“Pride conveyed by words alone is vain boasting; proclaim it by how you conduct every part of your life.”
“Do not be complacent; ever strive for excellence in that of which you are proud.”
“Embrace your past; never be ashamed of it.”
“The Virtuous inspire others to greatness; they do not demean them.”
“Despise the half-hearted, the uncommitted and the pretender.”
So priests or pilgrims of Pride out there, what 3 things would you tell a new player who was interested about getting dedicated to Pride OOC and the kind of game there is at Empire for them? Try not to get into the meat of the IC arguments around Pride too much, but an introduction to some of the questions you might start off asking is fine and dandy.
One way of understanding pride is by looking at the antonyms of pride, namely: shame, and modesty. This means acknowledge, but don’t overstate your shortcomings, and don’t understate your achievements.
Pride can mean pride in association (i.e. group, national pride, pride in the achievements of a colleague/friend etc.), your culture and customs are important; without them your hearth magic is bubkiss, and you might as well just be Highguard-lite unless you’re OG Highguard.
Pride is about being Awesome not coasting on the “fact” that other people are not awesome. Putting others down to make yourself feel better is no bueno.
Ex pride priest reporting in-what I found to be important was:
-sticking, absolutely 110%, to a brief. It could be national, or cultural, or group; but sticking to it absolutely, and playing up EVERYTHING. My Suaq Stormcrow saw me reading the group brief thoroughly, and the nation brief, and playing to is as hard as I could. Verni told stories of cunning animals, fought as a (terrible) scout/spearfighter, acted As The Birds Told Him, got angry at a civil servant for not including his skop name on the listings, and concealed his self doubt beneath all the courage a naturally nervous character could muster. I LOVED it.
-Pride doesn’t have to mean inflexible self righteousness. (Although it can be fun.) It can include raising other people up.
-I also agree with what people say about Pride meaning BEING awesome, rather than looking it.
Pilgrim of Pride here who has done several silly and RP inducing things in the name of this Virtue (searching for “Kali” on the wiki may give you some idea of the things I’ve got up to). To be honest I’d give the same advice for each virtue but will expand on them below. Each of these are my personal view and subject to your own opinion.
Look at the tenants, make a note of them and treat them like the ten commandments –
As Mark posted above I’ll go with the abridged version. Do what you say - be the best you can be - your past actions have shaped who you are, own it – be an example in everything you do – if you think someone is wrong, call them on it.
Read up on the Paragons – These are what the epitome of following this Virtue. These stories are widely known throughout the empire and are widely open to personal interpretation –
In this case these are Kethry of the Kesh, Empress Richilde and Lepidus. Kethry refused to give up her own traditions and through her actions converted others to her thinking. Richilde showed the beauty of the empire and its people through art and encouraging their musical and artistic traditions. Lepidus was a man who stuck to his convictions thoroughly and took up arms against the Leaders of Highguard (patricians council) to eradicate the corruption within them.
You don’t need to strive to be all 3 but as paragons they are a good point to aspire to.
Think on how these interact with your character in your day to day life –
Sit down and have a think about what you would like to do at an event (i.e - get the materials you need, perform that ritual, be a massive hero on the battlefield, etc) and break it into a few steps (write them down if it helps). Take the smallest thing you can find and see how the above points work with it, how it will help and hinder these actions (because the challenging bits are invariably more fun than the bits that help you get things done). Build up to the larger things and see how these actions will shape who your character is.
Ultimately it’s your game so your free to play it up as much or as little as you want but Pride is a very good way to motivate you to get things done.
I hope this helps and if anyone wants to chat more about this I’m always happy to talk about this IC and in theory so feel free to message me.