[DL] Life After Dominion (spoiler)

["Roy Spence" <roy.ster@virgin.net>]

Ok the following is my view for what could happen to harrowed who attain
total dominion over their manitou.  As I've said before, I regard a harrowed
character as one who is in a no win situation and these thoughts reflect
this.  At worst it's a lot of rubbish, at best it's a different type of
undead, one which could be used to unsettle characters rather than directly
harm them.  I've split this post as it saves an extremely long post.  This
first part is the general idea behind it, the second is the game mechanic
and the last is some thoughts to tie up loose ends.  I've included the
spoiler tag simply because the total dominion discussion takes place in the
Marshal section of the BotD.


Life After Dominion

Before their first death, the harrowed had plenty to live for, their
thoughts and actions were caught up on the cycle of eating, drinking,
sleeping and whatever goals they lived for.  In undeath, they had to focus
and marshal their will to overcome the evil in themselves.  In total
dominion, they have nothing.

When a character reaches a state of total domination, their manitou starts
to shrivel and enters a state akin to hibernation, as if waiting for better
ground on which to fight for dominion.  Sure it can still pop up for its
moments of fun, however these attempts tend to be weaker and more easily
defeated by the strong willed character.

With the manitou still in residence the harrowed still has full access to
his powers, however as the manitou is severely weakened, the harrowed has to
draw the extra power from somewhere.  That somewhere is from within
themselves, they start to burn up their humanity.

Effectively the harrowed is faced with the question, "what now?"  Initially
they may be content to continue on as before - in fact friends may notice
that they seem more at peace and anyone who can "see" the manitou will
notice that it seems to be dormant - not destroyed or playing possum.  The
character will feel a little detached from people in general, however apart
from feeling distanced everything is fine.  As time goes on the harrowed
will gradually lose their humanity as they burn it up to fuel their
existence.  They will feel a growing emptiness within them and no matter
what they try it cannot be filled.  Life around them starts to lose it's
attraction and they lose their understanding of why people do things like -
"eat" and "work".  They start to "lose" periods of time, to them an instant
has passed, but to others the harrowed has simply stood or sat there for the
past hour as if someone has switched him off like one of Hellstromme's
automatons.

As the humanity continues to burn up, these feelings increase, with the
harrowed avoiding cities, then towns, then strangers, close friends and
eventually any life at all.  In the end they are little more than human
husks that become so fragile and hollow that they crumble and vanish in the
wind. Harrowed who have gained total dominion over their manitou become one
of the hollow men.