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The raks are an ancient, wise and cunning race. They despise organized relgion. So much the more reason (one would think) for them to have a well-developed system of philosophy. But what would it look like?
Given the raks' thematic roots in the Indian subcontinent, I think it might look a little like Buddhism. Except Buddhism turned inside out. Let's call it the Threefold Way.
The Great Truth: nothing is as important as the Self. The universe exists as a setting, a challenge and a reward for the Self.
The First Way: Power. Philosophically, this is defined as "the Self turned outwards, against and over the universe". Domination over others, control over one's environment. Since the universe is recalcitrant, cruelty, trickery and terror are necessarily part of the First Way. Knowledge and learning are also part of the First Way, but only insofar as they lead towards greater power. (Raks are a pragmatic race, not generally big on abstract knowledge.)
The Second Way: Discipline. This is defined as "the Self turned inwards, dominating and controlling itself". Hierarchy. Training. Honor (in the twisted legalistic rakshasa keep-the-letter, kill-the-spirit sense of the word.) Routine. Self-discipline. The raks are a lawful race, and creatures of habit. Self-control is central to their philosophy. If you're just doing as you please, you're a demon or something. You can't dominate the universe around you properly unless you've first dominated yourself.
The Third Way: Pleasure. The Self has needs! They must be fulfilled. Good food. Rich, fine possessions. Sex. Art. Drugs. More sex. Music. More drugs. Wine. Raks are hedonists. Pleasure is necessarily going to be part of their philosophy. Pleasure is the Self expressing itself.
These aren't like the Three Laws of Robotics; each Way is equal to the others, and a well-adjusted rakshasa will follow all three. It's possible to emphasize one a bit more than the others, but never to the point of letting it dominate one's life. So, while raks are hedonists, one almost never sees an obese rakshasa, or one that has become helplessly addicted to drugs or alcohol; that would be elevating the Third Way over the Second. And while rakshasas often take monk levels, you don't see ascetic raks who devote their lives to physical and mental perfection; that would represent an excess of devotion to the Second Way at the expense of the other two.
(This is part of why raks and devils often don't get along. Devils have their pleasures -- torturing damned souls, corrupting the innocent, and so forth -- but those pleasures are always subordinated to their goals. From a rak's POV, devils have put the Third Way in a wrong and inferior position, beneath the other two. So, while raks acknowledge that devils have many admirable qualities, at the end of the day they find them rather stunted and sad.)
Anyway, rakshasa philosophy: sensual, violent, and utterly selfish.
Thoughts?
Doug M.
Interesting. I like Rakshasas as an evil race, too. My setting has a reincarnation theme in it, which means the Rakshasas can play a major role in it. I see them as the anti-enlightened way in Buddhism - clinging to the material, to the self. I like that you added more depth to that.
What if the ways you described are a humans attempt at trying to understand the Racks and while that provides a framework for interactions with them there are ultimately alien nuances hidden within each way that are impossible to understand.
I kind of like the idea that e.g. a PC group could catalogue a Racks as to following one of the ways and use that to their advantage right up to the point the rack does something completely alien that makes perfect sense to them but make no sense to the party. Resulting in the party getting completely screwed over for being so arrogant to assume perfect understanding :)
Where were you ten years ago when I was running a Rak as the BBEG? I NEEDED this! Just for that, I'm going to use this when the current crew reaches the sophistication to combat a Rak! I can't wait to see what this develops into.
It reads like Nietzsche with a Lawful slant. I like.
Ascalaphus wrote: Interesting. I like Rakshasas as an evil race, too. My setting has a reincarnation theme in it, which means the Rakshasas can play a major role in it. I think it's canon that raks reincarnate, right? From their POV, this just proves that they're right about everything. Live correctly, according to the Threefold Way, and you cannot die.
Buddhism encourages you to life selflessly and peacefully, and to overcome desires in order to eventually escape the Wheel. The rakshasa philosophy is to live selfish lives of violence, domination, discipline and hedonism in order to eventually dominate and rule the Wheel. The Buddhist wants to get out of the world; the rakshasa wants to rule it. If it takes a thousand thousand lifetimes, so be it. They have time.
From a rak's perspective, the worst that can happen is they're reincarnated in a weaker form. Basically, they're playing an endless game of King of the Hill; they might get pushed down, but they can always keep trying to climb to the top.
Doug M.
Rakshasas in pathfinder are seen and known as an evil ace. Yet, in Hindu mythology and culture, there are good raks as well.
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VRMH wrote: It reads like Nietzsche with a Lawful slant. I like. I was thinking "Ayn Rand, if she'd smoked a lot of hashish".
Doug M.
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I thought I would give some RL Hindu perspective, just for reference' sake.
Historically speaking, Rakshasas are on par with the Hindu warrior caste, called Kshatriyas, to the point that the Rakshasa wedding (which involves abducting the woman and putting a brutal beat-down on her father and brothers) is also called the Kshatra wedding. There is a strong sense in which Rakshasa almost just means 'hostile enemy'. And Kshatriyas aren't all sunshine and rainbows, either. Their dharma considers it necessary to be cruel, hard-hearted, strong, and JUST (which, if you read the epics carefully, Rakshasas also usually are, UNTIL it comes to their personal life, where the power tends to to them).
There are also different levels of Rakshasa. Ravana's court, is widely considered quite noble and is closely related to celestial guardians (the Yakshas & Rakshas). For instance, Ravana's chief wife is on a VERY short list of ideal traditional women in Hinduism. So theme is that these are intelligent, noble, devout individuals who are frequently attracted to wise people but are unwilling to listen to their advice if they are surrounded by flatterers with more palatable news. On the other end of the spectrum from Rakshasa royalty is the lowliest folk spook in the forest who frightens people and harasses ascetics by interrupting their sacrifices (throwing bones and blood into the fire, and so forth) without causing much in the way of physical harm. Rakshasas can fall just about anywhere in between.
Now, to religion.
Their religious practice is more or less directly opposite of normal Hinduism. I don't want to use the word 'tantra' because that has . . . connotations, in the West, but we could definitely call it 'left-handed' Hinduism (this is an actual term, I didn't make it up).
Most Rakshasas in the epics are shown worshipping Shiva, the god of Destruction. Today he is the god of dance (he dances the world out of existence to make way for new life), sages, and mystics. Originally, his name was Rudra, and he was (like the original Apollo) a plague god who set upon his victims with a bow and arrow. Like the Rakshasas, Rudra would have been ritually held at bay while Vedic rites were performed, and his presence at certain events (such as weddings) was seen as an ill omen.
Evil dudes (including Rakshasas) in Indian epics also tend to worship Brahma, the god of Creation -- who is RARELY worshipped by Hindus, because in many schools of thought Creation is considered the exact opposite force as Enlightenment. This would link into the materialist tendency some of y'all have mentioned.
In terms of rituals? Well, if Hindus throw uncooked white rice and ghee into their sacrificial fires, Rakshasas use offerings of bones and blood (again, worth noting that meat has a very strong association with both warriors and Rakshasas, in India). If Hindus bathe their deities in milk, the Rakshasas bathe theirs with blood.
Socially, Rakshasas break religiously motivated social norms by eating meat (Hindu warriors are actually encouraged to eat meat, but Rakshasas eat taboo animals like dogs, cows, and Humans); they steal adulteresses to wife (or women who poison their own fathers or husbands to be with said Rakshasa); and they are usually active in the aranya (uncultivated lands, such as forests) at night. If good Hindu warriors are associated with bulls horses, bad Rakshasas and Asuras are associated with wild water buffalos (Mahishasura) and wild asses (Ravan's brother, Khara).
In conclusion, Rakshasa customs are directly parallel to their neighboring Human customs, but they would subvert them along the lines of what would be considered pure or polluting. Of course, this need not look necessarily or explicitly Hindu. Be creative. But it's more or less a practice of subverting the pure into the polluted and the immaterial into the material under the same underlying framework. As gamers, we are already familiar with doing this with good/evil and life/death sorts of dichotomies; we just need to view the symbolism differently.
Douglas Muir 406 wrote: I think it's canon that raks reincarnate, right? From their POV, this just proves that they're right about everything. Live correctly, according to the Threefold Way, and you cannot die.
Buddhism encourages you to life selflessly and peacefully, and to overcome desires in order to eventually escape the Wheel. The rakshasa philosophy is to live selfish lives of violence, domination, discipline and hedonism in order to eventually dominate and rule the Wheel. The Buddhist wants to get out of the world; the rakshasa wants to rule it. If it takes a thousand thousand lifetimes, so be it. They have time.
That's actually not a bad way of looking at it. Rakshasas are master-class Yogis, but they do it for siddhi, which are supernatural powers. Religious activities are designed to create a sort of internal fire called tapas. And tapas is sort of stored away on the path to Enlightenment; however, it can also be used to do useful really cool or things like flying, or going without food, or burning your enemies into cinders just by glaring at them.
When a yogi is in danger of becoming godly-powerful, the gods come down and offer boons (when ugly old yogis get really hot wives or daughters, this is usually the method in question, BTWs). Rakshasas (well, and Asuras) ask for worldly invincibility.
One guy: Don't let me be killed indoors or outdoors, by night or by day, by man or by animal.
(He gets killed on his threshold by a half-man half-lion at twilight. It is like Eowyn times AWESOME!)
So you are right on the money, there. Despite incredibly pious religious devotion, they are *clearly* not in the market for Enlightenment.
Hey, Skell's Bells, this is great stuff. Thank you for it.
The Paizo rakshasa is a direct descendant from the Gygax rakshasa, which seems to have been based on a very distant and incomplete understanding of the relevant texts. Still, the Gygax version has its own strange charm: cunning, highly intelligent animal-headed shapeshifters who are damn near invulnerable. My OP was based on that, but it's really good to hear about the original version.
Doug M.
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