Mercurians

[Omegonthesane]

An argument about Mercurians has come up in my group. (Again.) This time it's actually important as someone's planning to actually play one.

Assuming no mitigating or aggravating factors whatsoever, does a Mercurian gain dissonance for directly, specifically ordering their Servant to kill a human, without lifting a finger to do it themselves?
In other words, for Mercurians, is commanding subordinates to perform violence equivalent to personally performing violence?

The GM is currently convinced that the Servant is in this case as much a tool as if the Mercurian shot them. I feel this interpretation is directly contrary to what Mercurians are meant to be - and that it also subverts one of the few points of ambiguity, in reducing the degree to which Impudite dissonance is intentionally harsher in some ways than Mercurian dissonance.

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Omegonthesane

An argument about Mercurians has come up in my group. (Again.) This time it's actually important as someone's planning to actually play one.

Assuming no mitigating or aggravating factors whatsoever, does a Mercurian gain dissonance for directly, specifically ordering their Servant to kill a human, without lifting a finger to do it themselves?
In other words, for Mercurians, is commanding subordinates to perform violence equivalent to personally performing violence?

The GM is currently convinced that the Servant is in this case as much a tool as if the Mercurian shot them. I feel this interpretation is directly contrary to what Mercurians are meant to be - and that it also subverts one of the few points of ambiguity, in reducing the degree to which Impudite dissonance is intentionally harsher in some ways than Mercurian dissonance.

The Mercurian does not gain dissonance for that, anymore than they do for calling in the Malakim for the same purpose. Mind, however, that if the Mercurian has a habit of ordering their Servant to do this, their Superior will probably want words anyway.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

The Mercurian does not gain dissonance for that, anymore than they do for calling in the Malakim for the same purpose. Mind, however, that if the Mercurian has a habit of ordering their Servant to do this, their Superior will probably want words anyway.

Second this, as someone who has played Mercurians extensively. I know that "A Bright Dream" plays fast and loose with some of the IN rules, but it does include a Mercurian angel specifically telling her new human Servant to "kill him" without any dissonant effects -- if I recall, she even mentions that she's having him do it because she can't take action herself. She even manages to use it as blackmail information later.

[Archangel Beth]

I'm going to go the other way, kind of. (Though of course a GM can rule however they want.) A Servant -- not a regular human minion, with 100% free will -- has, mechanically, a penalty to Will to resist the commands of their master. Whatever the in-game explanation is, the mechanics are... Servants are more like equipment than just NPCs.

Even if you're using Bright Dream to get a sense of things (which I wouldn't, unless you're running a low-contrast, shading-to-dark-or-possibly-backwards game), I'd say that at the moment that Nicole contacted whatshisname, he was not a Servant, in the game-mechanics sense. The blackmail? That's probably the in-game reasoning for the Servant mechanics to kick in.

But it gets more complicated when you figure that Servants do still have something resembling free will -- someone who swears they're going to fight for Heaven and this angel in particular... may be someone who would lay their life (or the lives of others) on the line, to protect Earth and humanity from the powers of Hell. Or even a mundane bodyguard might be pretty inclined to Take Issue with someone who's messing with the guy paying their bills!

Likewise, there are Mercurians of the Sword in command positions, and Laurence's orders are dissonance to disobey; if he says, "Follow this Mercurian's orders," and the Mercurian says, "...den of Hellsworn there. You know what to do"? Those Swordies under the Mercurian's control will have to obey. So on the one hand, that would be just as much a "weapon" relationship to the Merc, which would disqualify Mercurians to command troops a lot of the time, which is no fun. On the other hand, smiting evil is one of the job benefits; absent those commands, chances are extremely high that they'd be jumping in, just the same. So the Mercurian's orders were more on the way of permission.

So for the best nuance, if a Mercurian orders a Servant to harm or kill another human against that Servant's will (i.e., the Servant tries to resist, for whatever reason)... Then I would personally assign the dissonance. If the Servant is willing to harm or kill another human? No dissonance.