I need an idea for a character based on Gluttony. A little backstory first though. The story is about a woman coming back to her hometown and losing her memory. It's pretty blatantly inspired by Silent Hill, and the central focus is a little girl named Sarah, who was created in a lab to have psychic powers. There are five people involved in Sarah's backstory that lead to the town becoming the cursed thing that it is. Pride was the rich kid who teased her, Lust is the one who molested her, Wrath was her adoptive father who killed Pride (he was mistaken) and then killed himself, Greed was the one who made her and who took her back to start up the psychic stuff again (even though what he was doing was illegal). Envy was a serial killer who wasn't directly related, but after being taken back by Greed, Sarah made him kill Pride even though he was already dead. Sarah is Sloth, because she didn't/couldn't do anything for herself. But I have no Gluttony. The most I could think of is that Gluttony was a drug addict who sold the girl to Lust, but that's so tangential. ED Note: That is, at the moment there are five, but I want six, plus Sarah herself for the full seven.
I like the idea of Gluttony being a drug addict - something like cocaine...just using it in excess over and over. Perhaps have someone close to her overdose (multiple times?) on the drug? Or they could be an alcoholic. I don't really understand the girl as Sloth though. Sloth, at least to me, implies the ability to do something, but choosing not to. Being unable to change your circumstances doesn't really make your slothful. Cheers, ~Christian
Well, the idea is that she's punishing herself as someone who was slothful. She had her powers and memories locked away with magical plot surgery, but she still had them, and she could have used them or done something, if only she hadn't been so weak and powerless at the time. In this case, it's more how she feels than what could have happened. She may not have been able to do anything when everything was happening to her, but she thinks she could have.
When I think Gluttony, I imagine some kind of Jabba the Hutt-ish crime lord. Making him a drug addict isn't a bad idea, but I'd go even further and make him a glutton for everything: food, alcohol, fancy clothes, women, etc. As a sin, I define gluttony as being entirely motivated by personal enjoyment and selfish satisfaction. Different from greed -which is a desire to gain power for the sake of power- or lust -which is the craving to sexually possess another person. Gluttony is the personification of decadence. He has a dark hole inside and tries to fill it with whatever pleasures he can. I dunno, does that help? I think I went a bit Neil Gaiman with this one.... oO
You could always make gluttony a packrat. Someone who collects various things wether they have value or not. You read about them all the time in the paper. To me that is a form of gluttony.
Overweight drug addict! Or an overweight person who eats waaaaay too much a la Gluttony from Fullmetal Alchemist, which also uses the Seven Deadly Sins as characters.
Well, these are all very good suggestions, but what I need is why this person would be involved. I might go with him being the one who grabbed Sarah off the street and sold her, but that seems so much more tangential and less actively malicious than the others. I'm wondering if that works well. Lust violated her, Wrath was her father and he did two things that went against his nature as a cop and a Catholic(ish guy). Pride tormented her every day for being a poor orphan in a private school. Greed created her, and used her for his own gains. Though I suppose Envy just happened to be a religious serial killer more from the town than from Sarah. At this point, what I have for Gluttony doesn't have a connection to either Sarah or the town. As for what his demonic monster form would look like, I'm thinking that he'll be horribly emaciated and constantly eating things. That's what the Lesser Gluttonies are, big lamprey things with distended bellies and claws to big to actually use. They're voracious scavengers, and basically act like the Taxxons from Animorphs.
Well, if you were to have Sarah in an orphanage, Gluttony could always be the one person in town who hordes everything, even money, and doesn't distribute it to places that need it, like the orphanages. That in itself could be considered a malicious act.
The nature of gluttony isn't malicious. It is blind to the needs of others, but its essence is a compulsion to consume and hoard. Nor is it about depriving others, because the glutton simply does not see beyond his or her desires. Gluttony is nearly always envisioned with gross obesity, but you could probably make an even stronger point with a glutton who is soft and self indulgent rather than corpulent. The glotton would have to have the best and the most of everything, like a fuilly outfitted entertainment/media room, several fast cars, an expensive art collection, rich furnishings, etc.
^Dave's definition of gluttony is quite sagely. In Spanish, the glutton is sometimes referred to as ensimismado. It is a past participle meaning to be within one's very self. Unable to see outside, oblivious to it.
I think "hoarding" is more a characteristic of Greed, Gluttony being more an instant gratification type of fellow. I'd say the real difference lies in their motivation, though. I kinda see Greed as a competitive being. If he wants money, he wants more money then everyone else, just for the satisfaction of being the richest one around. Or if he desires power, he wants so much power that he can boss everyone around and not have to answer to anyone. Point is, Greed always wants more. Gluttony might want money, but only to spend on good food or whatever it is he is a glutton for, or he might want power because it makes it easier to satisfy his desires, if only for the moment. Basically, to Gluttony being rich and powerful are means to an end, to Greed they are the ends themselves. I think this would actually make them interesting characters to play against each other. They might be partners or companions, or old aquantances. Maybe even rivals. Whatever the case, they'd have a common basic philosophy ("You can't have too much of a good thing") but they'd differ on the fine details, both having some kind of understanding for each other but neither quite comprehending what drives the other.
Well, I have quite a few ideas of what the representation of Gluttony can be now that his soul is trapped and twisted by Sariel's dark version of Ashcroft, but I still don't have any reasons why his soul would be trapped and twisted in the first place. The only reason I can come up with is so coincidental and tangential that it seems arbitrary. Even more so than how Pride ended up in that place. Which, is very coincidental. I'm thinking of spinning Andrew Cunningham's relationship with Sarah Carpenter to the point where Sarah had a crush on him, and Andrew had a crush on her, but couldn't show it because she's just a poor little orphan and he's a rich upperclassman, better to push her away. That also makes his being brought back to life a very twisted sort of gift. While he's stuck constantly being killed by Wrath, he's also not dead anymore.
You could make Gluttony a glutton on a psychological level entirely. We all know how extremely emotionally needy people can drain the lifeforce out of others by their mere presence. Constantly craving emotional support and attention from others, and being entirely unable to see that other people have needs too. A social vampire, in a sense.
