You'll be playing, as the name suggests, a fledgling deity. With enough time and effort, nothing is truly beyond you. The question is... what will you do?
Fledgling Deity Quest
- Thread starter ilbgar123
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Opening Narration
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
A conflict spanning space and time and higher dimensions, various Ascended, energy beings, and entities possessing technology advanced enough to invoke Clarke's Third Law waging war. It was not so simple as a conflict between good and evil, or order and chaos. At least 11 major factions existed, with dozens of internal factions and splinter groups apiece. Entire galaxies were obliterated as though one were breaking a toothpick. In the end, there was no victor. Even the 'winners' were reduced to thin figments of themselves, while the losers underwent the metaphysical equivalent of being chucked into a blender and set to puree. You are one of the latter. Perhaps it was by astounding coincidence, or perhaps one of the victors sought to grant their fallen foes a second chance. Either way, your Spark of Creation has reemerged in physical reality on Earth. What you do from here... is up to you.
An alleyway was not the most auspicious place to begin a saga, but it was surprisingly common. Many a superhero story ended up here shortly before or after getting their powers. So, when a mote of golden/prismatic/monochrome light appeared, a confluence of impossibility with only the barest, most fragmented of memories regarding it's existence, it's rather lucky the first human it came across was compatible enough for a link to be established. Otherwise, they might have wound up experiencing the spiritual equivalent of a seizure while also having the normal kind.
Who was it?
[X] A girl with purple hair, with pink tones at the tips. (Early Start, roughly 10 years, or 40 Turns, before everything starts exploding all at once. Significant odds of being discovered beforehand, though your nature means that doing anything to you directly is difficult. Tech-focused. Definitely the largest chance to make major changes to the setting before the 'plot' begins, if only due to the opportunity to scale no other route really has.)
[/] A girl with blond hair in twintails sprouting from a pair of hair buns. (Late Start, thrown into the action more or less immediately without much IC opportunity to figure things out. Things are pretty rough more or less immediately, and will likely stay that way the whole game. Canonically, things were very much 'skin of the teeth' in terms of victories, though they did win in the end. Magic-focused.)
[/] A girl with orange hair also in twintails, held up by a pair of white ribbons. (Technically a Late Start, but you effectively have a Tutorial and a buildup period unless you really mess up. Moderately difficult beginning, calm intermission, hectic period again. Likely to leave Earth behind unless some unconventional choices are made early on, which may forfeit some opportunities. Magitech-focused.)
AN: Do note that these characters will all exist here and are in theory recruitable, this just determines who is your initial 'High Priest' the specifics of which will be explained in the imminent Informational Post. Do note that this means that things will get crazy pretty much no matter what you do.
***
An alleyway was not the most auspicious place to begin a saga, but it was surprisingly common. Many a superhero story ended up here shortly before or after getting their powers. So, when a mote of golden/prismatic/monochrome light appeared, a confluence of impossibility with only the barest, most fragmented of memories regarding it's existence, it's rather lucky the first human it came across was compatible enough for a link to be established. Otherwise, they might have wound up experiencing the spiritual equivalent of a seizure while also having the normal kind.
Who was it?
[X] A girl with purple hair, with pink tones at the tips. (Early Start, roughly 10 years, or 40 Turns, before everything starts exploding all at once. Significant odds of being discovered beforehand, though your nature means that doing anything to you directly is difficult. Tech-focused. Definitely the largest chance to make major changes to the setting before the 'plot' begins, if only due to the opportunity to scale no other route really has.)
[/] A girl with blond hair in twintails sprouting from a pair of hair buns. (Late Start, thrown into the action more or less immediately without much IC opportunity to figure things out. Things are pretty rough more or less immediately, and will likely stay that way the whole game. Canonically, things were very much 'skin of the teeth' in terms of victories, though they did win in the end. Magic-focused.)
[/] A girl with orange hair also in twintails, held up by a pair of white ribbons. (Technically a Late Start, but you effectively have a Tutorial and a buildup period unless you really mess up. Moderately difficult beginning, calm intermission, hectic period again. Likely to leave Earth behind unless some unconventional choices are made early on, which may forfeit some opportunities. Magitech-focused.)
AN: Do note that these characters will all exist here and are in theory recruitable, this just determines who is your initial 'High Priest' the specifics of which will be explained in the imminent Informational Post. Do note that this means that things will get crazy pretty much no matter what you do.
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Mechanics
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
Faith:
While technically you are an energy being more akin to a Star Trek/Stargate Ascended than a conventional deity, your Frankenstein-esque nature means most forms of energy are compatible with you. Including Faith, which is essentially radiation here. Something about sapient life causes it to generate much more energy from thought and emotion, and makes faith a viable energy source for you. Your 'High Priest' is special in a number of ways. Regarding Faith, normally, you'd earn 1 Faith per 3 months. A High Priest earns 1 Faith per day, and has a much lower threshold of belief to count as a follower. It helps that the choices available are all warm, friendly people who form bonds quickly when reciprocated. Meaning you start with an income of 91 from the one person per Turn.
Faith can only be harvested from people who hold a certain amount of belief in you, though there are Perks and Domains that can lower it. This also means that failing enough times or catastrophically enough can lower Faith by losing you followers. Generally speaking, you need to be alive to produce Faith, though a particularly potent and lifelike ghost can be an exception.
Faith costs scale per level of a Domain, but so do the benefits. For instance, Mushrooms would go 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, then the rate doubles on the fifth level. 35, 45, 55, 65, 75. 95, 115, 135, 155, 175. And so on. As a general rule, once you hit Tier 15 or so, you should only expect major benefits as of every fifth Domain level, though they do still ease Action DCs.
For instance, in the Ben 10 series, the Omnitrix has a lock with 10,000 possible combinations. Ordinarily, this could be brute-forced fairly easily by equivalent technology, or a Spark of Creation such as yourself. Of course, with no relevant Domains or Perks, you'd be rolling a 1d6 per Action against a DC of 100. With relevant Domains like Technology and Programming, you can bring that down, as well as increasing the d6s you're working with.
Domains:
It might be best to define these as being akin to Apps on a phone. They dramatically streamline relevant processes, though only for those things that are, indeed, relevant. For example, Mushrooms would cost 5 Faith to purchase it's first level in, but you wouldn't be able to use it on, say, moss. Fungus would cost 10 Faith for it's initial level, but wouldn't be as effective on Mushrooms as the more niche Domain. Domains provide both an easing of related actions directly, akin to turning a screw with a screwdriver versus barehanded, and by improving related knowledge. See above. Domains with similar meanings usually complement rather than overlap. Creation is ex nihilo creation, where Crafting manipulates extant materials, and the two work well together. Salvage and Loot generally refer to very different circumstances, but any time you would Loot can technically be considered salvaging. Martial Arts and Sword-based blessings synergize, as does Art where Painting is concerned.
Domains escalate in cost as they grow more broad. Do note that incredibly broad Domains like Omnipotence and Omniscience are technically available, but you'd need double digits in them to get any real benefit. In essence, they're too broad. It's the opposite issue to a swiss army knife. You have 5 Domains like Cars, Swords, or Painting, 10 Domains like Machines, Weapons, or Art, and common Domains end with 15-Faith Domains like Technology, Equipment, and Creativity. Then there are the 20 Domains. These tend to be Meta-Domains. Faith, Empowerment, Action, etc. They are useful for much on their own, but they make you better able to do types of things. Faith, for example, is the best way to lower the necessary amount of belief to form and maintain a connection with someone, though it would take double digits to make people start producing more Faith directly. 25 is where 'genre' Domains sit. Things that define a setting. Warhammer 40K would have Chaos, Psi, and Heroism(struggling against impossible odds for just one more day), for example, where Star Trek would have Mundane(in the sense that the idea is that we could one day achieve all of this ourselves) and Wonder, Persona has Order and Chaos, and Dragon Ball would have Qi and Heroism. These are Domains that start providing major benefits to both you and your followers automatically unless you restrict it for whatever reason, and synergies with your choices and any power-ups you hand out only compound them.
Due to Chaos and Order technically being moral alignments, they don't quite function like normal genre Domains. They have different Faith costs, and tend to be something used in tandem/as a steroid for another power. For example, Chaos 1 is a 1d6 cost, Chaos 2 and 3 are a 1d36, Chaos 4-6 are a 1d216 apiece. Order, meanwhile, is a straight 5 as of it's first level, 25 at level 2 and 3, 125 at level 4-6. Chaos can push up the strength of a Magic spell or a Qi technique two orders of magnitude, but at the cost of instability and random effects. Say you wanted to make a chicken lay more eggs. Maybe you get exactly what you want, more likely, one of the following effects will occur. Perhaps the chicken will start laying eggs so fast it more closely resembles a machine gun than a normal chicken. Maybe the chicken will turn into a giant human-eating mutant whose offspring are similarly changed. Maybe you'll create Mega-Ultra-Chicken, the God-Emperor of Chickenkind. Or the chicken might just get palette swapped. Order only does a single magnitude, and makes the spells more rigid. For example, having a bolt of electricity jump into a powerline after missing it's mark, drain a chunk of energy, and then jump back out to hit the enemy from behind? Normal or Chaos Magic could do that, but Order Magic could not. On the other hand, you can get a singular magnitude jump, while not having anything weird happen.
Finally, there are 50 Domains. Divinity, Space, Time, and Soul. The former as it involves direct tinkering with your own essence and nature, the last because it involves much the same for everybody else, and the middle pair because the dramatically weakened super-entities are still strong enough to impose limitations. These are the heftiest Domains for a reason. They also provide major benefits. Soul, for example, enhances many forms of empowerment and unlocks a lot of projects. Among other things.
Actions:
In theory, anything you want to do can be done, though you're going to want high Domains for anything like 'Make everybody Captain America without crazy dietary requirements or else their body cannibalizes itself.' You begin with 3 Actions, gaining an additional action with each magnitude your number of followers increases. 1->10 would move you up to 4 Actions. Note that gaining High Priests will also grant actions, but they tend to be literally one in a million, and there's no guarantee they'll follow you even if you find someone who is, in theory, compatible. This first one is a freebie, though you'd have to be a pretty nasty customer to lock one or both the others out.
At any rate, Faith can be used to generate more Actions as well, sacrificing 25% of your Faith income to grant an extra Action or increase Action number by 25%, whichever is greater. Until you hit 8 Actions(so, not any time soon) it's going to be 1 either way. This can be toggled for 50, 75, or even 100% if you wish.
Actions will default to 1d6 to the relevant task, with difficulty determined by me. Making your High Priest into Captain America is a base of 25, for example. This is relatively easy because it's one person. If you have Life, Evolution, and Enhancement at 1 apiece, it drops to 10, and you go from 1d6 to 4d6. Pretty much a guaranteed success if you get even average rolls.
It should be noted that Actions can be used for three main things. Making things, buffing people(temporarily via blessings, or permanently via Empowerments, though you'll need an empowerment method first, such as Qi, Magic, or Psi), and information-gathering, though all of these tend to require requisite Domains to be very effective, and followers tend to determine your area of influence. As of game start, you have a couple square miles around your High Priest available to mess around with. Doing Actions beyond this area tends to cause penalties to your dice at best, or outright fizzle out at worst. This is because, at least initially, your followers act to stabilize you. You are, as I said, essentially the energy being equivalent of a bunch of corpses sewn together. Some scarring makes sense, yes?
You can make artifacts, which essentially work on divine energy, and will, under normal circumstances, work pretty much forever unless actively destroyed. Relevant Domains influence overall quality, though this is mostly because of the imparted knowledge translating to improved skill. Then there's Marvels. Stuff like Excalibur, though it can also be more in line with the Philosopher's Stone. In theory you can grant every High Priest a Marvel, but you're never going to have the production to give every follower a Marvels once you hit triple digit followers.
Buffing people can be a general boost, or focused, though specific Domains will always help. Speed and Strength Domains will make buffing those things much more effective, for example. Empowerments are similarly effected. If you have Magic and Psi, Empowering followers will give them those, but not Qi.
Information-gathering is influenced by both knowledge-based Domains such as Learning and Knowledge, and Intrigue focused ones like Intrigue and Searching. Divination, Foresight, Hindsight, etc. are also viable means of gathering intel, though it should be noted that prophecies are usually fairly unreliable without major investment and/or a relevant Marvel. Not the least because the vast majority of the time you are a complicating factor even if you don't have anything in the Time Domain. You are both more constrained and freer than most beings.
Omake Policy:
Much like Actions, I'm going with a policy that Omakes have a baseline of either +25 Faith as of any number of Faith below 1000, from there, it doubles with every magnitude of increase, 50 as of the fourth digit, 100 as of the fifth, and so on. Quality and length can increase this. You will also have the option of directly investing in a Domain of your choice, or dumping it into the general pool. I should note that I love Negaverses and Crossovers(gee, who'd have thunk?) though obviously it's a little early for the former.
While technically you are an energy being more akin to a Star Trek/Stargate Ascended than a conventional deity, your Frankenstein-esque nature means most forms of energy are compatible with you. Including Faith, which is essentially radiation here. Something about sapient life causes it to generate much more energy from thought and emotion, and makes faith a viable energy source for you. Your 'High Priest' is special in a number of ways. Regarding Faith, normally, you'd earn 1 Faith per 3 months. A High Priest earns 1 Faith per day, and has a much lower threshold of belief to count as a follower. It helps that the choices available are all warm, friendly people who form bonds quickly when reciprocated. Meaning you start with an income of 91 from the one person per Turn.
Faith can only be harvested from people who hold a certain amount of belief in you, though there are Perks and Domains that can lower it. This also means that failing enough times or catastrophically enough can lower Faith by losing you followers. Generally speaking, you need to be alive to produce Faith, though a particularly potent and lifelike ghost can be an exception.
Faith costs scale per level of a Domain, but so do the benefits. For instance, Mushrooms would go 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, then the rate doubles on the fifth level. 35, 45, 55, 65, 75. 95, 115, 135, 155, 175. And so on. As a general rule, once you hit Tier 15 or so, you should only expect major benefits as of every fifth Domain level, though they do still ease Action DCs.
For instance, in the Ben 10 series, the Omnitrix has a lock with 10,000 possible combinations. Ordinarily, this could be brute-forced fairly easily by equivalent technology, or a Spark of Creation such as yourself. Of course, with no relevant Domains or Perks, you'd be rolling a 1d6 per Action against a DC of 100. With relevant Domains like Technology and Programming, you can bring that down, as well as increasing the d6s you're working with.
Domains:
It might be best to define these as being akin to Apps on a phone. They dramatically streamline relevant processes, though only for those things that are, indeed, relevant. For example, Mushrooms would cost 5 Faith to purchase it's first level in, but you wouldn't be able to use it on, say, moss. Fungus would cost 10 Faith for it's initial level, but wouldn't be as effective on Mushrooms as the more niche Domain. Domains provide both an easing of related actions directly, akin to turning a screw with a screwdriver versus barehanded, and by improving related knowledge. See above. Domains with similar meanings usually complement rather than overlap. Creation is ex nihilo creation, where Crafting manipulates extant materials, and the two work well together. Salvage and Loot generally refer to very different circumstances, but any time you would Loot can technically be considered salvaging. Martial Arts and Sword-based blessings synergize, as does Art where Painting is concerned.
Domains escalate in cost as they grow more broad. Do note that incredibly broad Domains like Omnipotence and Omniscience are technically available, but you'd need double digits in them to get any real benefit. In essence, they're too broad. It's the opposite issue to a swiss army knife. You have 5 Domains like Cars, Swords, or Painting, 10 Domains like Machines, Weapons, or Art, and common Domains end with 15-Faith Domains like Technology, Equipment, and Creativity. Then there are the 20 Domains. These tend to be Meta-Domains. Faith, Empowerment, Action, etc. They are useful for much on their own, but they make you better able to do types of things. Faith, for example, is the best way to lower the necessary amount of belief to form and maintain a connection with someone, though it would take double digits to make people start producing more Faith directly. 25 is where 'genre' Domains sit. Things that define a setting. Warhammer 40K would have Chaos, Psi, and Heroism(struggling against impossible odds for just one more day), for example, where Star Trek would have Mundane(in the sense that the idea is that we could one day achieve all of this ourselves) and Wonder, Persona has Order and Chaos, and Dragon Ball would have Qi and Heroism. These are Domains that start providing major benefits to both you and your followers automatically unless you restrict it for whatever reason, and synergies with your choices and any power-ups you hand out only compound them.
Due to Chaos and Order technically being moral alignments, they don't quite function like normal genre Domains. They have different Faith costs, and tend to be something used in tandem/as a steroid for another power. For example, Chaos 1 is a 1d6 cost, Chaos 2 and 3 are a 1d36, Chaos 4-6 are a 1d216 apiece. Order, meanwhile, is a straight 5 as of it's first level, 25 at level 2 and 3, 125 at level 4-6. Chaos can push up the strength of a Magic spell or a Qi technique two orders of magnitude, but at the cost of instability and random effects. Say you wanted to make a chicken lay more eggs. Maybe you get exactly what you want, more likely, one of the following effects will occur. Perhaps the chicken will start laying eggs so fast it more closely resembles a machine gun than a normal chicken. Maybe the chicken will turn into a giant human-eating mutant whose offspring are similarly changed. Maybe you'll create Mega-Ultra-Chicken, the God-Emperor of Chickenkind. Or the chicken might just get palette swapped. Order only does a single magnitude, and makes the spells more rigid. For example, having a bolt of electricity jump into a powerline after missing it's mark, drain a chunk of energy, and then jump back out to hit the enemy from behind? Normal or Chaos Magic could do that, but Order Magic could not. On the other hand, you can get a singular magnitude jump, while not having anything weird happen.
Finally, there are 50 Domains. Divinity, Space, Time, and Soul. The former as it involves direct tinkering with your own essence and nature, the last because it involves much the same for everybody else, and the middle pair because the dramatically weakened super-entities are still strong enough to impose limitations. These are the heftiest Domains for a reason. They also provide major benefits. Soul, for example, enhances many forms of empowerment and unlocks a lot of projects. Among other things.
Actions:
In theory, anything you want to do can be done, though you're going to want high Domains for anything like 'Make everybody Captain America without crazy dietary requirements or else their body cannibalizes itself.' You begin with 3 Actions, gaining an additional action with each magnitude your number of followers increases. 1->10 would move you up to 4 Actions. Note that gaining High Priests will also grant actions, but they tend to be literally one in a million, and there's no guarantee they'll follow you even if you find someone who is, in theory, compatible. This first one is a freebie, though you'd have to be a pretty nasty customer to lock one or both the others out.
At any rate, Faith can be used to generate more Actions as well, sacrificing 25% of your Faith income to grant an extra Action or increase Action number by 25%, whichever is greater. Until you hit 8 Actions(so, not any time soon) it's going to be 1 either way. This can be toggled for 50, 75, or even 100% if you wish.
Actions will default to 1d6 to the relevant task, with difficulty determined by me. Making your High Priest into Captain America is a base of 25, for example. This is relatively easy because it's one person. If you have Life, Evolution, and Enhancement at 1 apiece, it drops to 10, and you go from 1d6 to 4d6. Pretty much a guaranteed success if you get even average rolls.
It should be noted that Actions can be used for three main things. Making things, buffing people(temporarily via blessings, or permanently via Empowerments, though you'll need an empowerment method first, such as Qi, Magic, or Psi), and information-gathering, though all of these tend to require requisite Domains to be very effective, and followers tend to determine your area of influence. As of game start, you have a couple square miles around your High Priest available to mess around with. Doing Actions beyond this area tends to cause penalties to your dice at best, or outright fizzle out at worst. This is because, at least initially, your followers act to stabilize you. You are, as I said, essentially the energy being equivalent of a bunch of corpses sewn together. Some scarring makes sense, yes?
You can make artifacts, which essentially work on divine energy, and will, under normal circumstances, work pretty much forever unless actively destroyed. Relevant Domains influence overall quality, though this is mostly because of the imparted knowledge translating to improved skill. Then there's Marvels. Stuff like Excalibur, though it can also be more in line with the Philosopher's Stone. In theory you can grant every High Priest a Marvel, but you're never going to have the production to give every follower a Marvels once you hit triple digit followers.
Buffing people can be a general boost, or focused, though specific Domains will always help. Speed and Strength Domains will make buffing those things much more effective, for example. Empowerments are similarly effected. If you have Magic and Psi, Empowering followers will give them those, but not Qi.
Information-gathering is influenced by both knowledge-based Domains such as Learning and Knowledge, and Intrigue focused ones like Intrigue and Searching. Divination, Foresight, Hindsight, etc. are also viable means of gathering intel, though it should be noted that prophecies are usually fairly unreliable without major investment and/or a relevant Marvel. Not the least because the vast majority of the time you are a complicating factor even if you don't have anything in the Time Domain. You are both more constrained and freer than most beings.
Omake Policy:
Much like Actions, I'm going with a policy that Omakes have a baseline of either +25 Faith as of any number of Faith below 1000, from there, it doubles with every magnitude of increase, 50 as of the fourth digit, 100 as of the fifth, and so on. Quality and length can increase this. You will also have the option of directly investing in a Domain of your choice, or dumping it into the general pool. I should note that I love Negaverses and Crossovers(gee, who'd have thunk?) though obviously it's a little early for the former.
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A Few Background Details
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
Actual characters, though they are significantly AU, due to taking place in the same universe. For example, purple MC is starting off when she's 6(normally you need to be at least 16 to start giving Faith, because you require a certain level of mental and emotional maturity, but High Priest's are an exception to this rule) but her series is significantly in the future of Sailor Moon, so I have to move Sailor Moon up quite a bit in the timeline to make it match up, since it's a gap between her and Nanoha of more than ten years, and again for our Tech-focused character, whose series didn't actually premier until 2020, though it was announced in 2016. Meaning, Sailor Moon, whose Manga and Anime began in 1991/1992 and appear to be set there, would have happened over twenty years before the series that is both chronologically and in-universe newest, and Usagi would likely be well on her way to or already God-Queen.
A hypothetical sequel Quest could have that as an interesting premise, but it makes any real conflict difficult to generate without having to ask: Why not just Silver Crystal it away? Now, I could say there's an anti-magic faction with something akin to the Necron pylons acting as Chaos' newest henchmen(since using magic clearly wasn't working out, could even give them similar motivations as the Necrons, sure, Usagi is going around healing the universe now, but where was she when Galaxia killed their Senshi and left them to rot as their planet started dying from the shock of having it's Senshi killed over and over?), but Ami would likely be much better suited to running anti-anti-magic R&D than the character, what with literal decades of study under her belt, though it would be possible to somewhat level the playing field since High Priest Empowerment is always going to be higher quality than lower-tier follower Empowerment. Similarly, Nanoha would have long since settled down on Mid-Childa with Fate and Vivio, and likely wouldn't realize anything was happening on Earth until it was way too late for her to intervene in either direction if the Sailor Moon plot was ongoing or any of the crisis events I have planned for the tech route go through.
I should probably mention a few specific things about the AU here. While it's common fanon, I should make explicit that in this 'verse, ridiculously potent glamours are a thing that comes pre-equipped for Senshi. Even Galaxia has it. Though it should be noted that someone who catches it on camera will only partially pierce the effect unless they are using an abnormal camera, high-tech, magi-tech, or magic. A weaker effect meant to keep the authorities off their backs while luring in their targets is why the Dark Kingdom and similar SM enemies can get away with so much crap despite the advent of 'literally every incident's initial footage is shaky cell phone camera recordings these days' in modern times, though Nanoha and co. have spatially locked out zones and a Prime Directive going on to buffer their comparatively weaker abilities there. The Tech faction just takes a page from MiB.
Senshi also have a much better time trying to add their Combat values to each other, getting teamwork bonuses early on you normally only see in army units, where getting that is half the point of the training. Again, even Galaxia has it, which is why she was able to actually help out against Chaos in the Anime after Usagi Messiah-ed at her hard enough to turn her good again. Actually training it up is also much easier than it should be. Basically, Senshi automatically gain C-Rank Social Link Combat benefits as part of being Senshi, and they don't need particularly strong bonds or rigorous training.
Another things is, even without explicitly gearing for it, high enough levels of magic will passively boost your physical stats, so the Senshi even as of Season 1 will find small arms slightly less dangerous than mosquito bites, as there's no risk of catching horrible diseases, with a similar buff to the rest of their capabilities, and Sailor Moon is very much Lovecraft-lite, like Kirby. The series only seems fun and light-hearted most of the time because the protagonist(s) work hard to punch everybody who tries to make it otherwise in the face really hard. This is mostly seen in the Senshi and Dark Generals, since they have entire planetary bodies to draw on, with early limitations being more about how Rei is the only one with significant mystical background and therefore they all need a significant period to acclimate. It's sort of like acclimating to the Super Saiyan transformation. You'll get a lot more out of it if you're body's adjusted, and it helps with higher tiers of the transformation. An Usagi who has Super Sailor Moon mastered can maintain it 24/7, and can keep her 'base' self at full strength for her original transformation. It does take a while though, weeks minimum, months if they operate at an insane tempo like in the Manag where they only won by the skin of their teeth. This is actually one of the advantages Nanoha and co. have over the other two, they offload a lot of the strain of casting onto their Devices, so they effectively jump up the curve, though it comes with the downside of lower physical buffs relative to a peak Senshi and having their Devices taking significant damage or being lost be a crippling weakness, whereas a Senshi who has 100% mastered their transformation is only really vulnerable to getting their Star Seed ripped out, and there are less than a dozen people who can do that at will.
Another thing, there's three main components to a being, the Star Seed/soul, Heart Flower/Heart, and Dream Mirror/Mind. Linker Cores are a separate thing, so it is possible to survive without one(though having it ripped out of you by force certainly isn't healthy), as I believe that magic is born of desire. Desires is not inherently good or bad. So, you only really need to want something to be capable of magic. The Heartless of Kingdom Hearts could use magic, as they want to collect Hearts, and wanting is all you need. In PMMM, wishes are literally just desires you're getting granted Monkey's Paw-style. In Sailor Moon, spells are generally created because of a specific desire. Usagi mostly gets healing spells because she's inherently a kind person. This is a long-winded way of saying that they can work off of any or all of the three main components of a person, so someone having a Heart, Mind, or Soul doesn't really indicate anything in regards to magic, as long as at least one of the other two is present.
I should probably illustrate the big differences between Tech, Magitech, and Magic while I'm at this. Let's go back to the 'camera partially piercing Senshi glamour' statement. A normal, modern camera directly seeing her transformation won't get you much more than being able to conclusively say Sailor Moon is a blonde Japanese girl. Her incredibly distinct hairstyle will just sort of slide off the mind. You'll still attribute her actions to her, but you could literally have Sailor Moon walk out of an alleyway that Usagi just walked into, and you wouldn't be able to make the connection. Even someone who had broken through the glamour telling you wouldn't do anything. If the camera was a suped-up high-tech camera able to detect magic, and it registered the glamour as well as the similar magic radiating off of both Usagi and Sailor Moon, that would put a serious crimp in the glamour. A Magitech camera would be a recording taken by an Intelligent Device, or a camera designed with magical components. A Magic camera could be a camera specifically enchanted with high-end detection spells, or just a straight detection/viewing spell.
Another of the big differences is that it's likely for Nanoha and the TSAB to crash into the Tech side of Earth, since it's likely a Jewel Seed will become entangled with it, and despite not being Earth tech, the Tech side's gribblies are bad news for the TSAB until they learn to protect their Devices. I can't really say more without spoilers. It's something of a rock-paper-scissors thing, though the initial matchup is reversed at the top of the tech tree. Assuming they're all up there. Psitech and Qitech are considered 'magitech' for this purpose, along with any of their fellows.
Tech is initially beaten by magic and initially beats magitech, due to the former offering a lot of power upfront to the lucky few who can utilize it to full effect, while the latter is vulnerable to both magic and tech-based attacks without being able to fully leverage the advantages of either against it's parent tech trees, mostly because it is initially even more restricted than magic in terms of it's industrial base even though it's overall accessibility to the common man is greater. At it's peak, however, magitech becomes mass-production enough to offset the advantage pure tech retains in that regard, and can defend itself against such attacks, while tech is producing wunderwaffen in sufficient numbers to drown magic's equivalent, even though magic has extended downward enough that the old top-of-the-line is now available to orders of magnitude more people.
Magic is initially beaten by magitech because it takes longer for it's buffs and spell list to kick in, while beating tech because while it's much more wunderwaffen-focused, partially due to much lower accessibility, it's higher availability of conceptual hax(Nanoha's nearly-career-ending injury prior to Strikers would be trivially healed by Usagi even by the end of Season 1) and having a lot of it available to the lucky few who can wield more than dregs of it without outside assistance lets it dance around normal tech. At the peak, however, magic's greater base stats, lesser dependence on equipment, and longer spell list will turn the tide, while technology will leverage high-quality but ultimately disposable chaff to wear down magic's users and then deploy it's own Heroes who, while weaker, can at least compete. Also, Tech's research speed accelerates as you go up. This occurs to some degree with the others, but they stagnate and have to simply wait it out after a while. 'Peak' technology can essentially make up new technologies on the fly by civilization standards. Meanwhile, ground forces can pull this. Though they start off a lot more like Iron Man's high-end stuff and upgrade from there.
The most relevant thing as of Game Start, however, it that a some... I want to say changes have been made, but it's fairly likely Nanoha's father did some wetwork in canon, and her childhood friends may well include a vampire in canon. Regardless, don't expect canon-canon and Quest-canon to match up 1:1 even at the beginning.
Introductions and Turn 1 Start
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
First Meeting
Miko sniffled as she trudged home from the bus stop for school. That party was her chance to make some friends... and she messed it up. She wasn't bullied, per se. Just ignored. Probably at least partially because nobody was talking about the party she ruined beyond that the popular girl's party was ruined. It made some sense. She only got a pity invite to begin with. Nobody had really known her beforehand, so...
She paused in her wallowing when she noticed... she wasn't sure what it was, but it was definitely a thing in an alleyway. Being 6, her thought process was more akin to 'Ooh, shiny!' than anything else when she walked over and went to touch it. The moment she did, the world went white/black/photo negative.
She found herself in what looked like a child's drawing. "Sorry. I don't... remember if I've ever done this before, so I'm working more off your subconscious than anything else." The figure in front of her was, well, a stick figure. "Yeah, unimpressive, but I've never done this before. The gist is, I'm some kind of cosmic entity, I think, and you're apparently really, really compatible with me. So, when you made physical contact, you also helped me establish a close link."
"So... this is like, a superhero origin story!" the purple-haired girl exclaimed.
"Well, setting up will be a while, since, again, not much in the way of memories rolling around in here." the stick figure bobbed it's head.
"I don't remember much from before we moved here, so I know what that's like." the bobcut girl nodded at the figure. "Well, I'm Miko. What's your name?"
[ ] I'm-
"So, uh, what exactly do you need?" Miko asked.
"Time, mostly. Apparently links like the one I have with you normally require actual literal worship, but people who are more compatible just need to know I exist and not actively mistrust me, if you're any indication. Ironically, I have no idea how long I was in that alleyway. I have some issues with linear time." the stick admitted.
"Well, we're in Bailey, in the US. Does that help?" the girl with galaxy-themed hair asked.
"Not at all. Try, bigger."
"Uh, Earth?"
"Further."
Taking a moment to think, Miko remember something her older sister said. "...The Milky Way Galaxy?"
"I... think that helps? I feel like I'm working off just enough memory to know what that is, without knowing where that is." the energy being responded.
Miko blinked. "I don't know what our universe is called." she eventually responded.
"I'm not sure it has it's own name? It's not like you seem to be interacting with other universes very often. At any rate, I should let you wake up before you fall over. We can talk more later when you sleep."
Miko found herself back in the alley, and stumbled as gravity reasserted itself as time did. Wondering for a moment if that was a weird daydream, she resolved to give it a chance, she set off to her house again. Passing by her mailbox, which had 'Kubota' stamped on one side, she opened the door to moderate amounts of chaos. An older sister, Nica, trying to get through her homework to call her friends. A younger brother, Geoffrey, roughhousing with their dog, and a baby sister, Lexi, being taken care of by her father while her mother tried to wrangle Geoffrey while assisting Nica's studies.
"How was your day sweetie?" her father asked, rocking Lexi as she gazed at the room drowsily.
"Not bad." Miko responded, before heading up to her room.
A few hours later, her faith was rewarded with confirmation. Another vision as she drifted off to sleep.
"Hello Miko. I can't keep you here indefinitely, since restful sleep isn't really something I can do while having these visions going, but we can talk for a while. So, tell me about your life. I could just read your mind, but I don't think you'd like that." the stick figure stated, their outline a bit more defined this time.
Miko opened her mouth, and began babbling at it, happy to have someone she could talk to as much as she wanted.
Turn 1
You... honestly don't know much, nor can you range out very far from Miko and by extension the town she calls home, Bailey. Really, you're depending on Miko to know much about the world. Perhaps you should do something about that?
91 Faith available. Additionally, one-time bonus of 50 Faith for 'Core Domains' which will represent what you're starting with. The 'Core' stuff is limited to tech-related stuff, due to the nature of your 'High Priest' and their connection to Technology. Magitech is technically a valid 'Core Domain' for this reason, though Magic, Life, Art, etc. are not.
[ ] Invest Faith in chosen Domain.
You have 3 Actions. They may be spent on just about anything you like, with progress determined by task difficulty and relevant abilities.
Example Actions:
[ ] Enhance Follower. Empowerments are required to do this, and will influence the form this takes.
[ ] Grant Blessings. General buff to rolls for a select group. Can be done to further buff followers.
[ ] Modify Followers. Can be used to grant enhancements to the body, mind, or soul, alongside any manifestations of energy-based Domains that grant empowerments.
[ ] Create Divine Artifacts. Craft relics for the use of your follower, or acquisition of resources.
[ ] Create Wonder. Essentially a super-Artifact. Type is as variable as normal Artifacts. Defaults to 100 points of progress necessary per Tier.
[ ] Investigate Your Environs. Resolving your ignorance of your locale is a decent idea.
[ ] Other. As I said, it's really up to you.
AN: So, OOC, Miko and Nanoha are both 6 right now, meaning you have roughly 12 Turns to see about spreading out that far, and there are mechanisms by which you could reach out. None are available at the moment, however. Current year is 2010, Miko is 6, but is unusually independent (note that independent and mature are not the same thing) for her age as a consequence of being one of 4, eventually 5, kids. Also, Bailey isn't a very big town. Big enough that you won't know everybody, but small enough that crime really doesn't go beyond petty theft with any frequency.
You can assume that the MC knows about her family, as, primarily, she uses you to vent at while she keeps her hopes up for something interesting to happen. Keep in mind that benefits for followers normally kick in at their third level, same as passive benefits for your 'territory' relevant to the Domain, such as Technology 3 providing all tech within a couple miles of Miko, who serves as primary anchor by virtue of her status as your only follower providing a general buff to all technology, but High Priest characters start gaining benefits at 1, equivalent to what people normally gain at 3.
Turn 1 Results
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
[X] Plan: Apologies to Frank Herbert
-[X] Leto
"I'm Leto." you told the purpette simply. You aren't sure what made you pick it, but you didn't see anything wrong with it.
-[X] Technology 1 45 Faith.
You seemed to be something akin to a sea sponge, as mystical energy went. You filtered out what you could from the environment, and used it to grow and develop. Though, the metaphor lost something where grasping onto concepts and connecting yourself to them went. Regardless, you suspected that, much like a sea sponge, something of yourself would flow back into the environment as you claimed dominion over various concepts. People with closer links would be more affected, though for now that constituted Miko.
Roughly a third of the energy available to you went into pushing your connection to Technology as a whole from nothing to the second level because it seemed to surround humans at all times, including Miko, with some interesting results.
Technology 1 attained.
Technology in the hands of High Priests will function noticeably better. Proficiency with technologies of all kinds noticeably improved for them.
Blessed as a whole gain a slight bonus to use and performance of technology.
Understanding of simple technology sufficient to explain it's use to others.
???
Technology 2 attained.
Technology in the hands of High Priests will function moderately better, and their proficiency will increase commensurately.
Blessed as a whole gain a noticeable benefit regarding their use of and the performance of their technology.
Followers in general gain a slight benefit where technology is concerned, use and performance alike.
Understanding of simple technology is great enough to reverse-engineer clocks and the like.
Understanding of moderately complex technology sufficient to explain it's use to others.
???
-[X] Computers 1 35 Faith.
You also invested in Computers as a concept. Much more specific, but much more potent in it's niche, and not just because you reached the third level with it.
Computers 1 attained.
High Priests gain a noticeable benefit to the functioning and use of any and all computers, from their calculator to a supercomputer.
Any and all Blessed have slightly improved handling of and performance from computers.
Understanding of computers is sufficient to explain their use to others.
???
Computers 2 attained.
High Priests gain a moderate improvement in their use of computers. Computers used by them also perform moderately better.
Blessed receive noticeable benefits when using computers, and the computers themselves perform better.
General Follower population benefit from slightly improved skills and performance from computers.
Simple computers are understood well enough that they may be built/reverse-engineered more or less at will. Basic calculators, for example.
Understanding of moderately complex computers, such as those found in cell phones, may be explained to others.
???
Computers 3 attained.
High Priests gain a large bonus when using a computer, both to their skill and to the computer's capabilities.
Blessed have their computers and computer skills moderately improved.
Followers gain noticeable benefits to their use of computers. All computers they use also have their performance boosted.
Everyone within range experiences a slight boost to their computer skills, as well as finding their computer performance bolstered.
Simple computers can be built at will with noticeably increased performance, thanks to improved understanding.
Improved understanding of moderately complex computers, such as cell phone computers, allows them to be reverse-engineered/built at will.
Understanding of complex computers, such as personal computers, is sufficient to explain their workings with sufficient clarity to resolve most common errors.
Conceptual purview of 'Computers' as far as your Domain is concerned has expanded.
???
5/20 Faith for Computers 4.
-[X] Engines 1 35 Faith.
Much like computers, this was a fairly specific piece of technology, but that made this... Domain dramatically more potent in it's niche. Specifically, if one wished to make a construct or vehicle move, then you'd need something to turn potential energy into kinetic energy, hence the Engine purchase. Once again, you achieved the third stage in it.
Engines 1 attained.
Engines in vehicles used by High Priests are noticeably higher in performance, and skill with the vehicle in question is improved as a byproduct of engine-related skills being noticeably improved, including maintenance and repair.
The handling and performance of engines used or worked on by your followers is slightly improved.
Engines are understood well enough to explain their workings to layman.
Engines 2 attained.
High Priests find engines working moderately better, and their skills regarding the use of any engines in a given vehicle or working on an engine in general are similarly improved.
Blessed gain a noticeable benefit when working with engines in any respect, be that driving, making, repairing, or even destroying them.
General Followers have a slightly improved ability to work with engines, which in turn work slightly better.
Engine understanding has progressed to the point simple engines can be constructed at will.
Engines of moderate complexity can be explained to others well enough for them to get the gist.
Engines 3 attained.
High Priests will find any engine they work with under any circumstance experiencing a large increase in performance, while their own skill with them improves in much the same way.
Blessed have moderate benefits to skill and engine performance whenever they work with one.
If you follow Leto, your engines and skill with them will noticeably improve.
Simply existing in proximity to his followers will make your engines and your work with them slightly better.
Engines are well enough understood that you can make noticeably improved simple ones whenever you like.
Moderately complex engines are understood sufficiently to be constructed at will.
Complex engines are something you can explain to the common man.
Conceptual purview of 'Engines' is expanded upon where you're concerned. Video game engines, for example.
5/20 Faith for Engines 4.
-[X] Armor 1 25 Faith.
Lastly, leaving bare scraps of Faith, as you had decided to call energy harvested from your connection to your sole follower, you increased you power over Armor to the second level. Making a vehicle able to move was all well and good, but if it fell apart if someone poked it too hard, that was a problem. Additionally, you may want to uparmor your only companion at some point, and this would help with that.
Armor 1 attained.
High Priests gain a noticeable affinity for armor of all kinds.
Blessed Followers enjoy a slight improvement of their use and the performance of their armor.
Basic armor is understood well enough that you can explain how it works to someone unversed in it.
Armor 2 attained.
High Priests benefit from a moderate improvement to their use of armor, and the armor's durability, comfort, and maintenance are moderately improved.
Blessed Followers receive a noticeable increase in armor quality and their skills with it.
Followers lacking Empowerments have slight benefits applied to their armor and use of it.
Armor of the basic type is something you understand well enough to make at will. Leather stuff or chainmail, for example.
Armor of the intermediate sort is understood sufficiently to be explained to the average joe.
-[X] Take A Look Around. You know nothing of this place, you must know your immediate surroundings/area.
1d100=96+12(6 apiece from Technology and Computers, due to urban center)=108. Artificial Crit!
To be honest, you mostly used your influence over local technology and computers especially to observe the area. This was enough for you to gain access to security cameras in the area, though it was a radius of a couple miles around Miko. You were also very new to this whole morality thing. However, you knew what souls looked like, if only because you had a constant tether to one, and therefore, you knew what it looked like when a strange floppy-eared white cat-rabbit-thing with red eyes ripped one out in exchange for a wish that it didn't even seem to grant right. You detected no malice, but something seemed off about this whole mess. Also, there was a strange burst of energy when the young girl, maybe twice Miko's age, received the gem her soul had been transformed into.
Note to self, figure out what the hell that is, what it did to that girl, what the energy was, and keep Miko and her family away from the cat-rabbit until you'd figured all that out.
New Goals: Investigate the Cat-Rabbit and it's machinations.
Prevent any potential harm from befalling the Kubotas or any other followers you amass, at least until the previous Goal is complete.
-[X] Introduce Miko to Magitech basics. Currently, Miko knows nothing of your current Domain. Try to teach her as best you can.
"Say, Miko?" you had asked her one day.
"Yeah?"
"If energy beings like, well, me are real... would that mean magic could be real?"
"That would be so cool!" Miko spent a few moments fantasizing, before remembering they were having a conversation. Or was it a few minutes? The differences between internal fantasy time, external linear time, and semi-linear energy being time were even harder to keep track of than just the second and last.
"Why?" she gasped. "Did you find real magic?" Huh, were stars supposed to appear in human eyes? Eh, not important.
"Not sure, I don't have Magic as a Domain, so I can't tell if it's Magic, or Qi, of psychic energy, or what. Getting more Energy or Perception Domain levels might substitute, but I don't know enough to say either way."
Miko blinked. "Domain?"
"Oh, I guess I never explained. Hm, they're sort of like Skills in an RPG, and I can use them to do things. You might have noticed that any appliances you use work better, and your computer is working better still."
Miko's eyes widened. "Really? That was you? I though it was weird the toaster wasn't on the fritz when I was around."
"Yes. My connection to you lets me gather energy, which I can use to boost my power over something. I can't get too specific, but things like 'Computers' and 'Technology' are fair game. It affects everything in range at least a little, which is about 2 miles around you, but a stronger connection means you benefit more, which extends to having a connection at all. Think of it like Wi-Fi bars. You've got full bars, a fully Blessed Follower would have three bars, an UnBlessed Follower would have two, and people who are near Followers have one bar. The lower the bars go, the weaker the signal, and the less they get out of following me."
She nodded. "That makes sense." she paused in confusion. "Wait how do you know that when you've only got me?"
"The same way I know I'm technically just an energy being. I remember mechanics of things, but not the context I learned them in. ...I keep reaching for memories, but they just slide out of my grasp like I'm trying to hold onto water." Leto admitted. Miko put a hand on his shoulder, relative height not being much of an issue in the dreamscape.
"Well, I'm sure you can get your memories back eventually. Why don't you start by telling me more about what you do remember?" she asked.
"Well, whenever I improve on a Domain, not only do I start generating benefits for followers, but I make projects of my own easier. It also teaches me about whatever I grabbed a level in. For example, I know a lot about technology, and even more about computers and engines, but not a lot about music or animals."
"So, what are Blessings?" Miko asked, clearly having been wondering for a while.
Leto blinked. "Oh yeah. Well, there are Domains I can use to 'widen' the connection, and awaken people to special powers, though other Domains I've got will influence the powers. For example, if Magic is real, and I grabbed it, then you'd only be able to use spells related to technology, computers, engines, and armor. Same with psychic powers, or pretty much anything else involving special powers more complicated than tossing energy at a problem."
"I think I get it." Miko nodded, as the dreamscape began to dissolve, Leto allowing her to return to normal sleep. "See you tomorrow." she yawned.
Goal: Empower Miko. As your first Follower and only companion, it only seems fair she receive your first Blessing. The shape it takes doesn't really matter, so long as she gets it.
Grand Goal: Retrieve a significant fraction of your past memories. Miko believes you can recover them, and not knowing who you... were bothers you more than you care to let on around her. Still, you suspect it won't be so easy as pushing Memory up to the third level.
-[X] Improve Miko's game consoles. One part test run of building and improving things, one part improving your follower's quality of life directly.
Technology + Computers= 5d6= 14.
Base 25 difficulty reduced by Computers and Technology to 5. 5 and 10 difficulties surpassed. Consoles improved by an effective 10-year technological jump.
As you currently lacked the means to directly grant Miko Magic or anything of the sort, you decided to help her out a different way. She loved video games. You didn't grok human psychology well enough to say if it was purely personal enjoyment, or if there was an element of escapism from her internal loneliness, but you liked to think it was the former, even if the latter also made sense. You were a bit too incorporeal and alien in mindset to be a member of her peer group, not to mention the memory loss, so you wouldn't blame her for craving friends her age.
So, you figure that the best way for you to improve her life right now is to improve her video games. Rather than messing with their relatively delicate coding, you instead improve the consoles that the games are used on. They become more sleek, shinier, and most importantly, more powerful and efficient even beyond the benefits they gain from Miko using them. Games they previously struggled with can now be played as if they were from the previous generation. In other words, not even a strain.
Miko is ecstatic, not the least because she can spend the money she would have spent upgrading her consoles on buying more games to play. This whole endeavor also served as a test run for making things like this happen. Not only did you know you could do it, but you knew that you could do it well.
Random Event Roll:
1d100=41.
There was a brown-out which corrupted the save one of Miko's games. This is one of the things that prompted your spree of upgrades, which unfortunately means they came too late to help with that.
AN: Me: Makes plans. Also Me: rolls a 90+ on your first Turn for looking around for interesting stuff, which the Domains you've grabbed pushes into a full-on crit.
So, basically, the idea was that you guys would stumble across the Incubators when you got one of the energy-based Empowerments up, the speed depending on how high it was. Basically subtract the number of levels in the Domain from 5, given High Priests will always have a massive amount of Empowerment from essentially being direct channels to you. A year with a 1(though if, for example, you got Magic, Psi, and Qi at 1 apiece it would only drop to .75 years since the energy signature isn't much bigger from three different first level Empowerment Domains) .5 with the third level, etc. Given the tomfoolery they get up to in the second movie, it seems reasonable that if someone who could potentially give the entire planet magic, regardless of gender, came along, they'd hop on board that train pretty much instantly, as one Madoka or Homura might grant a ton of energy, but energy from a billion+ much lower-level people would be much easier to manage. Thus, it's actually not that difficult to get Kyubey as an ally against all the other screwed up stuff going on, since this is the best energy-generatingscam scheme method they've ever had, and they don't even need to leave anything out about it! They can literally tell people 'Believe in this energy being, and it will give you superpowers.' and the Puella Magi at least will consider it a pretty good deal. It's one of the fastest ways to start amassing Followers, though I would recommend higher levels in Empowerment, given that baseline Empowerment only does 10 people at a time, and Mitkihara supported two Puella Magi before Sayaka, Madoka, or Homura made their wishes, and didn't seem to be seeing much strain when they were all working at it. I'm assuming something on the order of ten thousand Puella Magic on the planet at any given time as the low-end, and 10 million as the absolute tip-top amount. It sounds like a lot, but roughly 1.8 die per second IRL, meaning 6480 per hour, 155,520 per day, and 56,764,800 per year.
Given that Mami and Kyoko were clearly Puella Magi for years, it's not exactly clear what their average lifespan is, despite dropping like flies in the show proper. So a million or so Pullea Magi is probably about where it peaks, with 'cycles' where the population rises and falls as relative Witch numbers do. Given their dire circumstances, most of those girls should be perfectly willing to join up. It also makes him going after Nanoha or the Senshi much less likely, though Senshi Star Seeds are somewhat incompatible with his method. Also, Kyubey isn't one of the people who can remove Star Seeds at will. They have to get 'permission' via the Wish, and even then there's the implication throughout the series that they're just taking advantage of a system they don't really understand.
Also, there's at least one more crossover going on, but this one is much, much better at hiding than Kyubey. I sort of doubt you'll find it until it's right on top of you, but I might as well give you a hint: Higher Perception won't help you find it. Also, this is over a year before the beginning of PMMM, so you've got some time to derail that. Speaking of which, you're probably wondering why the Incubators are trying to stave off entropy when the Galaxy Cauldron is a thing. Well, between Chaos, Galaxia's reign, and a few other issues, the GC is busy just keeping things from deteriorating further, so the Incubators are under the impression that the universe will just... end if they don't do something.
Goals are things you could do in a Turn or two if you directed your attention there. Grand Goals are long-term projects. Either way, completing them contributes to your Legend by granting you Deeds. The respective Levels and Exp of a Deity. Grand Goals grant much greater rewards, ten times as much, but it's generally better not to hyperfocus on them, as you might miss things. Remember the Perks I mentioned in the Informationals? This is how you get those. It should be noted that some Goals can be failed. The 'Protect the Kubotas' one, for example. Rolling really bad on the RER might result in Nica or Miko being approached by Kyubey.
-[X] Leto
"I'm Leto." you told the purpette simply. You aren't sure what made you pick it, but you didn't see anything wrong with it.
-[X] Technology 1 45 Faith.
You seemed to be something akin to a sea sponge, as mystical energy went. You filtered out what you could from the environment, and used it to grow and develop. Though, the metaphor lost something where grasping onto concepts and connecting yourself to them went. Regardless, you suspected that, much like a sea sponge, something of yourself would flow back into the environment as you claimed dominion over various concepts. People with closer links would be more affected, though for now that constituted Miko.
Roughly a third of the energy available to you went into pushing your connection to Technology as a whole from nothing to the second level because it seemed to surround humans at all times, including Miko, with some interesting results.
Technology 1 attained.
Technology in the hands of High Priests will function noticeably better. Proficiency with technologies of all kinds noticeably improved for them.
Blessed as a whole gain a slight bonus to use and performance of technology.
Understanding of simple technology sufficient to explain it's use to others.
???
Technology 2 attained.
Technology in the hands of High Priests will function moderately better, and their proficiency will increase commensurately.
Blessed as a whole gain a noticeable benefit regarding their use of and the performance of their technology.
Followers in general gain a slight benefit where technology is concerned, use and performance alike.
Understanding of simple technology is great enough to reverse-engineer clocks and the like.
Understanding of moderately complex technology sufficient to explain it's use to others.
???
-[X] Computers 1 35 Faith.
You also invested in Computers as a concept. Much more specific, but much more potent in it's niche, and not just because you reached the third level with it.
Computers 1 attained.
High Priests gain a noticeable benefit to the functioning and use of any and all computers, from their calculator to a supercomputer.
Any and all Blessed have slightly improved handling of and performance from computers.
Understanding of computers is sufficient to explain their use to others.
???
Computers 2 attained.
High Priests gain a moderate improvement in their use of computers. Computers used by them also perform moderately better.
Blessed receive noticeable benefits when using computers, and the computers themselves perform better.
General Follower population benefit from slightly improved skills and performance from computers.
Simple computers are understood well enough that they may be built/reverse-engineered more or less at will. Basic calculators, for example.
Understanding of moderately complex computers, such as those found in cell phones, may be explained to others.
???
Computers 3 attained.
High Priests gain a large bonus when using a computer, both to their skill and to the computer's capabilities.
Blessed have their computers and computer skills moderately improved.
Followers gain noticeable benefits to their use of computers. All computers they use also have their performance boosted.
Everyone within range experiences a slight boost to their computer skills, as well as finding their computer performance bolstered.
Simple computers can be built at will with noticeably increased performance, thanks to improved understanding.
Improved understanding of moderately complex computers, such as cell phone computers, allows them to be reverse-engineered/built at will.
Understanding of complex computers, such as personal computers, is sufficient to explain their workings with sufficient clarity to resolve most common errors.
Conceptual purview of 'Computers' as far as your Domain is concerned has expanded.
???
5/20 Faith for Computers 4.
-[X] Engines 1 35 Faith.
Much like computers, this was a fairly specific piece of technology, but that made this... Domain dramatically more potent in it's niche. Specifically, if one wished to make a construct or vehicle move, then you'd need something to turn potential energy into kinetic energy, hence the Engine purchase. Once again, you achieved the third stage in it.
Engines 1 attained.
Engines in vehicles used by High Priests are noticeably higher in performance, and skill with the vehicle in question is improved as a byproduct of engine-related skills being noticeably improved, including maintenance and repair.
The handling and performance of engines used or worked on by your followers is slightly improved.
Engines are understood well enough to explain their workings to layman.
Engines 2 attained.
High Priests find engines working moderately better, and their skills regarding the use of any engines in a given vehicle or working on an engine in general are similarly improved.
Blessed gain a noticeable benefit when working with engines in any respect, be that driving, making, repairing, or even destroying them.
General Followers have a slightly improved ability to work with engines, which in turn work slightly better.
Engine understanding has progressed to the point simple engines can be constructed at will.
Engines of moderate complexity can be explained to others well enough for them to get the gist.
Engines 3 attained.
High Priests will find any engine they work with under any circumstance experiencing a large increase in performance, while their own skill with them improves in much the same way.
Blessed have moderate benefits to skill and engine performance whenever they work with one.
If you follow Leto, your engines and skill with them will noticeably improve.
Simply existing in proximity to his followers will make your engines and your work with them slightly better.
Engines are well enough understood that you can make noticeably improved simple ones whenever you like.
Moderately complex engines are understood sufficiently to be constructed at will.
Complex engines are something you can explain to the common man.
Conceptual purview of 'Engines' is expanded upon where you're concerned. Video game engines, for example.
5/20 Faith for Engines 4.
-[X] Armor 1 25 Faith.
Lastly, leaving bare scraps of Faith, as you had decided to call energy harvested from your connection to your sole follower, you increased you power over Armor to the second level. Making a vehicle able to move was all well and good, but if it fell apart if someone poked it too hard, that was a problem. Additionally, you may want to uparmor your only companion at some point, and this would help with that.
Armor 1 attained.
High Priests gain a noticeable affinity for armor of all kinds.
Blessed Followers enjoy a slight improvement of their use and the performance of their armor.
Basic armor is understood well enough that you can explain how it works to someone unversed in it.
Armor 2 attained.
High Priests benefit from a moderate improvement to their use of armor, and the armor's durability, comfort, and maintenance are moderately improved.
Blessed Followers receive a noticeable increase in armor quality and their skills with it.
Followers lacking Empowerments have slight benefits applied to their armor and use of it.
Armor of the basic type is something you understand well enough to make at will. Leather stuff or chainmail, for example.
Armor of the intermediate sort is understood sufficiently to be explained to the average joe.
-[X] Take A Look Around. You know nothing of this place, you must know your immediate surroundings/area.
1d100=96+12(6 apiece from Technology and Computers, due to urban center)=108. Artificial Crit!
To be honest, you mostly used your influence over local technology and computers especially to observe the area. This was enough for you to gain access to security cameras in the area, though it was a radius of a couple miles around Miko. You were also very new to this whole morality thing. However, you knew what souls looked like, if only because you had a constant tether to one, and therefore, you knew what it looked like when a strange floppy-eared white cat-rabbit-thing with red eyes ripped one out in exchange for a wish that it didn't even seem to grant right. You detected no malice, but something seemed off about this whole mess. Also, there was a strange burst of energy when the young girl, maybe twice Miko's age, received the gem her soul had been transformed into.
Note to self, figure out what the hell that is, what it did to that girl, what the energy was, and keep Miko and her family away from the cat-rabbit until you'd figured all that out.
New Goals: Investigate the Cat-Rabbit and it's machinations.
Prevent any potential harm from befalling the Kubotas or any other followers you amass, at least until the previous Goal is complete.
-[X] Introduce Miko to Magitech basics. Currently, Miko knows nothing of your current Domain. Try to teach her as best you can.
"Say, Miko?" you had asked her one day.
"Yeah?"
"If energy beings like, well, me are real... would that mean magic could be real?"
"That would be so cool!" Miko spent a few moments fantasizing, before remembering they were having a conversation. Or was it a few minutes? The differences between internal fantasy time, external linear time, and semi-linear energy being time were even harder to keep track of than just the second and last.
"Why?" she gasped. "Did you find real magic?" Huh, were stars supposed to appear in human eyes? Eh, not important.
"Not sure, I don't have Magic as a Domain, so I can't tell if it's Magic, or Qi, of psychic energy, or what. Getting more Energy or Perception Domain levels might substitute, but I don't know enough to say either way."
Miko blinked. "Domain?"
"Oh, I guess I never explained. Hm, they're sort of like Skills in an RPG, and I can use them to do things. You might have noticed that any appliances you use work better, and your computer is working better still."
Miko's eyes widened. "Really? That was you? I though it was weird the toaster wasn't on the fritz when I was around."
"Yes. My connection to you lets me gather energy, which I can use to boost my power over something. I can't get too specific, but things like 'Computers' and 'Technology' are fair game. It affects everything in range at least a little, which is about 2 miles around you, but a stronger connection means you benefit more, which extends to having a connection at all. Think of it like Wi-Fi bars. You've got full bars, a fully Blessed Follower would have three bars, an UnBlessed Follower would have two, and people who are near Followers have one bar. The lower the bars go, the weaker the signal, and the less they get out of following me."
She nodded. "That makes sense." she paused in confusion. "Wait how do you know that when you've only got me?"
"The same way I know I'm technically just an energy being. I remember mechanics of things, but not the context I learned them in. ...I keep reaching for memories, but they just slide out of my grasp like I'm trying to hold onto water." Leto admitted. Miko put a hand on his shoulder, relative height not being much of an issue in the dreamscape.
"Well, I'm sure you can get your memories back eventually. Why don't you start by telling me more about what you do remember?" she asked.
"Well, whenever I improve on a Domain, not only do I start generating benefits for followers, but I make projects of my own easier. It also teaches me about whatever I grabbed a level in. For example, I know a lot about technology, and even more about computers and engines, but not a lot about music or animals."
"So, what are Blessings?" Miko asked, clearly having been wondering for a while.
Leto blinked. "Oh yeah. Well, there are Domains I can use to 'widen' the connection, and awaken people to special powers, though other Domains I've got will influence the powers. For example, if Magic is real, and I grabbed it, then you'd only be able to use spells related to technology, computers, engines, and armor. Same with psychic powers, or pretty much anything else involving special powers more complicated than tossing energy at a problem."
"I think I get it." Miko nodded, as the dreamscape began to dissolve, Leto allowing her to return to normal sleep. "See you tomorrow." she yawned.
Goal: Empower Miko. As your first Follower and only companion, it only seems fair she receive your first Blessing. The shape it takes doesn't really matter, so long as she gets it.
Grand Goal: Retrieve a significant fraction of your past memories. Miko believes you can recover them, and not knowing who you... were bothers you more than you care to let on around her. Still, you suspect it won't be so easy as pushing Memory up to the third level.
-[X] Improve Miko's game consoles. One part test run of building and improving things, one part improving your follower's quality of life directly.
Technology + Computers= 5d6= 14.
Base 25 difficulty reduced by Computers and Technology to 5. 5 and 10 difficulties surpassed. Consoles improved by an effective 10-year technological jump.
As you currently lacked the means to directly grant Miko Magic or anything of the sort, you decided to help her out a different way. She loved video games. You didn't grok human psychology well enough to say if it was purely personal enjoyment, or if there was an element of escapism from her internal loneliness, but you liked to think it was the former, even if the latter also made sense. You were a bit too incorporeal and alien in mindset to be a member of her peer group, not to mention the memory loss, so you wouldn't blame her for craving friends her age.
So, you figure that the best way for you to improve her life right now is to improve her video games. Rather than messing with their relatively delicate coding, you instead improve the consoles that the games are used on. They become more sleek, shinier, and most importantly, more powerful and efficient even beyond the benefits they gain from Miko using them. Games they previously struggled with can now be played as if they were from the previous generation. In other words, not even a strain.
Miko is ecstatic, not the least because she can spend the money she would have spent upgrading her consoles on buying more games to play. This whole endeavor also served as a test run for making things like this happen. Not only did you know you could do it, but you knew that you could do it well.
Random Event Roll:
1d100=41.
There was a brown-out which corrupted the save one of Miko's games. This is one of the things that prompted your spree of upgrades, which unfortunately means they came too late to help with that.
AN: Me: Makes plans. Also Me: rolls a 90+ on your first Turn for looking around for interesting stuff, which the Domains you've grabbed pushes into a full-on crit.
So, basically, the idea was that you guys would stumble across the Incubators when you got one of the energy-based Empowerments up, the speed depending on how high it was. Basically subtract the number of levels in the Domain from 5, given High Priests will always have a massive amount of Empowerment from essentially being direct channels to you. A year with a 1(though if, for example, you got Magic, Psi, and Qi at 1 apiece it would only drop to .75 years since the energy signature isn't much bigger from three different first level Empowerment Domains) .5 with the third level, etc. Given the tomfoolery they get up to in the second movie, it seems reasonable that if someone who could potentially give the entire planet magic, regardless of gender, came along, they'd hop on board that train pretty much instantly, as one Madoka or Homura might grant a ton of energy, but energy from a billion+ much lower-level people would be much easier to manage. Thus, it's actually not that difficult to get Kyubey as an ally against all the other screwed up stuff going on, since this is the best energy-generating
Given that Mami and Kyoko were clearly Puella Magi for years, it's not exactly clear what their average lifespan is, despite dropping like flies in the show proper. So a million or so Pullea Magi is probably about where it peaks, with 'cycles' where the population rises and falls as relative Witch numbers do. Given their dire circumstances, most of those girls should be perfectly willing to join up. It also makes him going after Nanoha or the Senshi much less likely, though Senshi Star Seeds are somewhat incompatible with his method. Also, Kyubey isn't one of the people who can remove Star Seeds at will. They have to get 'permission' via the Wish, and even then there's the implication throughout the series that they're just taking advantage of a system they don't really understand.
Also, there's at least one more crossover going on, but this one is much, much better at hiding than Kyubey. I sort of doubt you'll find it until it's right on top of you, but I might as well give you a hint: Higher Perception won't help you find it. Also, this is over a year before the beginning of PMMM, so you've got some time to derail that. Speaking of which, you're probably wondering why the Incubators are trying to stave off entropy when the Galaxy Cauldron is a thing. Well, between Chaos, Galaxia's reign, and a few other issues, the GC is busy just keeping things from deteriorating further, so the Incubators are under the impression that the universe will just... end if they don't do something.
Goals are things you could do in a Turn or two if you directed your attention there. Grand Goals are long-term projects. Either way, completing them contributes to your Legend by granting you Deeds. The respective Levels and Exp of a Deity. Grand Goals grant much greater rewards, ten times as much, but it's generally better not to hyperfocus on them, as you might miss things. Remember the Perks I mentioned in the Informationals? This is how you get those. It should be noted that some Goals can be failed. The 'Protect the Kubotas' one, for example. Rolling really bad on the RER might result in Nica or Miko being approached by Kyubey.
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Turn 2 Start
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
Turn 2
While you informed Miko to keep an eye out for the... cat-rabbit, since it seemed to be convincing children to let it mess with their souls, you weren't sure how much you could make that stick, given she was 6 and the thing seemed almost deliberately designed to appeal to children. Perhaps giving her Magic of her own would make her less vulnerable to it. It might also help with finding the thing again. It was surprisingly difficult, even knowing what to look for. Some sort of Communication or Diplomacy Domain might also be helpful, given the difficulty you had communicating with people not already connected to you. Miko's parents believed she had an imaginary friend, for instance, though you're not sure what they thought of the upgrades to her game consoles.
91 Faith gained this Turn. 1 Faith rolled over from last Turn. 92 Faith total.
[ ] Invest Faith in chosen Domain.
You have 3 Actions. They may be spent on just about anything you like, with progress determined by task difficulty and relevant abilities.
Example Actions:
[ ] Locate and Contact Cabbit. You need to know what exactly this thing is doing with children's souls. Asking directly seems the most simple method.
[ ] Enhance Follower. Empowerments are required to do this, and will influence the form this takes. Known potential Domains for Empowerment: Magic, Qi, Psi, Heroism, Mundane, Wonder.
[ ] Grant Blessings. General buff to rolls for a select group. Can be done to further buff followers.
[ ] Modify Followers. Can be used to grant enhancements to the body, mind, or soul, alongside any manifestations of energy-based Domains that grant empowerments.
[ ] Create Divine Artifacts. Craft relics for the use of your follower, or acquisition of resources. Domains such as Crafting and Creation will help, but are not strictly necessary.
[ ] Create Wonder. Essentially a super-Artifact. Type is as variable as normal Artifacts. Defaults to 100 points of progress necessary per Tier.
[ ] Investigate Your Environs. Partial knowledge gained lowers the priority of this Action, especially without much in the way of improved seeking abilities.
[ ] Other. As I said, it's really up to you.
AN: Alrighty, time for the next vote. I'll get the Character Sheet up while you guys chew on this for the next couple days. By the by, I made a mistake on Armor. It should have been 5 short of it's second level. As such, you're currently going to need 35 Faith to achieve level three in it.
While you informed Miko to keep an eye out for the... cat-rabbit, since it seemed to be convincing children to let it mess with their souls, you weren't sure how much you could make that stick, given she was 6 and the thing seemed almost deliberately designed to appeal to children. Perhaps giving her Magic of her own would make her less vulnerable to it. It might also help with finding the thing again. It was surprisingly difficult, even knowing what to look for. Some sort of Communication or Diplomacy Domain might also be helpful, given the difficulty you had communicating with people not already connected to you. Miko's parents believed she had an imaginary friend, for instance, though you're not sure what they thought of the upgrades to her game consoles.
91 Faith gained this Turn. 1 Faith rolled over from last Turn. 92 Faith total.
[ ] Invest Faith in chosen Domain.
You have 3 Actions. They may be spent on just about anything you like, with progress determined by task difficulty and relevant abilities.
Example Actions:
[ ] Locate and Contact Cabbit. You need to know what exactly this thing is doing with children's souls. Asking directly seems the most simple method.
[ ] Enhance Follower. Empowerments are required to do this, and will influence the form this takes. Known potential Domains for Empowerment: Magic, Qi, Psi, Heroism, Mundane, Wonder.
[ ] Grant Blessings. General buff to rolls for a select group. Can be done to further buff followers.
[ ] Modify Followers. Can be used to grant enhancements to the body, mind, or soul, alongside any manifestations of energy-based Domains that grant empowerments.
[ ] Create Divine Artifacts. Craft relics for the use of your follower, or acquisition of resources. Domains such as Crafting and Creation will help, but are not strictly necessary.
[ ] Create Wonder. Essentially a super-Artifact. Type is as variable as normal Artifacts. Defaults to 100 points of progress necessary per Tier.
[ ] Investigate Your Environs. Partial knowledge gained lowers the priority of this Action, especially without much in the way of improved seeking abilities.
[ ] Other. As I said, it's really up to you.
AN: Alrighty, time for the next vote. I'll get the Character Sheet up while you guys chew on this for the next couple days. By the by, I made a mistake on Armor. It should have been 5 short of it's second level. As such, you're currently going to need 35 Faith to achieve level three in it.
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Character Sheet
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
Name: Leto.
Species: Fledgling Deity/Energy Being
Age: @&$)$** Stack Overflow Error. Mental Age: 1.25 Years.
Legend: 6.
Deeds: 140/800.
Legends:
Upgrades, People, Upgrades. When upgrading an existing device, baseline difficulty is reduced by half, rounding to the lower multiple of 5 for ease of calculation, and then dropping an additional step. For example, upgrading Miko's videogame consoles would have been reduced to 12.5, rounded down to 10, then dropped to 5, then the reduction from Domains would have dropped it to -10, meaning two additional success tiers had this action been taken then. This applies to Artifacts, not Marvels.
Pure Hearts. Passive purification rate gains 150% acceleration. Applies to mystical and mundane elements. Additionally, larger scope is reduced 60% as an issue.
Domains:
Technology Domains.
Equipment Domains.
Empowerment Domains.
Meta-Domains.
Mythic Domains.
Sensory Domains.
Cosmic Domains.
Crafting Domains.
Emotions Domains.
Mental Domains.
Healing Domains.
Life Domains.
Attributes Domains.
Energy Domains.
Religion Domains.
Magitech Domains.
Materials Domains.
Role Domains.
Eidolon Domains.
Followers:
938. 61 Empowered.
High Priests:
Miko Kubota. A purple-pink haired Japanese-American girl, met when she was 6. Only viable as Faith-producing due to the High Priest-tier affinity. Tied to Technology. Currently has one friend unless you count. Empowered.
Description:
Leto awoke in an alleyway, and Miko was the first person he encountered. Currently, investigation into a strange cat-rabbit creature and Empowerment of Miko and future followers are the main points of focus. He spent his first year working on gaining moderate mastery of technology, and allied with an alien creature known as Kyubey in the face of a greater threat.
In the second, he began the task of restoring the Puella Magi from their Grief-corrupted states, reclaiming over 11 million on his first attempt.
Goals:
Grand Goal: Retrieve a significant fraction of your past memories. Miko believes you can recover them, and not knowing who you... were bothers you more than you care to let on around her. Still, you suspect it won't be so easy as pushing Memory up to the third level.
Grand Goal: Your ability to sense psychic energy has revealed something unsettling to you, which bears further investigation. Discern the cause of the apparently fundamental tainting of the psychic realm, and cleanse it.
Grand Goal: Purify and Restore the Grief Seeds to their original selves. The Incubators have committed atrocities, there is no denying that. However, they are a heavily traumatized race, who have effectively lobotomized themselves in their efforts to fight a hopeless battle. Regardless, their mistakes must be undone as much as possible. Domains relevant to the Body are necessary to reconstruct their bodies. While Purity, Restoration, Hope, Despair, Psi, Magic, Aura, and Soul will all be relevant to the project of restoring fallen Magical Girls. These Magical Girls will almost definitely become Followers post-healing, as a bonus.
Grand Goal: Defeat Galaxia and Halt Chaos. Galaxia has become a cruel tyrant under Chaos' influence, bearing some of the blame for the monstrosity perpetrated by the Incubators. Felling her or removing Chaos would do much to aid the universe. She possesses immense power, sufficient to destroy planets according to the Incubators. This will not be easy, and then the one pulling the strings must be dealt with.
New Grand Goal: Investigate What The Actual Hell Is Going on With Earth and the Moon's Geomantic Networks! Not millions, not billion, not trillions, nonillions of nodes are present on both the Earth and Moon. This shouldn't be possible. What you know of Geomancy and Magic tells you it is impossible. What is happening?!? More Geomancy, Soul, Empowerment Domains especially Magic, and investigative Domains will be key.
Completed Goals:
Goal: Investigate the Cat-Rabbit and it's machinations. +50 Deeds.
Goal: Prevent any potential harm from befalling the Kubotas or any other followers you amass, at least until the previous Goal is complete. +50 Deeds.
Goal: Empower Miko. As your first Follower and only companion, it only seems fair she receive your first Blessing. The shape it takes doesn't really matter, so long as she gets it. +50 Deeds.
Marvels:
Tier 5 Marvel: Staff of Empowerment. Bearing an orange crystal taken from a point between three neutron stars, the eight-pointed star of wisdom and enlightenment floating a few inches above the main body, this staff has been modified to allow for every available form of Empowerment to be performed through it, provided the person is not being actively blocked, including spatial warping to allow more holders at any one time and consequently more Empowerments.Base 40 Empowered per Action is quadrupled by Marvel, then doubled by Wonder. Will Empower 320 per Turn, though this is not banked. 88/100 successes to Tier 2. 388/200 for Tier 6, locked until higher tiers of relevant Domains or other purchases have been made. +530 Deeds.
Base: 40,000 Empowerments, multiplied by 1.8(Marvel and Wonder)*2(Followers)*3(Empowerment)*3(Divinity)*3(Souls)*1.4(eight Runes)=5,443,200 Blessed per Turn.
Other means of enacting Empowerments, such as Churches, are improved 500%. This includes personal efforts of Leto or extant Followers.
Blessed gain 5 additional Talents for each Empowerment mystical energy. Greater Blessed gain 10, High Priests gain 15, and Greater Blessed High Priests gain 25. Additionally, an equal number of Talents are gained for more mundane Skills. This applies to all Blessed.
Blessed are always considered to have a Mentor with 500% benefits in Empowerment-related Skills. This is a unique effect, and cannot be replicatedfor game balance reasons because as your first Marvel it has narrative significance that cannot be replicated. Further instances of this Marvel would replace this effect with some bonus to Empowerments, such as being able to promote Blessed to higher tiers at a markedly lower rate than conventional Empowerments, such as roughly 15000 Greater Blessed or 150 High Priests, akin to the production modes of the Artifactory. This is stackable with a conventional Mentor, however.
Tier 5 Wonder: Senshi Sensor Marvel. A small computer, roughly laptop-sized, using technology and materials put together by the incubators, that is meant to discover the location of Senshi so they may be found before Galaxia or any dark forces do, and confirm their existence in the first place. Has pinpoint accuracy GPS wishes it had both in specific location and directions to get there, and can even serve as a personal aid to a given individual. +460 Deeds.
788/200 to Tier 6, locked without further purchases.
Sensors can reach up to 1 million(100,000*10(Space)) kilometers away, or 100 million(10 million*10(Space)) if locating any Senshi. Galaxia still technically qualifies according to Kyubey, so this may offer a slight early warning, since she seems to need to be reasonably close to a planet to obliterate it. Not enough to place, say, Venus under observation, but more than enough to keep the Moon eternally under watch. There will be no evil Senshi knockoffs hiding on the Moon, thank you.
Obtain either 5 Investigative RER, or 5 Research RER of a mystical oddity, decided at Turn Start. Think Star Trek 'we can literally start or stop a star going nova' sensors. Either can progress various Goals, or offer benefits varying from IC knowledge, to discovering new Artifacts, or other benefits. As this was made late into the Turn, only 1 will be provided this Turn.
Pierces low-level wards of various stripes, particularly mystical ones, and if the target could be found with normal scanning, they will not be made aware they were scanned. Piercing effect is akin to the fidelity obtained from the target being roughly 5 times closer than they are, subject to them being within maximum range.
Can be wielded by a Follower a budget-Mercury Computer, allowing rapid analysis and cataloguing of mystical energies, meaning it can function as research aid, targeting computer, shatterpoint striker, etc. It does work better if they can themselves wield mystical energies, of course. This effectively improves any investigative or research actions tied to mystical energy by 500%, as well as providing a combat buff, though only when dealing with the mystical.
Tier 5 Marvel: Artifactory. A monstrously large factory, rather than a small squat rectangle, it is the size of a hill, and would be larger still if not for Space and Time lowering the necessary space for many of it's internal machinations, and a minor pocket dimension produced by Dimension. Hide and it's brethren work overtime to keep it hidden, despite it's incredible lack of subtlety beyond being colored much the same as the hills around it on the outside. A constant stream of Incubators and Puella makes it even more noticeable, as they arrive to be outfitted, or transport equipment. Some even work inside.
Artifactory Marvel tier 5 achieved, with 120/200 progress to Tier 6. However, Tier 6 and onward are locked until higher levels of Marvel, Wonder, or Divinity are achieved.
Artifactory may produce Tier 1 Marvels, or Artifacts up to 690 Skill value. Tier 5 bonus activates. May mass produce tier 5 Marvels, and Artifacts up to 2760 in Skill value. Alternatively, produce doubled numbers of tier 4 Marvels and Artifacts up to 2070 in Skill value, quadrupled tier 2 Marvels and 1380 Skill value Artifacts, or octupled tier 1 Marvels and Skill value 690 Artifacts.
560,000*2(Artifacts)*1.4(8 Runes). 1,568,000 Artifacts of 2760 Skill value per Turn, 3,136,000 of 2070 Skill value per Turn, 6.272 million of 1500, 12.544 million of 1380, or 25.088 million of 690 Skill value. 560*1.4(8 Runes)=784 tier 5 Marvels per Turn, preventing all Artifact production. 1568 tier 4s, 3136 tier 3s, 6272 tier 2s, or 12,544 tier 1s have the same effect, though this can be divided into thirds to allow Artifact production, ie, 522 tier 4s and 2/3 full Artifact production of whichever level desired.
All Artifacts and Marvels made by the Artifactory will enjoy 500% functionality, and 3 additional special abilities. Artifacts and Marvels created by the Artifactory may gain Deeds to gain Legends of their own. If this ability is achieved independently, Legends will instead be doubled in strength and Deed gain will be doubled in speed.
Artifactory will utterly ignore physical or mystical assaults below the level of 10 megaton nuclear warheads striking it directly, nor will production be affected below that level. Any damage done, up to 50% of the factory and it's machines, will self-repair over the course a Turn. No manning is necessary, nor are supplies. However, adequate quantities of each can further boost production up to 500%. The former caps at 50000 workers, possessing facilities for them. The latter can be taken care of by local Incubators and Puella.
Option to form an 'industrial park' of similar Marvels, which will provide linearly stacking 500% productivity buffs to all in range. This benefit technically exists now, but only affects mundane factories within 50 kilometers, as there are no other Marvel factories to link with. +600 Deeds.
Species: Fledgling Deity/Energy Being
Age: @&$)$** Stack Overflow Error. Mental Age: 1.25 Years.
Legend: 6.
Deeds: 140/800.
Legends:
Upgrades, People, Upgrades. When upgrading an existing device, baseline difficulty is reduced by half, rounding to the lower multiple of 5 for ease of calculation, and then dropping an additional step. For example, upgrading Miko's videogame consoles would have been reduced to 12.5, rounded down to 10, then dropped to 5, then the reduction from Domains would have dropped it to -10, meaning two additional success tiers had this action been taken then. This applies to Artifacts, not Marvels.
Pure Hearts. Passive purification rate gains 150% acceleration. Applies to mystical and mundane elements. Additionally, larger scope is reduced 60% as an issue.
Domains:
Technology Domains.
Equipment Domains.
Empowerment Domains.
Meta-Domains.
Mythic Domains.
Sensory Domains.
Cosmic Domains.
Crafting Domains.
Emotions Domains.
Mental Domains.
Healing Domains.
Life Domains.
Attributes Domains.
Energy Domains.
Religion Domains.
Magitech Domains.
Materials Domains.
Role Domains.
Eidolon Domains.
Followers:
938. 61 Empowered.
High Priests:
Miko Kubota. A purple-pink haired Japanese-American girl, met when she was 6. Only viable as Faith-producing due to the High Priest-tier affinity. Tied to Technology. Currently has one friend unless you count. Empowered.
Description:
Leto awoke in an alleyway, and Miko was the first person he encountered. Currently, investigation into a strange cat-rabbit creature and Empowerment of Miko and future followers are the main points of focus. He spent his first year working on gaining moderate mastery of technology, and allied with an alien creature known as Kyubey in the face of a greater threat.
In the second, he began the task of restoring the Puella Magi from their Grief-corrupted states, reclaiming over 11 million on his first attempt.
Goals:
Grand Goal: Retrieve a significant fraction of your past memories. Miko believes you can recover them, and not knowing who you... were bothers you more than you care to let on around her. Still, you suspect it won't be so easy as pushing Memory up to the third level.
Grand Goal: Your ability to sense psychic energy has revealed something unsettling to you, which bears further investigation. Discern the cause of the apparently fundamental tainting of the psychic realm, and cleanse it.
Grand Goal: Purify and Restore the Grief Seeds to their original selves. The Incubators have committed atrocities, there is no denying that. However, they are a heavily traumatized race, who have effectively lobotomized themselves in their efforts to fight a hopeless battle. Regardless, their mistakes must be undone as much as possible. Domains relevant to the Body are necessary to reconstruct their bodies. While Purity, Restoration, Hope, Despair, Psi, Magic, Aura, and Soul will all be relevant to the project of restoring fallen Magical Girls. These Magical Girls will almost definitely become Followers post-healing, as a bonus.
Grand Goal: Defeat Galaxia and Halt Chaos. Galaxia has become a cruel tyrant under Chaos' influence, bearing some of the blame for the monstrosity perpetrated by the Incubators. Felling her or removing Chaos would do much to aid the universe. She possesses immense power, sufficient to destroy planets according to the Incubators. This will not be easy, and then the one pulling the strings must be dealt with.
New Grand Goal: Investigate What The Actual Hell Is Going on With Earth and the Moon's Geomantic Networks! Not millions, not billion, not trillions, nonillions of nodes are present on both the Earth and Moon. This shouldn't be possible. What you know of Geomancy and Magic tells you it is impossible. What is happening?!? More Geomancy, Soul, Empowerment Domains especially Magic, and investigative Domains will be key.
Completed Goals:
Goal: Investigate the Cat-Rabbit and it's machinations. +50 Deeds.
Goal: Prevent any potential harm from befalling the Kubotas or any other followers you amass, at least until the previous Goal is complete. +50 Deeds.
Goal: Empower Miko. As your first Follower and only companion, it only seems fair she receive your first Blessing. The shape it takes doesn't really matter, so long as she gets it. +50 Deeds.
Marvels:
Tier 5 Marvel: Staff of Empowerment. Bearing an orange crystal taken from a point between three neutron stars, the eight-pointed star of wisdom and enlightenment floating a few inches above the main body, this staff has been modified to allow for every available form of Empowerment to be performed through it, provided the person is not being actively blocked, including spatial warping to allow more holders at any one time and consequently more Empowerments.
Base: 40,000 Empowerments, multiplied by 1.8(Marvel and Wonder)*2(Followers)*3(Empowerment)*3(Divinity)*3(Souls)*1.4(eight Runes)=5,443,200 Blessed per Turn.
Other means of enacting Empowerments, such as Churches, are improved 500%. This includes personal efforts of Leto or extant Followers.
Blessed gain 5 additional Talents for each Empowerment mystical energy. Greater Blessed gain 10, High Priests gain 15, and Greater Blessed High Priests gain 25. Additionally, an equal number of Talents are gained for more mundane Skills. This applies to all Blessed.
Blessed are always considered to have a Mentor with 500% benefits in Empowerment-related Skills. This is a unique effect, and cannot be replicated
Tier 5 Wonder: Senshi Sensor Marvel. A small computer, roughly laptop-sized, using technology and materials put together by the incubators, that is meant to discover the location of Senshi so they may be found before Galaxia or any dark forces do, and confirm their existence in the first place. Has pinpoint accuracy GPS wishes it had both in specific location and directions to get there, and can even serve as a personal aid to a given individual. +460 Deeds.
788/200 to Tier 6, locked without further purchases.
Sensors can reach up to 1 million(100,000*10(Space)) kilometers away, or 100 million(10 million*10(Space)) if locating any Senshi. Galaxia still technically qualifies according to Kyubey, so this may offer a slight early warning, since she seems to need to be reasonably close to a planet to obliterate it. Not enough to place, say, Venus under observation, but more than enough to keep the Moon eternally under watch. There will be no evil Senshi knockoffs hiding on the Moon, thank you.
Obtain either 5 Investigative RER, or 5 Research RER of a mystical oddity, decided at Turn Start. Think Star Trek 'we can literally start or stop a star going nova' sensors. Either can progress various Goals, or offer benefits varying from IC knowledge, to discovering new Artifacts, or other benefits. As this was made late into the Turn, only 1 will be provided this Turn.
Pierces low-level wards of various stripes, particularly mystical ones, and if the target could be found with normal scanning, they will not be made aware they were scanned. Piercing effect is akin to the fidelity obtained from the target being roughly 5 times closer than they are, subject to them being within maximum range.
Can be wielded by a Follower a budget-Mercury Computer, allowing rapid analysis and cataloguing of mystical energies, meaning it can function as research aid, targeting computer, shatterpoint striker, etc. It does work better if they can themselves wield mystical energies, of course. This effectively improves any investigative or research actions tied to mystical energy by 500%, as well as providing a combat buff, though only when dealing with the mystical.
Tier 5 Marvel: Artifactory. A monstrously large factory, rather than a small squat rectangle, it is the size of a hill, and would be larger still if not for Space and Time lowering the necessary space for many of it's internal machinations, and a minor pocket dimension produced by Dimension. Hide and it's brethren work overtime to keep it hidden, despite it's incredible lack of subtlety beyond being colored much the same as the hills around it on the outside. A constant stream of Incubators and Puella makes it even more noticeable, as they arrive to be outfitted, or transport equipment. Some even work inside.
Artifactory Marvel tier 5 achieved, with 120/200 progress to Tier 6. However, Tier 6 and onward are locked until higher levels of Marvel, Wonder, or Divinity are achieved.
Artifactory may produce Tier 1 Marvels, or Artifacts up to 690 Skill value. Tier 5 bonus activates. May mass produce tier 5 Marvels, and Artifacts up to 2760 in Skill value. Alternatively, produce doubled numbers of tier 4 Marvels and Artifacts up to 2070 in Skill value, quadrupled tier 2 Marvels and 1380 Skill value Artifacts, or octupled tier 1 Marvels and Skill value 690 Artifacts.
560,000*2(Artifacts)*1.4(8 Runes). 1,568,000 Artifacts of 2760 Skill value per Turn, 3,136,000 of 2070 Skill value per Turn, 6.272 million of 1500, 12.544 million of 1380, or 25.088 million of 690 Skill value. 560*1.4(8 Runes)=784 tier 5 Marvels per Turn, preventing all Artifact production. 1568 tier 4s, 3136 tier 3s, 6272 tier 2s, or 12,544 tier 1s have the same effect, though this can be divided into thirds to allow Artifact production, ie, 522 tier 4s and 2/3 full Artifact production of whichever level desired.
All Artifacts and Marvels made by the Artifactory will enjoy 500% functionality, and 3 additional special abilities. Artifacts and Marvels created by the Artifactory may gain Deeds to gain Legends of their own. If this ability is achieved independently, Legends will instead be doubled in strength and Deed gain will be doubled in speed.
Artifactory will utterly ignore physical or mystical assaults below the level of 10 megaton nuclear warheads striking it directly, nor will production be affected below that level. Any damage done, up to 50% of the factory and it's machines, will self-repair over the course a Turn. No manning is necessary, nor are supplies. However, adequate quantities of each can further boost production up to 500%. The former caps at 50000 workers, possessing facilities for them. The latter can be taken care of by local Incubators and Puella.
Option to form an 'industrial park' of similar Marvels, which will provide linearly stacking 500% productivity buffs to all in range. This benefit technically exists now, but only affects mundane factories within 50 kilometers, as there are no other Marvel factories to link with. +600 Deeds.
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Vote closed
Turn 2 Results
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
[X] Plan: Say No To Incubators!
You were planning to invest heavily in Empowerment this season. Partially because if Miko had Magic, then it logically followed she'd be less vulnerable to people or whatever the cabbit was offering her Magic with strings attached, and partially because it made sense that sensing the relevant energies would be easier if you, you know, actually had any dominion over the relevant energies. Starting with Magic.
-[X] Magic 1 25 Faith.
While you do not have eyes in the conventional sense, it's as if you were blind and suddenly gained sight. You could always tell where Miko was, and with some effort, you could discern the souls of those in proximity. Now? You could find the souls of any being in the area without even a thought put towards it. This was due to, essentially, tracking down the organ that produced magic, some sort of glowing orb-like core, which was, so far as you could tell, universally tied to the soul. Sort of like how the actual anthill was much bigger than the little mound on the surface, but you could always find it via that telltale dirt hill.
It was only the first of the three methods you intended to use to empower Miko to remove any temptation to make any shady deals with strange creatures, but it was a great start.
Magic 1 attained.
You gain the ability to sense and manipulate Magic. Magic-wielding entities will show up on your 'minimap' of the area around your Followers, and so they need to make actual efforts to remain hidden. Access to Magic also makes you a bonfire of it, making you more noticeable to Magic-based entities and organizations.
You can infuse Artifacts and Wonders alike with Magic, and will by default, though this is toggleable. Artifact/Wonder quality slightly improved in general, and significantly improved if Magic is invested. Modifications related to Magic are significantly eased.
Magic is now available for use in Empowerment. Magic-stealing, either of the Magic energy or the Cores which produce it is slightly more difficult than it logically should be.
High Priests will be able to cast low-level spells immediately, such as the classic fireball or small bolts of lightning, though it will depend on your Domains so currently it's largely technology-based, and they will need to train up the spellcasting to do anything beyond basic cantrips, though raw Magic being used as an attack is not inconceivable, it defaults to pure concussive force over anything more complex or conceptual. This roughly maxes out along the lines of Technology being able to take over any and all appliances in your house at once, double their performance while reducing power consumption, and then maintain it without needing to concentrate too hard for about half an hour, for now. Additionally, they gain a general buff across the board, though nothing amazing in any one area. This includes a minor boost to healing and lifespan, along the lines of a year's extra life and equivalent for healing rates.
Followers in general receive access to minor cantrips if they work at it, such as improving the performance of computers they are using 50% without moving from their chair, but they cannot advance very far before hitting a wall beyond your support, where learning Magic becomes effectively impossible without having already possessed talent for it. They do gain minor benefits to all areas as well, though they're distinctly inferior to the High Priest benefits.
Those who do not Follow you cannot benefit at this time.
0/50 to Magic 2.
-[X] Qi 1 25 Faith.
If gaining Magic granted you sight, Qi granted you sound. Before, you were largely uninterested in living things besides humans. They didn't have minds complex enough for full souls, and so you honestly weren't sure you could call them 'alive' never mind 'people'. Qi completely changed your perspective. All living things possessed energies beyond the physical. Energies that screamed out that they were alive, resisting the ravages of time and entropy beyond what normal physics should allow.
You wondered what Miko would think of it. Magic was interesting and versatile, but the energy of life itself seemed, perhaps ironically, more likely to cause introspection.
Qi 1 attained.
You gain the ability to sense and manipulate lifeforce, which allows for the sensing of most lifeforms, though you lack the granularity to discern anything significantly smaller than an ant. This makes most living things incapable of hiding from your sight. You have gained attention from ???.
Artifacts and Wonders may be enhanced with Qi, though only some are eligible unless relevant Domains are improved. For example, a Leto Supercomputer would not be because it had no living tissue and was inorganic, while an Oak of Ages meant to extend the lifespans of those in the area would be just about as compatible as it was possible to be. Qi may, if you wish, not be applied, though this must be specified. Artifacts and Wonders slightly improved in general, and significantly improved if Qi is invested in eligible ones. Modification of living things significantly more effective, especially to improve physical substrate.
Qi may be used for Empowerment. Universally reduces the effectiveness of instant-death attacks and fear, infirmity, and delusion-based assaults.
Due to Qi's nature as being an inherent part of life, and it's screaming defiance, while it ceases to be properly supported by Leto in much the same manner as Magic, it can still be pushed higher still, albeit with great difficulty. Still easier than trying to force Magic, even if you lack a natural talent in it. High Priests can approximately double their abilities, normal Followers Empowered with Qi can triple theirs, though this still puts their maximum at roughly 75% of their more potent counterparts.
High Priests Empowered with Qi able to produce moderate amounts of pure lifeforce energy. This largely behaves like normal plasma/laser blasts when used against most materials, though supernatural energies can and will interact with it like it's a more normal solid. Two opposing Qi blasts can push against each other, as can opposing Magical energy, while a brick wall will become littered with holes, or so much smoldering debris, for example. How it interacts with living things depends on the intent. Hostile means the target is likely to be mildly scorched at best, and so much ash at worst. Non-hostile means they can interact with it like one might a rubber ball. It is possible to exert control over Qi one is in direct contact with to reduce it's hostility, but this requires significant mastery, and is difficult to do at the best of times. At baseline, even a novice High Priest will have small-arms bounce off their bones, limiting the harm done, meanwhile, their strength at least triples, allowing for an adult to easily lift 100+ kilograms. Lifespan increased by 20 years. Healing improved by 25%. Dramatic increase to tolerance of poison and similar substances from improved organ function. Small intellect boost from improved brain function. Skill 'caps' at the point where getting run over by a truck is more inconvenient than life-threatening, steel plates can be dented with physical attacks, significant quantities of Qi may be used offensively like plasma bolts, and unusual techniques may be developed(200), and Caps at the point where a mundane missile going off in your face is more surprising than painful(400), with similar general effects.
Empowered Followers are able to generate small amounts of pure lifeforce energy immediately. Fully supported, their skills cap at the point small arms lose effectiveness(100). Unsupported, they cap at the point a tank's main cannon and the like cease to be effective and multiple Qi techniques may be developed, including element-aspected ones(300). Even if a Follower does not train Qi, they receive a ten-year lifespan-extension, doubled strength and durability, 15% faster healing, major improvement of the body's handling of toxins, and a slight intellect boost from improvement of the physical substrate.
Non-Followers can be Empowered, though they will have to train Qi on their own, and will receive little in the way of immediate benefits. Their maximum, unsupported, is the point High Priests lose support. Lifespans increased by 5 years, healing increased by 5%.
0/50 to Qi 2.
-[X] Psi 1 25 Faith.
Psi 1 attained.
With sight and sound, one would expect another of the five base senses to be next, and indeed, Psi seems to be most akin to taste. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, there's a lurking... foulness to this layer of reality, as if it's been fundamentally tainted somehow. Still, there are motes of light that help push it back. Positive emotion, thought, and ideas are reflected here, just as the negative is. If the underlying superstructure of this particular set of metaphysics has been corrupted, that, in turn, implies a root cause, right? If it can be done... perhaps it can be undone.
New Grand Goal. Your ability to sense psychic energy has revealed something unsettling to you, which bears further investigation. Discern the cause of the apparently fundamental tainting of the psychic realm, and cleanse it.
Regardless, psychic energy clings to technology easily, just as Qi does with living and formerly living things. Perhaps it's that Qi makes it more difficult to discern Psi, or simply that most living things aren't thinking very deep thought or feeling very complex emotions. Either way, Psi is a highly mental energy, and humans tend to form attachments to the products of civilization, from stuffed animals to video games. In simple terms, the people who cared about a given tree often thought of it more as something for everyone than something specifically of theirs, which seemed to vibe more with Qi than Psi. Meanwhile, even years later, something from your childhood that most other people would see as junk could arouse nostalgia. In essence, Psi was much more personalized. Everyone would appreciate the beauty of a flower, few outside the family would be as joyful over a poor drawing done by a child of that flower. Further, the pseudo-minds of higher technology could produce minute quantities of Psi, such as videogame NPCs, which tied it even father to technology, as the same phenomenon in, say, elephants was largely overshadowed by their Qi.
This personalization came with upsides and downsides. On the one hand, Empowered only needed you to unlock Psi to have free reign over a singular Domain within Psi, or two if they were a High Priest, training it to the uttermost heights possible. However, they wouldn't be able to choose any other Domains once they had theirs selected. As you'd explained it to Miko later, it's like having uncapped Stats, but you can only put points in the one you pick in Character Creation. Presumably, something more levels in Psi would remedy.
You gain the ability to manipulate and utilize psychic energy. Something is off about it, but that's not especially a problem for you, given it's relatively simple to avoid overmuch negative psychic energy. The tendency for it to cling to technology makes it easier to discern the location of it, if your Technology Domain is somehow insufficient. It also makes hiding the intellect of a VI/AI much more difficult. ??? moves closer to revelation. ??? Notices you.
Psi can be used to enhance Artifacts and Wonders, which is toggleable, but will be on by default. Generally speaking, it is required that the target have either a modicum of higher intellect or technological leanings for them to be eligible. For example, an Airship similar to the common instances in Final Fantasy would be a Wonder Psi could be applied to, while a Sunflower meant to serve as a super-solar panel would not be viable for Psi. Artifacts and Wonders slightly improved in general, and significantly improved if Psi is invested in eligible ones. Modifications meant to affect the mind or on AIs and other technological beings significantly eased.
Psi may now be used for Empowerments. Mind muddling/debilitating attacks have their effectiveness reduced, as do effects which hamper cognitive function, mundane or otherwise.
High Priests may produce Psi in moderate amounts at will, taking the form of colored light 'highlighting' a designated object, dependent on the person. Miko, for example, has purple-pink. Gestures help, but are not necessary. They can train their Psi Domains up to 1600. However, they may only choose two, with the remainder being locked out. Additionally, Psi excels in the manipulation of Technology and the enhancement therein, as well as in influencing the mind, though it can default to raw physical force like Magic does. Technokinesis is an entirely viable result of pursuing Technology as one's Psi Domain, for example. Allowing for the combination of control and enhancement of technology far beyond the point it should cease to function. Though a Life Psi would likely focus on manipulating the brain to manipulate the mind and body, it should be at least somewhat possible to influence the body as a whole. Significant improvement of intellect and mental function, along the lines of moving from 100 IQ to 120. Ability to focus the mind on a task is notably improved. Mental fatigue and the like are notably reduced. Physical body mostly unaffected, but minor benefits are gained from improved brain function.
Followers may generate small quantities of Psi at will. They may train a singular Psi Domain up to 1500. Noticeable improvement of intellect and mental function, along the lines of moving from 100 IQ to 110. Ability to focus the mind on a task is somewhat improved. Mental fatigue and the like are somewhat reduced. Physical body mostly unaffected, but slight benefits are gained from improved brain function.
Non-Followers are not capable of being Empowered, for the moment.
0/50 to Psi 2.
-[X] Perception 1 15 Faith.
You also plan to find the cabbit this season, as well as keep an eye on the girl who made some sort of deal with it, and general Perception seems like a good bet to do both of those things.
Perception 1 attained.
General lowering of requirements to detect entities. Supernatural means of hiding somewhat less effective.
Improved ability to accurately determine the nature of a situation, and designate important objects and people.
Slightly improved stealth and misdirection due to greater knowledge of what to watch out for.
0/30 to Perception 2.
-[X] Empower Miko. You do not know what the future holds (yet), but with that Cat-Rabbit running around Miko needs all the strength she can get.
Right, step one of protecting your Followers. Well, Follower. Reducing the temptation to enter any sort of contract for Magic by directly giving her Magic, Qi, and Psi. It would also make them better able to protect themselves, since you operated on a timescale much greater than any potential assailants. Therefore, you had to at least partially delegate Follower protection to them. Empowerment Domains were perfect for that.
Miko is granted access to Magic, Qi, and Psi along the lines described above. Further Empowerments, both upgrades to existing Empowerment Domains and new Domains purchased will automatically provide their benefits to her. In addition to quality of life benefits, such as improvements to her grades and gaming skills, she gains significant combat ability.
Goal: Empower Miko. As your first Follower and only companion, it only seems fair she receive your first Blessing. The shape it takes doesn't really matter, so long as she gets it. Complete. +50 Deeds.
-[X] Keep an eye on the home of that young girl with security cameras, the one who had her soul put into a gem by the Cat-Rabbit. She may be the key to understanding what that thing is up to.
1d100= 58+20(Magic)+3(Perception)+12(Computers/Technology)=93.
The girl seems to have gained classical 'Magical Girl' powers. A transformation that emitted a lot of light and color, a general theme to their magic, the works. You say seems because, with Magic and Qi to help you understand what's happening, the girl is essentially a lich, whose soul has been moved into a gemstone. As long as it stayed close, she'd be fine, but if it got too far away, she'd collapse like a puppet with it's strings cut.
Secondly, as she used it magic, it would gradually darken. The end result if it turned completely dark was that you discovered by following her via her cell phone when she entered an area of distorted space, and found a psychedelic hellscape, controlled by what at first appeared to simply be a monstrosity of magic and negativity, but between Psi and Magic, it was relatively simple to discern that the black arrow-like rock left behind was a corrupted form of the same gemstone the girl was carrying. Which meant that this thing was a human at one point. You were going to need an explanation.
-[X] Locate and Contact Cabbit. You know not what that thing is planning with the souls of children, but you need to find it, fast.
1d100= 15+ 20(Magic)+20(Mutual Person of Interest)+20(Unknown Energies Draw Interest)+3(Perception)+12(Computers/Technology)=90.
Good news. You got into contact with the cabbit.
"Hello there Linda." the creature said to the girl it had doomed.
"Oh, hey Kyubey. I got the Grief Seed!" the blond proclaimed proudly, having used it to drain her Soul Gem of darkness, filling it up to the halfway mark. She had no idea at all about the nature of Witches.
"That's good, but you've got a passenger on your phone." Kyubey noted, gemstone-like eyes somehow giving the impression of looking directly at the phone despite the blank stare.
Pulling it out, she gave it a once-over. "A virus?" she asked, confused.
Kyubey shook it's head. "No, more like me."
Linda jerked the phone away from her. "An alien?!"
"For a given value of alien, yes. I'd actually like to talk to him. Could you leave your phone with me for a while?" Kyubey asked.
"Sure, tell me if you get him out" she shuddered. "Super-creepy." and walked off, detransforming as she went.
The moment it was certain Linda was out of earshot, it began to speak. "You're certainly an unusual being, but you have access to two types of entropy-defying energy my race was unaware of, so I'm inclined to listen to and respond to what you have to say. I'm sure you have questions-"
"Why, exactly, do you trick children into giving you their souls, and then fail to mention that they'll turn into twisted monstrosities?" the phone's speakers crackled, pushed far beyond their limits, even with Technology to back them up.
Kyubey tilted it's head. "Would you like the long explanation, or the short explanation?"
"The detailed one."
"How much do you know of the wider universe beyond Earth?" Kyubey asked.
"Little."
"Very well. Approximately 20 thousand of Earth's years ago, we achieved space flight. We found a universe torn apart by a despot, driven mad by a twisted unsoul she'd sealed within herself in attempt to contain it. Galaxia, if patterns hold true, will show up on Earth when it's magical development is sufficient for you to have a slim hope of standing against her, and then crush that hope. Including, and especially, if she has to kill any Senshi, guardians chosen and empowered by the soul of an entire celestial body, that appear. It's what she's done to every civilization she's encountered, including ours. Our home planet was unstable." Kyubey gave the impression of a shrug. "Apparently, it couldn't handle the shock of it's chosen guardian dying, and imploded. We've been nomads, allying ourselves with the scattered fragments that might be generously termed a resistance movement. In order to spare other races Galaxia's depredations, we have intentionally held back the magical development of worlds such as Earth." Kyubey explained.
"Your contracts are still in question." Leto couldn't help but note, not having heard any justification for that.
"There are three reasons. Firstly, with the unsoul influencing her, Galaxia has blocked off the Galaxy Cauldron, the origin point of all energy and souls in the universe. In her mind, this is to prevent it from being reborn should she fall, but in truth it is because Chaos does not truly care if reality decays to nothingness or is destroyed, so long as the end result is the same. Thus, the universe is slowly succumbing to entropy. That is to say, with each chemical reaction, a tiny fraction of the energy is lost. Magic, and the other two energies you wield, are exceptions. Thus, the contracts. I grant the girls a wish based upon their karmic destiny, which is as accurate a gauge for magical power and talent as I have yet seen, though Star Seeds of a given planet block any sort of reading for it. In return, their magic pushes back entropy. It was discovered that strong feelings of hope and despair result in the greatest concentrations of magic, and girls in pre-teen and teenage years generally produce these in greater quantities, for both genetic and cultural reasons."
"A singular world cannot possibly supply the entire universe's energy needs." Leto pointed out.
"That is true, but the existing Sailor Guardians, including Galaxia herself, are also holding back entropy through their actions. Additionally, this is as much a testing ground as anything else, as the second reason for this. If, as we suspect, the Galaxy Cauldron must be destroyed in order to permanently halt Chaos' rebirth, we will need an alternative, and Sailor Guardians are generally one per planet. The system has undergone major alterations over the centuries."
"Wait. Centuries? How long have you been doing this, exactly?"
"2 thousand 346 years, seven months, and 6 days according to Earth calendars. Humans have a talent for magic, and without Sailor Guardians, you would not have stood a chance when Galaxia noticed. Therefore, slowing of your mastery of magic by culling magically talented individuals on a regular basis was necessary, which is the third reason. As we cannot tell when a given person possesses a Sailor Crystal, lacking the specialized methods of Galaxia and simply removing the souls of each individual until process of elimination kicking in is untenable, we cannot be sure if one has appeared at this time. Especially since selection seems to happen at birth without specialized systems in place, and so one might have been born already and simply not awakened to their powers. We simply cannot be sure. Regardless, it is rare for a system to have more than one, and sheer numbers will be against you when the Guardian does show up. We will attempt to aid as best we can, but escape may be all we can offer. We are not potent combatants even when we create dedicated combat platforms. Our efforts to restore the Grief Seeds to their original selves have been an endless string of failures, so auxiliary forces will not work well on that front either."
"Hold on. You've been trying to restore them?"
"We've been collecting them for two thousand years. We tell the Magical Girls that it's intended to prevent them from turning back into Witches upon collecting enough Grief, and while that is true, it is also to add to our stockpile. We have millions of potential magical warriors, should we figure out a method to reverse the transformation. While individually few can even manage a few moments against the likes of Galaxia, her minions are weaker, and perhaps the strongest of them might stand a chance if they came at her in a group. We've even added a translation suite to the package, based upon our own, since the very beginning in preparation for it, to limit teamwork issues. The transformation slows aging to an effective halt, so any girls selected, if the Witch transformation were removed, would have effective immortality, meaning it is possible to amass talent from ages past to gather it all together for a strike against Shadow Galactica, and then against Chaos' incarnation. The Witch system was, in part, an outgrowth of having to remove the Magical Girls from the board to avoid attracting Galaxia's attention, while not actually killing them, as that would defeat the point. Unfortunately, perhaps due to our degraded understanding of emotion, we underestimated the difficulty in reverting the transformation."
"What exactly do you mean by 'degraded'?" Leto asked, suspicion growing in his mind.
"Our race was never strongly emotive. The destruction of our world from Galaxia's campaign, and our subsequent efforts to undermine her, led to what emotion we did have to nearly cause our extermination as a race on at least three separate occasions. Finally, after Galaxia destroyed a race we were aiding in their fight against her, we removed our emotions entirely." it gave the impression of a shrug.
"It seems more efficient this way. It makes it more difficult to rip our souls out when Galaxia comes across one our number, and normal pain and the like are insufficient to sway us, so her efforts to raise our fallen as her minions causes much more limited intelligence issues. Procreation is determined by resources, using cloning vats to restore our numbers where possible, and no ideological differences cause us strife. Most of our actual individuals serving as advisors to races who have newly awakened Sailor Guardians and/or who have recently gained significant magical infrastructure and individuals with potent magic, whereas the Hive Mind the bodies on Earth are connected to is the norm for scouting missions. A compromised body can simply have the connection severed, not unlike the Magical Girls too far from their Soul Gems, which largely prevents the actual individual from falling into her hands. It also prevents our fallen from causing emotional turmoil when used against us. The advantages are numerous, though it causes us problems with social interaction at times, and our inability to understand Gried and Despair means we cannot 'cure' them in the Grief Seeds."
"...Let me ask you a different question. Have you offered to do something similar for other races?"
"No." Kyubey answered. "We lack the macro-scale understanding of most race's souls to do so in any case."
"Hm, but you never made that offer to those you did have the understanding for? It almost sounds as if you don't think the advantages are worth it, on some level." Leto hypothesized.
"Perhaps. We will not accept or attempt any form of reversion until we have halted Galaxia's threat, regardless of any such opinions. We would like your aid in that. Your new forms of energy can help us with every step of our plan, and potentially with the greater galaxy in time. Not immediately, of course. At least some research into your own energies would be necessary."
"Assuming I said yes, it would be years at minimum before there were any real results. For one thing, my nature prevents me from directly interacting with reality. The only reason this conversation is possible is because I have an anchor within a few kilometers of here. Such anchors are soul-based, and require genuine belief in me to work, or an extremely uncommon affinity connection. I have only found a single individual inside city limits that has the latter."
"That would put the probability of such an affinity at a minimum of less than half that of having Magical Girl affinity. The former is not a problem, as sometime in the next century is the sort of timescale my race has learned to work off of, and we are perfectly willing to wait to guarantee victory. Faith, however, is not something we have much understanding of. We can 'proselytize' I believe is the word, to various Magic Girl groups in order to improve your numbers. Gathering more data on these new energy types is to our advantage as well."
"Provided you stop making more." Leto commanded.
"If we are preparing for a rebellion against Galaxia, creating more Magical Girls would be counter-productive when an alternative method to unlock Magic and similar energies exists." Kyubey responded.
[ ] Agree. Kyubey is distasteful... but perhaps also deserving of pity. It has admitted to these crimes without any major duress, in hopes of securing aid in it's struggle. Gain 1d20 Followers per Turn. Empowerment Actions can improve this. Gain easy access to Grief Seeds to attempt purification of. Gain deep knowledge of souls and ready access to small quantities of rare materials. Have Kyubey cease Magical Girl creation immediately, in favor of your method.
[ ] Rebuke. Regardless of their reasons, Kyubey and the Incubators have committed atrocities you cannot countenance. You will not ally yourselves with these.. things. None of the above benefits. May kill this thing wherever you find it, and go after Chaos/Galaxia anyway.
Goal: Investigate the Cat-Rabbit and it's machinations. Complete. +50 Deeds.
Goal: Prevent any potential harm from befalling the Kubotas or any other followers you amass, at least until the previous Goal is complete. Complete. +50 Deeds.
Legend Rank has increased. Next Turn Vote will include a Perk vote. 50/200 Deeds to Rank 3.
New Grand Goals Revealed: Purify and Restore the Grief Seeds to their original selves. The Incubators have committed atrocities, there is no denying that. However, they are a heavily traumatized race, who have effectively lobotomized themselves in their efforts to fight a hopeless battle. Regardless, their mistakes must be undone as much as possible. Domains relevant to the Body are necessary to reconstruct their bodies. While Purity, Restoration, Hope, Despair, Psi, Magic, Aura, and Soul will all be relevant to the project of restoring fallen Magical Girls. These Magical Girls will almost definitely become Followers post-healing, as a bonus.
Defeat Galaxia and Halt Chaos. Galaxia has become a cruel tyrant under Chaos' influence, bearing some of the blame for the monstrosity perpetrated by the Incubators. Felling her or removing Chaos would do much to aid the universe. She possesses immense power, sufficient to destroy planets according to the Incubators. This will not be easy, and then the one pulling the strings must be dealt with.
Random Event Roll: 79. As it turns out, Linda is compatible enough to qualify as a Follower, regardless of your feelings on Kyubey, and was willing to at least speak to you after you promised you hadn't messed with her personal files. Thus, Miko is introduced to someone she has something very much in common with, even if the girl is barely tech-literate compared to your first Follower, instead being much more athletic.
+1 Follower. Miko gains a peer who shares her secret.
AN: So, you're probably wondering why you'd want to not use Magic to enhance something. Well, Darwinist principles suggest that, even if it's something not as closely tied to life as Qi, bacteria and viruses that attack people for various energies will show up sooner or later. Not any time soon, as you don't have enough users of any of them for that to happen. Not in a population this small and dispersed, in Magics case, and barely extant in Psi's case.
I suspect the Heart Disease Goku got during the Android/Cell Arc was a Qi disease, meaning it wouldn't take as long to get bad in normal people, but it also wouldn't be likely to get very bad in them unless they had some sort of pre-existing heart problem. I mean, it's Goku, and the nightmare he had could have just been stress but... well, as long as you don't hyperfocus on one energy type, the others should be viable means of resisting any such entities.
Secondly, keep in mind that Magic 1 gives High Priests Magic Skills they can train up to 200, and only up to 100 for others, which is conventional mastery of normal skills. Empowerments normally rely on the link to a person forged by Faith, so non-Followers need either specific Perks or really high Domains in the Empowerment and/or Faith to directly benefit. Mundane and Heroism are exceptions because of their fundamental nature. Also, the 'Effectively, +2 in the Qi Domain to determine the Skill cap for mortal followers.' only really applies in the sense that it's possible, instead of smacking their heads against a wall to try like with Magic or Psi. Training at 5 per AP, if that, isn't amazing. Psi is really the only other exception, and it's got the hard limit on Skills as a consequence, not to mention it's dependence on brain power means that unless you're already a genius like Ami or a savant like Nanoha, you won't be able to train past 500 with any speed, although Heroism, Wonder, Empowerment, and Psi upgrades can help remedy that.
As for Kyubey, well, why would you expect him to be exactly the same in this merged 'verse as the normal one? Assuming he actually told the full truth there either. He sees an opportunity here, to dramatically improve his side's chances. Psi and Qi 1 aren't going to do much, and his methods aren't useful for much besides child-soldiers that have their potential determined by what potential they would have had anyway. There is an element of 'destiny' to magical potential, as seen in Nanoha having utterly insane potential, where her parents are comparatively mundane. She doesn't have the Star Seed excuse Usagi and her friends do.
You were planning to invest heavily in Empowerment this season. Partially because if Miko had Magic, then it logically followed she'd be less vulnerable to people or whatever the cabbit was offering her Magic with strings attached, and partially because it made sense that sensing the relevant energies would be easier if you, you know, actually had any dominion over the relevant energies. Starting with Magic.
-[X] Magic 1 25 Faith.
While you do not have eyes in the conventional sense, it's as if you were blind and suddenly gained sight. You could always tell where Miko was, and with some effort, you could discern the souls of those in proximity. Now? You could find the souls of any being in the area without even a thought put towards it. This was due to, essentially, tracking down the organ that produced magic, some sort of glowing orb-like core, which was, so far as you could tell, universally tied to the soul. Sort of like how the actual anthill was much bigger than the little mound on the surface, but you could always find it via that telltale dirt hill.
It was only the first of the three methods you intended to use to empower Miko to remove any temptation to make any shady deals with strange creatures, but it was a great start.
Magic 1 attained.
You gain the ability to sense and manipulate Magic. Magic-wielding entities will show up on your 'minimap' of the area around your Followers, and so they need to make actual efforts to remain hidden. Access to Magic also makes you a bonfire of it, making you more noticeable to Magic-based entities and organizations.
You can infuse Artifacts and Wonders alike with Magic, and will by default, though this is toggleable. Artifact/Wonder quality slightly improved in general, and significantly improved if Magic is invested. Modifications related to Magic are significantly eased.
Magic is now available for use in Empowerment. Magic-stealing, either of the Magic energy or the Cores which produce it is slightly more difficult than it logically should be.
High Priests will be able to cast low-level spells immediately, such as the classic fireball or small bolts of lightning, though it will depend on your Domains so currently it's largely technology-based, and they will need to train up the spellcasting to do anything beyond basic cantrips, though raw Magic being used as an attack is not inconceivable, it defaults to pure concussive force over anything more complex or conceptual. This roughly maxes out along the lines of Technology being able to take over any and all appliances in your house at once, double their performance while reducing power consumption, and then maintain it without needing to concentrate too hard for about half an hour, for now. Additionally, they gain a general buff across the board, though nothing amazing in any one area. This includes a minor boost to healing and lifespan, along the lines of a year's extra life and equivalent for healing rates.
Followers in general receive access to minor cantrips if they work at it, such as improving the performance of computers they are using 50% without moving from their chair, but they cannot advance very far before hitting a wall beyond your support, where learning Magic becomes effectively impossible without having already possessed talent for it. They do gain minor benefits to all areas as well, though they're distinctly inferior to the High Priest benefits.
Those who do not Follow you cannot benefit at this time.
0/50 to Magic 2.
-[X] Qi 1 25 Faith.
If gaining Magic granted you sight, Qi granted you sound. Before, you were largely uninterested in living things besides humans. They didn't have minds complex enough for full souls, and so you honestly weren't sure you could call them 'alive' never mind 'people'. Qi completely changed your perspective. All living things possessed energies beyond the physical. Energies that screamed out that they were alive, resisting the ravages of time and entropy beyond what normal physics should allow.
You wondered what Miko would think of it. Magic was interesting and versatile, but the energy of life itself seemed, perhaps ironically, more likely to cause introspection.
Qi 1 attained.
You gain the ability to sense and manipulate lifeforce, which allows for the sensing of most lifeforms, though you lack the granularity to discern anything significantly smaller than an ant. This makes most living things incapable of hiding from your sight. You have gained attention from ???.
Artifacts and Wonders may be enhanced with Qi, though only some are eligible unless relevant Domains are improved. For example, a Leto Supercomputer would not be because it had no living tissue and was inorganic, while an Oak of Ages meant to extend the lifespans of those in the area would be just about as compatible as it was possible to be. Qi may, if you wish, not be applied, though this must be specified. Artifacts and Wonders slightly improved in general, and significantly improved if Qi is invested in eligible ones. Modification of living things significantly more effective, especially to improve physical substrate.
Qi may be used for Empowerment. Universally reduces the effectiveness of instant-death attacks and fear, infirmity, and delusion-based assaults.
Due to Qi's nature as being an inherent part of life, and it's screaming defiance, while it ceases to be properly supported by Leto in much the same manner as Magic, it can still be pushed higher still, albeit with great difficulty. Still easier than trying to force Magic, even if you lack a natural talent in it. High Priests can approximately double their abilities, normal Followers Empowered with Qi can triple theirs, though this still puts their maximum at roughly 75% of their more potent counterparts.
High Priests Empowered with Qi able to produce moderate amounts of pure lifeforce energy. This largely behaves like normal plasma/laser blasts when used against most materials, though supernatural energies can and will interact with it like it's a more normal solid. Two opposing Qi blasts can push against each other, as can opposing Magical energy, while a brick wall will become littered with holes, or so much smoldering debris, for example. How it interacts with living things depends on the intent. Hostile means the target is likely to be mildly scorched at best, and so much ash at worst. Non-hostile means they can interact with it like one might a rubber ball. It is possible to exert control over Qi one is in direct contact with to reduce it's hostility, but this requires significant mastery, and is difficult to do at the best of times. At baseline, even a novice High Priest will have small-arms bounce off their bones, limiting the harm done, meanwhile, their strength at least triples, allowing for an adult to easily lift 100+ kilograms. Lifespan increased by 20 years. Healing improved by 25%. Dramatic increase to tolerance of poison and similar substances from improved organ function. Small intellect boost from improved brain function. Skill 'caps' at the point where getting run over by a truck is more inconvenient than life-threatening, steel plates can be dented with physical attacks, significant quantities of Qi may be used offensively like plasma bolts, and unusual techniques may be developed(200), and Caps at the point where a mundane missile going off in your face is more surprising than painful(400), with similar general effects.
Empowered Followers are able to generate small amounts of pure lifeforce energy immediately. Fully supported, their skills cap at the point small arms lose effectiveness(100). Unsupported, they cap at the point a tank's main cannon and the like cease to be effective and multiple Qi techniques may be developed, including element-aspected ones(300). Even if a Follower does not train Qi, they receive a ten-year lifespan-extension, doubled strength and durability, 15% faster healing, major improvement of the body's handling of toxins, and a slight intellect boost from improvement of the physical substrate.
Non-Followers can be Empowered, though they will have to train Qi on their own, and will receive little in the way of immediate benefits. Their maximum, unsupported, is the point High Priests lose support. Lifespans increased by 5 years, healing increased by 5%.
0/50 to Qi 2.
-[X] Psi 1 25 Faith.
Psi 1 attained.
With sight and sound, one would expect another of the five base senses to be next, and indeed, Psi seems to be most akin to taste. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, there's a lurking... foulness to this layer of reality, as if it's been fundamentally tainted somehow. Still, there are motes of light that help push it back. Positive emotion, thought, and ideas are reflected here, just as the negative is. If the underlying superstructure of this particular set of metaphysics has been corrupted, that, in turn, implies a root cause, right? If it can be done... perhaps it can be undone.
New Grand Goal. Your ability to sense psychic energy has revealed something unsettling to you, which bears further investigation. Discern the cause of the apparently fundamental tainting of the psychic realm, and cleanse it.
Regardless, psychic energy clings to technology easily, just as Qi does with living and formerly living things. Perhaps it's that Qi makes it more difficult to discern Psi, or simply that most living things aren't thinking very deep thought or feeling very complex emotions. Either way, Psi is a highly mental energy, and humans tend to form attachments to the products of civilization, from stuffed animals to video games. In simple terms, the people who cared about a given tree often thought of it more as something for everyone than something specifically of theirs, which seemed to vibe more with Qi than Psi. Meanwhile, even years later, something from your childhood that most other people would see as junk could arouse nostalgia. In essence, Psi was much more personalized. Everyone would appreciate the beauty of a flower, few outside the family would be as joyful over a poor drawing done by a child of that flower. Further, the pseudo-minds of higher technology could produce minute quantities of Psi, such as videogame NPCs, which tied it even father to technology, as the same phenomenon in, say, elephants was largely overshadowed by their Qi.
This personalization came with upsides and downsides. On the one hand, Empowered only needed you to unlock Psi to have free reign over a singular Domain within Psi, or two if they were a High Priest, training it to the uttermost heights possible. However, they wouldn't be able to choose any other Domains once they had theirs selected. As you'd explained it to Miko later, it's like having uncapped Stats, but you can only put points in the one you pick in Character Creation. Presumably, something more levels in Psi would remedy.
You gain the ability to manipulate and utilize psychic energy. Something is off about it, but that's not especially a problem for you, given it's relatively simple to avoid overmuch negative psychic energy. The tendency for it to cling to technology makes it easier to discern the location of it, if your Technology Domain is somehow insufficient. It also makes hiding the intellect of a VI/AI much more difficult. ??? moves closer to revelation. ??? Notices you.
Psi can be used to enhance Artifacts and Wonders, which is toggleable, but will be on by default. Generally speaking, it is required that the target have either a modicum of higher intellect or technological leanings for them to be eligible. For example, an Airship similar to the common instances in Final Fantasy would be a Wonder Psi could be applied to, while a Sunflower meant to serve as a super-solar panel would not be viable for Psi. Artifacts and Wonders slightly improved in general, and significantly improved if Psi is invested in eligible ones. Modifications meant to affect the mind or on AIs and other technological beings significantly eased.
Psi may now be used for Empowerments. Mind muddling/debilitating attacks have their effectiveness reduced, as do effects which hamper cognitive function, mundane or otherwise.
High Priests may produce Psi in moderate amounts at will, taking the form of colored light 'highlighting' a designated object, dependent on the person. Miko, for example, has purple-pink. Gestures help, but are not necessary. They can train their Psi Domains up to 1600. However, they may only choose two, with the remainder being locked out. Additionally, Psi excels in the manipulation of Technology and the enhancement therein, as well as in influencing the mind, though it can default to raw physical force like Magic does. Technokinesis is an entirely viable result of pursuing Technology as one's Psi Domain, for example. Allowing for the combination of control and enhancement of technology far beyond the point it should cease to function. Though a Life Psi would likely focus on manipulating the brain to manipulate the mind and body, it should be at least somewhat possible to influence the body as a whole. Significant improvement of intellect and mental function, along the lines of moving from 100 IQ to 120. Ability to focus the mind on a task is notably improved. Mental fatigue and the like are notably reduced. Physical body mostly unaffected, but minor benefits are gained from improved brain function.
Followers may generate small quantities of Psi at will. They may train a singular Psi Domain up to 1500. Noticeable improvement of intellect and mental function, along the lines of moving from 100 IQ to 110. Ability to focus the mind on a task is somewhat improved. Mental fatigue and the like are somewhat reduced. Physical body mostly unaffected, but slight benefits are gained from improved brain function.
Non-Followers are not capable of being Empowered, for the moment.
0/50 to Psi 2.
-[X] Perception 1 15 Faith.
You also plan to find the cabbit this season, as well as keep an eye on the girl who made some sort of deal with it, and general Perception seems like a good bet to do both of those things.
Perception 1 attained.
General lowering of requirements to detect entities. Supernatural means of hiding somewhat less effective.
Improved ability to accurately determine the nature of a situation, and designate important objects and people.
Slightly improved stealth and misdirection due to greater knowledge of what to watch out for.
0/30 to Perception 2.
-[X] Empower Miko. You do not know what the future holds (yet), but with that Cat-Rabbit running around Miko needs all the strength she can get.
Right, step one of protecting your Followers. Well, Follower. Reducing the temptation to enter any sort of contract for Magic by directly giving her Magic, Qi, and Psi. It would also make them better able to protect themselves, since you operated on a timescale much greater than any potential assailants. Therefore, you had to at least partially delegate Follower protection to them. Empowerment Domains were perfect for that.
Miko is granted access to Magic, Qi, and Psi along the lines described above. Further Empowerments, both upgrades to existing Empowerment Domains and new Domains purchased will automatically provide their benefits to her. In addition to quality of life benefits, such as improvements to her grades and gaming skills, she gains significant combat ability.
Goal: Empower Miko. As your first Follower and only companion, it only seems fair she receive your first Blessing. The shape it takes doesn't really matter, so long as she gets it. Complete. +50 Deeds.
-[X] Keep an eye on the home of that young girl with security cameras, the one who had her soul put into a gem by the Cat-Rabbit. She may be the key to understanding what that thing is up to.
1d100= 58+20(Magic)+3(Perception)+12(Computers/Technology)=93.
The girl seems to have gained classical 'Magical Girl' powers. A transformation that emitted a lot of light and color, a general theme to their magic, the works. You say seems because, with Magic and Qi to help you understand what's happening, the girl is essentially a lich, whose soul has been moved into a gemstone. As long as it stayed close, she'd be fine, but if it got too far away, she'd collapse like a puppet with it's strings cut.
Secondly, as she used it magic, it would gradually darken. The end result if it turned completely dark was that you discovered by following her via her cell phone when she entered an area of distorted space, and found a psychedelic hellscape, controlled by what at first appeared to simply be a monstrosity of magic and negativity, but between Psi and Magic, it was relatively simple to discern that the black arrow-like rock left behind was a corrupted form of the same gemstone the girl was carrying. Which meant that this thing was a human at one point. You were going to need an explanation.
-[X] Locate and Contact Cabbit. You know not what that thing is planning with the souls of children, but you need to find it, fast.
1d100= 15+ 20(Magic)+20(Mutual Person of Interest)+20(Unknown Energies Draw Interest)+3(Perception)+12(Computers/Technology)=90.
Good news. You got into contact with the cabbit.
"Hello there Linda." the creature said to the girl it had doomed.
"Oh, hey Kyubey. I got the Grief Seed!" the blond proclaimed proudly, having used it to drain her Soul Gem of darkness, filling it up to the halfway mark. She had no idea at all about the nature of Witches.
"That's good, but you've got a passenger on your phone." Kyubey noted, gemstone-like eyes somehow giving the impression of looking directly at the phone despite the blank stare.
Pulling it out, she gave it a once-over. "A virus?" she asked, confused.
Kyubey shook it's head. "No, more like me."
Linda jerked the phone away from her. "An alien?!"
"For a given value of alien, yes. I'd actually like to talk to him. Could you leave your phone with me for a while?" Kyubey asked.
"Sure, tell me if you get him out" she shuddered. "Super-creepy." and walked off, detransforming as she went.
The moment it was certain Linda was out of earshot, it began to speak. "You're certainly an unusual being, but you have access to two types of entropy-defying energy my race was unaware of, so I'm inclined to listen to and respond to what you have to say. I'm sure you have questions-"
"Why, exactly, do you trick children into giving you their souls, and then fail to mention that they'll turn into twisted monstrosities?" the phone's speakers crackled, pushed far beyond their limits, even with Technology to back them up.
Kyubey tilted it's head. "Would you like the long explanation, or the short explanation?"
"The detailed one."
"How much do you know of the wider universe beyond Earth?" Kyubey asked.
"Little."
"Very well. Approximately 20 thousand of Earth's years ago, we achieved space flight. We found a universe torn apart by a despot, driven mad by a twisted unsoul she'd sealed within herself in attempt to contain it. Galaxia, if patterns hold true, will show up on Earth when it's magical development is sufficient for you to have a slim hope of standing against her, and then crush that hope. Including, and especially, if she has to kill any Senshi, guardians chosen and empowered by the soul of an entire celestial body, that appear. It's what she's done to every civilization she's encountered, including ours. Our home planet was unstable." Kyubey gave the impression of a shrug. "Apparently, it couldn't handle the shock of it's chosen guardian dying, and imploded. We've been nomads, allying ourselves with the scattered fragments that might be generously termed a resistance movement. In order to spare other races Galaxia's depredations, we have intentionally held back the magical development of worlds such as Earth." Kyubey explained.
"Your contracts are still in question." Leto couldn't help but note, not having heard any justification for that.
"There are three reasons. Firstly, with the unsoul influencing her, Galaxia has blocked off the Galaxy Cauldron, the origin point of all energy and souls in the universe. In her mind, this is to prevent it from being reborn should she fall, but in truth it is because Chaos does not truly care if reality decays to nothingness or is destroyed, so long as the end result is the same. Thus, the universe is slowly succumbing to entropy. That is to say, with each chemical reaction, a tiny fraction of the energy is lost. Magic, and the other two energies you wield, are exceptions. Thus, the contracts. I grant the girls a wish based upon their karmic destiny, which is as accurate a gauge for magical power and talent as I have yet seen, though Star Seeds of a given planet block any sort of reading for it. In return, their magic pushes back entropy. It was discovered that strong feelings of hope and despair result in the greatest concentrations of magic, and girls in pre-teen and teenage years generally produce these in greater quantities, for both genetic and cultural reasons."
"A singular world cannot possibly supply the entire universe's energy needs." Leto pointed out.
"That is true, but the existing Sailor Guardians, including Galaxia herself, are also holding back entropy through their actions. Additionally, this is as much a testing ground as anything else, as the second reason for this. If, as we suspect, the Galaxy Cauldron must be destroyed in order to permanently halt Chaos' rebirth, we will need an alternative, and Sailor Guardians are generally one per planet. The system has undergone major alterations over the centuries."
"Wait. Centuries? How long have you been doing this, exactly?"
"2 thousand 346 years, seven months, and 6 days according to Earth calendars. Humans have a talent for magic, and without Sailor Guardians, you would not have stood a chance when Galaxia noticed. Therefore, slowing of your mastery of magic by culling magically talented individuals on a regular basis was necessary, which is the third reason. As we cannot tell when a given person possesses a Sailor Crystal, lacking the specialized methods of Galaxia and simply removing the souls of each individual until process of elimination kicking in is untenable, we cannot be sure if one has appeared at this time. Especially since selection seems to happen at birth without specialized systems in place, and so one might have been born already and simply not awakened to their powers. We simply cannot be sure. Regardless, it is rare for a system to have more than one, and sheer numbers will be against you when the Guardian does show up. We will attempt to aid as best we can, but escape may be all we can offer. We are not potent combatants even when we create dedicated combat platforms. Our efforts to restore the Grief Seeds to their original selves have been an endless string of failures, so auxiliary forces will not work well on that front either."
"Hold on. You've been trying to restore them?"
"We've been collecting them for two thousand years. We tell the Magical Girls that it's intended to prevent them from turning back into Witches upon collecting enough Grief, and while that is true, it is also to add to our stockpile. We have millions of potential magical warriors, should we figure out a method to reverse the transformation. While individually few can even manage a few moments against the likes of Galaxia, her minions are weaker, and perhaps the strongest of them might stand a chance if they came at her in a group. We've even added a translation suite to the package, based upon our own, since the very beginning in preparation for it, to limit teamwork issues. The transformation slows aging to an effective halt, so any girls selected, if the Witch transformation were removed, would have effective immortality, meaning it is possible to amass talent from ages past to gather it all together for a strike against Shadow Galactica, and then against Chaos' incarnation. The Witch system was, in part, an outgrowth of having to remove the Magical Girls from the board to avoid attracting Galaxia's attention, while not actually killing them, as that would defeat the point. Unfortunately, perhaps due to our degraded understanding of emotion, we underestimated the difficulty in reverting the transformation."
"What exactly do you mean by 'degraded'?" Leto asked, suspicion growing in his mind.
"Our race was never strongly emotive. The destruction of our world from Galaxia's campaign, and our subsequent efforts to undermine her, led to what emotion we did have to nearly cause our extermination as a race on at least three separate occasions. Finally, after Galaxia destroyed a race we were aiding in their fight against her, we removed our emotions entirely." it gave the impression of a shrug.
"It seems more efficient this way. It makes it more difficult to rip our souls out when Galaxia comes across one our number, and normal pain and the like are insufficient to sway us, so her efforts to raise our fallen as her minions causes much more limited intelligence issues. Procreation is determined by resources, using cloning vats to restore our numbers where possible, and no ideological differences cause us strife. Most of our actual individuals serving as advisors to races who have newly awakened Sailor Guardians and/or who have recently gained significant magical infrastructure and individuals with potent magic, whereas the Hive Mind the bodies on Earth are connected to is the norm for scouting missions. A compromised body can simply have the connection severed, not unlike the Magical Girls too far from their Soul Gems, which largely prevents the actual individual from falling into her hands. It also prevents our fallen from causing emotional turmoil when used against us. The advantages are numerous, though it causes us problems with social interaction at times, and our inability to understand Gried and Despair means we cannot 'cure' them in the Grief Seeds."
"...Let me ask you a different question. Have you offered to do something similar for other races?"
"No." Kyubey answered. "We lack the macro-scale understanding of most race's souls to do so in any case."
"Hm, but you never made that offer to those you did have the understanding for? It almost sounds as if you don't think the advantages are worth it, on some level." Leto hypothesized.
"Perhaps. We will not accept or attempt any form of reversion until we have halted Galaxia's threat, regardless of any such opinions. We would like your aid in that. Your new forms of energy can help us with every step of our plan, and potentially with the greater galaxy in time. Not immediately, of course. At least some research into your own energies would be necessary."
"Assuming I said yes, it would be years at minimum before there were any real results. For one thing, my nature prevents me from directly interacting with reality. The only reason this conversation is possible is because I have an anchor within a few kilometers of here. Such anchors are soul-based, and require genuine belief in me to work, or an extremely uncommon affinity connection. I have only found a single individual inside city limits that has the latter."
"That would put the probability of such an affinity at a minimum of less than half that of having Magical Girl affinity. The former is not a problem, as sometime in the next century is the sort of timescale my race has learned to work off of, and we are perfectly willing to wait to guarantee victory. Faith, however, is not something we have much understanding of. We can 'proselytize' I believe is the word, to various Magic Girl groups in order to improve your numbers. Gathering more data on these new energy types is to our advantage as well."
"Provided you stop making more." Leto commanded.
"If we are preparing for a rebellion against Galaxia, creating more Magical Girls would be counter-productive when an alternative method to unlock Magic and similar energies exists." Kyubey responded.
[ ] Agree. Kyubey is distasteful... but perhaps also deserving of pity. It has admitted to these crimes without any major duress, in hopes of securing aid in it's struggle. Gain 1d20 Followers per Turn. Empowerment Actions can improve this. Gain easy access to Grief Seeds to attempt purification of. Gain deep knowledge of souls and ready access to small quantities of rare materials. Have Kyubey cease Magical Girl creation immediately, in favor of your method.
[ ] Rebuke. Regardless of their reasons, Kyubey and the Incubators have committed atrocities you cannot countenance. You will not ally yourselves with these.. things. None of the above benefits. May kill this thing wherever you find it, and go after Chaos/Galaxia anyway.
Goal: Investigate the Cat-Rabbit and it's machinations. Complete. +50 Deeds.
Goal: Prevent any potential harm from befalling the Kubotas or any other followers you amass, at least until the previous Goal is complete. Complete. +50 Deeds.
Legend Rank has increased. Next Turn Vote will include a Perk vote. 50/200 Deeds to Rank 3.
New Grand Goals Revealed: Purify and Restore the Grief Seeds to their original selves. The Incubators have committed atrocities, there is no denying that. However, they are a heavily traumatized race, who have effectively lobotomized themselves in their efforts to fight a hopeless battle. Regardless, their mistakes must be undone as much as possible. Domains relevant to the Body are necessary to reconstruct their bodies. While Purity, Restoration, Hope, Despair, Psi, Magic, Aura, and Soul will all be relevant to the project of restoring fallen Magical Girls. These Magical Girls will almost definitely become Followers post-healing, as a bonus.
Defeat Galaxia and Halt Chaos. Galaxia has become a cruel tyrant under Chaos' influence, bearing some of the blame for the monstrosity perpetrated by the Incubators. Felling her or removing Chaos would do much to aid the universe. She possesses immense power, sufficient to destroy planets according to the Incubators. This will not be easy, and then the one pulling the strings must be dealt with.
Random Event Roll: 79. As it turns out, Linda is compatible enough to qualify as a Follower, regardless of your feelings on Kyubey, and was willing to at least speak to you after you promised you hadn't messed with her personal files. Thus, Miko is introduced to someone she has something very much in common with, even if the girl is barely tech-literate compared to your first Follower, instead being much more athletic.
+1 Follower. Miko gains a peer who shares her secret.
AN: So, you're probably wondering why you'd want to not use Magic to enhance something. Well, Darwinist principles suggest that, even if it's something not as closely tied to life as Qi, bacteria and viruses that attack people for various energies will show up sooner or later. Not any time soon, as you don't have enough users of any of them for that to happen. Not in a population this small and dispersed, in Magics case, and barely extant in Psi's case.
I suspect the Heart Disease Goku got during the Android/Cell Arc was a Qi disease, meaning it wouldn't take as long to get bad in normal people, but it also wouldn't be likely to get very bad in them unless they had some sort of pre-existing heart problem. I mean, it's Goku, and the nightmare he had could have just been stress but... well, as long as you don't hyperfocus on one energy type, the others should be viable means of resisting any such entities.
Secondly, keep in mind that Magic 1 gives High Priests Magic Skills they can train up to 200, and only up to 100 for others, which is conventional mastery of normal skills. Empowerments normally rely on the link to a person forged by Faith, so non-Followers need either specific Perks or really high Domains in the Empowerment and/or Faith to directly benefit. Mundane and Heroism are exceptions because of their fundamental nature. Also, the 'Effectively, +2 in the Qi Domain to determine the Skill cap for mortal followers.' only really applies in the sense that it's possible, instead of smacking their heads against a wall to try like with Magic or Psi. Training at 5 per AP, if that, isn't amazing. Psi is really the only other exception, and it's got the hard limit on Skills as a consequence, not to mention it's dependence on brain power means that unless you're already a genius like Ami or a savant like Nanoha, you won't be able to train past 500 with any speed, although Heroism, Wonder, Empowerment, and Psi upgrades can help remedy that.
As for Kyubey, well, why would you expect him to be exactly the same in this merged 'verse as the normal one? Assuming he actually told the full truth there either. He sees an opportunity here, to dramatically improve his side's chances. Psi and Qi 1 aren't going to do much, and his methods aren't useful for much besides child-soldiers that have their potential determined by what potential they would have had anyway. There is an element of 'destiny' to magical potential, as seen in Nanoha having utterly insane potential, where her parents are comparatively mundane. She doesn't have the Star Seed excuse Usagi and her friends do.
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On The Subject of Terraforming
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
Yes, it's actually a 5 Domain, since it's basically a type of celestial body, with Stars in similar straits. Individual planets and stars are not valid Domains. Earth is a Domain, but refers to rock and soil. the 10 Domain would be Star System, and the 15 Domain is Galaxy. Thing is, they tend to be like Omnipotence, where the scale is just so massive that you largely cannot make major changes. You'd need it if you wanted to make a planet into a habitable or higher-quality world in a timely manner, with Terraforming and Domains like Life, Ecosystem, Environment to help with that, and Earth Water, Fire, Air, and Light being of varying relevance depending on the planet in question. Fire would be more important on Neptune or Pluto than Mercury for example(and indeed, due to Mercury's connection to Ice, Ice might actually be better for you there, even ignoring the temperature of the planet) whereas Earth would be very important for stabilizing Io, and Air for turning a gas giant's atmosphere habitable/generating a habitable band.
Terraforming is technically considered a Wonder, and that should be your guide on general difficulty. Not the least because you'll need either really high Domains to keep it that way, or a Wonder designed to do so. Speaking of which, it is possible to largely duplicate Wonders, so you might be able to have a standard terraforming Wonder for terrestrial worlds. The tier of Wonder depends on the level of terraforming, somewhat agnostic of where the planet began. Going from Uninhabitable to Barren is a Tier 1 Wonder, Uninhabitable to Basic is a Tier 2 just as it would be for Barren to Basic, hitting Lush is a Tier 3, Glorious is a Tier 4, Gaia is a Tier 5.
I might as well elaborate a bit on Planet levels. First, you have Barren. This is the point where life is possible, but will be hard without some incredibly advanced technology or supernatural powers to do some heavy lifting. If Mars was a little bigger, say, enough to have 50% Earth gravity instead of roughly a third, and consequently had more of an atmosphere, which in turn would warm the planet up a bit from heat sticking around longer, which may allow for surface water, without much in the way of other changes, that might move it into Barren. Note that Deathworlds in the 40K style are considered 'Barren' due to their inherent hostility to habitation, regardless of it's because they turn their crust inside out every century or so, or if they have incredibly dangerous wildlife, because the scale measures the hospitability to the common man, meaning individual danger level and population cap are both considerations. If Leto has Magic 15 and everybody has strong magic, the Barren classification might be extended downward, or if the requirements for survival are lowered a great deal by Qi, or if Technology is ridiculously enhanced by Psi, etc. with similar movements in the other categories for similar reasons. Galaxia's homeworld was like this, and the people weren't especially better.
Earth is a Basic world, where it's entirely capable of having human life naturally. This is generally the limit for naturally occurring worlds, though a space-faring civilization rolling a natural 100 on their exploration rolls might see the next tier, maybe as much as the next one up if they get a third or fourth order crit, and perhaps a tenth order crit would allow for the final level, though that would likely be a case of Precursors explicitly helping out a lower-tier race. The sort of thing I'd expect for the Eldar of 40K being gifted by the Old Ones, or a Stellaris civ that was victorious in it's home galaxy doing to help out a civilization that was nearly destroyed by a supernova. Terraforming a world without massive investment in planet-relevant Domains or a resource you can't access at the moment will lead to a more or less mundane terraforming as of this stage.
Lush is where the term 'Paradise World' might start being thrown around. This is stuff like 'Can support 500 billion with no major ecological damage.' generally at least partially by messing with gravity and planet size so you can have a planet twice Earth's size with the same gravity, without having it crush itself down to a more compact form with higher surface gravity. You'll also see major increases in quality of life and morale here, with even the most miserable people living like they're in second-world countries rather than third, mostly due to sheer abundance and implausibly hospitable environs.
Glorious is where the worlds cannot occur naturally, and requires things like active aid from their Star Seed(so Mamoru could use his connection to the Golden Crystal to do it on Earth once he figured out how), or outside intervention like yourself or the Silver Crystal. The Wonder nature of the Terraforming starts to really assert itself, as effects beyond simply making a world habitable become available due to having enough spare power for it. The planet can handle craziness like 10 moons of roughly the relative size and distance of Earth's own without any major trouble on either end, each itself at least a Basic Planet, more likely a Lush Planet. Or things like being at Saturn's orbit, or the hypothetical orbit of the planet theorized by early astronomers between Mercury and the sun, Vulcan, not being an object to hospoitability. This is where 'air platforms' might appear naturally in a gas giant and render the entire thing a pre-made cityscape, as the platforms form the foundation for an entire civilization to exist there without worry of being crushed by air pressure or gravity. Total environmental control is child's play at this point. It's more a question of what extra benefits you want. Population caps are around 500 trillion for worlds like these, space and reality twisting to accommodate them all without damaging the planet or crowding people.
Gaia worlds are things like: Dyson Sphere as of Pluto's orbit, with the continuous sphere being necessary to qualify as the one planet. For the sake of reference, one at Earth's orbit would have about 550 million times Earth's surface area, meaning a population cap in the 18 digit range, a quintillion. Pluto's more than a hundred times further out than Earth at it's closest, and that sort of thing is exponential with sphere surface area.
What's more, as Tier 5 Wonders, these are no ordinary Dyson Spheres. Both the inside an outside are habitable, able to bear the weight of entire continents concentrated in areas the size of dinner plates, meaning it's littered with massive megastructures and Wonders accomplished by Followers who have invested heavily in their relevant Empowerments, such as Usagi planting down some stuff with the aid of Healing, Magic, and Soul 15 apiece to grant immortality with an in-built off-switch if you wish to stop, which is generally something that starts happening to a large percentage at the billion-year mark. This is an effort to avoid everything going to hell if something happens to her, since Chaos would come back one day and she's a priority target.
Additionally, there would be a field that upgraded the levels of the worlds inside the Dyson Sphere without actually making it more difficult to upgrade them further, meaning the planets and moons inside it could be gotten to Gaia with the same effort it would take to get them to Glorious, which their Star Seeds and Guardians would make relatively simple. Speaking of Star Seeds, the Dyson Sphere would get one instantly, and have it's own Earth-chan Planetmind equivalent doing the choosing of the Guardian. The Star Seed and associated Guardian would be focused on sheltering/supporting other Senshi, and would accelerate the Star Seed formation of the Guardians Chibi Moon brought back from the future. So, Sailor Ceres and Eris, Sailor Chiron, the majority of the Jovian, Saturnian, etc. moons. Phobos and Deimos might generate attendant Guardians, though her crows would make that confusing, since they seem to be magic crows as opposed to the Mau Luna, Artemis, and Diana are, and probably won't be picked as their intellect seems to be an outgrowth of magical enhancement rather than soul-based/inherent.
This is all the same Tier 5 Wonder, without any boosts from wonder, keep in mind.
By the by, do you guys think I should just call the vote and post Turn 3's Start?
Further, it would act to stabilize the sun, preventing it from ever going Red Giant and later White Dwarf as long as the Sphere was up.