Saturday 17 August 2019

Hollow Men

Actually, you know what? Here's a write-up of the Hollow Men.
This is not sympathetic at all. You don't get to play these. They don't get stats. But they're a counterpoint to the previous post.
This is not a fair portrayal. I'm biased and scarred and angry, and as a result I can't give them a proper write-up. All you get is the perspective of somebody who's only ever experienced them as total monsters.


So, what does it look like when Thanatos, the instinct towards death and entropy, goes out of control?

You know how the planet is dying and society is going insane because a few obscenely rich sociopaths control like 80% of the world's resources, and that's just the price to pay for their hunger for more? You know those old white men in suits who own everything, and don't think about you at all? Those men who always need more, who's sense of greed and entitlement poisons everything, who consider women, poor people, minorities etc to be on the same level as mere possessions? Things to own and abuse and discard without thinking?
You know when you hear that the UK's prime minister used to burn money in front of the homeless for laughs, committed weird sexual perversities with dead animals, and considers that perfectly acceptable? Or when the president boasts about assaulting women because 'when you're rich and famous they can't stop you'? Or when it turns out wealthy men have been abusing women and children for fun, because they can, so why not? Or when it turns out they knew that cigarettes were killing people for decades before it became public knowledge, and they covered it up to preserve their profits?
You know when you look at some rich, privileged suit-wearing motherfucker and wonder why they don't do some fucking good in the world? And they look back, and their eyes are empty, and there's no inner humanity there to connect with? 

And then, you see that same emptiness everywhere. The petty tyrant of a boss. The man who beats his wife to vent his frustrations. The guy in the club who won't shut the fuck up and leave you alone. The bitter young man who spews venom at anybody female or non-white or queer online, who dreams of taking his gun to school. The father who will never be satisfied with you, but uses pain and neglect to try to mould you into something that can make him feel less empty. The cop who just likes using his badge and power to make a victim out of anybody he feels like?
The constant poison of men who will never be satisfied, no matter how much they consume and hurt and control. Once you know what you're looking for, it's everywhere.

You know that guy who lives on a trust fund with a silver spoon in his mouth, and slowly poisons the community around him in his constant need for power, leaving a trail of broken and traumatised victims behind him that he's harassed and targetted and dehumanized until they're driven away. And when they flee from him, he gloats about it, and finds his next target. 
And he has a disabled partner, and abuses her horribly for years, and then when she goes public with it he sues her in Canada - not to prove his innocence - but because he knows that the stress of a court case will damage her health, and he wants to keep hurting her? And you look at that guy and think how can you do this? And he looks back at you, and thinks nothing at all. 

They're not even evil, I suppose. No more than cancer or rising sea levels or parasitic wasps or lead poisoning from traffic fumes are evil, they're just a sickness that won't ever really go away. They don't seem to feel, to understand that others have any importance except as things to grind down for their own satisfaction. Always needing more, trying to fill this yawning void inside them through greed and cruelty. But really, inside, there's just nothing. No empathy, no calling, no warmth. No soul.

Those are the Hollow Men.
They don't need cool powers. Fuck it, they don't get to have cool powers, because I'm writing this and it's my blog and they always get whatever they want, but right here I get to decide and I am incandescently angry at this shit. So this time they don't get shit.
Anyway, they don't need magic or powers or anything. Society is on their side, and will always protect them and side against their victims, and they're winning.
1-4 HP. Saves, AC, attacks, etc as normal men. AL: LE. Morale 10. # appearing: 1, with an entire community's worth of level 0 humans backing them up. Unreasonable amounts of treasure. 
Don't put them in your games unless you want to take things to a really dark place.

19 comments:

  1. I’m sorry you live in that world.

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    1. hey, you do too. Shit's fucked.

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    2. Nah. Over here everything’s getting better despite the world being run by idiots.

      The elites keep you angry so you donate and vote the way they want you to.

      Easier said than done, but: Just turn it off for a couple days. It’s summer! You are allowed to smell the flowers :)

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    3. The earth is literally being cooked and this guy is still in a bubble.

      Solidarity, sister. My understanding is that you wouldn't be angry if you didn't care, if you didn't love.

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    4. Getting better? Yeah, at least trump will be gone soon. That's *something* at least.

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  2. At some point, I hope, love will come back in fashion.

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  3. I'd say the alignment is more like NE than LE.

    Other than that, thank you for writing this.

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  4. This is absolutely the proper write-up.

    Hollow men create broken men, and broken men tend to go hollow. And thus Moloch is fed.

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  5. That's powerful, moving stuff right there.

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  6. Some serious chills right here. You've burned right to the core of something very important. Thank you for that.

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  7. Wow, awesome work. Have you listened to this podcast? http://traffic.libsyn.com/thedollop/The_Resnicks_-_Water_Monsters_-.mp3?dest-id=139738

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  8. O! I do hope and know that there are workings unseen, those things which shall come to light here near the end of all things. And what those things shall reveal is this: that darkness has long been thrashing in its dying breaths, and that all evil is but passing. Heed this, and set yourself apart from the maimed beast. We must clean our wounds, protecting and tending to others. And if all this world dies with the beast, our mortal foe, then let us be noble, kind, and healed as we pass unto death. Better will it be to die than to raise horribly back our enemy and live with him.
    To all, I shall not claim prophecy, but instead admonish with as much virtue as I can muster. Even if no credit may be given to my hopes, all credit will, by sensible beings, be given to my commands. Defeat darkness even in death, friends, but pray that we may live without it.

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  9. the pathologizing of the marginalized to hide the crimes against them already has a long precedence ,but alas not the pathologizing of those that seek wealth and power above any use or merit.
    For if we did explicitly label such behaviour as insane , then the amount of sacrifice and infrastructure we collectively devout to enabling and normalizing said behaviour might not go as unquestioned.

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  10. eat the rich and feel their blood dribble down your chin
    (also your posts on the eros/thanatos run rampant stuff have given me cool ideas, but I understand why you wouldn't want to attach like, PC powers to your thoughts here, world is a fuck and anyone who thinks things are okay is a moron)

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  11. In the UK that is called the Conservative Party.
    It is heavily influenced by the death cult and currently lead by neoliberalism. neoliberalism places importance of the invention called money over that of people which is a dehumanising process. neoliberalism is reskinned nihilism. neoliberalism was introduced by an empire, made ever more distant by it's entirety being lost in a dream ever wanting to be, which had made money it's god. Division and despair are the result of their only having disdain to offer. And those catastrophically disabled by having no empathy rise through the ranks of sociopaths and even higher among the psychopaths that rule the party with absolutely no pity what so ever for they can never be satisfied.

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    Replies
    1. Indeed it is. Such individuals might be found in other parties as well, but it is institutionalised in the Conservative Party. It's what they are.

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  12. the irony of this spam on this post is not lost on me

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  13. Lol what is this hetero nonsense :p

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