Nathaniel Eliot made the following point; Damned souls are in Hell for a *reason*. They are evil - not just kinda bad, but really *evil* - they have met their Fate. Hell is ...
But what about the note that Fates (and Destinies, for that matter)...frankly, aren't always that big. Alright, so Hitler had a mega Fate and probably deserves whatever he may be getting...but what about the guy who was just Fated to not clean his cat's litterbox out often enough? Does that really deserve eternal pain? (Shut up, Jordi.) I'll admit - that may be even pettier than Fates reasonably get, but you see the point, I hope; a lot of people are Fated to things that are less than what *I*'d call "*evil*". (Heck, their suggested Fate for Hemmingway was to be a depressed alcoholic. If they didn't suggest that he also met his Destiny, he'd have gone to Hell just for that. It's SAD, but it's not EVIL. For the counter example, if Hitler had just been a mediocre painter, he'd have made Heaven.)
Though, since it's come up, I had an idea/plot seed that popped into my head the other night...
It's based on the premise that Fate/Destiny combinations KEEP COMING UP until they're fulfilled. That is, when someone dies who hasn't managed that critical `choice', and their Forces recycle into the Symphony...the Fate and Destiny stay attached to those Forces, and when they're reborn, that person has basically the same potentials. Not knowingly, as in the case of a Saint, obviously--it's not the PERSON recycling, just the F/D.
Primarily, this gives Celestials on both sides a good reason to -NOT- get too involved in some of the really major human events. Say, if a human is Destined to save a whole lot of souls, Hell may be better off letting them DO it, so that they'll get it over with and cycle out, rather than saving just a bunch of souls, getting killed, popping back up, saving a few more, getting killed, popping back up...
The same, of course, would apply for the Angelic side, and could present a serious moral quandary for a group of players if, say, just for example, Hitler *DIDN'T* meet his Fate. Say, he was Fated to -WIN- the War, and it's going to keep coming up until it happens...so when a group of Angels note someone rising to power in a similar way, they'll have that option of acting against it and knowing it'll be back in another couple generations, or letting it go and risking it seriously messing up the world *NOW*...
We've also been thinking about having Fate and Destiny as traits a human can purchase, similar to Roles...particularly given that humans in contact with Celestials are more likely to have stronger ones, I think. Either, of course, would actually cost points, regardless of which side you're on now..(So a Soldier of God with a Destiny/4 and a Fate/6 would have to pay for the Fate just as a Soldier of Hell would...after all, it's certainly not without its advantages, like all those Servitors of Kronos trying to get buddy-buddy...) I'm thinking there should be side effects, too, like your F/D level can add somehow to rolls that the GM considers likely to lead towards it, or somesuch, but...this only just seriously occurred to me about 15 minutes ago, so the mechanics still need tweaking.
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Elizabeth McCoy <arcangel@prismnet.com>
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