Minor race, three personalities in one body

[BwapTED]

This is an old idea I have come back to kicking about.
It is a minor Human race for the OTU, but it could easily be used in some other setting, or reworks into a nonhuman alien.

Each adult male has three modes or personalities:

Gladiator(combative and lustful)

Artist (creative and egocentric)

Lawgiver (prudent and legalistic)


Each adult female also has three modes or personalities:

Nurse (compassionate, workaholic)

Muse (subtly shifts behavior to match partner, craves attention)

Oracle (perceptive, cryptic )


In order to shift personalities, the man or woman must perform a religious ritual.
The six archetypes correlate to a small family of deities that inhabit a male and female pair, the mythic progenitors of the race. Genetic evidence suggests they all do share a common ancestor pair.


Triads use separate names for each of their three modalities.

By the some psychological standards these people are all mentally ill, yet their multiple personalities function just fine within the framework of their culture.

 

[FreeTrav]

Work this up further, either as a minor human race or a minor alien race, and send it to Freelance Traveller, please!

 

[Nathan Brazil]

This has been done with the Ebers in 2300 AD where they have to go thru biological process to change "personality modes", as you describe. So how will they be different?

 

[BwapTED]

This has been done with the Ebers in 2300 AD where they have to go thru biological process to change "personality modes", as you describe. So how will they be different?

Ah , that is a good question.
Not being familiar with the Ebers (I have seen pictures of them, but I never owned 2300 AD) I suspect whatever I come up with will be quite different from the Ebers, despite any broad similarity.

 

[BwapTED]

Work this up further, either as a minor human race or a minor alien race, and send it to Freelance Traveller, please!

I will check out your submission standards.

 

[kilemall]

Hmmm, minor thought here- how about having that be stages of life, and getting older triggers each stage.

I'd go gladiator/artist/lawgiver for males and muse/nurse/oracle for females.

Heh, sets up an inherent age deal for muse to artist.

 

[flykiller]

reminds me of that short story "seasons".

 

[FreeTrav]

For operational purposes, the submission standards amount to "It's got to be Traveller, and I have to like it". I have a somewhat eclectic view of what "Traveller" is, but I'm not sure I could articulate it clearly, and if I could, it would probably start flamewars.

 

[BwapTED]

I am working on my thesis, so I likely won't write any gaming articles anytime soon. As in spring.
But if I work something up later, I will send it.
Your site rules.

 

[BwapTED]

reminds me of that short story "seasons".

I'll have to check that out. Sounds fun.

 

[FreeTrav]

Just a reminder, as it's a year later - I'm still interested!

 

[Ulsyus]

This has been done with the Ebers in 2300 AD where they have to go thru biological process to change "personality modes", as you describe. So how will they be different?

If it's a conscious choice to go through the process, my first query is whether they can go through more than one change? If so, how many? That in itself makes them different to the Ebers: being able to undertake chance independently of their biology.

 

[BwapTED]

Just a reminder, as it's a year later - I'm still interested!

I'm doing a small commercial project just now, but I'll look into writing something up.

 

[BwapTED]

If it's a conscious choice to go through the process, my first query is whether they can go through more than one change? If so, how many? That in itself makes them different to the Ebers: being able to undertake chance independently of their biology.

I haven't worked out all the details, but my idea has been that members of this race can change many times. In theory, unlimited times.

It's something they learn to control through rituals. Not 'magic', though an anthropologist might call it that. Not psionic powers either. It's applied psychology.

All the physical changes are secondary to the psychological shift, and minor. Hormone levels change.

I've since done some light research on things like multiple personality disorder, shamanic trances, and bicameralism (Julian Jaynes).

The basic idea I have for the race is that they are physically human, but their minds work quite differently from our minds. It goes beyond cultural differences and into a different architecture of the psyche, if you will.

Hmmmm...deadline approaches for commercial project. I'd better finish that first. But I really should develop this race concept.

 

[Orr]

It's something they learn to control through rituals. Not 'magic', though an anthropologist might call it that. Not psionic powers either. It's applied psychology.

All the physical changes are secondary to the psychological shift, and minor. Hormone levels change.

They're sounding more and more like the Ebers mentioned earlier. If you can find a copy of 2300AD's Ranger splat it might give you a few ideas.