Soul Sight
Reading Fire in the Blood it struck me how potent the ability to see someone's "soul" can really be.
Farideh, as a Chosen of Asmodeus, has the power to concentrate and see things about people. For her, it manifests as colors, but she gets distinct impressions from it. Most obvious is whether a person is touched or claimed by a particular deity - something used in the book to ferret out agents of Shar as well as identifying other Chosen. But she also gets sort of a devil's-eye-view of a person, seeing how a person might consign him/herself to Baator. In the story, she shies away from the latter use, but the former proves a lot faster and more accurate than wizardly divinations for finding saboteurs and traitors.
When I designed Amani, the infernal on Furryfaire that I haven't actually played IC as yet, I envisioned something similar - as a being whose very essence is centered around desire she would be able to see what it is people want. It makes sense, and she could use her supernatural abilities to "grant" some wishes in a sense (albeit more limited than your genie types). I'm not sure I fully considered the depths to which that could go. Understanding a person's desires is a pretty major insight into their motivations and general being. Used in a social/political setting, especially, that could be huge.
Of course, one thing that did very much occur to me is the difficulty in practical use of such an ability in a MUCK environment, as it becomes utterly dependent on meta-level feedback from other players. I certainly couldn't make up an answer to "what does that character want?" when I don't control the character, and some people may not even know the answer to give if they were prompted.
Not sure I can make anything of that in the end...
Farideh, as a Chosen of Asmodeus, has the power to concentrate and see things about people. For her, it manifests as colors, but she gets distinct impressions from it. Most obvious is whether a person is touched or claimed by a particular deity - something used in the book to ferret out agents of Shar as well as identifying other Chosen. But she also gets sort of a devil's-eye-view of a person, seeing how a person might consign him/herself to Baator. In the story, she shies away from the latter use, but the former proves a lot faster and more accurate than wizardly divinations for finding saboteurs and traitors.
When I designed Amani, the infernal on Furryfaire that I haven't actually played IC as yet, I envisioned something similar - as a being whose very essence is centered around desire she would be able to see what it is people want. It makes sense, and she could use her supernatural abilities to "grant" some wishes in a sense (albeit more limited than your genie types). I'm not sure I fully considered the depths to which that could go. Understanding a person's desires is a pretty major insight into their motivations and general being. Used in a social/political setting, especially, that could be huge.
Of course, one thing that did very much occur to me is the difficulty in practical use of such an ability in a MUCK environment, as it becomes utterly dependent on meta-level feedback from other players. I certainly couldn't make up an answer to "what does that character want?" when I don't control the character, and some people may not even know the answer to give if they were prompted.
Not sure I can make anything of that in the end...
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