Comparing Personality Traits & Emotional Natures

In this post, I make some connections between the personality trait rules and the emotional natures rules. The various emotions can be assigned elemental associations, which can be useful as a roleplaying tool and potentially have mechanical effects.

Emotional Natures

The “Emotional Natures” sidebar on Major Arcana p40 lists correspondences between the humors, the Ka-elements, and specific emotions. These are directly comparable to the Personality Trait List section in Chronicle of the Awakenings p59-64. To quote:

CHOLERIC, or bilious, natures are ruled by Fire. The Choleric Nature encompasses anger, suspicion, vindictiveness, vengeance, lust, cruelty, aggression, pride, rebellion, recklessness, energy, honor, spirituality, and inspiration.

PHLEGMATIC natures are ruled by Air. The Phlegmatic Nature encompasses calmness, skepticism, sleepiness, pragmatism, modesty, trust, curiosity, meditation, and laziness.

SANGUINE natures are ruled by Water. The Sanguine Nature encompasses happiness, relaxation, attraction, indulgence, prudence, altruism, creativity, sociability, loneliness, and joy.

MELANCHOLIC natures are ruled by Earth. The Melancholic Nature encompasses pessimism, fatalism, depression, morbidity, forgetfulness, sadness, sullenness, selfishness, misanthropy, privacy, thoughtfulness, concern, loyalty, and stubbornness.

LUNATIC natures are ruled by Moon. The Lunatic Nature encompasses nervousness, giddiness, fear, mania, insanity, change, unpredictability, obsession, licentiousness, manipulation, and deceit.

Note that many of these emotions overlap; some emotions (such as love) have aspects in all five Natures (lust, trust, attraction, concern, and obsession). The GM must decide which aspect of which emotion is paramount in any given case.

No nature ruled by Sun is mentioned, although in the French version it did have its own "solar humor". If necessary for reference, then I will refer to this humor as the Heliac Nature to match the format of the others.

Note that the elemental assignments of the phlegmatic and sanguine natures are switched compared to the four temperament theory. Under the latter, the Phlegmatic Nature is ruled by Water and the Sanguine Nature is ruled by Air. Coincidentally, both are opposed by the Melancholic Nature ruled by Earth. Compare this to how both the dagger and wand work equally well as representations of either Air or Fire, both elements opposed to Moon (see Liber Ka p52).

The French version did something similar to emotional metamorphoses and emotional natures in 3e: various emotions and symbolic actions were associated with each element. Le Codex des Selenim listed specific emotions associated with each element, and as with previous editions specified that selenim may exhibit a preference for particular flavors. For comparison: Ian Young's notes on adapting selenim to the US version mentioned giving them emotional metamorphoses as per Chronicle of the Awakenings, but specified that these traits represented and evoked the emotions that selenim preferred to assuage. Each aspect helped the selenim evoke that emotion while assuaging, tho rules weren't provided [see my post on that for details].

Humors by metamorphosis

If we cross-reference the metamorphs' dominant Ka and personality traits with their corresponding emotional natures (i.e. humors), then we get the following assignments for the published metamorphs:
  • Djinn (material choleric): Destructive (choleric)†, Energetic (choleric), Proud (choleric), Rebellious (choleric), Reckless (choleric).
  • Phoenix (spiritual choleric): Creative (sanguine), Honorable (choleric), Loyal (melancholic), Reckless (choleric), Stubborn (melancholic).
  • Triton (material sanguine): Deceitful (lunatic), Destructive (choleric)†, Pragmatic (phlegmatic), Private (melancholic), Unpredictable (lunatic).
  • Undine (spiritual sanguine): Curious (phlegmatic), Indulgent (sanguine), Pragmatic (phlegmatic), Prudent (sanguine), Social (sanguine).
  • Satyr (material melancholic): Angry (choleric), Destructive (choleric)†, Indulgent (sanguine), Unpredictable (lunatic), Vengeful (choleric).
  • Elf (spiritual melancholic): Altruistic (sanguine), Joyous (sanguine), Private (melancholic), Proud (choleric), Stubborn (melancholic).
  • Sylph (material phlegmatic): Calm (phlegmatic), Pragmatic (phlegmatic), Proud (choleric), Rebellious (choleric), Trusting (phlegmatic).
  • Angel (spiritual phlegmatic): Calm (phlegmatic), Creative (sanguine), Curious (phlegmatic), Honorable (choleric), Spiritual (choleric).
  • Snake (lunatic): Cruel (choleric), Deceitful (lunatic), Indulgent (sanguine), Private (melancholic), Unpredictable (lunatic).
  • Baba Yaga (lunatic): Cruel (choleric), Deceitful (lunatic), Misanthropic (melancholic), Suspicious (choleric), Vengeful (choleric).
  • Baen Shide (lunatic): Deceitful (lunatic), Indulgent (sanguine), Manipulative (lunatic), Modest (phlegmatic), Social (sanguine).
  • Fomorian (sanguine): Angry (choleric), Destructive (choleric)†, Pragmatic (phlegmatic), Uncaring (lunatic/phlegmatic)†, Warlike (choleric)†.
  • Tecarian (melancholic): Altruistic (sanguine), Calm (phlegmatic), Conservative (melancholic)†, Private (melancholic), Spiritual (choleric).

†Note: I couldn't find these personality traits mentioned specifically in the emotional natures' lists. These assignments come from Ex Oculis instead.

Chronicle of the Awakenings didn't associate personality traits with specific elements as it was published before Major Arcana introduced emotional natures. When you compare the assignments then this may result in an emotional metamorphosis suffering mismatches between the emotional nature of its dominant Ka and those of its personality traits. 

The metamorphs generally have personality traits whose emotional natures are ruled by the metamorph's dominant Ka and/or neutral Ka-elements, but several metamorphs have personality traits with emotional natures ruled by elements that are opposed to their dominant ka. E.g. the Triton has a sanguine nature (ruled by water) but has two lunatic traits (moon, neutral), a choleric trait (fire, opposed), a phlegmatic trait (air, neutral), a melancholic trait (earth, opposed), and no sanguine traits!

Fortunately, the "Emotional Natures" sidebar already has provisions for this because it mentions that the same emotion may have aspects across all natures. We can assume that the same personality traits exist across multiple natures, are a shorthand that refers to its equivalent for the metamorph's most appropriate natures, or something along those lines. I suggested similar when comparing spells between Liber Ka and Slaying the Dragon versus Enlightened Magic: if the same spell has different elements specified between books, then assume that it has a different version for either. The Ex Oculis  drafts simply reassigned the correspondences (see below).

Ex Oculis' take

[The Ex Oculis materials, an unfinished attempt at writing a new edition of the English version, are archived here at the new home of the English mailing list (account required).]

Ex Oculis used the personality trait rules introduced in Chronicle of the Awakenings, but made some further revisions. It expanded the "Understanding" section into three degrees of "lesser, strong, and greater." It gave each personality trait a "Manifestation" section suggesting typical physical transformations, unifying descriptions that were previously scattered across the metamorphs. Perhaps the biggest addition was that Ex Oculis incorporated the assignments of emotional natures from Major Arcana into the personality traits themselves, including solar (which previously didn't have an emotional nature).

Ex Oculis assigned each element 5-6 personality traits. Note that some of traits are renamed from Chronicle of the Awakenings. The assignments are listed below, sorted by element:

  • Air (phlegmatic): Curious, Manipulative, Proud, Prudent, Rebellious.
  • Earth (melancholic): Calm, Conservative, Industrious, Possessive, Private, Stubborn.
  • Fire (choleric): Aggressive, Angry, Destructive, Energetic, Joyous, Reckless.
  • Lunar (lunatic): Cruel, Deceitful, Misanthropic, Suspicious, Uncaring, Vengeful.
  • Solar (heliac): Altruistic, Idealistic, Loyal, Protective, Spiritual.
  • Water (sanguine): Adaptable, Creative, Indulgent, Reserved, Social, Unpredictable.

Each metamorphosis generally draws its personality traits from emotions associated with its Dominant Ka-element and its neutral elements, in that order: e.g. the Snake (lunar) had the traits Cruel (lunar), Deceitful (lunar), Indulgent (water), Private (earth), and Unpredictable (water). However, some metamorphs still had traits whose natures were opposed: e.g. the Satyr had the trait Indulgent (water). There were no rules against this.

The exact correspondence between personality traits and emotional natures changed between Major Arcana and Ex Oculis. Perhaps the writer noticed that the mismatches that I noted above, but as I wrote above the metamorphs could still have traits with natures opposed to their dominant Ka. For example: the Snake's personality traits and natures were Cruel (choleric in MA, lunatic in ExO), Deceitful (lunatic), Indulgent (sanguine), Private (melancholic), and Unpredictable (lunatic in MA, sanguine in ExO). For compatibility's sake I would use both natures: the same personality trait exists across multiple elements, mirroring how some emotions have multiple aspects across the natures.

Below is a listing of the six metamorphs described in Ex Oculis' unfinished metamorph chapter and their emotion-to-element correspondences:

  • Angel: "Solar Air", Solar-aspected Eolim. Traits: Calm (earth), Creative (water), Proud (air), Idealistic (solar), Spiritualᴰ (solar).
  • Minotaur: "Fiery Earth", Fire-aspected Faerim. Traits: Conservative (earth), Destructiveᴰ (fire), Loyal (solar), Reckless (fire), Suspicious (lunar).
  • Phoenix: "Solar Fire", Solar-aspected Pyrim. Traits: Creative (water), Idealisticᴰ (solar), Loyal (solar), Reckless (fire), Stubborn (earth).
  • Satyr: "Watery Earth", Water-aspected Faerim. Traits: Destructive (fire), Indulgentᴰ (water), Possessive (earth), Unpredictable (water), Vengeful (lunar).
  • Sylph: "Airy Air", Air-aspected Eolim. Traits: Adaptable (water), Calm (earth), Curiousᴰ (air), Joyous (fire), Rebellious (air).
  • Undine: "Watery Water", Water-aspected Hydrim. Traits: Adaptable (water), Altruistic (solar), Curious (air), Indulgent (water), Socialᴰ (water).

Each metamorph has a "defining trait", noted above with a superscript "D" (ᴰ), and that trait's element is that metamorph's "aspect". e.g. Minotaurs are "fiery earth" because they're faerim (earth) and their defining trait is Destructive (fire), Satyrs are "watery earth" because they're faerim (earth) and their defining trait is Indulgent (water). Altho a metamorph's other traits may vary by individuals (see "Modifying an Existing Metamorphosis", Nephilim rulebook p30), a metamorph's defining trait is intrinsic to that metamorph and never varies by individual.

The list doesn't include any Onirim, and that's because this draft of the rules was going to scrap Dominant Lunar-Ka as an option and fold the lunar metamorphs into the other elements. The pentacle of elements was changed to a hexagram, with Solar-Ka being moved to sit between Air-Ka and Fire-Ka opposite from Lunar-Ka.

Anyway, utilizing emotional traits under these rules counts towards increasing the associated Ka-element. So metamorph archetypes will find their aspected Ka-element increasing the fastest. I like this idea, but it requires removing the Cardinal Balance, which may not work for all campaigns.

———

Hope you enjoyed!

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