Beyond Good and Evil
The best description that can be imagined for this fault comes from Alan Moore's "Watchmen," issue 6, page 26:
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"Stood in firelight, sweltering. Bloodstain on chest like map of violent new continent. "Felt cleansed. Felt dark planet turn under my feet and knew what cats know that makes them scream like babies in night. "Looked at sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever, and we are alone. "Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later. "Born from oblivion; bear children, hellbound as ourselves, go into oblivion. "There is nothing else. "Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. "No meaning save what we choose to impose. "This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. "It's us. "Only us. "Streets stank of fire. The void breathed hard on my heart, turning its illusions to ice, shattering them. "Was reborn, then, free to scrawl own design on this morally blank world." |
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You are utterly, terribly free to shape your own destiny — you understand "good" and "evil" as simple, desperate human concepts, without any intrinsic value. You live by a set of laws entirely of your own making, but your bleak vision of the universe demands that you repudiate the hypocrisy and self-imposed ignorance of those around you. You are frightening, disturbing, and difficult to relate to: −2 penalty to Leadership, Negotiate, Seduce, and Perform. This feeling of drifting, anchorless, across an endless and empty sea is extremely hard on the psyche, and will result in at least one of the following, which should be purchased like any other Fault:
- Regular substance abuse (Addict), in an effort to blot out your awareness.
- Deep despair (Bummer), lack of any strong conviction, clinical depression. What's the use in fighting, when it's all pointless?
- Extreme cynicism (Callous) – the world's just one big joke and you're the only one smart enough to figure out the punch line. Why should you waste your time trying to save a world full of imbeciles?
- Mental Illnesses – Dementia, personality disorder, mania (Unhinged, Laughable). Your mind is unable to cope with lucidity and the hollowness that accompanies it, so you live in delusions, instead. Or perhaps you simply snapped under the strain.
- Uncontrollable rage (Short Fuse, Berserker). What's wrong with everyone? Why can't they see? Why can't you forget? It's just so stupid and meaningless and frustrating… Argh!
- Fanaticism (Code and/or Driven). In an effort to create a single point of stability amidst the screaming chaos, you have given yourself completely to some cause or purpose, from which you will not and cannot deviate, for your sanity and your very being depend upon it. Your cause may be as noble or reprehensible as you wish, but you adhere to it with a tenacity that defies logic, reason, or love.
Incompatible with
Angel on Your Shoulder or Devil on Your Shoulder, Called, Chaos Knight, Everybody's Best Friend, Fallen, Gullible, Oracle, Perspective, or Soft Hearted, and you may not buy additional Fate points as long as you remain Beyond Good and Evil.