostly unaffected by such careless slaughter. For whatever reason, Istaria can ecologically afford the Gifted.
• They don't get sick except for Zymosis Morbidae and, rarely, a headache or cold. How much patience and compassion would the average Gifted person have for a non-Gifted afflicted by an illness they can't understand first-hand, when they throw themselves into briefly painful combat every day? Which one has the monopoly on physical suffering?
• Aging is either much slower or non-existent. The Gifted live longer, see more, gather more experiences and wisdom. In their twilight years, what sort of philosophical conclusions might they reach?

In the post I linked at the beginning of this one, about playing a non-Gifted character, I suggested some questions the player of such a character could ask themselves in the process of determining how their character feels about Gifteds. Those questions are relevant to this as well, so I'll quote them:

Think about what it means to face the constant possibility of dying while others (the Gifted) don't have to. What effects does this have on a personality?

Though we all have permadeath in RL, one might not be accustomed to it in the context of an MMORPG. At least you can use as reference our vast history of preoccupation with matters of mortality.

As for the second part of the situation I described in the first sentence of this section, you can use the way NPCs regard the Gifted as a template, or take it in a darker direction: perhaps your character is jealous and resentful of them. On the other hand, maybe they just don't care - what doesn't affect them doesn't bother them.

Does your character blame anyone/anything for their state?

Does their situation drive them toward or away from religion?

How strong is their sense of self-preservation?

How far are they willing to go for others? Perhaps they would sacrifice themselves for fellow non-Gifted for whom the consequences are familiarly dire, but not for Gifted?

When Gifted complain about dying, how does your character react? Anger, reproach and admonition, sadness, indifference?

In particular:

At least you can use as reference our vast history of preoccupation with matters of mortality.

Istarians would have the same thing, retaining strong instincts and societal factors arising from mortality. Aside from resurrection spells, they lived with true death for over six thousand years until a random few people started returning to life thanks to the Ritual of Everlasting Life a mere 23+ years ago.

Shortly after the onset of the Gift, when it seemed the only way to learn whether one was Gifted was to die, some people probably committed suicide just to sate their curiosity as to whether they had it. Discovering that one is Gifted is an extraordinarily life-changing thing and can make a difference to many decisions.

After the Aegis threat ends, how will the Gifted be treated and what will they use their power for?


I think Gifted are amortal rather than immortal, since they can die by obscure arcane methods as well as extreme age, and falling asleep for-effectively-ever is almost equal to death.



Discuss.