My game is inspired greatly by Shounen Manga and in it the heros often have something in their life that sometimes dramatically effects what they do that could make them stronger if it's threatened (like Ichigo from BLEACH with his sister) or be a major weakness (Natsu from Fairy Tail & motion sickness), naturally I want to put a mechanic (which I'm currently calling Remanents) which evokes that feel in my game, I want it to be sort of like a cross between Bonds in Nobilis & Intimacies in Exalted.

I'm thinking about having the characters detail some events in their back story that helped define who they are then create a "remanent" something that acts as a reminder of that event (the remanent can even be the thing from the event) and would select whether it was a postive or negative relationship and whether it empowers or weakens them

To use an example from Manga; two of Luffy from One Piece's remanents would be his straw hat which reminds him of his mentor which would be an Positive/Empowering remanent, it serves as a constant reminder of why he's doing it and damaging it would make him go berserk, while a different remanent would be his Grandfather who tossed him into jungles as a kid, would be a Negative/Weakening remanent, in addition it'd be a lower rank then his hat.

Examples:
Positive/Empowering: Something that reminds the character why they do what they do, or that they feel a need to protect
Positive/Weakening: Something that the character can't stand to see hurt and could be held hostage to make them do what they want.
Negative/Empowering: Something that the character hates or has a grudge against
Negative/Weakening: Something that the character is afraid of

I'm thinking about allowing the player to select the rank & type of remanent then leave it blank to be filled in later on, and also allow them to change pretty easily (Getting beat by something badly might give you a negative/weakening, if somebody is using a positve/weakening against you goes too far it could become a positive/empowering as you go on a roaring rampage of revenge)

Does this make sense & would it work? Do you have any questions or comments?

777,
  This seems like a cool idea. Maybe this is a situation where when it is threatened, you always lose. But you get a cookie you can trade in later to always win? I like those sorts of mechanics that make it more fun to have a weakness than to not have one, you know?