Harmonic Resonance: Info Post

[powersthatbe]

Questing Country: Harmonic Resonance
the final Jaunt of lucky round 16 of Synodiporia
September 1st - October 10th

In Questing Country, for thousands of years - but not forever - the collective unconsciousnesses of more than half a dozen species have been meeting as friends and allies. Under the guidance of Spirit Companions, young Dreamers are empowered to take up Roles and Archetypes in the long fight against nightmares, keeping the Waking World safe from their worst fears and desires. Of course, the sophisticated adults of all species almost never believe there’s such a thing as a world of dreams - in a universe with space travel, who believes in magic?

For the Chosen Dreamers of Questing Country, it’s been three months since the end of the cross-time meeting called the Ouroboros Retrograde. In the Starquake Era, the quakes have nearly stopped creating dangerous Transformed Lands, and the Transformed Lands have nearly stopped turning Dreamers into Harbingers. One gate, the Opaline Bore, has been left mysteriously open to permit Timewalkers from the past to visit.

The Oracles have been concerned with two problems, these last three months. The first issue: Human and Gorgon nightmares have both been getting stronger. Human nightmares were expected to grow worse; as humans spread out across the cosmos and discover its size, they discover new unknowns to fear. It’s happened to every starfaring race. But the increase is sudden, and stronger than expected - and no one has the least notion why Gorgons are experiencing the same thing.

The other problem is the Arcana. Spirit Companions have been warning that, while the damage the Arcana did on their last visit has been healed, they are afraid what might happen if the Arcana return. And anything a Spirit Companion fears is almost a nightmare in its own right…

But the Oracles have hope to share. Questing Country is always changing, and there are three new changes that promise assistance.

First, the Hecatites have perfected INVLEP, also called “Envelope,” a program which, when installed in Synthetics, allows them to emulate dreaming. New Synthetic Dreamers have already begun entering Questing Country and being Chosen.

Second, there are now Diabolin dreamers. In fact, there have now been Diabolin dreamers for centuries - a tiny minority of Diabolin have both a genetic mutation and a neurological syndrome which lets them fall unconscious. These periods of unconsciousness are more like comas than restful sleep, but they allow these rare few Diabolin to dream. This is a change in the timeline. While Champions may protest that they’ve had Diabolin friends for years, Oracles and Spirit Companions insist that this is a change in the timeline since the Ouroboros - and a good one. Diabolin understand nightmares - they experience waking hallucinations constantly - and so they’re very unfazed by things which terrify other species.

Third, for two months now, some Dreamers, through means unknown, have become Conductors. This is a new Role - possibly what Harbingers were always meant to be, Dreamers empowered by the unknowable Starmovers. Conductors are almost immune to negative emotion, and each possesses a bident, a weapon that can pin nightmares in place before they flee. All of them have healing powers among their magic. What’s more, they form one single Bond group, and within that Bond group, they can send telepathic messages. Their arrival - though so far very few Adversaries, Champions, or Oracles have become Conductors - is maybe the most hopeful change.

They have the calm of the Synthetics, the fearlessness of Diabolin, the telepathy of the Travelers, and the power to defeat the new Human and Gorgon nightmares. As always, Questing Country draws from the dreams and desires of its Dreamers to give the Waking World a fighting chance.

All that could go wrong now, the Oracles say, is if the Arcana returned before they were ready to face that trouble as well...

Content Notice | The Known Worlds | Species | Dream Forms | Roles | Changing Roles | Timelines & Summaries | Questing Country Locations | Bonds & Bonded Groups | Casting Call/Plot Role Announcements | Glossary | Skills | Calendar | Who’s the What of Which | Player Resources | Questions/FAQ | Plotting

Comments

Re: QUESTIONS/FAQ

[capital_asset]

What kinds of information storage are used on Aratta?

Re: QUESTIONS/FAQ

[powersthatare]

There's no quantum computing, but incredibly compressed holographic storage in etched data crystals is most common. There's also cloud storage, which is more common in day to day use, written to/run off of data crystal backup servers. For everyday purposes, the amount of available information storage is plentiful and cheap - more than can generally be used for personal storage, although starships and businesses can run systems complex enough to reach the end of what's cheaply available.

Re: QUESTIONS/FAQ

[razorblade_empress]

How could that information be accessed, besides Interface?

Re: QUESTIONS/FAQ

[powersthatare]

Accessed in the ordinary course of affairs? Or illicitly accessed by Travelers up to no good? We're not sure what this question is asking.

Re: QUESTIONS/FAQ

[razorblade_empress]

While I'm curious about the first, the second one.

Re: QUESTIONS/FAQ

[powersthatare]

The basic principles of hacking computer systems have not changed, and the computational power with which to do so has increased along with the security - and as ever, the easiest way to hack a system is to use social engineering to figure out which ignoramus still uses mom's birthday as a password, or a biometric as easily falsifiable as a retina (which anyone can copy by finding a high-res hologram of your eye) rather than using a resonance frequency of your skeletal density, or your breath only after you've eaten Diabolin Volcano Candy.

Re: QUESTIONS/FAQ

[seestheworld]

Would Yukki's Spark-era programming skills be helpful at all?

Re: QUESTIONS/FAQ

[powersthatare]

They absolutely would. In fact, she'd find that she recognizes at least one of the programming languages in usage, or at least its structure and logic - the 'vocabulary' is considerably different.