followyourstar | Brand of Sin/Blessing of Indulgence

Dante's second Spectral soul has brought with it a new hunger: one for sin. They can feed off the sins of others via use of "brands" that are temporarily (your choice of length, but no longer than a couple days) applied to a character/NPC to boost the character's desire to act according to the sin, and indulging in those behaviors keeps Dante fed.

THAT BEING SAID. These sins are going to be Limbus Company's particular flavors, which means that A: Greed isn't on the table/is folded in with Gluttony, and B: not every sin is expressed the way you might think! Below, here's a quick guide to the sins, along with the ~~resource icon~~ brand shape associated with it.

Rather than have an exact list of effects, I want people to have fun with it. Consider these your handy-dandy guidelines to the sort of vibe the sins have to offer.

Wrath

"The nature of fire is to burn and burn until there is nothing left to be burned."

Wrath is anger, violence, frustration, and destruction. It can be wielded against wrongs done to the self or against wrongs done to others.

The larger it grows, the more indiscriminate it becomes. Unchecked, it becomes a raging inferno that devours even the self.

Lust

"The meaning of Peccatulum Luxuriae, 'Lust', is not exactly what it says on the tin. A more illustrative description would say that it is… ah, yes. An obsession to spread a fragment of what forms the self. A desire to propagate, to breed. Of course, there is more to this concept than just that. While the word itself may be subject to interpretations limited to the carnal understanding…"

"…To share one's knowledge, one's ideas, to invite others into gaining the understanding of a sliver of oneself… You seek to express that such things are 'Lust' as well."

As mentioned above, lust can and does include its more carnal interpretations.

HOWEVER, lust can also be a desire to be understood by someone at all costs. It doesn't matter if that other person is enraptured or horrified, if they want to know you or never want to see you again--all that matters is that they know you, share a piece of you, act as you do. Whether or not you yourself change in that process is of no concern

In other words, lust is not only for the horny. It's for the lonely, the desperate, the cult leader, the yearning...

Sloth

"Stones are sturdy, but that's all there is to them. They are directionless and unmoving—completely surrendered to inertia. They are trapped in their current lot in existence until someone else comes along to roll them away. Truly, there is no better symbol for sloth than them."

The sin of sloth rarely moves, but not out of laziness--at least not a physical one. The slothful seek someone to make decisions for them, to think for them. They don't form opinions, make suggestions, or take steps forward on their own. They act only when acted upon.

This can extend itself into a sense of apathy or indifference toward the suffering or feelings of others. "It's too much of a bother" is a frequent line of thought, as is the preference for the easy path.

Gluttony

"Roots of plants dig through the dirt in search of nutrients. What distinguishes them is, however, that they are not satisfied with satiation alone; the roots continue to grow, seeking increasingly greater supply of nutrients."

Gluttony is a desire that can never be sated, a hole that drags anything and everything it desires down into its depths, even if it cannot fit, even if it has all it needs. The hole may be filled one day, but it's always empty the next.

Some people fill that hole with knowledge, others with food, pleasure, attention, money... Like lust, it yearns, but it doesn't seek to change--only to have and to use.

Gloom

"Have you ever immersed yourselves in deep waters? Quite easy to sink to the depths, no? However… the deeper one sinks, the harder does it become to rise again. The pressure suffocates you from all directions—no matter how much you thrash around, desperately looking for something to grab onto, all you find is futility. Such is gloom."

Gloom and sloth can seem quite similar at first, as neither are inclined to act on their own. But while sloth seeks the path of least resistance, gloom is weighed down by memory and loss. Gloom sought something once, and in the end it was crushed.

The deeper one sinks into gloom, the more devastating it becomes--and not only for the one who holds it. For gloom is the despair that drags others down into the abyss with it.

(To drop the poetic, flowery wording, the best examples are someone who has given up on the world and is thus willing to let it fall around them even if they're the only one who can do anything; or, if paired with a sin like envy or wrath, someone who wants to make the world feel the same horrible feeling they do.)

Pride

"Wheels. Symbol of technology and the vector of humanity's ultimate pursuit. The wheel, in its boundless pride, rolls on and on in search of the perfect circle, something unconquered even by nature."

"Yet… it remains uncaring for the flesh it rends nor the grass it tramples in its path."

"One might even say that pride is but another name for overconfidence. It oft claims trailblazers or those who have never tasted failure."

The prideful have a vision, and they will see it realized no matter the cost, even after it isn't worth it anymore. If you are not with the prideful, you are against them, and if you have your doubts, you're simply not dedicated enough to the cause.

Pride knows what its doing, even if it doesn't. It is correct, even when it isn't. And it knows what's best for you, you just don't know it yet.

Envy

"Anyone who's been subject to both static shock and the envy of others must know that the latter stings in the same manner as the former does."

"Yet in great misfortune, the event comes to a close—mere moments before you were to receive your autograph. ... Now, do imagine—what sort of emotion would you feel for the fellow fan who received the final autograph, immediately before you were to receive yours, ere the chance was robbed?"

The sin of envy is easy to understand: someone has something you don't, someone has taken something from you.

Unlike gluttony, what's desired is desired not simply for the sake of having, but because it's specifically something you lack. Like wrath, it can lead to destruction, but it is usually targeted, either at the one who has "wronged" the envious, or at the self.