Technomage

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Technomage - the shortened term for Technology Assisted Energy Manipulation [1]

Becoming A Technomage

Technomages are Cyantians who take on the role of enhanced warriors, technicians, workers and various other duties to the point of physical alteration and life devotion. The deciding factors are mental stability, intelligence, technical aptitude, interest and age. *The latest a Cyantian can undergo the surgery required (implanting the chip in their brain that activates powers and links them to their familiars) is 25 as a standard. In the past, most underwent it in vitro without a choice. Now, the standard age is 13 to 20 with the youngest being 12, depending on what is being studied, with average being 16-17. Some allowances are made for those who score particularly high on the Technomage ranking tests, but they must be capable of maintaining their familiars physically.

Their schooling system is VERY different. They have a starting/regular school, but the Academies are higher education past what is needed to get by, so they don't need to study basics other than appreciation classes, which they get to choose. They have a technomagery program instead. For them, there isn't a set 'ranking' like you'd have in a normal college - how long you're there won't affect how good you are in any program, and they won't pass you until you've mastered ALL the elements of each class.

Powers

Technomages can do a LOT of things. Some are specialized for illusion, escapism, mind tricks, etc, but in general almost anything a magician/fantasy magic user can do, they can do via technology. Levitation, Teleportation, creation of force fields, control of inanimate objects, and even the applications of curses to people and items are possible.

A chip implanted in their brain binds with them and their Technofamiliar, and acts as an interface between the two. They can talk back and forth via it and the Technomage can see anything the Familiar can if he/she wants to. Most technomages use vocalization to focus and prepare an attack or spell, so it is not uncommon to here a technomage say "Fireball" or "Teleport" just prior to utilizing the spell. Longer, more complex spells may require up to several lines of vocalization to fix them in the mages mind.

Some are better at it than others, some are worse. Their ability and power limits what they can do. For example - they can only teleport as far as their power allows them to go, maybe up to half a mile, but no further, for a powerful and experienced technomage with a balanced familiar. No Technomage can physically change their bodies. They don't have the tech to do that, yet. About the best a technomage can do is create a hologram of himself with a different appearance. Your basic beginner technomage can make a club and smack someone upside the head, but not be able to create something interlocking or with moving parts, such as one who's been studying for years longer.

All of the technomages have a level of being able to pick up emotions and thoughts, but only technomage to technomage and not with unlinked beings (though some may try to imply otherwise). Some are really good at it, others are only empathic. The nice thing is that they can turn it on and off as well. They can speak among themselves like that, which is mostly what they do. They can also speak directly to computers if they're learned enough in that area. They can tune the frequency they use like the siracs, remember that EG is partially responsible for the technomages, but their abilities are more crude science as opposed to genetic. None of the 'channels' are 100 percent secure. Although you have to be well practiced to tune into a channel without announcing your presence. Dallas can do it,... and he's not a full technomage. He's just exceptional.

Use Of Familiars

The power they use comes from their familiars - they just direct it and decide what it can do. All have to be trained so while there may only be a dozen of them in existence, the youngest are in training in the Academy... under Zimae who's one of two teachers. The other instructor is Tira Wrashoen. A technomage with enough experience and knowledge could actually build an entire working space ship from raw energy, created by his/her familiar. Of course, the drawback is that to do something like that it'd take forever unless you have a really big familiar. It's cheaper and more advantageous to build it from already made parts, but if worse comes to worse, given enough time a technomage can do almost anything.

The mages themselves DO have limited powers to do some things, but it's not safe for them to use a lot of power, they draw it directly from the matter around them. Some of them are better processors of it than others; some can't do much more than throw small fireballs, light or something to that effect of energy. However if you wind up ticking off a mage even when their familiar isn't around, they can still do some vicious things without even touching you. The drawback is that it's limited and won't last very long. The energy runs out quickly, which having a familiar makes up for. But it does mean that technomage students, once they receive the implants necessary for it, can do simple tricks to hone their skills.

If a familiar is destroyed, the technomage can still do some tricks using this "ambient energy," and he can get an inferior stand in. i.e.: Remember the ball that Cere had in Sink or Swim. That is a stand-in for a familiar. She's never had one so is using it. Sometimes, they're used as practice objects as well in the interim of getting a familiar.

Typically a young prodigy of 12 or 13 will start with a 5 to 7 year familiar, while in the past older technomages just had to wait. More recently though, they've aquired shortspanned creatures from the fox with a life span of 2 to 5 years which they give to older students (it doesn't affect the bonding, but they don't get to enjoy them alive as long).

  • Dallas' and friends whips are all wild ones that can't be used as familiars... none of them have familiars yet. However, the humans automatically get larger familiars.

Racial Distribution

There are zero wolf/koyoti/mounty technomages at this time, only a handful of Fox, a couple Rabbit and several Mice. The latter seems to take to the process much easier, although those who had it done were created by the Fox. There are also a small number of humans, raised on Cyanthia who have had the process performed on them, and one Scythetail. However, since nobody was sure how it'd work, the human technomages were held back. Thus, despite having been in the program for a long time, there aren't any full human technomages with a real familiar yet.

There are no aquatic technomages yet, but once they get their hands on a technomage chip they'll probably be able to reverse engineer it and there will be.