[2E] Antagonist idea - Gravemind from Dystopia Rising: Evolution

[wyrdhamster]

So RichT mentioned in this week Monday Meeting Notes his idea of using zombie part of DR:E in CoD universe. Particularly, main antagonist of it - Gravemind.

The path to a shambling zombie starts with your first resurrection at the behest of an entity known as the Gravemind.

(From what I understand it's like Zerg Hivemind, but for zombies. )

RichT's own words:

Could the Gravemind be pulled from DR:E and used in any of our other games? (...) I’m wondering if the Gravemind could arise as a rival to the God-Machine in a Chronicles of Darkness chronicle. It is clearly messing with the order set down by the G-M…or is it?

To me, Gravemind sounds as entity a lot more conflicting Underworld of CoD as it literally is stealing dead from it's destination point - that's why I started topic in Geist forum. Each new zombie is one ghost less going to Underworld, in the end.

Dystopia Rising: Evolution Kickstarter video:

[Leliel]

So RichT mentioned in this week Monday Meeting Notes his idea of using zombie part of DR:E in CoD universe. Particularly, main antagonist of it - Gravemind.



(From what I understand it's like Zerg Hivemind, but for zombies. )

RichT's own words:


To me, Gravemind sounds as entity a lot more conflicting Underworld of CoD as it literally is stealing dead from it's destination point - that's why I started topic in Geist forum. Each new zombie is one ghost less going to Underworld, in the end.

Dystopia Rising: Evolution Kickstarter video:

Being a backer, I can say the Grave Mind is a perfect example of something akin to the Underworld; it's simultaneously a hive mind of mutant psychic fungus and a mental wonderland made of pure Id. You can use it to come back as not-a-zombie, but it doesn't want you do so-it wants you to be a mindless beast driven by hunger and territory. It's not malevolent or cruel; it just doesn't understand what thought not directed by instinct is.

It's not really so much of an antagonist so much as a looming grim reaper; someday, there will be too much fungus in your body, and your mind won't be able to follow the Grave Mind's path back, going on to hopefully a place beyond it. Zombies honestly don't use it a lot, not unless they're the really dangerous kind. But you know it intimately from the first time you die, and you know it is something far, far greater than you.

[wyrdhamster]

Nature of Gravemind
Okay, so let's contextualize Gravemind in Chronicles of Darkness universe. First, let's just miss the fungus stuff - in world of dark horror and eldritch magic, using this S-F trope is needless. Let's assume that Gravemind is mystical phenomena, simply. Especially as we want contrast with Underworld itself...

Then, point two, Underworld comparison - the Realm of Dead is calling to ghosts so they end there if the lose all Anchors. Great Below want to devour ghosts, made them part of it.

Now, from what's in the spoilers and Leliel assessment on reading - Gravemind seems to free the ghosts souls, to let them roam free back on Earth. It sounds as total opposition to Underworld - when Great Below calls to, in reality, prison and then destroy this particular soul - Gravemind want's it to return to world. In my mind, Gravemind, at the end goal, would lead to 'Hell on Earth' scenario, where all the dead would return to the (un)life as zombies or Revenants / Third definition in articles, from 1E of nWoD/CoD /. You know, those 'super-dead possessing their own body', like from movie Crow. Or what you can have in Geist 2E when your playable Ghost has Merit Dead Meat and return to their own flesh.

With all those assumptions and analysis, we end with this general situation…

[wyrdhamster]

Underworld vs Gravemind situation
Clearly, for now, Underworld is generally winning. Dead, mostly, goes to Great Below and then, after years or decades, to the Ocean Beyond Life for their final resting place. One or two zombies return to the typical town in CoD that is weird happenstance. Or that once very driven angry person return as Revenant to end their unfinished business. If Gravemind makes a big success, it's those Zombies Outbreaks we hear once in a few years - where one or two cemeteries rise up and want to devour towns folks. It mostly controlled. But if Gravemind would win in this cosmic rope pulling, life on Earth as we know it would end – there would simply be no end, as any dead would instantly return as zombies, in many versions. Over. And over. NO END.

This points to other implication of Underworld and Gravemind conflict – that ghosts wanting to leave Great Below, against rules of Chthonic Gods, sometimes just get… help. Door that should be locked – are luckily open. Ferryman that should not be near runaways from Depths – just shows up. Or that Kerberoi forces that should guard leaving gate – they are not there, lead astray from guard post. It’s like sometimes something really want the dead to leave Underworld, against wishes of the Gods in here. Best in great numbers – more the better. Probably it would be more pleased when whole legion of ghost would run from Realm of Dead – but it would gladly help even few of them at time. Gravemind wants as much free ghosts as it can have.

And it’s lead to last obvious implication – Gravemind is really disliked by the Reapers. Dispised it’s better world. It stands on total opposition to Reapers instincts. It’s actions are trying to dispel natural order of Underworld and Dead in general. So Reapers try to destroy any operation of it or larger community of free roaming ghosts on Earth – so Gravemind would not show itself there. And there are rumors, from time to time, that Gravemind sometimes employ Krewes of Bound to help in it’s plans or actions. Now, I really do not know why someone makes those things up. Or do they…

[Mad_Maudlin]

I would operationalize the Gravemind pretty differently, actually. Mainly because (1) in my reading of the DR:E preview, the Gravemind doesn't so much "free" your mind as assimilate it into itself along with your body, and (2) in a more magic-based setting like CofD, we can hit hard the "Sunless Garden" aspect of the Gravemind: it tortures the dead, trying to break them so it can absorb them, something like a Harrowing from Wraith.

In this model, I think the Gravemind couldn't give a shit about ghosts. It wants the meat, and perhaps the souls, of the dead, to add to itself. Since CofD cosmology has already established that your ghost isn't "you" so much as an imprint you've left behind, this means the Gravemind is mainly a problem for those ghosts who have their own remains as an Anchor, and vice-versa.

The Underworld, meanwhile, only cares about ghosts, and has no use for the meat. It wouldn't see the Gravemind as a rival unless the Gravemind also consumes ghosts/Essence/Plasm to fuel itself. Which might make strange bedfellows of Sin-Eaters and Reapers: the former don't want anybody eating ghosts, period, while the latter pretty much only want certain beings eating ghosts, and zombie hive-mind is not on the list.

The individual zombies themselves would probably be modeled using the traits for The Horde in CofD core (p. 149). Where the Gravemind's gotten a foothold -- that is, where there's enough dead bodies laying around to really get a party started -- it might also be able to spawn off "advanced" or "boss" zombies that function more like individual Horrors. (Since situations with a lot of corpses to spare also tend to be situations that facilitate the Bargain, Bound might end up at odds with the Gravemind due to mere proximity, whether it harms ghosts or not. The presence of the Gravemind would also create a massive amount of Death Resonance, though, which might attract the attention of mages and/or werewolves as well.)

The exact origin of the Gravemind can stay mysterious -- is it from the Lower Depths? Is it Abyssal? Is it at all connected to the other G-M, like malware in a system, or perhaps it's the dark mirror of the Principle?

Here, have a mechanic:

Touched by the Gravemind (Persistent)
This character has been in close contact with the Gravemind or its zombies, and it has made a claim on her. The next time this character's right-most health box is filled with Aggravated damage, they enter the Sunless Garden and suffer the forments of the Gravemind. The character must roll for a breaking point with an automatic -3 penalty, on top of the usual penalty or bonus for their current Integrity rating. The results of this roll, however, are as follows:

Dramatic failure: The character dies, and immediately comes back as one of the Horde.
Failure: The character resurrects and clears all health boxes, but loses 2 Integrity and gains the Broken, Fugue or Madness conditions. If this would take the character's Integrity to zero, they come back as one of the Horde anyway.
Success: The character resurrects and clears all health boxes, but loses 1 Integrity and gains the Guillty, Shaken and Spooked conditions. If this would take the character's Integrity to zero, they come back as one of the Horde anyway.
Exceptional success: the character resurrects without losing Integrity. Still gains the Guilty, Shaken or Spooked conditions.

Living beings without an Integrity analogue (Beasts) instead roll Resolve + Composure - the number of times the Gravemind has already resurrected them. Prometheans and Demons are immune to Touched by the Gravemind. Vampires and Sin-Eaters ... not sure if they should be more vulnerable (already dead) or less (something else already brought them back). Vampires trying to use the Gravemind to reverse the Embrace would be one hell of a plot hook...