Eternity's Call | Character Abilities
Nov. 10th, 2012 06:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timeless_hopeUsers of an Eternity System enjoy a number of benefits. The lowest-level of these, and the most common, is having access at all times to your vital stats - being able to actually quantify your life energy, spellcasting power, stamina, and so on, and view them in a visual form. The rest of a common gaming HUD is also present: map, news ticker formed from locally-gathered information, waypoints, information display on nearby people, and similar displays, plus the ability to modify these outputs both visually and to display new information. In short, Eternity keeps a user informed on their immediate surroundings through colecting information and organizing it readily.
Beyond this, Eternity gives the user access to new abilities through the power of their mind. Laymen refer to this as "magic", but it takes any number of names for the user; the most common is to just refer to it as a Skill. Skills run the gamut from the "mundane" (high jumps, running, darkvision) all the way on up to things that border on real magic (conjuring fire, water, and so on; flight; mind reading). Skills use the same energy, mana, that is used to pilot an Aspect. While an Aspect is being piloted, its pilot can't use Skills except through the Aspect, and not all Skills work the same for an Aspect as they do for an Esper - in short, Aspects have a different Skill set than their pilots, though not totally different.
Eternity Systems can link between each other readily; they feature a robust permissions system and a friends feature, along with a series of related features that rival the average modern MMO. Together, these let the average person communicate with their friends at a distance, share information and objects, and even set up things like teleportation magic to be centered on such a friend. This can also be tied into a mecha's FoF identification system (and is automatically used in an Aspect) for ease of target acquisition in an otherwise-rich environment. All of these services are made possible through what remains of End of Eternity.
Traditionally, Eternity receives messages and updates from a home base location; originally, this was the End of Eternity mainframe. EoE was severely damaged when it was hacked, and so while it can still transmit messages and updates, its other useful functions - remote diagnostics, remote shutdown, and detailed remote data display, among others - are not functioning. Instead, a number of those functions are replicated by another server, somewhere in the world, with the notable exception of the remote shutdown feature. The downside to this is that, somewhere in the world, someone is watching over all Eternity, waiting to make a move.
Eternity was discovered in 15 AI to have significant mental side-effects; anyone suffering from such effects that still has a hold on their sanity can access the tangential benefits of Eternity - increased memory, awareness of their own physical state, and so on - but cannot readily manifest the Skills that characterize the System, nor can they manifest an Aspect at all. It's said that a patch is in the works, but those who have already lost the power of Eternity will likely be unable to recover it, and the new Systems with the patch fixed will likely have drastically reduced power - Skills may not work the same way, if at all, and Aspects will likely be impossible to manifest except by those with the strongest minds.
A device, known as Black Canvas, exists that can suppress Eternity Systems within an optimal range of about a mile. The Timeless carry a few each as a means to help those whose Systems are hurting them; normally, they aren't affected by Black Canvas, though a physical switch on the device can make it so the four of them will lose their abilities, too; the switch also has another setting that only affects the Timeless. While a Black Canvas is disabling an Eternity System, only life-support and vital functions (for example, translation) are available, and Skills are unavailable in their entirety. Aspects cannot be manifest, and an Esper can't move into an Aspect within the area of effect.
Beyond this, Eternity gives the user access to new abilities through the power of their mind. Laymen refer to this as "magic", but it takes any number of names for the user; the most common is to just refer to it as a Skill. Skills run the gamut from the "mundane" (high jumps, running, darkvision) all the way on up to things that border on real magic (conjuring fire, water, and so on; flight; mind reading). Skills use the same energy, mana, that is used to pilot an Aspect. While an Aspect is being piloted, its pilot can't use Skills except through the Aspect, and not all Skills work the same for an Aspect as they do for an Esper - in short, Aspects have a different Skill set than their pilots, though not totally different.
Eternity Systems can link between each other readily; they feature a robust permissions system and a friends feature, along with a series of related features that rival the average modern MMO. Together, these let the average person communicate with their friends at a distance, share information and objects, and even set up things like teleportation magic to be centered on such a friend. This can also be tied into a mecha's FoF identification system (and is automatically used in an Aspect) for ease of target acquisition in an otherwise-rich environment. All of these services are made possible through what remains of End of Eternity.
Traditionally, Eternity receives messages and updates from a home base location; originally, this was the End of Eternity mainframe. EoE was severely damaged when it was hacked, and so while it can still transmit messages and updates, its other useful functions - remote diagnostics, remote shutdown, and detailed remote data display, among others - are not functioning. Instead, a number of those functions are replicated by another server, somewhere in the world, with the notable exception of the remote shutdown feature. The downside to this is that, somewhere in the world, someone is watching over all Eternity, waiting to make a move.
Eternity was discovered in 15 AI to have significant mental side-effects; anyone suffering from such effects that still has a hold on their sanity can access the tangential benefits of Eternity - increased memory, awareness of their own physical state, and so on - but cannot readily manifest the Skills that characterize the System, nor can they manifest an Aspect at all. It's said that a patch is in the works, but those who have already lost the power of Eternity will likely be unable to recover it, and the new Systems with the patch fixed will likely have drastically reduced power - Skills may not work the same way, if at all, and Aspects will likely be impossible to manifest except by those with the strongest minds.
A device, known as Black Canvas, exists that can suppress Eternity Systems within an optimal range of about a mile. The Timeless carry a few each as a means to help those whose Systems are hurting them; normally, they aren't affected by Black Canvas, though a physical switch on the device can make it so the four of them will lose their abilities, too; the switch also has another setting that only affects the Timeless. While a Black Canvas is disabling an Eternity System, only life-support and vital functions (for example, translation) are available, and Skills are unavailable in their entirety. Aspects cannot be manifest, and an Esper can't move into an Aspect within the area of effect.
