How do I represent imperial top-caste as utterly corrupt? We are talking immortal archmages here, able to do about anything (as long as they do not interfere with other archmages).
Also do not give me any "avoid being edgy/turns into loli" bullshit.
I want to shock my players. In a single stroke I want to say "absolute power corrupts absolutely and these guys are absolutely corrupt".
At the moment I have an idea of commoner mother being kidnapped along with her kids, bloated by a spell to large proportions and then have her devour her own children in front of archmages who are entertained via a telephatic link with mother and children during dinner.
Even if I know they will pop up, all haters may kindly ignore the thread.
Mindless cruelty and a desire to see people suffer goes a certain distance. One need only look at Yukkiri and Fluffy (god save us all) abuse fandoms to find endless material to that effect created and consumed by NEETs today. There is some primal instinct in many people to watch undeserving things suffer horribly before dying. What I'm saying is, that isn't a fantasy spontaneously developed once one reaches high-level corruption, that's something many people desire even at the lowest rungs of society. Back then we called 'em dog fights.
What distinguishes the powerful is that they have the resources to actually materialize these fantasies, and to live them by tormenting actual people.
>>44323852
Dayum. made me think.
>>44323762
Give one of them a harem of opposit-sex clones of themself. That's like the second most hedonistic thing a wizard can do.
>>44323762
Before I give suggestions:
What exactly is the baseline for morality and honor in the setting, and what is the worst depravity people would normally expect to see from a corrupt guy?
Also how crazy are your usual 'pure evil' guys?
Just do what vlad the impaler did.
Poor crop year?
Make an example of 10% of the peasants. Have tea while enjoying a mass "execution by impalement".
>>44324839
I don't think you actually know who Vlad the Impaler was.
>>44323762
>have her devour her own children in front of archmages who are entertained via a telephatic link
"avoid being edgy" is not bullshit. You don't evoke a stronger reaction by masturbating harder. Instead try to make things matter before you destroy them.
Here's a canon to steal from.
http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Forsaken
>>44323762
Make them like the rich guys in Kaiji.
Sorta like >>44323852 said, make them enjoy suffering, let them force the peasants into unwinnable situations and have them laugh as they attempt to escape.
>>44323762
You're entering grimderp levels; I'd advise you keep things horrific, but not as guro-esque as what you've got. Just have them eat babies; read the first few chapters of Berserk for a good feel of something to aim for.
One of the best ways to show corruption is to have the excesses be rooted in something that originally wasn't horrible. Take, for example, one of my favorite toys: the metabolic link.
Originally, the idea was that, while commoners and serfs didn't have access to good food, nobles had access to an excess. However, rather than redistribute the food, which is costly and requires a lot of oversight, someone had the bright idea of linking the metabolism of the nobles to their people such that any excess consumed over a certain amount would be redistributed to the bodies of the commoners/serfs. Originally, a clever way to make sure that the workers remain healthy. Now, however...
...it's used as a justification to work the people harder and give them less. After all, they don't need to stop and eat if they get nutrition from their lords, now do they? They don't even need to be given food in the first place. Never mind that their stomachs still feel hunger. Meanwhile, the lords gorge themselves silly on the fat of the land, but never actually become obese: instead, they remain thin and beautiful no matter how much they force down their gullets. In fact, some starving peasants might actually be bloated and fat despite never having anything to eat simply because their lord favors particularly fattening food..and they'll be punished for allowing the fat to slow them down.
>>44324625
What's the most hedonistic thing a wizard can do?
Have the arch mages casually torture someone the party has come to adore with the same grace as one would cut open a turkey. Cannabalism is also a good idea.
>>44325379
That is so horrifying that it entered magical realm territory before shooting out of it at mach 5; it's fucking synx tier
>>44323762
Draw your examples from real history. Give us a baseline of the moral system in your setting and we'll give you examples.
The example you came up with is cute... but it's so mindlessly cruel that it won't stick. The players will just shrug. You want something that makes a little more sense to the mages themselves, other than just being kick the dog moments.
40k does this very well. The Imperium can be viciously cruel and inhuman to people, but since it serves at least some hint of a purpose, it's believable.
In Banestorm, you have the city of Abadyos (PDF supplement), a city run by necromancers. Lots of stuff they do is both absolutely depraved and awful, and yet in terms of their own internal thought-world makes a certain kind of sense. That makes it much more impactful.
Also, "mind-rape a woman to eat her own babies for lulz" probably won't have much punch since if I'm reading you right you're probably in HS or early college and so violence against infants doesn't mean all that much. Say that to a recent mom or dad and it hits very hard indeed.
>>44325379
That's fucking disgusting on so many levels
>>44325379
>
Yes yes yes, this is exactly what I mean. It has to make a certain sick sense or it becomes so unbelievable that it has no emotional impact.
>>44325417
same-sex clones
>>44325417
Give the opposite sex clones their own opposite sex clones, and then give everybody another set of opposite sex clones.
>>44323762
out of curiosity just whats going on in that picture
and to answer your question about showing immorality and corruption you could have the society be very prosperous but with the elete beginning to have their fill of pleasure from mere sex and fine food the begin to experiment with "different" kinds of indulgence
your campaign could be focused about finding the whereabouts of missing people only to slowly discover just how depraved the society is
>>44323762
Give them normal human flaws turned up ten thousand.
That's what I did for the same basic concept in my setting. Some guy is a glutton? Have him so jaded he would eat anything alive for some thrill. If he bursts he can just repair himself and start eating again. Have him seem so worn out you can practically feel he is just running on what he used to be able to enjoy instead of really feeling it.
At the level of power of a high up archmage we are talking about people that could go hundreds of years without human contact. Just play them realistically for what that would do to someone. Why would they need to feel anything for the person near them? If that person dies they can just cast revival if the need them later anyway and how can they compare to you a man who has been alive for so long anyway?
Play them as jaded, Nihilistic with no real hopes or dreams because anything they want they have. They have no real need to connect with other people so just kind of ignore others. The only real challenge they have in life is playing chicken with other archmages because it's the only thing that has true consequences anymore. Everything else seems like a pipe dream or a puppet show. Play them like they feel the entire world is just show business and nothing they do really matters till another Archmage gets involved.
The key thing though is to make it feel real. You can have them doing spectacular cruelty but it needs to feel like something someone with far too much power and a lack of empathy would really do which is a wide range of activities. As long as you do that you have some Hateable people the players will want deader then a doornail.
>>44328437
Like Baron Harkonnen in Dune. His slaves were mutilated obscenely, but for logical reasons.
He enjoyed sex with little boys and was rich and powerful enough to indulge. "Drug him well, I'm not in the mood for wrestling." That line is very revealing. First, it shows that de Vries was used to procuring children, knowing they'd be raped, abused, and possibly killed. Second, that Harkonnen enjoyed the violence and violation of it as much as the sexual release. Third, that he's got no particular shame or moral qualms about it-- it's a matter of fact request, and it's probably never even occurred to him to wonder how the boys feel about what happens to them.
So in one brief exchange, you have a very good picture of the evil of the Baron, but it's delivered in a way that its very banality makes it believable. If instead he'd cackled and fantasized about it, or if Herbert had actually made the mistake of writing out the scene of the rape itself, then it would IMO have had less emotional punch.
Have you ever seen Heavenly Creatures? The scene at the end, wherethe girls bludgeon the mom to death with some rocks in a purse,hits as hard as it does because it's so believable. Even though you don't see all that much and the sounds are pretty low-key.
>>44323762
well, chief among the first signs of corruption is: "Silencing any and all dissenters" The first hallmark of a bad leader is not being able to take criticism.
Second is usually "the law changes to the whims of the rulers" than being anything consistent or reasonable. Naturally this also means "the ruling class is immune to the law" applies in full force.
Lastly there's "ineffectualness", a truly corrupt system is generally hallmarked by the fact that it doesn't deliver on any promises a society should, namely stability and safety, to it's common people.
Rulers will live in lavish opulence and keep the dredges of society far from them and enjoy all the best things, sapping resources and other essentials away from the society surrounding them.
And not to sound "American" but a total lack of freedom does play into this. I mean if you want a government to be UTTERLY corrupt, then no one will have any motivation for reason to serve them, but since they're immortal archemages, magically binding their entire population as basically slaves, preventing them from ever leaving service is pretty damn corrupt.
>>44323762
The czars would do shit like have fake executions before handing out real sentences (often sentences that were fairly short) just to break people.
That's an example of something that's pretty terrible, but doesn't require exaggerated detail.
Mind control combined with transformation
>>44325417
Wizard sex
