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The Virtues of a Dragon
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9047133" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>Vices in italics, virtues underlined. I'll generally be taking an Aristotelian tack here--there is a right balance point between two extremes, deficiency and excess, which will produce a new soul that is both sufficiently draconic to <em>do</em> the resurrection, and also sufficiently <em>virtuous</em> to be worthy of the power so granted.</p><p></p><p><em>Pride</em> vs <u>Humility</u>: Pride is clearly a common draconic vice. <em>Appropriate</em> pride befits a majestic being like a dragon, but all too often dragons fall into <em>hubris</em> instead. Ideally, you want something like Nobility, a resolute soul full of determination and respect (for self and others), but not one that falls for flattering words or thinks itself too good to learn even from the Least. Overall, I would say this should be the most difficult of the "how should we design this soul" challenges to get right--but if it succeeds, it would bode very well for the final product.</p><p></p><p><em>Sloth</em> vs <u>Diligence</u>: This is one of the more obvious "dragons <em>can</em> fall prey to this, but don't have to" areas. An effective dragon is not actually slothful, but most dragons <em>do</em> enjoy taking their leisure. Here, the balance point is more about not turning the dragon into an "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" person. I would call this Vigor, a soul with the energy and drive to accomplish its goals, but also the self-awareness and heart to enjoy fitting times of leisure. I don't think this one would produce a particularly <em>bad</em> soul if it's failed, but it could lead to a <em>weak</em> dragon, which might be a problem in other ways.</p><p></p><p><em>Gluttony</em> vs <u>Temperance</u>: Keep in mind that "Gluttony" is not SOLELY a matter of excessive consumption; thinking it is can lead to a failure to see a serious character fault. Instead, gluttony is a matter of making consumption the overriding priority, even above other more worthy concerns. (C.S. Lewis gives the example of an older woman given to the gluttony of particularity: constantly vexing those around her by needing everything to be made perfect and making a show of consuming <em>less</em> than others, etc.) I would actually say that, overall, dragons are not really gluttonous creatures, as that tends to degrade their majesty; temperance reflects a soul that is poised, efficient, and intelligent in the use of resources. If you're looking for any of these to be a pretty straightforward lesson, temperance is probably the go-to choice.</p><p></p><p><em>Wrath</em> vs <u>Patience</u>: This is actually a really interesting one, because BOTH of these are draconic "virtues"! Dragons are (in)famous for their incredible destructive potential, even genuinely good ones. But it's pretty clear which end the players would like to see things tend toward. A super-wrathful dragon with zero patience would be, very simply, <em>super dangerous</em>. They'll likely want to err on the side of caution here, so this might be a good opportunity for a subversive "you actually don't want that as much as you think you do." Perhaps Patience, as a virtue, comes with a side of complacency (different from sloth/diligence: this is more like perfectionism or flippancy rather than insufficient drive to act), something that dragons really shouldn't ever display. I think this makes for a good way to demonstrate that maybe it's better, sometimes, to be a little less "virtuous" if it means being more true to your nature.</p><p></p><p><em>Greed</em> vs. <u>Charity</u>: Almost certainly the toughest one here, because Greed is THE draconic vice bar none. Even Bahamut, the goodiest good dragon who ever gooded a goodly good, maintains a hoard (in his case, it takes the form of his palace on Celestia and a handful of artifacts he keeps.) A good-aligned dragon has to find the right balance-point between mere grabby-hands <em>acquisitiveness</em> and prudent investment/acquisition/dispensation. Of all the vice/virtue pairs on here, I think this is the most <em>subtle</em>, because Greed is so key to the draconic identity and yet good dragons <em>subvert</em> that so much. This, along with Wrath and Pride, seem like the "identity vices" that any dragon, even a good one, should contain to SOME measure, a good one just tempers these vices with wisdom and positive regard for others, so that the negative impulses are curtailed while useful ones are pursued with Vigor.</p><p></p><p><em>Lust</em> vs <u>Chastity</u>: Ironically, I'm not really sure either of these has much impact on dragons. Despite the many jokes about how dragons can mate with anything, overall, they tend to be shown to...not really think about these things. It's not so much chastity--which implies purity and self-denial--so much as just...these things don't <em>matter</em> to a dragon. This could be useful if you want a challenge where the right choice is to <em>not choose anything at all</em>, or if you want to give the party a chance to correct a fault in the dragons of yore by actually, y'know, giving them a procreation drive so they don't go extinct again. Overall, I think you have a lot of room to play here, because there's not really any strong associations, meaning there's no right answer...but also no <em>wrong</em> answer.</p><p></p><p><em>Envy</em> vs <u>Kindness</u>: This is similar to the previous, but for completely different reasons. Dragons are incredibly powerful, long-lived, intelligent, <em>dangerous</em> beings. They just don't really have much to envy! (Remembering that "envy" is desiring what <em>others</em> have, while "jealousy" is paranoia about others taking what <em>you</em> have.) Greed and Pride already cover most of the strict definition of "jealousy," so Envy is mostly left with the "tear others down" angle. So, as said, dragons don't <em>tend</em> to be particularly envious, mostly because they're so convinced of their own superiority (and the universe does little to dissuade them.) However...many dragons are cruel, which most would consider even more opposed to Kindness than Envy is. You could take this one of two ways, either this is an almost make-or-break part that ensures you get a <em>good</em> dragon vs a neutral/evil one; <em>or</em> this is a thorny problem where too much Kindness is a serious problem but too little means you create a hellion rather than a healer.</p><p></p><p>TL;DR:</p><p>I think the players' "ideal" state ends with</p><p></p><p>Pride/Humility: Truly balanced (or possibly <em>slightly</em> Prideful)*</p><p>Sloth/Diligence: Leaning Diligent, but not exclusively</p><p>Gluttony/Temperance: Truly Temperate</p><p>Wrath/Patience: Truly balanced*</p><p>Greed/Charity: Truly balanced (or possibly <em>slightly</em> Greedy--"enlightened self-interest")*</p><p>Lust/Chastity: Anything goes?</p><p>Envy/Kindness: Truly Kind or Leaning Kind</p><p></p><p>The further they deviate from this, the worse the outcome is for them. Things marked with asterisks are places where being "too virtuous" risks producing a soul that doesn't work for the ritual, <em>especially</em> Pride/Humility.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 9047133, member: 6790260"] Vices in italics, virtues underlined. I'll generally be taking an Aristotelian tack here--there is a right balance point between two extremes, deficiency and excess, which will produce a new soul that is both sufficiently draconic to [I]do[/I] the resurrection, and also sufficiently [I]virtuous[/I] to be worthy of the power so granted. [I]Pride[/I] vs [U]Humility[/U]: Pride is clearly a common draconic vice. [I]Appropriate[/I] pride befits a majestic being like a dragon, but all too often dragons fall into [I]hubris[/I] instead. Ideally, you want something like Nobility, a resolute soul full of determination and respect (for self and others), but not one that falls for flattering words or thinks itself too good to learn even from the Least. Overall, I would say this should be the most difficult of the "how should we design this soul" challenges to get right--but if it succeeds, it would bode very well for the final product. [I]Sloth[/I] vs [U]Diligence[/U]: This is one of the more obvious "dragons [I]can[/I] fall prey to this, but don't have to" areas. An effective dragon is not actually slothful, but most dragons [I]do[/I] enjoy taking their leisure. Here, the balance point is more about not turning the dragon into an "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" person. I would call this Vigor, a soul with the energy and drive to accomplish its goals, but also the self-awareness and heart to enjoy fitting times of leisure. I don't think this one would produce a particularly [I]bad[/I] soul if it's failed, but it could lead to a [I]weak[/I] dragon, which might be a problem in other ways. [I]Gluttony[/I] vs [U]Temperance[/U]: Keep in mind that "Gluttony" is not SOLELY a matter of excessive consumption; thinking it is can lead to a failure to see a serious character fault. Instead, gluttony is a matter of making consumption the overriding priority, even above other more worthy concerns. (C.S. Lewis gives the example of an older woman given to the gluttony of particularity: constantly vexing those around her by needing everything to be made perfect and making a show of consuming [I]less[/I] than others, etc.) I would actually say that, overall, dragons are not really gluttonous creatures, as that tends to degrade their majesty; temperance reflects a soul that is poised, efficient, and intelligent in the use of resources. If you're looking for any of these to be a pretty straightforward lesson, temperance is probably the go-to choice. [I]Wrath[/I] vs [U]Patience[/U]: This is actually a really interesting one, because BOTH of these are draconic "virtues"! Dragons are (in)famous for their incredible destructive potential, even genuinely good ones. But it's pretty clear which end the players would like to see things tend toward. A super-wrathful dragon with zero patience would be, very simply, [I]super dangerous[/I]. They'll likely want to err on the side of caution here, so this might be a good opportunity for a subversive "you actually don't want that as much as you think you do." Perhaps Patience, as a virtue, comes with a side of complacency (different from sloth/diligence: this is more like perfectionism or flippancy rather than insufficient drive to act), something that dragons really shouldn't ever display. I think this makes for a good way to demonstrate that maybe it's better, sometimes, to be a little less "virtuous" if it means being more true to your nature. [I]Greed[/I] vs. [U]Charity[/U]: Almost certainly the toughest one here, because Greed is THE draconic vice bar none. Even Bahamut, the goodiest good dragon who ever gooded a goodly good, maintains a hoard (in his case, it takes the form of his palace on Celestia and a handful of artifacts he keeps.) A good-aligned dragon has to find the right balance-point between mere grabby-hands [I]acquisitiveness[/I] and prudent investment/acquisition/dispensation. Of all the vice/virtue pairs on here, I think this is the most [I]subtle[/I], because Greed is so key to the draconic identity and yet good dragons [I]subvert[/I] that so much. This, along with Wrath and Pride, seem like the "identity vices" that any dragon, even a good one, should contain to SOME measure, a good one just tempers these vices with wisdom and positive regard for others, so that the negative impulses are curtailed while useful ones are pursued with Vigor. [I]Lust[/I] vs [U]Chastity[/U]: Ironically, I'm not really sure either of these has much impact on dragons. Despite the many jokes about how dragons can mate with anything, overall, they tend to be shown to...not really think about these things. It's not so much chastity--which implies purity and self-denial--so much as just...these things don't [I]matter[/I] to a dragon. This could be useful if you want a challenge where the right choice is to [I]not choose anything at all[/I], or if you want to give the party a chance to correct a fault in the dragons of yore by actually, y'know, giving them a procreation drive so they don't go extinct again. Overall, I think you have a lot of room to play here, because there's not really any strong associations, meaning there's no right answer...but also no [I]wrong[/I] answer. [I]Envy[/I] vs [U]Kindness[/U]: This is similar to the previous, but for completely different reasons. Dragons are incredibly powerful, long-lived, intelligent, [I]dangerous[/I] beings. They just don't really have much to envy! (Remembering that "envy" is desiring what [I]others[/I] have, while "jealousy" is paranoia about others taking what [I]you[/I] have.) Greed and Pride already cover most of the strict definition of "jealousy," so Envy is mostly left with the "tear others down" angle. So, as said, dragons don't [I]tend[/I] to be particularly envious, mostly because they're so convinced of their own superiority (and the universe does little to dissuade them.) However...many dragons are cruel, which most would consider even more opposed to Kindness than Envy is. You could take this one of two ways, either this is an almost make-or-break part that ensures you get a [I]good[/I] dragon vs a neutral/evil one; [I]or[/I] this is a thorny problem where too much Kindness is a serious problem but too little means you create a hellion rather than a healer. TL;DR: I think the players' "ideal" state ends with Pride/Humility: Truly balanced (or possibly [I]slightly[/I] Prideful)* Sloth/Diligence: Leaning Diligent, but not exclusively Gluttony/Temperance: Truly Temperate Wrath/Patience: Truly balanced* Greed/Charity: Truly balanced (or possibly [I]slightly[/I] Greedy--"enlightened self-interest")* Lust/Chastity: Anything goes? Envy/Kindness: Truly Kind or Leaning Kind The further they deviate from this, the worse the outcome is for them. Things marked with asterisks are places where being "too virtuous" risks producing a soul that doesn't work for the ritual, [I]especially[/I] Pride/Humility. [/QUOTE]
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