The Powers That Be (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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synodiporia_ooc2019-11-26 06:26 pm
powersthatbe) wrote in synodiporia_ooc2019-11-26 06:26 pm
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Slivers & Shards: Jaunt Info
Post-Apocalyptic Psionic Kaiju Funtimes
December 1 - January 24
First was the Age of the Ancients. Nine billion Ancients ruled over all of the Living World, ripe with mushrooms, blue with water. They lived on the High Tables, for they were ascended beings and knew the secret of breathing there. They reigned, we think, for a hundred thousand years, since the birth of the world. They knew Paradise, and they built Heaven. But they were fools, and used fire in war. They burned the World down.
Second was the Age of the Mystics. For ten thousand years after the Death of the World, the Mystics built Spires on the edge of the Tables, unlocking glorious powers and sheltering a chosen few - eight million, it is said. They ruled whole Tables, but no one ruled all the Dead World. The eight million Mystics knew secrets of fire the Ancients never did, and while the World was not theirs to travel, everyone in it lived safe, and no one died before they turned one hundred. But they were fools, and their power ran on water. The seas dried to dirt, and the Mystics died.
Third was the Age of the Shadow. For one thousand years, the Umbrian Protectorate united the Vales of the Fallen World. They could not live on the High Tables any longer, and all people were born thirsty and died thirsty, but they were still united, and they were careful with their resources. They ruled Nations the size of Vales. They delved in the depths for crystals, and found they could place thoughts in them. Many of the secrets of the Ancients and Mystics still rang in the depths. The world had died twice, but the Umbrians thought if they could control the minds of everyone, they could prevent a third apocalypse. But they built the hellstones, crystals that could destroy Vales who wanted to think for themselves. And the hellstones, being a violation of the earth as the Mystics violated water and the Ancients violated fire, drew the third apocalypse up from the heart of the world. The Nation-Eaters devoured Vale after Vale, and the Umbrian overlords were shattered for their hubris.
This Age doesn’t have a name. It’s been a hundred years since the Fall of the Protectorate. By the end of the Age there will only be 60,000 people left, they say. Nobody rules anything larger than a Spire, and anybody who thinks he rules a Spire himself best look out. The secrets of the past were lost when the Umbrian Shadow fell. The only secret knowledge people have now is what their grandparents told them - and their grandparents knew the world would end again soon. “Don’t fuck up the air,” we remind each other. Earth, Fire, and Water all turned against us, abandoned us. The world may be nothing but Slivers & Shards, but this is all the world we got left, and it’s going away soon. Hang onto it.
PSIONIC POWERS IN THE VALE
Telling
-The ability to send and receive psionic messages to people within line of sight, or people you know, regardless of distance. These messages:
These messages may be sent regardless of any connections to any psychic networks.
Pinning
-The ability to sense the precise location of psychic skill usage within five miles, to deliberately share one’s location with others pinning, and to sense the general direction of the nearest or most intense source of psychic energy, regardless of distance (so someone pinning can always locate the nearest city - but direction only, not distance; and if equidistant between two cities, will only sense the larger or more psychically active city).
Tekeing
-The ability to, with intense concentration, lift and move a single object of less than ten pounds at a rate of five feet per pound per second, at a range of up to thirty feet. (That is, a five-pound object may be moved up to five feet per second; a ten-pound object at six feet per second, a one-ounce object at eighty feet per second (but all eighty feet of movement within thirty feet of you).) This same ability can be used to slow or stop the motion of an object, at the same rate, and is known as a teke-shield.
Kything
-The ability to share hydration, nutrition, and physical/emotional energy with a single individual within thirty feet. If this person in turn shares with another individual, it’s possible to daisy-chain the effect indefinitely. Individuals in a kythe-link automatically distribute their emotional reactions evenly among all in the link, as well as sharing food, water, and sleep (or dividing starvation, thirst, and fatigue). All individuals in a kythe-link must share equally, and when the link is broken, the redistributed energy remains divided evenly.
The most common use of kything is for a well-fed rescuer to give nutrition and energy to a person being rescued from the wilds, so they can all reach shelter. The second-most common is to create a chain of warriors who feed on one another’s rage and share pain evenly between them. As a note, this shares pain, but the wounds remain on the bodies they are inflicted on. Kything does not permit healing of injuries to be shared.
Burning
The ability to convert your own psychic energy to physical energy, or vice versa. An individual ‘burning psi’ is using mental or emotional energy to nourish, refresh, or stimulate their body - they may be able to move fast, use their muscles to the utmost of their physical limits, or walk through a desert with no water for two weeks; but may not us psychic powers while burning (and needs an ongoing source of psychic/emotional power). An individual ‘burning flesh’ is directly converting calories or other stored physical energy into extra psionic power, as much as doubling the effectiveness of psychic skills.
Burning is extremely lossy - that is, the transfer of energy is inefficient. Burning flesh might make someone lose a pound of weight in a minute or lead to ongoing physical issues. Burning psi creates long-term mental trauma, slows down thought, causes symptoms similar to shock, and may lead to long-term reduction of powers or, in severe cases, neurological injuries. Burning is considered wasteful and stupid - but everyone knows someone who wouldn’t have survived if they hadn’t burned at a critical moment.
THE FOLLOWING ABILITIES ARE MORE SPECIALIZED, and each count as their own skill:
Dreampushing
The ability to act as a psychic battery for others while asleep. Dreampushing has almost no cost for the ‘battery,’ but requires trust - the waking individual you’re ‘pushing for has complete access to your unconscious mind, and can read, implant, or remove thoughts and emotions with impunity. Any Traveler with Psychic Computer may use Dreampushing while they are dreaming during the Jaunt, but must take it as a skill to keep it post-Jaunt.
Shading
What Travelers call Memory Sharing, combined with Network Archive Retrieval, Network Bookmarking, Psychic Upload, Psychic Snapshot, Sensory Livestreaming, and Psychic Download: the ability to store knowledge externally of one’s mind. A shade, the network or server on which knowledge is stored, lasts only so long as it is powered. In the days of the Umbrian Vale, the sum total of a millennium of psychic, academic, and technical knowledge was shared in the Overmind and powered by Dreampushing. All that knowledge was lost when the Overmind was destroyed. Post-Jaunt, it may be upgraded to one of those skills, or kept in order to be able to create a ‘private server’ psychic network.
Astral Tripping
The (very rare!) ability to maintain consciousness while dreaming, communicate deliberately and intelligibly, travel through dreams, and sort possible real and unreal elements apart from one another. Trippers can also move their dream-self as an invisible, intangible psychic presence flying through the physical world at up to twenty miles per hour, but no farther than eighty miles from their body. Travelers with Dream Communication, Ombrandanti Bloodline, or Lucid Dreaming/Spirit Travel are considered to possess an equivalence for this skill. Someone who is Tripping cannot also be Dreampushing, as the two states of consciousness are antithetical to one another; however, you can know both skills, and use one at a time.
Reaving
Mind-probing. In-Jaunt, this catchall skill covers almost all intrusive psychic powers, and is equivalent to Filter Intrusion, Mind Reading, Mind Trick, Psychic Echo, Sensory Eavesdropping, and Psychic Mirror. With no psychic network, these powers are limited to thirty feet in range. Post-Jaunt, it may be upgraded to one of those skills.
Re: PSIONIC POWERS IN THE VALE
Likewise, there is no dedicated Vale skill to defend against reaving - without a reservoir of psychic energy like the Network to draw from, who wins a psychic contest is a matter of will against will. Kything with an ally, counter-Reaving your attacker, or burning flesh to make your mind more powerful are the most common defenses, along with stabbing someone who invades your mind; but all of these can be countered in turn. Vale Psychics believe that the best defense is a good offense.