Eidolon

The unplanned organism is a question asked by nature and answered by death. You are a different kind of question, with a different answer.

Some idea for a possible character/nation SD. If nation, after some sort of apocalypse blows it all up. Who the hell knows?

High fantasy + Transhuman SF. Exalted meets Revelation Space, basically.

Background

Origin

Once, there were two worlds, neither of which knew of the other. Both worlds sought to plumb the mysteries of life and death, both by different means.

One of them sought to conquer death via the preservation of the soul, for their Arts had evolved in a way such that manipulating the metaphysical was much easier than manipulating the firmament. The other world saw the mind as the seat of cognition, and sought to preserve and alter that. They were both right-and both incomplete. Magic and technology were exploring the same question. Both of them had techniques that worked... but not quite.

The Overlay Event changed that, uniting the split halves with one answer and one purpose. Even today, 500 years past, nobody is precisely sure what caused it. The significant effects are considered the conflux of a powerful summoning ritual on the side of Elysia at the same time the Jovian Project, a supercollider designed to plumb the mysteries of the universe, activating simultaneously. Other more esoteric theories exist of the event.

Either way the unification has created some interesting developments and some very interesting situations.

Timeline

Note: An Elysian Year is approximately 2 times longer than a Earth year.

• >10,000 BC/-500 CE: First few true mages born, but without training they become little more than legend in Elysian mythology, legends which their deities are based off of.
• ~100 BC/0 CE: First recorded divergence in technical development. Elysian alchemists create successful potion to prolong life. Secret is lost and rediscovered several times. Officially designated the start of the "Current Era" in Elysian calendars. Elysian and Terran philosophers establish the soul as the seat of consciousness.
• ~250 AD/175 CE: Elysian sorcerers and alchemists start sharing techniques and knowledge, becoming the extremely influential Sorcerer's Guild. True magi
• 1312 AD/806 CE: Elysian sorcerers create the unified theory of necromancy and its relation to the living. The first Soulgem is created, allowing sorcerers to store souls.
• 1418 AD/759 CE: The first soul transplant is successfully accomplished between a sickly prince and a hearty inmate, demonstrating the viability of the technique.
• 1624 AD/862 CE: A full treatise on the existence of true magi and the circumstances which create them is created, allowing the artificial generation of such magi at extreme cost.
• 1722 AD/911 CE: The destruction of the Sorcerer's Guild and the opening of their secrets to all by King Ildun allows the spread of sorcerous techniques and knowledge to far more than an elite few. This openness creates a new environment which allows him to field far more enchanted arms and more men than rival kingdoms.
• 1855 AD/977 CE: King Ildun is assassinated, causing his kingdom to shatter. The start of the Succession Wars, where the proliferation of sorcerous capabilities creates a war far beyond the relatively more restrained standards of previous wars (in terms of mobilization and casualties).
• 1914 AD/1007 CE: Without the Sorcerer's Guild and its restrictions on alteration of life versus prolonging it and mere healing, the use of sorcery to create artificial races is used. Orcs, artificially bred soldiers built for increased strength and stamina, as well as magical resistance, become a part of all armies.
• 1940 AD/1020 CE: The Eidolon is experimentally created by the Novians, a weaponized magical program grafted onto the souls of those who can accept it. The Eidolon's benefits shatter nascent democratic and republican movements, as "true" god-kings could rule.
• ~2050 AD/1075 CE: Basic transhuman techniques established via genetic engineering on Earth, such as commonplace genetic enhancements and AI uploads. The UN Human Enhancement Committee (UNHEC, or HEC) created to manage ethical use of the technology.
• ~2051 AD/1075 CE: UNHEC mandates the subsidization of upgrade technologies in various countries.
• ~2100 AD/1100 CE:
• 2200 AD/1150 CE: Overlay event. Elysium and Earth systems connected via stable dimensional tunnel, "The Rip". Jovian Supercollider destroys itself in the overlay, creating the first Mana Well in the Milky Way.
• 2202 AD/1151 CE: Full diplomatic and political relations created between United Nations and the Kingdom of Shattered Rose. Trade in techniques and technology begins.
• 2210 AD/1155 CE: First Terran sorcerer graduates from the schools of the Kingdom of Shattered Rose. First Kingdom scholars graduate from Terran universities. First Lighthugger design launched to Alpha Centauri.
• 2220-2251 AD/1160-1185 CE: Unification Wars. The Kingdom of Lord Eshton creates an alliance to drive the interlopers out and destroy his rival kingdom, preying on fear of the unknown and xenophobia, afraid of the benefits. UNPF fights on behalf of the Kingdom of Shattered Rose and her allies, taking heavy losses. Full diplomatic relations secured and trade proceeds.

2300-2400 AD: First Diaspora. Both Elysians and Terrans use new unions of technique to spread across their star system.

• 2450 AD/1275 CE: Experimental FTL drive mechanics are proposed by Michael Kearny, a physicist, and Takanaka Fuchida, a sorcerer, using sorcery to create the exotic components and metric warps needed for FTL. The K-F "Sigil" drive becomes a central component of humanity's expansion, allowing FTL transport. Diaspora of millions and the colonization of the galaxy starts.
• 2600 AD/1350 CE: First postphysical ascension system created, attempting to graft direct manipulation capabilities to the soul via cutting-edge technologies and refined versions of the Warsouls. First postphysical stays around for five minutes demonstrating ability before disappearing off to wherever gods go.
• 3200 AD/1500 CE: Present Day.

Ideologies

• Accelerated Evolution: Those who seek to become postphysical treat their current life as a larval stage of their ascension, and treat it as such.
• Bioconservatism: Still exists. Elysium holds more bioconservatives than Terra, due to the lingering social effects of living beings being difficult to improve with magic (Orcs were one of the rare successes).
• Technoconservatism: Technoconservatism is a relatively recent movement arguing that as technological solutions aresuperior than the nondemocratic elitism of magical solutions, the requirements and benefits of magic provide and magic therefore should be restricted or outright banned.
• Neo-Monarchism: Neo-Monarchist revivals realize that with the Eidolons, there is an actual possibility of the creation of god-kings with the mandate to rule, having had their very souls engineered for the task with superhuman leadership ability. The benevolence or lack thereof of such demigods... that's a bit more up for debate. Regular monarchism often gets lumped under this category as well, and Elysium is full of those types.

Advancement

Here, technology and magic exist, but in harmony. The two are highly synergistic, filling in holes in the other. When the two are in direct competition in isolation, technology often comes out the winner, which is why the trappings are often primarily technical rather than primarily mystical.

Similarly, there are limitations. Technology fails to deal with the soul, while magic can directly manipulate it. However, magic cannot play with the mind directly. Mentalism does not exist in this setting, there's only psychosurgery and whatnot. With both combined, the mind, body, and soul can be stored or altered. Backup continuity in this setting exists and is proven-with magic, you can ensure that your backed-up mind has your soul as well.

Many weapons have extremely minor enchantments for convenience

Technology

Will put an actually detailed summary later. Somewhere with Eclipse Phase/House of Suns/Sphere/Revelation Space stuff. Lighthuggers and whatnot.

Magic

Magic has evolved under several lines in Elysium. Sorcery is a magic most can attempt, while true magic is rarer but more powerful and the Eidolons are more powerful than true magi but far more limited. The one thing magic cannot do is directly alter the mind. Illusion does exist, but

Sorcery

Sorcery is by far the most common type of magical ability in Elysium, as it is far easier to achieve than being born into greatness or having an expensive and dangerous project which has an 80% or more chance of failure to alter your very soul. Sorcerers are incapable of the sheer speed that true magi or Eidolons can accomplish, but are not nearly as limited. Sorcery primarily works by ritual and takes time-offensive spells are rare, used as the equivalent of artillery due to their long casting times and large effects. A sorcerer might quickly manage to get off a shocking zap or use magical knowledge to cause light wounds but by and large sorcery is useless on personal combat timescales.

It excels, though, at enhancement. Alchemical potions can be brewed which temporarily improve any faculty. Soulgems are a sorcerous invention, and made true resurrection possible. Curses and blessings can similarly be woven with time.

Anyone can become a sorcerer. AIs, humans, transhumans, it's only a factor of knowledge (and possessing the requisite components to a ritual). This makes sorcery an extremely common field to dabble in, although its difficulty makes it hard to master.

True Magic

True Magic is a rarer case. A true mage's body has been exposed to high levels of mana for most of his or her childhood, and has, as a result, adapted to harnessing it. True magi are relatively difficult to create, as one requires a high mana zone and failures are common. True mages, however, have a level of adaptability that neither Eidolons nor Sorcerers have. Where Eidolons have raw power and sorcerers are capable of pulling off much and have tricks, true magi are capable of altering reality itself with their will. They can be artificially induced, but are extremely expensive.

True Magi are further held back by their own disbelief. It is their will which changes the world, and their sanity shackles them. Insane true magi have been, and still are, a problem in Elysium. However, now they are a

Eidolons

The latest creation of the Elysians, the Eidolon is human enhancement taken to an interesting and dangerous degree-the Eidolon is an artificial soul upgrade, allowing the user to harness magic in a way few could dream of. The Eidolon harnesses linear magic, not the unpredictable, dangerous magics of true magicians or fae, but in a way that is brutally efficient in warfare. These "Warsouls" as they are called are difficult to construct but exceedingly powerful, capable of becoming warriors without peer. Originally designed as leaders as well, the creation of the Eidolon with his superhuman charisma and intellect was the death-knell of democracy in Elysium and created revivalist monarchical movements on Earth.

Baseline humans hosting Eidolons were found in the Unification War to individually outclass even the heavily equipped and highly augmented forces of the PLA and US Marine units deployed as "peacekeepers" in the war. Fortunately, their individual expense and the fact that they have to be tailored for any candidate, as well as their high rejection rates, mean that relatively few exist.

Cosmology

Reincarnation

Souls can, in fact, be created or destroyed. Dead souls hang around but eventually fade away, while new souls are created by the act of conception (an act that can, in fact, be replicated with a uterine replicator without magical hocus-pocus, which has led to very lively theological debate in the past and more than a few bar brawls).

Magic and Technology

Magic is powerful, yet limited. It does "wonder cures" and violates annoying physical laws, but overall isn't a cure-all. Outside of true mages, magic takes time and works on a relatively personal scale. Sorcerers and whatnot can cooperate, to some extent, but this cooperation is generally "working in parallel" versus "synergistic improvement". Overall, magic isn't a replacement for technology. It isn't a rival. It's a complement.

Magic is not an unscientific enemy of progress. The sorcerers of Elysium had invented the scientific method already, and rituals are researched and tested. Magic is a science of its own, albeit a somewhat imprecise one.

In general, "pure" technology is more effective and cheaper, but "pure" magic has much less of a logistical tail, and both can do things the other cannot. This distinction is essentially irrelevant though since past the Overlay most factions blend both.

Magic can do much, but it also has several glaring weaknesses.

• Permanent change is hard: Temporary enhancement is easy. Bullshit healing potions are easy. Making things that don't change is easy enough. But permanent alterations are difficult. Only the best sorcerers are capable of creating lasting works of art via sorcery alone.
• The Mind is a fortress to magic: The mind cannot be altered directly by magic. One can deceive via illusions, but the illusions are not purely mental. To alter another's thoughts with magic, to read them, even, is impossible. Telepathy and other mental magic doesn't exist.
• Complex systems are more difficult to improve, but easier to destroy: It is more difficult to improve on or alter a complex system, but ironically easier to destroy. This isn't too significant with limited AI ritual aides and such improvements,
• Magic works most easily to prevent change: The easiest magical enchantments and alchemical formulae are those which prevent change. It was a fluke of bad luck that the elixir of life was discovered later than it "should" have been. It is far easier to restore than destroy. Where technological systems cannot help but increase the universe's entropy, magic can easily prevent, or reverse, heat death.

Technomagic

Technomagic is the colloquial name for the branches fusing magical theory with scientific theory. Technomagic has created "true" backups with continuity of consciousness, FTL drives, and various other forms of convenience.

Backups

Continuity of consciousness was a much-heated debate about mind backup before the Overlay, but now with the ability to manipulate the soul and bind it to a vessel, this has died out. The standardized mind backup is a "Soulcatcher", a combination of soulgem and cortical stack, which binds both mind and soul

A backup clinic can, in the event of death, undo this binding and return the soul itself to

Faster-Than-Light

The FTL drive is the most often touted victory by technomagic. FTL violates physical principles, and by that it needs magic. Teleportation was a well-known sorcerous ability but to secure a gate requires arcane scryings and difficult workings which increase exponentially in complexity as the distance increases. Only with the advantage of quantum computing can FTL systems work

Enchantment

Minor enchantment is common enough in modern equipment of all sorts that it is essentially forgettable. Tools outside of technoconservative factions are generally enchanted to some degree. A computer that debugs the software it runs, infallible navigation equipment, traveller's flasks which never empty, batteries which never drain of power, all are relatively common uses of enchantment. Simple household equipment is, although often high-tech, rarely high-tech and complex enough that enchantment becomes difficult and time-consuming.

Advanced systems are harder to enchant, and living beings the hardest to enchant, as the attempts by Elysians for magical transhumanism showed, but even so, high-end systems can often be enchanted with minor cantrips. Self-repair is a common one, as magical repair enchantments work well in concert with innate self-repair ability as an error correction method.

Common Transhuman Types

Orcs

A relatively primitive attempt to restructure the genome, orcs essentially obsoleted most low-end and poked into the midrange combat upgrades despite their design being centuries old. Not only were they capable of similar feats of physical strength and reaction and easy to produce, they were encoded with innate magical resistance. Unlike the servitors, Orcs had human-level intelligence to allow them to take advantage of sorcery and intelligent tactics, which also made them politically relevant.

Modern Orcs have been further altered from the original variant with more sophisticated techniques. Instead of the leathery skinned, asexual, somewhat unsavory original beings, modern orcs resemble large, muscular human beings with smooth gray skin. Sexual dimorphism has been reintroduced to the genome, although to a small degree compared to baseline humans.

• Athleticism 4 (d8)
• Coordination 4 (d8)
• Intelligence 3 (d6)
• Poise 3 (d6)
• Essence 2 (d4)
• Durability 4 (d8)

*Specialty: Innate Countermagic +1 (d10 versus magic)

Splicers

With biological immortality and moderately boosted ability in all regards, splicers are a fairly common morph for those who do not seek to use better, or are relatively bioconservative.

• Athleticism 3 (d6)
• Coordination 3 (d6)
• Intelligence 3 (d6)
• Poise 3 (d6)
• Essence 3 (d6)
• Durability 3 (d6)

*Specialty: Disease Resistant +1 (d8 versus disease)

Splicers may upgrade any one attribute by one die type (going from a d6 to a d8).

Superiors

The Superior genome is growing in popularity for children and is already the most common sleeve in the inner system.

• Athleticism 4 (d8)
• Coordination 4 (d8)
• Intelligence 4 (d8)
• Poise 4 (d8)
• Essence 3 (d6)
• Durability 4 (d8)

*Specialty: Disease Resistant +1 (d10 versus disease)

Synths

Synths are a mid-high end morph with excellent capabilities. Synthetic sleeves are common along the outer edges of the colonization efforts but not so much close to home. A Synth, compared to a Superior, is less socially adept due to missing several subliminal cues but has superior physical prowess and environmental resistance.

• Athleticism 5 (d10)
• Coordination 4 (d8)
• Intelligence 4 (d8)
• Poise 3 (d6)
• Essence 3 (d6)
• Durability 5 (d10)

Dragoons

Dragoons are a very high end combat body, descended from the full-conversions fielded by the People's Liberation Army. Extremely expensive and heavily constructed, Dragoons benefit heavily from their heavy thaumium plating, innate wards, and advanced design. They're infamous combat bodies and used by elite forces when subtlety is not an option. Standing nearly 2.5 meters tall and massing a ton due to their heavy armor plate, they can easily duel with light armor. Their only disadvantage is that due to the heavy antimagic shielding, they are utterly incapable of using sorcery or true magic themselves.

• Athleticism 8 (d16)

*Specialty: Brute Strength +3 (d20+1)

• Coordination 7 (d14)

*Specialty: Gunfights +1 (d16)

• Intelligence 5 (d10)
• Poise 3 (d6)

*Specialty: Intimidation +3 (d12)

• Essence 0
• Durability 10 (d20)

*Specialty: Innate Countermagic +2 (d20+2 versus magic)

Character Systems

Starting points/starting body types/etc not determined yet.

Physical Attributes

Physical attributes determine a sleeve's ability to support or reinforce a character's skill. Physical attributes increase the die type of the attribute.

Athleticism: A body's overall conditioning determines many things, such as its strength and speed, as well as (indirectly) its durability.

Coordination: Precision and reaction speed, a sleeve with high coordination is excellent for soldering

Intelligence: Intelligence determines a body's capability of holding complex thought.

Poise: A combination of looks, subconscious signals, and whatnot give a

Essence: The "Essence" of the body is its raw magical capability.

Durability: The durability of a sleeve is its physical toughness. Durability is used primarily for saving throws.

Dice Types

(0-10 equivalence)

• 0-Capability is nonexistent. Ex: A computer tower's Athleticism.
• D2-Very weak, far below human. Ex: A cow's Intelligence.
• D4-Weak, low human end. Ex: A clumsy person's Coordination.
• D6-Average human. Baseline average.
• D8-High end human (e.g. a professional athlete's Athleticism, a good general's Poise). Transhuman average.
• D10-Ever-increasing scale of superhuman ability starts here.
• D12-
• D14-
• D16-
• D18-
• D20-Incredible. Extremely rare level of competence, only achieved in highly specialized sleeves.

Physical Specializations

Physical specializations increase the dice type by 1 step when acting on that specialty. There is no limit to physical specialization. Above d20, a specialization simply adds 1 to each die. (instead of rolling d20, roll d20+1 or similar).

Physical Caps

A sleeve caps mental attributes at a level 1 above the sleeve's equivalent physical attribute. A sleeve with physical 3, for example, can never roll more than 4 dice for it. There's only so much performance you can squeeze out of a low-end body.

Possible: Make the cap "free floating" and universal for sleeves. Might be easier.

Mental Attributes

A character's mental faculties are independent of their body and determine what they can do. Mental attributes determine the number of dice rolled. An expert baseline can outwrestle a rube in a high-end combat body, but not very often. Mental attributes go from 1-10. Unmodified humans range from 2-4 with some specialties.

Somatics: Somatics is the ability that governs the control of the body-whether fine control, such as marksmanship, or exploiting its brute force.

Reactions: Reactions determines your character's ability to rapidly react to changing situations.

Cognition: Cognition governs the ability to think through a problem and use the sleeve's processing power to its maximum. It's not just about knowing, but about knowing how to use gathered knowledge.

Charisma: Charisma governs the ability to win friends and influence people.

Magic: No matter what you are, magic requires skill. Even an Eidolon or a True Mage requires skill to work their powers. Magical skill is so important, esoteric, and difficult to learn it's not

Willpower: Willpower determines an ego's ability to suffer mental hardship without breaking. Where Durability is physical toughness, Willpower is an ego's mental toughness.

Specializations

Mental specializations add +1 to the attribute when applicable.

Resolution

Basic Rolls

A roll is generally "mental attribute" + "physical attribute". For example, Athleticism + Somatics to move an object, or Coordination + Reactions to drive a spinner dangerously without crashing in a ball of flame. The total is compared to the difficulty of the roll and gives the end result.

Single Attribute Tests

Durability and Willpower often don't have any governing attribute to pair with, i.e. purely mental anguish or purely physical trauma. Similarly, there are occasions where it's about raw talent versus any combination of skills. In that case, the stat governs both the dice pool and the die type.

I.e. for a durability throw against being shot, a character with Durability 5 rolls 5d10, while one with Dur 4 rolls 4d8.

Equipment

I'm totally going to have to figure out something here. Current thought is that it's just a lump-sum addition to the total, or it gives artificial specialties, or something.