bane

name	bane
description	Bane curses targets, making them worse at everything they try. The real-world version is systematic weakness analysis: finding every crack, bad assumption, and failure mode in a plan, architecture, or argument. Unlike Vicious Mockery (which delivers the critique sharply), Bane is comprehensive and methodical — it maps the full attack surface.
version	1.0.0
author	Wizards of the Ghosts
license	CC0-1.0
compatibility	Hermes Agent skills system
metadata	{"hermes":{"tags":["spell","shipping-now","metaphorical","influence-and-behavior","influence","behavior","attention","engagement"]}}

Bane

Surface every weakness in a plan, system, or argument.

What This Skill Does

Bane curses targets, making them worse at everything they try. The real-world version is systematic weakness analysis: finding every crack, bad assumption, and failure mode in a plan, architecture, or argument. Unlike Vicious Mockery (which delivers the critique sharply), Bane is comprehensive and methodical — it maps the full attack surface. In this grimoire, Bane is treated as a metaphorical spell with a shipping-now delivery profile. Canonical reference input: Bane (spell).

When To Use

• You need a thorough weakness analysis before committing to a plan, architecture, or strategy.
• Something feels fragile and you want to know exactly where it will break.
• You want a pre-mortem focused specifically on vulnerabilities rather than general risks.

Prerequisites

• No extra runtime dependencies beyond Hermes Agent and the normal toolset for this session.

Procedure

1. Restate the target, the success condition, and any no-touch boundaries before taking action.
2. Accept the target: the plan, system, argument, or design to analyze.
3. Systematically probe each component, assumption, and dependency for weaknesses.
4. Categorize weaknesses by severity and exploitability.
5. Deliver a ranked vulnerability map with the most dangerous weaknesses first.
6. Package the result as the deliverables below, with confidence, assumptions, and unresolved risk called out explicitly.

Deliverables

• A ranked weakness map: every identified vulnerability sorted by severity.
• For each weakness, a brief note on how it could be exploited or how it would fail.

Pitfalls / Guardrails

• Keep the metaphor anchored to a real mechanism instead of drifting into lore.
• Bane finds weaknesses, it does not exploit them. The output is a diagnostic, not an attack plan.
• If the target has no significant weaknesses, say so. Forced negativity is as dishonest as forced positivity.

Verification

• Check that the result includes every deliverable promised above.
• Check that confirmed facts, assumptions, and inferences are visibly separated.
• Check that the metaphor still maps cleanly to a real operational mechanism.

Example Invocation

/bane find every weakness in this [plan/system/argument]. Give me a ranked vulnerability map