Despair damages the character’s ability to believe in themselves and others, and reduces all of their Skills by 1 Rank. Characters cannot gain Hope while they have any Despair, any they had is lost. Despair can stack up to 5 times, and is difficult to shake once acquired. When characters with high Faith Attribute violate their own principles and gain Despair from violating a Belief or a Personal Failure, they gain an extra Despair for each level of their Faith Attribute above Ordinary.
Shaking Despair
Some recover from Despair by dulling the pain with wine, sex, or violence, escaping into Depravity to soothe their hurts by inflicting their pain on the world. Some people cope by letting the Despair change their personality for good, accepting the darkness by giving it cracks to bury itself in and trouble them no more. Some find the strength to move on through their faith, both their personal devotion or their religious zeal.
For every point of new Depravity earned, the character loses 1 Despair.
If the character accepts a related Insanity, either starting a new Mild Insanity or increasing an existing one by one grade, they may remove a point of Despair.
The character earns a Personal Victory in their Devotion.
