LaughingMadAndBlue, post: 79599046, member: 462574 Wrote:

I see, I see... man, a Rage/Fury Incarnate or the like is possible? If yes, how underwhelming/overwhelmingly scary would be?

Yes, and while they'd be capable of a few things the most intimidating abilities would be the ability to inspire and/or amplify rage/fury in others causing them to go berserk while also gaining strength, pain tolerance, and regenerating health and magic the more rage there is both around them and inside themselves. (Basically imagine the Hulk if he grew stronger the angrier other people are.)

Note: Theoretically they could calm people down too, but given how that could be considered the anathema of Rage/Fury that magic user would have to have an extreme level of control over themselves and their power. (I'm picturing a sixty year old pacifist who spent his younger days as a violent berserker before learning to control himself.)

LaughingMadAndBlue, post: 79599046, member: 462574 Wrote:

Also, could Colors work as Affinities?

Yes and in addition to gaining the ability to change things into those colors they could also influence people with weaker versions of whatever the more symbolic aspects of their given color is. (I.E. Red can trigger passion, willpower, and rage, while yellow can inspire joy or fear, and green life (in plants).)

LaughingMadAndBlue, post: 79599046, member: 462574 Wrote:

THe best kind of setting come from that, so I'd say you did something extremelly right, if I say so myself.

You just did, so thank you.

rush99999, post: 79600273, member: 380992 Wrote:

If one Slasher kills another Slasher, does that only count as one kill or would that count as one kill plus the dead Slasher's own kill count?

Ah, that is a good a question. Killing another Slasher does give more Malice than a normal person though how big the bonus is will vary based on several factors such as how much Malice the dead Slasher had, is said Slasher perma-dead, how personal was it, how much Malice control did they both have, did the dead Slasher respect the killer or want to spite them, and so on.

rush99999, post: 79615438, member: 380992 Wrote:

Can a Slasher only add to their kill count with slashing weapons or is the Deviancy's name just a name and they can add to the count in any way they see fit?

It's just a name and a play on Slasher flicks, that said each Slasher will typically develop their own MO -usually related to those mentioned in the sub-types- and be reluctant to deviate from it. And though they still can deviate if they have no choice, they'll find every reason they can not to. (It's one of those obsessive behaviors previously mentioned.)

LaughingMadAndBlue, post: 79616173, member: 462574 Wrote:

Is it possible for a Deadman to switch their sub-type in some way? Like somehow turning a Death Echo into a Spectral.

Technically it's more of a multi-directional spectrum than hard categories and as such it's possible for them to nudge themselves a little bit in any given direction. Though it is significantly harder in some directions than others. (I.E. Turning a Corpse into a Spectral probably isn't going to happen.)

Now the scenario you're presenting is possible since Death Echos are essentially extremely weak Spectrals. And in most cases what it'd require is for someone to willing feed a Death Echo a ton of Ectoplasm and for said Echo to not 'move on' after breaking free. (Which is harder than it sounds given how their Death is their only Obsession.)

LaughingMadAndBlue, post: 79617166, member: 462574 Wrote:

I see, I see... hypothetically, if you where to somehow bond a Spectral to a body, would that turn them into Ghouls? Or is this something different?

I'm going to call that a Revenant (in folklore they were possessed corpses) and physically they would be closer to ghouls. The big difference is that since they're a spectral class of Deadman possessing a body they'd have a mix of physical and ghost abilities at the cost of significantly increasing their ectoplasmic consumption and gaining the possibility of being ejected from their new body.

LaughingMadAndBlue, post: 79617166, member: 462574 Wrote:

In a side-note, does the copypasta from JoJo "My name is Yoshikage Kira" work as something a Slasher would say?

Looked that up and I don't see why one of the saner ones would disagree.

rush99999, post: 79618297, member: 380992 Wrote:

How are Slashers sorted into their Sub-Deviancies when they become Slashers?

Like with a lot of powers in this setting it's a mix of things with personality being the predominant factor. (I.E. If someone was a tinkerer before becoming a Slasher they become a Trapper. If someone was extremely sociable they become a Social Slasher. If they had pyromania or a strong enough interest in magic they become a Hex. And etc.)

The exception to this is Rippers who killed a lot of people to earn that title.

Xevan, post: 79626109, member: 487791 Wrote:

There has to have been a point where some Slashers have copied something from horror movies or crime shows, right?

Once or twice, it's actually more common for the ones with senses of 'humor' to copy movies.

Xevan, post: 79626109, member: 487791 Wrote:

I'm just thinking of a scene where a Slasher would convince a bystander to carry a bag with a body in it in a police station.

I could see a Social Slasher doing that just to manipulate/scare people.

Xevan, post: 79626109, member: 487791 Wrote:

There are so many scary ideas they could acomplish.

LaughingMadAndBlue, post: 79630426, member: 462574 Wrote:

I see... so the Slashers can go from Jason, to Kira, to Punisher, to Stain, to list some examples. Damn, Slashers be scary, yo.

Which is why the first thing said about them is: 'The most feared of known Deviancies'

Slashers are all essentially horror movies come to life and then dialed up to eleven.

LaughingMadAndBlue, post: 79630426, member: 462574 Wrote:

Do M.A.Ds have some kind of specialization beyond the sub-types?

Not really, unless they choose to specialize in a branch of tech, and even then M.A.D.s can technically work outside of those initial sub-types it's just that they're able to work easier/get a starting boost in those sub-types and most focus on that base tech tree to build better things rather than spending time learning another field's starter stuff.

Xevan, post: 79632904, member: 487791 Wrote:

So what would happen if a Deviant gets isekai'ed to a different world? Given they would get cut of from their natural power source from their original world.

That actually happens a decent amount with the whole 'rifts to other worlds' thing and they usually end up keeping their powers for the most part given how the powers are largely a part of them once they unlock them and so -excluding Deadmen who burn through their energy to survive- they won't ever zero out since all Deviants can passively generate a portion of their Deviant energy even with none present in the environment.

Now to elaborate on the other point this brings up -and this is known by most Travelers in setting- different worlds do have different amounts of different energies for a variety of reasons which can either increase or decrease the amount of power they have based on how much influence Anima (Life) Necro (Death) Madness (thought/emotion)* have had on a region and how much of their energy type has recently been used or left behind in a given location. (Though usually only high level or frequent feats cause that last one.)

(*Note: Since all six power types are derived from three primary sources, all of the energies can manifest wherever the base energies exist.)

Xevan, post: 79635286, member: 487791 Wrote:

Three primary sources?

Yeah, I mentioned it a while back but there are six deviant energies: Anima, Madness, Necro, Malice, Psionics, Ectoplasm. With three of those made by mixing the other three. I haven't given a whole threadmark for any of them, but eventually I will since going in detail about them can be a little complicated, despite all of them tying into each other.

Xevan, post: 79635286, member: 487791 Wrote:

Besides that, are there ranks on who is the strongest Deviant? Is there someone who is considered the strongest?

Yes, and no.

There is no definitive list of all Deviants on earth, though there is the Black List which represents all of the known people so dangerous that the government has blacklisted any operations against them as too dangerous to attempt. (For reference one of those guys successfully held the US government hostage and forced them to enact his demands. (They still send the occasional assassin after him. (He just sends them back.)))

Additionally, certain groups do keep debatable lists on who is more dangerous than who and fight records of the more notable Masks and Deviants.

A few examples of these would be how:

-Sanctuary has a Kill List and a Wanted List which sets the priorities on kill warrants and active Deviant criminals respectively, though the second is usually defined by the local region rather than a federal scale.

-the Arcane Association has a ranking system for their Arcane Duels, though not every Arcane participates in those duels, and they also have a 'war seat' on their council should they be attacked belonging to the most powerful (combat) Arcane in the association and only passing upon their death to their killer. (Fun Fact: The guy in the seat is actually an Association Founder who cracked immortality and took the seat to keep people from fighting over it since he can't die. (He hasn't attended a meeting in thirty years, but they can't fire him because of the rules.))

-the Deadmen have their Deadland Kings who represent the leaders/ the strongest of each faction of Deadmen in the Deadlands, though since they rarely fight each other there's few signs as to which of them is the strongest.

-in addition to all of the above certain Deviants can eventually pick up a way of telling if a nearby Deviant of their energy type is stronger -not more skilled- or weaker than them.

rush99999, post: 79635865, member: 380992 Wrote:

What sort of personality would result in a Hunter?

There are a few personality types: Blunt, straight forward people. People who enjoy 'the chase' or 'getting their hands dirty' as it were. And/or people who are just plain determined.

Honestly, Hunter is the most common Slasher sub-type because it's kind of the default if said Slasher doesn't have anything 'gimmicky' going for them. But given how determined they can be, sometimes the most straightforward Slasher is the most dangerous.

ReaperofInterest, post: 79636807, member: 309377 Wrote:

Looking at the post in question, it seems like the mix for Psionics is Madness + Anima, so for the other two, are the recipes Anima + Necro = Malice, and Necro + Madness = Ectoplasm?

Alright, I can see why you would make that conclusion but the actual combinations are Anima + Madness = Psionics, Madness + Necro = Malice, and Necro + Anima = Ectoplasm.

(Quick Note: This is esoteric knowledge in setting with few people realizing this is how it all works under the hood. And like I said before the full scale of this deserves its own chapter eventually.)

Now all of this makes a little more sense when you look at how each Deviancy works mechanically rather than just the surface level stuff. For instance both Malice and Ectoplasm are made of Necro (Death) and they grow stronger by essentially 'eating' the thing opposite of them on the power wheel (Anima and Madness respectively) with psionics not needing to eat anything since they're made of Anima and Madness. Then both Psionics and Malice are made from Madness, all three of which use their will/emotion to project their existences onto reality. And both Psionics and Ectoplasm have the same focus on elemental/conceptual generation and manipulation that Anima has.

rush99999, post: 79641562, member: 380992 Wrote:

Who is this guy?

Samhain, The Tall Man.

He's mentioned in Jon's history class, but Aiden Caine gives a better summary of the Tallman's story here:

Spoiler: And here.

Warning Mildly Political Themes Ahead Please Keep On Thread Topic.

Arthicern, post: 60473539, member: 401659 Wrote:

“Samhain, The Tallman.” Aiden said as if that explained everything.

“And who is that?” She tried again.

Aiden stopped and just stared at her as if she was insane.

She looked around, scratching the back of her head, since she wasn’t entirely used to people looking at her like she was stupid. “What?”

“Have you never read a history book?” He finally asked, with mild concern.

“Of course, I have.” She growled back, more than a little defensively, after all they’d already established her school wasn’t teaching her this stuff. (That’s the whole reason we’re having this conversation!)

Aiden watched her for another moment before cursing as he ran a hand down his face and started walking again. “Right. So… Samhain, The Tallman, is the father of badasses. About ten to fifteen years ago, Asylum fucked up, and they fucked up bad.”

“How?” She pressed, since it seemed like this whole topic was something Aiden thought she should know, no matter how dark it got.

“They… They killed his daughter and grandkids.” Aiden answered softly, as if it was something he could relate to. “Sam… The Tallman, he went berserk… Tore through Asylum with the wrath of a vengeful god. Heh. One man, one week, and a four-digit body count…”

“That’s…” She swallowed, because that was downright (terrifying…)

Aiden let out another dry laugh, a mildly haunted look to his eyes. “It’s even scarier when you realize that wasn’t so much the ‘blasted them all to hell’ kind of count, but rather the ‘hunt them down, one by one’ kind.”

“So, this… this Tallman, he… he single-handedly… wiped out Asylum?” She tried to picture someone pulling that with Sanctuary and found she couldn’t.

(Maybe that’s why they changed it…)

Aiden made a so-so gesture. “Other people helped, and technically he didn’t wipe it out.”

“He didn’t?” Because if he didn’t, this Tallman would be significantly less terrifying, which was something she definitely wanted if it was enough to haunt someone more than twice her age.

Aiden laughed; all fear suddenly gone. “No, that, that was just his opening statement.”

She blinked in confusion. “What?”

Aiden came to a stop and grinned, in a way that was damn near savage, as he turned to her. “You see, old Sam knew that if he just slaughtered Asylum, other people would just replace them, or that the government would double down on killing him. So instead, on a day that both Senate and the House were meeting to decide how to deal with him, he decided that rather than trusting their intelligence, it was better if he went there and told them exactly how to make him go away.”

She stared at Aiden, stunned by the idea of someone trying to hold the government hostage. “And what did he want?”

Aiden held up three fingers. “Three things. He wanted minimum rights for Deviants, meaning they could no longer simply gun them down or wrongfully imprison them, which was enough of a compromise for those stubborn idiots to accept, and that was after killing three of them. Next he wanted the disbandment of Asylum, which he and several others had already knocked onto its back legs. And lastly, he wanted them to leave him the fuck alone, so he could mourn in peace. His exact words by the way.”

It took her a minute to wrap her head around all of that. About the fact that the only reason Deviant’s apparently had any rights was because a single man decided to go on a genocidal rampage before holding the entire government hostage.

“Did they, did they actually let him get away with it?” Because that sounded like the kind of thing no government could let stand, willingly or not.

Aiden shrugged continuing forward now that the main part of his story was over. “From what I’ve heard, they’ve tried a number of times to kill him, always ends badly though.”

“Badly how?” She asked taking a few strides to keep up with him.

“They call his home ‘the Hangman’s forest.’” Aiden explained, before giving a shudder. “Had to go there once before. Place can be downright terrifying at times, and that’s coming from the guy who kills hell spawn for a living.”

(Makes since, doubt someone with a four-digit body count lives in some cozy little cottage in the middle of nowhere…)

She paused as she suddenly caught something Aiden had said.

“So… you’ve met him then?”

Aiden froze, before blinking as he came to another halt. He turned to her and stared for a minute, while working his jaw, before finally telling her, “Yeah, but I’d rather not talk about it if you don’t mind.” And continuing on his way at slightly faster pace.

There was something odd about his tone, something that told her just how much there was to say, even if he refused to say it.

rush99999, post: 79641562, member: 380992 Wrote:

How would they decide who gets the war seat if the holder dies, quits, or is otherwise rendered unable to occupy the war seat in some way other than being killed?

Only the founder realize it -and they realized this a year after certifying the rules for the Association to keep them all safe- but the guy in charge of the War Seat, (who is arguably the most powerful magic user on the planet) actually rigged it so that there is no other way to fill the slot other than killing him. Meaning they have no method of filling a necessary seat or firing him and the few people who remember him dread the day he decides to return. Not because he's a bad guy, but because he absolutely loves messing with people.

(Fun Fact: He's also the guy to discover Flufflepuffs. (He's infamous for setting up a spell that gives them all hats.))

rush99999, post: 79641562, member: 380992 Wrote:

If they did fight often though, who would be the strongest?

Like any fight it depends on the situation, the location, skill, allies, and luck so they'd all win some and lose some.

Excluding any planned events in the future a decent breakdown of the currently planned kings would be:

-The Bone Daddy is a one hit glass cannon compared to the other kings, but he's also the most mobile and the best at burst damage.

-The Warden is the best a locking down and defending a location or keeping someone pinned but he's also the least mobile.

-The Sheriffs aren't the most durable but they've got a decent mix of range, speed, teamwork, and tracking when working together.

-The Pharaoh has a lot of destructive AOEs and grabs but his passive Ectoplasmic consumption is so high he can rarely leave his base.

-The Reaper is the most versatile and can create a small army on demand, but can only fight for a few minutes at time due to Ectoplasm issues.

-The Council are the weakest with no true king, but their split leadership lets them pursue multiple objectives and gives them solid versatility.

-The Tyrant is arguably the strongest in raw power, but just about everyone hates him and he's probably the least subtle of the kings.

rush99999, post: 79641562, member: 380992 Wrote:

I'm guessing this tends to lead to a lot of 'power levels are BS' moments.

For the most part they are, and it's only really useful for tracking and measuring if someone is actively using their powers.

Flip-side these same people are the first ones to know when one of the dozen or so city killers each Deviancy has becomes active nearby.

Saw these right after I hit post on the previous one.

ReaperofInterest, post: 79645177, member: 309377 Wrote:

As I recall, he's called the Tall Man. He was content to...well, we aren't sure what exactly he was doing, but he wasn't on a killing spree during the early stages of the Deviant Reveals, or the Rift Riots, whatever the proper name is.

The Rift Riots is how people refer to the time Rifts, Masks, Non-Humans, Other Worlds, and Deviants were all revealed to the public.

And Samhain was mostly celebrating the fact that he was a grandfather in the early days.

ReaperofInterest, post: 79645177, member: 309377 Wrote:

Then his wife and child were killed, he singlehandedly racked up a 4 digit body count over...2 or so weeks I believe, then threatened the US government at the time into dismantling Asylum, replacing it with Sanctuary, and promising Deviants actual legal rights. These days he hangs out in a forest, occasionally killing assassins stupid enough to accept a job to go after him.

Actually it's just his daughter and grandkids, his wife is still alive. Though they're technically separated since being together reminded them of their daughter too much, but they still live close to each other and occasionally hang out on their good days.

ReaperofInterest, post: 79645177, member: 309377 Wrote:

Presumably they weren't thinking of that at the time the rules were codified, and a combination of inertia and the same guy holding the seat for the past few decades due to immortality mean there isn't a real reason to do so. After all, if his immortality was the kind that could be easily bypassed, presumably he wouldn't still be in the war seat.

The guy in question thought about it, but he was also of the opinion that eventually someone would get the spot, be a dumbass, and get all Arcane on a kill list somewhere (all of which he saw during the Voodoo Wars). So in the end he decided it was better to just nullify the seat without telling anyone while keeping the authority to smack down anyone being an idiot and also having a 'Dark Overlord' style throne of skulls and spikes appear whenever he entered the council room.

(Fun Fact: He also secretly made said throne three inches taller than every other chair at the council table. It took an entire year before anyone realized this and by then the constructs had been set.)