Jinx in Hell
Replies to Comments
Been a busy month, and I didn’t have
the gumption to complete the next
chapter of the Jinx in Hell series,
however, as the deadline is today, I was
thinking that perhaps I could reply to a
few of the comments.
Robert Dushay (319) asks if Jinx is
untroubled by Hell, especially the
treatment of females.
I asked Kurt, Jinx’s player, about this,
and he replied that he tries not to look at
the society of Hell through a lens tinted
by the values and assumptions of USA
circa 2002. Jinx is from an AD&D
multiverse, and save for her experiences
among the drow and in a few other rare
instances, she has never known a
female dominated society, or even one
that takes public measures toward
equality among the sexes. Hence, Hell
for her is simply an extreme example of
the way things are.
Even so, the problems for females in
the Hells are not insurmountable.
Malarea, her mother, was considered a
candidate for ruler of Dis, and
Baalzephon (another female devil who
has been mentioned but not yet
introduced) is the plane’s current prime
minister and effectively the interim
ruler. Hence, it is possible, however
difficult, for females to climb the social
ladder of the Hells.
In any case, Jinx isn’t sure she even
want to go that route, at least not at the
moment. Moving up the ladder of the
hierarchy means attracting attention,
and that often means incurring jealously
and making enemies. She realizes that
her current situation is rather tenuous
and is rightfully concerned as to what
will become of her after her present
mission, the interrogation of Malarea,
regardless of its outcome. It is at this
point that Mephistopheles might decide
to assign her elsewhere, perhaps as a
consort or maybe as his own personal
plaything. She doesn’t particularly
relish either of these prospects, even
though either one would allow her a
certain degree of security.
I think that what Jinx really wants is
to be free to the extent that she can
pursue her own destiny, but attached to
a society in such a way that she can
make use of its assets and can form
Jim Vassilakos (jimv@uia.net)
mutually beneficial relationships with
powerful people.
The trick, of course, is that being a
female in Hell, she will either need to
attach herself to a powerful devil who
can afford her these things, or she will
need to find some niche of
untouchability perhaps in the form of
political irreplacability (it’s not what
you know, but who you know). But, of
course, at this stage, she isn’t close to
either of these options.
The last alternative, if things get too
hot, is that Jinx could flee the Hells. Of
course, she would need protection, as
such an action would make her an
enemy of Mephistopheles himself, but
if the worst comes to pass, there is
always her grandmother, Lolth, who
Jinx could turn to for help. So far,
however, Jinx doesn’t trust “Granny” as
far as she can throw her. Lolth is a
demoness, after all. Plus, Jinx has never
actually met Lolth and so has no idea to
what to expect.
Simon Reeve (319) mentions that
devils in his game would be more
spirituous / less organic in composition.
I think this is a cool idea, but I have
some reservations about it. On the one
hand, it would allow gender switching,
opening up possibilities for character
development which simply aren’t
present in the game as it stands.
Nonetheless, with these possibilities, it
might be harder to establish specific
character personalities. Every NPC
might have two distinct personalities,
one when they are male and the other
when they’re female.
I’m probably sounding very sexist,
but I feel that gender plays a huge role
in personality, and it would be difficult
for me to imagine the ramification of a
society where individuals can change
their sex at will. Also, for myself at
least, I feel the Hells profit from their
gender-bias component in that the
society as a whole has a certain
character, a wicked unfairness, which I
think would be otherwise lacking.
Nonetheless, this idea of spirituous-
amorphism might be an idea for the up-
and-coming generation of gamers to
explore. For myself, I’d have to really
think about it before attempting it.
Robert Dushay (320) writes that
sociosexual relations in Hell might be
very different from human sadism.
Males & females might have different
spheres of interest. Or the society might
be harem-oriented, where independent
females are not permitted. It would
require some thought as to the role of
sex in Hell (reproduction, pleasure,
pain, reward?) and whether Hell is
supposed to be a dark, twisted mirror of
human society.
I think I was shooting for this dark,
twisted mirror. Whenever we see
depictions of satanic rituals in the
movies, there is usually some sexual
component, possibly with sadistic
overtones. I’m reminded of the movie
Eyes Wide Shut, where Tom Cruise
finds his way into just such an affair,
and there are certainly other examples.
This was part of my thinking when I
decided to portray the Hells with this
gender-biased component.
On the question of independent
females and such, I’m inclined to
imagine that perhaps there is very little
independence in the Hells for anyone,
male or female, but rather that the entire
society is structured as tiers of masters
& slaves with a legal system in place
for adjudicating contracts between
nobles, ratification of promotions and
demotions, and dealing with the petty
disobedience or incompetence of
institutional servants and the mistakes
of non-residents. How, exactly, this gets
implemented, I’m still not sure. Would
be interested in seeing more comments.
Patrick Riley (320) mentions the
possibility that striga relate to stirges in
a legendary context, being the latin term
for witches who could polymorph into
magical killer owls.
Interesting observation. It’s funny
how many AD&D monsters are lifted
from stories or legends in some manner.
Some are obvious. Others, like this
example, are not.
There are a lot of other comments that I
want to get to, but I’m going to hold
back until later. In the meantime, hope
you’re enjoying the series, and feel free
to send me your thoughts.