An Alternate Thaumatology of Curses

Curses. A complicated topic. Curses are often laid as a form of punishment for the one cursed. But what, then is, the thought process behind hereditary, generational, and transmissible curses? What's the idea behind curses that cause harm to the innocent? Well...what if that is the point?

Let's get into it.

Many of the earliest curses we know of are curses laid on mortals for sins against the gods. A king, a son of Zeus, Lykaon was cursed to become a wolf (or perhaps werewolf) for the sin of cannibalism, or for the hubris of testing Zeus' divinity by feeding him an innocent child, for which all his sons were slain by lightning (or transformed, as he was, stories vary). But implicit in the story is that that wolf, or those wolves, then went on to prey on the innocent.

In Ovid's version (very late) of the Medusa tale, she is cursed to turn men to stone for allowing herself to be raped in Athena's temple. Not only is this victim blaming...it harms other innocents as well. (It is of note that in the older stories Medusa was born a Gorgon, never cursed at all, she just happened to be a monster from a line of monsters.)

Later curses are placed by witches, by faeries, by wicked warlocks. Most of these creatures are explicitly non-human, either having started that way or become so by their own actions. The simply named Enchantress curses a Prince to become a Beast for a lack of hospitality. A kingdom and its princess are cursed by a dark faerie queen for rudeness, for not inviting her to the christening.

More generally, in fiction as well as folklore, lycanthropy is considered a transmissible curse, that follows generations and/or can be transmitted by a bite. Vampirism is a curse that can be transmitted as well, a curse apparently placed by God himself for heresy, impiety, and a score of other petty crimes...but it can be given to people who have done none of those things. Zombie plagues are diseases, sometimes, but other times they are a curse. (Not that a disease cannot be the manifestation of a curse...think of the plagues of Egypt or the fabled Mummy's Curse, which honestly would be a great starting point for a zombie plague, but that's another article.)

In the context of speculative fiction and role-playing games, we need to think about this train of thought. If, in your setting, these curses exist, they were laid by someone. In our myths and lore, they were often laid by gods and other potent supernatural entities. Can such a curse could reasonably be attributed to an entity that is supposedly good? In fact, it becomes very evident that a curse which unfairly affects innocent people and causes more harm than the original act it punishes it is not, cannot be, good.

If your setting has legitimately good deities, none of them would impose such a curse. So it must come from sources who are uncaring of consequences, unaware of negative repercussions, or intentionally causing such repercussions. When considering gods and ancient immortals, the third is the most likely. (Yes, this means that from this perspective, Zeus and Ovid's version of Athena are evil.)

So. If they are intentionally causing such 'side effects'...maybe they're not side effects. Maybe the damage to innocents is part of the point, and whatever offense triggered the cursing was merely an excuse. The dark god of undeath might happily curse an offender with a zombie plague, as fear of it increases his power directly. The Unseelie Queen might enjoy the dismay and chaos that her briar curse causes, or feel that the whole kingdom is at fault for the acts of its rulers.

This can apply to any setting where such curses or conditions exist, from modern horror to urban fantasy to medieval fantasy and more. Food for thought.

Another aspect to consider is the nature of curses themselves. One might think of curses as bundles of ill-wishes, negative emotions focused on a specific outcome. The negative nature of the energy means bad things will happen...and only the strongest wills can keep those negative consequences focused on the specifics they want. Some curses are literally just hate thrown at a target until something bad happens to them. Those kinds of curses tend to have even more spill-over, and often, blow-back on the one doing the cursing. But even the best controlled curse is likely to have unintended effects, for one simple reason: the increase of that kind of energy in the world has an effect on the world by its very nature. Evil desires, evil energy, focused to harm...these energies magnify the existence of such emotions and energies as might already exist. While negative emotions by themselves are not in any way evil...when concentrated and thrown out of balance with positive ones, the world tilts that way, and things start to go wrong. So if there are many such curses, unbalancing things in that direction, an area might tilt further and further toward evil, spite, and destruction. Especially in more psycho-active responsive landscapes like the Astral, the ethereal, the Shadow, or whatever such places might exist, many of which are close enough to the solid world to be affected.

Curses breed curses. Evil brings evil. Pain causes pain. Nasty cycles that take work to break...and themes for whole extended campaigns or chronicles.