strategist lifepaths (part 1)
i was thinking alot about strategists and decided to make a strategist lifepath in the vein of the nobilis one and the deceiver one.
so far, i have written out my reworkings of all of the keys. the rest of the lifepath generation stuff is going to follow, but will be later, because right now i am slightly stuck, and am a bit too creatively drained at the moment to work past that big hump of the rest.
that will be forthcoming though (and potentially might require editing the keys i have so far a little bit, but maybe not).
Lotus Flower (Key I)
Key of the Caretaker
You've seen the worst of the world, and it's broken you beyond all belief. It's chewed you up and spit you back out again, and the worst part of it is that you're far from the only one. There are even people in this poisoned world who these things have happened to who aren't like you, who aren't other Strategists. Everyone has to find their own way to contend with the broken world, and you've taken it upon yourself to help people find their own answers while you work towards yours.
The Purpose of this Key is named My Emptiness. It allows you to relate to these people, and it's the vehicle through which you're able to help them. The top bullet point in the Purpose will summarize the sorts of things that you help people with, such as:
emotional support when they're hurting
physical care for the disabled or
a protector
The Sickness of this Key is named My Scheme. You're not doing this for completely altruistic reasons. There's something deeper going on there. There's something for you to gain from helping people this way.
Write the following two phrases in the Sickness's circle:
I see myself in them.
A small push could make them like me.
Vervain (Key II)
Key of the Enemy
You're always spinning countless threads, weaving plans and performing fearsome feats of unmaking. You are a strategist among Strategists. Nothing you do is without purpose.
The Purpose of this Key is named The Excrucian War. It is about your role in things, the purpose you serve in the Excrucian host. The top bullet point in the Purpose will summarize that role, such as:
a leader of armies
a master tactician or
the name of fear itself
The Sickness of this Key is named My Struggles. It's about why this role isn't easy for you, why it's hurting you even. It's about why this role is a part of the tragedy that is your existence, even if it seems like a glorious thing.
It starts with the following bullet points:
I'm obligated, even when I'm suffering too much to do it.
I'm too wrong to exist in the world.
I wish that things could continue to be this simple for you, but the truth of the matter is that they probably won't. Things will get worse for you, as they always do.
Acacia (Key III)
Key of Secrets
You hate the world. It makes you sick with its wrongness, and you want it out of the way, you want it over and done with, you want it gone. You want to erase the sickest crime against the void, but there's something that makes you question whether you even can.
The Purpose of this Key is named Something I Can Never Tell. It's why you're having all this trouble, why you're not sure if you can do this. The top bullet point will summarize what you're keeping hidden, for instance:
I'm in too much pain to keep going or
I've fallen in love with something pure and beautiful, something that is a part of Creation.
The Sickness of this Key is named My Pain. Keeping this secret makes your already painful life even more painful. It makes everything just that much harder to do. This might be a physical pain, or more an emotional one, but it's typically going to follow a similar form to the pain that's always inside of you, the pain that defines you. Write the following two phrases in the Sickness circle:
It makes me even sicker than I already was.
I can't trust my own feelings.
Clematis (Key IV)
Key of the Spinner
You've seen the world's rotting heart. It eats at you, burning inside of your soul. The world is wrong, and because of it you are too. The world is sick and its sickness infects you, but that sickness gives you strength. That sickness gives you something to cling to when everything else is falling apart. That sickness gives your life direction.
The Purpose of this Key is named The Ashen World. You know the world's rot more deeply than anyone else in the world, and it drives you to destroy it. It drives you to do amazing things in contempt of the world. The top bullet point in the Purpose will summarize who you are when you're fighting the world, such as:
driven and untouchable
the face of destruction and unmaking or
a creeping sickness, infecting and corrupting the things around you
The Sickness of this key for now has no name. Leave its circle empty.
Maybe this circle will remain blank, and your hatred of the world will sustain you. You're going to do this, and there is no power in the world that can stop you.
If you do write something in this circle though, it isn't good enough. Your hatred of the world gives you strength, but sometimes it doesn't give you nearly enough strength. The Sickness of this Key will explain why that's so.
Aconite (Key V)
Key of Deep Suffering
Your life is defined by your suffering, even more than the lives of most Strategists. Your pain defines you on such a level that it's conceptually inextricable from you.
The Purpose of this Key is called My Strength. The stronger your purpose gets, the more power you have inside of you to resist it, to fight on despite it.
Leave the purpose circle empty for now. If it remains empty, you're likely helpless to fight it, consumed completely by it on all but the best of days.
The Sickness of this Key is called My Pain. Your sickness changes you, and makes you unable to fulfill your function in the world. It's broken you, and it continues to break you, each and every day. The top bullet point in this circle will summarize what it has reduced you to, for instance:
an invalid
a broken wreck
unable to care for myself without assistance
unable to live alone or
suicidal
I'm sorry you feel like this. It sucks a lot, and I understand.
Wild Oats (Key VI)
Key of Decadence
Your vice is much more important to you than it is for most Strategists. It defines you in a way. You draw strength from it – not nearly as much strength as you gain in your time spent beyond the Weirding Wall, but strength nonetheless. If you can just keep yourself in an endless swirl of vice, you can do anything, right?
The Purpose of this Key is named My Vice. The top bullet point in the Purpose will summarize what your vice is, for instance:
the corruption of sacred things
collecting victims
sadism or
turning children against their parents
The Sickness of this Key is named Why It's Hurting Me. The stronger the Sickness becomes, the more and more your vice is making things worse for you, even though from your perspective it might look like it's helping. The stronger the Sickness becomes, the more your vice is getting in the way of your larger goals.
Leave the Sickness circle empty for now. At the moment, it's not too bad, but it's probably going to get a whole lot worse before you're done.
Star of Bethlehem (Key VII)
Key of a Life Forever Changed
The world broke you. It changed your entire life, made everything different. It corrupted things, filled them with your sickness. It made you into a Strategist. It made you who you are.
The Purpose of this Key is named It Made Me Sick. It's about who you became because of everything that changed. It's about how you reacted to that sickness. Write the following two phrases in the Purpose circle:
an enemy of Creation
the wrongest thing in all the world.
The Sickness of this Key is named It Burns Within Me. You're not sure if you've ever really even moved past the events that brought this on. You definitely haven't really sorted out your life yet. Write the following two phrases in the Sickness circle:
I can't look past it.
It twists me up inside.
You'll also want to name exactly what happened that made you – perhaps it's even just The World's Sickness – and write that name on the line between the Purpose and the Sickness so that it's clear what it was that happened in your life that started all of this.
Gorse (Key VIII)
Key of the Caged Bird
Your life is like a cage. Someone has bound you or enslaved you, or you're caught up in your own tangled emotions, maybe. You hate the cage, and you want to be free of it, more than you want anything else in the world.
The Purpose of this Key is named I'm Fighting. It's about how hard you're trying to escape the cage. It's about your schemes to break loose. The first bullet point in this circle describes your current plan, for instance:
I'm building an eidolon I can project my soul into
I'm building up strength to dominate their mind or
I'm going to kill them, no matter how much it hurts me
The Sickness of this Key is named Trapped. It defines why you're feeling like a caged bird. The stronger is gets, the harder you're fighting. The top bullet point in this circle will summarize how you are held in thrall, and by what, for instance:
My own body is a prison
I'm sealed away inside of the mind of a shard
I made a promise
I'm in love with someone I can't destroy or
I'm a pawn in someone else's scheme
Honeysuckle (Key IX)
Key of Scheming
Your schemes are iconic. Your schemes are world-changing. You've made a major mark on Creation, and because of it, people know who you are. That brings about attention you don't necessarily want though, even if sometimes it helps you out.
The Purpose of this Key is named My Legacy. It's about awful things you've done that people know you for. Pick something really impressive to be the first bullet point in this circle, for instance:
I created the Dead Zone of Libya
I was on the front lines when we invaded heaven
I'm the reason why you don't remember what happened on your sixteenth birthday
I broke down the boundaries between reality and dream in Portsmouth
It's because of me that the World Ash is slowly dying
I corrupted all of the children in the town of Greenford, pushing them to turn on and kill their parents
My archival collection of once-living things contains gods or
I created Teatrix the Deacon
The Sickness of this Key is named My Burdens. It's about all the trouble that this has brought down on you, all the inconvenience this has heaped on your shoulders. It's about the way that this legacy is a burden to you.
Leave this circle blank for now. If it remains blank, then this isn't a problem. The attention you get is useful, or desired. If you strengthen the Sickness, the troubles your history piles upon you become more and more unbearable.
Chamomile (Key X)
Key of Mistaken Identity
People see you as something that you're not. Some people might think that you're something that belongs in the world. Some people might think that you're not wrong. They mistake your goals and intentions, maybe even mistaking you for someone else. You're not sure you like it, but there are worse ways to hide while you prepare for bigger things.
The Purpose of this Key is named Who They Think I Am. It's the false identity, or the misunderstanding of you that people attribute to you, for instance:
a hero
a mentor
a friend or
someone who's doing it for them
The Sickness of this Key is named What They Expect of Me. It's the things they ask of you that you have to do to maintain that cover. It's the things they ask of you that go against who you are. The stronger the Sickness gets, the more and more deeply you have to compromise yourself.
Leave the Sickness circle empty for now.
Wild Rose (Key XI)
Key of One Set Apart
You're two wrong to exist in the world. You can only even spend short periods of time there. You are a horror, a blight against the world that the world contains by driving from it. You are a creature that is only at home beyond the world, in the place of bleak energies and shadows.
The Purpose of this Key is named My Nature. It's about who you are, who this makes you. Write the following two phrases in the Purpose's circle:
an enemy of the world
a thing too wrong to exist
The Sickness of this Key is named My Curse. It's the thing that drives you from the world. It's the thing that makes you unable to exist within it.
Write the following two phrases in the Sickness circle:
I'm sick like the world is sick.
I'm dying.
Hollyhock (Key XII)
Key of Unbirth
You're new to all of this. You've just become a Strategist recently, and you're still adjusting to the whole thing. You probably haven't even had your first death yet. The whole thing for now just seems amazing. You've been given power to fight the world! You think it's changing your life for the better.
The Purpose of this Key is named My Ambition. It's about how you're looking at all of this. It's about what you think it all means. The top bullet point of this circle summarizes why you think this is something wondrous, for instance:
It gives me the power to fight the world
I can't die for good any more or
I have a war to fight
The Sickness of this Key is called The Things I Don't Understand Yet. It's all the messy, awful parts of being a Strategist that haven't really sunk in yet. It's the depth of your sickness, the depths that your suffering will take you to. You're going to start to understand all of this over time, and it's going to be a horrific experience, unfortunately. If only there was a way for you to prepare yourself for this.
Write the following three phrases in the Sickness circle:
I'm sick.
My life is filled with endless pain.
I'll never stop dying.
Mimulus (Key XIII)
Key of Things Lost
You were born of loss, and as you became who you are now, you lost more and more. You lost everything. Your dark apotheosis was an ending to your old life, the beginning of something new.
The Purpose of this Key is named My Old Life. It's who you were before you lost everything. It's about where you came from, and it's about the stories that are told of your unbirth. The top bullet point of this circle summarizes who you were, for instance:
a sweet, dependable girl who tried her best to help everyone
the CEO of a company or
[name]'s best friend
The Sickness of this Key is named The Things I Miss. It's the parts of your old life that you try to cling to, or that you wish you could cling to – the parts of your old life that sometimes make you wish you could go back. The stronger the Sickness gets, the more you long, the more you suffer because of it.
For now, leave this circle blank.
Water Lily (Key XIV)
Key of False Hope
You don't want to be wrong. You don't want to hate the world the way you do. You wish you didn't have to. You wish you could forget that any of this happened, so you try to pretend like it didn't. You try to pretend like you're not wrong. You try to pretend like you belong in the world. Fake it til you make it, they say, and you're clinging onto that hope. You're trying to make it true.
The Purpose of this Key is named Who I Claim to Be. It's the face you present to the world, the person who isn't wrong. It's person you want to be, for instance:
a prophet
a healer
a teacher
good or
pure
The Sickness of this Key is named My True Nature. It's the things about you that make this impossible. It's who you really are.
Write the following two phrases in this circle:
sick and wrong
an enemy of the world
Oak (Key XV)
Key of Things Unchanged
There are parts of you that didn't change when you became a Strategist, even though they should have. There are things about you that are so true that even the sick world can't change them, because you know who you are.
The Purpose of this Key is named My Identity. It's the things that are true about you, the things that even the world can't change. The top bullet point in the Purpose will summarize who you are beneath all the layers of nihilism and pain, for instance:
loving
kind or
charitable
The Sickness of this Key is named A War Within. Your hatred of the world is trying to take those things away from you, because those qualities don't line up with how wrong you are.
Write the following two phrases in this circle:
I am wrong
These things can't be true
The bullet points in this circle summarize what your heart is telling you about those silly, mortal things you're trying your hardest to cling to.
Alyssym (Key XVI)
Key of the Wanderer
It was always your destiny to fight the world. It was only a matter of when you would begin. Becoming a Strategist was an ending of sorts, but it was also a beginning of something new. You're going to have to figure out what to do to move forward in your life. You're going to have to find something new.
The Purpose of this Key is called A New Path. It describes your plans for the future, the things you're trying to find a new way to live.
Leave this circle empty for now.
The Sickness of this key is called Why I'm Still Lost. Even if you've found a new path, it's not good enough. It doesn't ease the pain of your life. It's not really a way to live, even though you say it is. The Sickness summarizes why it's not good enough.
Write the following phrase in this circle:
I'm still hurting.
If you don't add any more bullet points to this circle, then maybe that's just it. Maybe you're lost because you haven't found an answer to your own pain yet. If you strengthen the Sickness though, it's even more complicated than that.