User:Icie/Questions
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Questions asked by icie (
aicqt, northling, sighnari, versoul)
| Information | Question | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| #1
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2026-03-07 |
Could tighnari appeal to them to get access to their employee records (citing "this stuff keeps happening you need proper emergency response protocols and this is what I do") to do headcounts and get a handle on the org structure and attempt to identify those missing? He would also try to appeal to "the augmented are essentially employees of patho-gen who didn't get a say in the matter, we are invested in our lives here" Edited 2026-03-06 05:39 pm (local)
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This is a compelling argument, but staff members who Tighnari speaks to insist that they've not only already tried a headcount, but that each department has their own employee roll. If there's a complete list of all employees, someone much higher up—and unknown to most—has it, not them. Various departments have already identified missing employees, and of these, they're happy to share. However, they do appreciate the "we are basically one of Patho-Gen's employees" bit. Staff who Tighnari can get ahold of will try listing various names in their department who they know are missing—and goodness, there are a great number of them. Nobody whose name matters in the grand scheme of things, but Celia's mentioned a few times by various people, whether she's in their department or not. Claude, too, is mentioned at least once. The amount of people identified is enough to suggest that many staff members have been disappeared. "As you say, if you see yourself as being colleagues of ours, it's a good idea that you keep tabs on whoever's missing amongst the Augmented as well," they might advise, though not with any intended malice. "We must find them. I hope they're safe..." |
| #2
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2026-03-06 |
Is celia anywhere in sight at the initiation? If questioned about where she is will the staff know anything? Anything new about how the message from georges got there? | She is nowhere! They don't know where she is... Staff admit that a number of their coworkers were deeper in the building when it got overtaken, so they fear the worst. The Phenomenon was indiscriminate about who it swallowed up. Where they went, however... They're unsure. |
| #3
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2026-02-08 |
I'm going to have him accept the pact, thinking he can go the "cut it off" route (though it wouldn't work) if it's an issue. Would anyone from Patho-Gen be able to tell he had the pact and react to it? and does the pact offer any protection against arcane radiation while in kelesis? |
Good luck Tighnari.... But Patho-Gen wouldn't be able to detect whether he, or anyone else had pacted with Kelesis. There's that, at least. And as the pact does enhance all Augmented traits and abilities while in Kelesian territory, if the character was already particularly resistant (Golem, Spectral, Fungi), it would further increase that protection. And as 'greater resistance, compared to an unaugmented human' is a universal trait amongst the Augmented, it could provide a dash of added protection from arcane radiation to everyone else. (It would not make Terras, or other susceptible types more susceptible. The pact-enhancements are only in a positive direction.) Additionally, if a character were to fall properly sick from arcane radiation poisoning (challenging to do on accident, or without hugging Katalyth), the pact would help to mask symptoms, and make the experience more bearable. Which could be good or bad, depending. |
| #4
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2026-02-08 |
Are there any negative repercussions if someone pair-bonds to two people and those people hate each other (or more specifically, hate the other's relationship with that person)? | Oh dear... that's why it's important to be careful with pair bonds! While there isn't exactly a set penalty to this kind of arrangement, the character stuck in the middle of it is going to feel the full brunt of all that resentment. All that hatred, directed at someone they're so closely attuned to and attached to... and that it's over the relationship itself has got to be its own pain. It's bound to be deeply unpleasant. If it's not properly managed, it could put strain on the pair bond(s)- but how messy that is depends on what the players involved would like to happen! It could break one or both of them, unable to withstand the conflict, and render it unable to be reformed until the source of the problem is resolved. Or the bonds could stick, and every party could continue to suffer. Everyone loses, until that hatred is worked out somehow. |
| #5
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2026-02-07 |
Question about the empty underworld, if Northly was to shepherd off some more restless souls as she did some months ago on aparallaxia, would they be able to be observed arriving in the underworld in any way? | No, there would be no evidence of these souls managing to arrive to the underworld. They must be lingering as ghosts...? Or maybe they're being interrupted along the way? Hm hm. |
| #6
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2026-02-07 |
Would kelesis be at all open to the idea of an augmented acting as a double agent? Tighnari's skill set is even more skewed towards passive fights these days so positioning him amongst patho-gen to fill them with spores and make them trip would be a better use for him than direct attacks. Would they still want a pact with him? If so and he agrees, is that pact detectable by patho-gen? Does fungi soul mean he could potentially find a loophole in the pact (splitting his sense of self and having only some of his consciousness engage with the pact, then uh disconnecting |
While the guardians were expecting more of a direct assault to remove Patho-Gen from Kelesis... they can readily accept that there are multiple ways to achieve this. While they don't necessarily like underhanded tactics as a rule, they will accept it for a sufficiently good cause. They would insist on a pact should Tighnari suggest this method, however- both for his own sake (as it would protect him more from Calling) as well as their own (to ensure that he was not actually siding with Patho-Gen). Unfortunately, agreeing to the pact causes it to be etched into a character's underlying soul- the whole thing. Trying to segregate it off wouldn't work- and the guardians would be most upset if they caught on to this intended duplicity. Not agreeing to the pact would lead to no penalty from them- though they would warn about associating too closely with Patho-Gen on the battlefield. While they would not go out of their way to target Tighnari, if he showed signs of aggression towards them, they would retaliate. |
| #7
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2026-02-04 |
will it be possible to investigate the timing of (and motivation behind) the sudden attack on kelesis? because the last time there was shit happening and patho-gen were less than thrilled at the augmented showing up was the plant creature, and... yeahhhhh. depending on more of the specifics, tighnari is going to go full <img src="https://sighnari.dreamwidth.org/file/5921.png" width="200px" class="imageshrink-actualsize"> about: rogue plant augmented nixed as food source + kelesis interfering with the mt pneuma getaway = suddenly deciding to wipe kelesis off the map Edited 2026-02-03 10:13 pm (local)
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Oooh, a chance to investigate it... Hmmm. I'm trying to think about something that might tip off what caused Karteria to go down this path of attacking Kelesis. The answer is not a single source, though interest in Kelesis's underground is definitely a factor. But for this answer, I'm gonna focus on this: Some of this response is fueled by actions that the Augmented have taken since the start of the game. Certain parties seem to have inspired Karteria down a path of prioritizing its ability to defend its city... and to attack its foes. While Karteria's interest in Kelesis is a maintained, longer-term thing, this choice to attack isn't one that would've happened without that push... So, there's one bit. Evidence of that facet of what's going on... If a character chose to take advantage of the Spectral Madness in the city, they might be able to find correspondences if they break into the Counsel Offices, home of law enforcement and security. It'd be a lot of boring poring through papers and reports, but a conclusion could be deduced that there seems to be a greater inspiration towards defense preparedness of the city... despite there being no tangible threat? Who would attack Karteria, given the circumstances of the world?? Doesn't matter, what if someone attacks??? And what if Karteria needs to attack... someone? ?????? Really, it seems unnecessary, doesn't it. But they've been convinced of the fact that they need to be ready for something. ... In Patho-Gen HQ, of course, there might be some documentation that points towards Tighnari's suspicions: that laboratory beneath Kelesis is invaluable, and Karteria definitely had a hand in creating it. That they're being blocked from going to Kelesis is a move they disagree with, but the choice to attack isn't one they've always been prepared to do. Now they have all these cool Augmented to experiment on and to call to their aid, so things are really looking up for Karteria's ability to handle itself! |
| #8
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2026-01-06 |
does the extra katalyth-y katalyth give extra glitchy glitches to northly's glasses? and do the protective suits as worn by the patho-gen employees have any notable stats or do they glitch out just like katalyth (given it powers the barrier and it powers syntrofos it seems pretty darn likely that it's also in the protective suits.....) speaking of syntrofos though, do they work on syntrofos given there's katalyth in there? will she find anything that kataglitches when she's off thieving the rich with eli and gale? (gonna bring them to try and ID RARE and SUPER RARE and SUPER SUPER RARE items.) Edited (sorry for all the edits, keep thinking of new things...) 2026-01-05 09:04 pm (local)
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The special edition Katalyth is VERY glitchy. The glitches are glitching. The special Patho-Gen suits: their stats would be somewhat readable! Some parts might be redacted (and those parts are glitching in themselves), but it would be clear that they are excellent at protecting the occupant from Katalyth, while being abysmal for comfort, mobility, or fashion. The Syntrofos themselves: as a unit, they would have mostly normal, readable stats. A few words here and there might be glitched, but the stats as a whole would remain comprehensible. Katalyth glitching in other goods: anything that's malfunctioning, whether it's in Basileios or the rest of the city (but especially Basileios) will have accompanying glitchy text. But like the Syntrofos, it won't be enough to corrupt the entire reading (a refrigerator will still have fridge stats rather than garbage, computers will have computer stats, etc.) but the display is staticy and messy. (After this event has resolved itself, and everything is mostly running again- that glitchyness will remain. Everything is just a little bit more agitated, it seems.) The rich folks will have plenty of top-of-the-line fancy consumer goods, as well as solid antique varieties. But anything that's mechanical, and draws energy from something, might be malfunctioning (and therefore, have some distortion in the stats displayed). It's not everything- but it's common. Especially in anything Patho-Gen branded- and they are the most popular manufacturer. |
| #9
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2026-01-05 |
random and not at all concerning question don't worry about it: does patho-gen have protections around the teleporters inside their hq or would it be entirely possible to transport some big lumps of katalyth into pathogen via them and Demonstrate why it is perhaps not a good idea to do inhumane experiments on the augmented. | Northly... for the sake of this clearly very hypothetical question: no, Patho-Gen does not have those sort of safe-guards around their teleporters. They have no reason to expect- and therefore, prevent- someone from dumping loads of Katalyth on their doorstep. It could be done. It would set off alarms, however, as they do have things to monitor contamination levels- and a lot of Katalyth concentrated in one place would certainly trigger them. It would also set off more mundane alarms in the hearts of the staff. And more than that, as it will also result in a great amount of very sick staff, who are likely to ultimately die. That's a lot of arcane radiation for a normal human to suddenly be in the midst of, but it's an emergency and they can't exactly leave it laying around for even more to be exposed by. Once this happened, they would likely try to work out a means to reject/restrict sendings of mass amounts of Katalyth through teleporters. It may also result in greater restrictions to teleporter access in the near future. But it would succeed at least once. |
| #10
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-12-23 |
I think the answer is probably yes, but is it acceptable to have inspiration for a natural soul that is technically a person? specifically, xamaran is a giant glowing fungi that talks. it's an offshoot of the fungi-god of teyvat bifrons but I'm guessing the jadeplume terrorshroom is too much bird? |
Yes, taking inspiration from something like that is just fine! That's a perfectly good fungi. The birdshroom would also potentially be fine to use for inspiration, if the Aves-like aspects were limited to aesthetics. Actual Aves-powers would require an Aves-soul, but a bit of theming is okay. |
| #11
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-12-12 |
are the hallucinations from "My one true love...?" deceptive in nature? Or is it just like the rest of Kelesis, fake(/a dreamscape) but not deceptive? I imagine if the person appearing as the loved one had the intention of toying with or manipulating them that would ping Xiezhi's Insight as lying/guilty? |
Right, the hallucinations themselves aren't precisely deceptive, being more in line with the rest of Kelesis. The way characters are appearing to others isn't something they have control over, or active choice; there's no intent to deceive anywhere, so it wouldn't register as being lied to. But yes, should a character use that hallucination to manipulate, to actively take advantage of the illusion to pretend to be someone they're not- that would ping as deception, as lying. |
| #12
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-12-06 |
can augmented use Calling and can Calling be used on karterians or kelesians? | Calling appears to be a power that is innately Karterian, but characters who are versed in magic can likely learn some version of it. Yes! However, Calling magic strictly seems to work on animals of a non-primate persuasion, as well as plants and other natural phenomena. Suggesting that Calling be used on humans would cause Karterians to balk. (Cool double standard there, guys.) |
| #13
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-12-06 |
Does spending time within the Kelesian barrier mitigate the build-up of arcane radiation for Augmented in the way that spending time inside Karteria's does? (Basically can Tighnari avoid returning to Karteria longer by hanging out in Kelesis.) And if it doesn't, what happens? Exposure mutations at the same rate as if the Augmented was outside of Karteria for a long period? Edited 2025-12-05 03:25 pm (local)
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It does not, unfortunately, have the same effect as being inside the Karterian barrier. To be in Kelesis is in practice no difference from being in the wilderness. So exposure mutations would occur at the same rate as anywhere else outside of Karteria. Which should still take a good amount of time to build up, if the Augmented isn't alone out there. (Particularly long for Spectrals/Golems, while Terras naturally have it a bit harder, as usual.) |
| #14
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-12-02 |
Question about Golem's immunity to poisons, are they susceptible to, say, a Terra using their psychoactive powers to influence them (a thing that Golems are susceptible to) into believing they're experiencing an effect even if technically their brain is immune? basically talk them into getting drugged, for fun! or there's the mention of a healthy psychoactive terra being able to magically influence those around them, could that affect Golems? what about a spectral's ability to influence minds? Edited 2025-12-02 06:59 pm (local)
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That would be a way to drug a Golem! Sort of. Physically, they would remain unaffected, but they're still capable of thought, and very susceptible to suggestion. The more the Golem trusts or knows the Terra (and the more pushy or commanding the Terra), the better the effect. (As they are being influenced into it, how realistic/effective the experience would also depend on how familiar the Golem is with how it's 'supposed' to feel. If they don't understand what it's like, and the Terra doesn't guide their reactions along, it probably won't work as well.) Same goes for any other Natural Souls that have powers of influence: this ability to persuade is what's most effective for Golem-types, rather than any actual physical effects. (This could also work to a degree with actual poisons as well. Even though their bodies would be strictly unaffected, unable to be sickened, a particularly convincing Terra could fool them into 'feeling' unwell, weaker than they actually are. An extension of telling a Golem what to do, is telling them what they're feeling. Please be kind to your Golems....) Likewise, substances like alcohol may not work so well anymore for poor Golem-types who wish to get inebriated, but the power of placebo can do a lot! Merely believing that the substance they're drinking should get them drunk is enough to induce the effects, so the same can be true for drug, if the Golem-type has Expectations of the substance they're partaking in. All-in-all, no magic is even necessary for a Golem-type looking for a good time: only the ability to believe that they're being drugged. Of course, if someone attempts to slip drugs to an unsuspecting Golem-type, well... that does absolutely nothing. Thus: it's purely psychological. (And at each player's discretion to toy with. Golem-types are able to be snapped out of their inebriation readily if they jarringly realize "wait a minute, this can't be happening!" or if they have too many moments to themselves to ponder the physical feeling of their bodies... Whatever works for players to have a good time/be able to recover from feeling drunk/drugged.) |
| #15
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-11-17 |
Perhaps an odd question but, do Ruminantia augmented sense any deception in Kelesis? Or are they too distracted by the need to party etc. to notice either way? | The fact that it took this long to reply is a testament to us being ships passing in the night, but also having some disagreements, because it's a bit complicated. This is an answer for both Ruminantia and Arthropoda. Short answer: no. They do not overtly detect deception or lies by being in Kelesis, and the foremost impression would be that encouragement to have a good time (especially for the Ruminantia). It's very distracting. Past that, however... Any Arthropoda/Ruminantia who are truly zen, focusing on their surrounds, might detect... the inkling of something. A Ruminantia may feel a split-second need to gore, but one that quickly fades; this is not deception, but for a moment it might be mistaken as that. Similarly, Arthropoda won't be set on edge by their surroundings, if made to feel just a bit wary. But there are all kinds of factors that could cause their unease, right? Such as whatever-the-heck was going on underground? Now that that's blown over, by and large, these feelings of "is this deceptive?" may be more noticeable to characters who have built-in lie detection. There is no intent to deceive, but the feeling low-key exists all the same. And any time characters, regardless of their Natural Soul, focus too closely on their surroundings, they're generally snapped out of that hyperfocus and coaxed into a state of calm, or drowned out by a greater need to just... enjoy themselves, forget about whatever they were thinking to hard about. As far as interacting with the people of Kelesis go, however, it feels utterly honest. Conversations with them may run strange, but even if they stumble into an inconsistency, it's with no intent to deceive. When asked things, they are genuine about them. There is no single person who can be spoken to who will set off the deception button. |
| #16
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-11-07 |
would an arthropoda soul be able to detect who specifically was trying to call say, her bond-mate as part of the "detecting intent" part of their skillset? esp if she was perhaps riding on his back | Ooh, indeed. It'll be difficult, however. The interesting thing about the 'intent' of these parade-goers is that the 'intent' is fleeting before they actually try it, implying that it's very whimsy-sourced. They didn't come to the parade with the desire to try out magic tricks on the Augmented. It's more like a domino effect: the rumor's gone around, yes (its source cannot be traced but it's safe to assume it's some part of Patho-Gen responsible), and one person just... gets bored, and tries it out. Another person sees this and wonders if they can do it too. So while possible to find them through these means, it might just be easier to locate a Karterian focusing very hard. By the time they're done with the spell is when characters are sufficiently implanted with the urge, and at that point the 'intent' part is over. They'll probably look obvious by virtue of looking stupidly smug about the whole thing, too. If interrogated, their 'source' is a web of he-said-she-said. Their reason for doing this is because they were bored, and curious. Karterians are a curious-minded bunch, and a hypothesis deserves being tested! They will apologize, and say they won't do it again. They just had to see if it was true. |
| #17
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-11-07 |
if tighnari applies what he's learned about imprint generated power to what gale's learned about barrier creation, would he be able to have any success in making an imprint powered barrier? | As imprinting energy is a perfectly good form of energy (far safer than Katalyth), this would be a fine use for it, when combined with Gale's barriers and/or what science can collectively come up with to imitate it mechanically. It would still take a lot of imprints/pair bonds, and some work to refine/make efficient the collection and use of this power, but it has a lot of potential. |
| #18
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-11-07 |
Apologies for the silly question but do the books from AntINKquity come exactly as from their origin world or are they translated to the local language? | While most will arrive in the local Karterian language, if you'd prefer it to arrive in your character's native language, that can happen as well. |
| #19
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-10-16 |
okay, so. the native powers testing. if northly took her syntrofos out of her inventory during that and hid it in her clothing (probably bra or underwear, are they given bra or underwear under their tracksuits? if not then as hidden as she can make it under the band of her tracksuit bottoms) would she be able to get it back to her cell and try to send a message to anyone? could she keep it secreted long enough to pull it out to record the corrupted aves? and, if that immediately gets it confiscated regardless, what happens if she puts her collar in her inventory? also, on a different note, could cold storage facilities be created to freeze/preserve some of the terra under kelesis's produce for potential later consumption? on a different different note, if a terra type were to send roots down under karteria to the maximum depth it took to reach the deepest concrete in Kelesis, would they find anything under the city? Edited 2025-10-12 11:41 pm (local)
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| #20
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-10-16 |
Because Northly's inventory is designed for use by human players (and thus beholden to "but that's so annoying I should be able to" rules) she can make items appear from it in contact with any part of her or in contact with her equipped items (eg shoes) she wishes, and similarly put items in in that manner. Would that still decapitate her? And if so.... What happens if she decapitates herself? |
Unfortunately, these collars will still decapitate her with sudden removal; if it doesn't, it'll at the very least cause her to bleed out very rapidly. If she is decapitated or otherwise killed, she will undergo what all other characters who have died go through: inpatient care at Patho-Gen HQ after some surgeries. Her memories of the event will be even hazier than most characters, and staff will be told that she woke during augmenter adjustment and lashed out while surgical instruments were at her neck, thus causing this accident. She will also awaken with the full effects of a force-imprint with Patho-Gen, feeling beholden to protect them above all else. |
| #21
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-10-16 |
Thank you, mods! Would she still have the items in her inventory upon awakening? Or would the collar be mysteriously absent? (I can imagine patho-gen asking her for it post force-imprint and her just handing it over or similar) Oh and with the force-imprint, will that prevent her from being critical of patho-gen and make her go "brainwashing was done with our best interests at heart" etc? Totally fine if that's the case. She fucked around and is finding out! Will she have enough rationality about it to go "to protect them I should keep this from pom because he will go nuts" and does the fact that she has a pair-bond with pom affect the situation at all? Edited (Sorry for always having so many questions mods) 2025-10-16 03:11 pm (local)
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| #22
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-10-08 |
Rubs my hands together! thank you mods. I'm laughing because northly truly is perfectly placed for this as a friendly worker of a local business, and that it's at a sex shop would give her the opportunity to demonstrate her integrity (gently asking if someone actually wants to try something if they seem "I don't want to do this" nervous and not "this is unfamiliar/I don't want to talk about sex" nervous, etc) and being involved with the publishing process. if she staked out one of the places she put up paint/flyers, would she be able to catch people or servitons taking it down? (and take photos) |
The forces behind the takedowns are trying to be surreptitious about it, but it's not impossible to catch her messages being taken down/cleaned off if she's patient about staking out a place. There's no magic/technological force in play here: the 'culprits' are largely ServiTons owned by Patho-Gen, or petty criminals fulfilling their designated community service task. Neither exactly get much of a say when it comes to their assigned jobs, if for different reasons. The ServiTons will flail very cutely if interrupted but will desist (temporarily), and will certainly transmit who's interrupting them (as though Patho-Gen couldn't guess...). The criminals will get frustrated/ask to be left alone; they're the ones who'll get in trouble if they don't finish taking these things down. |
| #23
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-10-07 |
if they can get next to the cage, could they potentially touch one of those tail feathers? (to put it in her inventory... if her inventory is functional. despite her assertion that it's not magic, it absolutely runs on magic, just magic of the type her church didn't want to acknowledge.) and if her inventory is shut down by the "no powers" thing, does that make the items in it pop out? remain stuck in? also, is there any information about what peacock's name was before she was peacock (not her deadname if she has one, just pre-augmented name, unless that's a ""fun"" coincidence) Edited 2025-10-06 11:25 pm (local)
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Unfortunately, should a character draw too close, they will fall asleep. It's not possible to get near enough to reach in and take one of her feathers. Additionally, Northly's inventory wouldn't be available to her outside of the specific rooms where powers are deliberately allowed to be somewhat expressed. Peacock's cage is not one of those areas. While nullified, her inventory would remain 'sealed' rather than spill everywhere, inaccessible to everyone. Patho-Gen wouldn't be able to dig around in it either, unless her powers were returned. The peacock herself will not be able to respond should anyone ask for her name, or any other detail. She only seems capable of singing, and without language. Back in Karteria... historical records of Peacock never supply or suggest that she had any other name. It would be an odd choice (and odder coincidence) for it to be her only name, but nothing else comes up. Of course, references to her in archived papers or magazines don't describe her much as a person at all- only a figurehead, an ideal. Someone tragic and inspirational; everyone loves Peacock. If she had an identity before becoming an Augmented, it's been buried or rewritten. No one alive seems to know her as anything else. |
| #24
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-10-07 |
Sorry to be asking this every time someone new shows up but... Does she look like "Saran" at all? Would she react to either the name "Peacock" or "Saran"? | She will react to neither name, and does not look like Saran. |
| #25
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-10-07 |
do the locator earrings (from the treat rewards) give a reading to the other half when separated? | They do give a reading, which means the other earring still exists, at least. But they're at a great enough distance that they wouldn't be able to be tracked down this way. Which seems to indicate that they're not anywhere near Patho-Gen HQ, or even within Karteria. (Even if the paired earring was part of the characters' belongings that were confiscated, the confiscation (and the eventual reuniting) seems to have occurred also at this great distance.) |
| #26
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-10-06 |
I promise I was considering this even before the event included protests from the lower and middle classes, northly would like to try distributing flyers reading things like "THOUGHTS IN AUGMENTED MINDS NOW, THOUGHTS IN KARTERIAN MINDS TOMORROW", "DO YOU KNOW WHAT PATHO-GEN DOES?" "BLIND LEADING THE BLIND — HOW PATHO-GEN LIKES IT", "INFORMATION IS POWER: WHY KEEP AUGMENTED WEAK?" with a few key points about forcing augmented to participate in something purported to be for "reconciliation," the missing key staff (georges) and that the plant monster was a) augmented, b) what they've been eating 1. would she have been able to get those printed or would she have to do them by hand(/water magic)? 2. would she have been able to get any out prior to the kidnapping? (she's been percolating on how to start outright rebellion against patho-gen since she woke up post imprint experiment at the end of september, but I do totally get if that's not enough time) 3. if she painted these things on footpaths and the walls of abandoned buildings, would they stay up? 4. if she (politely) asked karterians to post photos of the flyers to their social media and share them, would they? (she would not do this while working, but would be willing to do things like pay or trade her feathers to karterians who agreed to in thanks) |
Northly out there spreading the good, if inconvenient, word.... 1. While most printing services would balk at printing such inflammatory materials (even if they sympathized with Northly and the Augmented- as they have been a largely beneficial force in these demographics), it wouldn't be impossible. Rather than printing these things officially themselves, they might look the other way- allow her use of the equipment after hours. Alternatively, she could just find someone who's not even paying attention, is not paid enough to give that many shits, and will print anything without a fuss. Either way, it could be done. 2. It's entirely possible that she could get this underway before the kidnappings, if she's been preparing the materials before then! 3. That said, these messages might have a hard time staying up for very long. Even though in the poorer parts of Karteria, other types of graffiti might be permitted to linger (as cleaning it up is beyond the resources anyone is willing to apply to it), these particularly anti-Patho-Gen messages have curiously short durations. Apparently fostering this kind of sentiment is worth the effort to cover up. 4. Northly might be able to get some of the locals to share her flyers. If there's anyone she's built any kind of rapport with, or is already particularly sympathetic to the Augmented (and there's plenty of those around, people who've been personally helped by them), they would be more likely to agree. And be horrified at what they're hearing, at that- as the average person really wouldn't know all that much about what the Augmented as a whole are going through, beyond the 'turning into animals' and 'being stolen from home' thing. |
| #27
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-10-06 |
and if the pair-bonded have recently caused havoc, will they be kept separated for the experiments, or is the bond study-worthy enough that they could be put in together. side note, but are any of the unsavoury comments made ("Can you believe we were originally supposed to use positive reinforcement?" etc) said where they can be heard by augmented and pinned down as belonging to one person in particular? (that might be enough to get northly to break her "cause problems but not actively fatal ones" stance.) |
It could go either way, depending on what the players prefer! It could be argued that they're too dangerous (even drugged) to be kept together, where they might try to conspire and incite one another into being even more trouble. It could be argued that they too dangerous to be kept apart, and for convenience's sake they might as well store them together if that'll keep them even remotely calmer. The aspects of their pair bond could be studied either together, or apart (does it influence the various treatments, their current conditions?). So really, it comes down to whatever you would find more interesting! The particularly unsavory comments like that occur exclusively around the kidnappees- and there is no lone individual responsible for them. All of the staff there seems similarly uninterested in the feelings of those they're testing. While some might be particularly callous, or utterly removed from empathy, others are more pragmatically indifferent (and might find it distasteful to be the ones conducting the more torturous tasks, even if they have no particular problem with it happening in the first place). It would be hard to single anyone out in this facility, as they're all culpable in their own way. |
| #28
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-10-02 |
Thank you, mods! sorry for the nuisance she's about to become. speaking of, if she enquires about "how about you never mess with the minds of augmented ever again, and failing that, never mess with my or pom's or the people I care about's minds <3" what sort of response will she get? and if she doesn't get that promise, and starts doing things like... sealing the entrances of patho-gen HQ with ice and other such total pain in the ass but not dangerous unless there's a fire (or plant monster) inside demonstrations of her displeasure with their decision, what happens? she's also going to refuse any instructions to do community service (and if they mess with her head to try and make her do it, or worse make pom do it.... well. the second that stops she will be flooding every inch of every patho-gen office until she passes out) |
Oh dear. Northly... this is not good behavior and not a good example for your fellow Augmented! Even though some may recognize that she's motivated out of concern for loved ones, that is a lot of trouble she's prepared to cause. Depending on who she talks to, the more sympathetic of Patho-Gen's staff would at least try to mollify her. These are also the ones least familiar (or responsible) for the "behavioral modifications"/mindfuckery that are placed on repeated aggressors like Pom (and soon to be Northly). From their perspective/understanding, the most that's been done is a bit of sedation to help with panic, and they don't really understand why she's this upset about it. They know that sometimes more bestial behaviors get the better of even the most respectable of Augmented, and surely it's better to keep them from hurting themselves or others until they calm down? Of course, even at its most optimistic, none of that is a promise (and it's a bit unintentionally condescending to boot)... and if Northly starts acting up, she would be some combination of spoken to/knocked out/artificially calmed down/put into Augmented jail (time out with Patho-Gen), as they try to figure out what to do with her (bureaucracy is a problem, the complication of different people with different authorities and perspectives trying to come up with an answer here). (For longer consequences/outcomes, it should probably be laid out after October's event (at least the kidnapping part), whether Northly is amongst those taken or not. Since it also has to do with trying to curb/control/rewrite some of these inconvenient Augmented behaviors...) |
| #29
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-09-26 |
+1 to the "will flip right out if not immediately able to see the one they're bonded to" crowd! sorry x2 |
While Northly doesn't (yet) have the same reputation with Patho-Gen as Pom, she is rapidly ascending the list of troublesome patients. While some staff question the sense of putting two dangerous people together, others point out that they are studying the power of imprints/pair bonding, and this is certainly an example of it. After her initial outburst, Northly would be put to nap, and likely additionally sedated for everyone's safety. But they might give in and put her and Pom together, to see whether some genuine calm manifests underneath the artificially inspired compliance. As noted in the reply to Pom, they would be allowed to leave once things have stabilized somewhat, but before the calming drugs have entirely worn off. |
| #30
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-09-26 |
Are there fish to be caught in the strait between orexis and eparsis? what about in rivers or any of the lakes? northly has a hungry carnivora to feed! unrelated, but I don't know that I've asked it amongst my many soul questions, does katalyth show anything in soul sight? anti-soul? Edited 2025-09-25 11:48 pm (local)
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There are indeed fish! It's not an amazing bounty of fish, and it looks like there has been some underlying problem for some time (likely related in some way to the unknown quantities of Katalyth laying on the ocean floor). Most fish run towards the small, as though they're just not managing to live long enough to grow to significant sizes. It is also not uncommon to find mutations in their flesh, though they're largely harmless enough- such as extra eyes (including eyes on the inside of their bodies), distorted fins, or extra appendage that look a lot like very small legs? They remain safe to eat, however, and Northly may freely fish for her Carnivora. She's not likely to put a meaningful dent into the failing population.... Katalyth does not register as anything at all to soul sight. Whatever all is wrong with it, it does not (yet?) seem to have grown anything like that. While it is a bundle of miserable replicating energy (that could be seen by any character who's sensitive to that sort of thing), it is not 'alive' in the sense of possessing a soul. |
| #31
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-09-20 |
question about the imprinting experiment! if a (helpful, respectable, scientific) mind wanted to see if they could replicate the experiment, would that be at all possible or does it require patho-gen tech/resources? | The Patho-Gen machines themselves would be a difficult thing to replicate, and they would be rather guarded about their proprietary technology. They'd been working on developing these tests for some time, after having first learned of the existence of these invisible bonds. And to potentially harvest this power... (for the good of the world, of course; understanding how it further bolsters a protection against arcane radiation, and even provides energy would be a boon to everyone!), well, they would rather not it fall into outside hands. Which isn't to say that the process (or at least a process) isn't replicable elsewhere. Even if Patho-Gen wouldn't allow even a very polite and responsible Augmented to use their machines, a capable and determined character could probably develop their own version of it. With all the different magics characters and their Natural Souls possess, it's not at all impossible that they could come up with something if they tried. Harnessing the very scientific power of friendship is a worthy goal for anyone. |
| #32
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-09-12 |
are there augmenters(/small pieces of metal that appear to be made by people) within the golems under kelesis or within the plant monsters? and what's the airflow situation under kelesis? is there air coming in from anywhere other than the two entrances pointed out? is the ground of the tunnels also concrete, or is there dirt? oh and can terra augmented manipulate the plants down there at all? is the lunar eclipse this month visible in karteria? Edited 2025-09-08 10:16 pm (local)
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There do happen to be Augmenters... or at least small pieces of metal within both the Golems and the plant monsters. Not every Golem remnant will have one, though given their bodily composition, it's possible that anything that had been there has since fallen out, to be irretrievably lost in the general filth of the place (or simply broken and/or consumed by something else). They are very small things. The airflow situation isn't great. Characters might find remnants of collapsed ventilation shafts that are clogged more with vegetation than air. Some of the broken, ruined machines might have had something to do with filtration but they're doing nothing now. The plants themselves seem to be the source of most of the 'breathable' air down there. The two entrances are the only sources of fresh air the tunnels have seen in some time. The ground is also concrete, but there's layers (and layers) of decaying plant matter, dirt, grime, bone, insect slurry, etc., on top of it. It ranges from being a few inches thick to over a foot in depth. It also ranges from 'uncomfortably squishy' to 'uneasily firm'. Terra Augmented can manipulate the plants! It's not always successful, or easy to maintain control- as there's other consciousnesses involved, and they will notice what they're up to and not appreciate it. It would be like a Terra trying to control the growths of another Terra. Possible, but a constant battle if there's resistance. Some of the smaller, more distant growths would be easier to 'steal' control of. The lunar eclipse would be visible! It is safe to assume that RL lunar phenomena like eclipses will also occur in game for convenience. (If there is ever any deviation with this- which would likely be in the addition of some sort of unusual phenomena- it would be noted specifically in event information.) |
| #33
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-09-12 |
Ty! And does the ruminantia lying themself ping the compulsion? | A duplicitous Ruminantia could find themselves feeling that same compulsion directed at themselves. Unfortunate... though at least it's somewhat more difficult to gore oneself, leaving the compulsion as an uncomfortable itch, a nagging sense of dissatisfaction. |
| #34
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-09-08 |
With the ruminantia compulsion to "skewer the guilty" is that specifically guilty or "person who lied"? | For Ruminantia, Xiezhi's Insight is primarily a sense for being actively lied to in the moment. However, they may be capable of sensing a particularly corrupt individual—the kinds of people whose lives are built on lying or performing injustices to others. 'Injustice' can be such a fickle thing, as the definition of justice varies from one character to the next. In this case, the character who the Ruminantia-type is currently judging would either be lying, or in the midst of performing something that the Ruminantia-type themselves considers to be unjust. |
| #35
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-09-06 |
Thank you mods!! And apologies in advance for all the damage she's gonna do. Will there be any punishment for doing a lot of damage? And apologies if you're getting to this question later, no rush, but do characters (particularly those who were on dig team or tried writing back to the words) still feel watched in kelesis? Edit: additional question, would there be anything odd to note about the doe-eyed stranger if recorded on syntrofos? (tighnari's been getting used to whipping his out to record as much weirdness as he can, such as at the welcome speech.) What if someone was in Kelesis already (leading dig things and stretching the "only two nights" to three and four), would the doe-eyed stranger appear to Tighnari at dig squad HQ on the morning of the fourth? Edited 2025-09-06 12:48 am (local)
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There's a part of Patho-Gen that anticipates this kind of response from characters, so punishment won't be as stark as it could be. These are very volatile specimens, these Augmented. The punishment won't be considered 'premeditated' by the collective Karterian standard (which, as a refresher, premeditation to Karterian society is worth a more severe punishment in general), so if a massive amount of damage is done during the imprinting exercise, the character'll obviously 1. get shut down, 2. wake up in a high-security hospital room where Patho-Gen claims they're "monitoring their Augmenter for strange readings that may have caused the outburst", and then 3. issued some manner of community service to atone for their crimes. Damage a sciencey room, make it up to the whole of Karteria by helping other people out. Characters will still feel watched in Kelesis, yes. There isn't any sense of malevolence or upset, even toward the dig team. Kelesian reputation is still high! 💖 Doe-eyed stranger: they can be recorded like anyone in Kelesis, and the same sorts of Kelesis-patented video distortion may still affect their physical form. The doe-eyed stranger may indeed visit Tighnari at any point that is convenient to you to relay the same message, all before managing to steal away. What's important is that the Kelesian Mystery Person will only dispense this same amount of information, and no matter what, will manage to get away. As an un-asked for detail: Trying to physically restrain them or anything will fail. They will escape without a fight. If a character decides to attack them, restrain them, etc, the Augmented One aggressing them will...... get kicked out of the city for a day. Begone. Think about what you've done in time out. Edited (can't keep my city names straight) 2025-09-06 09:17 pm (local)
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| #36
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-09-05 |
If our characters would never offer themselves up to be studied by patho-gen, will the same compulsion that encouraged the augmented to investigate the bridge back in... june? be in place for the imprinting study? and if yes, at what point would the compulsion wear off — immediately after having reported to patho-gen and performing the test(/breaking the machine)? and if it would wear off inside... how much damage could an augmented's natural soul based water magic (in the hands of someone who was basically a water god in her world) do before pathogen kill switch her? (asking because I don't wanna break the setting, but she would flip her ever-loving shit and conjure a lot of water. she probably won't intentionally kill anyone, but... ice needle iron maidens up to their necks on all patho-gen staff present (which she will then freeze to them using any blood from them grazing against the needles) is a distinct possibility.) does being near someone she's nearly pair bonded with have any impact on the effectiveness of the kill switch and would they take pom down at the same time as her, just to be safe, or would he have to do something actionable? Did the doe-eyed individual look anything like the drawing of "Saran"? How does the feeling of being watched go in the new kelesis places? what would happen if the augmented ask pathogen staff about the fact that a) If requested, would the patho-gen staff provide a copy of the video shown at the initiation? could they also provide copies of the other broadcasts? Edited 2025-09-05 01:24 am (local)
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Characters who would never voluntarily turn up might just feel that odd inclination to comply, to see what their good friends at Patho-Gen want from them. Once they're there, it could start to wear off whenever the player would like- whether that means remaining vaguely tolerant through the whole experience, or whether they immediately want out once they're inside and the tests have started. That level of violence though... a character could certainly manage to do some harm if they're abrupt enough about it, but there will always be someone observing out of range to shut her down before she drowned all of Patho-Gen (and ruined their poor machines, which have done nothing wrong). But she could do a fair bit of damage before she was stopped if she was fast enough. Having Pom with her specifically might leave the scientists that much more cautious during the test- though their wariness would be focused more on him. Because it's Pom, they would definitely knock him out with her (though if he doesn't try to do anything violent in that time, it would be no additional mark against him... but they're not taking chances, given how he's nearly killed a scientist before). However, with the strength of a pair bond in play... it's not enough to negate being shut down entirely. Once the button is pressed, they will go unconscious, but it will take a few more seconds! This will certainly alarm everyone watching, and further underline that this is a different phenomena, related to but distinct from imprinting. (For later reference: this resistance to being shut down can occur even when the pair are at a physical distance from one another, but is more effective when they're within the same room/can see what's happening.) As for whether the Kelesis figure looks like Saran... sort of. It's not a perfect match, or even particularly close, but there might be some aspects that are a little familiar. Were characters to ask Patho-Gen staff about the plant monster, they would refuse (or be unable) to answer either question. The average low-level staff would be telling the truth that they don't know, for characters who are capable of discerning that sort of thing, but they might feel more uneasy about it, harboring their own personal suspicions. But they would be unable to confirm it, saying only that it was under investigation. Any mention of the Kelesis hell pit would be met with confusion. Were a character lucky enough to catch the right person (someone higher up in the food chain, but even then it's a bit hit-or-miss as to who knows what), they would also reiterate that it was being investigated. But it could be possible to pick up that there's some manner of discomfort in regards to any hell pits. But there would be no one willingly saying anything. Unfortunately, the staff would be unable to provide a copy of (any of the) videos shown during Initiation. They're likely to be somewhat apologetic about it, if bewildered at the request. They would suggest turning up for the next scheduled Initiation if they would like to see it again, but they don't have access to the recording themselves. |
| #37
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-09-01 |
How big are the bits of katalyth on squid-chan? obviously not something to do all at once, but if someone were to (gingerly, with a fingertip, for a single moment) touch a piece and put it into her inventory to remove it from the squid, would that be possible? | They are somewhat variable in size, from uncomfortably large chunks longer than an average human's forearm, to uncomfortably small chunks the size of a fingernail. Touching any of it remains a bad idea, but if someone (Northly) understood/ignored the warnings in that regard, so long as she were quick about not staying in direct contact with it, she could slide a piece into her inventory without too much trouble. The squid would no doubt benefit from a thorough cleansing of Katalyth, but every bit removed helps. |
| #38
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-09-01 |
Is there any wildlife inside kelesis? | There is, and it's of the expected variety you would find in a city. Pigeons (every world has pigeons), sparrows, finches, gulls, maybe a few swans, squirrels. A very occasional raccoon, charmingly buried in a residential trashcan. Plenty of insects- and Kelesis is doing very well in that regard, compared to Karteria (which has seen a sharp drop off of insect life over the years, and a corresponding decline of all else). A deer might wander into someone's back garden at the outskirts of the city. All the animals are normal and very safe to eat. |
| #39
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-08-23 |
Would there be any change to "saran" on the kelesians if the augmented who can't read were to view them? Would they get pictograms? | They would get their own personal Saran interpretation! It would look a bit like something you'd find in an illustrated fairy tale book for children. Because of that (and that it's appearing on someone's skin), it'd be hard to get too much detail out of it, but it looks almost certainly human. A human of indeterminate age, but leaning feminine. Sometimes they look happy; sometimes they're drawn with dark circles on their face, a simple representation of arcane radiation poisoning. |
| #40
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-08-17 |
With northly's natural soul being a pīwakawaka, I'm having her ability to use orpheus' song very weak (essentially only able to use it in kelesis or other places where it's boosted) to have a strong version of Furies' sight, linked to pīwakawaka mythology. Since furies' sight allows requesting help from the dead, and pīwakawaka mythology has them carry the souls of the dead to the afterlife/homeland, I figure if there was a.... Soul level desire she could pick up on it. Eg if a human was kept alive for hundreds of years she'd be able to pick up that the soul wants rest, or if a soul was trapped or not matching the person it was attached to, she could pick up the distress or discomfort, and when not anchored to a person/animal/host she could carry them, including to the void (afterlife). She couldn't have a full blown conversation with a soul, or anything that sophisticated, but tugging at them a little to see if they're properly linked to the body yes, alerting them to that she's paying attention, potentially, and sensing basic desires (particularly around where they want to be) yes. Does that work okay? Totally happy to adjust if need be! |
Belated response, but yes, that would be totally fine as a power she could have, a bolstered version of Furies' Sight and a weaker Orpheus' Song to balance. (Apologies for forgetting this fun trait of Northly's, we definitely know about this but it can be a lot to keep track of!) And the information she would receive would remain largely the same- though she might also pick up then on the souls not necessarily belonging to the people she's talking with in Kelesis. The people do not seem aware of this, and the souls themselves are not distressed- that sense of contentment is genuine. They do not wish to be anywhere else. Whatever sort of situation is going on here, no one seems to be unhappy about it. |
| #41
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-08-17 |
so, plant monster pieces, could they be grafted onto a terra type? (obviously a terrible idea, but....) In the tunnels the augmented are digging under Kelesis, do they get the "cannot stay longer than a week" feeling? Tighnari will try to enforce "go home and get some rest" protocols for the volunteers so that no one is staying outside the confirmed effective barrier of Karteria too long. But some experimentation might be conducted. (Him. He will stay. In the name of science.) Edited 2025-08-17 12:30 am (local)
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Grafting bits of plant monster onto yourself... please be more responsible, Terra-types. But yes, it's possible to do this, though not safely. So long as the character remained in daylight conditions, the grafted part would act as the whole tree does, and continue to grow uncontrollably. (As it is no longer a part of the host tree, there would be no emotions accompanying this growth. It would just be mindless, aimless production. It would also not zombie-fy the Augmented, as there are no seeds, no souls involved anywhere.) The character would have to act relatively quickly to re-sever anything they'd attached to themselves, before they ended up properly consumed by it. (Oddly, these grafted bits, once severed, will resume being inert, as they would not contain a root system of their own (that part being essentially supplied by the Augmented). Additionally, grafting these pieces to normal flora- not Terra-type Augmented- would not demonstrate that same unrestrained growth. It would be far more difficult for them to take, but the process would otherwise operate normally.) In the tunnels: characters will not feel that nagging sense of 'please go home'! They might feel it anyway because it's just unpleasant to be down there, but the spaces underneath Kelesis count as outside of Kelesis. You could live down there indefinitely if you could manage the logistics and were motivated to do that for some reason. |
| #42
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-08-17 |
simple syntrofos question that I realised I didn't know, apologies if this is answered somewhere and I missed it: do the screens work with gloves on? how about if your finger is wood/stone/spectral/scaled? | It is sort of a mix, actually! Normal gloves might have trouble unless they're those special touchscreen-gloves, but direct touch with an Augmented's body will work, even when those bodies have been converted to mineral, or are covered with scales, and so on (though long claws or talons might pose their own challenges...). Even fully intangible Spectral-types can somehow maintain a network presence. The marvels of technology! However, were characters to borrow/steal a Syntrofos from an NPC, their screens would have significantly more trouble registering a touch through scales, and would straight up not recognize stone/wood/ghost as anything at all! It seems like the Augmented's Syntrofos have been modified somewhat to make them more sensitive to their peculiar bodies- or it's registering their presence in some other way, somehow. |
| #43
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-08-13 |
thank you! I didn't think it would be that but it's a little thing to have her look into at some point. though actually... if she were to try and communicate with the souls of the people of kelesis, would that be any different to communication with the kelesians themselves? do they seem to desire anything? do they seem to be connected to the bodies? And bit of an off the wall question but: what're the demographics like? Are there children? Old people? Pregnant people? Newborns? Dying and sick people? I'm particularly interested in newborns, pregnant people and sick/dying people. While filming with syntrofos in Kelesis, do the "DOWN. DIG DEEPER. HELP THEM." messages appear on the Kelesians, and if they do, do they quickly disappear once captured on the syntrofos as they do when augmented read them directly? While the augmented doing the filming is deliberately not observing the kelesians (eg they have their eyes closed)? oh, and a few more things to try writing to the watcher, after writing "where are you?" again (and presumably getting "watching you" back) "do you judge?" "do you love?" "where are we?" "where are they?" and I'll... have to find... a character who knows the concept of heaven and hell... to ask some more things..... Edited 2025-08-11 09:23 pm (local)
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For communicating with souls... is this something Northly can do naturally? Aves-types have the ability to see souls, and any corruptive influences upon them, but can't necessarily interact with them. If she can commune with souls (or if any other character with that ability tries): it would be first met with silence, and then a kind of mental static. There's no specific thought behind it, but it might impress a general sense of contentment, that all is well. But this is just for the 'ambient' soul-presence. If this is attempted on a person right in front of them, there would be no response, no reaction from any soul, and the person would fail to notice that anyone was doing anything at all. The demographics of Kelesis are similar to that of Karteria. Humans, of all skin tones and ages. There are the elderly, there are children, there are pregnancies (and presumably births). There is probably the cycle of life, though the Augmented will never witness anyone actually dying. There are also no observable hospitals, though there are a couple small clinics at the edges of the inner ring of the city. Any patients waiting inside don't seem to be suffering from anything worse than fevers, colds, and the rare broken bone. Were a character to come in for treatment, they would be directed back to Karteria.... A modest graveyard does exist within the leftish-half of the Kelesian circle, nestled within the residential ring. It is even reachable, unlike the government, though given the difficulty in mapping anything outside of the center of town, being able to consistently find it might be a challenge. Spectrals (and anyone else with a strong connection to the dead) could notice that no one's been buried recently, i.e., that there's no death in this graveyard. Trying to dig up any grave is a crime, and would have the character ejected from Kelesis for a few days. The gravestones themselves are well-maintained, there's flowers lain nearby that never seem to decay, and there's no names written on anything. No one is particularly sick in Kelesis. The population is overall much healthier than that of Karteria. There's the occasional cold, a polite cough, a tragic sneeze- and the friendly gripe about it all. Someone might have a broken arm in a sling; the old often walk with a cane. But they are unreasonably hearty. For capturing the messages written on the Kelesians: they do disappear just as quickly even if they're only 'seen' by the Syntrofos, and not the Augmented directly. They can be immortalized in film (or, rather, electronic data), though the original message might be slightly different. The font might change, or 'down' might become 'help'. Nothing new, but distinctly not what might have been there at first. Further attempts to communicate with anything watching does not seem to generate any additional response. A sense of being watched might increase, along with a distant sense of fluster... maybe this is a lot of interrogating to happen all at once. |
| #44
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-08-13 |
oooo, does northly's inventory count as (essentially) "inside" her as eaten food would be? Or would the happenstance that causes food to be knocked from hands etc. before leaving kelesis happen at the point where she would put it into her inventory? |
Carrying around food in her inventory would count as it being 'eaten', as it is contained, consumed by this alternate space. When taken out again outside Kelesis, it will still be there, and recognizable. ...though it'll all be in a strange jumble, as though it had been shaken apart mid-flight, possibly smearing crumbs and ketchups all over anything else she might have been carrying around in there at the time. It is, at least, not digested. And besides being a mess, it is very much normal, edible, definitely real food. |
| #45
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-08-13 |
Tighnari is organising and conducting explorations under Kelesis. His intention is to (himself + any other terra volunteers, I use "he" below just for convenience) see exactly where the wailing is noticeable and strongest and map that. He's not trying to get through the concrete again, but the "dig deeper" messages mean he's thinking he's being directed under the concrete. He particularly wants to know if there's a point outside Kelesis' barrier where it's noticeable. so here's the plan for what he's intending to do, (this will take a significant amount of time, he's intending for this to be most of his month though he will be caught up a bit with the plant stuff):
This is all without having breached the concrete yet. Having passed out previously and now involving other people, he's going to approach that part cautiously. (Him passing out: fine. Others passing out: reckless and unnecessary.) Edit: given the answer to "is there a map" tighnari will sigh deeply about the apparent shifting and do his best to log it, but keep his basic plan of using the compass points and ordinal points the same. ((saying "root" and "rooting" this much is a time when I'm from nz)) (((also thank you mods, this is so fun!!))) Edited 2025-08-09 07:16 am (local)
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At least when it comes to mapping... the further down one goes, the less anything seems to change. Tunnels that are dug one day, will still be there the next (barring any sort of collapse, though that wouldn't be the work of anything in Kelesis). It's only the city above (and particularly, the parts of Kelesis outside of its inner ring of business, and along the waterfront) that resists being properly catalogued. So Tighnari and his crew could certainly map their way underneath, and given the way they're doing it, should face little interference from the Kelesian population. The wailing is detectable outside Kelesis and the barrier, but it is quieter, indicating that it is at something of a distance. But it is there. Concrete does extend this far out, but not by much. How far down they have to go to reach the concrete at any point within the city is variable. At some points it is relatively shallow- and at others, they would have to dig quite far in order to order to hit it. Through all of their hard work, they could discern that it's not just one concrete mass, but a whole network of pre-existing tunnels. And more than tunnels, but spaces suggesting of 'rooms'. These structures are... large, and are arranged in a way that suggests something more nest-like, or underground-habitation-like, rather than, say, a sewer system, or subway system. The room spaces are where the emotions are at their most furious and miserable, thus contain the most wailing. There isn't one singular point where they're at their worst, but instead a multitude of nodes, each radiating out into the concrete tunnels. There are potentially... quite a few hell pits altogether, further suggesting that piercing through the concrete and going inside should be done carefully (next month, but the efforts characters make towards this end may provide which entry points are available/most viable, thus determining The Immediate Danger Level(TM)). |
| #46
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-08-11 |
The kelesian souls, do they look anything like a soul under the influence of a compulsion or illusion or similar? so if northly started thinking "maybe the colours are how status conditions are displayed in this world" and then checked in with different types of augmented about what powers they have that could apply status conditions and did some experiments to see how they made souls look, would she find any matches? also do the souls of those permanently blinded on the solstice look different to the other citizens? |
Kelesian souls: They appear like average souls. Those with soul sight like the Aves-types may see souls in Kelesis as particularly distorted... Extra reflections of a soul where there is nobody one moment, but the next moment it's gone. The entirety of Kelesis seems to be a bit more kaleidoscopic to soul seers! Sorry for the headache. The souls of the blind: These souls appear average, too! What a novel approach, though, to wonder if color indicates status conditions... Were that it were so simple. For characters with soul sight, they'll find that the 'color' of someone's soul is reflective of an abstract quality of their character, more than anything. |
| #47
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-08-09 |
Is there a map of kelesis? Tighnari is making one (he has experience in this from using and making jungle maps) to use for hell pit research, but a head start would be good. He will attempt to verify the map information before using it since he heard about weirdness accessing kelesis. |
Properly mapping Kelesis may prove to be a challenging feat, as while the general structure of the city remains the same (especially the center of it and the waterfront, which is where the shops are, and where the Kelesians direct everyone to go), the rest of the city is... oddly unstable. There are streets, neighborhoods, districts. And to fly over it, it would seem 'normal', with the distant borders of Kelesis reachable. To walk through it, it would also appear 'normal', though it would take longer than it should to reach the edges of the city this way. What is less normal is that the streets themselves aren't always in the same place. The differences are mild- such as an alley occurring a block later on one day, and a block sooner on the next. The sides of the street may be switched. There might be one more rowhouse in a strip of them. Just... maddening little differences, inconsistencies. Things that would make properly mapping it out... challenging. The Kelesians notice none of this, and seem to have no problems navigating to and from their homes. If they're asked about this phenomena, they'll have no idea what the character is talking about, and will suggest that their streets are a bit confusing to a newcomer! One more reason to stay in the center of the city, where all the entertainment is.... |
| #48
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-08-07 |
Thank you mods!! This is all so juicy and delighorrifying. If an aves looked down the hole to the rotting abyss with soul sight, what would they see? If digging/probing with rooting was done just outside of kelesis, and then incrementally closer to the inside of kelesis, could the hell pit (working title) be mapped? not looking to open up more than one hole, just see if it's possible to tell where the edges are. how do the kelesians respond to the hole to the hell pit? how deep down is the concrete/hell pit, deep enough that it should be a hell tunnel more than a hell pit? What font is the warning about the light in? Are the "sorry" and "help" that follow the sores in comic sans? What about the "dig deeper"? and on a different tack: If a character was to try to write back to the thing putting messages on people by writing on themself (first with just a marker, then by uh, sharper means,) would that do anything? writing things like "who are you?" "where are you?" "what are you?" If (after the plant monster happens) someone were to try to interrogate patho-gen employees about how they received communication from kelesis about them having a solution to the food shortage, what would they say? Edited 2025-08-07 03:40 am (local)
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Aves gazing at hole: Yes... there are faint lights down there. <img src="https://emos.plurk.com/ae614ee6e6d6035afb3ad867b80774e3_w24_h21.png" class="imageshrink-actualsize"> Digging/probing outside of Kelesis for edges: This is doable, and frankly, advised. Another character may be doing much the same... It might be a safer way of entering than from above, especially if it means less light can enter. Kelesian response to hell pit: We're calling it hell pit now. If digging in the heart of the city, Kelesians get a little huffy about this disturbance to their city. They don't want to know what Augmented Ones are doing, and get a little glassy-eyed about it. It's not for them to unearth. They're living the good life. Digging far enough to release the Foul Stench may cause any nearby Kelesians or businesses to request that it be covered up, it's gross. Hell pit depth: It is deep. But it is more accurately a... hmm. Well, trust: it is deep, and we prefer hell pit. It is not cylindrical in shape, that much is for sure. Fonts & warnings: So the warning about cracking a hole in the hell pit isn't a physical marking the way other writings are. It's a gut feeling... even if it's implanted. It's like someone is reaching into character's minds and planting that thought there, though characters may well be aware that this isn't a thought of their own. As for the "sorry" and "help," they may appear in all sorts of fonts, comic sans included! Dig deeper is similarly in all manner of fonts. Passing notes on faces: This is cute. Most attempts to write messages back will go unanswered. "Where are you," however, gets the response: "WATCHING YOU." If characters seem disturbed by this... Um, a little smilie is tacked on. Patho-Gen interrogations, post-plant: Most Patho-Gen staff will be completely, utterly floored by... all of this. It will be hard to get answers from any of them, because many available staff members flat-out don't know the details. It's beyond their department, perhaps; for those who do deal with these kinds of things, they'll say that the communication didn't happen recently at all, and there's no reason to hide that fact. There was no communication to start with, but Patho-Gen had collaborated with Kelesis very long ago—within the past 50 years—to create a solution to potential famine. (Potential famine, when famine didn't exist... Why, one may ask? Conjecture is the response: well, things were starting to look bad, and Katalyth was spreading faster in Eparsis, so Patho-Gen reached out to help.) Thus, if these old solutions still existed, it would be a great boon! And given that they found the food, it still exists! The communication established after Augmented Ones finally reached Kelesis... Available staff who might know of this communication with Kelesian officials say that their answer was to guide them to their ample resources. Where these resources are... No available staff knows. One staff member makes an off-hand comment. One of their cohorts did know. ...They haven't seen this person since mid-July. |
| #49
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-08-06 |
The thing under kelesis seems to be telling augmented to get down there, can terra types get past the concrete now? What would an attempt now get them? What if they tried to team up with some golems to use their force on the concrete? (as soon as tighnari hears about the messages, he'll give rooting another go, though will try to quit before passing out this time) is the effect of last month where the augmented are corrupted more when in kelesis still happening? the distorted people parts that seem to be in the plant, do they happen to correlate at all to the parts that were missing from the gristly piles of people bits from the east sophians, or are they too plant-squished to tell? Is there anything to be found in Kelesis or Karteria about the founding of Kelesis and how infrastructure came about? Tighnari is replying to the network event asking for these, and he's going to try researching it now it's occurred to him. Edited 2025-08-06 08:23 pm (local)
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Re: digging. Indeed, some force is now encouraging Augmented Ones to get down there. Previously, digging too deep wasn't exactly welcome by the city's officials, given the headaches and the passing out; they weren't sure how to feel about the Augmented right away, but now Kelesis's higher-ups seem to be trusting of them. Digging is now possible. It will take time. To dig deep will eventually lead to a very thick wall of concrete, and Terra-types will have to probe for areas of weakness in the concrete to begin with. Even then, it will take a lot of tapping into their Shifted forms to get far, and having the help of other Natural Soul types wouldn't be remiss. Get a Ruminantia's/Glire's kick in the mix; get a Golem's force on the force (ha ha). Get the strength of a Cephalopoda's tentacles in the mix, and so on. Here's the tricky bit, however. As soon as characters get close to erupting through the concrete, any participants are plagued with a very prominent concern: "DO NOT EXPOSE IT TO LIGHT." The thinning, breaking concrete will crumble. A small hole will fracture into the thick layer of concrete. The stench of fermenting garbage will warm the air... and no matter what light you attempt to shine through that hole, characters will see nothing but sheer darkness beneath. It's hard to even hear the bottom of this cavernous well. To slip into this hole would be to drop to your deaths. Could an Aves-type manage the drop, could a Spectral-type use their levitation powers to go deeper...? Whatever the case, the feeling all characters get is excruciating enough to feel once more like passing out. It's like standing too close to Katalyth for too long, but instead of causing any sort of mutations or distortions, it causes utter madness. So that's where things are at. We look forward to seeing character attempts as they try to 'dig deeper' in the Reputation thread! Re: Kelesian Corruption traits: yes, all of last month's effects still stand. Characters are just... more monstrous here! For some reason. Even if they aren't outside of Kelesis, they are when inside of it. Re: Is there a connection to East Sophians & the Plant Critter? This is a very interesting theory, and the answer is... it would be impossible to tell. There are so many parts. So many missing East Sophians. (In truth, there is not much of a connection between the two... in most ways. It's not worth investigating far, but it's not to say there aren't any commonalities.) Re: Kelesis and its founding. There isn't much info within Kelesis. Texts seem to suggest that the Kelesian people are travelers and wanderers, but the people in Kelesis actually disagree with this. They're just people: some like to be homebodies, some get bitten by the wanderlust bug... You know! Kelesians in Karteria would agree with what the people say, that they aren't especially travelers. Kelesians in Karteria may be the best source of intel on Kelesis, as they lived there. Here are a few points of interest from what they say, versus what can be found in Kelesis.
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| #50
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-08-06 |
if some terra and types with the ability to calm were to take the (unwise) path of trying to calm some of the smaller clones and take them out of the city (which... given where patho-gen HQ is would take some effort) or take them through a teleporter, would that be remotely possible? (this is probably not something tighnari would do himself, but... someone taking the idea far enough might get him on board as "well, at this point why not") |
It might be possible, but if someone is taking a part of the plant that's still alive and capable of growing, it's not a good idea. Wherever it's taken, it will continue to grow- and especially so outside, in the daylight. It would be moving the base problem and making sure it spreads even further. (Of course, you can do this, it will just... extend the length and danger of this particular plot.) It's also not effectively possible to keep it permanently catatonic, since as soon as there's a pause in putting it to sleep/otherwise calming it, it will return to violence and will grow that much faster. It will also be hateful and in pain the whole time. |
| #51
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-08-04 |
so, questions about terra types:
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Tighnari really jumping root-first into becoming A Plant... 1. Pruning can work with Terra-types as it does with plants themselves. A new Terra-type that's hardly undergone much corruption might not do so well if they cut off one of their own arms, however, and would likely bleed out before anything happened. A more corrupted Terra would have a better time surviving long enough to regrow (multiple) limbs. When Shifted, this is both easier and faster to achieve- though the effects will naturally disappear whenever they de-Shift. 2. Grafting is totally possible with Terras, in both Shifted and corrupted forms (though it'll have an easier time sticking around if performed on the corrupted version). Any powers they might gain from the grafted Terra should still be weaker than its origin plant. (Mostly to keep a particularly stubborn Terra from becoming masters in every possible field). But it's possible! 3. Terras can grow copies of their particular plants elsewhere, yes! The plant part, not the person part... can't grow a field of Tighnaris. But the plants he's now made of, yes. 4. Growth speed help: it can be quite a bit, especially once their corruption is properly settled in (and further boosted if done while Shifted). With his preexisting familiarity with plants, Tighnari would have an easier time than other Terras might, in 'reading' what other plants need, and understanding how best to aid their growth. He shouldn't be able to take a whole field of seeds and bring them to fruition on his own in a day, but he could certainly cut down on the time it takes, especially when working together with other Terras. 5. While there's not a hard limit on plant types, three is a sort of soft limit. Especially if one picks a family like Rosaceae or Brassicaceae, which in themselves contain... a lot. Whether one picks a wider category, or an individual species, is something we're leaving in player hands, so it boils down to just- try not to grow everything! But you can still have a variety. |
| #52
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-08-02 |
Does the plant monster's anger/emotion/pain feel anything like the thing under kelesis? also, does resonance of obscurity reflect what a character believes happened or what actually happened? (northly believes she killed her parents, but she only nearly killed them, at which point they gave her to the church, so if it's her viewpoint "MURDERER" would work, but if it's what actually happened "MONSTER TOO DANGEROUS TO KEEP" would be better) Edited 2025-08-02 01:37 pm (local)
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Ooh, good questions! Does the plant monster's Big Feelings feel like the thing under Kelesis? Yes, in many ways. This creature's feelings are intensified and directed, if insane and maddened. The characters who will be most apt at drawing comparisons are the very ones who could feel it through their feet sharpest of all: Terra- and Ruminantia-types. Arthropoda won't detect that it feels quite the same... but there's an echo of the feeling, there. Does the Resonance of Obscurity reflect belief, or truth? This isn't something we'd considered; we lean toward belief. The reason for this is because it's bringing to light the hidden parts of people's hearts where they have to be discussed. Whatever is causing this does not perceive the truth of a situation as much as it does bring to light the dark corners of the psyche, so a character who believes they killed their parents could have MURDERER on their face, or some other word to jog the memory. (Could be the name of their parents, too.) |
| #53
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-07-25 |
regarding the wailing terra types hear when rooted in kelesis (tighnari is doing this) if it's focused on, can anything more be learned about it or are there any consequences for getting too deep/trying too hard to find out more about it? | No... Terra-types, rooting is a suffering time! Tighnari, be careful, alright? Aside from being highly agitated and furious, it might not be so obvious at first because of the way it makes Augmented Terra-types feel when they focus on this sound: the noise is also derived from pain, just as much as it inflicts pain. If a Terra-type decides they want to try to root deeper, there is only so far that they can root before they hit concrete, impenetrable and thick. Even if they were to find a good crack somewhere, it would take a long, long time to break any of it... Should they attempt to root into the concrete any deeper despite the screaming in their head that tells them no, either by virtue of stubbornness or determination, they might be able to cause the concrete to crack some more- but at this time, it will not be breakable (for this log, anyway). They can attempt this all the way until they pass out- and if they do pass out, they might need someone to come by and help extricate them from their deep rooting, like plucking a carrot or a weed. Careful now... |
| #54
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-07-23 |
As they have been around that long, are there likely to be remnants outside the barrier for salvaging, or have they only ever worked (and thus been used) inside karteria? | There are unfortunately not any large scraps of ServiTon left outside the barrier. In pre-arcane radiation days they still didn't venture out very far from the city limits. And after the barrier came up, all their assignments just became that much more restrictive, existing solely within the barrier. Weirdly, when this shift of domain happened, the Karterians didn't miss a single one; there's no storage shed out there with a load of forgotten robots, nor someone's misplaced housekeeper forever locked in an abandoned closet. They've all been accounted for. Which isn't to say that there's absolutely nothing. There might be a bit of a broken-off ear-cap, or a piece of a screen, or part of one of their little floating hands (no longer floating). There wouldn't be enough to collect to build one's own ServiTon out of them, sadly. |
| #55
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-07-23 |
Quick question about shifting and injury in shifted form: when injured in shifted form, if a character unshifts, and reshifts, do they retain the injury? Does the injury come with them from shifted form to unshifted? What if it's a small injury like, say, a curious fox wanted to pluck a feather that the character doesn't have when unshifted? Apologies if this has been answered already! |
Shifted injuries do remain after unshifting and reshifting. It would be a bit too simple to heal from all wounds just by turning the Shift off and on again! As for whether the injury is also expressed on their unshifted body... it would mostly depend on whether that element still exists on their underlying form. If it doesn't (i.e., wings vs no wings), small wounds would probably not show up on a character's normal/corrupted self. However, if they're taking particularly grievous injuries to their Shifted form, some elements of that might bleed over into their normal/corrupted self anyway. Notable damage to wings could appear on the underlying shoulders/arms; a broken tail might result in an injured back/rear area. The injured parts don't have to be Shifted into to heal, though; the damage exists whether it's visible or not, and will heal over time regardless. |
| #56
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-07-15 |
Questions about servitons! When were servitons developed? Did they exist before the katapocalypse? This guy has some experience with repairing essentially a magic powered mechanical crab which was given a soul. Would this translate to being able to tinker with servitons? I don't imagine patho-gen would be thrilled by him doing that, and even with a... Less than deferential attitude to their authority, he wouldn't mess with any that are programmed to help out with citizens (blinded or otherwise) but if he could find abandoned parts that haven't been scavenged and present himself very helpfully Interested, potentially, even partnering with a blinded engineer to learn about them? Overall he's less interested in mechanics than other fields (plants, mushrooms, animals) but it would be fun to have him dabble. (Planning on apping him this app round and got excited thinking about this) |
ServiTons have been around for almost fifty years, so they do predate the current crisis with arcane radiation. Karteria has had robots of some form for longer than that (100+ years), though they were simpler in design and functionality. Though some old relics are still in use (particularly behind the scenes, in roles where they're less likely to have to interact with a consumer), they have largely been supplanted by the friendly ServiTons. The magic would be different from what he's used to, but he might be better equipped than many to deal with the way it's layered with mechanics. Taking apart, or otherwise interfering with the work of any ServiTon is very much not approved of, so he'd have to be careful to not get caught trying to crack one open (if he did find one that wasn't engaged in anything particularly useful and decided to have a go). Truly abandoned parts of ServiTons would be hard to find; they're too valuable to just be thrown out, and even irreparably broken ones have anything remotely reusable salvaged. There is still resource scarcity within the city, particularly with advanced electronics like the ServiTons. But he might be able to find an in with blinded engineers and repair technicians- as capable hands are in short supply, and someone who's good at picking up the mechanics would be welcome. He would learn a bit about the Karterian controlling magic which lays at the heart of these constructs, even if it's not something they're able to teach. But they would appreciate having someone familiar with the concept of what they're doing at hand. |
| #57
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-07-05 |
Are the previously augmented there for the.... intensified welcome speech? Or just the new folks? | Old Augmented can certainly be around for the new arrivals at Initiation- and for the oddly evolving speech. They're even encouraged to help out the new Augmented, to be there for them especially in these early days- as they'd be better equipped to handle questions over what to expect (and who knows, maybe they'll catch a familiar face). So yes they can certainly be on hand. |
| #58
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-07-03 |
Because I'm curious (so this is super low priority) would gold be useful for karterian tech? Gold is used irl in electronics because of its non-reactive properties, but in limited amounts because of its rarity/value | Gold does have its value in Karterian tech! It's valued in electronics (magical and otherwise) for those same properties as it is in real life. Same problems with scarcity too (even worse, over the years, as they can't exactly go out mining for it), keeping its value high. Recycling old electronics is ingrained in Karterian society- though things are generally built to last. (Planned obsolescence hadn't quite had the time to fully take hold of consumer culture before arcane radiation hit, so the quality of existing goods remains relatively high where it exists.) So basically: yes, it's useful, there's trace amounts of it in a lot of things. |
| #59
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-07-03 |
Question regarding treat points, where a tag has more than one comment, is that counted as 1 point for the tag or 1 point per comment? What about top levels? Is it comment = point, or starter = point if there's multiple in one comment? Sorry for the fussy question, just want to make sure I'm counting right to make life easier for y'all! |
The math of the comments... we have tried to work out the odd minutia of this ourselves, hopefully this doesn't make things seem overly complicated. A top-level can count as multiple points, if it has multiple prompts. (Because it feels a bit silly to say that it doesn't, when if a player separated it into individual comments then it would count for more...) When a reply is separated into multiple comments for the sake of like, an icon change, but is still one continuous thought/action, that should only count as one point. (Because the entire concept could have been done in one tag, but was artificially separated into multiple.) When a reply is multiple comments in a row from the same person (Such as sending a character several text messages over a space of 'time'.), that can count for multiple points, since they're multiple thoughts/actions. (If this means already submitted threads would lose comments by these distinctions, don't worry about it, this is just how it'll be counted going forward. If anyone would gain a few extra points by re-counting their top-levels that's fine though. We don't want to retroactively cull totals....) |
| #60
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-07-03 |
Gotcha! So stuff like this: <img src="https://i.imgur.com/8uY6HD0.jpeg" class="imageshrink-tall"> would be one, but if, essentially, you're doing something that could logically be split into different threads (if players had infinite time and energy) they can be counted by comment eg Comment 1 (text): was cool to see you. Alice says you should talk to her about that haircut you want. Why haven't you talked to her? Comment 2 (text): btw I made a time machine. Where do you wanna go? could be two |
Yes, that's exactly how it would work! |
| #61
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-07-01 |
Bit late in the month to be asking (so I get if you don't get around to it!) with the souls that aves types see in attempting to reach kelesis, can they be communicated with in any way? Do they have a desire to pass on or any other emotion/will that could be picked up on? And does it seem like they could be the people of kelesis (now deceased)? |
It's hard to tell the condition of the owners of those souls. They don't give off the impression of something dead, at least; for all that they're flitting around, in and out of visibility, a bewildering dance taking place in the distance, they don't feel disconnected, lingering in discontent or loss. If there's emotions to be picked up on, it's... mixed. There's some that are content, playful and light; there's others spiteful and furious. They don't respond to any attempt to communicate with them, but you are at quite a distance to them. It's possible that they just don't hear it- or that they're not capable of hearing anything. |
| #62
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-06-13 |
Thank you! And are they clear and certain that they are animal souls and not people? Northly's world has plenty of non-human people (common ones include elves, orcs, dwarves and — most relevant for this — beastfolk) and she's still a little weirded out by the lack of non-human people in Karteria, so would want to be clear on the distinction, as there are plenty of groups and individuals in her world who buy into discrimination based on type of people Edited 2025-06-12 09:35 pm (local)
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They would be clear about the distinction between animal (or rock, or plant) and human! If anything, they would seem mildly aghast at the idea they would use people as a basis for a Natural Soul. While they'll admit that many animals are clever- such as varieties of Aves capable of simple tool usage, or some Spectrals with their mimicking of human language- they've encountered nothing in the world that approaches human sentience. The Augmented themself- brought from other worlds- is their first time encountering intelligent non-humans. |
| #63
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-06-12 |
Northly is going to begin asking Patho-Gen employees about exactly what their natural souls are and how they came to be natural souls. She is most interested in whether they were real individual animals (she hasn't encountered golem or terra types yet) at some stage and whether they had a choice in becoming their natural souls, or if they were, say, yanked from their worlds and shoved into the augmented's necks with no idea what happened to them. She would be careful to couch her questions as cheerful curiosity, looking for the best way to serve Patho-Gen's needs. And to some extent that is what she's wanting to achieve with her answers, in that she would like to not be a part of an inter-dimensional ethics no-no. What sort of answers can she expect? And if she actually gets answers, how reliable do those answers seem? Edited 2025-06-04 10:12 pm (local)
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Many Patho-Gen employees won't have a clue about what Natural Souls are, in the sense of Northly's question. They will say "they are the souls of beasts, of course." If she asks if they're real animals... "... Yes?" will be her answer. They believe so, but they don't know for certain. ...It doesn't seem the rights of animals mean much to these people, and expressing grief toward this is a bit perplexing, and they're willing to bow their heads and acknowledge the unfortunate reality they're up against. Unfortunately, Karteria's people typically aren't so compassionate about the rights of animals... And many do believe the necessity of this action. The Augmented Ones are already proving that they can safely go out there, and that's phenomenal. Asking someone a little more knowledgeable may yield this tidbit: no, Natural Souls are from natural phenomena of this world! Not from others. If traits are manifesting as a creature from another world, it isn't because the soul is that creature, but merely because its traits are manifesting in that way based on its categorical designation. (So if an Aves-type Final Fantasy character looks like a chocobo, it's not because it's a chocobo soul. It's the soul of a bird, yes, but it's manifesting in this particular fashion upon this particular individual!) Golem-types, Spectral-types, and Terra-types are all totally reasonable natural phenomena here; golems and specters exist, but they are difficult to see out with the naked eye. Easy to harness for transplant purposes, however! There's something nice about Patho-Gen employees, in that they typically don't say things that they don't believe is true. These people are earnest; if they don't know something, they say as much. If they believe something to be true, they'll share unless told not to. These individuals seem very certain, and if they don't know something but think it to be true, they feel reasonably confident in their guess. |
| #64
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-06-09 |
to glom onto this with another syntrofos question, can you MSG more than one person at a time? northly would like to spread "me me"s |
You can absolutely message multiple people at once! Northly's me me productivity will not be contained. |
| #65
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-06-04 |
What's the ballpark for how long the bridge is? And how long is the squid's area? are there clear boundaries to the squid's area? what's the construction of the bridge? Are there pillars down to the floor of the channel? "don't worry about it" magi-science? |
The bridge is approximately 60 miles long. Manmade structures exist on this bridge, dilapidated as they are... but the middle portion of the bridge is the Squid Zone, which is best indicated by the damage done to buildings and even the bridge itself. Partially why it's been impassable, as even some areas of the bridge have been destroyed or need repairs. A good jump from a Glire-type could clear some good gaps, but most characters need to get to work on patching up these impassable parts. ... While contesting with Squid-chan. Regarding boundaries, the increasing structural damage that resembles a good beating will be a clear indicator. Indeed, this bridge is a collaboration of two cities, and combines three different styles of build. On the Karterian side, there is a long stretching portion of steel/concrete, supported both by dense, reinforced pillars and a bit of "don't worry about it" magic-science; on the Kelesian side, the bridge begins to dip lower toward the ocean, where some structures can do a bit of floating. It's made primarily of reinforced concrete on this side, but not as much Magi-Science BS. |
| #66
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-06-03 |
for the bridge, will aves types still be able to fly over with the Squid there? would a suitably tiny aves go unnoticed? and if they can, are there teleportation devices that could fit in a carry-on suitcase? (if the answer to both of these is yes, this is the month northly is forced to deal with how useful a skillset flying + inventory is) |
The squid has some very long tentacles, but an Aves flying high and discreetly enough could probably slip past. Very sneaky.... Unfortunately, some of the parts of the teleportation device are larger than that, so wouldn't be able to fit in a suitcase. She wouldn't be able to carry over a whole panel on her own. However, there are multiple pieces to their construction, and some of those components would be able to fit in her inventory. So even if she couldn't put together a whole thing, she could take care of some of the parts. |
| #67
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-05-17 |
Thank you! Would partnering with a sex shop be an option? Essentially delivering manuscripts via private AUG/MSG to a member of the staff and letting them do with it what they will? I'm thinking, to start, Northly will sell her writing to other Augmented by essentially making f-locked posts, getting the money, then sharing the link. Since she's not remotely in it for the money, piracy/unauthorized access isn't a concern for her, so if people start sharing the "link" around, she won't be mad or anything (really, she'll be excited people want to read her writing enough to avoid paying/assume they will find her to pay her later) and same with if the sex shop wasn't honest in their dealings. Does this all track? |
That should probably be possible! Sex shops would be somewhat more open to the concept of Augmented-created literature, especially if she shows she has some understanding of grammar and the ability to construct a plot. (Literacy may be the default in the city but being able to write a coherent story (even if the point is sex rather than grand literature) is its own separate skill, and not many have it. This does not stop enthusiastic amateurs from submitting their incoherent porn.) She wouldn't be likely to make much money through them, and they would be open about that- but they would be honest in working with her, and wouldn't try to cheat her out of her cut. So yes, all of that tracks! |
| #68
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-05-15 |
Hello! I wanted to ask about the range of fiction books available, mostly the important question: are there smutty romance books? And if Northly wanted to write a smutty romance book or two, what's the publishing process like? Corollary to that, are there typewriters/keyboard attachments for syntrofos? Northly will probably stick to dictation for the most part but writing on something other than a tiny syntrofos would be good. |
When it comes to non-explicit romance novels, there's plenty. It's a popular, if not highly regarded genre- as those kind of things tend to be. The Valentia library has a fair selection of this kind of entertainment, and the other district libraries carry at least the more historically popular, long-running series. Anything that veers into actual smut, with depictions of sex rather than heavy-handed allusions and fade-to-black... it's not hard to come by, but it's also not out in the open. It absolutely exists, people are people, but it's more restricted when it comes to being advertised or available. The options available in public libraries veer as much as possible to the classy, with some pretension of the sex being there for artistic purposes. (As a side note, sex is held in a similar category as depictions of violence, abuse, etc.; the latter are similarly restricted. Karterians are prudish, but they're also not keen on murder!) Karteria's version of sex shops (which do exist, carrying other basics such as lube and condoms, as they stoically recognize biological impulses and then do their best to keep them out of sight) actually has a literature section.... This is where most of the 'non-literary' smut ends up. And even then, there's more attempt at a plot than you might expect, and it still might come across as rather quaint, inoffensive and polite. Self-publishing exists, with the variability of quality as you might expect, but that's where the most graphic (by Karterian standards) or niche topics would be found. That would probably be the easiest way for Northly to get 'published', as the traditional avenues are both skeptical of smut, and very skeptical of Augmented ideas of it. That's not to say an audience isn't there, and if she does self-publish, she may well gain some modest following for her efforts. There are keyboard attachments for the Syntrofos! They're like the ones that can attach to mobile phones or tablets today. Even though Karterians use their Syntrofos for light conversation, social media, memes, etc., enough people just prefer a good tactile keyboard that there's a market for them. |
| #69
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-04-26 |
A few questions about libraries and books! Are the libraries available for anyone to use to check out books via their syntrofos or are there some bureaucratic hoops to jump through first? What sort of a range do they have? Do they separate fiction and non-fiction and use the Dewey decimal system and surname for organisation? Would it be plausible for there to be syntrofos help classes or drop-in counters (the sort usually aimed at seniors) held there? And what sort of price point are books? Are eBooks (sBooks?) a thing? Or audiobooks? |
The Augmented would be free to use the libraries without any hassle! The ID provided by their Syntrofos will serve as their library card (as it does for other Karterians). Books would be separated by genre and organized by author, as you might expect. Though they don't have the Dewey decimal system exactly, they have their own equivalent that shouldn't be too hard to navigate. The librarians will also be eager to help- as the Augmented showing any interest at all in literature or learning is considered a great positive. Ebooks and audiobooks both exist, and can be checked out using the Syntrofos as well. (And also used as a playback device... though specially-made readers and audio devices exist, they can only be borrowed within the library itself, or purchased elsewhere. But the Syntrofos can use all the same files.) Syntrofos help classes would be unlikely to exist, as the technology has been standard for long enough (and is simple enough, by their standards!) that everyone is assumed to have an understanding of the basics. However, the librarians would be very willing to help individuals with any questions they have about its functions. They might also suggest that the Augmented themselves put together a little group to explain it to each other- as they feel other outsiders would understand better the sort of things that would be obvious to the locals. The price point for books is roughly 100N to 300N, though of course particularly rare or fancy editions will go for more (and common secondhand books for less). |
| #70
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-04-07 |
a maybe silly question, but for AC and bonus points do top level comments (with a starter, not just blank) count? | Not silly at all- but yes, top levels would count for both AC and treat points. |
| #71
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-03-08 |
For III. Play fight, are any weapon-like items they picked up taken from them? Northly picked up her (non-magical) staff and is clinging to it, but I imagine it would be nabbed from her as they want her to shift rather than attack using a big lump of wood. | Alas, yes- all weapons would be temporarily confiscated from characters before entering the arena. They would be returned afterward, but you're spot on- Patho-Gen wants to see those claws (and any other sharp appendages) come out. |
| #72
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-03-08 |
Are there any limits on usernames for syntrofos? I'm thinking of having Northly accidentally enter "nN" as her username |
No limits! They haven't even instated a profanity filter, which is quite the oversight... nN would work. |
| #73
Topics: Language, Sign language Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-03-06 |
A couple more questions about sign language (which might also be relevant to the person with the character who doesn't know how to read) if she wanted to teach someone how to sign, would she teach them the sign language she knows, and then they would also use the translator to use the local variation, or could she directly teach the local variation? And is the local variation based on any real world sign language (ASL perhaps? Hers is based on NZSL) for if I want to have her use a particular sign? | The same rules about native languages apply: characters will still know their own language, and can consciously speak it, but the world's "default" will feel oddly natural. If a character's not consciously thinking about their own language, they automatically speak the local languages.
For the sake of describing a specific sign in a tag, however, you're free to sample from any iteration of sign language! We're not going to be super particular about it. You can think of it as an equal-parts mishmash of all existing sign language with the fun addition of an Otherworldly Flavor. |
| #74
Topics: Application, Religion, Libraries, Death, Sign language Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-03-02 |
I have a few questions! I'm planning on apping an OC of mine, how much/little do you want for the history? My thought was to give about as much as a side character from a series with a decently maintained wiki would have, would that be about the right level? Any information it's critical to include? Regarding deities/arcane influence, this character is from a world where gods are a fact, my intention is to have her entirely lose her powers (water magic and immortality) as they are directly tied to her goddess (who is the goddess of life and matter, as well as earth and water) and her goddess is not from here, does that track or would there be enough.... Interreality bleed-through for her to keep a trickle of her power? In a related vein, is there anywhere that someone who is deeply religious and utterly baffled by the idea of a society that isn't built around the existence of two (mostly) all powerful goddesses would mistake for a church or temple? What's the culture like when it comes to handling the dead? Cremation? Burial? Immediate retrieval for scientific study by Patho-gen? My character can use sign language, is there a local sign language she'd be able to use via the universal translator or is it a spoken and written language only deal? |
That amount of history sounds just fine! It doesn't need to be pages and pages, but enough to give a feel for where the character came from, and how they ended up becoming the person they are currently. With her powers: if you would prefer them to be completely lost, inaccessible, that's entirely justifiable as it is. But if you would prefer her to keep a little of her magic, even at this distance from her goddess- there's also enough to justify that as well. So it's really up to what you would find more interesting to play with. For buildings mistakably religious... the facades of, oddly enough, some banks, as well as libraries- might come across that way. Banks are ornate, frequently in older, established (and beautiful) buildings, with lobbies dedicated to the worship of commerce. But libraries overall might be the closest bet, as they have a meditative atmosphere, are lovingly looked after, and frequently have places set aside for quiet study, discussion, or debate. There's even features that could conceivably be mistaken for altars or pulpits... even if they're used by people speaking on non-religious topics. The dead of Karteria are largely buried- though the graveyards that exist with the city limits are growing crowded as the years pass. Cremation used to be a viable alternative, but it actually takes quite a bit of energy to properly burn a body- an energy that had been found through Katalyth. With Katalyth no longer safe to use, cremation is still available, but it's now about as expensive as burial. People can also choose to donate their bodies to science (or have this fate chosen for them by their relatives). This was... very popular for a time- avoid those pesky funereal costs by shoving the deceased into the loving arms of Patho-Gen!- enough so that they have more bodies than they can effectively do anything with. Patho-Gen now respectfully refuses most donations. Interesting corpses only! For sign language, there is a local variant, and fluency in it would be a feature included in the universal translation. (As a general note, if a character didn't know any sign language to start with- just as if they were illiterate- the Augmenter's language imparting would be helpless to assist.) |
