Artifact Rank: 18
Dark RPP: 14,400
Dark RMP: 72,000
Active Dates: 10,350-Current
Residence: Root Palace
As is the case with many psychics, Tia Winn does not have a separate Darkened state, but had her skin permanently bleached by her Artifact when she received it.
The Keepsake Cameo significantly boosts Tia’s innate ability to create, enter into, and control the dreams of others, enabling her to create a shared experience for up to 36,000 people. Her dreams are vivid and memorable, but if they lead to violence or death, the victims suffer the same fate.
Ren Fauer
Specialist, Emergency Squad
* * *
Category: F-Gene Fighter
Discipline: 10,000 Paths
Height: 175 cm
Weight: 74 kg
Gravity Rank: 23
RPP: 1,702
RMP: 100
Birthdate: 10,661.217
Artifact: Riot Knives
Artifact Rank: 18
Dark RPP: 30,636
Dark RMP: 1,800
Active Dates: 10,688 (killed 10,688)
Residence: Root Palace
While Dark, Ren bristles with knife blades and only retains a general humanoid outline. The blades can be set to motion in countless individual tracks across and along his body that work miraculously in concert to produce an unbelievable display of deadly motion. Within an atmosphere, this motion can provide lift and gives him total control over his movement. This is, of course, in addition to his preexisting ability to fly using Approaching Infinity theory, which is also enhanced by the power supplied by the Riot Knives.
The knives can provide a great offense if he attacks bodily, and offer an excellent defense against projectile attacks, batting away incoming fire. The knives are durable, but not indestructible. When broken, they quickly grow back.
Gast Froster
Specialist, Emergency Squad
* * *
Category: F-Gene Fighter
Discipline: Wind Fission Sickles
Height: 188 cm
Weight: 78 kg
Gravity Rank: 22
RPP: 1,716
RMP: 100
Birthdate: 10,660.142
Artifact: Particle Distributor
Artifact Rank: 18
Dark RPP: 30,888
Dark RMP: 1,800
Active Dates: 10,688 (killed 10,688)
Residence: Root Palace
While Dark, Gast Froster appears to be an anthropomorphic raven, covered completely in a smooth, electric blue metallic shell. He has the further ability to transform into the Scavenger Cloud, dispersing his body over an area and becoming insubstantial, unaffected by all but powerful incendiary attacks. In this state, he is still able to affect those within the Cloud, often using his sickles to attack.
Brin Karvasti
Specialist, Emergency Squad
* * *
Category: Psychic
Discipline: Suggestion/Compulsion
Height: 157 cm
Weight: 45 kg
Gravity Rank: 5
RPP: 225
RMP: 4,200
Birthdate: 10,664.304
Artifact: Dharma Engine
Artifact Rank: 18
Dark RPP: 4,050
Dark RMP: 75,600
Active Dates: 10,688-Current
Residence: Root Palace
Brin’s Artifact becomes visible at her back when she goes Dark, but otherwise she doesn’t change physically. She has the innate ability to make people do what she says. In general, her victims must be able to hear her voice, but she is able to transmit her power, chaining it between minds when they are in close proximity to one another.
Of course her Artifact substantially increases this ability, but it also enables her to inflict the Dharma Clock on individual victims. This attack crucifies the victim and forces him or her submit to first psychological then physical trauma according to “guilt” they feel based on criteria—genuine, manufactured, or twisted—set by Brin.
Isker Vays
First General, 19th Generation, Retired
* * *
Category: F-Gene Fighter
Discipline: Single Element Ghost Sword
Height: 179 cm
Weight: 79 kg
Gravity Rank: 22
RPP: 1,738
RMP: 100
Birthdate: 9,819.184
Artifact: Jaaku Thorns
Artifact Rank: 20
Dark RPP: 34,760
Dark RMP: 2,000
Active Dates: 9,850-10,350 (killed 10,688)
Residence: Planet 1019
When Dark, the Jaaku Thorns sheathe Isker Vays in a tough layer of plant fiber, studded at intervals with deadly sharp thorns. He wields the Willow Sword, a a foil which is little more than a nearly unbreakable reed and which is produced as necessary from a dislodged thorn.
The Jaaku Thorns also give Vays the ability to animate and control all manner of plants, turning those of sufficient mass into a monstrous, creeping army. His power pushes plants far beyond their original biological designs. After about 20 hours of constant animation, all affected plants burn out, wither, and die.
Aila Schosser
General, 19th Generation, Retired
* * *
Category: Psychic
Discipline: Feline Transformation
Height: 185 cm
Weight: 70 kg / 90 kg
Gravity Rank: 22
RPP: 1,540 / 1,980
RMP: 3,900
Birthdate: 9,826.216
Artifact: Cat’s-eye Marble
Artifact Rank: 20
Dark RPP: 39,600
Dark RMP: 2,000
Active Dates: 9,850-10,350 (killed 10,688)
Residence: Planet 1035
Aila Schosser has the ability to transform into a stark-white bipedal hunting cat with enhanced senses, increased strength, speed, and reflexes, and the ability to project a bolt of kinetic energy. When she goes Dark, her Artifact completes the transformation, turning her into a great 4-legged, white armored cat, standing over 2 meters at the shoulder. The Cats-eye Marble, visible while Dark, also enhances her prowess with the kinetic bolt.
Mont Cranden
First General, 18th Generation, Retired
* * *
Category: Psychic
Discipline: Pocket Dimension Creation, Various Minor Powers
Height: 182 cm
Weight: 89 kg
Gravity Rank: 10
RPP: 890
RMP: 5,500
Birthdate: 9,312.235
Artifact: Gate Crown
Artifact Rank: 20
Dark RPP: 17,800
Dark RMP: 110,000
Active Dates: 9,350-9,850 (killed 10,688)
Residence: Locsard Psychic Academy
Mont Cranden’s Gate Crown greatly facilitates his innate ability to create dimensional vaults, enabling him to create up to a total of 11,000 cubic meters of enclosed, sequestered space, to which only he has access. These vaults can remain semi-permanently in place where originally constructed or be mobile, following criteria of Cranden’s devising. In either case, his vaults and their contents are invisible to and inaccessible from the outside world. It is possible to tax the boundaries of one of Cranden’s vaults from the inside and find escape, but this requires a uniform and substantial display of force directed simultaneously against a large enough portion of the vault’s inner surface area to overwhelm Cranden’s mental constraints.
Besides his vaults, Cranden possesses a number of other psychic disciplines, most notably true, invasive telepathy and minor telekinetic powers, which are limited to his person and mostly aid in self-defense.
Sana Bale
General, 18th Generation, Retired
* * *
Category: Psychic
Discipline: Radiation Manipulation
Height: 165 cm
Weight: 44 kg
Gravity Rank: 18
RPP: 792
RMP: 4,400
Birthdate: 9,324.177
Artifact: Prismatic Scales
Artifact Rank: 20
Dark RPP: 15,840
Dark RMP: 88,000
Active Dates: 9,350-9,850 (killed 10,688)
Residence: Planet 912
Sana Bale’s psychic ability enables her to sense, differentiate, and produce all forms of radiation. When Dark, she transforms into a being of living light, with her innate powers greatly enhanced.
AFTERWORD
I confess that I was late in coming to books. I was a slow reader, and there was always something to read for school. When I was 12, though, I was drawn in by a cover and blown away by Roger Zelazny’s Creatures of Light and Darkness (to reiterate a point I’ve made before, Temporal Fugue kicks ass!). Still love that book. It’s what made me want to write. Zelazny’s various spins on mythology showed me just how far words can take you. I will admit—a little sheepishly—to consciously borrowing one of Zelazny’s phrases (if there are more, it was unconscious, I swear!): “spatial hijackery” is all his and is intended as a nod to him, not as plagiarism.
Much later, when I was about 25, some friends introduced me to H.P. Lovecraft and his Mythos world connected by an overpowering sense of dread and a surprising number of mind-shattering truths. I’m still amazed that Lovecraft was able to do what he did, creating a cohesive whole out of so many separate short stories and novellas with no single, defining narrative work to bind them. So much occurs between the lines and yet this “empty” space acts as the cement that holds it all together. If you’re only familiar with movies covering various aspects of Lovecraft’s universe (as I was at first), you’re missing out.
Another ten years or so later, I read E. E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensman series. I’d known about it for years, but circumstances worked against my getting to the books any sooner. Now here was a sequential narrative that built an amazing world with no limits: near-godlike aliens, a benevolent police force of powerful psychics, undercover agents solving mysteries, ruthless pirates setting off high-stakes space battles, planets run by naked psychic amazon women (!), constantly evolving technology spurred by plot and setting, and a relentless push towards the next step of human evolution (as directed by some of those near-godlike aliens). Style and some of the period language aside, I’m still impressed (as I am with Lovecraft’s stories) that these books were written when they were. I don’t know if it’s accurate to say that they were ahead of their time, but many of the ideas put forth still seem new, at least to me. I started by saying that I came late to books, and I will add that I am, ashamedly, still not so well-read, so I’m sure that I’m missing a lot of what else is out there that may have been contemporary.
In any case, I wanted to talk about these three authors and these particular works because each has played, in one way or another, a significant role in shaping the Viscain Empire and the world that is its victim. Some of the references are obvious—blatant even—some may be impossible to spot, but all are for the express purpose of transporting you, me, and anyone else who wants to come along for the ride to a place where anything can happen, where villains can be heroes, and where the laws of physics aren’t absolute. I hope it has been or will be worth your while. Thanks for reading.
Chris Eisenlauer
July, 2011
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