#malicitor

It doesn’t exactly have meanings for every colour, but I wanted to make it feel kinda sharp (?) if that makes any sense, since that’s what I feel being one myself. And is why I went with the diamonds

I know too many persecutor term flags use red and purple but it’s a damn good colour scheme </3 though I fear it replicates another term’s flag without the diamonds

Here’s the version without diamonds

Persecutors and Malicitors who are factives, factual introjects, factkin/factualkins, fact DAs, fact endels, factchains, facthearted/synpaths, factlinks, and others I haven't mentioned, deserve respect. Yes, including those who have these roles that others often judge without knowing the person.

Fact-identified malicitors and persecutors deserve to live with dignity, to not be ostracized by their headmates/systemmates/alters/collective/etc. or be called these terms without your consent. Your identity should be respected, not forced to convert into a more respectable one against your will,

whether you choose your fact-identity or you've had it all the time

if your identity can't be boxed into voluntary or involuntary

whether it's partially based on someone you know or someone you don't

whether your source is an abuser

whether your source is someone (in)famous

or a combination of that, or anything else

if you're partially a fiction-folk, divine-folk, nonhuman, and more

no matter what your origins are - soulbonding, plural from birth, created, from trauma, walk-in, others - or even if you don't want to know about your origins

no matter if your plurality is disordered or not, diagnosed or not

no matter what disabilities you have or don't have

even if you're not a protector or a more "nurturing" role, "misguided" or otherwise

no matter your level of "cooperativeness" with your system

no matter if and/or how you want to change

You don't deserve to be abused for just existing, or for your role or fact-identity or source. Not by your own system and not by society. Especially before they get to know you and see your behavior. And if you are, know that you do not deserve it.

You don't have to have a "nurturing" role to deserve kindness.

🌈Malicitor Alter Role Flag🍭

A flag for alters who harm the system / other

alters for fun / with malicious intent

🩷

I see a lot of arguing about the differences between persecutors and malicitors, which for the purposes of this post are different in that persecutors harm the system out of a sense of lashing out, confusion, or other situation and malicitors are genuinely malicious. The knee jerk reaction is often against the term malicitor—persecutors are often already unfairly judged and mistreated in many systems in the first place and persecutors seem far more common than malicitors (if they are an existing role in more than one system). However, malicitors, after much research, do seem to exist a non-miniscule number of times. Perhaps this is a little broad but I’ve read multiple cases of medically defined systems having persecutors who are rejected wholesale, etc etc.

It’s another case, as it happens many times, of terms and advice that don’t apply to everyone. The unfortunate truth exists that you or I may see other experiences that don’t necessarily line up to our own and make assumptions that could hurt ourselves or others. It’s not a fault of the term. The solution I propose is to not rail against malicitor as a term and demand all plurals to get in touch with their persecutors immediately and cut them some slack—through experience I know urging too eagerly can cause belligerence and reluctant attitudes—but try and encourage more accepting attitudes for every member in the system. I did also want to note somewhere that some plurals are incapable of rejecting any member.

And I don’t believe malicitors are inherently incapable of change either. Most, or at least I, associate malicitors with members who are rejected or fall dormant instead of joining the system, is that oftentimes they refuse to choose to change. That isn’t a factor in some systems at all, and they very well can change. I know a lot of hurt people will be reactive to this idea, but it’s not an impossibility. Perhaps this association itself is part of the reason for the terms bad reputation. It’s usage as a description of motivation might be more useful than its association with the varied solutions.

A lot of times, people throw the word persecutor-protector around, often as if it is synonymous with persecutor. This is not the case!

Persecutor-protectors are maybe the most common type of persecutor, however, we are not the only ones, and it is important to understand where different persecutors tend to be coming from- though of course you should always ask.

Here’s a breakdown of some other subtypes!

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Persecutor-Host - Persecutor-hosts seem to be pretty common, especially among systems where the host has recently discovered the system. They rarely seem to actually take the label persecutor, but can often do some of the worst harm to a system. They usually are motivated out of fear and internalized sysphobia and/or ableism, such as a need to feel in control or to be the ‘most important’ or ‘most real’ member of a system.

Persecutor-Traumaholder - Not sure what a more ‘catchy’ term for this would be, but some people and therefore system members lash out directly because of trauma. Trauma responses can often be dangerous in and of themselves when taken out of the context that trained them, and many persecutors may lash out mostly or solely because of trauma, or even out of frustration that they cannot share their trauma. It should be noted that while most persecutors are trauma holders, most persecutors are not acting specifically and exclusively out of trauma, though it most certainly plays a large role for a lot of us. Persecutors that seek out dangerous situations or habits in order to cope with trauma fall under this category.

Persecutor-Otherholder/Persecutor-Persecutor/”Malicitor” - We’ve all heard it. “Yeah, but SOME people will just never change.” The people who say this are pretty much always wrong. However, there are some persecutors that operate for a reason that may not always be easy to change. For example, a system member that holds aspects of a personality that a traumatized person can’t face about themself- for example, they might hold anger, jealousy, assertiveness, pride, etc, and express that in ways other system members may not approve of. Note: Many persecutors consider the term Malicitor a slur, due to its nature as basically an in-group way of saying ‘evil alter’, which is a harmful stereotype and also not accurate.

Persecutor-Little - This is a tough one to face. However, it’s true. A lot of littles are persecutors. Reasons range from having an unhealthy relationship with abusers to simply not understanding what healthy functioning looks like. Many system littles are also trauma holders, which definitely contributes.