332: Jimbot

ENTRY 332: Jimbot

"Love? Does not compute. Same time next week?"
-Jimbot and the Regular

The psychological transition of resleeving from a biomorph to a synthmorph isn't always smooth. Most transhumans have in imperfect understanding of the process to begin with, and early resleevings in particular tended to be jarring, with no perceived time lapse between one sleeve and the next. Faced with trying to reconcile self-image against current circumstances, some egos develop delusions to deal with the new reality of their situation.

Jimbotron "Jimbot" Mandroid is a transhuman synth that believes he is a robot, such as populated classical science fiction in the early post-industrial era on Earth. The delusion is durable, but otherwise seems fairly harmless - most of Jimbot's friends, coworkers, and lovers consider it a quirk or eccentricity. A few authorities have insisted on psychological evaluation and counseling, but most analysts and therapists agree that Jimbot is generally no more likely to cause harm than any other transhuman, and perhaps less since he believes he has built in moral and ethical programming he must follow.

Before resleeving, Jimbot was a union leader, working with local workers as a negotiator with management, and particularly noted for his strong belief in "worker buy-ins," where the employees were part-owners of the operating capital of the company. After becoming a "robot," Jimbot shifted his focus to AGI advocacy, standing up for artificial intelligences and their rights, representing them before employers and worker counsels, serving as a parole officer, and other such support rolls.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
8	8	8	15	12	20	20	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
4	1	40	8	80	40	8	60

Morph: Synth

Skills: Academics: History (Robotics) 20, Academics: Law 14, Academics: Psychology (Group) 17, Art: Singing 9, Deception (Pokerface) 15, Interests: AGIs 25, Interests: Gambling 20, Interfacing 16, Intimidation 16, Language: Native English 75, Language: Polish 46, Networking: Criminals 15, Networking: Hypercorps 10, Networking: Union 18, Persuasion (Negotiation) 25, Profession: Advocate 25, Protocol 25, Unarmed Combat 13

Implants: Access Jacks, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Cosmetic Modification (multiple little hidden compartments and doo-dads with cigarette lighters, screwdriver finger tips, small concealed speakers, buttons that activate "sleep mode," etc.)

Mobility System: Walker (4/20)

Traits: Armor (6/6), Mental Derangement (Delusion - Is A Robot), Social Stigma ("AGI," Clanking Masses), Uncanny Valley

Using Jimbot

Classical science fiction was never meant to be an actual prognostication of the future, and yet for centuries transhumanity has lingered over the image of phallic-shaped spacecraft of spun steel, intelligent humanoid robot slaves, and solar empires of crystal cities inhabited by toga-wearing Aryans flying about with rocket packs and washing down their food pills with bourbon. Some of that has actually come to pass, though not as anyone might have imagined it at the time they were writing, but the dream lives on - and continues to do some considerable damage to vulnerable transhuman psyches. Jimbot is one such victim, playing out the quirky robotic humanoid. Beneath the jovial, blue-collar surface though, Jimbot is prone to long periods of despondency, fits of rage, and sometimes gets confused about what he as a robot can or should do. The episodes always pass, but can be quite shocking when someone sees Jimbot lose shit. Gamemasters can choose to use Jimbot as anything from a quirky extra from Futurama to a thought-provoking look at what it means for someone trying and failing to grasp what it means to be transhuman. As a contact, Jimbot has inroads in both the unions and AGI rights groups, and could be an ally or an enemy of the player characters depending on how they side in a dispute with either group.

300: Su Bede

ENTRY 300: Su Bede

"Su's face today is designed by Alafonzo, and carved from the bones of orphans that died during the Fall. Order yours now and one tenth of every credit will be donated to..."
- Partial marketing spiel

It takes more than the gaunt figure of a heroin addict to be a successful model in today's fashion industry. The proliferation of morphs has changed the standards of beauty from the classical starvation victim to a plethora of transhuman standards, and fashion has adapted to this new environment by trying to capture the elegance, grace, and dead sexiness inherent in every morph. So bouncer models have breasts that are only realistic in microgravity, mentons shave their heads to show off the access jacks, and neotenics aim for an androgynous look that minimizes secondary sexual characteristics. Su Bede has it harder than her biomorph peers - she's a synth.

When an hourglass chassis is something that can be banged out in a shop in an hour, synth models like Su have to work less on their physical appearance than their physical movements; absent the mammalian fascination for cleavage she commands the audience at fashion shows with poise, grace, movement, and stance. One of the first synth models, Su has invented some of the theatrical language of contemporary synth modeling, making use of the extended range of motion of synth morphs and alternating between deceptively simple "natural" movements into complicated rotation routines that would be impossible for biomorphs to imitate. Su Bede has parlayed her modeling success into her own clothing and jewelry lines, but now she has started something more ambitious: cosmetic inlays.

Metal, plastic, even gemstones, anything artificial is ridiculously cheap to manufacture - so Su has begun to model interchangeable cosmetic augmentations for synthmorphs based off of expensive organic materials. Wigs of real hair, fur, feathers, kelp, etc.; faceplates of bone, wood, porcelain; strips of leather that dangle from the shoulders like a cape or gird about the loins like a cannibal's miniskirt; and those are just the initial offerings in her catalog. If these biosource cosmetic inlays take off like Su thinks they will, they might just be her shot into the big time.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
18	15	15	25	15	20	20	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
6	1	40	8	80	40	8	60

Morph: Synth

Skills: Academics: History (Fashion) 40, Academics: Psychology (Fashion) 37, Academics: Sociology (Fashion) 37, Deception (Cosmetics) 40, Disguise (Cosmetic) 44, Free Fall 26, Interests: Fashion 50, Interests: Gossip 40, Interfacing 26, Language: Native French 92, Language: English 80, Language: Italian 78, Networking: Criminals 25, Networking: Fashion 80, Networking: Media 44, Profession: Fashion Designer 55, Profession: Model 45, Protocol 55

Implants: Access Jacks, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Cosmetic Modifications (wood, stone, and mother-of-pearl inlays)

Mobility System: Walker (4/20)

Traits: Armor (6/6), Social Stigma (Clanking Masses), Uncanny Valley

Using Su Bede

Fashion is one of those weird industries that is all appearance; the skill and efforts and logistics that goes into the design and production of the models' glamour is often lost on the casual audience, who see only the peacock-strut of starved men and women parading in gaudy and sometimes silly outfits on the Mesh. Yet make no mistake, this is a multi-billion credit industry, and behind the artsy pretension and surface vanity of high fashion lie ruthless, resourceful business people and highly-trained, dedicated models who twist and contort their bodies into specific roles over long periods of time. While it is easier than ever to achieve the physical appearance that you desire in Eclipse Phase, just having chiseled abs and butt-cleavage so mathematically perfect that a geometry teacher would weep in joy isn't enough to succeed - especially when you're a synth.

Su Bede is an "in" that the gamemaster can use to introduce the player characters to the fashion industry in Eclipse Phase. She knows practically everybody that is anybody, from the has-beens to the players to the hot young things from the meat markets. As a contact, she is their ticket to meeting the people who do not accept random friend requests or questions from strangers, and has enough pull and dirt to get the PCs what they need, from an invitation to rustling up a good costumer in the middle of the local sleep-cycle. Her modeling activities and new cosmetic inlay line are also solid points to hang an adventure on, from rivalries and business trouble to inconvenient bodies in the dressing room that need to be done away with before the curtain goes up. As an antagonist, the PCs are only ever likely to earn Su's wrath if they thwart or threaten her ambitions - something that they could easily do accidentally in the course of other work, like intercepting a load of illicit seasoned cinnamon-wood that was supposed to go into her latest project. However, her influence doesn't generally extend to ordering hits or making the PC's lives hell - but she will see them blackballed from the fashion industry, making everyone refuse to even talk to them, unless they can find out what they did wrong and make amends.

227: Luvia

ENTRY 227: Luvia

“First I was a witness. Then I became an accomplice. Finally, I became a victim.”

- Luvia, “The Favela Within”

Every habitat has a window, where the inhabitants can look out at the stars and endless blackness between them, to escape for a moment the walls that close them in. It is at such portals that Luvia likes to sit as she writes, a Galatea in glass and chrome, beneath her transparent skin a glowing fluid shifts and flows—and very few know that the real luvia is not the skin, but the liquid that flows beneath.

Luvia is an ego on the run. As a freelancer for the Nine Lives she did what she was told and didn’t ask any questions. One day, she saw too much, and got pulled in deeper. Where once she smuggling minor contraband, now she was ego-trafficking, taking cortical stacks from habitat to habitat. Luvia fell deeper and deeper into the business, subliminating her desires of escape into her writing and cutting deals on the side, even selling information to various habitat authorities. Eventually she arrived to find out that she was the next delivery.

What happened next, Luvia doesn’t remember. No hidden memories, simply discontinuity. When next she woke her biomorph was gone, her ego encoded into the nanoswarm. Since then she has been on the run…from the Nine Lives, from her past, from everything. She makes a small living as a fanfiction writer, the incremental rep boosts enough to cover her modest physical and mental needs. Every couple of months she gets antsy, switches habitats, keeping one optical sensor open for anyone on the lookout for her.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
20	19	14	15	12	18	21	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
5	1	42	8	84	30	6	45

Morph: Synth/Liquid morph*

Skills: Academics: Philosophy 45, Art: Writing 56, Climbing 35, Deception (Impersonation) 56, Free Fall (Microgravity) 40, Fray (Dodge) 25, Infiltration 37, Infosec 45, Interests: Crime 45, Interests: Law 38, Kinesics 25, Language: Native Lithuanian 86, Language: English 50, Language: Mandarin 50, Medicine: Paramedic 36, Networking: Autonomists 50, Networking: Criminals 50, Palming 35, Profession: Courier 55, Profession: Writer 60, Protocol (Criminal) 35, Scrounging 30

Implants: Access Jacks, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Mnemonic Augmentation, Specialized Hive (liquid morph)

Advantages: Armor 6/6

Disadvantages: Social Stigma (Clanking Masses), Uncanny Valley

* The “real” Luvia is permanently encoded in a nanoswarm suspended in a glowing fluid; the Synth morph is just a shell specially modified to carry her liquid form around. If the shell is ever destroyed, the nanoswarm still exists unharmed and follows the rules for nanoswarms in Eclipse Phase, p.328-9. The nanoswarm is Luvia’s cortical stack; if it gets destroyed, her ego is lost.

Using Luvia

Luvia is adventure-bait, a living macguffin to hang some simple plots off of. Lots of people might want her: the Nine Lives, the security forces of a dozen habitats, and the hypercorp that invented her liquid morph. The PCs are likely to be brought in because these groups lack physical representatives in the habitat. Sufficiently mercenary PCs might be approached directly to find and collect her, only to find that Luvia is a bit more slippery than she seems. If the PCs are soft-hearted, then the interested parties will probably pose as part of Luvia’s past life—friends, family members, lovers. Where it goes from there depends on the PCs, but the multiple groups involved gives plenty of potential for complications.

216: Friederich Alba

ENTRY 216: Friederich Alba

“Everybody’s game for tinkering with the basic building blocks of life, but then you try to tweak the exsurgent virus into an aerosol and ‘ooh, you’ve gone too far.’ Pussies.”
- Friederich Alba, on trial after the mass exsurgent outbreak on Junction

In every conflict, there are opportunists—jackals that scavenge the battlefields and play on desperation for their own profit at the expense of others. Friederich Alba has been called a jackal, and he wears a jackal’s face, but he prefers to think of himself as a daring and open-minded scientist, one willing to delve where others fear to tread. His area of specialization is the technology of the TITANs, and he is one of the main movers in the black market, trading in scavenged weaponry, robots, data, and even individuals infected with the exsurgent virus. Wanted by several habitats for the material he deals with, as well as various accessory charges involving violating quarantine zones and evading taxes and tariffs, the jackal-headed Friederich Alba normally keeps on the move, two steps ahead of his pursuers, using his network of contacts and business associates to help him plan his next transaction and his next experiment.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
18	15	25	15	15	20	30	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
6	1	60	10	120	40	8	60

Morph: Synth

Skills: Academics: Genetics (Exsurgent Virus) 80, Academics: History (The Fall) 50, Academics: Neuroscience 50, Beam Weapons 27, Deception 40, Free Fall 33, Hardware: Robotics 40, Interests: Black Markets 50, Interests: Exsurgent Threats 40, Interests: TITANs Tech 65, Interfacing 35, Investigation 50, Kinesics 15, Language: Native German 95, Language: English 80, Language: Turkish 85, Networking: Criminals 75, Networking: Scientists 75, Perception 55, Profession: Black Marketeer 55, Profession: Smuggling Tricks 45, Programming 60, Protocol (Criminal) 35, Research 55, Unarmed Combat 36

Implants: Access Jacks, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Cosmetic Modification (Jackal-headed morph based on statues of Anubis), Cyberbrain, Cyberclaws, Fractal Digits, Hidden Compartment, Mnemonic Augmentation, Nanoscopic Vision

Mobility System: Walker (4/20)

Traits: Armor (6/6), On the Run, Social Stigma (Clanking Masses)

Using Friederich Alba

A robotic Anubis that deals in TITAN-tech, Friederich Alba is intelligent but callow and mostly unprincipled and with very few scruples. He has made a niche for himself in dealing with TITANs-tech for collectors, and has one of the most extensive private databases of TITAN science and technology in the solar system. For any of these reasons, Alba might make a decent mid-level villain for the PCs to apprehend or foil, or someone they have to deal with or extract information from as part of a larger plot involving TITAN-based technologies. Player characters that don’t mind dabbling in the forbidden themselves might even seek him out to buy or sell some scavenged TITAN-tech. Because his goods are a limited market, Alba sets the price and tries not to veer from it—he’s not terribly good at negotiation, and knows it; if anyone tries to wheedle him down he’s more likely to walk away from the deal than to stick around and get fleeced.

153: Kora von Raan

ENTRY 153: Kora von Raan

In contemporary times, “ghost-hunting” has nothing to do with parapsychology or the supernatural. Ghosts are a class of morph designed for infiltration; and somewhat confusingly sometimes the name for those invisible shells and identities that they seem to step into and out of—ghost people, using assumed names and identification, and then disappearing once again. Ghost-hunters are the people that track them, keeping tabs on the datatrails, sharing information in their own networks, pinning down who the egos are behind the morphs, and what they are up to. For some, this is a hobby; surveillance as recreation, snooping on the spies. For Kora von Raan, it is a mission.

Von Raan hunts TITAN sympathizers and collaborationists from the end of the last war. The secret people that aided and abetted the horrific crimes of the TITANs, who received their orders and their counsel, and who may yet work toward their goals. In this work, von Raan receives the discreet patronage of Firewall, but is otherwise left to their own methods and devices, traveling from habitat to habitat, sorting through digital records, interviewing individuals, collecting all the facts. Von Raan has saved some lives, ruined others. There are many dead ends, a few violent successes, and more than a few that begged for von Raan’s non-existent mercy as they stared down the barrel of an energy weapon. Always, von Raan simply scratched one more name off their list, and moved on.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
23	25	25	15	15	20	30	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
6	1	60	10	120	40	8	60

Morph: Synth

Skills: Academics: History (Dutch) 80, Academics: Sociology 50, Academics: Statistics 50, Deception 40, Hardware: Robotics 40, Interests: Dutch Books 60, Interests: Exsurgent Threats 70, Interests: Ghost Morphs 60, Interests: TITANs 75, Interfacing 50, Investigation 50, Kinesics 55, Language: Native Dutch 95, Language: English 90, Language: French 90, Language: German 90, Networking: Criminals 75, Networking: Scientists 75, Perception 55, Profession: Tracer 55, Programming 60, Protocol 50, Research 55

Implants: Access Jacks, Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Mnemonic Augmentation

Mobility System: Walker (4/20)

Traits: Armor (6/6), Patron (Firewall), Social Stigma (Clanking Masses), Uncanny Valley

Using Kora von Raan

Methodical, hardnosed, unswayable and incorruptible, von Raan has seen more horrors than most, and has no compunctions about tracking down every last ego that had anything to do with the TITANs. While not cruel, von Raan is eminently practical and utterly unwilling to compromise; torture is acceptable, as is summary execution. While a specialist in hunting ghost morphs, von Raan has burnt neotenics to death without flinching, and stood straight and unmoving against rampaging furies. As an ally, von Raan is steadfast so long as the player characters abide by the same code—Kora will not tolerate weakness or sympathy for suspects. Kora von Raan will only be fully opposed to player characters if they believe the PCs are former TITAN collaborators; though given von Raan’s limited contact with Firewall, it may be easier to frame them than the PCs might like, particularly if one of the group is in a ghost morph.

111: Smoking Oil

ENTRY 111: Smoking Oil

“We exist in a universe of invisible forces, whose nature we may not sense unaided but whose effects we can measure. Understand, this is a mechanistic universe. We arise from base elements, combined according to certain physical laws; our species, our consciousness is the result of a multi-billion year process, our every action contained within a mere shard of the probability space of infinity…yet a fraction of infinity may itself be infinite, and so is our destiny.” – Smoking Oil, Sermon on Olympus Mons

Philosophies and religions that directly contradict science tend to suffer severe feedback in contemporary transhuman societies; the Mesh has raised the signal to noise ratio regarding contemporary technology and scientific thought to the point that gross claims of supernaturalism are difficult to sustain without recourse to blanket denial and faith. A majority of new beliefs exalt science and technology, or at least a specific understanding of scientific principles, and couch their message in particular eschatology or extrapolation of existing scientific theory—and not always a mainstream or accepted theory.

Smoking Oil is a notable exemplar of one such faith, a sect known as the Clankers. Boiled down, the Clankers believe in a strong anthropic principle, though not one that most philosophers would be quite familiar with. To the most earnest Clankers, Smoking Oil reveals the Secret Mathematics that postulates multiple competing anthropic principles, supposedly waxing and waning in influence to make possible the existence of a universe compatible for certain forms of existence that are incompatible with standard human life—and that these Xenopic Principles are gaining influence, so that transhumanity must soon transition to a new form, or go extinct.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
18	15	15	10	19	17	15	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
5	1	30	6	60	40	8	60

Morph: Synth

Skills: Academics: Physics 60, Academics: Psychology 60, Academics: Religion 70, Deception 60, Art: Writing 70, Interests: Fringe Religion 60, Interests: Fringe Science 60, Interests: Xenolife 60, Interfacing 44, Investigation 33, Kinesics 66, Language: Native French 85, Language: English 66, Networking: Autonomists 25, Networking: Scientists 22, Perception 45, Profession: Preacher 70, Profession: Therapist 44, Programming 30, Protocol 55, Research 44

Implants: Access Jacks, Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Enhanced Senses (Electrical Sense, Enhanced Hearing, Enhanced Smell, Enhanced Smell, Lidar, Radar, T-Ray Emitter), Mnemonic Augmentation, Multi-Tasking

Mobility System: Walker (4/20)

Traits: Allies (Clankers), Armor (6/6), Social Stigma (Clanking Masses), Uncanny Valley

Using Smoking Oil

Smoking Oil and the Clankers may be played as harmless or as dangerous as the gamemaster requires them to be. In general, Smoking Oil will act as a sympathetic character, soaking in information and encouraging people to talk or express themselves, guiding their personal meditations with carefully crafted questions, gradually leading them to the Clanker philosophy. The full details of Clanker beliefs are left up to the needs and imagination of the gamemaster, but as an individual’s understanding and involvement grows with the small movement, they are expected to take steps to evolve themselves to prepare for the “Xenopic Shift” predicted by the secret mathematics of Smoking Oil’s eschatology, which generally means resleeving from a biomorph into a synthetic morph.

108: Kentotis Masamiliano

ENTRY 108: Kentotis Masamiliano

Scholars have long speculated on the origin of transhumanity’s religiosity in sociology, psychology, and biology. Whatever the answer, the theistic impulse is not a simplistic drive dictated by any one region of the biological brain or aspect of the ego; the ability and desire to believe in supernature appears to be a part of transhuman nature, tied into fundamental functions like pattern recognition and abstract thinking. To alter or remove the human penchant for religion is to change what it means to be human—a prospect which until recently transhumanity did not have the technology to attempt, and even now only a daring few psychosurgeons have begun efforts to “correct” what they see as one of transhumanity’s central flaws.

Kentotis Masamiliano is an exhuman scholar of religion, neuroscience, and psychosurgery, an explorer of the transhuman mind who seeks as their quiet goal to isolate and eradicate the religious impulse. Following the Transhumanist brand of philosophy, Kentotis abides by a moral framework arrived at through reasoned discourse, absent of the trappings of religion, and generally performs their experimental psychosurgical treatments only on willing patients who have a full understanding of the process they are about to undergo—though in extreme cases where Kentotis feels the individual’s quality of life is detrimentally impacted by extreme religiosity and unable to give informed consent, they may act in what they believe is the patient’s best interest.

Unfortunately, one such “emergency intercession” performed during the course of a standard treatment to correct an eating disorder forced Kentotis to flee Luna and assume a nomadic practice while maintaining as engaged with the scientific community as possible.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
27	15	16	15	10	10	20	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
6	1	40	8	80	40	8	60

Morph: Synth

Skills: Academics: Neuroscience 80, Academics: Psychology 80, Academics: Religion 75, Deception 40, Interests: Mental Disabilities 60, Interests: Religious Sects 55, Interests: Synthetic Personalities 60, Interfacing 50, Investigation 50, Kinesics 55, Language: Native German 86, Language: English 66, Medicine: General Practice 50, Networking: Criminals 25, Networking: Scientists 66, Perception 45, Profession: Religious Scholar: 60, Programming 60, Protocol 45, Psychosurgery 80, Research 70

Implants: Access Jacks, Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Mnemonic Augmentation

Mobility System: Walker (4/20)

Traits: Armor (6/6), Black Mark (Lunars, Level 2), Social Stigma (Clanking Masses), Uncanny Valley

Using Kentotis Masamiliano

Kentotis lives something of a double life: on one hand a respected scholar and scientist actively engaged in research, debate, and publication, and on the other hand a highly skilled blackmarket psychosurgeon. Either or both of these aspects may be useful, depending on how the gamemaster chooses to use Kentotis. As a scholar and scientist, Ken makes a good contact to consult for any adventure involving religion and/or psychosurgery, a target for hypercorp extraction, the producer of some valuable research, or the doctor with a dark secret in an NPC ensemble. As a blackmarket psychosurgeon Ken is more likely to be an asset that the PCs may be directed to (if they need blackmarket psychosurgery), or the target or villain of a piece where Ken’s experimentation has gotten out of hand.

Ken’s psychosurgical techniques to remove religiosity from the transhuman ego are as yet still in their early stages, although refined enough to generally avoid permanent damage. While Ken offers the treatment to any client that shows interest, they will not perform the psychosurgery on anyone unwillingly unless the subject shows signs of a severe religion-based mental disorder such as scrupulosity. The exact effects of Masamiliano’s imperfect treatment are up to the gamemaster, but mechanically often involve Edited Memories (to remove or dampen any strong religious experiences) and Neural Damage (to remove the ability to experience religious ecstasy). At the GM’s discretion, this treatment may provide the character a +10 modifier on tests where someone is attempting to convert them to a religion or belief.