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Fanatics & Zealots: How to Use Extremism in Antagonists and Villains in Your Campaigns (+)
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8540344" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>There's a lovely article from the 4e era of Dragon magazine about how to have <em>theoretically</em> "good" religious extremists as antagonists, using Bahamut's faithful as an example. They even touch on how it can <em>sound</em> like Bahamut's doctrine is simple and resists extremism, but can still quite easily be twisted into something monstrous with the right (wrong?) approach. Specifically, in 4e, Bahamut's doctrine is summarized like this:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Uphold the highest ideals of honor and justice.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Be constantly vigilant against evil and oppose it on all fronts.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Protect the weak, liberate the oppressed, and defend just order.</li> </ul><p>As stated, these seem like pretty reasonable things, difficult to twist--but each one has a potential dark shadow it can cast. What does it mean to "uphold the highest ideals of honor and justice"? Is it enough to be just and honorable <em>yourself</em>, or do you need to pursue them for others, too? Do you need to <em>ensure</em> that others behave justly and honorably? That starts to sound like a "thoughtcrime" kind of situation, or perhaps forcing everyone, no matter their circumstances or beliefs, to join the army or the like, because it's <em>dishonorable</em> to be a <em>dirty pacifist</em>. Etc. This actually dovetails quite well (poorly?) with the second point, vigilance against evil. Perhaps Bahamut is advocating a police state, run by an absolute autocrat who ensures that everyone living there has goodrightthoughts and leads an absolutely squeaky-clean life with no deviation, no disobedience, etc.</p><p></p><p>The third actually invites the <em>most</em> problems, again despite sounding like a really basic "be a hero" instruction. Perhaps you're supposed to <em>hunt down the strong</em> so they can never be a threat to the weak. Perhaps the people are "oppressed" by a variant religious sect that doesn't share Bahamut's ideals. Perhaps the cruel, sadistic duchess is legally the ruler of the land and thus any opposition to her must be defended against. Etc. Even with these seemingly no-nonsense, straightforward ideas, it's possible to distort them into something very different and very unpleasant.</p><p></p><p>When used carefully, this sort of thing can really spice up a situation, because it can lead to serious questions from all parties involved. If a PC is part of the faith in question, then they may either be sympathetic to the extremists, or find them dangerous--or be afraid that they really <em>are</em> the "true believers" and that the thing they thought they believed in isn't what it seemed to be. (This is implied with an example villain in the aforementioned Bahamut article; there's an extremist fire-and-brimstone official from Bahamut's church, who has been around for a while and <em>hasn't</em> had any kind of obvious divine intervention to suggest that his violent, extremist views are unacceptable. Whether he <em>is</em> right is, of course, a matter of debate.) Alternatively, perhaps the PCs are just laypeople affiliated with the religion, at which point you get an outsider-vs-insider issue, which can be very juicy. Or maybe they're antagonistic to this particular church, and are happy to have another reason to try to take it down. Etc. And you can end up with actual "good vs good" conflicts if there are still some non-extremist good guys affiliated with the extremist ones, whether because they don't know the truth or some other reason.</p><p></p><p>There's a <em>lot</em> you can do with extremism of this kind, assuming the players are on board for such behavior. It opens a lot of interesting stakes, things that can't be easily revoked, commitment or abandonment of causes, that sort of thing.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 8540344, member: 6790260"] There's a lovely article from the 4e era of Dragon magazine about how to have [I]theoretically[/I] "good" religious extremists as antagonists, using Bahamut's faithful as an example. They even touch on how it can [I]sound[/I] like Bahamut's doctrine is simple and resists extremism, but can still quite easily be twisted into something monstrous with the right (wrong?) approach. Specifically, in 4e, Bahamut's doctrine is summarized like this: [LIST] [*]Uphold the highest ideals of honor and justice. [*]Be constantly vigilant against evil and oppose it on all fronts. [*]Protect the weak, liberate the oppressed, and defend just order. [/LIST] As stated, these seem like pretty reasonable things, difficult to twist--but each one has a potential dark shadow it can cast. What does it mean to "uphold the highest ideals of honor and justice"? Is it enough to be just and honorable [I]yourself[/I], or do you need to pursue them for others, too? Do you need to [I]ensure[/I] that others behave justly and honorably? That starts to sound like a "thoughtcrime" kind of situation, or perhaps forcing everyone, no matter their circumstances or beliefs, to join the army or the like, because it's [I]dishonorable[/I] to be a [I]dirty pacifist[/I]. Etc. This actually dovetails quite well (poorly?) with the second point, vigilance against evil. Perhaps Bahamut is advocating a police state, run by an absolute autocrat who ensures that everyone living there has goodrightthoughts and leads an absolutely squeaky-clean life with no deviation, no disobedience, etc. The third actually invites the [I]most[/I] problems, again despite sounding like a really basic "be a hero" instruction. Perhaps you're supposed to [I]hunt down the strong[/I] so they can never be a threat to the weak. Perhaps the people are "oppressed" by a variant religious sect that doesn't share Bahamut's ideals. Perhaps the cruel, sadistic duchess is legally the ruler of the land and thus any opposition to her must be defended against. Etc. Even with these seemingly no-nonsense, straightforward ideas, it's possible to distort them into something very different and very unpleasant. When used carefully, this sort of thing can really spice up a situation, because it can lead to serious questions from all parties involved. If a PC is part of the faith in question, then they may either be sympathetic to the extremists, or find them dangerous--or be afraid that they really [I]are[/I] the "true believers" and that the thing they thought they believed in isn't what it seemed to be. (This is implied with an example villain in the aforementioned Bahamut article; there's an extremist fire-and-brimstone official from Bahamut's church, who has been around for a while and [I]hasn't[/I] had any kind of obvious divine intervention to suggest that his violent, extremist views are unacceptable. Whether he [I]is[/I] right is, of course, a matter of debate.) Alternatively, perhaps the PCs are just laypeople affiliated with the religion, at which point you get an outsider-vs-insider issue, which can be very juicy. Or maybe they're antagonistic to this particular church, and are happy to have another reason to try to take it down. Etc. And you can end up with actual "good vs good" conflicts if there are still some non-extremist good guys affiliated with the extremist ones, whether because they don't know the truth or some other reason. There's a [I]lot[/I] you can do with extremism of this kind, assuming the players are on board for such behavior. It opens a lot of interesting stakes, things that can't be easily revoked, commitment or abandonment of causes, that sort of thing. [/QUOTE]
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