Sin: Lust
Transgression through desire, seduction, and intimate usurpation.
Catherine's Pathway: The Pathway of lust
Based on Samantha Fox Strip Poker, her Pathway now evokes games, bluffing, and unveiling.
The Pathway of the lust is a perfect name: it suggests both stripping and the fact that Catherine often starts with nothing in hand yet ends up taking everything.
On this Path, every tense social interaction, every psychological confrontation, every seduction is a metaphysical poker game.
The goal isn't money, but to force the opponent to fold: to shed their secrets, defenses, and soul until they stand symbolically naked and vulnerable.
The Rules of the Game: How a Match Unfolds
The progression of a confrontation follows the rules of Five-Card Draw Poker.
The Deal (Opening Hand):
At the start of an interaction, Catherine sees her opponent's initial hand.
This hand consists of 5 conceptual cards:
Surface emotions
Immediate intentions
Lies
Basic defenses
Social masks
The Exchange (Draw Phase):
This is the core of the confrontation. Through dialogue, seduction, provocation, or manipulation, Catherine can force her opponent to exchange cards.
For example:
By calling out a lie (a weak card), she forces the target to discard it and draw a new card often the deeper truth underneath.
Meanwhile, Catherine upgrades her hand by collecting these truths, assembling a winning combination of leverage.
The Showdown:
At the end of the interaction, the hands are compared.
– If Catherine wins: Her opponent must strip.
They are forced to reveal a fundamental vulnerability, a deep secret, a piece of their soul. They are weakened and more easily manipulated.
– If Catherine loses (her bluff is called, or she gains no leverage): Nothing dramatic happens. She simply loses the round. She may withdraw and prepare for the next match.
This explains her capacity for calculated risk.
IV. Hand Value: The Hierarchy of Secrets
This is where standard poker hands are reinterpreted as tiers of secret strength or leverage:
Poker Hand Narrative Meaning High Card A fleeting emotion, a shallow thought. (Useless) One Pair A small secret, a simple lie.
Two Pair An important personal secret (e.g., Lord Corbin's fear of failure) Three of a Kind A major vulnerability (e.g., Mathieu's debt to Silas) Straight Understanding a hidden plan or sequence of events.
Flush Discovery of a deep motivation that colors the person's entire psyche (e.g., Valerius's vanity) Full House A devastating combo of motive and crime (e.g., Valerius's fear + his addiction to Silas) Four of a Kind A fundamental truth about someone's identity an existential secret.
Straight Flush A founding secret that links multiple people/events across time (e.g., the Dock Fire Dossier) Royal Flush The ultimate secret: the true identity of The Tower, the nature of the Forbidden Echo, etc.
Sequence 9: The Voyeur – Incarnation
Be a passive observer; learn to see without being seen, to desire in silence.
Abilities:
Perception of the surface emotional "cards" of a target.
Minor defensive precognition (a sense of danger).
Sequence 8: The Player – Incarnation
Actively engage in the social game; take risks, initiate confrontations.
Abilities:
Can force a card exchange through dialogue to unveil secrets.
Perception of physical weaknesses and combat intentions.
Supernatural agility and evasion.
Sequence 7: The Bluffer – Incarnation
Become a master of deception; make others believe your false truths.
Abilities:
Projection of false emotional cards to mislead others.
Creation of supernaturally convincing combat feints.
Sequence 6: The Cheat – Incarnation
Break the rules of the game for personal gain, without getting caught.
Abilities:
Minor kinesthetic manipulation in combat (cause a spasm, hesitation).
Can mark people's secrets to sense them from a distance.
Sequence 5: The Dealer – Incarnation
Control the game instead of merely playing it. Deal out luck and misfortune.
Abilities:
Can influence the game of multiple people, creating misunderstandings or attractions.
Can create influence zoneswhere manipulation abilities are amplified.
Sequence 4: The Madame – Incarnation
Create and manage one's own establishment of secrets and desire.
Abilities:
Can bind individuals through secret pacts.
Begins to create a shared and temporary mental space (the seed of the Red Light District).
Sequence 3: The Usurper – Incarnation
Take another's place not by imitation, but by claiming their social role.
Abilities:
Can temporarily steal someone's status or authority.
Can redirect others' threads of loyalty toward herself.
Sequence 2: The Succubus – Incarnation
Become the embodiment of desire itself, feeding on others' energy.
Abilities:
Can feed on emotional and vital energy through intimate contact.
Can create near-unbreakable bonds of dependency.
Sequence 1: The Stolen Heart – Incarnation
Seize the very concept of another's identity.
Abilities:
Ability to temporarily steal and use an ability from an adept of another Path after deep intimacy.
Sequence 0: Lady of the Netori – Incarnation
Cosmic Usurpation.
Abilities:
Become the very principle of usurpation.
Can steal concepts, domains, and shape her own reality.