Thus Spake Zaraborgstrom/NormalActions
So, making a shaping attack on someone is considered a hostile move, an attempt to assert dominance over them, and is regarded as such by the target and by other raksha who witness it or hear about it. It is exceptional to press the attack to the point where the target is vexed, ravished, or incumbered in a way that seriously hinders them. Have I got all that correct so far?
Yes.
And, if so, would it follow that one can make less-serious shaping attacks on another raksha, either not pressing the attack to the point of actually depleting one of their health tracks, or depleting a track but inflicting only a mild impairment? So, you could ravish a Warrior to feel terror of battles, and that would be a serious act of aggression, or you could ravish him to feel a terror of pink winged mice, which would be more in the nature of a metaphysical middle finger, a reminder that you could have done something much worse, but didn't?
Sure.
"I make a Cup attack on you." "I parry, and make a Sword attack on you."
At this point in the story, the entertainer has made an attempt to bewitch, bind, or en-finger-wrap the warrior. The warrior has gone all dangerous and said, "I recognize that, witch. Don't forget that I can kill you."
"Gack! Um, okay, this would not go well for either of us. Truce?" "Truce."
Some delayed actions later,
"I use Cup-shaping for, you know, regular beauty. No attack." "Sure, I'll work with you in that."
"I make a Ring attack on you." "I parry, and make a Ring attack on you."
At this point in the story, two workers are struggling for advantage. Do they want to continue? Do they want to stop? If they continue, at least one is going to wind up incumbered. How safe is it to keep going?
"I am going to incumber you to serve me in this matter, because I do not trust you otherwise. I advise against resisting. Ring-shaping attack."
"Oh, man, you're an Essence 6 freehold lord. If I resist, I wonder if you'll go all the way. I wonder if your people will back you in this. I wonder if you'll incumber me with what I expect you to incumber me with if I let you do it. Agh."
At this point, the great king is standing and trying to break the visitor to his will. And the visitor knows that once you pay the Danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane---and once you refuse the King, you've refused a King. That's never good, either way.
I mean . . . it is not strictly parallel to mortal attacks in terms of social perception. It's trying to bewitch, bind, weaken the position of, or take stuff forcefully from someone.
So trying to vex someone is essentially a military move against them; it really is like marching troops into a king's territory. And if you leave after taking a gold-embroidered tapestry that used to belong to you, then it's retroactively a bit less hostile.
Trying to snare someone is basically generic "I am maneuvering so that if we get into a fight later, I will win."
Trying to incumber someone is trying to force them to work for you.
Trying to ravish someone is trying to change who they are and make them dependent on you.
All of these things are hostile, but all of these things happen in Creation without being unforgivable. They're just . . . nasty.
Will social interaction that actually has an effect (i.e. making a long-term good impression, making friends, seducing lovers, defeating a rival in debate) always take the form of a shaping action (not necessarily combat), or can ordinary social interactions between raksha also produce meaningful results?
It works exactly to the extent that the target raksha is invested in what's going on.
Imagine that behind the eyes of the impressionable young doe or buck you're seducing is an ageless, insane lord of chaos, who might be impressed or might just be invested in the idea of playing a seducable young doe or buck.
Imagine that behind the eyes of the guy you've just totally defeated in a debate might be an ageless, alien monster who decided to let you defeat him in debate because he wants to experience the delicious taste of stammering fury. Or because he wasn't even really paying attention to the debate---he was mostly focusing on the sounds of the words and how they reflected the movements of the carp in the river nearby.
Imagine that the demure lady you've just made a marvelous impression on through your mastery of polite etiquette is secretly a hideous congeries of Essence and Glamour that may very well want to extinguish all things that have any taint of shape, including herself and you.
It's still good. I mean, you won the debate. You seduced the target. You made a marvelous impression. That's probably better than failing, unless you wanted to fail.
But . . . did you really gain anything?
What happened matters. Because it's what you have. You're an immortal monster with nothing better to care about, and frankly, there's also a perfectly good chance that the raksha on the other side of the dream is impressed. Or at least wants to keep playing. Or at least has demonstrated that its reaction to what you just did is to participate.
Rebecca
To put that in context: if my raksha wants there to suddenly be a mountain where there isn't a mountain now, it's pretty clear that I need Ring-shaping to accomplish that. But if my raksha wants another raksha to be friends with him, must I use Cup-shaping or Staff-shaping? Or can ordinary social interaction, whether roleplayed or using ordinary Social Attribute + Ability pools, win friends and influence people among the raksha (at least, as well as can be expected among inhuman demigods of chaos?)
As implied in earlier answers, which may have already given you what you need to know here, it's not so much that ordinary social action is meaningless as that its consequences are not enforceable. There's no "I rolled 15 successes, he has to really love me---"
Because as soon as you say 'has to do X', it becomes the kind of effect that the raksha are immune to.
And if you don't say that, if it's all completely roleplayed, then . . . well, they're insane alien monsters, but since they're being played by real people, then the target's player is either thinking, "Yah, wow, I like this guy." or "Ha, he does not know I secretly hate him and that all this is futile." That's a 50/50 chance that you've done something important.
Rebecca
