As I write the third Con vampire book, I’m once again dealing with the problems that come with a character who’s too powerful. Jim is – not least because that’s who he is, and there’s nothing I can do to change him – ridiculously overpowered (for those who haven’t read the books, he’s an ancient vampire who can read human minds without effort). Partly that’s softened because he doesn’t want to admit to himself that he’s all that, but I still always need to surround him with limitations in the form of things he can’t do or things that he really doesn’t want to do because doing them makes him less able to relate to humanity in general and SF&F fandom in specific.
That’s the easy part. Like all good characters he’s got his quirks. He’ll actively avoid reading people’s minds because he doesn’t want to spend all his time bombarded with everyone’s random thoughts. Certain people he’ll avoid because he doesn’t like feeling like he needs to scrub inside and out with bleach. He’s also something of a prude (not that he’ll admit it), so he’ll shy from overtly sexual thought patterns. Then of course, he can’t sense magic in action unless he interacts directly with it – at which point it grounds through his body. That hampers him in a lot of ways, too, and – as readers of ConVent will remember – a particularly powerful spell can leave him half crippled and feeling like he had an intimate encounter with a high voltage power line.
Unfortunately – and this is something that just happens when you’re an extreme pantser – Himself Above has decided He is going to be a character in this series. As an author (of course. The Church of God the Author is not without adherents in this world, even if it doesn’t have a formal existence), and a pantser at that. This is apparently how He moonlights when He’s getting bored. Or something. Himself Above is not a particularly talkative character.
Oh yes. He’s also a Pratchett fan. And is currently using the Trousers of Time allegorical metaphory thingie.
This makes all the issues involved with Jim’s insanely overpowered nature seem like a walk by the seaside. Precisely how does one limit the one being who is more or less by definition omni-everything?
I’m not sure whether it’s my conscious, my subconscious, a deeply buried desire to avoid random lightning strikes, or something else, but I’ve gone with a method that lands somewhere between metaphysics and quantum theory in its more outre moments. This being the Con vampire universe and deeply strange anyway, it makes perfect sense that in that universe every possible path of events exists as a kind of probability ghost of the paths that did happen. Future paths from our perspective are simply probability paths that universe hasn’t reached yet – so the omni-everything deity knows all of them but in order to avoid subverting that messy free will thingy refrains from pushing towards the desired path. Mostly. Because if the whole mess heading towards one of the many paths that lead to mostly dead followed by all dead, Himself has no problems intervening at key points. Or preferably just before, to place the divine thumb on the scales of causality so that the world will take the correct leg of the trousers of time.
Yes, that is a very mangled, twisted metaphor. It has to be – there aren’t any unmangled ones that will work here.
It’s fun and it’s interesting. I guess I’ll find out how well I’m doing it.
Mad Genius Club 
17 responses to “The problem with power”
Psst? He said to tell you to hurry up, his thumb is slipping… and he feels a sneeze coming.
This message brought to you by Unrecognized Angels, the Delivery Service that promises delivery even in the Apocalypse, and after!
His thumb is always slipping, and there’s always a sneeze coming on. I think it goes with the territory.
Ya know Kate, there’s a reason why Superman’s creators invented Kryptonite. I’m not suggesting that Jim’s Achille’s heel should be a glowing green metal from another planet, but maybe there can be SOMETHING that prevents him from doing his thing. It could even be something common. (Maybe those people in their tin foil hats are on to something, who knows?) And KIM that you only have to ruin his power at the important points. I’m just sayin’…
There are a few things. I’m trying not to have the magic weakness box happen – he is horribly allergic to garlic and can’t smell it, but that got used in ConVent so I don’t want anyone giving him a garlic overdose anytime soon.
I’ll manage. Either I’ll find something else that’s stronger than he is or has enough bodies to throw at the problem (ConSensual used that one, but if the bodies aren’t human, I can probably reuse it) to even the odds so there’s a reasonable chance of him losing.
This is one reason why my current WIP (which I had no intention of writing as a trilogy, thank you) has no fantasy elements. But in the next book, the MC and her allies are going to have to deal with the enemy’s religion, beyond the current “our deity is good and real and theirs is a nasty excuse to be brutes and murderers” approach. I’m hoping neither deity decides to become an active character. Really, really hoping . . . *looks over shoulder, slightly nervous*
Oh, yes. Right now I’m writing with half an eye towards stray lightning bolts.
Well Kate, with people like Phillip Pullman and Dan Brown out there, I don’t think you need to worry too much about divine lightning.bolts. [Smile]
You have a point. I’m hoping it will feel more self-mocking than anything else.
I limit my magic users by (1) having them have to use some of their own bodily energy even though they can pull in and use outside energy. Think diabetic coma, when they over do. (2) I keep most magical effects short range. (3) I limit the numbers of the highly magical. And (4) I only let them do three magical things at once, due to the limitations of human concentration.
I vaguely recall from the last Con book, that Himself Above couldn’t trespass on other Gods’ territory, so to speak. And perhaps a deity who was all knowing when his followers numbered in the tens of millions is having trouble keeping track of _billions_ these days. He seems to be delegating a lot of thinks to the angels. And Jim . . . is _practically_ an old god, isn’t he? G,D&R!
Himself Above doesn’t trespass – whether he can or not remains undecided. He’s got a slightly unfocused view, though. Goes with seeing everything that could possibly have happened and everything that could possibly still happen for the entire lifespan of the universe, all at once. It’s an effort to focus on the tiny slice of possibility that Jim considers the “real world”.
Jim is technically an old god in that he was once worshiped as one. He’s also acquired the kind of power that goes with the anthropomorphic personifications – so he really is a god, effectively. He refuses to believe it though. That vampire is so far in denial he’s somewhere near the headwaters.
Perhaps both of them share that characteristic? Which might lead to an interesting conversation, where they look at each other and say, “Look, face it, you really are powerful. You need to accept that about yourself.” And shake their heads and refuse to believe. After all, the old guy doesn’t always get it right, does he?
Heh. I’ll keep that option in mind…
I remember thinking on hearing that Pratchett and Gaiman had bits of Good Omens that neither was responsible for, that perhaps they had a third collaborator. This being much as you describe.
My theory is that if He did such a thing, it might be partly for the purpose of messing with the heads of people.
If God can do anything, than He can plausibly exist in your story, and at the same time, challenge your skill as a writer, and help you grow. Or is insomnia and being poorly educated in theology helping me say stupid things again?
There is this. It starts going awfully meta rather quickly, though. 🙂
I’m greedy. I just want the book. Today? Tomorrow? Nooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
Jeez woman! I’m writing it as fast as I can!
Sniffle…