Ok, as promised lets have a few of the ideas currently bouncing around in her head. The names for these are very much placeholders, with the primary focus (heh) being on likely effect, complexity of physical design, and level of conceptual engineering required. To be very clear, whilst all of these are
within Amanda's ability to produce, some are right at the very edge of her capabilities. With that said, I should probably put some work into explaining how these things work before I dive right in, so without further ado.
Potentials and Creation
Potentials are uniquely gifted among humanity in their ability to produce tools and devices that go beyond simple human knowledge, exhibiting blatantly posthuman capabilities where it comes to design, manufacturing and improvement of contemporary systems. The oldest example given of this is how a Potential of War (probably not this, but something related to it), could take a kitchen knife and repurpose it into a monomolecular short-arm in the course of...well, depends on the Potential. The basic purpose of the creation is rarely changed, but how the matter of that object is arranged is usually the first thing to go. At the most basic level of a Potential's work, like this, everything they do is something that another human could do with the proper equipment and expertise. A Potential just
does it.
Potentials who specialise in this pursuit make up the largest single portion of the Potential population, and are known collectively as Makers. These are the men, women and others who built the Practiced components to supply the FSN fleet for the Second Battle of Sol, as well as the derivatives of the Prologue nanotech, FTL comm systems, and literally countless other devices. Without Makers, humanity would never have been able to stop the Tribute Fleet, as you'd have lacked the technological capacity to contest them in space. Without Makers, hundreds of thousands or millions born without Second Secret genemods would have died before the genetic modifications became effectively universal in preceding generations.
That said, whilst Potentials are entirely capable of creating systems far beyond human knowledge, they have to build upon things that already exist when using Practice to rebuild them. There is also the fact that anything they create isn't something that they ever understand at the time of doing so. It has been shown by history that humanity
can decipher the complexities of technology developed with Practice, and that's stood you in good stead moving forward as you try to iterate advancement from the results of Potentials. At the same time, however, the Potentials themselves don't appear to do the design consciously. Power is given to an object, with a purpose in mind, and the result can vary quite widely if the purpose is not
highly specific. There are records of Makers using the same general purpose, with the same Focus term, creating very different devices to do exactly the same thing. One of the greatest challenges in the early days of their deeper integration into the Ministries was finding a way to standardise results, but success was achieved soon enough before the Second Battle of Sol for the fleet to be equipped with Practiced systems that, for the most part at least, matched.
Amanda herself is a moderately skilled Maker, although she never spent any time as one of them. Most of her experience comes from the rebuilding program she undertook to bring the cities of the Old World back to humanity as a young adult.
Artefacts
Artefacts take what Potentials do normally in creation and simultaneously make it far more personal and far more
powerful. Artefacts start out with a very specific purpose in mind, and the process of creating one can be very different depending on a Potential's Focus and what they're trying to create. In most cases though, it's a deeply personal crafting process mashed together with elements of a vision quest. Exactly how much of the latter comes through varies. Artefacts are without exception the most powerful singular creations every constructed by Potentials, with the only creation that comes close being the Unison Platforms. Some might argue the point, but most of what makes a Unison Platform so powerful is its synchronisation with the Potential who bears it and the ability of the Unison Intelligence to more precisely direct the Potential's Practice. There's more to it than that, of course, but this isn't a Unison Platform explanation piece.
As examples go, well, there are quite a few you've seen in the quest. Phoebe's glasses, Amanda's Concert Set, Multitool, etc, but the easiest one to focus on here is Kalilah's Lance. Born from a pre-Sorrows directed energy weapon, Kalilah has poured so much Practice into the thing that it now functions without a power cell, instead drawing on Kalilah's Practice to fuel its energy output. It's supernaturally durable, a side effect of Kalilah's desire to use it
anywhere that the Shiplords might exist, and is capable of putting out truly enormous bursts of energy in pursuit of her goal. As the quest has proceeded, it has evolved from something that had only passing interaction with being a Directed Energy Weapon into a conceptual tool of its bearer's Focus: Destruction. As this implies, Artefacts were initially conceived of as ways to enhance a Potential's Focus, allowing them to more effectively apply it to the world around them. This can be seen in every Artefact known to you, except for the Void Crystal (
*laughs in QM*) but it's reasonable to assume that it has some purpose in line with Amanda's Focus.
As a side note in relation to Unison Platforms, it has been shown that it's possible to integrate most Artefacts with a Unisonbound's Platform, but some are more difficult than others. There is a reason, for example, why Kalilah has the Lance built into a spear that she wields with her Aegis, instead of something that's
part of it. Some Artefacts are too separate in their existence to be integrated in the way Amanda's been able to do with her Concert Set, Multitool and the Mender's Eye.
Conceptual Engineering
Something you might have noticed is how I referred to the Lance as it exists now; a conceptual tool a Destruction. It's an end-point of Artefact development, that at first took quite a while to reach after initial creation. But that was before humanity started to understand more and more about Practice, something that you had Amanda lead the charge on during her time in her power. Now, well, you've seen Amanda reach a far deeper use of her Artefacts in far less time than the above would imply ever occurred. This isn't just Amanda, although her unique position within the world of Potentials
does have an effect. The knowledge gained during her Presidency and that's been built on since has allowed Potentials to learn to...optimise their creation where it comes to Artefacts. It's not perfect, as the process remains
very personal, but that doesn't stop some common factors existing. This was most clearly evidenced, I hope, in The Unconscious Void interlude this turn. There are multiple areas to this improvement, but the largest one is a relatively new field known as Conceptual Engineering.
The genesis of this field lies with the Two Twenty Three, and its development is a knock-on effect of the ability of a Unison Intelligence to spread the load of a Potential's Focus, or even work somewhat outside of them. As communication between Unisonbound pairs has become deeper, they've started to be able to actually experiment with it, and found surprising similarities between the integration process with an Aegis and the standalone development of a conceptual tool. This makes sense in retrospect, as the conceptual capacity of integrated Artefacts is usually considerably greater than they would be normally. This is why Kalilah uses the Lance with her Aegis instead of alone, as it mitigates the lack of total integration and allows for considerable extension of its abilities. However, the true potential of this field is much, much more than that.
Taken to its logical conclusion, it might well be possible to use conceptual engineering to specifically design an Artefact without giving it form, and then pour the vehicle for the effect into something suited to it. The ability to directly design the effects of an Artefact, or at least its conceptual makeup, is one that many Potentials among the Two Twenty Three have been chasing for a while. Amanda isn't one of them, but her own delving into the conceptual elements of Practice could serve much the same purpose if through a different lens. And coming at it from that point of view, with the awareness that it might be fully possible to create Artefacts that have no true physical housing - if the Circles are in fact one, they would qualify - it provides...options.
Current Combat-Related Artefact Possibilities
Reminder that the names listed here are placeholders, and that the ideas in general are only a base for you to work from.
Silver Curtain
The most direct defence on this list, this Artefact would be a physical bracer for Amanda's left arm. A crafted Artefact, it would produce a physical effect strengthening her Aegis, but could also function as a focusing method for direct uses of the energy constructs her status as a Unisonbound Adept allow her to manipulate. Combined with the completion of Healer's Fire, it might well be capable of helping her shape those energies into something more than shields. Would leave her fighting style entirely unchanged in the main, though the possible offensive capacity could prompt some changes. Amanda's weapon of choice, such as it is, is a staff formed of the power of Aegis. This is most definitely the least ambitious Artefact in Amanda's mind where it comes to defence, but it would also be something that would be easy to build, integrate and use. Higher levels of success in construction could add metaphysical/conceptual effects, most likely related to defence. Even with Healer's Fire, this would not be an Artefact designed to defeat an enemy.
Complexity of physical design: Low
Conceptual engineering required: Low
A Mender's Soul
A theoretical product of pure conceptual engineering, the purpose of this Artefact would be to bring Amanda's Focus far more fully into reality around her when she extends her Aegis. As the design implies, this would absolutely require integration to work, and would probably be the first work of purely conceptual engineering any Potential has ever completed. Once complete, this would supply a considerable enhancement to Amanda's Aegis; Mending through the ideal of that which cannot be broken. If the theory is right, something which all involved in the process are confident it is, then it could provide several other potent effects, centred around application of Amanda's Focus to the world around her. In terms of combat capacity, think pure support/defence. Even with Healer's Fire, it's unlikely to be able to apply this to offensive operation. That said, the truest force multipliers are rarely direct. If taken, the conceptual construct would most likely be connected to Sidra's physical housing in the integration process.
Complexity of physical design: Null
Conceptual engineering required: High
Woven Humanity
The most complex idea currently in Amanda's head, but also the one with the largest number of applications, this Artefact would take all of your available time and considerable skill to produce. Amanda knows that the Web between humanity exists, and has become effective at sensing or even shaping it on demand. What she lacks, however, is a means to connect to it like she did during the Second Battle of Sol, and she remains unsure as to if that's even possible. A cloak or garment of some sort, it would be woven from threads imbued with the millions of different parts of the Web of humanity itself, and by that nature should allow its wearer to connect to the wellspring of Practice that gave Amanda the strength to speak Purify during the Second Battle of Sol. This would require near-flawless execution of its conceptual component, and a surprisingly in-depth physical crafting process. But if it works...
Complexity of physical design: Medium
Conceptual engineering required: Extremely High
If you have question, please ask. I'm honestly not quite sure where all of this came from...
