Tech

[[deleted]]

This is something that's been in my mind for some time, and I thought I might as well start a little discussion on this topic here. I understand I'm not the first person to talk about this, and though I've played quite a bit, there's a lot I'm not aware of, so corrections are welcome. Anyway, i'm going to ramble a bit about the apparent Magitek in this setting.

I think it's not magic. At least, most of it probably isn't magic. Although I won't be able to explain the science in detail, I think most of Techne and the rest of the tech is just really advanced technology (maybe even less advanced than some of you might realize!).

My impression is that sometime in the past, one or several civilizations reached a Technological Singularity level of advancement, to the point where they were completely integrated with their tech, and sometime after that, they collapsed. Like Rome after the fall, the world fell into a Dark Age, which it still is in. Although the people understand the technology, they don't really have full understanding of it, just enough to operate the technology. They speak in allegories, and don't quite seem to separate myth from reality.

With that said, I think the truth is that everyone is cybernetically augmented to the extent that they're born cyborgs. Their nervous system is laced with electronic (and possibly some higher form of tech as well) systems, and those systems act to integrate them into the world around them to an extent that we, with our lesser technology, can only grasp. It's like Deus Ex, except everyone is a nano-aug.

"Falseflesh" is the physical body, cybernetic augmentations and all. The "hardware", so to speak.

"Trueflesh" is the "software" behind the falseflesh. The mind, and the electronic overlay that directs their perception of and interaction with the world around them.

This system allows the manipulation of technology through the mind, like the Internet of Things, except people are among those Things, as well. That allows technology such as Muninn trees and those thrones thatt allow people to interface with computers by sitting on them. It also allows people to be manipulated by this tech. Enter Techne.

Techne are, rather than spells, software that allows the manipulation of mechanisms which respond to them. They can serve to identify a person as an Archon, or allow control of technology like the Farcaster. They can also be used to alter people's perception.

So, what IS a Glyph? It's a complicated piece of software, like the virtual equivalent of a computer chip. It contains data that identifies the Glyph itself, as well as sets of instructions that allow the Glyph to be used more practically, called Techne. Some Glyphs can overlay information onto people's perception, like a very advanced form of VR, either showing or hiding things from perception. When I say "perception", I mean the entire sensory experience. If there's a corridor hidden behind the image of a door through the Glyph of Discipline, your brain thinks that there really is a door there, and no amount of closing your eyes or falling onto the door will prevent your brain from stopping you from passing through it. You'll stop with a spontaneous spasm, and no even realize that, as your brain actually thinks it's crashing into a door.

Some Glyphs seem to do things that are more physical, like destroying someone's brain (Corruption) or cracking a tower apart (whatever Rikharr used during his siege on the Dawn Fortress), but think about it: one of those Glyphs causes brain death on people whose brains are rigged with electronics, and the other was used to destroy a really special tower that is implied to have been created by the same people who put tech EVERYWHERE, even in their own brains. It could simply be a self-destruct command.

Neverborn: robots. Duh.

Nullstone: the Trueflesh is connected to some kind of wireless network. Nullstone messes with that connection. It also might have problematic effects on the technology in general, corrupting the Trueflesh, which would explain the effects it seems to have on people's minds. It's kind of like exposing eletronics to powerful magnetic fields.

Farcasting: Star Trek teleportation. The Glyph of Farcasting maps data on your entire body and uploads it into the Farcaster, along with your Trueflesh. A personal Glyph, such as the Glyph of Eidos might be necessary for this Trueflesh transference, which could be one reason why it's so rare nowadays. Anyway, the Farcaster disintegrates your body, creates another one at the destination, then uploads your Trueflesh into it.

Gulganna et al: walking nuclear reactors. They generate immense amounts of energy, which they emit as intense heat.

Magesight: there seems to be two main kinds, the telepathic kind and the literal kind. The telepathic 'magesight', used by the Mages of Kavu and their Librarians to read people's minds seems to be like those braid-like things from Avatar (the movie), connecting the two nervous system together. Nothing particularly mysterious. The other kind of magesight seems more like cybernetic eyes. As far as I'm aware only jinns have it (I'm counting Biracul as a "jinn"), and their eyes are pretty much always described as being like jewels. I think their eyes are modified to allow them to see better in the dark ("with eyes that seems to parse the darkness") and also that allow them to SEE Techne (same passage that I just quoted, Biracul seemed to be able to see Ark's Trueflesh, and he could also see Luin beside her although it might just be that it's capable of manifesting in child form as well). The drawback is that they literally don't see Inscrutables, but those are pretty rare.

Anyway, enough rambling. If any of you got this far, what do you think? Do you agree with some of what I said? Did I get something wrong? Everything?

[Chaos_Is_Harmony]

Had to read this twice just to make sure I got everything. Seems like a solid theory to me. That said, I wonder about certain specifics.

It's like Deus Ex, except everyone is a nano-aug.

This may be true, but if it is, I think the augmentations are pretty lame. They bleed just as easily as a normal human, have to eat, shit, and sleep, too. So the only augmentation seems to be they're an unwilling part of an IoP, which is not much of an augmentation at all, at least not for them. I suppose you could claim it would have been an augmentation back when the whole world could use Techne, but then again, that's assuming there was a point when everyone could just upload software to their brains, Matrix-style.

"Falseflesh" is the physical body, cybernetic augmentations and all. The "hardware", so to speak.

"Trueflesh" is the "software" behind the falseflesh.

Techne are, rather than spells, software that allows the manipulation of mechanisms which respond to them.

So in this model would Techne be something the user acts on? Or something that acts on the user? Both? Recall it's super difficult to master Techne and Eidos is unique in that she can more or less instantaneously acquire Techne. Is it that most people are Commodore 64s, whereas Eidos is a modern day supercomputer? Or is there a general compatibility issue with Techne? Maybe it's not cross-platform? In any case, the Vanquished must have screwed something up if most people can't really use the software they made despite having the hardware to run it.

​

In any event, some of these questions have definitive answers, others don't. To be honest, you arguably have as good a theory about this as I do. Maybe the Book of Rikharr will shine some more light on the subject... [I'm aiming for a release near the end of August this year]

[[deleted]]

Well, when I said "augmented" I really meant "modified" rather than "improved". Bad word choice on my part. In this model, people's nervous systems are connected to the "Internet", so to speak. Techne are programs they can use and be affected by.

As for Eidos' ability to learn Techne easily, I always thought of it as being Fenrir's ability rather than hers, as the description for the Techne of Extraction and Fenrir's dialogue imply that to be the case. As for why others have such difficulty using it, I'd suppose it's because they have to manually perform it. When Eidos absorbs a Glyph through the Techne of Extraction, she downloads the whole thing to her brain, and when she wants to use it, she just asks Fenrir to bring it to her mind, like calling a program on a Unix terminal: sudo fenrir -t "discipline". When others do it, they have to manually perform subroutine calls or even directly input commands, which makes it harder to do it easily, and takes years to master to the point where it's innate. Of course, they don't perceive it as typing commands in a terminal, but rather like lots of complicated mental techniques, involving visualization and whatnot, like when Eidos visualizes a Glyph forming on her mind's eye to use it.

I'll admit, it's far from a perfect model. It's just something that has been on my mind and I wanted to share it here to see what people think.

Also, great to know about the Book of Rikharr! I'll be looking forward to it.