Editing Gothic Horror (section)

===The Abuse of Power===
This can involve anyone who betrays a trust or a responsibility. A parent or guardian who abuses a child, a policeman who accepts a bribe, or a cruel aristocrat who misuses his tenants is betraying a natural trust, a responsibility that society has given to them. This betrayal is an act of treachery against society itself, one of the most pernicious crimes against nature imaginable. It strikes to the very heart of "the way things should be."

The abuse of power by an authority figure will visit doom and corruption on his entire house. These unavoidable consequences will bring down the guilty parties - and the innocent as well, if they maintain any misplaced loyalty to the corrupted organization. If something feels "wrong" about an institution, the first suspect is the man in charge. A corrupt abbot could bring a monastery to its knees, an amoral doctor could turn an asylum into a hellhole, and a corrupt monarch is... unthinkable.

Gothic villains abuse their power over people or places, and over nature, with dreadful consequences. Heroes may come to the slow realization that an institution is being corrupted from within by a cruel leader, but what to do about it?