Arc Philosophy & Knowledge: Part 10 Deadism (Patreon)

Spoilers for:

• Mild reference to Homicidalism
• References to Faceism & Lanternism
• Reference to Crimson Crocodile gear

Our final Tier 1 and penultimate “early game” philosophy is Deadism; this one I've left after the others because it is a bit of an odd duck in many different respects. While the previous four philosophies we have deep dived into were all focused around different in world aspects; Deadism is a bit more of a meta-commentary philosophy. What I mean by that is Deadism flirts with the theory that was presented by portions of the community that the world of Kingdom Death is some form of afterlife. While playing with this particular philosophy I often felt like this particular philosophy was a playful joke at that theory, but played out in universe. It is the closest we've had to an in game conversation with the design team and on that front I appreciate its existence a great deal.

Survivors who adopt the philosophy of Deadism take on a viewpoint that is similar to that which sufferers of a rare condition have, it is called Cotard's Syndrome/Delusion and to quote a 2014 paper's abstract the condition is:

Cotard's syndrome is a rare neuropsychiatric condition in which the patient denies existence of one's own body to the extent of delusions of immortality. One of the consequences of Cotard's syndrome is self-starvation because of negation of existence of self. Although Cotard's syndrome has been reported to be associated with various organic conditions and other forms of psychopathology, it is less often reported to be seen in patients with catatonia. In this report we present two cases of Cotard's syndrome, both of whom had associated self-starvation and nutritional deficiencies and one of whom had associated catatonia. [1]

This paper, which I have linked at the bottom of this article looks into two cases along with providing some additional historical records and details about the condition. I've also linked the wikipedia article [2] there as it has a decent, clear broad overview of the condition. And while I do have an academic qualification in the psychiatric fields I am not a practitioner or expert in this matter so I felt a couple of links would be helpful as a launching platform for those who wanted to learn more. I also wanted to include the wikipedia article because it includes some television examples which is the first place where I learnt about the existence of the condition (Specifically from Scrubs and Hannibal) because they didn't teach it at the classes I attended in my tuition.

Kingdom Death engages with this condition in a similar manner to other forms of media, it isn't seeking to take a deep dive into how such a condition could affect an individual, it is more in service of telling a story with its own interpretation. In this this case it is very spiritual self examination for the survivors where they wonder about what they did to receive this punishment, why others are born into this world rather than springing up (from the ground) fully formed and even if there is another afterlife after this afterlife (or perhaps it is reincarnation).

Let us now dive into the Hunt XP progression, neurosis and the mechanics of the various ranks located in the philosophy book!

Hunt XP Progression & Neurosis

Deadism starts off with a ranking up progression path that is completely different from the other three Tier 1 philosophies. While Rank 1 and 2 are normal, Rank 3 is a massive 10 Hunt XP into the track, which when combined with the extra fragility that Deadism survivors have due to their neurosis means that getting to the latter ranks of this philosophy is more challenging than its contemporaries. I am actually very engaged and excited by changes like this, mixing up where the philosophies rank up is something that needed to be present in the Gambler's Chest and an early sign of it is wonderful to behold. The other important portion of such a change is having the philosophy's higher ranks being worth that extra delay, but we'll explore that when we look at the individual ranks and their knowledges further on.

Death by Brain Damage is something that survivors tend to have lesser ways of protecting against, with Insanity being the main defense. Many Brain Trauma results provide insanity to the survivor as part of a compensation for the event in the first place and that softens later Brain Damage a bit. Without that balancing cushion being provided death by Brain Damage becomes a more serious and common occurrence. Now the first and simplest tip is for a Deadism settlement to choose Accept Darkness when they get their Conviction Principle.

So long Collective Toil my beloved.

Having +2 to all Brain Trauma rolls means that you can tank your way through Trauma almost indefinitely as long as you do not overload on disorders. There are also other methods such as the Crimson Crocodile Armor's Crimson Helm Mindlock ability which denies brain damage. 

However, the Crimson Crocodile represents a whole new level of threat for Deadism survivors because their lack of any Insanity means its most powerful harming mechanics are online all the time for the Deadism survivors. I guess that means there's a challenge mode for the game where you play a Deadism settlement against nothing but an endless series of Crimson Crocodiles and see how long you can last. Whee!

Last of all, before we move on, it's worth just ruminating on the thematic experience of a survivor who believes they are already dead being 'disembodied' and also unable to gain insanity. They're constantly traumatised by everything they experience in their life, unable to become numb to it in the way that other survivors can do so. It's a pretty grim experience, and that's before they even start ranking up and seeing the cracks in their belief begin to widen under their toes.

Rank 1 - Dead

“You are dead and this is the land of the dead. Is this the land of your eternal respite or a prison of the damned?” – Deadism Rank 1

+1 Lumi and a roll gives us a 20% (1 to 2) chance of +1 understanding and a bleeding token when next departing. 60% (3 to 7) of the time of gaining the 9th Album by the living legend Taylor Smith - <K> Evermore. Swifties even exist in this (supposed) afterlife, that's nice. In addition at CC 7+ you gain an additional +2 Lumi if you change your name, I'll also give you an appreciation point if the new name is based on a Taylor Swift song.

9-10 (20%) results in a swift tableflip of a Giant stone face along with +1 Lumi and +1 strength. In addition at CC 16+ you also gain <K> Death Poet.

All of these results are pretty reasonable for rank 1 gains and also there is some excellent personal world building in the accompanying narrative here. It does a lot to sell the delusion that accompanies this particular philosophy. Which means a lot when this is the only one of the current four (five including survivalism) philosophies that seems to be built on the foundations of a “lie”.

Rank 2 – Death's Regret

“Why do you exist beyond death? Are you chosen to continue for a purpose? Are there appaling sins balanced against you? What life became this death?” – Deadism Rank 2

Roll 1d10 and gain +1 Lumi as per the norm.

The 1-2 gives you <D> Rageholic and +1 Lumi; while Rageholic isn't a terrible disorder in normal cases, it's not as beneficial for a Deadism survivor just because they only get the Frenzy portion of the trauma due to not getting the extra insanity.

Rageholic: Whenever you suffer a severe injury, also suffer the frenzy brain trauma.

3 to 7 results in gaining +3 Insanity and <K> Dark Eye. Now of course, +3 Insanity for a Deadism survivor does nothing and it's been reported that's just a little bit of light trolling on the part of the design team. Dark Eye is a fantastic knowledge that can help expand on various builds, so it is still good. At the CC 19 the Deadism survivor also gains a lifetime reroll, which is a fantastic bonus.

8 to 10 gives the survivor <K> Death Poet and if you have <P> Graves you also gain +1 understanding and an additional +1 understanding per 10 counts on the death count. This is a bit of a very mild anti-synergy with Lanternism (at least until you unlock Lanternism's ultimate Knowledge), and overall Deadism + Lanternism isn't a great combination to have when compared to other options. The clash here isn't a deal breaker though, just something to be aware of as you navigate your way through this pairing.

Rank 3 – Dead Among the Living

“You hear the startling cry of new life announcing its arrival in the world. Not everyone around you is dead. Some were born into this world, and some have left it. Perhaps they don't see their own afterlife because they still live. Are you a ghost haunting the living?” – Deadism Rank 3

Quick immediate observation here, this is the first time we've reached a Rank that doesn't provide +1 lumi, it's why I've been listing the +1 lumi each time, because while it is part of the usual design, it is not guaranteed to be included. Lanternism's rank 4 gave us a place without the d10 roll, Deadism's Rank 3 gives us one without the Lumi. Instead it has modifications to the dice roll, -2 for choosing Graves (The GCE has a constant sub-theme of rewarding Cannibalize more than Graves) and an additional +1 to the roll for every survivor born this lantern year.

It is worth noting that the Living Glossary's wording for Ponder is different to the version in the GCE rulebook's text on page 51. The Glossary at the time of writing this states:

Ponder

The act of progressing through a philosophy. When an arc survivor returns to the settlement after reaching a designated Hunt XP milestone, they ponder and advance to the next rank of their philosophy during the Check Milestones steps of the settlement phase. A survivor can ponder only once per settlement phase.

Check Milestones is where the Lantern Year is updated, and that's the first thing which happens when Updating the Timeline. So the Birth Count here will most of the time be 0, because one can't start triggering Intimacy until one is in the development step – so that means unless you are allowed to rank up before updating the lantern year and use births in the “previous” year it's a dud. This kind of thing is hard to tell if it was an oversight or another trolling of the players as per above in Rank 2. Deadism is a bit of a lighthearted dig at the player base when you dive into it, so either could be true.

Anyway, it is your game, in the absence of additional clarification on the KDM Website (the only  online source I use), you decide what is most engaging for you here. As Burger King(dom Death)'s slogan says “Have it your way.”

1 to 2 (1 to 4 for Graves) gives us the horrific <D> Apathetic, a disorder that needs to be removed unless your survivor already has 8+ understanding (which is possible before reaching this rank, especially if you have a high death count during the previous rank's roll).

You've given up. Nothing seems to matter. You have no concern for your own wellbeing. You cannot use or gain survival. You cannot gain courage.

Cure this disorder if you have 8+ understanding. –Apathetic Disorder

Apathetic is one of my least favourite disorders due to it effectively “retiring” a survivor until you manage to remove it, usually with the Barber Surgeon, but sometimes you can get enough understanding through other settlement based actions instead or "cycle" it away with extra disorders. Of course it's a nothing downside if you're already at the 8+ Understanding, so this is a punishment, but not a serious one if you've pushed to get the Barber Surgeon open (which you should). Things were a lot harder in the past editions when the Barber Surgeon took a fair bit of work to unlock and I still have trauma from Apathetic in games without the Screaming Antelope.

3 to 7 (5 to 9 for Graves) gives the survivor <K> Blackheart, with a CC 14+ Bonus of putting Blackheart into the forum for other survivors to use. Blackheart is a really solid piece of a Deadism survivor's loadout with it giving that extra strength token and allowing those tokens to protect from the worst of brain trauma. It's also a token, which of course Lanternism likes, so if you're able to navigate the journey to unlocking Ghostzerker while also having Deadism survivors hanging around, you can turn that previously mentioned 'anti-synergy' into a synergistic benefit.

Finally at the 8 to 10 (10 for Graves) result you gain +1 strength, which is sort of worse than the Blackheart result, but it is not to be scoffed at. Stat bonuses are still good to get, even the most common one (strength).

Rank 4 – Dead in the Void

You descend into the underworld of the underworld. The void of eternity stretches out above you. The distance between you and your former life is an endless shaft stretching deep underground. In the unthinkable depth of double demise you hear the echoing verses that bridge death and life. – Deadism Rank 4

+1 Lumi and a 1d10 roll gives us 1to 2 (20%) of +1 evasion, a really nice stat, though not the best for a Deadism survivor until they're set up well enough to consider being a primary punching bag. 3 to 7 gives your survivor <K> Dissociation; with the added bonus of adding it to the forum at CC 17+. I'll have a few things to write about dissociation next week for sure.

Finally at the 8 to 10 result we have the business, the noise, the thing that this journey has all been about.

Dead Again is one of those rare abilities in that it is so powerful that it can redefine what you are doing with your settlement. Gaining even just one Dead Again survivor means that your settlement can't lose from population reaching 0 because every time a Dead Again survivor dies, they are reborn like a phoenix from the flames.

This is such a treat to play with mechanically, there's a whole bunch of places where survivor lives can be traded for benefits. Just within this Philosophy killing the same survivor over and over will improve that +X/Death Count Understanding gain, but also you can risk survivors like this at activities that may kill them or even just let a Homicidalist kill the Dead Again survivor over and over for the stat gains through its core tenet (Really strong with Survival of the Fittest and any other immediate passive positive attributes gained without needing to level up through hunt XP).

It's the ultimate safety blanket Red Shirt survivor and even from provisional playing around with this ability I think I can safely state that it's in the upper echelons of power for abilities that survivors can gain.

Summary

Deadism is a very interesting philosophy, it is asking players to navigate a tumultuous early period in exchange for a series of knowledges and abilities that are potentially very powerful. Deadism certainly benefits from certain principle choices, with Cannibalize and Accept Darkness being two that are heavily pushed by this philosophy. I like how starkly different this philosophy is when compared to the others, especially that altered hunt XP track.

Now of course, within the Gambler's Chest environment, Deadism has some additional challenges because 50% of your early game monsters are a no-go. However, within that campaign you will also have access to other philosophies, and also Deadism survivors greatly benefit from the Crimson Helm as written in the neurosis section, so just like Lanternism, it's not a complete anti-synergy; it's just something one needs to navigate smartly in order to get the best of it.

Next time we'll get to the Knowledges so we can complete our picture of what Deadism brings to the table both mechanical and thematic.

Links:

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4271387/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotard%27s_syndrome