Goddess Maker Mechanic: Freda’s Height Obsession

The Character “Freda” 

Freda is a character mix between the short troublemaker archetype and a glorification of the negatives of organized crime.

Freda’s concept is of a cold hearted girl, who grew up part of a historical mafia family and is very self-conscious about her stunted height, that she views as an infamia that took away her birthright.

In the “The Lab” point of view, Freda is first introduced as a rent collector and the overseer of collection on "The Lab"’s debt that she doesn’t expect to be paid back, amusing at the attempt, as she instead sees the whole ordeal, as a ruse to cash in the more enticing collateral tied up to the loan.

“Mafia Family”

This “Mafia Family” is part of a larger loosely organized faction called the “The Shakers” who are composed of groups who asserted themselves to power, whilst the former super powers broke up into regional powers, as a lasting consequence of the world war.

The “Mafia Family” exclusively is a non-actor, but its power is manifested through the guise of an interim government that controls the “Lab of God” section’s initial regional affairs.

Given that "The Lab" is expected to become the regional power coinciding with its rapid development, this is a group that "The Lab" is expected to appease during the transition.

Mechanic: “Side-Conseqences”

In the timeline of the events of the “Lab of God” section features “Side-Consequences”, where certain actions committed, on “The Lab”-to-“External Influence” side of things, leave lasting consequences that result in differing outcomes during a playthrough, that could domino against each other into bigger consequences out of the player’s control.

For example, if an NPC becomes permanently becomes taller due to “The Lab” granting them a height boost, whether directly or indirectly, then they remain taller for the rest of the year, as others notice and react to the sudden transformation of height; whilst, they would not if the preceding transformation didn’t occur in the first place.

Not all acts committed by “The Lab” have large consequences, as the butterfly effect is expressed logarithmically due to the nature of canon events already fated to occur, but the possibility is there for things to change as result due to previous actions.

Freda’s "Height Obsession" Side-Conseqences

As Freda grew up short, overshadowed to her younger sister’s well-developed stature and envious busty figure, she grew up feeling under-appreciated and metamorphosed into a creature who doesn’t care about the value of a life.

And so if consequence had it that she would have been given an opportunity to get really tall, this pathological creature has the established potential to become a vicious monster who could bring disaster to all that’s around her; all in the name of a selfish & obsessive desire to grow perpetually because she had experienced a sufferable persistent existence of being small.

During the debt collecting process Freda naturally discovers the goods that “The Lab” is producing, to pay off its debt, can cause someone to grow taller, and is astonished by the opportunity before her to solve that which she had been denied her whole life.

With promises of transacting boons to “The Lab” in exchange for height growth, “The Lab” is given little time to assess the situation in order to make the decision of agreeing to her terms or denying her the height growth, based on the fear she’s already a dubious figure, with malicious intent, and having her become bigger will unremarkably lead to a bigger headache.

So if “The Lab” chooses to transact with Freda, it starts a process where “Freda” starts coming in every week to pick up her height increase, overjoyed to become taller.

But if Freda is refused, her counter begins with a plea of symphony and ends with blatant coercion, that is followed up by the time you see her where her offer is far less appetizing to refuse, but still possible to not to subject “The Lab” to.

Keep in that while exchanging for favors on her end is a great net benefit to “The Lab”, she is still getting taller each time she visits, a mechanic that accumulates like a snowball of diminishing returns, where due her increased size she can demand more for less, and refusal to contribute to growth obsession will backfire with greater degree, than if “The Lab” had refused her from the onset.

Freda has a both a potential second form and a potential giantess form, to assist with her sense of increasing height. 

Note that due to permanent height growth being locked at 10 feet during the “Lab of God” section, that any height growth past 10 feet that occurs is temporary, but with how the “Lab of God” section is structured timeline-wise, this predicament can be used to “The Lab’s” advantage if encouraged in a positive direction.

Possible outcomes of this side-consequence include: “The Lab” refusing to make Freda bigger, Freda becoming taller, Freda becoming a giantess, and Freda ending up smaller than she had started.

The Character “Marissa”

Marisa is the Mayor of the local region that the "Lab of God" section takes place in, as well as the head of her mafia family, whom she succeeded as the new don, in place of her older sister, Freda.

Being a politician, Marissa represents the positive side of organized crime, someone who is fine with bending the rules when it can transact a net benefit to all.

Unlike Freda, who seeks a more loathing-style of ascension, Marissa is a candidate with the potential of desiring to becoming a goddess, if such a possibility is awoken up in her, as it plays as an extension to her feelings of needing a benevolent leader, who’s willing to do what it takes to help, like a “Godmother” of sorts. 

On a character level, she quite a different person from her close associates, as unlike her cold-hearted and coercing sister, she is a lot more hot headed with the possibility of bursting out of anger at the mention of her complicity to past corruption or her controversial ties making her position illegitimate.

But all and all, she does truly want to right thing, even if her concept of “right” is twisted with contradictions and hypocrisy.

Doing a personal favor to her goes a long way in boosting “The Lab”’s Reputation, as she has access to an extended network of useful resources to help “The Lab” develop with less outside interference.

Marissa vs. Freda "Sister Rivalry" Side-Consequences

Freda’s and Marissa’s sisterly rivalry can be summed up, as despite being the older sister, Freda was passed over due to her dwarfish height, allowing for her younger sister, Marissa, to picked as the new head successor by their late father.

Typically in traditional family-based organizations the oldest child has the right of succession; however, this rule was not applied in Freda’s case, as she was passed over, over feeling she wasn't the right choice for the delicate position; and to rub more dirt in the wound, Marissa was also generally viewed as the more popular one with potential, due to her positive charismatic attitude of pulling people in to hear what she has to say, leaving Freda further in a state of recluse.

Despite her reasons of not being bestowed the awesome power her younger sister has being for more reasons than her stunted height, it is her height that she blames the most for her “stolen” predicament. 

And so her life’s regret and motivation is to take back what she feels is rightfully hers, to become boss of the family and mayor as well, setting up a sure probable conflict in the future.

Marissa, on the other hand, also doesn’t care so much for her older sister, seeing her as times as her liability that she doesn’t want to share the limelight in, despite being family. 

While Freda wasn’t born cold-hearted, her life of self-conscious trauma due of her unsatisfied appearance had caused her to hate Marissa for her unfair advantages over her, something that Marissa feels Freda undeservedly and rudely projects onto her; especially when Freda’s learned depraved demeanor taking attention, causing Marissa to see the behavior as despicable and a desperate outcry for attention.

To these issues, Marissa isolates Freda from her inner circle and tasks her, like an associate, to perform tasks for the family with great discretion to keep it separate from her mayorship operations, so as to embarrass her character in the public’s eye.

Throughout the year, “The Lab” meets with Marissa through her local mayorship connection and Freda through the loan debt connection, and it's during these visits that “The Lab” can influence this relationship for better or worse, paying key attention to how it can affect “The Lab”’s reputation and possible boons that “The Lab” can acquire from playing the “Side-Consequence” towards bettering their ends.

Crossing with Freda’s Height Obsession Side-Consequence, as Freda grows taller it eventually winds up to culminate to trigger a conflict resulting of one of a number of outcomes.

Possible outcomes include: Marissa not having her power challenged, Marissa having her power challenged but not toppled, Freda usurping Marissa, Freda and Marissa both toppled synchronically, or an outcome where the two sisters reconcile their feud and learn the lesson of “putting the family first”.

Arbitrary Character “Associate”

Out of the types of NPCs in Goddess Maker, Arbitrary Characters are those without an identity like a nameless grunt, etc. and whose designs are meant to be more superficial in appearance, and unlike more complex NPCs, arbitrary characters don’t necessarily need have measurability compatibilities when in comparison to other character (Aside from height, as the Size Difference mechanic is still in-play), as they represent one of many.

For “Associate” he represents a generic male Mafia Associate, that tags alongside characters as to show force in numbers, which is important for someone's, like Freda's, self-esteem.