Why The Wyrm

“Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.” Translated: “I am a man, I consider nothing that is human alien to me.” Terence, also known as Publius Terentius Afer. Roman playwright, former slave

There are some good posts on the BBs that will tell you the Wyrm Sphere is recruiting; I am going to tell you why someone should play characters in the Wyrm Sphere. And channel my inner Galliard a bit.

A little over a year ago, January 2023, NFL player Damar Hamlin took a hit to the chest that stopped his heart right near the 50 yard line. Through extraordinary efforts by medical professionals, he lived, to the relief of all the fans and those associated with the sport.

Just a few thousand years ago, in 65 BC, Julius Caesar commemorated his father with gladiator games featuring about 700 gladiators in solid silver armor. While historically it was infrequent that a gladiator would die, everyone in the crowd was there wanting to see blood and death.

Our culture, our civilization has changed. The human brain has not. Take any person alive today, have them raised as a Roman from birth back then, they’d be baying for blood too. Even today, the instincts, drives, and desires that live in the dark part of our minds, the lizard-brain, the money-brain remain.

There’s been 11 Saw movies made, which are basically torture and gore porn. Yeah, they have a story, and some of the stories are decent, maybe even good, but that’s not why these films have made over a billion dollars. We still want to see that.

Every year Activision comes out with yet another fucking Call of Duty game like clockwork. They all make a bunch of money. Every year the violence is more realistic. People like killing.

We’re not so keen on the being killed part. Which is why we have movies and games. We got rid of the death in the Arena and have giant men wearing pads collide instead. RP is no different. In fact, it’s better in some ways, because unlike Call of Duty’s linear maps, or a film’s script, the player is involved in shaping and driving the plot.

VtM, CtD, WtA all have their own horrendous themes at times. The Gaian Garou are not really good guys like Superman. They’re Punisher anti-heros. Vampires struggle to keep their humanity. Here in the Wyrm Sphere, we’ve gotten rid of all the crap about pretending we’re the good guys or civilized. We’re evil. And darn well proud of it.

Obviously, I cannot speak for everyone, only myself. But in the Wyrm Sphere we do terrible things. We, as players, get to engage those parts of our brain that civilization demands we don’t. Murder, torture, rape, cruelty, terrorism, cannibalism, human sacrifice, violence, and more are all things that happen in the sphere. Not all of them are RPed out; it depends on the comfort level of the players involved.

As for the sphere itself, the players? Because we deal with such heavy topics, there’s a lot of communication to ensure that everyone is onboard with what is going on in the scene. Most of the time everything is settled beforehand. However, on occasion if someone needs to safeword out, it happens, no questions asked, no hard feelings.

There’s room in the Sphere for both sides, someone playing a sadistic monster, and someone playing a victim. It all depends on how the player wants to explore the themes in the sphere. For example, a battle-hardened combat veteran doesn’t really fear much in the world, but that is something they want to explore, to be a victim. That same person could play the other side of the line, to let loose, as it were. (Yeah, I know. I get it.)

We do have people on both sides of the line. Abused Kinfolk and mortals are treasured characters that fill out the sphere. Murderous, sadistic Garou would be pretty boring without them. And, of course, STs can play NPCs for needed plots. Most of the worst things that happen in the Wyrm Sphere are done to NPCs. PC characters are not getting casually murdered or raped, or sacrificed to the Wyrm.

However, the reasons someone might want to play Wyrm Sphere are as varied as there are people. The scenarios are limited only by your mind, what others will do with you, and the MUSH policies.

If you want to explore the dark side, we welcome you to join us.

Who should NOT join the Wyrm Sphere:

• People who are sensitive to the idea of bad things happening to good people. Absolutely there are things that people can avoid and the sphere is respectful of this. If you and your character don’t want to be involved in RP or discussions regarding rape, for example, that would be honored. But if the general idea of hurting people and breaking things is not your cup of tea, then best of luck in other spheres.

• People who are here to TS. Sex is an integral part of the Human Experience. There’s TS that happens in the Wyrm Sphere, but if your plot to porn ratio is even worse than season 1 of Game of Thrones, it’s probably best to look elsewhere.

• People who cannot communicate well OOCly about desires, limits, and RP should not join the Wyrm Sphere. Seriously, there are some dark things that go on and tap DEEP into the human psyche. Push the wrong parts of the lizard-brain or monkey-brain and things can go extremely awry. Everyone needs to know what they are walking into when they are doing a scene with Wyrm themes.

• People who cannot respect the boundaries and wishes of a player. This is the worst one. If someone doesn’t like something, or doesn’t want to do something, and a player does not respect that, that player can Fuck. Right. Off.

If none of these describe you, put in an app. We look forward to meeting your new Wyrmy character.