Sure, nemesis as a rival is cool. But do you know the other meaning of the word?

Many know that nemesis can be someone’s rival, or arch-enemy if you prefer. But there is another, much cooler meaning to the word, which can also be used in our games.

Nemesis is the third stage of the cycle of Hubris, Atis, Nemesis, and Tisis. In ancient Greece, this was basically a universal law, as in a law of nature. When we briefly talked about destiny, I mentioned that it can be avoided or changed. This is one of the main exceptions. Once you step into this cycle, you cannot escape but only hope you survive. And characters of our games can easily commit Hubris. But let me explain each part.

Hubris is the beginning. It usually stems from extreme levels of arrogance and overconfidence, which leads you to insult laws (in many cases, moral) or the powers above. Not every arrogant person commits Hubris. You need to go on another level of silliness and poor judgment. But what’s next?

Atis is such an ironic stage of the cycle. In ancient Greece, Atis came from the gods. Basically, Atis blinded the one who had performed Hubris, clouding their judgment even more and sending them to a downward spiral.

As I said, Nemesis is the third stage of this cycle, but it’s also a name. So at this point, our hubris-loving friend, blinded by Atis, keeps committing Hubris. It’s only a matter of time before the gods say, “Okay, that’s enough, buddy, time to pay up”, and punish our friend. Now, here are a few notes. One note is that some sources mention the punishment is proportionate to the crime. This may be true, but some of the punishments are quite creative. Furthermore, I said Nemesis is also a name. That’s because my ancestors loved making gods out of everything. I don’t have any beef against them, I’m just stating the facts. So, obviously, the goddess of vengeance and divine retribution was Nemesis. Third and final note. Nemesis, the goddess this time, took her sweet time. In some cases, whole generations passed before bringing down the hammer of divine justice. Just like how Tieflings and Sorcerers in D&D may appear in a family after generations of having that potential in the family’s bloodline. Now, is that fair for the person getting the hammer? I’m not the one to decide.

And, finally, comes Tisis. The end. Punishment has come, and it’s not a slap on the wrist. In most cases, it’s total destruction. And destruction may not be just death, but many creative ways to destroy someone, physically or mentally. However, there is a slight chance you may survive this in a sense. There is no specific set of steps to this, but the characters known to somewhat survive Tisis are the ones who understood how and why they reached their current state and, in a way, atoned for that. Even though I say they survived, they were definitely scarred and changed in a way.

Okay, lecture’s over. There’s a lot more on this cycle, with quite a lot of examples. I didn’t include any on purpose, so you can have that as homework. This is a cool thing to add in a campaign, though it probably will fit better in one that lasts for a while. We will continue with the next lecture…I mean prompt, which is “tactic”.

And until next time, have fun!

P.S.: You can find all of my posts for this year’s RPGaDay here. Thanks to AUTOCRATIK and Casting Shadows for hosting another year of the event.