Post by Admin on Apr 25, 2015 15:07:49 GMT
The Understanding
This is the Power characteristic of Gods, Demons and Visionaries.
If your Defining Aspect contains references towards
one of those sets of individuals, then you have this Power. It
does not cost any AP because it doesn’t really have a hard and
fast set of rules unlike Clairsentience, Oracle or Prophet. Put
simply, someone with The Understanding has an understanding
of the way the universe works.
The Understanding is usually described as being something
unconscious or subconscious, but that is not entirely accurate.
Demons, Gods and Visionaries actually perceive phenomena
to a far greater detail than most people. This is because they
are all three also Luminous Beings. Their bodies are constructed
through psionic manipulation of raw Life-Force until it takes
on the shape and function of the organs necessary for a physical
life. Their entire bodies double as sensory organs. The
perceptions are separated out based on their empathic perceptions
of the senses of other sentients. Thus Gods, Demons and
Visionaries “see”, “hear”, “smell”, “taste” and “feel” in ways that
allow them to communicate and understand other beings.
Those that were not born with the Power, converted Gods and
Demons, have commented on the differences between actual
sight and the understanding. For example, a visionary can
identify the color blue because the light spectrum of blue is
distinctly separate to their perspective than the spectrum of
red, black or the like. However, blue to the Understanding is
a perception of individual light particles behaving in a set
pattern that can be identified as blue. Reading text on a page
for the Understanding is rather like watching a synchronized
dance with certain bundles of motion indicating the black
text and others the white paper. Looking at a blueprint or
diagram even allows them to consider the end result of a
design in three dimensions.
Gods and Demons are aware of the distinction between the
Understanding and normal perception, because they regularly
recruit humans to become Gods or Demons and, thus, memories
of what blue looks like to an ordinary person exist within
their mindscape. This awareness of ordinary perspective is
partially why the God and Demon mindscapes are much less
chaotic than the Visionary mindscape. They are able to enforce
that aesthetic for the ease of visitors. Human Visionaries, however, are largely unaware that what they see is exceptionally
different from what another person sees. Thus they equate
their abilities with invention and science as a sort of unconscious
Understanding, something that just happens. They don’t
realize that what they perceive is different.
In youth, Gods, Demons and Visionaries will be perceived to
be exceptionally gifted with science. Lower level science
classes mostly consist of identifying various entities or phenomena
and trying to describe them in abstract by demonstration
to a class. However, much of what humanity has
concluded via various experiments is stuff that Visionaries
witness every day. As such, for them, the science class isn’t
so much describing something abstract as it is labeling something
no one has ever named for them before.
Despite this advantage, the Understanding does not come
hand in hand with real intelligence. Rather similar to the way
that being able to see with clear color vision does not immediately
equate to artistic ability. Visionaries have a relatively
easy time acquiring a technical competence at anything they
focus much energy on enough so that they can be perceived
as geniuses sometimes. For example, when presented with
a plan and a non-functioning prototype, a Visionary, God or
Demon that has studied engineering could work up the precise
reason why something isn’t working and probably could
work up a solution. They could also come up with incredible
efficiency fixes in both mathematics and engineering to make
a particular item perform much more fluidly. Most people
with the Understanding usually end up creating something
that bends the understood limits of a field backwards. However,
they generally only have consistent innovation in one
or two fields.
The risks of the Understanding are different for Gods and
Demons than they are for Visionaries. Since Gods and Demons
have a stable, consistent mindscape and protection of their
psyches, they have less to worry about in terms of healthy
maintenance. Visionaries have to balance between connecting
to the mindscape often enough to ease some of the sensory
overload they experience daily and avoiding staying
connected so long that they lose themselves. All with the
Understanding have to worry about privacy and keeping some
information secret from others in the same mindscape.
In addition, Gods and Demons have gotten out of the habit
of doing much with their Understanding. They spend almost
all of their attention on the examination of psychic phenomena
and even in that case, it is mostly spent on figuring out
how to accomplish X effect they want to produce. This application
of the Understanding is pretty well expressed by the
Domain/Realm Power Advantage. Precious little of the attention
from Gods and Demons is spent on innovating. It’s
almost like most of them have forgotten how to come up with
anything really new.
Any Aspect that labels a character as a Demon, God or Visionary,
can be tapped and used as if it related to the Understanding.
The more such Aspects one person has, the more developed
their Understanding is. In this case, Aspects that don’t
mention being a Visionary but mention an area of expertise
connected to the Aspect mentioning Visionary can also be
invoked for the Understanding.
It should be noted that while the Understanding can be used
to perhaps acquire most other sensory abilities that would
be represented by actually purchasing those senses for the
most part. Death-Seers, for example, are able to perceive
ghosts and occasionally other entities which exist a bit outside
the normal bounds of the physical universe which the Understanding
best deals with. Life-Force sight at its highest
levels of development is much more efficient at what it does
than attempting to do the same thing with the Understanding
untrained. It is no coincidence that both the Demon Queen
and the High King of the Gods have fully developed Life-Force
sight.
Do not allow a player to replace these Powers entirely. However,
you can allow them to do things like register the presence
of entity by noting fluctuations caused by their consumption
of Life-Force and the identification of psychics by category
with a few moments of analyzing them.
// Connect to the appropriate mindscape and search for
information or to communicate with particular individuals.
// Call for help when attacked in a mindscape.
// Place a false memory or image into the mindscape.
// You can analyze whether a person in front of you is an
active psychic and what category they have. This requires
exposure to psychics of various types.
// Find an effective shortcut that takes an almost unreal
amount of time off of your travel.
Compels (All):
// You’re distracted by a spike in the constant sensory
bombardment and take a −2 to a Perception roll.
// You describe a phenomenon you have no words for
based on what you actually perceive and take a −2 to
your Knowledge roll as you try to explain things to
people.
// A daydreamer has wandered into your mindscape. You
may or may not notice. This is a fairly frequent occurrence;
it should only provide a Fate Point when there
is something significant about this particular intrusion.
For example, the daydreamer is about to figure out
they’re not just daydreaming and are trying to attack.
Or you’re a Visionary and are about to accidentally
absorb their mind.
// You begin to go into a tangent rant relating to your
particular area of expertise as it pertains to the subject
at hand.
// A piece of information you glean from the mindscape
is a false plant by another God, Demon or Visionary.
// A particular piece of evidence you have in an argument
is based on your perceptions and is something not
accepted by the scientific community yet.
// Something you’re trying to keep secret ends up on the
mindscape.
Compels (Gods and Demons):
// A magician comes into your head for spells. Again,
this should only matter if it is a significant event, such
as if said magician is about to try to cast said spells on
you or a friend.
// Someone tries to use you as a backdoor into Orochi or
Ashvattha.
// Someone attacks the entire mindscape that you are a
part of. You included.
// You have difficulty understanding the purpose of inventing
a new machine to do something you could do
psychically and take a −2 on this Craft roll to invent
something because you aren’t trying as hard as you
could be. Runes and familiars would not suffer from
this problem. Also, some Gods and Demons have an
innovative/engineering mindset that would also be
less likely to suffer from this.
Compels (Visionaries):
// An unusual event nearby provokes a painful spike of
sensory information prompting either a Mental or
Life-Force attack as determined by the GM
// You have started to accidentally devour a friend’s psyche
after they visited your mindscape.
Warning: The only current way to stop this once it
starts is for the friend to become a God or Demon and
both characters will still end up mind linked permanently.
So only go with this if both of your players want
to go that route.
// You are possibly losing a part of yourself to the Visionary
mindscape (or a particular visionary). This operates
as an attack that may change one of your Aspects if it
goes on too long.
If you have not connected regularly to the mindscape, you
begin to suffer frequent headaches.
You slept poorly as a result of poor maintenance of your
connection. It takes you a long time to fully wake up.
You suffer an aneurysm from irregular mix of connections
and abstinence. For example you could follow up months of
practically never connecting with a full day of heavy use. This
occurs as a Physical attack.
This is the Power characteristic of Gods, Demons and Visionaries.
If your Defining Aspect contains references towards
one of those sets of individuals, then you have this Power. It
does not cost any AP because it doesn’t really have a hard and
fast set of rules unlike Clairsentience, Oracle or Prophet. Put
simply, someone with The Understanding has an understanding
of the way the universe works.
The Understanding is usually described as being something
unconscious or subconscious, but that is not entirely accurate.
Demons, Gods and Visionaries actually perceive phenomena
to a far greater detail than most people. This is because they
are all three also Luminous Beings. Their bodies are constructed
through psionic manipulation of raw Life-Force until it takes
on the shape and function of the organs necessary for a physical
life. Their entire bodies double as sensory organs. The
perceptions are separated out based on their empathic perceptions
of the senses of other sentients. Thus Gods, Demons and
Visionaries “see”, “hear”, “smell”, “taste” and “feel” in ways that
allow them to communicate and understand other beings.
Those that were not born with the Power, converted Gods and
Demons, have commented on the differences between actual
sight and the understanding. For example, a visionary can
identify the color blue because the light spectrum of blue is
distinctly separate to their perspective than the spectrum of
red, black or the like. However, blue to the Understanding is
a perception of individual light particles behaving in a set
pattern that can be identified as blue. Reading text on a page
for the Understanding is rather like watching a synchronized
dance with certain bundles of motion indicating the black
text and others the white paper. Looking at a blueprint or
diagram even allows them to consider the end result of a
design in three dimensions.
Gods and Demons are aware of the distinction between the
Understanding and normal perception, because they regularly
recruit humans to become Gods or Demons and, thus, memories
of what blue looks like to an ordinary person exist within
their mindscape. This awareness of ordinary perspective is
partially why the God and Demon mindscapes are much less
chaotic than the Visionary mindscape. They are able to enforce
that aesthetic for the ease of visitors. Human Visionaries, however, are largely unaware that what they see is exceptionally
different from what another person sees. Thus they equate
their abilities with invention and science as a sort of unconscious
Understanding, something that just happens. They don’t
realize that what they perceive is different.
In youth, Gods, Demons and Visionaries will be perceived to
be exceptionally gifted with science. Lower level science
classes mostly consist of identifying various entities or phenomena
and trying to describe them in abstract by demonstration
to a class. However, much of what humanity has
concluded via various experiments is stuff that Visionaries
witness every day. As such, for them, the science class isn’t
so much describing something abstract as it is labeling something
no one has ever named for them before.
Despite this advantage, the Understanding does not come
hand in hand with real intelligence. Rather similar to the way
that being able to see with clear color vision does not immediately
equate to artistic ability. Visionaries have a relatively
easy time acquiring a technical competence at anything they
focus much energy on enough so that they can be perceived
as geniuses sometimes. For example, when presented with
a plan and a non-functioning prototype, a Visionary, God or
Demon that has studied engineering could work up the precise
reason why something isn’t working and probably could
work up a solution. They could also come up with incredible
efficiency fixes in both mathematics and engineering to make
a particular item perform much more fluidly. Most people
with the Understanding usually end up creating something
that bends the understood limits of a field backwards. However,
they generally only have consistent innovation in one
or two fields.
The risks of the Understanding are different for Gods and
Demons than they are for Visionaries. Since Gods and Demons
have a stable, consistent mindscape and protection of their
psyches, they have less to worry about in terms of healthy
maintenance. Visionaries have to balance between connecting
to the mindscape often enough to ease some of the sensory
overload they experience daily and avoiding staying
connected so long that they lose themselves. All with the
Understanding have to worry about privacy and keeping some
information secret from others in the same mindscape.
In addition, Gods and Demons have gotten out of the habit
of doing much with their Understanding. They spend almost
all of their attention on the examination of psychic phenomena
and even in that case, it is mostly spent on figuring out
how to accomplish X effect they want to produce. This application
of the Understanding is pretty well expressed by the
Domain/Realm Power Advantage. Precious little of the attention
from Gods and Demons is spent on innovating. It’s
almost like most of them have forgotten how to come up with
anything really new.
Any Aspect that labels a character as a Demon, God or Visionary,
can be tapped and used as if it related to the Understanding.
The more such Aspects one person has, the more developed
their Understanding is. In this case, Aspects that don’t
mention being a Visionary but mention an area of expertise
connected to the Aspect mentioning Visionary can also be
invoked for the Understanding.
It should be noted that while the Understanding can be used
to perhaps acquire most other sensory abilities that would
be represented by actually purchasing those senses for the
most part. Death-Seers, for example, are able to perceive
ghosts and occasionally other entities which exist a bit outside
the normal bounds of the physical universe which the Understanding
best deals with. Life-Force sight at its highest
levels of development is much more efficient at what it does
than attempting to do the same thing with the Understanding
untrained. It is no coincidence that both the Demon Queen
and the High King of the Gods have fully developed Life-Force
sight.
Do not allow a player to replace these Powers entirely. However,
you can allow them to do things like register the presence
of entity by noting fluctuations caused by their consumption
of Life-Force and the identification of psychics by category
with a few moments of analyzing them.
// Connect to the appropriate mindscape and search for
information or to communicate with particular individuals.
// Call for help when attacked in a mindscape.
// Place a false memory or image into the mindscape.
// You can analyze whether a person in front of you is an
active psychic and what category they have. This requires
exposure to psychics of various types.
// Find an effective shortcut that takes an almost unreal
amount of time off of your travel.
Compels (All):
// You’re distracted by a spike in the constant sensory
bombardment and take a −2 to a Perception roll.
// You describe a phenomenon you have no words for
based on what you actually perceive and take a −2 to
your Knowledge roll as you try to explain things to
people.
// A daydreamer has wandered into your mindscape. You
may or may not notice. This is a fairly frequent occurrence;
it should only provide a Fate Point when there
is something significant about this particular intrusion.
For example, the daydreamer is about to figure out
they’re not just daydreaming and are trying to attack.
Or you’re a Visionary and are about to accidentally
absorb their mind.
// You begin to go into a tangent rant relating to your
particular area of expertise as it pertains to the subject
at hand.
// A piece of information you glean from the mindscape
is a false plant by another God, Demon or Visionary.
// A particular piece of evidence you have in an argument
is based on your perceptions and is something not
accepted by the scientific community yet.
// Something you’re trying to keep secret ends up on the
mindscape.
Compels (Gods and Demons):
// A magician comes into your head for spells. Again,
this should only matter if it is a significant event, such
as if said magician is about to try to cast said spells on
you or a friend.
// Someone tries to use you as a backdoor into Orochi or
Ashvattha.
// Someone attacks the entire mindscape that you are a
part of. You included.
// You have difficulty understanding the purpose of inventing
a new machine to do something you could do
psychically and take a −2 on this Craft roll to invent
something because you aren’t trying as hard as you
could be. Runes and familiars would not suffer from
this problem. Also, some Gods and Demons have an
innovative/engineering mindset that would also be
less likely to suffer from this.
Compels (Visionaries):
// An unusual event nearby provokes a painful spike of
sensory information prompting either a Mental or
Life-Force attack as determined by the GM
// You have started to accidentally devour a friend’s psyche
after they visited your mindscape.
Warning: The only current way to stop this once it
starts is for the friend to become a God or Demon and
both characters will still end up mind linked permanently.
So only go with this if both of your players want
to go that route.
// You are possibly losing a part of yourself to the Visionary
mindscape (or a particular visionary). This operates
as an attack that may change one of your Aspects if it
goes on too long.
If you have not connected regularly to the mindscape, you
begin to suffer frequent headaches.
You slept poorly as a result of poor maintenance of your
connection. It takes you a long time to fully wake up.
You suffer an aneurysm from irregular mix of connections
and abstinence. For example you could follow up months of
practically never connecting with a full day of heavy use. This
occurs as a Physical attack.