Duality: From Jekyll and Hyde to Universal Morality

Greetings, blogosphere. Today is the first day of one of my favorite months! October is a fantastic month. The beginning starts off relatively warm, and the temperature continually drops off to accent the falling leaves of orange and red as the month closes up with one of my favorite holidays.

This is going to be a happily busy month for me. I've been cast in a play based off of one of my favorite novellas: Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I play Mr. Gabriel John Utterson, Jekyll's lawyer who has a bit of a dark side. I really love the part I'm in, and I'm blessed to be with such talented actors.

For those that are unfamiliar with the plot of the novella, Dr. Henry Jekyll is a doctor whose work is specialized in understanding what Jekyll calls "the primitive duality of man". His work begins to consume him as he makes a breakthrough and develops an alternative personality named Edward Hyde, who embodies the evil side of Jekyll. Hyde goes on continuous crime sprees, and grows more powerful each time he emerges to the point where Jekyll begins to lose control. I won't spoil the ending, though!

"Man is not truly one, but truly two!" Jekyll makes this claim numerous times. The dual nature of man is one of good and one of evil. "He who has the two forces of good and evil under such control that the good always balances the evil is indeed blessed," he states in the script of my play.

I was stricken with curiosity (as I do more and more each day) on this notion. Is the human mind so easily dichotomized into good and evil? This isn't an uncommon idea. The history of art, religions, and literature throughout the world is fraught with this concept of good combating against and (most of the time) triumphing over evil. Why is this so?

Well, it makes for a good story. The concept of good defeating evil plays right into the human sense of morality as well as the natural desire found in humans for revenge. However, this conflict is most often between two separate parties, not between two sides of the same person.

Regardless, we need to take it back to basics. Definitions of good and evil. Are there really such things, or are they simply social constructs? Is there such a thing as universal morality, or does society bring us up to think they are? After many debates, discussions, and meditations, I've come to believe that even if it is a social construction, it's a necessary one put in place in order to benefit society rather than the individual.

The conflict of what benefits society rather than the individual, I think, strikes at the core of what "good" and "evil" are. Good is generous, giving, polite, positive. It is based on the community. Evil is selfish, vindictive, rude, and negative. Good is selfless, Evil is selfish.* So, it all comes down to who you choose to work for the benefit of.

If you have any input, I appreciate it if you put something in the comments. Is there such a thing as Evil? What constitutes Good? Is everything just Neutral? Does it even matter?



*This is why, when I play DnD, I tend to reject the Alignment System's Good-Evil axis and replace it with the Communal-Individual axis. Sure, "Chaotic Communal" and "Neutral Individual" don't really sound as awesome as "Chaotic Good" and "Neutral Evil", but I think it better (not perfectly, but better) reflects the human psyche and motivations.

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Thanks for reading. Stay human, my friends.

Working Together

So, to pass the time at my household, my older sister and her husband and I have been playing an older game on our X-Box (note the lack of 360) called X-Men Legends. Now, my brother-in-law and I are both big fans of the Marvel universe, and also both big fans of the X-Men (especially Wolverine).

Because what reason do you have NOT to like him?

This being said, I'm a huge fan of the game for a different reason. It reminded me of other things I really liked (and I couldn't think of why): Some other games, such as World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons, and a TV show called Leverage.  

The game is different than most in that it's an RPG, rather than an arcade-style fighting game, which most superhero games end up being. In this game, the characters gain levels and collect items just like in Final Fantasy, or, say, Pokemon, and instead of player-versus-player fighting, it's multiplayer is cooperative instead.

You build a team of 4 super-heroes and complete missions. Up to three other players can join in to take control of these heroes. At times, you need specific powers that you may not have, but a friend might: Iceman can use his ice powers to put out fires, Magma can build bridges out of molten rock, Jean Grey can flip switches telekinetically, et cetera.

Our team usually consisted of Wolverine, Iceman, Magma, and Storm.

I gave it some thought. World of Warcraft revolves around the concept of classes-- 10 different ones designed to do different jobs, or maybe the same job in different ways.

In case the text is too small, left to right starting at top: Death Knight, Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior.

Organizing raids or PvP (player-versus-player) is very difficult and takes many factors into account, and normally, if you don't have at least one of every class in many raids, you won't make it out alive.

Then, my thoughts drifted to Dungeons and Dragons, and the same fact is very similar. If you're a team of nothing but Rogues, either it will be incredibly awesome how you all completely avoid being seen, or incredibly terrible how you all get your asses handed to you by the first person who sees through your stealth.

After contemplating this, I thought about the TV show, Leverage. The thought struck me that it was essentially the same concept as the others; Each of the 5 members has a certain specialty, be it planning, conning, martial arts, thievery, or hacking. 

Again, L to R: The Hitter, Grifter, Mastermind, Thief, and Hacker, as the show advertises it.

The common thread is obvious. What I love most about all of these is the idea that a group of people, no matter how different, can come together and use their different skillsets to accomplish something greater than the individual. In Random Receipts, and even within my own family, we do the same thing with our varying gifts. It's nothing short of a blessing! That philosophy is something I take very seriously.

This is why I believe multiculturalism is so important. This philosophy works on a higher level that just the individual! If more people had a global perspective, it would be much easier to respect other cultures for what they have done for the world, and much more difficult to take for granted how much American culture (or any one culture, for that matter) relies on others. As an old internet joke used to say, 

"Your car is Japanese. Your Vodka is Russian. Your pizza is Italian. Your kebab is Turkish. Your democracy is Greek. Your coffee is Brazilian. Your Beers are German. Your shirt is Indian. Your oil is Saudi Arabian. Your electronics are Chinese. Your numbers? Arabic. Your alphabet? Latin. Other cultures are all around you, don't complain about having an immigrant for a neighbor."

I think the more people learn about other cultures, the better understanding we can have between individuals, and as a wonderful byproduct, we can cultivate an even better, non-exceptionalistic appreciation for our own culture.

If you like my writing, you can join the site to the right of the page, like Speaking with Storms on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. If you have questions or just want to chat, I'm on Formspring, too!

Peace and Love, thank you for reading!

The Origins of Phrenik

Phrenik is a Dungeons and Dragons (henceforth abbreviated to DnD) character I have been creating for a while now. I wanted to create a Wizard. Now, most people have a preconceived notion of what a Wizard should look like: Long robes, carrying a wooden staff with either a pointed hat with star patterns everywhere or a large hood. Big grey beard. Like Tolkien's Gandalf the Grey (or White) or J. K. Rowling's Albus Dumbledore.

When I designed this character, I wanted to pick that notion by the seat of the pants and the scruff of the neck and toss it out the window. So I searched within multiple genres while looking for inspiration, from Manga to fantasy to SciFi. I was actually quite delighted with what I gathered.

I had four major characters from my past experiences that I wanted to incorporate a small feel of. The first is Jace Beleren, a powerful mind-mage from the world of Magic: The Gathering.

"You should try to clear your mind of idle thoughts. And if you can't, I will."

Jace specializes in Blue magic and deals mainly with magic that manipulates the mind and memories. (Wow, there were a lot of Ms in that sentence.) His outfit is what I really wanted to emulate in designing Phrenik, because I really like the style of his sleeves, cape, pants, tunic, and especially his hood.

The next I thought about seemed at first to me like an odd choice. I honestly couldn't explain to myself why I wanted my character to emulate him: Doctor Who's 11th Incarnation of The Doctor, played by Matt Smith.

"I wear bow ties now. Bow ties are cool."

The Doctor has a police box that can move through space and time at will. He's lived for hundreds of years, and when he is grievously injured he simple "regenerates" which grants him not only a new look but a new personality. The 11th incarnation has a bit of a quick temper, but it's juxtaposed strangely with his old soul view of the world. I really wanted Phrenik to capture The Doctor's "Next Stop, Everywhere" attitude while being able to relate to the Doctor's shadowy past.

I thought for a while before deciding who next to capture aspects of, but when I thought of Rave Master's Sieg Hart, I was sold.

"Even one who masters the sword must bow to the power of magic."

Sieg Hart is an Elementalist. He wields the arcane power of the elements in order to protect the continuum of time. He and Jace are both where I got the idea for Phrenik's tattoos from, though I took it to a greater extent than these characters have. Again, we see the obvious no-robe, no-staff, nothing but badassery happening. I wanted Phrenik to answer to a deeper call than personal revenge, and though the short story below doesn't show it, it's something he takes very seriously.

I had these characters chosen out, and I really liked them, but something seemed missing... A certain neutrality. Jace and Sieg are both technically neutral, but they both end up serving the greater good in the end. I wanted Phrenik to be more morally grey than that. Then I thought of World of Warcraft's Aspect of Magic, the Blue Dragon, Malygos the Spellweaver.

"What could you hope to accomplish, to storm brassily into my domain? To employ MAGIC? Against ME?"

Malygos is the Aspect of Magic and the leader of the Blue Dragonflight , the family of dragons that have domain over all Arcane Magic (the kind of magic that mages or wizards use). He sadly went insane and eventually led what was dubbed the Azure Crusade to destroy all other creatures that use magic, because the thought the Blue Dragons were the only creatures powerful enough to use it responsibly. In the online game, players are required to slay him. I wanted Phrenik to embody his thirst for knowledge, his aristocratic view of the Arcane, and the ultimate moral neutrality and grey area that no one can actually prove isn't correct.

A bit of backstory: The campaign that Phrenik will be appearing in is the longest one I've ever written, and the main villain is actually an old PC (player character) that belonged to a former player in our group. He went mad for power, and while the other PCs were charged with destroying the people who had absorbed the essences of the 7 deadly sins, Immerall decided to absorb them for his own power. He became a demigod with black raven's wings, with a sword forged in the fires of the 9th hell. He killed most of the other player characters (with my full foreknowledge, as I decided I wanted to use him as a villain).

Without much further ado, I might as well just jump into the final profile that I devised for Phrenik.

Phrenik

“Immerall is one of many who would misuse magic. I will see to it that his taint will stain the spells of this world’s Magi no more.”

“If you remember only one thing you hear me say, let it be this: This world is an illusion. It is not real. And the only way I am able to do the things I do is because I have seen past it. Do not ever forget that.”

Titles: Phrenik (Taken Name), The Riddlesmith, The Eye, The Seeker, The Blue

Alignment: Neutral Good (With True Neutral Tendencies)

Race: Appears to be Human.

Age: Late 20s, Early 30s—Unclear.

Appearance: Phrenik is about 188 cm (about 6’2”) tall. His skin color deceives his ethnicity, and it is therefore impossible to tell what ethnicity he is. It is a very unique shade of brown, like coffee with far, far too much creamer. He has long caramel hair done up in natural dreadlocks, a result of many hours spent unwashed while studying and planning. He has a short Bob Marley-esque goatee the same color as his hair.  His icy blue eyes set against his other darker, mellow features stand out peculiarly. He has tattoos from under and above his left eye that sprawl over his lean back, chest, and wiry arms of eyes, inscriptions, glyphs, and other arcane symbology, but one in particular stands out on his right forearm: a name, “Melodia” . His left ear and lip are both pierced with simple silver hoops. He wears a highly detailed cloth tunic that covers his biceps, strongly-threaded pants, shoes, and spaulders, with a very deep hood large enough to obstruct vision of his eyes.

Quirks: Seems unable to make eye contact. Is constantly looking through small notebooks he keeps on his person in pockets of his outfit.  Smokes cigarettes. Normally has his hood up, but when it is not he wears black-rimmed glasses. Speaks with an unplaceable accent.

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When the demon came, I heard the towers that I had once guarded from all danger collapse onto their people.  A laugh still hung in the air—Though I’m not sure how I could tell it was even a mortal voice. It was a sound, that’s for sure. A hideously arrogant, agonizingly powerful sound.  Then I saw him. White hair, red eyes, long ears and black wings. 

Those black wings.        

                                                         

A man I had known for half my life ran out of the house we had been visiting and shouted, “Immerall, the Arcane Consortium will not abide your presence here! Arrakum Eyya Shin Feiuru-“

I was not aware that someone could die that quickly. The sound he made as the final syllable of his spell was gurgled from his lifeless neck is something I will never forget. 

When the demon came, I had done whatever I could for her. I had always been skilled in teleportation magic, so I formed the thoughts and spat out the words and drew the circle in midair as fast as I could. The portal opened, and I forcefully shoved her through, then closed the portal with all of my might, placing as many words of power I could to lock it shut so no one, not even myself, could follow.

“You’re very brave, young wizard. What is your name? And who was that pretty young thing?” the black-winged fiend inquired, showing his pointed teeth in a cold, mirthless smile I will never forget. He was looking at me like some hellish wolf gazes upon a rabbit that was misfortunate enough to jump into his den. 

He did not kill me, as I expected. He left me alive and forced me with some chthonian magic to watch as he slaughtered everyone I had grown up with—the whole city of Raviuk, gone. 

It was only until he left that I realized I couldn’t remember what I had answered his questions with.

I remembered everything else—My age, my abilities, my only family, the tragedy, everything… except the names that that beast had taken from me. I have the name of the girl I sent off branded into my skin, so although he tried to take her from me, I at least have her name… I now know I must find her to remember who she is to me and what name I used to go by.

Today I received a distress signal from the last few remaining members of the Arcane Consortium, my clandestine guild, who were thankfully away on their own missions that I was not of proper clearance to know the details of. 

“Immerall the Sevenfold is fast approaching demigod-level power. All available Magi are advised to flee and go into hiding, using any aliases previously unused in order to protect what few resources we yet have. The destruction of Raviuk was a fatal error, something we did not foresee. Beings of many races, creeds, regions, and powers now understand the true depth of Immerall’s power and the havoc  he can wreak. Make no mistake; we are now at war.”

Naturally, for security purposes, no names were used. But at least I have a heading. I’ll find this girl named Melodia, and I will find the others of my guild. I’ll find others who are able and willing to assist me in ending this fiend’s black-feathered curtain he has drawn over the skies of this world.

"That Guy"

Dungeons and Dragons is a roleplaying game. It is extremely open-ended, allowing for a player to be pretty much whatever they want (within reason) and allowing for a DM, or Dungeon Master, to write whatever kind of story they want.

The drawback of how open-ended it is, however, comes when "That Guy" joins the party. "That Guy" is pretty much what he sounds like: The guy that somehow, some way detracts from the experience and gets on everyone's nerves, but the party tolerates him anyway for reasons they can't explain.

I recall a group a few months ago where “That Guy” was a relatively new player to our group and we’d agreed that the game was going to be about mid-high fantasy DnD heroics… So this guy shows up with a drunken old man lout of a Fighter. Meanwhile, the some of the others were all playing some young kind of anime-nerd hero type for the lulz. My character wasn't, however, I was a Half-Orc Ranger stylized as a pirate admiral who was a total mama's boy and wrote letters to home every month. His name was Bilge. 

However, this story is not about Bilge. It's about "That Guy".We tolerated him and how often he’d talk about how drunk, smelly, and generally obnoxious his character was. He would use metagame knowledge (knowledge the player has that the character doesn't)  to make fun of our characters in his roleplaying, laughing at us when we got knocked out, et cetera. 

It was worst when he started calling us cowards when we failed our fear checks, and the DM would take pity on us and give us a look that said “Just let it slide.” and would let us take rerolls. We never understood why he let us reroll the check simply for being called cowards, but we weren't complaining.

We’d bitch about it in between sessions and we grew to hate the guy as a player. His character would go onto long diatribes about dungeons and gold and how useless we were and we’d get into hour long arguments before the DM would constantly remind us to keep it in character. Anyway, this campaign went on for a year and the storyline is climaxing and a big NPC gets captured, and "That Guy" gets us to go on a suicide mission and storm a castle, and he’s pretty much yelling at us IRL that we gotta do it.

When we finally agree, he leaves the room with the DM for a few minutes, and we all assume this is all some metaplot about how he’s gonna fuck us over and steal our shit. They come back as though nothing happened. Session continues but we’re all on guard, assuming something is up. We storm the castle or whatever, and have fun, not really noticing that this guy has stopped being so obnoxious. He wasn’t referencing how he reeked of whiskey or onions or whatever, though he wastes 5 minutes explaining how his character shaved his beard. Whatever, we just assume the DM talked to him about it. 

Epic battles ensue, fast forward to face off with the final boss, some Undead Warlock or something, and it isn’t going so well.

In fact, we’re getting spanked. Our Cleric is down, and Mr. Fighter has a haste and out of nowhere he goes “I rush over to the Cleric and slap him. ‘Get up, you damn coward!’” At this point I groan, but the DM actually says “Cleric, you’re back up with 50 HP.” Then Mr. ‘Fighter’ says “I turn to the Lich… My sword glows a bright gold. I use Smite Evil.” Suddenly it clicked for all of us.

"All right, chums, up! Let's do this."

That fucker had been playing a Paladin, a holy knight, a crusader, the entire time.

We realized that his insults were his Lay on Hands (which explained why the Cleric was healed), and his calling us out as cowards was his Anti-Fear aura, which allowed us to take rerolls.   

The reason he made such a big deal out of him shaving and cleaning himself up was that he had finally reconciled himself for his past mistakes (which we were all too distracted by his annoyingness to remember).

We all had thought of him as “That Guy” but he actually had been out-roleplaying us for almost a year.

"Things you Never Want to Hear your Dungeon Master Say", or, "Niche Humor"

"Roll Perception. Hah! You don't hear anything."

"Roll Anal Circumference check."

"Okay, odds or evens?"

 "Oh, good. You're playing a Paladin."

"My girlfriend will be joining the campaign."

"Does anyone here have Disarm Traps? No?"

"Hey, you. Roll 1d20. Oh, you'll see."

(Rolls dice.) "Hah."

"You feel the warm, familiar glow of Light slowly fade. [Player], you are now considered an Ex-Paladin."

"You feel strangely compelled to..."

"I don't like how you disabled and skipped that encounter. No one gains experience."

"That's a 50 DKP Minus!!!"

"The Queen's name is Ashley. She has curly red hair, cute dimples when she smiles, and SHE'S A CHEATING WHORE!"

"You guys have been just too damn lucky lately..."

"Hang on a sec." (Rolls some dice without any real purpose.) "Okay, continue,"

"Okay, you enter the room. Which one of you is in front?"

"You all meet at a tavern."

And, last but certainly not least...

"Are you sure?"