#gluubilis | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

geostatonary · 1 year

Note

What's the relationship between CMWGE, Nobilis, and Glitch? The bits of understanding I think I've picked up so far are that they're all (diceless?) ttrpgs and are in vaguely the same setting but at least one's setting is an AU of another one's? They sound really cool, but really confusing, but really cool despite and/or because of the really confusing, and continuing to just pick up the random bits that tumbl my way is Not Enough. Help?

Okay!

Let's talk a bit about publishing for background

In 1999, Jenna Moran (formerly R. Sean Borgstrom) published the first edition of Nobilis through Pharos Press, resulting in what is often called the "Little Pink Book". This was a small run, and it proved successful/interesting enough to get picked up by Hogshead Publishing in 2002, resulting in the second edition of Nobilis, which is often called the "Great White Book". This is the one a lot of people think about when they think "Nobilis", and really put it on the map in the tabletop gamer consciousness. In 2011, the third edition of Nobilis was released through EOS Press. There was a lot of drama involving the publishers and distributors for the last two editions but that's not relevant to your question. Also, a fourth edition is in the works.

Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine (CMWGE) was released in 2015 after a successful kickstarter, initially through EOS Press and then through Jenna's own efforts and the support of a generous benefactor due to her separating from EOS for some of the aforementioned publisher drama. Its technically a multimedia project that also has two associated novels, The Fable of the Swan (2012) and The Night-Bird's Feather (2022).

Finally, Glitch: A Story of the Not was self published in 2022 after another successful kickstarter. This is the most recent of her games within the collective game line, sometimes referred to as "gluubilis" or "the Ash Tree Engine".

Why'd you tell me all that?

So you'd have context for this.

Mechanically, each of these games represents a development on the preceeding works; every later game iterates and develops on the previous games and concepts. This looks something like this

1e/2e Nobilis > 3e Nobilis > CMWGE > Glitch/4e

in terms of major mechanical divisions and advancements.

All the systems are diceless and there's a lot we could say here, but probably the biggest single innovation would be the introduction of Arcs and Quests starting in CMWGE, providing a strong narrative xp framework for all the future games to engage with and be built around.

In terms of the setting, all the games except CMWGE take place on the Ash-Tree Earth in which the universe is a big tree in a cup of fire that's presently at war with the forces of the Void. Nobilis explores play as the Nobilis, individuals empowered by the rulers of Creation to defend it against the Excrucians, the representatives of the Void. Glitch flips this around and has you play as one of those Void beings who used to fight in the war, but is now abstaining from it for any number of reasons.

CMWGE takes place in a world that was drowned in a sort of ontological uncertainty called the Outside. It's set in a possible future where the war of Nobilis and Glitch doesn't reach a conclusive end, but rather the world was cast into an interregnum during which any number of things are possible and also you can have slice of life adventures and shit. None of that background is actually necessary to know to play CMWGE, but I think it's enriching and also it'll help explain some of the various otherwise insane things we the players and fans will say about it. Again, though, nothing actually like. Holds you to that if you wanna do something of your own. CMWGE is notable for being the most customizable of these systems by far.

What's next?

A couple recommendations!

First, I'd recommend reading some of these games! Glitch and Nobilis 3e are imo the most accessible of the game books + they're ones still in use, but CMWGE is also absolutely worth checking out; just be aware that it's handing you a toolbox, so there's a lot more big chunks of mechanics to work through. Honestly, don't be afraid to skip around these books and look at whatever catches your interest. They're very rewarding reads! If you want to read fiction, The Fable of the Swan and The Night-Bird's Feather are both also really good starting points.

Next, talk with people about them! The scene is kinda scattered, but you can still find people on tumblr, Twitter, and cohost at the very least who're talking about this stuff. There's also an official discord and an older fan discord (you can ask me for an invite to that one) where people are pretty active.

Also, just, try playing the games! A lot of the apparent complications are a lot easier to parse and understand when you actually see them in play, and they're fun games.

Finally, don't be afraid to keep asking questions! Given the chance, a lot of us won't shut up about these games, myself included.

#nobilis #glitch rpg #cmwge #Jenna Moran #soup of the day

129 notes · View notes

jennamoran · 1 year

Note

I have been thinking about Warmains lately, and I want to ask, in the context of Glitch, how do Demesnes work for them? Provided they uh, have them in Glitch. Are they a piece of the lands Beyond Creation, where they store all the stuff stolen from creation, or a piece of creation infected by a not-element used as a home base, or something else?

You mean for the Architect trait?

Nominally, you're not required to know the deep lore to run other splats in Glitch, so the true answer is "whatever the GM likes; the abbreviated description suggests they might have a Chancel or pocket world."

That's also a bit of protection for me, in that I have looked quite deeply under the hood of all these attributes but there are always going to be a few more surprises to come in final development, and it's not like I can predict where they'll be in advance.

That said, the demesne you see in Impresario evolves directly from the concept of Warmains having a little home base for themselves out there in the Not, and specifically from the home base I built for Euphrasia Savinot when plotting out the second arc of the Chibi-Ex comic that never got drawn, so it's likely that that's what they'll look like when everything ends.

... unless, say, ten years from now, I've done 2-5 more games in the Gluubilis style, not including the Warmain game, and it's time to move on, and I just open it up to fan works or something, either as a general license or "hey, you, I like your ideas" to someone or other, in which case WHO KNOWS

#nobilisrpg #glitchrpg

19 notes · View notes

theconceptofkidney · 9 months

Text

Canción de Juan continues to be the Deciever song ever and we've love nothing more than sharing this with other people. unfortunately, it seems most Gluubilis enjoyers are english speakers. so we'd have to find a good english translation of the song or, should we not find one, make our own. unfortunately, we're usually exhausted so that'd take. a while.

#weeping. crying even

3 notes · View notes

thecottageinthedark · 3 years

Text

Sorting Glass-Maker’s Dragon

I’ve been working on this for a looooong time, and finally it’s complete enough to post. I’m using the Sorting Hat Chats system, basics of which are explained here by its inventors and here by @wisteria-lodge.

A lot of GMD is flexpoints and inferred stuff, but this is, at least, the way I read the main eight.

Chuubo: Snake Primary, Badger Secondary. His Snake ambition isn't immediately obvious because it's backwards to us; he's an Imperator and a god of dream and probably the Spirit of the Age, but those were just things that happened upon him. He doesn't want fame or fortune; he wants a peaceful human life, or at least a human-style one, and his drive to achieve this has literally reshaped the world itself while still being, at its core, all about him.

His Badger Secondary is hard to see because of the one big gimmick in the way; the Wish-Granting Engine, that supposedly allows instant results with no work, and the way he uses it whenever possible. But the thing is, the WGE is both dependent on his Secondary and in some senses what he uses when he can't draw on that Secondary itself.

Badger Secondaries have to mean what they do; they put in hard work when and where they are motivated to do so. For Chuubo, that's not schoolwork, which is where he as a high schooler is socially expected to, and so he gets a rep for being lazy. Where he does put the effort in, is with his friendships, and in 'learning the ways of Fortitude'. With those, he doesn't cut corners. He doesn't pull out schemes. He patiently and consistently puts in the work. His Secondary is on full display in the way he persists in trying to be friends with Leo, even in the face of Leo's hostility. Chuubo doesn't try to win Leo over with subtlety or with grand gestures; he just doggedly carries on offering support, company, and good-natured teasing.

So where does the Engine come in? Think of the Wishing Map. It's the friendships and connections he's worked at creating and maintaining that help Chuubo's wishes to succeed. Wishes based on whim are almost certain to go wrong.

The wish for a best friend is maybe the most telling part of all. Or rather, what happened after it. Because despite having acquired Seizhi through unnatural means, it never once occurs to Chuubo to continue their association by those-to lean on miraculous or mundane coercion and create a relationship that all goes one way. Having acquired someone to love him, he just proceeds to love them back, with a generosity of spirit that is entirely genuine.

Like a lot of Snake Primaries, Chuubo has a Primary model that he uses to fill in the gaps where his ambitions and his loyalties aren't relevant. His is a kindly and expansive Badger Primary. He lives in this model most of the time-until there's a threat to his inner circle or to his hard-won quiet life. Then he'll set the model aside and act from his real Primary to keep hold of what's his. (Being a snake sometimes helps.)

Seizhi Schwan: Snake Primary, Burnt Snake Secondary. Like Chuubo, their huge ambition is for something that most people just get handed on a platter; to be real, to matter, and to be loved. Their Primary and his instinctively understand each other about this-and also understand each other perfectly about the importance of treasuring and being treasured. (They're all but making big eyes at each other and swooning, in fact.)

Seizhi's Primary is somewhat wobbly in one regard; they're the sort of Snake who has kicked themself out of their own inner circle. After all, they reason, they're not real-not yet, at least-so why should they value themself? There's nothing there to value. This is linked to the burning of their Secondary; their supreme and miraculously-enhanced ability to fit into any social context is something that gives them pain, because it's just more unreality. Over and over they reach out, hoping that this time they've found a destiny; over and over, they stop sustaining an Intention, and the whole thing fades away. Even mundane uses of the Snake Secondary toolkit feel tainted-deceit and lies-and that's a problem, because this is the best and most practiced skillset they've got. They're trying to cover up this lack with a Badger Secondary model, because that's what they feel like they should have, what a Real Person would have-the slow grinding authenticity of method. (Possibly this decision is linked to Chuubo being a Badger Secondary.) But they don't like it. It feels like crap. It doesn't even work that well. And when they're in trouble, they drop the attempt to Do Things The Real Way and start shifting and adapting and reacting like the Snake they are.

As of the start of GMD they're still hoping for the magic to happen, to wake up transformed into a Real Person who bears little to no resemblance to the 'fake self' they despise-for the Badger model to smother the Snake to death. The situation's in flux. Under pressure, they might begin to find ways to accept themself for what they are, and realise they are loved already; but it's just as likely that they will crack and fall into despair. If that happens, they'll probably Burn their Primary too, cutting themself off from Chuubo and from anyone else in their inner circle. This they'll frame not as a way to protect themself, but to protect the inner circle. A fake person has nothing real to give. How can they inflict such a horrible creature on the people they love? Might as well feed them fairy food and watch them starve, as do something like that.

That unpleasant possibility aside...unlike Chuubo they haven't yet created a Primary Model when the game starts. They might do so during the course of it, though-they will, after all, need to make a lot of decisions, and they won't always be able to relate those back to 'will it help me become real' or 'will it help Chuubo'. I don't think they're likely to copy Chuubo's Badger for this; it fits him fine, as an inherently peaceful Serpent, but Seizhi is an Actual who has had to fight just to exist, and isn't prepared to lay down arms just because things are now somewhat better. What'd work better for them would be a valorous and fierce Lion Model based on that of their brother Laodemus, or a wider Snake Model with an inner circle encompassing 'everyone I know' or 'the whole of Town'.

Leonardo de Montreal: Lion Primary, Lion Secondary. This poor man.

Oh, he'd love you to believe he's a Double Bird, or a Snake/Bird mix of some kind. He'd probably pick one of those Houses out if he had the choice! But that's...actually for pretty superficial reasons. He likes science so he figures he's a shoo-in for the 'smart person house', he's snappy and standoffish so equally he thinks he's in the 'mean asshole house'. But in the SHC system neither of those really fit.

Let's look at his Primary first. He's not a Snake, right away-because he doesn't have an inner circle and he's okay with that. There's no 'my people, who are most important' and 'everyone else'-even when he's not leaning on his Friendless wound, when he's prepared to concede that he cares about Chuubo or Jasper. If he were a Snake, those two would be the most likely inner circle candidates-but they're not in there. Not because he doesn't care, but because he doesn't do the Snake style caring where his people are the centre of his world and the place he gets his morality.

Where his morality does come from is the Song of Hell, his 'love for the wicked'. It's intuitive, not constructed, and centred in himself, not reliant on others. (When he loses his heart, he doesn't draw up a systematic list of ethical principles to live by instead; he creates the Mechanism of Original Sin, which emulates the feeling of having an internal conscience as well as the function.) And the fact that he's a fallen angel means that at some point in his past he gave up Heaven on ideological grounds. The Song of Hell is just right, and therefore he follows it. Any justifications he makes for that decision come after the fact. And so he follows his Song, and becomes heroic-it's not just Jasper he saves, he's got a whole Thing about helping people. That's Lion Primary.

And though he's smart, he doesn't act Bird under pressure; he charges. He responded to Jade's death by first ripping out his own heart to save her daughter, then marching down to the BA to throw down with its Headmaster. He probably has a Bird Secondary model to help with Science, though-and he uses this model to back up his real secondary. Charge in throwing nightmare devices at the problem.

Natalia Koutolika: Bird primary, burnt secondary that's probably Bird or Lion.

Natalia's frozen heart sounds like a Petrified Snake thing, but it's not any specific person that makes her realise thawing is a possibility-it's Fortitude. And that's not because Fortitude is nice, the way a Badger might un-Burn on being accepted into a welcoming community, but because it's magical. The rules of the universe work differently here...so maybe that means things can be possible for her now that weren't possible back on Earth.

I thought at first her primary was burnt, but...freezing her heart made her lose faith in human goodness, and in her capacity for being happy, not in her ability to discern truth. She trusts her cynical System; actually, I think her looking like a Petrified Snake is down to that thing Birds do where their systems often come out looking like the other Primaries. Natalia has decided that the Petrified Snake morality is the true one...but when she arrives in Town, she reconsiders, and begins to edit.

Her Secondary is where she's burnt. Because part of the cynicism of her Primary System is the idea that there's no point trying. Use whatever methods are available, who cares? They won't work, because you can't do anything that matters-the world doesn't work like that. Most of the time she'll use Bird or Lion methods because those come easily to her, given she's a genius and a martial artist, so it's probably one of those. But then again...she doesn't seem to get any joy from them. I think her Arcs will (hopefully) involve healing the burning-and that could look like learning to trust in her charging or her knowledge base, or like finding that what she really feels Right about is putting in the work like a Badger or thinking on her feet like a Snake. (Burnt Badger secondary would be especially poignant, as it'd be her learning to rely on community as a source of strength.)

Jasper Irinka: Bird primary, Bird secondary.

She starts out with her system based on her mom's Heaven-style Lion primary; it doesn't work, and leaves 'a hole in the world' for her. So she starts looking for ways to make it work by picking up ideas from all sorts of people-her dad, her friends, the Moon Prince and assorted other NPCs-and either adjusting it by adding these in or making a new system entirely. And her matching secondary helps her to do this very effectively. Her Primordial ability to shape herself as she likes by growing limbs that she can then use and discard as she pleases is really Bird Secondary-and the fact that those limbs manifest from other people's Hopes? 'I know a guy' Bird.

Sure, she inspires people. But it’s not a Lion inspiration-being so completely and ferociously her own glorious self that others are attracted to her radiance. Jade probably worked like that, from what we know of her, but Jasper inspires because she deliberately does things to inspire Hope in people, using a toolkit of stuff she’s picked up.

(And of course Leo is fascinated with her-not just because she's 'Jade Irinka's daughter', the shine on that would wear off fast-it's that she's a Double Bird like what he wants to be! And she in turn is loving Leo's double Lion because that's what she thinks she's supposed to be like!)

Rinley Yatskaya: Badger Primary, Lion Secondary. Of course the Storyteller Arc kid gets the 'protagonist sorting'.

Rinley's stated purpose in their playbook is to be the social glue of the party, and their powerset makes them really good at it. They first save then make friends with Prince Eduard despite their family's feud with the Rats, and when they see Iolithae in the Titov shrine, they go to rescue her, because Eduard and Iolithae are people and that matters more than Eduard being a Rat or Iolithae being a dangerous sacred horror. In other words, they're a beautiful Universal Badger. As far as Rinley's concerned, you don't just see someone who's injured or imprisoned and then not help them, even if they're meant to be an enemy on ideological grounds or even grounds of prudence. And to help people, they jump right in and Do Something. That's textbook Badger/Lion.

Principal Entropy II: Exploded Badger primary, Badger secondary.

This guy is just community-building and caretaking all over the place. He shows up, he does the work-as the Angel of Fortitude he's literally fixing potholes and curing peoples' ailments! And he's doing that by going to the people and creatures of his Gardens, calling in favours.

And he's doing it because people are important. The denizens of the Evil Island, the people of Fortitude. 'All things can earn their recompense through love'.

The problem is, though-he's doing the dehumanisation thing that Badgers are so infamous for. He's not going 'some people are Enemies Who Must Die, and therefore are not really People', though, which is the usual form of the trope in fiction. That's the mode of a Badger at war, and E2 isn't fighting a war. He's going 'some people need to be Sacrificed for the Greater Good of the Community'. And that's not an easy thing for a Badger to believe. If he was an Idealist, or Snake who is comfy prioritising an inner circle, he could just hold that belief without problems. But being a Badger, he can't. If he sacrifices people, he has to either feel horribly guilty about it...or stop thinking of them as people.

One big group he tends to dehumanise are School students. School exists to create tools to fix the world. It's okay if he makes students into cursed Hall Monitors, it's okay if he turns SEED students into prototype world-trees and weirding walls. That's what they're for.

He also dehumanises himself. He's Other Than Human, Set Apart. He refuses to acknowledge his needs, and overworks himself-he's even, at game start, nullified two Divine Health Levels to make his Code Novae binding on the Evil Island, meaning that if you can get past his Immortality power he's actually the squishiest PC of the lot. So he's an Exploded Badger, sacrificing both himself and others to his community.

Miramie Mesmer: Bird Primary, Badger Secondary. She shares this sorting with her former self, Melanie Malakh.

Melanie's Bird Primary used the Bleak Methodology as her truth system. Coupled with her persistent, hard-working Secondary, this combination made her a star student at the Bleak Academy-a 'prodigy of hatred and despair'. However, when she left the Academy, things fell apart for her.

At the Bleak Academy she'd been sheltered from experiences or ideas that could provide any real challenge to the Bleak worldview. Because of that, her system wasn't as robust as she thought-and she didn't know how to shore it up or how to cope if it shattered. Which-along with the glass dragon-it did; her time in Town, the things she had seen and done, had led her to doubt the truth of ultimate futility. The last straw was the dragon itself. Melanie, through the work of her hands and mind, had created something that was not futile; a master-weapon that could destroy Town, just as she had intended. The very fact that she was able to do that gave the lie to the Bleak Methodology. Unable to deny this truth but just as unable to live with it, Melanie Fell so hard that-as Strategists sometimes do-she lost her identity and became a new person.

Unable and unwilling to use Melanie's system, Miramie has begun to construct her own, drawing on various sources-the communal and peaceful mores of Fortitude, Hideo Hayashi's belief that even unlikeable misfits do not deserve to be left alone without support systems, the other Archive kids' idea that outcasts should stick together, and Chuubo's Snake prioritising of personal ambitions and loves. Since she's not had much time to do this, it's nowhere near finished-but it looks likely to be robust. It also seems to me that she's likely to be able to edit it as she needs rather than Falling-or, if worst comes to worst, to Fall but get back up as herself, rather than shattering again or reverting into Melanie Malakh.

Her Badger Secondary is a contrast to Chuubo's, as where his is socially based and linked to personal relationships (Courtier Badger), hers is more focused on the more usual definition of 'work', and on community in the sense of history and tradition (Bookkeeper Badger). It's her Secondary she brings to bear on the tasks of setting up a cafe from scratch and helping maintain the Archives. It's also what she uses to keep herself going under the weight of the world's wrongness, to keep making art even though it's doing so that activates her Curse. She just keeps slogging away.

I can also see the Badger Secondary in Melanie's construction of the glass dragon. She sat herself down with Hideo Hayashi and learnt glasswork from scratch, putting in the time and effort to both master this new skill and to bring Hideo himself fully under her control. Simple, honest work, even though used for deeply destructive ends.

IN CONCLUSION:

Chuubo: Snake primary, Badger secondary, Badger primary model Seizhi: Snake primary, Burnt Snake secondary, unhealthy Badger Secondary model Leonardo: Lion primary, Lion secondary. Bird secondary model Natalia: Bird primary (with a system that starts out looking a lot like Petrified Snake), very burnt Secondary that is likely Bird or Lion Jasper: Bird primary, Bird secondary Rinley: Badger primary, Lion secondary Entropy II: Exploded Badger primary, Badger secondary Miramie: Bird primary, Badger secondary

#sorting hat chats #glass-maker's dragon #cmwge #gluubilis #gmd #harry potter #gmd pcs

19 notes · View notes

monsterpotion · 4 years

Photo

#iolithae septimian #gluubilis #jennagames

37 notes · View notes

kaaramel · 4 years

Note

Concept: A team of Excrucians, but they’re all Vriska. Strategist Vriska Serket, Dying of Narrative Relevance. Deceiver Vriska Serket, with the p-state of The Luck of Vriska Serket. Warmain Vriska Serket, wielding the Test of Heroism. Mimic Vriska Sekret, made of concepts relating to debate, with concepts of Belief Perseverance, Anti-Attractive Opinions (opinions that no one can agree on), and Moral Fixedness (The concept of being doomed to act in certain ways from birth.). Vriskrucians.

why did you choose *my* door to darken with this concept

#IM JOKING THANKS FOR THE ASK THANKS #gluubilis #anonymous #homestuck

35 notes · View notes

the-wizarding-woodsman · 8 months

Text

The Omegaverse is an Actual; a virulent calamity born from the hubris of Supernatural fanfic writers that seeks to assimilates queer relationships to understand them and destroys their soul in an accursed stew of logic-defying heteronormativity.

#glitch #jenna moran #nobilis #chuubo's marvelous wish granting engine #gluubilis #shitpost

9 notes · View notes

geostatonary · 5 months

Text

i gotta start gluubilis posting more here again, huh

#soup of the day

7 notes · View notes

theconceptofkidney · 9 months

Text

we have this gluubilis au where gem-style fusion is a thing (which is different but not entierly separate from our su au, where they're actually gems). the whole thing really only exist because we wanted a Pepin and Galsuin fusion.

They're very cool, a bit too ambitious, a bit unscrupulous. their gender is somehow more and less of a mess. they only use they/them 'cause they've never stopped to think about it. very stable as long as they don't think about identity, which would prompt Galsuin to press the eject button. They have four arms and double their individual heighs, which is bad for their balance and coordination. They have low piggy tails and a jean jacket

#rants about ocs #contexts 2 and 3: done

0 notes

aubjornsnightmare · 3 years

Text

Partition Tau Arc Assignments

Preface

(This is such an oblique reference but,) you know how the base arcs that Jasper Irinka has are Child of the Ash and Primordial - and that corresponds to what the True Divinity are assigned in (the appendix in the Glitch book that I’ve only ever heard about)?

I’m doing that, but for my OCs of a fan-session - or rather, I’ve already assigned them classpects and attributes, and now I’m just drawing connections back to the text, as it were.

Credit to Karma / @kaaramel for making this arc & attribute chart.

Credit to @hollyhockash for their work on fitting the Replay Value AU into CMWGE mechanics; I’m referencing their posts on the Replayer Lifepath, mostly on assigning arcs to titles and aspects.

#original broadcast #partition tau #writeup pending #gluubilis

3 notes · View notes

aubjornsnightmare · 3 years

Text

fragment: Costs and their meaning in the Glitch RPG

costs accrued by reaching past a character’s comfort zone (such as a PC with Flore 2 calling over one of their Treasures with a Greater Trust, or a PC with Lore 1 instantly nabbing a Sphere-like void creature with a Greater Hunt) represent a sort of degradation on the character.

From the limited information of the five costs Strategists accrue, here’s my guess as to how costs would work with other type splats, like Nobles or Deceivers:

Immortal Costs, as in the Costs of Immortal arcs, represent the distance between the Immortal’s worldview, as seen through the relevant Attribute, and the stuff that they’re working with.

Sickly Costs, as in the Costs of Sickly arcs, represent a decay or erosion, a succumbing to the theme of whatever Attribute is relevant. Burn, the cost of Wyrd, is the unraveling of mind and soul, happening because the character and their Curse cling too hard on each other, blending into one - but because it’s Sickly, it is the Curse making the Strategist fade away. Collecting Persona’s Cost, as Dr. Jenna Moran has eluded to in her post Everybody Loves Acidic Gnomes (Part 4) and as I’ve interpolated, might be about being able to see more clearly your Estate / Mythos at the price of discarding other viewpoints of the world.

Frantic Costs (the Costs of Frantic arcs) are the ones I’m most unsure of. Stilling and Immersion suggest that the other Frantic Costs, like Rule for Domain or Divinity / Humanity for Aspect, might align with becoming a part of Creation. Frantic arcs, as I understand them, are neither instrumental to existence nor deviant from it - merely as (a measure of fundamental natures?)

#fragment #gluubilis

4 notes · View notes

thecottageinthedark · 4 years

Text

Traumagenic Estates and Nobles of Pain (A Subclass of Being that Might Exist)

It is a commonly stated fact that Imperators are not mortal; that they are greater and stranger than we may ever aspire to be while remaining ourselves; that even the Nobilis cannot quite compare. They are alien, terrifying even when beautiful, even when trying their hardest to be benevolent. This is all completely true! However. Imperators-even the greatest among them, even Firstborn and Attaris Ebrôt Appêkā and the members of the Council of Four- They're still people, you know? As incomprehensible as they are to us, as incomprehensible as we are to them, they're still sapient beings. They have self-concepts, relationships with other creatures, and opinions on the world in which they live. They exist as thinking minds. And any mind that exists can be hurt.

Of course from our perspective it's not exactly easy to do harm to the mind of an Imperator, any more than it's easy to do harm to their bodies.We're very obviously outmatched. But not easy isn't always the same as impossible. More importantly, they themselves are outmatched in turn by Creation and Ninuan; the sum total of world and void and all that dwells within one or other or both. Even the most enormous Serpent looks small when you hold it up against the Tree that it climbs on. Imperators can die. This is a matter of certain record. It is not surprising, then, that they can also suffer. And under the right (or, rather, wrong) circumstances, suffering can wound their minds. In short; they can be traumatised. Giving a list of all the things and situations that might break an Imperator, and the ways in which that shattering might express itself, would take far more time that I have to spare. Think of all the possible ways that humans can break, and then factor in that, even within 'species', Imperators tend to have more scope for individual variance than we mortals do. For the purposes of this essay all you need to accept is that this can and does happen. (I'll be honest, too; I don't much want to write Cneph-only-knows how many thousand words about types of Imperial trauma damage. It's both a depressing subject and one I'm not really qualified to write about in detail. Do I look like the DSM-∞ to you? However, I will state for the record that some kinds of trauma and associated damage are roughly analogous to the kinds that humans can display, while others are all but impossible for us to understand.) Sometimes-not always, thankfully, but not as a once in a blue moon thing either-an Imperator will respond to a traumatic event or situation by manifesting an Estate that in some way is conceptually linked to that trauma. These Estates aren't always or even mostly things that (on the surface and to outside observers) seem bad. They might be, of course-might be something like Parasitism or Loneliness or Natural Disaster-but they might just as easily be something neutral-seeming like Redness or Candles, or something that on the face of it seems like it should be mostly positive like Laughter or Duty. The thing that defines an Estate as traumagenic is all tied up in the Imperator's own experiences and viewpoint-a viewpoint that could almost be called subjective, except... Imperators are beings of Law, of the Law of the World.They don't have the same fine control over their Estates that their Nobles do, but if (for instance) the Serpent that is Sugar, Spice, Kindness and Mutagens is embodying Sugar via its own pain, if the law of Sugar is a horror and a trigger unto itself- -well, the Estate of Sugar is probably going to at least default to being kind of scary and messed up. Two notes before we go any further. First; this is not the same thing as the Glitch that Strategists perceive.The Glitch is a breakdown in world-law, an unreason, a proof that the way the world hangs together is not correct. A traumagenic Estate isn't wrong per se. It makes sense! It's a thing that could fit in a reasonable world if not a very nice one! Second, a lot of Nobles do not much like their Estates and some actively hate them; but that doesn't make those Estates behave like traumagenic ones do. This is probably because a Noble may rule over an Estate (for a while), but an Imperator's Estates are parts of itself. It's also probably a mercy for the world in general. Nobles of Pain A traumagenic Estate is usually easiest to identify from outside when it gets granted to a Noble, because the way it behaves is wonky. It's resistant to being altered the way a healthy Estate can be manipulated by its current Power, and along with it come deeply unpleasant mental (and often physical) side effects. The colloquial terms for Powers of this sort include 'Nobles of Pain', 'Sacrifices', 'Misery Eaters' and 'Stigmatiae'. The exact manifestation varies, but the general throughline is that with the Estate comes a portion of the Imperator's pain, anger, fear, confusion, or whatever other emotions their trauma gives rise to. There's also usually some sort of embodied metaphor adding extra complication. I know a Noble of Pain whose spit and tears are corrosive, including to herself; I've heard of others who bleed time when cut, or whose hunger can only be sated by draining light from their surroundings. Personality-wise, Nobles of Pain run the gamut. A lot of them are understandably angry and antagonistic towards their Imperators, but this isn't universal; some go the other way and overidentify with them or make excuses for them. Some were press-ganged by Imperators trying to offload their pain on another being; some were ennobled by Imperators who didn't realise they had a twisted Estate; and a few even volunteered, out of duty or compassion or some other motivation that made sense at the time. In game terms; like other Nobles they are more than mortal and so have Aspect; again like other Nobles they collect Anchors by way of their Treasure attribute. Unlike other Nobles, they are Wounded. The Estates in them are painful to contain, and on their deaths those Estates do not simply default back to the Imperator but explode out into the world like screams, painting it with the agony the dead Sacrifice can no longer contain. They're also Allegorical in the tension between their own selves and their unhealthy Estates, and in the strange and dire power they draw from such an existence.

#nobles of pain #traumagenic estates #nobilis #glitch #gluubilis #glitch rpg #nobilis rpg #fansplat

12 notes · View notes