About me as a player. When I make a character I consider every aspect of the character—and the context of the universe it's in—from its nature and demeanor, to its ambitions and motivations; and quirks, strengths, and weaknesses. Did I need to say all that? No, not really, but I felt like correctly using 'and' five times in a sentence. The reason I give such consideration to these characters is because I come to RP to for the challenge of being someone other than myself. What I would do in a character's situation does not interest me, and it's not the point. Knowing the character as well as I know myself means I can do what the character would do and really feel the weight of those choices.
About me as an author. I consider all play-by-post games I play in to be a form of interactive, co-authored stories, where in the characters all play a part; and as a consequence all authors play a part. When I engage in collaborations I try to make my character's goals and motivations as clear as possible to the other authors I'm engaging with, and trust they will respect the game and not meta-game that knowledge (particularly: Using out of character knowledge to make in-character decisions). I've observed that this is the most difficult line for other players to walk and I find myself entering into collabs sparingly with anyone I've witnessed not delivering on a pattern of excellence in this regard.
About me as a person. I have years of experience in LARP, Table-Top, MUDs & MMOs and more. I've been role-playing longer than the average millennial has been alive, and have played just about every kind of character—in every kind of medium—there is. I've also written a bit of fan-fiction (FiMFiction) and original fiction, as well as served as a serious editor for both. I don't mention my experience to brag. It's just a fact. I'm not being modest either since I don't believe in it. Modesty and Arrogance are two sides of the same coin. Understating one's abilities is just as dishonest as overstating them. Doing either is a sign of insecurity, and a deception perpetrated with the intent to garner respect or sympathy. If I'm starting to sound like a super villain, well, there isa reason why.
Well I look forward to meeting your indirect contact, seeing as my main character has the same line of work as the spy master you have there, if there's anything Spy masters can do it's to find other spies.
Nice. But, do remember that the spymaster is made of wholly human material. The spores in her register more as a highly virulent (yet oddly dormant) infection than anything else.
Another question tugging on my mind is, can the perennials pick and choose who to affect and change if for example you filled a room with perennial spores and you want one individual out of say seven to be spared of changes the perennials could simply not do the change, and if not is there a chance that the individual will retain their individuality or to go a step further as to have a symbiotic relationship as host and symbiot?
Both yes and no. If you fill a room of people with spores those spores are going to get into those peoples systems. That's the no part. The yes part is that the Great Web can choose whom to activate the spores in. So just because a person is exposed to the spores doesn't mean that that person is going to become a Perennial. Spores that remain dormant are simply, and eventually, filtered out of the system without incident like any other pollen. If exposed to the spores, but the spores are not activated, there's literally no change in the person.
This is part of how the spores have remained incognito for so long. It is inevitable that the spores will come into contact with people that the Great Web just doesn't want them to and so they remain as innocuous as possible in those people. Usually, a doctor would need be looking for them in order to find them if the Great Web doesn't want them to be found.
Any specific type of the relationship requires the Great Web to create spores of that type. For example: Gretchen and Myriam were exposed to different strains of the Spore. The Spore is, like the Perennials themselves, not just one kind of organism. It's custom tailored to fit the need. If, for your example, the group of seven is exposed to a general purpose thrall spore (that makes basic mindless zombies) and the Great Web wants one of those people to have a symbiotic relationship that you describe, the most likely outcome is that none of the spores would activate. Especially if the room in question was outside of the Great Web's control.
Excuse my rude attitude and somewhat violent reaction when I say, DAAAAAMN THAT IS NASTY! That is some pretty potent stuff you're suggesting to use in the RP, it would be interesting and developing tactics against what is essentially a reanimating fungus is going to be difficult, especially since the use of biological weapons would make it hard to confront your race in any head-on assault, any projectile that reaches any of our ships would technically render the entire ship a health risk, especially if the projectile penetrates the hull (Unlikely to happen but it can happen).
I suppose this is technically true, but even in today's society there are procedures for combating bio-hazardous outbreaks, and rampant bio-weapon pathogens, that are more creative than quarantine and more aggressive than cultivating a herd immunity. If this character were a chess piece I would say it's the knight (moves in weird L shapes) and requires very indirect thinking to both play, and play against.
The spore infection is not instantiations, and success is not guaranteed upon first contact, and is as a result is not something that's just carelessly bandied about. The more it's deployed in circumstances outside the Great Web's control, the more likely it is for the humans to capture a sample and begin working on a counter agent (that would require the great web to counter). To date its effectiveness is has been determined more by the care in which it has been used than its innate characteristics.
If it comes to the use of a chemical attack (which the Perennials are prone to do) then it wouldn't be the spore infection they'd shot your ship full of. It'd be a neurotoxin, or a paralytic, or any number of other 'conventional' biological weapons.
Just a question, cause I've seen there is a diplomatic element in your race, would they be open to a diplomatic discussion if approached by any of our alien compatriots, or by the Human resistance which is basically a carbon copy of the Black Knights from Code Geass but with a few changed elements.
Yes. That's why there are three different types of listed contacts that serve as forms of diplomats. Gretchen (the direct diplomat) Alalia Wallice (Spyamaster), and Myriam 'Mac' Mackenzie (indirect contact). There are several avenues of negotiation available through leaders in this society because it is built heavily upon espionage and reconnaissance. That is because they are very much in a "watch and learn" phase of development.
Because as I understand it, a continued existence for all races would be in your best interest, if your race works the way I understand it to work, which is consume bio matter and integrate it into the whole as it works with different levels of integration as some sort of caste, if that is how it works, then there could be some arrangement that works for the benefit of the whole of any one of our organizations. (Correct me if I'm wrong)
This is also true. Consider the extreme (and unlikely) scenario that the species were to consume and integrate everything in the universe. Like any other plague it would, eventually, burn through all its hosts and then fall from ascension (because there's no sentient hosts left propping it up). This is not a desirable outcome, and so it's not a thing that just runs rampant.
I already have an idea that might seem of interest however it might be somewhat difficult since I still need to read it again and analyze it more than a few times for a deeper understanding of everything.
It's supposed to be difficult for more for myself than those I'm playing with. For me RP is a matter of challenging myself intellectually. As an unavoidable consequence others will be challenged as well. It's my hope that such an experience may help enrich the players and story I'm involved in. It's a philosophy of tabletop gaming I've developed as DM that I've basically taken with me everywhere else.
However I think you need to explain your race better. I don't fully understand them or their ambitions, which is fun for the RP, but a real headache as a GM.
What specific details would you like me to expand upon? Simply the ambitions, or is there some other aspect of governance you would like to see fleshed out as well?
As for ambition I consider the race to be in its infancy. To begin with its core ambition is to carve out a place to call its own while it comes to understand all the very very alien cultures that surround it. There are several ways it can come to understand them but in short it's a non-human race that thinks and behaves in non-human ways trying to understand and exist in a universe mostly dominated by humans. It's difficult to put that in a box. So, instead, I'll try explaining how and why each Perennial Prime is a prime and what affect that they've had on the great web thus far.
Aria Summers - The Grand Matron (Priestess) One of the first humans consumed by The Great Web (that does not possess the genetic abnormalities that they have been targeting) became a member by giving herself unto it. She brought with her some very 'hippie' philosophies of live, and let live. To peacefully coexists and be be one with nature. This has given the Great Web an understanding that it can coexist with humans but her willingness to become a part of nature has been a bit misleading for the Great Web as it does not accurately represent the motivations of all humans. Evangelicals proclaim that humans are temporary. Ethereal. And that (individually) their souls are more important than their meat.
To an evangelical humans are engines of war, and of peace, depending on what wrong needs righting if any.
Alalia Wallice - Marketing Specialist (Spymaster) Rather than being a psychologist, sociologist, or some other student of the mind the Great Web has taken on a Marketing Specialist. Marketing is very much the manner by which humans see other humans and understand them on a way that few others do. Unfortunately for humans the average Marking Specialist takes a fairly grim view of humanity, and the Great Web is not so biased (by being human) as to care how unflattering the picture is. Marketing, and Evangelicals who believe their own doctrine, both possess and train similar skills with two obviously different perspectives.
Marketing sees people as commodities and the source of money: engines of industry.
Dr. Xaith Calhound Simulating human intelligence is not something the Great Web itself can do and that is the specialty of this Complexity Theorist. Dr. Calhound's experiments and creations require a hard, unemotional, and unbiased look at humanity for what it is and the Great Web could not ask for a better source of information. For as much as the other Human Primes do to interact with the societies of the humans, and their population, this human helps the Great Web postulate on what it means to be human.
While the good doctor is not a point of contact for the humans to interact with the Great Web, he is none the less an important link to the humans for the Great Web.
Gretchen Gravage - Colonist (Diplomat Prime) A woman of humble beginning, Gretchen has become the fruit of the the other three human's experiences and philosophy. By herself she's an unassuming old woman, and nearly an empty shell. As a Prime she's been filled up with--and built up as--the Perennials' ideal human. While on a galactic scale she's little more than a sock puppet, she serves as a gauge for what the Great Web considers humans to be. When humans interact with her and find her disconcerting that is because there is a discrepancy between what they think they are, and what the Great Web thinks they are. Because the Uncanny Valley is a thing, there will always be discrepancies.
In short, because the species is so alien, humans are equally alien to them. And since the worlds that have humans so vastly outnumber the worlds with Perennials they need to first understand what it is before they can decide to take action on it. Other than that I expect their motivations to develop more based on what the humans do and how they interact in the RP.
The gaggle of girls dispersed in huffs and giggles and sighs. Comments were made by some spectators about the lack of coordination on the part of the coordinator. Other comments were made about the validity of the younger girl's assessment while she hugged her Ditto. but these spectators moved on to more impressive shows of talent and skill anywhere else in the city. However, one spectator held more interest in the Ditto-girl than the others. She approached from behind with a Whismur hopping beside. "Hi," she said with a level of cheerfulness unexpected from most. "You seem to know quite a bit about Pokemon training." It was largely a redundant observation but worked well enough as an introduction. "I'm Jenna," she said "and this is my Whismur," she added with a look down to the silent pink orb. "Have you studied at the Academy? I've never seen you before." The whimpering wishmur and her whispering trainer startled Sarah who was still riding the adrenaline of her first proper victory. "Hello," she cautiously responded to the trainer who engaged her. The single-type pokemon seemed both curious and cautious and Sarah eyed it warily. The girl, older than Sarah by a half-decade, combed her fingers through her straight brown hair and positioned it behind her ear as Sarah responded. "Not exactly," Sarah explained as she returned her ditto's premiere ball to her belt, "My mom was a Gym Leader in Oldale back before I was born." Jenna shifted her weight to one side and raised her eyebrow, "You're from Oldale?" "Yeah," Sarah tentatively said as she reached out a hand to the whismur who almost let her pet it. "there's an academy there, you know it?" The older trainer nodded. "Yeah, the Johnson Academy in Oldale," she said as she opened a calendar app on her gauntlet. "I'm heading back there for a special demonstration. If you're not doing anything else, you should come with me. You'll learn a lot." For a moment the exuberant child lost a bit of her luster as she looked down at the map her lens produced. There was a hazard advisory in bright yellow that blocked off Route 103. The heavy rains higher up-river had caused the Route 103 fork to flood and there was no way she was getting across with her pokemon alone.
"Sure," she finally said after consiering the alternatives, "Why not? I never got to go, but we'll have to take a ferry from Mauville City." With the destination set the duo left town to formally start her adventure.
Route 110
The duo had a bit of a journey ahead of them if they were going to walk to Mauville City from Slateport City. It was a long and difficult trek, first through shoals loosely connected by rickety bridges, then up a very steep hill. It was the perfect place for the recreational bike path that was artfully constructed overhead but as neither girl possessed a bicycle, or permit for the path, they were forbade from using it. Sarah let her pokemon out of their balls for some much needed non-battle exercise, and the quarrelsome trio were almost immediately sent back in for 'time out.' Only after realizing that they were indeed on dry land, with water nearby to play in, and not a ship did the trio calm down a little and stop their infighting. The oddish and zigzagoon pranced around and raced ahead of Sarah and Jenna while the ditto rolled in a goopy mess right next to them. "Oh, are these your favorite pokemon?" Jenna asked as she looked to the zigzagoon who was rooting around under a bush. Sarah looked a bit confused by the question, and seemed oblivious to the implication that they were receiving special treatment. "They're all my pokemon." she said with a shrug. "Oh!" Jenna laughed, "You really are new at this aren't you?" Though Jenna was playful in her delivery it was at this moment that Sarah started to think she had made a terrible mistake. As they neared the city Jenna became increasingly more apprehensive, something Sarah only noticed because her Wishmur's demeanor changed to match.
Mauville City
There was something off about the city today, and neither girl could put their finger on exactly what it was. Neither of them had subscribed to any news organizations beyond the Pokemone Fanclub's newsletter, and had no way of knowing what had happened the night before. As they made their ingress into the bustling streets the peices slowly came together for Jenna while Sarah remained blissfully ignorant. "It sure is busy today," remarked as she passed through the many people and pokemon in the streets. Not wanting to concern a child, the teen Jenna put on a facade while finding any excuse to get away and help. "How about," Jenna's voice cracked as she spoke, "You go see about that boat." Sarah nodded in conformation and set her backpack down on the street to check its contents for currency while Jenna disappeared into the crowd. With a fist full of coins, three mints, and a button she stood back up ready to buy a ferry ride. A ferry ride she had absolutely no ability to pay for and, as it happened, the ride was completely full with sad and angry adults yelling about some attack. She had been here once before with her parents when she was younger, and didn't remember the city being so... lively. It was a big city, compared to the town she grew up in, but this was different in a way she couldn't quite put her finger on. Since the ferry wasn't going anywhere, at least with her on it, she figured that it would be best to see what was going on. If there was trouble, some kind of attack, then it was her duty as a Pokemon Trainer to help!
I decided to use @Phoenix's initial plot-hook to motivate Sarah, and I don't know what the deal is but it's raining in, like, all of @c3p-0h's posts. So, I used that too to get involved in Mauville. Sadly, I can't find an excuse to have a battle in every post.
Sorry I've been extremely absent all. When last I posted I was heading into spring break of my final semester in college, and for the last two months after I've basically been decompressing from 6 years of mathematics. I'll try to be posting more frequently, and haven't just peaced out of this RP (entirely), but I'm also in the process of joining the US Navy and might end up disappearing again.
Sorry about being vague about the events of Mauville. I read so many posts and so many words and I still can't tell exactly what's going on, or where my character fits in all of it.
I'm interested as well. The setting is very similar to a D&D campaign I ran at my table, but I've only had nation RP experience in that capacity (as a DM, not as a player). I'd done some Advanced RP here and am looking to branch out. I don't know what factiond I'd play as but I had a very "Zenobia of Palmyra" flash of inspiration while reading the OP.
Character application (23,900+ words broken into bite-sized chunks) Name: The Perennials Flag: Dark Perennials (Fungal) | Light Perennials (Floral) |
Entity/Organization Type: Alien
Main race: Plant/Fungal Based parasites The Perennials are far from a single species raised to dominance like that which are found on other worlds (humans for example). Instead, they are a conglomeration of species that have risen to sentience together through a long and brutal evolution. An evolution that creatures of meat were late to the party for. Perennials take many forms, and that which could be called the part that is the perennial is a spore-based parasite that infests a host. Once infected the entire being is reformed and a Perennial is 'born'. Spores that are ingested or breathed into a creature then take root and blossom; integrating into their physiology and dominating the subject's mind. While the drifting or nonintegrated spores themselves are no more sentient than a man's sperm, or a woman's ovum, a creature so made joins the collective of Perennials. Individually spore may share sensory data, such as temperature, humidity, and other environmental conditions experience through touch to the great web.
Throughout their evolution the surface flora and the subterranean fungi have been at war for untold generations. That all changed, however, with the arrival of the humans. Apex predators in their own right the humans made too tempting of a target for the surface flora to ignore in their ever continuing fight for dominance. However, the humans that colonized the Perennial's world quickly became aware of the Perennials abilities and brought fire to the world. In that act the fungal Perennials became the dominant species of the two.
History(what you did under the rule of the empire for roughly 300 years): They evolved. Being only a matter of time before the humans discovered the subterranean Perennials, they scattered into far flung space, by pollinating other worlds with their spores. In that time they they evolved resistances to humans, and their technologies, as well as adapted countermeasures to the humans' native immune system using the few lost explorers, miners, and other foolish meatlings to over extend into their territory that they could find.
From their first interaction onward the Perennials undertook purposeful evolution to overcome any and all weaknesses that the Humans could exploit (at the time of first contact) and perfected their evolutionary advantage to infest humans. Though, they were careful not to expose many healthy humans to the spore as to prevent their own exposure, and the humans from adapting a natural counter. Instead the Perennials focused on developing an exploit in the human genetics associated with deficiencies in the immune system (that not all humans possessed).
Culture: Infesting the flesh and animating it is a difficult conversion process. A subject does not always survive, and in this way the parasites have generated an image of being both a plague, and their meatlings being a form of undead. As a result they are a very closed, secretive society, that keeps outsiders at the proverbial arms length, and have erected many societal barriers to give the allusion of normalcy. Prior to the arrival of the humans, the Perennials had little in the way of a culture of their own, and adopted that of those they infested. As a result they were tribal and primalistic as was the nature of the avian and animals they incorporated. When humans joined their collective, however, they brought with them all manner of culture, technology, and most importantly: ambitions.
To outsiders the Perennials appear to be a singular alien entity spread across many bodies and forms. For the most part this is true, however, that truth is dependent upon the level of incorporation into the collective. The Perennials tightly observe a genetic caste system, not unlike that of the insect kingdom, as insects were the first to consume the Perinnal's spores. Fully integrated meatlings are little more than drones, or warriors, whereas only partially integrated meatlings fulfill other roles.
Type of Government: Confederacy with Caste System, Partial Hivemind Description of Government: The government is a strict genetic caste system as one would see in any natural species. The great web rules over all, and instills this system into all whom become infected with a Perennial spore. Among the less integrated extremities of the web's reach there is a facade of Confederacy. Collonies operate under a web of their own which may become instantly integrated in the great web when their strength grows large enough to facilitate the connection. The Thralls also present a facade of normal human behavior, to the best of their ability, but only when being observed (or expected to be observed) by other humans. Each infection of a human is done so with a purpose, and that purpose rarely results an a radical shift from the human's everyday normal behavior. It has been known to have entire colonies infested just to practice presenting the facade of of being normal human beings, and increasing the great web's welth of knowledge.
Minority races: There are no minorities in the Perennial Society as all are one in the great web. Meatlings, however, make up a minimalistic amount of the species composition. while many different types of people (and animals) may fill the same caste, within that caste there is a fairly egalitarian view of other caste members.
Religion: To become one with, or to return to, nature is a romanticized fiction of the very real Perennial dogma. Many human religions that possess this as a central tenant have found their way into the Perennial society as a form of meatling bait. While the Perennials themselves do not practice a religion, per se, they have invested considerable resources into integrating themselves into the religions of men to grow their numbers. And, while the dogma is a romanticized fiction it's reality is not far off. The Perennials are in effect living both the heavenly bliss, and hellish damnation of what has been a common galactic thread among other species.
Demography: It is a matter of legacy that only the minority of Perennials infest a human body. The slave caste often incorporated animals for labor. Though human machines have greatly outpaced and out performed those animals, they are also obscenely conspicuous, and require technical understanding that is hard to come by for the Perennial infestors. While a minority of Perennials are humans, a meager 20%, they do fill the most various of roles which results in them seeming more populace than they actually are. Humans most typically fill the roles of thralls, collectors, and harvesters. Humans also provide a face for the species to interact with other humans, and non-aliens. Of all perennials the thrall caste has the most varied levels of connection with the great web. They're often afforded the ability to keep much of their personality as there are many human ideas the great web can only comprehend vicariously through its human parts.
Animals make up another twenty to forty percent of the Perennials' species and vary wildly depending on demand. Infesting an animal is a trivial task, however, their life spans are short and their utility is limited. Animals also typically are able to remain incognito, hidden in plain sight, and provide little resistance to reporting back to the great web.
Heroes, Primes, and Elites: Important characters (very important, your leader[s], your strategist, your spy master and any other important character IN DETAIL)
Leadership:
All that is infested is a single cell in the great web. Its rule is absolute and it is as much a congress of minds as it is a single mind into and of itself. It possesses no singular body and is the will of the Perennials as much as the Perennials are an extension of its will. The great web is everything and nothing and there is little else to say about it. It is revered as a god and dismissed as myth depending on how well a creature is incorporated into it.
The title of strategist and supreme leader is insufficient to describe what the Great Web is and does. However, it does fill these roles as all Perennials are part of it, and it is part of all Perennials.
A dedicated Thrall and grand matron, Aria is at the helm of much of the species' religious outreach. She has little autonomy, but one would never guess by looking at or interacting with her. She has lots of personality, and access to a complete understanding of the religions incorporated into the Perennials hive consciousness which gives her an air of wisdom not found elsewhere in Perennial (or possibly all of human) society.
Further, she has been genetically modified by the great web to produce pheromones that aid in the allure of her message in the same way that even venomous briers may produces flowers with an alluring scent. The scent is not one people consciously become aware of, and is not one that radiates any more than normal human pheromones, but they have been specifically designed to be more potent to those especially susceptible to the Perennial Spore transformation.
Aria plays as important a role to maintaining the perception others have of the Perennials as Gretchen does, and may be regarded as a diplomat of another kind: incognito, and appearing unaffiliated.
An actual pig, and one of the oldest surviving members of the animal-warrior caste, Boar is a hearty and resilient leader that inspires the submission of other animals. Boar has since evolved the ability to speak and understand human tongue as required, but rarely does so, as his instinctual and tenacious nature has been only lightly tampered with. More importantly, Boar is the pinnacle of battle evolution possessing a hard skin, redundant vital organs, sinuous fiber sheathes around nerves, and mycelium enhanced muscles. His saliva possesses a powerful paralytic, and his quills a noxious poison. His tusks are hard and fragile, they regenerate quickly, and shatter in a foe leaving sharp shrapnel in anyone he gores.
Boar has seen a numerous amount of victories over the humans in the early days of colonization which has lead to the great web's investment into his development.
Research and Development:
A mathematician with a specialty in Complexity Theory, Xaith is the inventor of simulated intelligence, a special kind of AI with unique characteristics. Unlike true artificial intelligence a SI is a being of modular intelligence that is modular and reconfigurable. It has no qualms about being unpluged, reconfigured, or turned off. Additionally it is able to simulate the true identify of a manifested AI based on the informational networks it is provided.
Dr. Calhound is among the lightest integrated into the great web, with his connection being largely one way, and is unaware of its influence on him. Instead, the great web utilizes his models, theories, and mechanical creations to advance it's own self design and improvement. In relation to computer and interface design, as well as his mathematical field of study, Dr. Calhound is well known. However, his connection to the great web is undiscovered (even by himself).
Dr. Calhound is a double-agent of sorts and does not live in Perennial society. Rather, he serves more as an insecure access point to human society, technology, and research. The closest thing he has to contact with the great web is only through pawns manipulated by Alalia Wallice.
Like Boar, wing is among the eldest of infestations and predates the time of humans. Unlike Boar, however, everything that was human from the early days was poured into Wing and it was ever frequently modified to become and appeal to humans as a representative (that is until Gretchen was incorporated) resulting an peculiar avian-humanish hybrid form. After an extremely long development and evolution path wing has picked up a sense of Perennial integration. Wing's mind is incredibly sophisticated but wing possess no formal training the way humans truly do. Instead it has had a patchwork miss-mashed assortment of memories poured in and scrubbed out. Wing is an intuitive and instinctual being that communicates with biological components on a subconscious level. Noting that, for many of the components of technology not yet integrated into the great web, the subconscious level is all that exists. Wing possess the ability to fly and sing, as it always has, as well as an appearance that most humans find unsettling.
Wing's primary purpose is to provide oversight regarding deep incorporation of new Perennials and Perennial Tech into the great web.
Also known as "Mac&Cheese" Myriam and wheel-rat Brianna (Brie) are 'acquisition specialists'. Mac operates a salvage yard and serves as a fence for unscrupulous people whom have little concern with whom they deal. Her connection to the great web is tentative, and her genetic advancements are sleight, possessing a more parasitic bond than actual incorporation. This happy-go-lucky girl from the school of hard knocks has developed the ability to sustain herself on eating just about anything. She's also more resistant to infection than any of the other primes save for Boar himself, and her body quickly adapts to the conditions she finds herself in, as well as the toxins found in her work.
Mac is a mechanic of unquestionable reputation and her lose connection to the Perennials has granted her an unparalleled instinct when it comes to diagnosing and fixing mechanical things. Of all of the primes she is the least connected to the great web, but has been subconsciously seeded with an amenable disposition to their agents. While other primes are designed to be double agents, she is most closely represents the actual reality of the term, and the interests of the great web are represented through her to criminal organizations. Despite her not being the central nexus of a large criminal (mostly human) organization, she is the great web's access point to it.
Myriam's most defining characteristic by far is not one that the great web could impart, and that is the Luck of the Irish.
Diplomatic Corps:
A kindly old lady from the first generation of infestation there has been little effort in hiding her evolution. It was also well documented that, in her initial turning, she died. Her reanimated form speaks a cautionary tale to those whom would engage with the Perennials. The focus of her evolutionary path has made her quite hard to dispose of in nearly all non-combat capacities. Much of her meat has been replaced with more hearty plant and fungal components, and her immune system itself has undertaken a complete overhaul. While she cannot sustain the vacuum and cold of space for long she enters into hibernation instead of dying out-right.
Personality wise, Gretchen is the least dominated by the great web, with only the command to represent it to the humans. As a result she has been granted unparalleled latitude in terms of anonymity and autonomy. An ex-colonist and designated baby factory, elevated to high station in the Perennial society she understandably possesses a very "well this is my life now, I guess," mentality and serves with dedication and distinction. She knows full well that any treachery will result in her loss of self and absolute reversal of fortune. Even with that threat over her she is a very loyal, and candid servant.
Gretchen possesses access to any human experience within the Great Web that she deems necessary for the conducting of her duties and her access to them, as well as her own, are heavily monitored but rarely interfered with. She is the face of the Perennials in every regard. While extremely difficult to kill outright, she is also extremely difficult to use outside of her role as ambassador, possessing none of the battle enhancements (such as strength and endurance) that any militant fighter would.
As integrated as one can be, and still retain some semblance of personality, Alalia has an absolute understanding of what she is and whose agenda she is furthering. Alalia is an extremely successful marketing agent, and has free access to the many doctorates of psychology, and physical education, that the great web has incorporated. She has also been modified on the cellular level to possess both extreme beauty, as dictated by her understanding of physical beauty, as well as being extremely capable physically. In a word she is a modern day ninja, acrobat, and athlete all rolled into one buxom supermodel. Alalia boasts the pinnacle of human perfection in every aspect that the great web could endow her with without raising suspicions of her true Perennial nature.
It is very difficult for Alalia's genetic augmentations to be spotted, by comparison to Gretchen's, as Alalia's uses only base human genetic material for the evolved physical improvements. While the perfect human, by Perennial standards, she is far from the perfect Perennial and is antithetical to their design. Because of her design most Perennials do not recognize her as one of them, and only does so if the great web identifies her to them individually. Alalia spends most of her time among humans doing her super spy thing.
Once an ordinary house-cat Whisker Wishes has been evolved only slightly to fully utilize its role as an infiltration arm of the great web. It possess all the training and ability to perform expected of that of a service animal, and a performance animal. Whisker Wishes can easily slip into any place that humans cannot go, that her physical form can accommodate, and easily blends into any place that animals are allowed or expected to be. Whisker Wishes has had her scent glands redesigned to produce Perennial Infestation Spores and can introduce them environments or people otherwise unreachable.
Whisker Wishes is very similar to a witches' familiar in that it can behave as one would expect of an animal, or as one would expect of a person pretending to be an animal, as needed by the great web. Unlike Alalia, Whisker Wishes is not designed to infiltrate societies for complex missions, and instead is designed for general reconnaissance.
Organizational Expansion
Unlike most other species there is a focus on biological integration of ships, and an unabashed use of biological warfare. Perennials have encountered and infested numerous types of toxins in both flora and fauna over the course of their evolution and have a genetic memory (in the great web) of them. They approach the use of biological warfare in a very utilitarian way, in that: if it works use it.
Much of the Perennials' technology is also stolen, and the finer points on how it operates still escapes its understanding. Insufficiencies in this area are countered by biological adaptation. This has resulted in the development of bio-mimetic technology for the installation and infestation of the great web into ships of both organic, and non-organic design.
The specifics of their ships are as wide and varied as any other species if a bit dated in design. They, like any other part of the great web, each fill a specific role and function. While not performing that function they may be adapted to serve another as ship technology is difficult to recycle in any other way.
Additional Detail:
Biochemical Purification: The foundation of all medicine and biological science is controlled breeding. While humans have developed other advanced methods of extracting and refining plants, animals, and other natural resources for the production of medicine their control over the art pales in comparison to that of the Perennials: a species that is the living embodiment of that scientific process. The Perennials medical technology is unrivaled, even if many of their processes may seem barbaric. Though few who understand the nature of the Perennials may feel comfortable being operated on directly by them, their supplements, supports, chemicals, acids, poisons and so on are all top tier.
Bio-Technological Substitution: Bark Armor, DNA Computers, etc. Unique to plant and fungal species, especially species that infest others, this armoring is the pinnacle of grown form. It follows a central design of Regenerative Leaf-Plate styled forced evolution wherein living plant and fungal tissues were forced to evolve in a way that allows them to ingrain in non-organic technology and feed off of it. The hulls of many a ship have been painted green with the seed-paste and over time the armoring has fed on the minerals therein, weakening them but also growing in strength and flexibility. Given enough time non-organic components are replaced by organic ones, and have grown the ability to heal from damage and injuries.
Similarly circuitry is replaced by specially evolved strands of plant-matter that conduct like neurons, and are more resistant to tampering and damage their alloy-based counterparts. Where one may see copper and silica in a human's technological design, the same circiut in a Perennials' tech may have mycelium and algae slime.
Middle-ground Intolerance: Technology outside of the biological domain, however, leaves much to be desired. Most forms of technology they possess are considered "last generation" by other species because acquiring, installing, and integrating with the technology is a process that take as much time as the natural advancement of technology. Both biological and technological development follow the same exponential curve, resulting in deviations between the Perennials' technology and that of the meatling species. Anything fully integrated in technological substitution may be considered to be on par with "this generation" level of tech but is generally completely incomparable with it.
Similarly, any piece of technology not being integrated in the great web that can be operated by thralls of it may find itself in the hands of Perennials; suffering the associated pros and cons of each. Such technology rarely stays unincorporated for long.
Due to their emphasis on infestation and adaptation they do not conduct war in the normal manner. Rather than engage with a perceived enemy their preference is to simply consume them. Also, they do little to extend their reach to worlds they cannot control. As a result their boarders are incredibly small, but the thoroughness by which they are controlled is staggering.
In case it has not yet become abundantly clear the Perennials are a subversive and pervasive lot requiring non-linear thinking to play. Rarely do they engage in hostilities unless required, and are as amiable to trade and diplomacy, as they are to war and planetary consumption.
Perennials were inspired in part by the Zerg, the Borg, and many species from the D&D monster manuals.
Flag: Dark Perennials (Fungal) | Light Perennials (Floral) |
Entity/Organization Type: Alien
Main race: Plant/Fungal Based parasites The Perennials are far from a single species raised to dominance like that which are found on other worlds (humans for example). Instead, they are a conglomeration of species that have risen to sentience together through a long and brutal evolution. An evolution that creatures of meat were late to the party for. Perennials take many forms, and that which could be called the part that is the perennial is a spore-based parasite that infests a host. Once infected the entire being is reformed and a Perennial is 'born'. Spores that are ingested or breathed into a creature then take root and blossom; integrating into their physiology and dominating the subject's mind. While the drifting or nonintegrated spores themselves are no more sentient than a man's sperm, or a woman's ovum, a creature so made joins the collective of Perennials. Individually spore may share sensory data, such as temperature, humidity, and other environmental conditions experience through touch to the great web.
Throughout their evolution the surface flora and the subterranean fungi have been at war for untold generations. That all changed, however, with the arrival of the humans. Apex predators in their own right the humans made too tempting of a target for the surface flora to ignore in their ever continuing fight for dominance. However, the humans that colonized the Perennial's world quickly became aware of the Perennials abilities and brought fire to the world. In that act the fungal Perennials became the dominant species of the two.
History(what you did under the rule of the empire for roughly 300 years): They evolved. Being only a matter of time before the humans discovered the subterranean Perennials, they scattered into far flung space, by pollinating other worlds with their spores. In that time they they evolved resistances to humans, and their technologies, as well as adapted countermeasures to the humans' native immune system using the few lost explorers, miners, and other foolish meatlings to over extend into their territory that they could find.
From their first interaction onward the Perennials undertook purposeful evolution to overcome any and all weaknesses that the Humans could exploit (at the time of first contact) and perfected their evolutionary advantage to infest humans. Though, they were careful not to expose many healthy humans to the spore as to prevent their own exposure, and the humans from adapting a natural counter. Instead the Perennials focused on developing an exploit in the human genetics associated with deficiencies in the immune system (that not all humans possessed).
Culture: Infesting the flesh and animating it is a difficult conversion process. A subject does not always survive, and in this way the parasites have generated an image of being both a plague, and their meatlings being a form of undead. As a result they are a very closed, secretive society, that keeps outsiders at the proverbial arms length, and have erected many societal barriers to give the allusion of normalcy. Prior to the arrival of the humans, the Perennials had little in the way of a culture of their own, and adopted that of those they infested. As a result they were tribal and primalistic as was the nature of the avian and animals they incorporated. When humans joined their collective, however, they brought with them all manner of culture, technology, and most importantly: ambitions.
To outsiders the Perennials appear to be a singular alien entity spread across many bodies and forms. For the most part this is true, however, that truth is dependent upon the level of incorporation into the collective. The Perennials tightly observe a genetic caste system, not unlike that of the insect kingdom, as insects were the first to consume the Perinnal's spores. Fully integrated meatlings are little more than drones, or warriors, whereas only partially integrated meatlings fulfill other roles.
Type of Government: Confederacy with Caste System, Partial Hivemind Description of Government: The government is a strict genetic caste system as one would see in any natural species. The great web rules over all, and instills this system into all whom become infected with a Perennial spore. Among the less integrated extremities of the web's reach there is a facade of Confederacy. Collonies operate under a web of their own which may become instantly integrated in the great web when their strength grows large enough to facilitate the connection. The Thralls also present a facade of normal human behavior, to the best of their ability, but only when being observed (or expected to be observed) by other humans. Each infection of a human is done so with a purpose, and that purpose rarely results an a radical shift from the human's everyday normal behavior. It has been known to have entire colonies infested just to practice presenting the facade of of being normal human beings, and increasing the great web's welth of knowledge.
Minority races: There are no minorities in the Perennial Society as all are one in the great web. Meatlings, however, make up a minimalistic amount of the species composition. while many different types of people (and animals) may fill the same caste, within that caste there is a fairly egalitarian view of other caste members.
Religion: To become one with, or to return to, nature is a romanticized fiction of the very real Perennial dogma. Many human religions that possess this as a central tenant have found their way into the Perennial society as a form of meatling bait. While the Perennials themselves do not practice a religion, per se, they have invested considerable resources into integrating themselves into the religions of men to grow their numbers. And, while the dogma is a romanticized fiction it's reality is not far off. The Perennials are in effect living both the heavenly bliss, and hellish damnation of what has been a common galactic thread among other species.
Demography: It is a matter of legacy that only the minority of Perennials infest a human body. The slave caste often incorporated animals for labor. Though human machines have greatly outpaced and out performed those animals, they are also obscenely conspicuous, and require technical understanding that is hard to come by for the Perennial infestors. While a minority of Perennials are humans, a meager 20%, they do fill the most various of roles which results in them seeming more populace than they actually are. Humans most typically fill the roles of thralls, collectors, and harvesters. Humans also provide a face for the species to interact with other humans, and non-aliens. Of all perennials the thrall caste has the most varied levels of connection with the great web. They're often afforded the ability to keep much of their personality as there are many human ideas the great web can only comprehend vicariously through its human parts.
Animals make up another twenty to forty percent of the Perennials' species and vary wildly depending on demand. Infesting an animal is a trivial task, however, their life spans are short and their utility is limited. Animals also typically are able to remain incognito, hidden in plain sight, and provide little resistance to reporting back to the great web.
Heroes, Primes, and Elites:
Leadership:
All that is infested is a single cell in the great web. Its rule is absolute and it is as much a congress of minds as it is a single mind into and of itself. It possesses no singular body and is the will of the Perennials as much as the Perennials are an extension of its will. The great web is everything and nothing and there is little else to say about it. It is revered as a god and dismissed as myth depending on how well a creature is incorporated into it.
The title of strategist and supreme leader is insufficient to describe what the Great Web is and does. However, it does fill these roles as all Perennials are part of it, and it is part of all Perennials.
A dedicated Thrall and grand matron, Aria is at the helm of much of the species' religious outreach. She has little autonomy, but one would never guess by looking at or interacting with her. She has lots of personality, and access to a complete understanding of the religions incorporated into the Perennials hive consciousness which gives her an air of wisdom not found elsewhere in Perennial (or possibly all of human) society.
Further, she has been genetically modified by the great web to produce pheromones that aid in the allure of her message in the same way that even venomous briers may produces flowers with an alluring scent. The scent is not one people consciously become aware of, and is not one that radiates any more than normal human pheromones, but they have been specifically designed to be more potent to those especially susceptible to the Perennial Spore transformation.
Aria plays as important a role to maintaining the perception others have of the Perennials as Gretchen does, and may be regarded as a diplomat of another kind: incognito, and appearing unaffiliated.
Aria's importance to the Great Web is expanded upon as she was one of the first humans consumed by The Great Web that does not possess the genetic abnormalities that they have been explicitly targeting. More importantly she became a member by giving herself unto it. As such she brought with her some very 'hippie' philosophies of live, and let live. To peacefully coexists and be be one with nature. This has given the Great Web an understanding that it can coexist with humans but her willingness to become a part of nature has been a bit misleading for the Great Web as it does not accurately represent the motivations of all humans. Evangelicals proclaim that humans are temporary. Ethereal. And that (individually) their souls are more important than their meat.
To an evangelical humans are engines of war, and of peace, depending on what wrong needs righting if any.
An actual pig, and one of the oldest surviving members of the animal-warrior caste, Boar is a hearty and resilient leader that inspires the submission of other animals. Boar has since evolved the ability to speak and understand human tongue as required, but rarely does so, as his instinctual and tenacious nature has been only lightly tampered with. More importantly, Boar is the pinnacle of battle evolution possessing a hard skin, redundant vital organs, sinuous fiber sheathes around nerves, and mycelium enhanced muscles. His saliva possesses a powerful paralytic, and his quills a noxious poison. His tusks are hard and fragile, they regenerate quickly, and shatter in a foe leaving sharp shrapnel in anyone he gores.
Boar has seen a numerous amount of victories over the humans in the early days of colonization which has lead to the great web's investment into his development.
Research and Development:
A mathematician with a specialty in Complexity Theory, Xaith is the inventor of simulated intelligence, a special kind of AI with unique characteristics. Unlike true artificial intelligence a SI is a being of modular intelligence that is modular and reconfigurable. It has no qualms about being unpluged, reconfigured, or turned off. Additionally it is able to simulate the true identify of a manifested AI based on the informational networks it is provided.
Dr. Calhound is among the lightest integrated into the great web, with his connection being largely one way, and is unaware of its influence on him. Instead, the great web utilizes his models, theories, and mechanical creations to advance it's own self design and improvement. In relation to computer and interface design, as well as his mathematical field of study, Dr. Calhound is well known. However, his connection to the great web is undiscovered (even by himself).
Dr. Calhound is a double-agent of sorts and does not live in Perennial society. Rather, he serves more as an insecure access point to human society, technology, and research. The closest thing he has to contact with the great web is only through pawns manipulated by Alalia Wallice.
Simulating human intelligence is not something the Great Web itself can do and that is the specialty of this Complexity Theorist. Dr. Calhound's experiments and creations require a hard, unemotional, and unbiased look at humanity for what it is and the Great Web could not ask for a better source of information. For as much as the other Human Primes do to interact with the societies of the humans, and their population, this human helps the Great Web postulate on what it means to be human.
While the good doctor is not a point of contact for the humans to interact with the Great Web, he is none the less an important link to the humans for the Great Web.
Like Boar, wing is among the eldest of infestations and predates the time of humans. Unlike Boar, however, everything that was human from the early days was poured into Wing and it was ever frequently modified to become and appeal to humans as a representative (that is until Gretchen was incorporated) resulting an peculiar avian-humanish hybrid form. After an extremely long development and evolution path wing has picked up a sense of Perennial integration. Wing's mind is incredibly sophisticated but wing possess no formal training the way humans truly do. Instead it has had a patchwork miss-mashed assortment of memories poured in and scrubbed out. Wing is an intuitive and instinctual being that communicates with biological components on a subconscious level. Noting that, for many of the components of technology not yet integrated into the great web, the subconscious level is all that exists. Wing possess the ability to fly and sing, as it always has, as well as an appearance that most humans find unsettling.
Wing's primary purpose is to provide oversight regarding deep incorporation of new Perennials and Perennial Tech into the great web.
Also known as "Mac&Cheese" Myriam and wheel-rat Brianna (Brie) are 'acquisition specialists'. Mac operates a salvage yard and serves as a fence for unscrupulous people whom have little concern with whom they deal. Her connection to the great web is tentative, and her genetic advancements are sleight, possessing a more parasitic bond than actual incorporation. This happy-go-lucky girl from the school of hard knocks has developed the ability to sustain herself on eating just about anything. She's also more resistant to infection than any of the other primes save for Boar himself, and her body quickly adapts to the conditions she finds herself in, as well as the toxins found in her work.
Mac is a mechanic of unquestionable reputation and her lose connection to the Perennials has granted her an unparalleled instinct when it comes to diagnosing and fixing mechanical things. Of all of the primes she is the least connected to the great web, but has been subconsciously seeded with an amenable disposition to their agents. While other primes are designed to be double agents, she is most closely represents the actual reality of the term, and the interests of the great web are represented through her to criminal organizations. Despite her not being the central nexus of a large criminal (mostly human) organization, she is the great web's access point to it.
Myriam's most defining characteristic by far is not one that the great web could impart, and that is the Luck of the Irish.
Diplomatic Corps:
A kindly old lady from the first generation of infestation there has been little effort in hiding her evolution. It was also well documented that, in her initial turning, she died. Her reanimated form speaks a cautionary tale to those whom would engage with the Perennials. The focus of her evolutionary path has made her quite hard to dispose of in nearly all non-combat capacities. Much of her meat has been replaced with more hearty plant and fungal components, and her immune system itself has undertaken a complete overhaul. While she cannot sustain the vacuum and cold of space for long she enters into hibernation instead of dying out-right.
Personality wise, Gretchen is the least dominated by the great web, with only the command to represent it to the humans. As a result she has been granted unparalleled latitude in terms of anonymity and autonomy. An ex-colonist and designated baby factory, elevated to high station in the Perennial society she understandably possesses a very "well this is my life now, I guess," mentality and serves with dedication and distinction. She knows full well that any treachery will result in her loss of self and absolute reversal of fortune. Even with that threat over her she is a very loyal, and candid servant.
Gretchen possesses access to any human experience within the Great Web that she deems necessary for the conducting of her duties and her access to them, as well as her own, are heavily monitored but rarely interfered with. She is the face of the Perennials in every regard. While extremely difficult to kill outright, she is also extremely difficult to use outside of her role as ambassador, possessing none of the battle enhancements (such as strength and endurance) that any militant fighter would.
A woman of humble beginning, Gretchen has become the fruit of the the other three human's experiences and philosophy. By herself she's an unassuming old woman, and nearly an empty shell. As a Prime she's been filled up with--and built up as--the Perennials' ideal human. While on a galactic scale she's little more than a sock puppet, she serves as a gauge for what the Great Web considers humans to be. When humans interact with her and find her disconcerting that is because there is a discrepancy between what they think they are, and what the Great Web thinks they are. Because the Uncanny Valley is a thing, there will always be discrepancies.
As integrated as one can be, and still retain some semblance of personality, Alalia has an absolute understanding of what she is and whose agenda she is furthering. Alalia is an extremely successful marketing agent, and has free access to the many doctorates of psychology, and physical education, that the great web has incorporated. She has also been modified on the cellular level to possess both extreme beauty, as dictated by her understanding of physical beauty, as well as being extremely capable physically. In a word she is a modern day ninja, acrobat, and athlete all rolled into one buxom supermodel. Alalia boasts the pinnacle of human perfection in every aspect that the great web could endow her with without raising suspicions of her true Perennial nature.
It is very difficult for Alalia's genetic augmentations to be spotted, by comparison to Gretchen's, as Alalia's uses only base human genetic material for the evolved physical improvements. While the perfect human, by Perennial standards, she is far from the perfect Perennial and is antithetical to their design. Because of her design most Perennials do not recognize her as one of them, and only does so if the great web identifies her to them individually. Alalia spends most of her time among humans doing her super spy thing.
Once an ordinary house-cat Whisker Wishes has been evolved only slightly to fully utilize its role as an infiltration arm of the great web. It possess all the training and ability to perform expected of that of a service animal, and a performance animal. Whisker Wishes can easily slip into any place that humans cannot go, that her physical form can accommodate, and easily blends into any place that animals are allowed or expected to be. Whisker Wishes has had her scent glands redesigned to produce Perennial Infestation Spores and can introduce them environments or people otherwise unreachable.
Whisker Wishes is very similar to a witches' familiar in that it can behave as one would expect of an animal, or as one would expect of a person pretending to be an animal, as needed by the great web. Unlike Alalia, Whisker Wishes is not designed to infiltrate societies for complex missions, and instead is designed for general reconnaissance.
Organizational Expansion
Unlike most other species there is a focus on biological integration of ships, and an unabashed use of biological warfare. Perennials have encountered and infested numerous types of toxins in both flora and fauna over the course of their evolution and have a genetic memory (in the great web) of them. They approach the use of biological warfare in a very utilitarian way, in that: if it works use it.
Much of the Perennials' technology is also stolen, and the finer points on how it operates still escapes its understanding. Insufficiencies in this area are countered by biological adaptation. This has resulted in the development of bio-mimetic technology for the installation and infestation of the great web into ships of both organic, and non-organic design.
The specifics of their ships are as wide and varied as any other species if a bit dated in design. They, like any other part of the great web, each fill a specific role and function. While not performing that function they may be adapted to serve another as ship technology is difficult to recycle in any other way.
Additional Detail:
Biochemical Purification: The foundation of all medicine and biological science is controlled breeding. While humans have developed other advanced methods of extracting and refining plants, animals, and other natural resources for the production of medicine their control over the art pales in comparison to that of the Perennials: a species that is the living embodiment of that scientific process. The Perennials medical technology is unrivaled, even if many of their processes may seem barbaric. Though few who understand the nature of the Perennials may feel comfortable being operated on directly by them, their supplements, supports, chemicals, acids, poisons and so on are all top tier.
Bio-Technological Substitution: Bark Armor, DNA Computers, etc. Unique to plant and fungal species, especially species that infest others, this armoring is the pinnacle of grown form. It follows a central design of Regenerative Leaf-Plate styled forced evolution wherein living plant and fungal tissues were forced to evolve in a way that allows them to ingrain in non-organic technology and feed off of it. The hulls of many a ship have been painted green with the seed-paste and over time the armoring has fed on the minerals therein, weakening them but also growing in strength and flexibility. Given enough time non-organic components are replaced by organic ones, and have grown the ability to heal from damage and injuries.
Similarly circuitry is replaced by specially evolved strands of plant-matter that conduct like neurons, and are more resistant to tampering and damage their alloy-based counterparts. Where one may see copper and silica in a human's technological design, the same circiut in a Perennials' tech may have mycelium and algae slime.
Middle-ground Intolerance: Technology outside of the biological domain, however, leaves much to be desired. Most forms of technology they possess are considered "last generation" by other species because acquiring, installing, and integrating with the technology is a process that take as much time as the natural advancement of technology. Both biological and technological development follow the same exponential curve, resulting in deviations between the Perennials' technology and that of the meatling species. Anything fully integrated in technological substitution may be considered to be on par with "this generation" level of tech but is generally completely incomparable with it.
Similarly, any piece of technology not being integrated in the great web that can be operated by thralls of it may find itself in the hands of Perennials; suffering the associated pros and cons of each. Such technology rarely stays unincorporated for long.
Due to their emphasis on infestation and adaptation they do not conduct war in the normal manner. Rather than engage with a perceived enemy their preference is to simply consume them. Also, they do little to extend their reach to worlds they cannot control. As a result their boarders are incredibly small, but the thoroughness by which they are controlled is staggering.
In case it has not yet become abundantly clear the Perennials are a subversive and pervasive lot requiring non-linear thinking to play. Rarely do they engage in hostilities unless required, and are as amiable to trade and diplomacy, as they are to war and planetary consumption.
Perennials were inspired in part by the Zerg, the Borg, and many species from the D&D monster manuals.
There was a reverence about the Glade as earlier in that morning songs of mourning racked the air and yet still echoed in the corridors. It was on behalf of those poor souls who died on the planet's surface so far from their own world. Now it was a sullen silence that befell the Geological Research Institute. From the heart of the Cathedral to the outer-most mouths of the River.
The news of the deaths on the planet's surface came to the men and women of The Glades they way news always travels in the underworld. Through whispers on the surface. Through the faces of those affected by hearts twisting with knives. Through emanations of grief beyond the control of the uninitiated, and that which is reflected off the tongues of the unsympathetic and sympathetic alike. As large as the ship was it was minuscule when compared to, and confronted with, the controversy of loss. The air about the ship itself had changed and The Keeper of Traditions would need be metaphysically blind to not notice.
She called upon the congregations, cabals, and covens in the area to speak, to pray, preform rituals, or otherwise offer up kindness into the Vitae to help fill hearts of the survivors, before darkness could rush in in the hole cut out by the death of family and friends. It was in light of this that she stood atop the Cathedral with another in an attempt to create a new light to bathe the Cathedral in.
A manifold technician stood uncomfortably on the roof, with Aria Summers, and once again attempted to refute the insanity in which he had been ordered to participate. "The mark two hydro-plasmetic cleansing gate is an older model. Almost discontinued before the Vitae's construction..." His sentence found no footing on the technically under-educated. While he had not been, nor could not be, ordered to participate in their ritual he had been requisitioned to install a fixture that would be used for religions devotion. Still, the emphatic emphasis of the inferior technology did little to move the heavily robed leader of ritual who presided over its installation.
Aria Summers turned her head to inspect the technician and, as she did so, her face peaked out from her cowl revealing it had been painted to resemble that of a skull. "Yes," the word was pushed through pursed lips, "It is attuned with the flow of life, and its ending. It will serve perfectly."
The technician shook his head, and tapped his fingers to his forehead, before thrusting his hands outward in frustration. "But it's not hooked up to to anything!" The rectangular gate stood exposed, poised to burn in the open air. Its original design, as he continually explained for the last hour, was that it was part of the waste reprocessing system and meant to be installed within adjoining. Hydrogen-oxygen plasma was to flow through it, as to strip the impurities from it, thereby allowing water to be broken into its base components for storage as its component elements could be more easily compressed than their compound form.
The Keeper of Traditions dismissively waved her hands at the explanation, and grasped only a superficial understanding of the technical specifics as she inspected the frame from all sides. "It bears the cleansing reflection of renewal. Through this gate those lost souls may choose to pass to find their way into the first plane."
The technician burred his face in his hands and through them came a furtive muttering "You can't teach a pig to sing. You'll waste your time and annoy the pig." A long dejected sigh parsed his words as he followed up, "Alright lady. Whatever you say," he finished by pointing to various elements of the machine, "Don't touch the feed, or the plasma. You know what just don't touch anything."
The skeletally adorned priestess nodded. "One does not defile a sacred relic of cleansing with dirty hands."
It was perhaps the most exasperating assignment of the technician's week. While he had better things to be doing, the religions based in the Geological Research Institute were often given unparalleled latitude to practice their religions so long as doing so did not interfere in the ships operation or personal safety of any whom lived aboard. He argued with his superiors that setting up a water cleansing system on top of a roof would be a waste of resources and power, but had been informed that the coven's members had each volunteered a portion of their energy allowance as a tithe to ensure its continual operation for the next two weeks.
It was clear that he did not understand, and as he worked Aria Summers decided to educate him. "There is no religion on Earth wherein one simply passes to their final destination immediately after death." She gently caressed the filter's frame. "And, the first Astral is an emotional reflection of the material realm. In that way there are many heavens, and many hells. It is this device's emotional resonance of cleansing that shall draw these souls back to us."
It was here on the GRI's central spire that, through some orchestration, the spiritual energies of the Vitae's nature all coincided. As much as it was the physical heart of the ship it was also the ship's soul. The souls of those lost on the planet would find their way here, be it through being caught in the tide, or by the shining beacon that had constructed and they would then be able to be cleansed by passing through this oculus.
Cancer in the Soul
A light floof sound came from the priestess as she flopped into the ground in the Garden of Eden. Her layered and heavy robes unevenly distributing the air over the grass as her cowl fell away and her eyes turned 'heavenward'. Her crown tarnished by her painted face which, in turn, was faded and smudged from the day's wear. The dark colors associated with funeral attire was blatantly out of place in the vibrant greens of the park.
Despite it's 'natural' aesthetic, its simulated sky and horizons, and real clouds created by careful weather control, it was rare to see an under-city naturalist in places like these. Even so, Aria only found herself here by walking the River and finding that many branches and wells were devoted to keeping these places alive. She had spent all day considering and attending to the supernatural needs of those in and outside of her community and felt that was why she was guided to this place.
While dressed as death she allowed herself to sink a little further into the dirt, a millimeter or two, but one need not dig any deeper to find the lie of this place. Of places like this, and the reason why the undercity naturalists stayed away. While one might expect the facade to only go skin deep, she imagined that was not the case, as her travels in the river indicated that the ground here was no less than five meters deep at any given point. Therein lie the problem.
As she lay in the grass the harsh truth all but landed on her face with that of an insect perching itself on her nose. For all the natural ingredients in her cosmetics, as well as the branches she walked, she had certainly amassed an innate set of chemicals in her skin that was certain to confuse the brightly colored yellow and black arthropod. The bee crawled momentarily along her face before she breathed a shallow gust to discourage it from continuing and to find a flower instead to pollinate.
It was more than a thinly veiled lie that the people told themselves. It was a piece cut directly from the Earth and cultivated to be its own ecosystem. In this park, and others like it, was a deviation: a total corruption of the natural energies of both their old and new worlds. A pocket of nature and natural manipulated by those with no thought to its place or its nature. It inspired a sense of unease in the priestess, and she drifted to sleep bathing in the spiritual turmoil it was certain to invoke in others. Others who refused to visit without really understanding what about the place forbade them from feeling at peace in it. With luck she might have nightmares in this place. Dreams in which she battles this cancer and comes to better know those who suffer from it.
One of the oldest traditions of witchcraft is "the Spoken Word Tradition". The tradition includes Words of Power--the ritual rhyming of spellcasting--mantras, and spoken reality. The statement "to speak" is evoking the spoken word tradition's ability to "speak their will into existence." It is the basis of modern religion's ritual of "prayer". The speaking of one's will into existence is the fundamental teaching of the tradition. Here, Aria is encouraging witches of that tradition to speak into existence positivity and is essentially the modern religion's equivalent of requesting to add someone to another's "thoughts and prayers". The difference is that to a witch, it's a statement. A demand. An enforcement of their will on the universe. Whereas to a modern praying religion such a thing would be a request of the universe. To "Speak" a far more active and assertive thing, than to "Pray" but otherwise only different in that subtle distinction.
Cancer is, in a nutshell, the genetic mutation of natural cells. When something inside them breaks, and stops being 'normal' in the body, to the point where the body declares it an enemy. In short, that's how Aria Summers sees the 'natural' environments artificially constructed and maintaind on the Vitae, and helps explain why the many 'weird' religious people on the vitae she cares for and presides over, haven't run amok in the common areas.
@AtlasRize I've been spending a lot of time reading stuff to get caught up. My engineering character is the Chief of Engineering, SFC Calhound. If you want to get a feel for what you're getting into, feel free to read any of the posts containing him. He's a bit eccentric and not overly attentive, so I don't mind if you use that knowledge in character as being observed first hand, or heard about in rumors.
About me as a player.
When I make a character I consider every aspect of the character—and the context of the universe it's in—from its nature and demeanor, to its ambitions and motivations; and quirks, strengths, and weaknesses. Did I need to say all that? No, not really, but I felt like correctly using 'and' five times in a sentence. The reason I give such consideration to these characters is because I come to RP to for the [i]challenge[/i] of [i]being[/i] someone other than myself. What I would do in a character's situation does not interest me, and it's not the point. Knowing the character as well as I know myself means I can do what the character would do and really feel the weight of those choices.
About me as an author.
I consider all play-by-post games I play in to be a form of interactive, co-authored stories, where in the characters all play a part; and as a consequence all authors play a part. When I engage in collaborations I try to make my character's goals and motivations as clear as possible to the other authors I'm engaging with, and trust they will respect the game and not [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metagaming]meta-game[/url] that knowledge (particularly: Using out of character knowledge to make in-character decisions). I've observed that this is the most difficult line for other players to walk and I find myself entering into collabs sparingly with anyone I've witnessed not delivering on a pattern of excellence in this regard.
About me as a person.
I have years of experience in LARP, Table-Top, MUDs & MMOs and more. I've been role-playing longer than the average millennial has been alive, and have played just about every kind of character—in every kind of medium—there is. I've also written a bit of fan-fiction ([url=http://www.fimfiction.net/user/LegionPothIX]FiMFiction[/url]) and original fiction, as well as served as a serious editor for both. I don't mention my experience to brag. It's just a fact. I'm not being modest either since I don't believe in it. Modesty and Arrogance are two sides of the same coin. Understating one's abilities is just as dishonest as overstating them. Doing either is a sign of insecurity, and a deception perpetrated with the intent to garner respect or sympathy. If I'm starting to sound like a super villain, well, there [i]is[/i] [url=https://www.16personalities.com/intj-personality]a reason[/url] why.
Character Sheet Thread.
[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/156722-legions-list-o-character-sheets/ooc]Legion's List o' Character Sheets[/url]
If you like Ponies, and my brand of RP, then why not read some of my [url=https://www.fimfiction.net/user/196581/LegionPothIX/stories]horse words[/url]?
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;">About me as a player.<br>When I make a character I consider every aspect of the character—and the context of the universe it's in—from its nature and demeanor, to its ambitions and motivations; and quirks, strengths, and weaknesses. Did I need to say all that? No, not really, but I felt like correctly using 'and' five times in a sentence. The reason I give such consideration to these characters is because I come to RP to for the <span class="bb-i">challenge</span> of <span class="bb-i">being</span> someone other than myself. What I would do in a character's situation does not interest me, and it's not the point. Knowing the character as well as I know myself means I can do what the character would do and really feel the weight of those choices.<br><br>About me as an author.<br>I consider all play-by-post games I play in to be a form of interactive, co-authored stories, where in the characters all play a part; and as a consequence all authors play a part. When I engage in collaborations I try to make my character's goals and motivations as clear as possible to the other authors I'm engaging with, and trust they will respect the game and not <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metagaming">meta-game</a> that knowledge (particularly: Using out of character knowledge to make in-character decisions). I've observed that this is the most difficult line for other players to walk and I find myself entering into collabs sparingly with anyone I've witnessed not delivering on a pattern of excellence in this regard.<br><br>About me as a person.<br>I have years of experience in LARP, Table-Top, MUDs & MMOs and more. I've been role-playing longer than the average millennial has been alive, and have played just about every kind of character—in every kind of medium—there is. I've also written a bit of fan-fiction (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" href="http://www.fimfiction.net/user/LegionPothIX">FiMFiction</a>) and original fiction, as well as served as a serious editor for both. I don't mention my experience to brag. It's just a fact. I'm not being modest either since I don't believe in it. Modesty and Arrogance are two sides of the same coin. Understating one's abilities is just as dishonest as overstating them. Doing either is a sign of insecurity, and a deception perpetrated with the intent to garner respect or sympathy. If I'm starting to sound like a super villain, well, there <span class="bb-i">is</span> <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" href="https://www.16personalities.com/intj-personality">a reason</a> why.<br><br>Character Sheet Thread.<br><a href="http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/156722-legions-list-o-character-sheets/ooc">Legion's List o' Character Sheets</a><br><br>If you like Ponies, and my brand of RP, then why not read some of my <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" href="https://www.fimfiction.net/user/196581/LegionPothIX/stories">horse words</a>?</div>
