Thursday, May 30, 2013

John has IRL vengeance...it's a problem.

How do you reduce your virtues? My character started out incredibly vengeful but has grown as a person and repented his ways. I want to trade my Vengeance rating for Valor rating (Dodekatheon.)

Let me relate a personal story that hopefully will help explain. As a teen/young adult, I had terrible rage problems. Although I had great successes in the classroom and in many after-school activities, I was also in trouble in the principal's office often. It wasn't just that I got angry, or even that I got irrationally angry. It was that when I acted on that anger, I lost control and horrible things happened.

My parents didnt want to admit that anything was wrong with me. And my success in other areas made it something that was easy to overlook. Also, although I didnt realize it then, looking back, I was a very manipulative little shit, and got away with things I shouldn't have with bold-faced lies.

But to save you the details of many insane stories, by the time I was 16, I had court-appointed anger management (was far better than jail for attempted murder... yay, lawyers). After several years of counseling, group therapy and a deeper immersion in the arts, I was "cured".

This didn't mean I didn't get angry anymore. Or that something chemically changed that let my brain react to anger like other people do. Instead, I learned how to control my anger better, and to find ways to channel the anger/energy in a health(ier)y manner.

I still get really, really angry sometimes. But the times where that anger causes me to be excessivly violent/destructive have been greatly reduced. However, there are definitely times when I fail to control myself, and can get myself into pretty bad trouble. But it's never something that stops existing as part of me. It's just something I struggle to control for the rest of my life.

An alcholic will tell you a similiar story.

Where am I going with all this rambling?

Virtues aren't things that change over time because you grow or change. Vengeance isn't the angry "phase" of our youth that we grow out of. Harmony isn't that hippy "phase" in college that we mature through. Order isn't something only stuffy old gods have. Virtues are an important, intrinsic parts of your character's very being. They represent not only the inner values that you feel as part of your soul, but also your connection to your people and your pantheon (rage problems are well-documented for generations in both sides of my family).

I promise that a character who has changed and become Pious, but still suffers under the yolk of intense levels of Vengeance, constantly struggling to control their emotions and actions is WAY more interesting as a character than someone who gets to take the easy way out and just be done with the emotions they don't like when they don't want them anymore.

Gods are giant, awesome, super versions of humanity. Virtues represent those giant, awesome, super emotions/needs/VIRTUES that they have. If they disagree with them, that can be great, but it should be a struggle, not a switch you can turn on or off.

That being said:

I've had lots of Virtue changing in games (although usually, almost always, it's against the will of the Scion).
There's a magic spell that does it for non-gods.
Avatar of Magic could work for gods probably, but maybe would take several to do a Legend 12 god.
Avatar of Justice, if swearing an oath to forever defend another pantheon or something similiar.
Some sort of blood-mixing oath-swearing with Avatars involved.
Titanspawn infection, or Titan worship at Hero/Demigod.
Titanrealms/Avatars at God.

So there are many options, but for all except Magic it's usually a suprise to my players and not something they're happy with.

So use one of those ways if you must. But I promise, sticking with that high Vengeance and making a go of it will be a far more interesting adventure/story for your character. It'll cause many problems, but it'll be far more rewarding.

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