For whatever reason, I’ve been going through some of the Easter reflections I’ve written on the site previously; I find it sometimes helps to look at what I’ve written in previous years when I’m pressed for time. Something in that exercise helps unlock a bit of inspiration, it seems. My Easter schedule is always pretty full, and those of you who’ve been coming to the site for more than a year know that in and around Christmas and Easter, I don’t post much. I’ll probably be on Twitter sporadically, and I will of course have access to email. But outside of that? Expect very little to happen here on the site until at least Monday, if not Tuesday.

And in light of that, you all have a safe Easter weekend with friends and family (as the case may be).

Back when I was still actively working on Lost Sosaria, I wrestled with various morality systems that I might want to work in to the game…the default karma approach that had featured in precious Ultima games didn’t particularly appeal to me. And I had some issues with the Eight Virtues as well. By and large, they’re a very binary system; each virtue is matched by only a single anti-virtue. This works well enough in Britannia, but not so well in the laboratory of real-world human experience.

Consider the Virtue of Valor, for a moment, and its obvious anti-virtue, Cowardice. (I use this example a lot.) Is Cowardice the only thing that opposes Valor? Valor is typically explained as “[the] Courage to stand up against risks”…and it’s in that explanation that we can find implied a second, opposite anti-virtue to Cowardice; I suppose we could call it Recklessness: acting with little or no regard to the risks or consequences of the action undertaken.

Maybe this is why the Ophidian Virtues always seemed more sensible to me, concerned as they were with positioning virtue as a balance between disciplines, and opposed by equal and opposite anti-principles.

Not that I intended for there to be overt Catholicism in Lost Sosaria, mind you. But I did want to experiment with just how extensible, beyond the boundaries of the practice of the Christian faith, the virtues really were. And so faith, hope, love, temperance, prudence, justice and fortitude were to be the virtues of the land of New Sosaria…but I also devised a system whereby the Guardian — or, rather, those who server or were enslaved by him — gained power if the player racked up high anti-virtue scores.

Obviously, I never got to experiment with my idea that much, owing to the fact that I had to set the project aside to meet the demands that a new and growing family placed on my already-limited free time. However, I held on to the idea, and thought about how I might adapt it to another story or game plot idea I had a while ago. That idea was much more sci-fi in nature, and wouldn’t have been related to Ultima at all…and would have pitted the player against two different categories of enemies: corporeal opponents who were either willing servants or slaves of some evil entity, and supernatural foes that grew in power as the player racked up the tallies of the anti-virtues. Worse still, the acquired bonuses were permanent; there were no corresponding reductions in enemy power for high virtue scores, nor did the player himself gain any combat bonus against his foes.

I shelved parts of that idea after I realized that it would make enemies in the game almost impossible to defeat by the end, except in very small groups. But I also realized that in a way, that was probably the point. Which is to say: if there is any supernatural effect caused by human wrongdoing, we are — or would/will be — powerless against it.

Here’s something I wrote in the run-up to the release of Mass Effect 3:

We are very amazing creatures, fearfully and wonderfully made…but we are also very limited creatures. That’s one of the reasons I’ve been enjoying Mass Effect so much: though a Reaper is still a corporeal foe that can be individually defeated with much struggle and effort, the Reapers as a collective are beyond both the ability of mankind (or turiankind, or hanarkind, or what have you) to understand or defeat.

Despite living in Edmonton, and despite knowing a few people at BioWare, I don’t have any inside details on how Mass Effect 3 will play out…but I suspect that any lasting victory over the Reapers in that game will not come about by way of force of arms. Especially not after seeing both how high the cost of defeating one Reaper was in Mass Effect, and then seeing how many Reapers there actually were at the very end of Mass Effect 2. Against such a multitude, none could prevail…not by force.

If there is to be a victory for the Council races in Mass Effect 3, it will come about by some unexpected means, which will likely require great sacrifice.

I can’t claim, in good faith, that many of my predictions have come to pass…but that one did. Not that there’s really much credit to claim there. BioWare aren’t a Christian game development company, but anyone who can step into an “Easter mindset” could have reasoned out how Mass Effect 3 would end. Because within Christian theology, sin is understood in many of the same ways that the Reapers are portrayed: nigh-infinite, nigh-eternal, and essentially indomitable. If there is some means by which humans, through human effort alone, can prevail against it, it is only through so great an exertion (and then to overcome but one sin!) that to repeat it for all of human wrongdoing is…well, at least untenable, if not impossible.

Sacrifice. It’s certainly the defining theme of Easter…but what is it, really? The ability for — and inclination toward — sacrifice is what really sets man apart from other creatures. Not that other creatures will not lay down their life on behalf of kith and kin; many animals do just that. But where man is unique is, I think, in his willingness to risk life and limb on behalf of complete strangers, in ways and for reasons that go far beyond notions of altruism or “reciprocal” altruism (which isn’t altruism at all, logically). In like manner, man is unique in his ability to forgive wrongs done against him — any other animal would opt not to stick its nose where it hurt once before. But we humans are willing to forgive one another, even if we disadvantage ourselves and risk further or repeated abuses by so doing.

The thing about Sacrifice, per the above, is that it isn’t a dead end. It’s always directed toward something else, and then something more. The Sacrifice of the Cross has, as its object, the salvation of all the world by means of the overthrowing of sin; Commander Shepard’s personal sacrifice achieved what the assembled might of the galaxy could not (that is: the defeat of the Reapers). And I suspect that the reason this is so has to do with the fact that it is good that things — people, in particular — exist…and so instinct, desire, and will often align in a desire to allow people, in particular, to go on existing (even if they do so only because others are prepared to cease existing — physically, at least — on their behalf, and in order that they might do so).

It is good that we exist. In some respects, it’s a radical thought; the culture we live in (especially in the West) tends to regard many things — even relationships, even people — as transient, perhaps even as disposable. Especially in the modern climate of polarized political dialogue, it’s all too common to cast those with whom one disagrees as being…non-persons of one sort or another. Nazis, heathens, whatever. We’re quick to push aside the humanity of “the other side”, when we really should be striving to keep their humanity at the forefront.

But it’s not so easy to dismiss another human, whereas it’s trivially easy to dismiss a thing, especially a thing that we can associate with a preconceived set of negative traits and habits. Because…you know…one of those.

Consider this: in the story of the Washing of Feet, Jesus — believed by Christians to be the Second Person of the Trinity, which is to say God Incarnate — assumes the lowliest status, and washes the feet of His followers in the manner of a servant. More to the point, He washes the feet of even the disciple who would go on to betray Him; it was known to Him who this was at the time.

This is the great paradox — not a contradiction, but a juxtaposition of two truths that only seem contradictory, but which in combination become a source of great insight — of Easter: it’s a feast for a king in which the king takes the role of the servant, and it ends with the unjust execution of said same king. But out of that comes something…else. Something more. It isn’t even that the insurmountable weight of human sinfulness becomes suddenly surmountable; it is entirely swept away. (So too in Mass Effect 3, note; it isn’t even that Commander Shepard’s sacrifice weakens the Reapers to a sufficient extent that they can be defeated in conventional conflict; they are immediately either transformed or destroyed, and all the might of the assembled navies of the galaxy contributes nothing to that outcome.)

At any rate, this is getting rather lengthy. It would seem fitting — given the somewhat nostalgic/looking back bent of this post — to conclude with what was, for a time, my typical four-part Easter greeting:

If you are Catholic: Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen! Hopefully this is a season of renewal and grace for you and your family, and if you are not able to attend Vigil Mass this evening may you have a holy and blessed Easter Sunday and find time in the hectic pace of visiting family and preparing large dinners to partake of the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

If you are Christian, but not Catholic: Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen! May this weekend be a time of spiritual growth and a season of renewal and grace for you and your family.

If you are religious but not Christian: May this weekend be a time of rest and of spiritual growth for you, and may you continue securely in your journey of faith. If you are spending the long weekend with family, may you have an enjoyable time with them.

If you are agnostic/atheist/secular: Have a safe and happy long weekend, and may your heart and mind remain unclosed to the meaning that so many people around the world attach to this week. If you are spending the long weekend with family, may you have an enjoyable time with them.

(Image credit: Aaron Rosenblatt)