True. It also requires her to use her abilities in a more varied and creative manner, which makes for good stories.




I don't know that the Void Spectre is that interested in Lara.

In fact my problem is that the Void Scholar is a very old creation of a very-long-absent poster, the Grim Reaper, and most of his appearances predate my time reading or posting on the board. From what I did see, the Grim Reaper had a relationship with the Void Spectre somewhat similar to that which Lara has with Shema; a mentoring and deployment for deep and secret purposes. The difference was that the Grim Reaper was screamingly evil. In the end he was permanently disposed by... the Hooded Hood. We've not heard from the Void Spectre since - until now.

All of which means that on the bright side I have a pretty clean slate to define and develop the Spectre, but on the nagative side I don't want to spoil the character as envisaged by a poster I have no contact with at all. I figure that as long as I make VS spooky and powerful and mysterious and nasty I won't be doing too much disservice to him.







Indeed.













I like the Legion to have serious threats, and threats of different kinds. Necromancers have a great application, because they use magic (which cheats in terms of allowing powerful heroes to be forced to struggle) and they command armies of undead who can get blasted by the good guys without conscience issues.




I think the problem is the Heisenberg Principle: observation alters the thing observed.

As I see it the Hood has set Faite a trap. The more she identifies with individual humans the more tempting it is to help them; in minor ways first to solve little problems or make them happy, then in bigger and bigger ways. If a schoolmate who's become a friend is due to get run over in a car accident the temptation is to prevent it, with all the future ramifications that implies. If a friend suffers a broken heart the temptation is to fix it, to deliver happy endings or dire punishments where they're deserved. Soon everyone's a doll in Faite's personal playground and she has to be taken down by her peers.

Or she resists the temptation and it hurts her to do so.




I tend to work on the idea of leagues. There's all kinds of threats we don't usually hear much about going on at some kind of macro-level that the Triumvirate, the Celestian Space Robots et al operate on. There are probably ramifications for the mortal worlds but the cause and effect aren't understood here.

But "as above so below", there are dangers at a mortal level that can't be solved invasively by people from the league above. Apart from being narrative suicide by deus et machina it's like the Hulk trying to fix a wristwatch - he's just too big and powerful not to crush the detail.

Swerving into theology for a moment, a question almost everyone asks at some point is "If there's an omnipotent, omniscient, loving God then why does he let good people suffer and die?" The hard Christian doctrinal answer is that the alternative is to intervene and take away free will choices from people. Once he overtly and immediately rewards the good and punished the bad everyone is forced to be good - and they're slaves. Protect people from the consequences of their own or others choices then he's not raising sons and daughters in his image, he's playing with dolls.

My daughter's sixteen and that's a worrying time for a father. I could keep her from going wrong and keep her safe if only I locked her in a cupboard under the stairs for the next forty years or so; but if I prevent her from taking risks, making choices - even bad ones, or learning the hard way then she also won't grow to become a moral, competent, talented adult. She won't do anything wrong but she won't do anything right either. I guess "Our Father who art in heaven" has exactly the same problem as any dad anywhere.

Anyhow, from a narrative viewpoint I think cosmology works best on an "equal and opposite" assumption. In other words, if the good guys get an angel to help them out the bad guys can have a demon onside. If the Destroyer of Tales reaches out to save a life then somewhere else a good man drops dead. If the Chronicler nudges someone towards the right answer then somewhere else Sage Grimpenshast can nudge someone towards damnation.