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Self-Prejudice

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« on: <06-08-16/1850:55> »
Is it possible to take Prejudice against something that you are? (Mages, Infected, Orks) Should there be some discrepancy such as Shamans, Vampires, or [insert certain meta-variant]?

How possible would such self-prejudice be in order to generate a character not dissimilar to Blade? (Sans hybrid-esk nature)

firebug

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« Reply #1 on: <06-08-16/1939:00> »
Have you heard of the term "Misanthropy"?  It's a term for hating humanity in general--  It gets thrown around a lot to describe disgruntled teens, but it's a real thing.  Such a person finds "humanity" and things that exemplify it (large gatherings, society, etc) to be repulsive.

Imagine an Ork who hit it big; he's part of a megacorp, got Metatype Reduction, owns many well-tailored suits, knows all the buzzwords.  Maybe in his mind, he's proof that there's nothing stopping Orks from being successful--  Other than themselves.  He looks back at the others "like" him physically, and sees a bunch of dirty, brutish men and women who aren't willing to change in order to be successful.  Maybe he claims they foolishly cling to "Ork culture" despite him feeling it's meaningless.  Maybe he thinks they just don't have the kind of willpower he did to break out of that life.  But whatever the reason, he hates being around the common Ork, or compared to them, or having to discuss them in any positive light.

This person would have Prejudiced (Orks, Biased).

A sane person likely won't have beyond Biased of towards whatever they are.  Outspoken or higher would represent someone who would take action or join a group to actively halter any progress their prejudice would work towards.  While it isn't impossible for someone to be more extreme than "Biased", they would be mentally unwell.  As an example...

A ghoul battles desperately with suicidal behavior and self-loathing.  She hates what she's become.  If she could look in the mirror, she know she's scream at what she sees.  On good days, when she doesn't have to spend too much time sober, she can ignore it for the most part.  Hide herself from metahumanity, drown herself in the virtual world.  The infected have always disgusted her.  Monsters, that's what she's heard about them.  And so far, she's had no reason to believe otherwise, from what she's had to do to survive.  Her self-loathing reflects outwards, pairing with her fear and disgust, producing a powerful hatred for the Infected.  They hurt her and her family, took her life, and now she's stuck like this forever...  Unless she builds up the courage to end it all on one bad night.

This tragic persona would have Prejudiced (Infected, Outspoken).  She has no sympathy for any Infected, and hates them (herself included).  She wouldn't actively take up arms though--  She's not that motivated.  She'd rather just ignore it all than try to burn them all to dust.  This type of person exists in less dramatic senses, but sadly isn't too uncommon.  Self-loathing is a powerful, destructive emotion, and can often be turned outwards into hatred.

One more example...

A priest kneels in front of a cross in his tiny, dirty den.  He's done nothing but pray for several days now...  His stomach is tightened from hunger.  For weeks he's been seeing demons, or so he believes.  Occasionally, he'll lose focus, and see dark forms glowing from people--  Their sins radiating from their bodies.  Strange occurances happens around him.  Fires start, devices short.  Wind blows his hair indoors.  He knows this is a world where magic is real, and trusts none of it.  Magicians, to him, are the devil's work.  Whatever the Pope says, he must not have ever seen one.  Once, in the barrens, this man witnessed a magician conjure a demon from nothing, burning a man alive.  Then he proceeded to whisper blasphemy to another man, driving him into a fury, making him kill his own allies.  Surely, the devil worked through them, and now the devil was inside him as well.  Manically, he continued to quote passages and pray.

This man would be Prejudice (Awakened, Radical).  He's completely insane--  Most radical individuals would be, of course, but this man has twisted his religion into something hateful because of trauma he suffered in the past.  Such an individual wouldn't be a good PC.  He'd be too unstable, his hatred and terror flitting back and forth between the group he's aimed against and himself.  Such a person couldn't be trusted to do basic day-to-day tasks.
I'm Madpath Moth on reddit (and other sites).  Feel free to PM me errata questions!
Jeeze.  It would almost sound stupid until you realize we're talking about an immortal elf clown sword fighting a dragon ghost in a mall.

Blue Rose

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« Reply #2 on: <06-08-16/2256:08> »
*Looks for an upvote button.*

Firebug has the right of it.  There are many ways to have a character biased against what they are, both mild and extreme.  Guilt complexes, religious conflicts, escapism, denial, turning into a literal flesh-eating horror, regret.

You can totally have Prejudice: Shadowrunners on a character who realizes that in their collective line of work, all they do is bring misery, death, and suffering to the world, but they can't get out of the game because it's the only way they know to survive.

Novocrane

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« Reply #3 on: <06-08-16/2319:50> »
Quote
*Looks for an upvote button.*
Ditched entirely when having a downvote button proved to be a mistake. ::)

bangbangtequila

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« Reply #4 on: <06-08-16/2345:11> »
Quote
*Looks for an upvote button.*
Ditched entirely when having a downvote button proved to be a mistake. ::)
The lesson learned so painfully by EVERY forum that has ever tried to cater to the users' requests,and taken to heart by Facebook. A decision I hate, but respect because it was just plain good business. But I digress.

Self-loathing is absolutely possible, and Firebug did a great job of making examples. A few less common but viable ideas would be:

The elf who watches the constant hero worship of her race on every media around. She watches her fellow elves get promoted above the hard working orks and humans. She watches the management smile at them, and her coworkers get away with a shoddy work performance just because they are special. She watches this injustice,and refuses to allow the system to elevate her just because she was born differently. She abhors the way her race takes advantage of their appearance. Why do they deserve to skip the lines? There are many examples, namely the entire 10th season of south park, exemplified by PC Principal.

The ork who watches his brothers let the system push them down. They don't take the manual labour job, because they think they deserve a free ride. Everyone else works hard to try to get ahead, but one after another they turn to drugs and crime, looking for an easy way to get ahead. There are no shortcuts, and he knows it. Why do the other orks in his neighbourhood think they don't have to earn their way? Why do they have to just perpetuate the stereotypes and become thugs, instead of trying to integrate and be productive members of society?

Just a couple off of the top of my head, but I hope they add an extra perspective.

Hibiki54

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« Reply #5 on: <06-09-16/1443:47> »

Beta

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« Reply #6 on: <06-09-16/1512:30> »
I'd say not only does it make sense, it makes for excellent role-playing opportunities, and potentially interesting interactions with other other negative qualities.

And could make family gatherings rather tense.