: Re: How can I push a protagonist to a moral event horizon without making them a sympathetic Sue? We human beings have no control over our destiny, and it is arrogant and foolish to think as such.

@Holmes449

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You have a logic problem. If humans have no control over their destiny, then why does this human need to "make a choice?" He can't, his destiny is to "sacrifice everyone he holds dear". Period. In your words, it is arrogant and foolish of him to think otherwise.

That said, the way to make somebody sacrifice what they hold dear is NOT to make them a monster, but to make them principled and give them faith. You need a person that thinks, for example, that "right is right and wrong is wrong", no matter who does it, so his principles override his emotional attachments, his love attachments, everything.

Then you manipulate the people he holds dear into violating his principles. His brother suffers a gambling addiction, and is going to lose everything, but to get out of this he commits a murder. Right is right, and wrong is wrong: Your hero turns in his brother. Sooner or later he sacrifices everyone he loves to his principles.

Now, if you meant he had to literally commit a blood sacrifice of everyone he loves, then pretty much the same answer. Your guy needs to want so badly whatever power or riches or immortality the artifact gives him, that he just doesn't really care about the cost in lives or who has to die. Perhaps it is the power to save humanity, and his principles say sacrificing a few dozen to save millions is worth it, that he couldn't live with himself if he let millions of people die to preserve the life of just those he holds dear. You need a guy that believes with all his heart in his logic and principles, so he will force himself to do what he must to gain the power he needs. His principle is simple: The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few; and in particular the needs of the millions, or billions, outweigh the needs of the few dozen he loves.

Of course, for the literal type of sacrifice, he must be absolutely certain with zero doubt that what he does will accomplish what he wants; or he won't do it. So that is something you need to engineer into the story, the reader has to believe he truly believes he is saving the world.

To avoid your logic problem, I would not make the gods "shape his destiny" to engineer this decision. You've made your protagonist a puppet without a choice, without free will. I'd change the story so that every few dozen years, the Gods for the fun of it give somebody actual free will, both to see what they do, and to then try to convince them to make the sacrifice with the reward of joining the pantheon. Most don't make it. Your protagonist discovers he is one of these people, a free agent amongst puppets.

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