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jennafansIt 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.
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.
