rush99999, post: 79562434, member: 380992 Wrote:

So as long as they don't shank or get shanked, someone with the potential to be a Slasher is less likely to raise any alarms. But what if the unlikely happens anyway? If a drone floating through the aftermath an event happens to notice the tiny amount of Malice present in one of the survivors and Sanctuary is now aware of someone who is one kill or death away from possibly becoming Dead by Daylight's 26th addition to its killer roster, what do they do?

Well in that scenario there are two possibilities:

First and often more likely scenario is that the person in question is under a Malice effect of some kind and so they'd attempt to remove/cure it as part of the incident clean up.

Now if over the course of said attempts the person turns out to be a potential Slasher then at that point they haven't done anything wrong, and if they die because of natural or non-violent causes then they wouldn't awaken as a Slasher. So what happens instead is that they're put on a watch list -like all high-risk but unproven criminal suspects- and should they be involved in an incident involving murder or harm that they 'miraculously' survived then it'd be flagged and they'd investigate to see if they'd triggered as a Slasher yet. At which point they'd be given one chance to keep their violent tendencies in check while being alerted of their status and the fact that they're being watched.

rush99999, post: 79571599, member: 380992 Wrote:

Are people only told they're Slashers if they trigger or would they be notified the moment the potential is discovered?

They'd only be notified if they trigger, because if they have the potential there's decent odds that the person will either purposefully trigger the powers or kill themselves to stop themselves from awakening.

Xevan, post: 79571902, member: 487791 Wrote:

Are there any Good aligned Slashers? If not, are they influenced by Malice to become evil or only evil people become compatible with Malice to become Slashers?

Malice influences people to be more aggressive but that doesn't necessarily mean they have to be evil. There are actually several anti-hero Slashers out there, though most who don't go Dexter or Punisher go on to become hunters for people with kill warrants and the odd sapient Demon if they're strong enough.

ReaperofInterest, post: 79572793, member: 309377 Wrote:

Basically, Slashers are people who feel an intense urge to kill upon after gaining their powers, similar to an addiction.

Correct.

ReaperofInterest, post: 79572793, member: 309377 Wrote:

At least one heroic Slasher has been in one of his anthology stories

Misconception. (I think.)

If you're talking about Rai he's a Malcontent hence his and his sister's more inhuman nature on certain things.

If you're talking about Aiden, he wasn't a Slasher so much as a murderer turned Hunter who figured out how to make the Malice drug. (I wanted a non-Slasher character to show that not all serial killers are Slashers early on but since I was also figuring out how to write addiction with that one I may have muddled things a bit.)

ReaperofInterest, post: 79572793, member: 309377 Wrote:

it's theoretically possible for someone like that to become a hero, and I remember Arthicern said somewhere that bounty hunters existed who were basically Slashers who went after people with Kill Orders and were therefore legal targets, but for the most part? I'd say it's difficult at the best of times.

As said all true.

ReaperofInterest, post: 79573396, member: 309377 Wrote:

Ah, thanks for the clarification. Looking back, I was thinking of Ariel the Shadow Knight, in Tempest's story. Oddly enough I was still wrong, as Ariel is a Malcontent instead of a Slasher. Don't know how I got the two kinds of Deviancies mixed up.

It's not entirely surprising you mixed them up Slashers and Malcontent both use Malice, and so if you list out their qualities they have a certain level of overlap. In fact there are a couple low Deviants in each category who have mistaken themselves for the other because they didn't know the finer points and differences.

rush99999, post: 79573783, member: 380992 Wrote:

Wouldn't killing themselves guarantee an awakening though?

Eh, it's possible but not a guaranteed. To Awaken their deaths need a certain amount of will/violence/malice (the emotion) to them and similarly to Deadmen, if they die peacefully or want to die then they usually won't resurrect.

(Fun Fact: A Ripper once went on a depressed bender and tried repeatedly to kill himself in colorful and creative ways to no effect.)

rush99999, post: 79574545, member: 380992 Wrote:

Which Ripper was that and why did he do it?

(Note: I'm avoiding giving their actual names so that if one of them pops up in story it'll be a big reveal rather than a guessable outcome.)

It was the Thread-Stitched Ripper, and the reason he did it was because he's been a Slasher for nearly thirty years and the life style has begun to wear on him to the point where he has so many Rules and Obsessions that he refuses to leave the building that he's lived in for five years. (Note: His powers are the only thing keeping him alive.)

By contrast you have the Bloody Ripper and the Rosemary Ripper who frequently get into 'I'm harder to kill than you' contests with other semi-immortals where they see who can perform the most over the top death and walk away.

rush99999, post: 79576561, member: 380992 Wrote:

So if that's what happens when a Slasher has too many Rules and Obsessions, what happens if they have too few?

Technically there's no downsides (for the Slasher) at worst they'll respond more drastically to threats to their own Rules and Obsessions. And since they have fewer rules there's also fewer things keeping them in check and forcing them to hold back.

If everyone else is lucky they'll get someone with decent Rules and Obsessions that leads to them only killing other murderers or hunting things that are stronger than them.

If everyone else is unlucky you'll get someone with no restrictions on who, what, how, or why they kill and virtually no way to track them or figure out their next targets until there are far too many.

rush99999, post: 79579288, member: 380992 Wrote:

While we're on the subject, what's the difference between a Slasher's Obsessions and a Deadman's?

For Deadmen their Obsessions are the core of their being, their reason to come back if you will, and they will do whatever they can to preserve it.

Slashers on the other hand their Obsessions probably don't deserve the capital O in the same way, as instead it's meant to represent the fact that Slashers are fixated on their rules to a point of obsession, and can easily become obsessed with people, places, and things.

Basically Deadmen: Supernatural Definition of Obsessions and Slashers: Traditional Definition of Obsessions.

rush99999, post: 79579957, member: 380992 Wrote:

Speaking of the differences between Deviancies, what would happen if a Slasher entered a Wonderland? Would it be something like Joshua's entry or would it be something else?

No, Josh is actually a special case because his Malice is essentially feeding on his Madness in a uniquely mutualistic way in that they feed off each other while encouraging each other's growth. Since most Slashers and Malcontent have Malice but can't directly influence Madness they'd be safe unless they had the ability to manipulate their Malice in a way the Wonderland found threatening, at which point the Wonderland and the Dreams within would try to attack them. Though the entire process would still be different since Slashers and Malcontent don't have Wonderlands they can't be attacked the same way Josh can.

rush99999, post: 79581664, member: 380992 Wrote:

And that brings me to my next question. Would Slashers get anything from killing a Wonderlander's Dreams?

No. Since the life of a Dream is tied to a Wonderlander they don't truly die unless said Wonderlander dies, since they can just be respawned.* Flip side however if a Slasher manages to kill a Wonderlander they'll get more Malice than they would from a normal person. Though thanks to the whole Madness befriending other Deviancies thing that they may wear the Slashers down before they can go through with killing the Wonderlander. (The Wonderlander also won't hold a grudge against the Slasher for trying to kill them.)

*Note: A Ripper level Slasher could perma-kill a Dream without killing a Wonderlander but it would cost more resources than it's worth since they'll get nothing out of it.

rush99999, post: 79582996, member: 380992 Wrote:

Would a Slasher know this from the get go or would they have to kill a Dream first?

Eh, depends. Some Slashers have better senses than others and can sort of [sense] weird stuff like that through their Malice, but if they can't do that then it might take them a few tries to realize what's going on.

rush99999, post: 79590670, member: 380992 Wrote:

Hopefully none of those guys visit the Gamer's Guild Dungeon hoping for an all you can kill buffet. I shudder to imagine what the consequences of blue balling a Slasher might be.

Depends on the Slasher the more aggressive ones might snap and go on a 'rule breaking rampage' that causes them to spiral, while the more laid back ones treat it with a pout and ice cream.

LaughingMadAndBlue, post: 79591504, member: 462574 Wrote:

QUICK QUESTION! Being a Incarnation always comes with phisical changes, or is Ying something of an outlier? (I am still getting back on the swing of things)

This is a complicated one. Theoretically yes. Practically no.

In the end it depends on what their Incarnate attribute is, because some can more easily transform themselves than others. For instance while a high level Elemental Incarnate can become their element for short bursts, an Animal Incarnates can partially (or fully) change into their animals from a low level. Additionally the more esoteric ones usually can't outside of directly applying their effect to themselves. (I.E. Space Incarnates could make themselves bigger/smaller and Time Incarnates could make themselves younger/older but I don't see a Street or Thought Incarnate turning themselves into those.)

Xevan, post: 79590526, member: 487791 Wrote:

This whole power system is incredible @Arthicern , to the point you can make all kinds of stories out of it and it would be at the level of novels.

LaughingMadAndBlue, post: 79591504, member: 462574 Wrote:

I absolutely love everything about this. It hits every single scratch I might have about a setting, and the sheer amount of variety that you can create out of this...

Holy damn.

Thanks, both of you.

I think part of the reason this setting has came out so diverse is because when was figuring out writing I wrote like a hundred stories where I had an idea but could only make work for like a hundred pages or a couple of video game ideas I never got past a basic design doc. Eventually I started playing with cross overs between everything while wondering how the characters would interact with each other, and from there I decided why not cram them all into a single setting instead of a dozen. And once I did that and started merging the more similar ideas I got the setting we have now, with everything tying together in small ways while also making the world significantly bigger than what you can see.

(Summary: I took a hundred failures and patch worked them into something decent, and apparently people liked it.)