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Playing the Game
11 years ago
It must be emphasized that:
We are not an official Church of Satan group. We are not here on behalf of the Church of Satan. We are not a "Satanic Community."
We are a group on FurAffinity that are made up of individuals who follow the Church of Satan and the works of Anton LaVey. "You have to play the game, otherwise you're just the pawn on someone else's Chess board."
"Good, ambitious Satanists know to steer clear of each other ... 'it doesn't matter if you trust each other, but can you use them to achieve an objective?"
"A Machiavellian never admits they are one."
Every Saturday, I run a LARP (Live Action Roleplay). Currently, I have sixteen players. The first session was two months ago, and everyone was pretty quiet, reserved, nervous. They had played roleplaying games before, but staying in character for six hours straight was daunting and awkward to them.
At the beginning of the game, they were all sitting around because they didn’t know what to do. By the end of the game, they were all sitting around because they didn’t trust one another, and were scheming their little hearts out, trying to navigate the massive web of politics they had strung for themselves. Fast forward to now, and the game is absolutely ruthless: everything anyone ever does is for the sake of power. And they have done some despicable things. Clever, but despicable.
Recent events have caused me to draw parallels between my game and real life: one of my players has stolen pills from my house, and expensive décor from the house of another host. We finally figured out who it was through politicking not unlike that seen in my game. It was uncanny, considering that this individual’s character had befallen a terrible fate by similar means.
- They had incriminated themselves by trying too hard to wriggle their way out of our suspicion, making ridiculous excuses and shifting blame when nobody else had said a word to incriminate themselves or others.
- They had employed a “puppet,” so to speak. This guy’s a total teddy bear, and as such, hangs on every word the culprit says. The culprit used the puppet to make an otherwise inane story sound sincere.
- We evaluated this in the context of this individual’s reputation as a compulsive liar.
Real life is a game. A group of sixteen people in a room pretending to be Elves and the like tore each other to bits. Imagine how it goes for millions of people packed into the constraints of human society! It has become habit for me to evaluate the words and actions of other people. I constantly find myself navigating the unique politics of each circle I belong to. We all do, whether it’s at work, among family members, or even with different cliques of friends.
The people who get ahead are the ones who play the game. LaVey was all about manipulation, lesser magic being the manipulation of others, and greater magic being the manipulation of oneself. He not only acknowledged that life was a game to be played, but that people were pieces to be controlled. When you think about it, only those who get ahead in life are truly conscious of the game. Petty office politics? Merely pieces scrapping for some meager semblance of power. It’s the people who manipulate those politics in their favor who gain true power. Any dictator or entrepreneur can tell you that.
As Satanists, we are our own gods. We carve out our own niches in this world. We rise above the common man. But to do all that, we have to get our hands a little dirty. Get your head in the game! Every secret, every relationship, every conversation, every habit that another possesses is a potential tool for you, which you can use to get what you want. Define the terms of your game, and if you hold all the right pieces, you can win that game, and the pieces you manipulate will be none the wiser.
A tip that I have learned recently: whenever somebody says something unwarranted or off-topic, take note of it. This isn’t idle conversation; it has been said for a reason. More often than not, it’s a lie, a cry for help, or a last-ditch effort to change the topic.
In the comments, talk about the games that you play, the techniques that you use, the pieces you look out for, and maybe even some instances where magic – both lesser and greater – has worked in your favor.
Hail Satan!
"Good, ambitious Satanists know to steer clear of each other ... 'it doesn't matter if you trust each other, but can you use them to achieve an objective?"
"A Machiavellian never admits they are one."
Every Saturday, I run a LARP (Live Action Roleplay). Currently, I have sixteen players. The first session was two months ago, and everyone was pretty quiet, reserved, nervous. They had played roleplaying games before, but staying in character for six hours straight was daunting and awkward to them.
At the beginning of the game, they were all sitting around because they didn’t know what to do. By the end of the game, they were all sitting around because they didn’t trust one another, and were scheming their little hearts out, trying to navigate the massive web of politics they had strung for themselves. Fast forward to now, and the game is absolutely ruthless: everything anyone ever does is for the sake of power. And they have done some despicable things. Clever, but despicable.
Recent events have caused me to draw parallels between my game and real life: one of my players has stolen pills from my house, and expensive décor from the house of another host. We finally figured out who it was through politicking not unlike that seen in my game. It was uncanny, considering that this individual’s character had befallen a terrible fate by similar means.
- They had incriminated themselves by trying too hard to wriggle their way out of our suspicion, making ridiculous excuses and shifting blame when nobody else had said a word to incriminate themselves or others.
- They had employed a “puppet,” so to speak. This guy’s a total teddy bear, and as such, hangs on every word the culprit says. The culprit used the puppet to make an otherwise inane story sound sincere.
- We evaluated this in the context of this individual’s reputation as a compulsive liar.
Real life is a game. A group of sixteen people in a room pretending to be Elves and the like tore each other to bits. Imagine how it goes for millions of people packed into the constraints of human society! It has become habit for me to evaluate the words and actions of other people. I constantly find myself navigating the unique politics of each circle I belong to. We all do, whether it’s at work, among family members, or even with different cliques of friends.
The people who get ahead are the ones who play the game. LaVey was all about manipulation, lesser magic being the manipulation of others, and greater magic being the manipulation of oneself. He not only acknowledged that life was a game to be played, but that people were pieces to be controlled. When you think about it, only those who get ahead in life are truly conscious of the game. Petty office politics? Merely pieces scrapping for some meager semblance of power. It’s the people who manipulate those politics in their favor who gain true power. Any dictator or entrepreneur can tell you that.
As Satanists, we are our own gods. We carve out our own niches in this world. We rise above the common man. But to do all that, we have to get our hands a little dirty. Get your head in the game! Every secret, every relationship, every conversation, every habit that another possesses is a potential tool for you, which you can use to get what you want. Define the terms of your game, and if you hold all the right pieces, you can win that game, and the pieces you manipulate will be none the wiser.
A tip that I have learned recently: whenever somebody says something unwarranted or off-topic, take note of it. This isn’t idle conversation; it has been said for a reason. More often than not, it’s a lie, a cry for help, or a last-ditch effort to change the topic.
In the comments, talk about the games that you play, the techniques that you use, the pieces you look out for, and maybe even some instances where magic – both lesser and greater – has worked in your favor.
Hail Satan!
I rely on the way that someone says something before I consider what they're saying. If they say, "I'm not mad" but have a snap in their tone with balled up fists, it's obviously a ploy. That's the primary reason I prefer speaking to people in person, I can read them, and their courage that comes with anonymity is stripped away. You're less likely to insult somebody when they stand before you for fear of retaliation whereas you can taunt and insult away over the Internet. A good example is with road rage. People feel invincible in their cars, they'll honk, flip you off, shout curses and act all mighty. They challenge you, you both pull over to the parking lot but as soon as their out of their car, that courage is gone once you step out as well. Suddenly, they don't want to be confrontational anymore, their bluff has been called and they get back in their vehicle and drive off. That of course may be explained by me being 6'4 and angry, but hell, I use the assets I have.
satanist is ultimate dom and
christian is ultimate sub
is it like that?
A Machiavellian never admits they are one.
But one line from Burn Notice, about spies... "it doesn't matter if you don't trust each other... CAN you use them to achieve an objective?"
For the most part, I'm someone who doesn't particularly like to play social or political games. I prefer to live congruently and speak honestly, and I resent it when I feel like people or situations have effectively forced or compelled me to lie or play games. I consider a lot of game-playing to be a waste of my time. (Though, there are a few simpler Lesser Magic techniques that I do employ in my daily life, because they're consistently helpful and useful. That could be considered game-playing of a sort.)
I also don't much care for liars or manipulators, and I'm wary of people who brag or make a big deal out of supposedly being Machiavellian, eeeeeevil, or otherwise Dark Triad-esque, because those types either tend to be dangerous narcissists or psychopaths, or total retards who are trying hard to be badasses, and failing miserably.
But, I also realize that there are times when you have to choose between playing a social game and being socially punished or left in the dust, and I certainly realize that many other people will play various games whether I choose to or not. Even if I choose not to play a particular game, I still need to be proactive and strategic in my responses to other people who WILL be playing that game.
Bingo.
But, you see it with a lot of young and likely-insecure Satanists, Objectivists, and miscellaneous wannabe badasses. Even I went through a phase where I talked a good game about Lesser Magic and manipulation, despite being pretty credulous, sweet-at-heart, and socially oblivious overall.