From nv91-asa@nada.kth.se Mon Dec 1 22:27:03 1995 Status: RO X-Status: Received: from mail6.netcom.com.netcom.com (root@mail6.netcom.com [192.100.81.142]) by mail.nada.kth.se (8.6.10/8.6.10) with ESMTP id WAA08407 for ; Fri, 1 Dec 1995 22:27:00 +0100 Received: by mail6.netcom.com.netcom.com (8.6.12/Netcom) id IAA24816; Thu, 30 Nov 1995 08:08:52 -0800 Received: from b612.anet.fr by mail6.netcom.com (8.6.12/Netcom) id IAA24667; Thu, 30 Nov 1995 08:08:35 -0800 Received: from ale.anet.fr (ale [194.51.25.32]) by b612.anet.fr (8.7.1/8.7.1) with SMTP id RAA03573 for ; Thu, 30 Nov 1995 17:15:08 +0100 Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 17:15:08 +0100 Message-Id: <199511301615.RAA03573@b612.anet.fr> X-Sender: bachmann@cybera.anet.fr (Unverified) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: WOD-L@netcom.com From: bachmann@b612.anet.fr (Christophe Bachmann) Subject: Res Hominem (Of souls) X-Mailer: Sender: owner-wod-l@netcom.com Precedence: list Reply-To: wod-l@netcom.com Res Hominem Sentience What differentiates Sentient species from animals is something we will call Avatar. It is the kind of thing that cannot be defined in human terms, but it completes the trilogy of Psyche and Shadow. Definitions Let us try to give an operative definition of these three terms. The important word here is operative, We will not care about what these parts are, or whether they are indeed real parts. This question is totally inconclusive and thus purely ludicrous. What imports here is if and how our definition correlates with observable phenomena, and permits to predict not yet known facts. The Psyche is the conscience, the sentient, rational part of man it is what we recognise ourselves to be. The Shadow is a repressed, primal part, it is the part we do not acknowledge and reprove, the part of instincts and primal urges. As for the Avatar, it is that what makes a society possible, that collective, undefined part that makes for language and transmission of knowledge. It makes also for the transmission of knowledge through the collectivity. All animals have a Psyche and a Shadow, all they lack is an Avatar. Individual animals can be individually very intelligent, but no animal never was able to create a society, for lack of the transmission booster that Avatar represents. The Psyche is the repository of all the active mind. It is the Intellect, Willpower, and Knowledge. It is the part of abstraction, of ideals as well as of science, of reflection and emotion. It is neither good nor evil, but in the Moorcockian dilemma it is the Law. The regulating force that never creates but ever orders. The Shadow is the force of the passive mind, It is the Intuition, the Perception, the Talents. It is the part of concrete, of instincts and immediacy, of selfishness and recklessness. It is again neither good nor evil, but would be on the side of Chaos, creation and destruction without rule nor order. Interactions Their interactions are all-important in a human's life, because their relative importance and disposition rules the "affetti" of the person. For instant simplification let's look at four extreme cases, High and Low for Psyche and Shadow. Low Psyche, Low Shadow : An apathetic wretch without either drive nor rule, just able to think in immediate personal terms, and without the backbone to make anything coherent. The typical bum. (Not to say all bums are in this case, neither that all in this case are bums.) Low Psyche, High Shadow : A driven person, without the will to make something of this drive, a cursed artist, or a serial killer, somewhat incommunicado, perceiving more than thinking and reacting instantly. High Psyche, Low Shadow : The great schemer. A person with the capacity of reflecting in very abstract terms, but without the fire inside. If well tutored they can become great scientists, of the theoretical variety. Else orderly people without personality. High Psyche, High Shadow : Driven, passionate people, capable of instant actions tempered by foresight, capable of unswerving dedication, capable of extremes of good and evil. In no case the ordinary person. In fact the exact twist of personality depends on the relative strengths of Psyche and Shadow, and their disposition. If Psyche dominates Shadow, the person will behave along lines of higher order, and think in terms of Altruism/Egoism. The more the Psyche dominates the shadow, the more they will think in abstract terms, the higher the absolute values, the more they will be active. If Shadow dominates Psyche, the person will think in terms of Gratification/Punishment. The more the Shadow dominates the Psyche, the more the immediate, unforesighted, aspects will appear, the higher the absolute levels, the more actions the person will be able to take. The Avatar Now to the Avatar. It's function is to put in harmonious relations Psyche and Shadow, and to enable interpersonal communication. It is a part of the person that is not personal, but flows from person to person, immortal and intemporal. People may have it in different measures, the higher the avatar the more the person thinks of oneself as part of a whole, the lower, the more a person will think in egoistic, selfish terms. This will definitely be tempered by Psyche. The more Psyche one has, the more one will tend to rationalise and come to a medium position. Death On a person's death, the Avatar flows on and Psyche and Shadow remain to clash heads on. Each trying to destroy the other, until either the person dissolves into immediacy and looses any coherence, going straight into oblivion, or loosing more and more the sense of concrete, until they transcend to the realm of pure Psyche, where- and whatever that is. In some cases, the dead's life-force, rather than facing immediate resolution, is booted into lower Umbra. There the components of mind being able to sustain themselves can split, forming two distinct entities, and you got a Wraith. Magic If a person's Avatar is high enough, it can even influence the other peoples Avatar, thus influencing reality. If it can be done without the Psyche of the other revolting, it is inside the limits of static reality, and thus is just magic, and doesn't glean Paradox. If it cannot be done so, it is Magick, and can glean Paradox, if anybody's Psyche (including the Mage's) revolts against this, ordering the Avatar to set things straight again. Paradox The Avatar cannot set things right, but can mess up the Mage's Avatar, thus making for Paradox backlashes. However, a Marauder wrapped up in the quiet has set barriers between his Avatar and other's and thus when other's Psyche revolt, they just mess up each one's Avatar who can't send the mess through the barriers, which makes for the Marauders external paradox effect. However any Avatar thus bothered can react by tweaking things around, letting his Avatar being more in accordance with the world around, and making Psyches notice that one Avatar around is messing up reality. This explains why Paradox flaws are often noticeable, but don't create more Paradox build-up, because they are in effect just a sign telling any Psyche around a conscious reality change was effected. Other Avatars However, there are three other avatars around, Gaia, the Quickening, and the Dreaming, competing with the common Avatar. Gaia In the case of the Gaia avatar, three things may happen. A child may at conception inherit a part of both avatars, but the Gaia avatar, never waked goes dormant. The person is a classical human, who might birth a Garou. Each smoothes down the other, and the child is fully human, but does not suffer the delirium, he is a kinfolk. Or the Gaia avatar suppresses the Avatar. Theses people, the betes, are not any more connected to the normal Avatar, and thus may disregard sleepers when they use their Gifts and Rites, but are all interconnected. When something out of reality is initiated by the Gaia avatar, the Psyche of viewers asks for Paradox, but the Avatar who falls nose to muzzle with the Gaia avatar remembers aeons of repression during the impergium, and plainly refuses, causing major dysfunctions in the affected person's mind. This is called the delirium. However in some betes the Gaia avatar and the Avatar come to terms, in this case, the Gaia avatar copes with the stress, but the Delirium does not kick in, letting all viewers in front of the situation, which is now accepted by the Avatar. Another situation is that when two betes mate, their offspring has much less connection to the Avatar, which is necessary for human completeness, thus Metis are deformed in some ways and often temperamentally unstable. And, being unable to pass on the Avatar, all of their children are early miscarriages. One other noteworthy fact is that the Gaia avatar has much higher imprint capacity onto the psyche, and can impress whole memories of past lives, as opposed to the Avatar's dreams. Quickening When a person is connected to the Quickening, she is most often a sportive type. And sometimes, on Death, when their normal Avatar withdraws, the Quickening tries to heal the body and take over, this only happens when the body is still fully functional, and is killed by a wound, or some other acute phenomenon. Then the Quickening manifests its first power, as it infuses the new immortal. Quickening is a little peculiar in that very few persons are connected to it, so each death of an immortal frees a whole lot of Avatar that can be absorbed by any nearby person connected on the Quickening, the remainder floats away, infusing some persons and remaining dormant until death. Accessorily this makes for all these people who, on the very brink of Death hold on for an unexpectedly long time, the entire forces of Shadow, Psyche and the Quickening pitted together, but the mortal's strength is just barely insufficient, or some outer event saps these strengths and they die on the verge of Awakening. The Dreaming Then there is the Dreaming . This one creates a meta-reality perceptible only for those who have this avatar active. If so, they are in the meta-reality, their common Avatar maintaining a veil of normal reality and smoothing out the discrepancies. So for instance a Troll who ducks under a door, will seem a tall human not ducking. When the discrepancy cannot be ironed out, the Avatar will try and kick in Paradox, as usual, but the Dreaming copes with the stresses, and so the other people's Psyche having asked for everything to be set right receives the OK from the Troll's Avatar and agree all is set to rights, acknowledging the end result regardless of the impossible causes. That is the mists phenomenon. However there are times when the Dreaming is weakened, in these times the person is disconnected from the Dreaming reality and is for all instances and purposes a common human until reactivated. The Mark of Cain Lastly, there is a very nasty modification that can be imposed upon an Avatar, on Death, the Avatar may recieve the mark of Caine, tying it up to the Shadow rather than the ordinary Psyche, making it unable to depart, and disconnecting it in most part from the Avatar. The persons suffering this are Vampires, and their Humanity is the measure of the connection Psyche maintains with the Avatar, enabling them to still partake of humanity. Due to Cain's mark, Vampires are impervious to Paradox, and do not generate Paradox for others. The motive force of a Vampire is not any more the Psyche, but the Shadow, whose strength is derived from blood. In a Vampire, Humanity is a measure of how far the Psyche can maintain an artificial link to it's Avatar, Bestiality is the measure of the dominance of the Shadow over the Psyche. Never can a Vampire's Psyche dominate the Shadow, except in the mythical state of Golconda. True Faith In this Point of View, True Faith is quite the opposite of Magic, it is an Avatar not imposing it's views on others, but asking others to fudge reality for it's sake. That can bring very powerful results, reshaping reality and negating any and all magic, but is very fickle and rare, because most often no consensus can be reached in the Avatar. But when something happens it is the most static of static reality, and thus immune to all other effects, including Paradox. In effect there is no earthly force stronger than a Miracle. Fae vs Actor All that has access to to Dreaming must be treated through the Fae realm, Everything else, even those who have the Dreaming dormant must be treated through Actor. How many other questions can this neatly (or not so) solve ? As always comments, criticisms and expansions most welcome... With best regards, Chris CII (Christophe Bachmann) All I am, a child with promises All I have are miles full of promises of home.