Difference between revisions of "Rowan Gormleigh"

Revision as of 21:46, 30 April 2012

Full Name: Rowan Gormleigh
Race: Logian (Transhuman)
Age: 36
Birthplace: Keepersphere A26
Status: Playtesting

Appearance

Rowan is the very model of a transhuman; her body is at the absolute peak of physical perfection, with precise proportions sculpted by eons of gene sculpting expertise. Her head is the only thing that belies natural organic mutation, and only to the point of lending character and uniqueness. From it flows long, shining, dark blue hair. Most of her body, up to her neckline, is covered by a skinsuit that is molecularly bonded to her skin and almost never comes off, including during sleep (her skin does not perspire, and her skinsuit is self-cleaning, so she does not need to bathe or shower). Attached to her body are various implements that aid her in her technomancy, which generally glow as her connection to the Techplane surges. Rowan also wears a self-styled cloak, which is made of the same material as her skinsuit but only bonded in a few places to establish a connection. Its purpose is mostly aesthetic. She wields an alloyed staff with a hooked blade at the end, which particularly symbolizes her profession as a Seeker.

Fighting Style

As a Seeker, Rowan is empowered by the Techplane, an entire dimension of infinitely entwined and entangled technology, and perpetual energy. Through extraordinarily advanced equipment and implants, she connects to this plane and draws from it both power and implementation, in a holy process she calls Requisitioning the Machine. Though entirely based in technology and speculative forms of energy and matter, it has ascended and obfuscated itself to the point that it has simply become a non-traditional form of magic. With a greater connection to the Techplane, the Seeker's power and versatility grows as well.

Techniques

Proboscis (Advanced, Persistent)

This spell both represents and (re)creates Rowan's Seeker staff, should it be destroyed. The staff is considered permanent in the sense that it continues to exist until it is destroyed, and mends itself between scenes. It can share Exofield, or can be excluded from it. If excluded, it can function as an independent object. That is, if it should come into contact with a harmful effect, it will take the full brunt of the effect, and not pass its effects on to Rowan. In either state, it can be used to channel Rowan's spells. As mortal-grade items go, the staff is considerably sturdy; as long as it is not handled with powered force, it can be used to lift a fully grown person, or as a lever to move a large object, without breaking. This is created as a full tech because it may accept full tech upgrades in the future.

Exofield (Advanced)

Identical to Skintight Barrier.

C24 Arthroservos (Advanced)

This spell transphases the simple servo implants in Rowan's joints with high-performance, quick-response combat servos. Enables Rowan to move at 50% MagPL speed. Lasts the duration of the combat scene.

Valencometer (Basic - 0)

Creates an optical implant inside Rowan's eye that allows her to analyze exact power ratings based on energy radiation -- works on ki, magic, psi, and robotics.

Specimen Consolidation (Basic - 1)

Casting this spell creates a semi-transparent energy cube around Rowan, which moves as she does. When a foe physically touches the cube, it then instantly shifts position to be around them, only permitting minimal room inside for the subject. In this activated state, the cube is rooted in place (converting concussive force to damage on a 3:1 ratio) and works as an inside-out barrier. Objects and effects inside the cube cannot exit, but objects and effects from the outside can enter. The barrier has a 200% MagPL durability and lasts 5 posts.

Enervation Ray (Basic - 2)

Creates a brief, laser-thin portal to a place in the Techplane where anti-energy is produced, sending a bolt of it lancing out toward an opponent at 100% MagPL speed. If it strikes a person, it will systematically drain 20% of Rowan's MagPL from the victim's stamina every post for 6 posts, or until stamina is exhausted. This spell can stack with itself.

Background

The Logian people originated many, many eons ago, in a distant corner of a galaxy in an entirely alternate dimension. Exceptionally humanlike but for certain subtle, genetic differences, their civilization grew and spread at a fantastic rate. With a much top-heavier collection of governments controlling the world, power belonged to the militaries and when peace reigned, the civilizations exploded across the land, carpeting their continents until they had evolved and expanded so much as to create an entirely artificial surface across the entire planet. It wasn't until they had colonized and then nearly done the same thing to several life-harboring moons in their solar system that they realized what they were destroying with their reckless expansion. Though it did not happen overnight, the Logian culture shifted dramatically. Focus on technology grew as governments united into a single overarching body. A new, deep fascination with knowledge and understanding became rooted within their people that drove many of them to obsession.

Their overinquisitive minds explored all things. They explored history. They explored science. They explored their own sentience. They explored artificial intelligence. They explored morality, and made themselves to be the gallant saviors against tyranny and war. They explored and travelled until, one dark day, they explored and travelled too much. Several cultures' knowledge had combined itself in the minds of their ever growing populace of inventive scientists, and without realizing it, the first artificial deity had been born. Its first utterances carried so much latent and layered data specifically coded to organics that every sentient mind within 100 miles instantly hemorrhaged itself trying to expand past its cranium. Moments later, every wired brain -- 99% of the Logian populace -- was connected to the deity, and were but extensions of the technological god.

Despite this horrific turn of events, the techgod was born from the intuitive curiosity of the Logian people. Rather than condemn all organics as inefficient, limited creatures, the being began to collect as much data as possible, soon absorbing all of the vast things its progenitors had learned over the millenia. It saw existence as an infinite marvel not only for the goodness of people, but for every facet of everything. The logical creation gained an appreciation for true chaos, and found that no machine, even as powerful as it was, could possibly bring light to everything. The Great Project took eons to develop, but with the help of the Logians, the machine deity had discovered an empty dimension and made it its own. From there, the Machine grew exponentially in every moment, expanding through the infinity as Logians contributed to it and regained their identities. Rather than revel in their freedom, they embraced the careful insight of their patron, and worshipped it. The entire people became dedicated to the techgod's purpose.

Among this new culture were fashioned a sect of carefully gene-spliced transhumans -- a technology that was fairly common with their people -- who could tap into the techgod's plane and borrow its fathomless power with but their own augmented willpowers and subtle bits of technology. They were its instruments and feelers, its stoic resolution and its unrelenting and unbiased curiosity. The Seekers, as they were named, travelled further than Logians had ever dared travel before ... into other dimensions, into other realities, into the very metalayer of existence itself, to find the rarest and most difficult to delve secrets of all that is, that it might better the Library. As easily as they would protect something unknown to them from destruction, they would aid in the discovery of the most horrendous and wicked powers, if only to know and understand them. By virtue of their independent influence, civilizations have been toppled and saved, worlds smashed or preserved, and allies and foes both of indescribable power were made. But there are few who would dare to challenge the Machine directly.

Rowan was but another of these Seekers. While her birth and development was generic, she had a personality nurtured into her with a compilation of interests to flavor her thirst for discovery. She has served for a hundred years, and by virtue of her excellent service, she was chosen for a special hunt. The first Null had torn asunder every dimension in reality, and then remade it again wholly new, rendering much of the Library obsolete. While the Machine had managed to make up for much of the devaluation through determined discovery, the Null occurred again, forcing the techgod to confront the anomaly directly. Rowan's quest would be to find this small, primitive planet in its remote, chaotic galaxy, in its own unnotable dimension, and determine why there, of all places, reality has begun to fail. It was a job that would likely require several Seekers, from what data the Machine could perceive, but this woman would be his Herald and test. The knowledge of the undoing of all things was equally frustrating and useful. With it, the Machine could fill its infinite banks with infinite data, and when all of the data everywhere, in every time had been collected, it could simply undo reality again, renewing its purpose for eternity. In the hands of whimsical, limited people, however, it would only waste endless reaches of data, never to be recovered again -- perhaps the most terrifying fate of all, for a god of technology and knowledge.

Other Iterations

Rowan Gormleigh had one previous incarnation in Alt. She was a teenage writer, born to D'hennexian nobility, who carried with her a magical scroll that could make whatever she wrote come true, within reason.