This is from a tangent on a tangent of a tangent discussion. Such is the ST list. but it's really not important what it was about. It lead to an AHC telling me I was the coolest ST of the day, and an ST telling me they loved me beyond words, so hopefully it's worthwhile reposting.
"And I'd argue that vampire is a game of personal horror. Human horror. Horror with reasons. the horror of dark impulses that you can't control, of losing yourself and liking it. Of being a slave and loving the whip.
That's what makes setite genre so cool. Because they believe that the only way to deal with the beast is to go beyond it. When you have given in to your worst fear, experienced your worst rage, lost everything you thought you knew, lose faith in your bedrock... You become what you truly are, beyond all your petty illusions of yourself, then your free.
Enlightenment basically. Free from attachments and illusions. Free from the chains of guilt and fear that bind you. Able to act on your true will, instead of the will of the aeons.
And you want to free others.
Being a tool to a setite is only the first step. Being corrupted is a process of revelation.
Blackmail as sacrament. Corruption as worship. Tell me that isn't horror. And it's human. It's the fear that by holding tightly to what we think we know and value we are our own jailers. The fear if giving in to temptation. Setites don't fall to temptation. They dive."
Anyway I've been thinking more about horror and Setites since then. I reread part of the Kult rulebook. Kult is probably the darkest horror game in existence, based on gnostic ideas of humanity being trapped in a cosmic prison. That's basically the setite philosophy.
That's why I hate how Setites are often portrayed. Sabbat are the monster you fight. They are the slasher films of larp. Setites should be used for psychological horror. They need to stop being the pushers and pimps and start being the ones that force players to face the uncomfortable truths about themselves. They need to tempt people less with physical objects and more with what they think they want. They should show people that what they think they want won't make them happy, and isn't what they need. They should bring revelations.
Horror I'll write about in a later post.
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