Line #37 FateWorseThanDeath/TabletopGames


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9	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
10	** Several spells and abilities, for example, one spell in the Sandstorm book can turn a victim into a voiceless gust of wind or trap them as sand in the desert until released. An Epic spell, "Damnation", teleports the target to Hell, and screws with their thoughts to the point where they believe they deserve the punishment. This says nothing at all yet about some truly unpleasant spells found in the 3.5 edition Spell Compendium.
11	** There are spells like Cast in Stone and Flesh to Stone that can, depending on how you understand it, leave someone a conscious statue for all eternity, even if they're eroded away to a pebble or shattered.
12	** In the beginning, this was considered to be the case for Drow transformed into [[SpiderPeople Driders]] (a dark elf centaur, only replace "horse" with "giant spider"), and the transformation was a punishment by Lloth. Driders are much stronger and tougher then ordinary dark elves, have more spell-like abilities, and these abilities are more potent then the ones that ordinary drow have. Additionally, Lolth has had various drider-like forms (when she was first introduced to the game, she resembled a huge spider whose head had been replaced with that of a female drow). If you're thinking this doesn't make sense, you aren't the only one; since 4th edition, becoming a Drider is now a blessing from Lolth, and they are respected and admired by Drow instead of being chased out of the city. It's reserved for those who fail a loyalty test. And sort of brings them closer to her. For extra fun, Lolth "copyrighted" this shape (if a drow is polymorphed into a drider without her handmaiden's authorization, the spell is soon reverted, presumably attracting her attention in process).
13	*** That it was a punishment earlier was TheArtifact -- it made perfect sense when introduced, as driders couldn't gain class levels, and so were stuck at their level of power, well below what a drow could ''potentially'' achieve (even if only the smallest fraction actually did) -- a terrible fate in a SocialDarwinist society. The problem was that it eventually became possible for driders to grow in power and even gain class levels.
14	** There is a sword in ''Book of Vile Darkness'' that on a critical hit or killing blow rips the soul from the victims body and tortures it until it is released. And in terms of spells, it's hard to beat "Eternity of Torture," which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
15	** There is a spell used against vampires called Sunfire Tomb. It makes them feel as if constantly being burned by the light of the sun, without dying.
16	** The PhysicalGod Torog was cursed by a primordial with eternal imprisonment in the Underdark and grievous [[WoundThatWillNotHeal wounds that never heal]]. Despite his vast powers, many consider his existence to be a fate worse than death.
17	** ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'':
18	*** Becoming the Lord of a Domain is this, as it's an IronicHell, a SelfInflictedHell, or both, which punishes the Lord for an unforgivable crime.
19	*** Most curses [[GypsyCurse cast by the Vistani]] won't kill the victim, but ''will'' make him pray for death.
20	** ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}''; piss off the Lady of Pain too much and she ''might'' apply this trope by trapping you in the Mazes, an eternal prison she can create. (Or she might [[CruelAndUnusualDeath flay you alive]], which may or may not be worse.)
21	** ''TabletopGame/ScarredLands'': Zig-zagged in Hollowfaust, where the highest legal punishment is "Final Forfeiture", i.e.: the condemned's body becomes the property of a random member of TheMagocracy. If they're lucky, they're immediately killed and their body is used for HumanResources. If they're unlucky, [[AndIMustScream they're not killed]].
22	* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' has more than a few of these. From the Monstrances of Celestial Portion, to the Organ of Agonies, to the horrific MindRape certain social Charms can allow, the villains of the setting can do a ''lot'' worse than merely kill you.
23	** The Ebon Dragon has a particular line in it. For example, one of his Charm tree branches permits him to meticulously defile each and every one of your most precious memories, possibly in alphabetical order if he feels like it.
24	* Vajra Enterprises has a whole game named ''[[http://www.fatesworsethandeath.com/!FWTD/FWTDoverview.htm Fates Worse Than Death]]''. The setting [[WorldHalfEmpty isn't the prettiest place imaginable]]. Then again, {{sourcebook}}s get funny names: ''"Fates Worse Than Death: Cheerleader"''.
25	* The Aftermath table in ''TabletopGame/{{Fiasco}}'' has "The worst thing in the world" (with a statement that death would generally be merciful) as the entry if your dice totally cancel each other out, and encourages you to skip the first hideous fate you think of and go for something ''nastier''.
26	* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'':
27	** This happens to [[BigBad Nicol Bolas]] at the end of the ''War of the Spark''. He is finally defeated, stripped of all his powers ''including his Planeswalker Spark'' and sealed inside the Meditation Realm by his brother Ugin. He's a planebound dragon now -- in his own words, an ant.
28	** Anyone who is compleated[[note]]Not a mispelling[[/note]] by Phyrexia. If you're lucky, a mutagenic oil makes you want to cut your flesh and become an abomination following the dictates of a long dead tyrant. But most of the time you're surgically strapped, broken apart, having your flesh rearranged and then you have that mind altering oil. And for the [[LightIsNotGood white-aligned]] Machine Orthodoxy, you get to be flayed alive, either to become a soulless doll covered in porcelain plates or sutured together to an amalgam. And as of ''Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty'', [[spoiler:they've figured out how to do this to ''Planeswalkers''. While keeping their Spark intact. Thus far, Tamiyo and Ajani Goldmane have fallen victim to this treatment.]]
29	* In ''TabletopGame/MutantChronicles'', the [[DemonicInvaders Dark Legion]] has a metric crapload of different kinds of Fate Worse Than Death. Having your motor functions shut down while you can still see and hear everything, being driven to madness, tortured, [[PeoplePuppets possessed]], turned into a zombie grunt...
30	* ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'':
31	** ''TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters'' depicts something similarly to what becomes of the dead in the Underworld, especially with the depiction of some of the Dead Dominions. One of the worst is the Ocean of Fragments, a place where all memory and identity is gradually washed away. [[FridgeBrilliance ...Except that isn't so bad at all]]. The Ocean actually washes away ''identifiers'', the memories that define who you are as a person. Thus, a mechanic who had his memories of being a mechanic would still know engineering, he just wouldn't have the memories of ever having used them. Thus, it can easily wash away "I was horribly abused as a child" and "I am a sociopath". This, combined with the ultimate goal of washing away the ego itself -- and with it, the ability to feel pain, as you are no longer a person to hurt -- means that, in a way, the Ocean is actually one of the few things that can truly improve a ghost's lot.
32	*** That said, the game never actually specifies what happens to those who reach the bottom of the Ocean. Some say that they go to their next life, and the wiping of their memories is thus needed to allow them to be reborn. Some say they go on to Heaven, and it's meant to make them pure enough to enter it. Some say that it just leads to oblivion -- that the ghosts who make it down there disappear entirely, their essence flowing back into the cosmos. In any case, their time -- being the person they are -- in the World of Darkness is finally, after many long centuries, finished.
33	*** Strongly recommended, if not enforced, as the risks of playing a Sin-Eater. They've tasted death and came back, and their Geist can bring them BackFromTheDead further still. Death is nothing to them, you have to step things up a notch to deter them.[[labelnote:Examples]]Die too many times, and a Sin-Eater lose control of their body, only able to watch as the Geist use their body as meat puppet... And if the Geist is nasty enough, they won't let the Sin-Eater die, [[AndIMustScream instead reviving themselves over and over and over...]][[/labelnote]]
34	** In ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'', Changelings who get recaptured and taken back to Arcadia are never seen again. Considering the insanity and torture they escaped from to begin with, a swift death rather than life under one of the [[EldritchAbomination True Fae]] is probably the best outcome they can hope for.
35	*** Depending on who you ask, ending up in the Hedge in the first place is a fate worse than death in and of itself, especially if you weren't a normal human first or if you ended up there on purpose rather than a stroke of (bad) luck. One of the many things that might befall a Mage who manages to get themselves into the Hedge is the gradual degradation of their entire being, including their magic. They eventually end up as thin, genderless, mindless humanoid things with whom even the True Fae don't bother, because with no mind and no identity, they're not even interesting enough to be worth killing.
36	* ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'':
37	** ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion'': As all inhabitants of the underworld have all already died, one might think that the worst has already happened. Unfortunately, [[TabletopGame/OldWorldofDarkness given the setting]], that's just the beginning. Common fates include being torn apart by angry, eternally damned spectres, trapped in an endless maze full of angry, eternally damned spectres, becoming an angry, eternally damned spectre, and being boiled alive in molten ore to be forged into weapons and or objects. Which doesn't end your existence. And you still might end up being used by an angry, eternally damned spectre.
38	** ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'': The Avatar, the portion of the mage's soul that allows them to perform magic, will reincarnate ordinarily. Thus, ''gilgul'', the destruction of the Avatar, is considered the worst fate possible, as it ends a reincarnation cycle and drives the current (thus, last) one rather insane in the process. Even at their most antagonistic, the Traditions and the Technocracy generally avoid doing this to each other (after all, the Avatar in question may reincarnate as one of their own next time). The only time it generally gets pulled out is when a [[DealWithTheDevil Nephandus]] is caught alive -- as they've deliberately inverted their Avatars such that it will [[AlwaysChaoticEvil always reincarnate evil]], destroying it is the only way to make sure the Nephandus is destroyed for good.
39	* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'':
40	** Almost everyone who serves Chaos eventually mutates into a mindless beast known as a Chaos Spawn. But a particularly notable instance is Count Mordrek the Damned. As he's a chaos warrior, "the Damned" would usually be redundant. He constantly and violently mutates within his unremovable armor suit, and every time he dies the chaos gods bring him back to life. And unlike most people they do things like this to, he still appears to be sane and thinking, and remorseful over what they make him do and unlike Chaos Spawn he is isn't in constant mind shattering agony and is quite coherent. It has been so long that nobody else even knows what he did to piss the Chaos Gods off so much. At this point his only life goal is to find something that can kill him for good.
41	** ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'':
42	*** [[BodyHorror Gain more mutations than your body can stand?]] You permanently devolve into an insane nightmare of malformed flesh known as a Chaos Spawn; have fun rolling up a new character while your friends fight off what remains of your last one.
43	*** Particularly bad bout of Tzeentch's Curse or displease the Chaos Gods after pledging to serve them? You are plucked from physical reality and thrown to the Realm of Chaos to be gored and tormented by Chaos daemons until the stars die.
44	*** The titular villain from ''Castle Drachenfels'' has devised a number of ways to torment people forever while keeping them alive, including a courtesan who was a beautiful FemmeFatale in life, now reduced to an animated skeleton who isn't even aware of her state.
45	*** The [[WizardingSchool Imperial Colleges of Magic]] reserve "Pacification" for wizards who commit [[BlackMagic gross misconduct]] or treason so blatant that they can't just be quietly executed. The specifics [[NothingIsScarier aren't described]], but it involves [[DePower excising their soul's capacity for magic]] in a way that generally leaves them begging for death, which might or [[AndIMustScream might not]] follow.
46	* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
47	** Happens to ''everyone'', one way or another, who runs afoul of [[TheCorruption Chaos]], whether it's being consumed by its [[TheHeartless endless hordes of daemons]], a "mishap" while [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace traveling though the Warp]] or going anywhere near one of its {{Negative Space Wedgie}}s. (Unless you're an Ork, in which case it's [[WarriorHeaven the best afterlife ever]].) Even its servants don't avoid it, as their final fate is either dying (and then a daemon or five comes to collect on [[DealWithTheDevil its contracts]]), transforming into a mindless, deformed Chaos Spawn, or achieving immortality as a [[OneWingedAngel Daemon Prince]], only to spend the rest of eternity fighting the Endless Game between the Chaos Gods.
48	** This is inevitable for all Eldar, as if they die and their soulstones are destroyed their souls are immediately consumed and tormented for the remainder of eternity by the Chaos God Slaanesh.
49	** This is the [[PlanetOfHats Hat]] of the Dark Eldar. Their souls are constantly being sucked away by Slaanesh, and to stay alive they must feed on the pain and agony of others. So they've become very good at causing incomprehensible pain, while at the same time keeping the victim alive. (One novel describes the victim of a Homunculus' attentions as [[BodyHorror a collection of skin and organs hanging individually from the ceiling on metal hooks]]... and the poor guy was ''still alive''.) The torture may go on for millennia before the victim is finally given the mercy of death. There's a reason why the blurb on the back of their codex reads "Pray that they do not take you alive".
50	** Isha, one of the few surviving Eldar gods, was spared from death by Slaanesh because he/she/it wanted to "claim" her. Her fate got better ''ever so slightly'', for she was rescued by Nurgle who's smitten with her. However, Nurgle keeps her in a cage and loves to give her "presents", and since this is Nurgle, all of his "presents" are horrible mutations and diseases. (Nurgle's servants don't count because they ''[[NightmareFetishist enjoy]]'' this sort of thing.)
51	** One of the novels has a variation on this. A Chaos Marine, feeling remorseful about abandoning his loyalty to the Emperor, decides to kill the leader of the warband he is in. However, the attempted assassination is botched and the traitor is knocked unconscious and captured. He awakes in total darkness, unable to move or speak. He awaits his coming torture and interrogation, but it never arrives. The story ends as he realises he has been placed inside a [[MiniMecha Dreadnaught]] coffin, effectively granting him immortality but sealing him off from the world forever.
52	** The GodEmperor has been entombed on the Golden Throne of Terra for the last 10 millennia, fully conscious, and fully aware of the collapse of his vision of humanity into a barbarous, mindlessly fanatical totalitarian nightmare.
53	** Arco-Flagellation, a punishment [[StateSec The Ecclesiarchy and The Inquisition]] inflict on certain heretics and blasphemers. The condemned have both their hands lopped off and replaced with some nasty weaponry, followed by getting a back full of combat drug dispensers, and a healthy dose of MindRape. The result is a wasted, wiry cyborg who wears a hood displaying calming religious images, but with the right command word the visor retracts, the stim-packs activate, and the former heretic goes berserk.
54	*** This is actually intended as an inversion; arco-flagellation is a method of ''penitence''. As bad as the torture is, they aren't kept around for very long and are used as extra cannon fodder/bayonet rushers for the actual military. The idea is that through death in battle, the heretic's soul is considered redeemed and they will find their final judgement before the Emperor. Arco-flagellation is thus reserved for those who are deemed to be in some form redeemable, in the belief that a short career as cannon fodder in extreme suffering is better than an eternity of suffering beyond mere definition in the Warp.
55	** Perpetuals. The ability to regenerate from your constituent atoms, nearly unkillable with only a few things can finally kill you. Sounds great... But this is [=WH40k=] we're talking about. See, this means you cannot die and you are essentially eternally stuck in this horrific world, probably doomed to fight for eternity, until you finally are killed by having your soul annihilated, getting killed with exceedingly rare materials (and even THAT isn't a guarantee, as [[spoiler:Vulkan]] will attest to), or some other obscure form of killing you. Also, it is implied the UNIVERSE ITSELF hates you because by rights you should not exist.
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Context FateWorseThanDeath / TabletopGames