Thursday, September 25, 2014

The Fourth and Fathomless Frozen Sea (Dead Messenger Bio #4)

The author actually wrote this last night, but circumstances conspired to make him an hour late to post this.

The Fourth and Fathomless Frozen Sea
Other Names: The Lord of Frozen Seas, Frost
Species: Artificial Nephilim (Major Demon)
Known Abilities: Winter's Grasp (Dark Nature, Unique)
Known Weaknesses: Dawnbreaker, Flarewall, Thunderbrand, Dead Zone
Equipment: Ice Sword (Bloodforged, replaced often)
Spell Arsenal: None Confirmed
Description: "A man of indeterminate age, possibly early twenties, in a white, well tailored suit, carrying a broadsword made of ice. His hair was short, and clear, refracting the light like glass."
Ability Analysis: Winter's Grasp takes the form of a white sword made from hexagonal plates of ice. He has never been seen to use his freezing powers without it in hand, although it may be possible. The abilities it grants include a sensory function, which allows him to discern the location of all forms of moisture in his environment, and the ability to freeze said moisture into almost any shape he chooses. The speed of his freezing ability seems to depend on both the distance, heat, and thermal conductivity between his target and his Dark Nature. Stabbing or cutting a target directly seems to be the most rapid vector.
Notes: Rarely uses his Dark Nature, seeming to prefer a more simple ice broadsword. As such, he has the most actual combat experience of all the Dead Messengers. In terms of death toll, his attacks are rarely even close to those of his siblings, but he also uses much less of the power he gains from every attack. His fights often last for several hours, ending when he finds it less efficient to keep fighting than to leave, but he often does far more damage to local infrastructure than his siblings, in comparison to direct deaths.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Eidolon Dossier: Doppelgangers

Classification
Doppelganger is a term for any supernatural creature that imitates a specific preexisting being or object. They are classified as Static or Active, distinguished by whether or not their form is fixed at creation, and they also as one of three subcategories:
  • Organic Doppelgangers copy living creatures. They occasionally copy parts from multiple targets, but if that form is their default they are classified as chimera.
  • Mechanical Doppelgangers are any Eidolon that copies the form of a machine or tool. The most well known are probably the mischief spirits that pretend to be a hammer, nails, or other simple tool but vanish when their would be user looks away. They tend to be fairly simple to make artificially, and are some of the most useful Artificial Eidolons around, often employed as weapons, multitools, or both. There have been no known instances of a Static doppelganger of this type.
  • Hybrid Doppelgangers are the most rare type, and may not form naturally. They display both mechanical and organic characteristics, and almost always take the form of androids. Occasionally, organic doppelgangers will develop into hybrids, but the equivalent has not been observed of initially mechanical doppelgangers.

Combat doppelganger is technically phrase for a Doppelganger with a combat focus. As such, they tend to be rapid shapeshifters capable of copying bodyparts or weapons as necessary, although it can technically refer to any Doppelganger created expressly for combat.

Uses
Besides use as multitools, Doppelgangers are often used as disposable pilots and infantry. While these inevitably less versatile or individually dangerous than trained combat mages, they are a formidable force if well enough equipped.

Mechanics
Doppelgangers can operate in several different ways. These are determined at creation, affect their abilities, and are listed as follows:
  • Preprogrammed: The more complex type of artificial doppelganger, these are essentially complicated enchantments. Unlike the other types they cannot act in any way they are not programmed to, but they will often develop into a full Eidolon over time unless deployed in mass or remote controlled.
    • Remote control: The simplest form of doppelganger. The controller must be unconscious for the control to be absolute, generally limiting this type’s use to bodydoubles. The most well known example is probably the Shadow Puppet spell.
    • Engram: The second easiest type to create, these are based on their creator’s concept of a specific person, such as themselves. They will act like that idealised version of their target until they develop into full Eidolons. Depending on how extensive their creator’s mental image is and how far their situation gets from it said development can take anywhere from two days to ten years.
  • Natural: A naturally occurring Eidolon that imitates the form of something in it’s environment. There are no known Static instances of this type.
  • Seminatural: A doppelganger whose formation is actively, if perhaps not deliberately, encouraged. Nearly any android ends up as the base for one of these.
 
Related Topics
Charred Visage (Dark Nature)
Kitsune
Vampirism

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Electric Moment (Binding Universe)

The author would like to apologize for the short update. He hopes it will not happen again, and is considering changing the update schedule to Tuesdays.

Name: Electric Moment
Range: Medium, Close
Uses: Active
Fuel Cost: 2Ms/1Mj/s-.02Ms/50Kj/s (without affinity)
Notable Attributes: Chargable, Unharmful (optional), Nonsolid
Notes: One of the very few commonly used spells without enchantment capacity. It is roughly five times cheaper for the same effect if charged over a longer period, and can only be blocked by a select few types of shield. This engram is one of the few spells that has been subject to extensive testing, and has repeatedly given results consistent with something that gathers electrons from the desired path of effect and deposits them in the area where the effect appears to originate from.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Laser Wire (Binding Universe)

The author is having another busy day, so have another spell analysis/stat sheet. Also, he is writing about himself in third person.

Name: Laser Wire
Range: Variable
Uses: Active, Enchantment (conditional)
Fuel Cost: .03Ms/second-.006Ms/second (hard lower limit unknown)
Notable Attributes: Armor piercing (optional), Unharmful (optional), Mass deployment affinity
Notes: Sharpness is determined by the user, but may require training to do so conciously. Can consistently block other instances of itself, although skilled users can briefly dematerialize it to get around this and similar. Variable length, must be anchored to at least one object, and acts more like an idealized filament than anything natural. Cheaper when deployed in large numbers, with a rough maximum of twenty wires with the cost of one for five times as long.