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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 4914275" data-attributes="member: 2067">It's for your own good!War of Aggression: "If we don't convert them and show them the truth, they will be doomed to an eternity of suffering! We must rule them! It is the only way to save them!"Strict Moral Laws: "Look, I know you didn't actually commit adultery, but you were flirting with her, and that's why we have to make you a eunuch. It's OK, you won't have to worry about flirting any more! No more temptation!"Breaking Prisoners: "The suffering our resident torturer inflicts on you is mild, compared to the torture your soul will endure for all eternity. Now, it is light, easy, and entirely stoppable. You must simply realize that we are right, and you are wrong, and you must do as we say."Also...Big Brother: "Our network of spies and diviners covers every inch of this city, into the homes and into the minds of those who live here. There are no secrets here, because we are all trusted friends and family. You will be watched. You will be judged. If you are found wanting, you will be punished. It is simply for your own good, as well as the good of our locals. No evil may pass here."Reactionary Fear: "If we let you off the hook for this impure thought you had, the next thing we know, people will be raping and murdering each other's children in the street! It's a slippery slope, and we can't even start down that path!"Enhanced Interrogation AKA Torture: "If it is against sinners, and for the good of our polity, it must be done. We cannot risk exposure to sin and vice, and we cannot permit the wicked to escape. If we have hope of finding information, we must extract it through any means possible."Mind Control: "If we all work together in harmony, the world will be a better place. Since you aren't willingly going to work with us, this Slave Crown will ensure that you do."Terrorisms: "If a man enters your house, and takes your child hostage, your child will be rewarded with paradise when he is sacrificed so that you can kill the invader. The child is innocent. Innocents, sometimes, must die, if the evil authority hides behind them. It is regrettable, but we cannot focus on it. We must focus on killing the evil -- at any cost."Martyrdoms: "Every soldier must give their life for the good of the Church-State! It is their duty! They are vessels for the gods and nothing more! They have given of themselves all that they have to give, and have become tools, automatons for the Astral Beings, and we must honor their sacrifice by using them to crush the sinners and protect the innocent!"Here's my big idea that distils a lot of that above:Fighting Zombies with ZombiesWithin the powerful military wing of the nation, a new division is being formed by one particularly zealous cleric. Called the Ecstatics, these elite soldiers willingly submit to long-term psionic mind control, becoming literal vessels for the wills of their controllers. They willingly surrender their free will and their lives to the nation. Unfortunately, the zealous cleric who leads the formation of this new division often lets his zeal trump his compassion. Some people are not so willing -- some are found. Some are forced. Some were once criminals, but forcefully "absolved" and now placed there. Some are just poor, dumb, farm kids, who couldn't possibly know any better. Sometimes, the cleric uses these troops for his own personal vendettas -- against groups or individuals that he feels threaten him or his position (like the PC's, or perhaps an unfriendly magistrate, or...). The psions responsible for this mind-control are hidden, from the public eye, and from much of the government, who are only aware of "something" under the cleric's purview, through heavily classified records. The danger here is that the troops are effective. Famously effective. Especially against an enemy force that wants to preserve innocent lives. Each one of these vessels is an innocent, a soul unburdened of choice. Those who fight them cannot corrupt them, cannot sway them, and, also, cannot stop them. They force others to confront the ethics of killing innocents, while simultaneously absolving this particular cleric of that need. After all, those who he has killed with this tool, are wicked, are they not? Or at the very least, are trying to stop the pure expression of good that this is? Wouldn't the world be just great if we all were part of the Ecstatics? After all, it's for your own good.</blockquote>

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