And I Must Scream/Tabletop Games: Difference between revisions

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** It's not emphasized, but the Emperor himself might be an example of this trope. Reduced to a shattered husk, kept on life support for 10,000 years, unable to move or communicate yet according to dogma still conscious, while the unified humanity he worked to build falls into dystopian ruin around him. A quote about the 40k universe sums it up:
{{quote|"A galaxy where the only person still sane is powerless to do anything but watch the universe die."}}
**:* It gets more into it when you realize that everything he aspired to accomplish (abolishment of religion and the destruction of Chaos altogether) is being defiled and torn down. ''In his name''. On top of that, the supposed preachers of his word are also the ones possibly conspiring to keep him in the vegetative state, as they're all paranoid and believe that if he is allowed to die and reincarnate, he'll be gone forever and the Imperium will plunge into darkness forever (Inquisitor Lord Karamazov was famous for executing one of the supposed "reincarnations" of the Emperor, much to the chagrin of his collegues).
**:* According to the ''Inquisition War'' trilogy, he actually ''is'' still conscious and aware of his status on life-support, and still somewhat capable of psychic communication to anyone in his closest vicinity and freezing time to that person if he so wishes. It is heavily implied, however, that he cannot focus too much attention to communicating with anyone who he is talking with, or he'd not be able to handle the most vital parts of the Imperium, such as the Astronomicron.
*:* The ''Inquisition War'' trilogy also details the continuation of consciousness whilst suspended in a stasis field, though the consciousness is locked in whatever feeling was being felt at the submersion in the stasis field. Naturally this discovery is then used by the Inquisition to torture individuals for great lengths of time while effectively halting the decay of their bodies.
**:* Hey, that means that Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines is experiencing this. Mortally wounded by a poison blade wielded by his former brother primarch Fulgrim, the Apothecaries bundled him into a stasis field while on the verge of death and set him up as a shrine (something he would likely not appreciate). Ouch.
***:* People near death release endorphins to dull the pain hes actually probably been high as a kite for the last 10000 years.
***:* Again, point of view is everything. Guilliman is serving as inspiration to his chapter and their many many successors. While he might be suffering (but thats quite a noble thing in the Imperium), he is also watching over his sons as they fight for the Emperor as he did. Even in their darkest days, Guilliman is standing vigil...
*:* ''Fulgrim'' has an impressive one of these, {{spoiler|as the primarch Fulgrim is eventually completely possessed by the demon joyriding in him, who keeps him fully aware of its actions in his body, which is mutated by the demon into something more pleasing to it.}} As this occurred during the [[Horus Heresy]], the fate is up to 10,000 years and running.
**:* Not necessarily; Horus vowed that he would free {{spoiler|Fulgrim}} from that particular fate, and there's a chance he managed it before dying. We'll have to wait and see.
**:* This could be a case of [[Cursed with Awesome]], as all fallen Primarchs are now [[Physical God|Daemon Princes]].
***:* The primarch Lorgar spends his entire time thinking about the true nature of Chaos.
*:* Still nothing compared to the Outsider and possibly some Necrons - they were imprisoned before humans ever arose, on the order of some ''60 million years''. When awake the Necrons fall into this trope, completely subservient automatons trapped within effectively immortal metal shells. Most Necrons are "fortunately" mindless and probably not aware of their situation, but Necron Lords most definitely are.
**:* Flayed Ones were awake during their entire entombment. When they resurrected, they had became [[Ax Crazy]] and wore their enemies' skin on their body. Because of this, [[Cursed with Awesome|they are also immune to Morale checks]].
*:* Almost the entire Thousand Sons Legion suffers from this, as a screwed up spell caused most of them to be reduced to dust with their souls trapped in their armour. They can still move (and fight) but are utterly enslaved to Ahrihman and the other non-dusted leaders.
*:* Haemonculi do this sometimes to their victims, surgically altering their bodies until they are, say, a collection of organs still alive and sentient, or a sack of helpless flesh.
**:* In ''Nightbringer'', the Ultramarines find a victim of a Haemonculus on Pavonis that was entirely dissected and hung piece by piece like a blown-apart cross section of a human being. Then they see that the various pieces and organs of the victim are still connected by veins and nerve strands. THEN they realize the victim is still alive and feeling every agonizing moment, and is trying to rasp "kill me" at the marines. It freaks them out so much they open fire and blast everything in the vicinity to splinters. High octane nightmare fuel indeed.
**:* The Haemonculi arts are required by the Dark Eldar to survive (pain and the suffering of others apparently grants them youth). Needless to say, this may very well apply to every single slave of the Dark Eldar.
*:* Some Craftworld Eldar may befall this. All Eldar carry with them a Spirit Stone (or Waystone in some versions) that absorb their soul upon death, preventing it from being taken by Slaanesh. These same stones can be used to revive them in the form of a Wraithguard or Wraithlord or (in the case of farseers) put into the craftworld to join a crystal wall of seers for all of eternity, sharing their knowledge with their descendants. This implies that they're still conscious even in death. However, it's known that several craftworlds are desolate and completely devoid of life, as well as eldar falling on foreign worlds, their stones remain unretrieved for possibly many years, or never. They will be stuck alone, unable to communicate with anyone (it's stated that they only join their ancestors once their spirit stones are attached to the infinity circuit), for all that time.
**:* A similar fate happens to Exarchs. These are warriors who are lost upon their path of war and unable to leave it, becoming instructors to others that want to learn the art as well as leaders in war. Each Exarch, upon death, would merge with their suit rather than their Spirit Stone, so that they may once again join the next generation of warriors when their suit is donned again (they merge spirits with whoever wears the suit). Phoenix lords go through the same thing, except that their personality completely dominates the other souls. Much like the Spirit stones, it's implied that many exarch, and some phoenix lords, now lay on some forgotten world, their suit lost forever and unable to communicate with anyone.
*:* One of Slaanesh's circles of temptation is filled with fantastical treasures. Anyone who touches one of the golden statues will be turned into gold himself, while his soul remains fully conscious.
**:* Speaking of Slannesh, there's also his champion, Lucius the Eternal, a complete monster by many people's standards (Even his fellow Chaos Space Marines consider him a monster amongst monsters), who cannot die. To be specific if, by some rare chance you do kill him, if you feel the smallest amount of satsifaction for your deed, you will ever so slowly be transformed into Lucius. Eventually nothing will be left of you, except for a new , throbbing face with an eternal scream fixed onto it on Lucius' armor, and in the 10,000 or so years that he has been killing (And been killed) he has dozens, if not hundreds of those faces covering his armor.
*:* In the new Necron codex, there is mention of a crownworld where an alien prophet's head is kept alive in stasis to predict the future. It's implied to have been stuck there for the past ''60 million years''.
*:* There is also a daemon that was banished and trapped within its own skull by the Grey Knights, and is kept in that state by the constant chanting of acolytes.
*:* The Grey Knights' Vault of Labyrinths has several dozen [[Soul Jar|Soul Jars]] that contain daemons trapped inside them.
*:* A milder example occurred in the short story "Among Fiends". The Chaos Champion Scaevolla is forced by the gods to choose between hunting down the progeny of his former best fried for all eternity or spawnhood. He isn't pleased.
* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] Fantasy'' has Count Mordrek the Damned, which under normal circumstances would be a redundant title for any Chaos warrior. This one suffers from constant and horrific mutations, but unlike most that suffer this fate, he remains sealed inside his armor, and his mind has been left intact. It's also mentioned that every time he dies the Chaos gods resurrect him, and this has been going on for so long that no one remembers which god he worshiped, or what he did to offend them.
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''