The Other Two

Last week I made a post pointing out how Darksiders doesn’t really represent the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse and how they favor War and Death but pass over Famine and Pestilence (seriously Fury and Strife? Are Vigil games even trying?)
Yet bitching is one thing but doing something about it is another. So if Famine and Pestilence may not make for interesting game characters then there’s no reason to at least make an attempt. So I will do that: I will try and write up both Famine and Pestilence as game characters. If Vigil games did indeed balk out then that seems more a challenge to me. If War and Death can work in a God-of-war-esque scenario can Famine and Pestilence? Let’s find out…

Famine
I can imagine Famine taking the form of a heavy – much like his brother horseman War. But if War takes the form of a muscle-bound, bloodthirsty warrior wholly dedicated to laying waste to anything in his path then Famine takes a different approach taking a defensive stance. I can imagine Famine taking the form of a bloated sack of crap – a huge humanoid form that take multiple blows and still emerge unscathed.
Because of being of tremendous defensive capabilities, Famine’s fighting skills would be reduced. But he has numerous powers that make up for it. As Famine represents…well famine, it makes sense that his powers should focus on making him stronger whilst making those around him weaker. I can imagine Famine being capable of :
-    The sprouting of grapevines (a crop destroying plant) for a multiple enemy attack
-    Drain the life of an enemy at the touch (enemy freeze doubling as a healing spell)
-    (close range attack)
-    Summoning a plague of locusts at the wave of his hand (long range attack)

Pestilence
If War and Famine both take the forms of heavies than it makes sense for Pestilence to join his brother Death in being a thin type capable of doing fast, acrobatic movements. But as befitting his name, Pestilence should take the form of a deformed freak, with warped features, green/unhealthy-looking skin and take the appearance of something rotting and decaying.
Largely due to being a fast guy, Pestilence should be the weakest fighter of the Four Horsemen but he should also have the largest number of special abilities – most of which should be akin to a mad scientist looking for something to conduct experiments most foul upon:
-    Slime attacks capable of slowing an enemy in their tracks
-    An attack that rips out organs and other body parts
-    Going with the scientist motif, attacks based upon throwing a beaker of liquid or pulling out a bag with something in it.
-    Casting out a pox to attack multiple enemies at once.
-    Making the enemies around him rot away
-    Using the power of plagues to regenerate hits
-    Alternatively, Pestilence could do an attack based upon infecting a foe and striking their name from a list.

Having written this, it has become clear to me that this is but a mere starting point. And Vigil games most likely would’ve written up far more information-heavy documents in designing War and Death. Maybe that’s why Famine and Pestilence got passed over for Strife and Fury – the latter two offered a lot more ideas.  Still, there’s no excuse to not try.
Mind you, in doing research for this post, I found out something interesting: The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse originated from the Bible where the first Horsemen was not Pestilence but Conquest. The change only came about through mistranslations. In gaming terms Conquest may sound appealing as a character but next to War he sounds kinda redundant. Oh well….