[UA] Your Alex Abel.

[Michael D. Mearls 97]

--- Gregory Paul Stolze wrote:
At 12:16 PM 2/22/99 EST, Michael D. Mearls 97 wrote:
>I see him as analgous
>to the Emperor in Star Wars or Sauron in LotR. He's very evil, has a lot of
>power, but the main characters never really interact with him directly.
Ruby as
>she developed in my last message, OTOH, would make a great villain.

I don't know if I'd exactly describe him as self centered: check out his
obsession, after all.  An egomaniac, certainly, but he pictures himself as
a benevolent dictator...
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I have to admit that I am probably mangling Alex's description from the book.
In the campaign that I am developing and hope to one day run, Abel is THE big
bad dude. The occult underground has never dealt with anyone like him before,
what with his resources, money, and mainstream power. Abel's an elephant at a
flea convention. When he makes a move, people get squashed whether he wants it
that way or not.

A dictator, by definition, has to be at least somewhat self-centered. It takes
at least a little solipism to have that much of an ego. The jump between "I'm
smarter than you and know what's good for you" and "You're all tools for me to
manage and play with" is a short one indeed. Almost every government in
recorded history has eventually devolved into tyranny and oppression for that
reason.

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>It will be interesting to see if and how Alex is developed in future
>supplements. The character is open enough that  can run the full gamut from
>benevolent protector to malicious manipulator.

You get more info on him in "Lawyers Guns and Money," but I don't think
it's anything that cuts him off from being either benevolent or
destructive.  (When I hear "malicious" I tend to think "sadistic" or "cruel
for the love of cruelty.")  He's pragmatic.  He'll do anything to
accomplish his goals - even the RIGHT thing.  
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This is where my Alex veers off in my weird, parallel game universe. I'm
playing up his rage impulse a lot, I see a guy there who hates to lose and who
is a total control freak. I see Alex as a guy who is fanatical about himself,
who's convinced that he and he alone knows what's good for us, and he's going
to give us what's good for us whether we like it or not. That leaves a huge
potential for evil, simply because no one on Earth is truly good, just as there
is no absolute evil. Murder, bribery, etc are all cool as long as it supports
the cause. The cause is all that matters, the organization is bigger than any
single human life. The morally righteous move is very, very rarely the
expedient and effecient move.

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Everyone's the hero of their own story, and few people get up in the
morning and think "today I'm going to become evil."
----------------------------

True, but as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Again, I guess it's just my natural distrust of authority, but I can't see Abel
wielding so much power for so long without doing something oppressive with it.
Human nature seems to ensure that, over time, those in power see those below
them as less and less human and more like objects or tools.

Of course, we can infuse my version of Abel with a dose of pathos by positing
that maybe he started with good intentions, but found himself unwittingly
following the path of the oppressor or tyrant. Now he follows that path
willingly, not necessarily because he wants to, but because he's afraid to lose
his "investment" in that archetype. His conscience is repelled each time he
makes a heartless move, but his arrogance and ambition drown it out. For now,
at least.

Now that I think about it, I'm all ready to ask a gatling gun stream of why's
to flesh my version of Abel out and add a few more layers to this onion, so to
speak.

- M. Mearls