Thoughts about Precursor Races & Their Legacy
Bio-tech mixed with expected metal & circuits - Having read through my Prophet trades (minus the Strike Files which are setting info I'll get too shortly) I often found myself thinking "this is what I'm going for." There's an elegance to Prophet where it's science fiction but inclusion of Psi & Bio-tech make it have an uncanny, weird-fantasy feel. I've talked a lot about Psi but Prophet made me fully realize the value of bio-tech in providing the right tone for Space Occultism.
The idea of living ships has been seen in D&D as the Spelljammer setting had living ships of varied kinds. The show Farscape which used this conceit to great effect as Moya felt like another member of the party, a character in her own right. A ship that can be infected with disease, that can be a mother, that can sense damage done to her internal cavities in which the crew resides provides a lot of adventure seeds.
Another great use of the living ship idea is the less well known sci-fi work of Aliette Bodard - thankfully one can catch up with this freely available story.
"Push,” the birth-master said again, and more blood ran out. Push push push—and Zoquitl’s eyes were open, looking straight at her, and Dac Kien knew—she knew that the rhythm that racked Zoquitl, the pain that came in waves, it was all part of the same immutable law, the same thread that bound them more surely than the red one between lovers—what lay in the womb, under the skin, in their hearts and in their minds; a kinship of gender that wouldn’t ever be altered or extinguished. Her hand slid to her own flat, empty belly, pressed hard. She knew what that pain was, she could hold every layer of it in her mind as she’d held the ship’s design—and she knew that Zoquitl, like her, had been made to bear it.
Mental Entities - What to make of the claims that there are entities that seem to only exist - at least in this dimension - within a "place" inaccessible to the best technologies Post-Cataclysm civs have access to? Are they Precursors who uploaded their minds to fields outside the electromagnetic spectrum? Demons? Ultra-terrestrials? Gods?
Such oddities, even if their existence cannot be explicitly confirmed, would offer some interesting opportunities for adventurers. They could be hired by parapsychologists/clergy/Star & Void Knights/mystics who want to confirm their particular theories on how Psi and the more unusual stuff like Near Death Experiences and supposed Medium Communication should fit together. (Examples of such theories would include those mentioned in Beyond Physicalism and Nobel physicist' Josephson ideas on Wheeler's Law Without Law.) Could have a galactic (or even intergalactic) X-files type unit made up of allied races in the emerging inter-planetary post-Cataclysm era. Also areas like Twin Peaks perhaps made that way by the occult workings of the Precursors. These likely would be of special interest to Void & Star Knights given connections to the "White Lodge" and "Black Lodge" which were drawn - AFAICTell - from Theosophy's Great White Brotherhood.
"Tibetan Master Djwhal Khul speaks of cosmic evil whose origins lie beyond humanity or indeed beyond the planet. Cosmic evil is associated with powerful, intelligent beings, comprising a “Black Lodge,” who seek to retard human evolution. They work in opposition to the Planetary Hierarchy, the Great White Lodge, whose mission is to promote human progress: “Just as the White Lodge is the representative or correspondence of the cosmic centre of light… the Black Lodge is… representative of ancient and cosmic evil.”
-Alice Bailey, Externalization of the Hierarchy
Technological Variety - I would use Patrick Stuart's Cryogenic Rats as an example, also Star Control II. All sorts of weird possible technologies whose invention was based not only on what resources were available but also dependent on how species think and interact. Might also be dependent on what seems to be a psychic resonance or at least intuition. Are all technologies reproducible/usable by all races? What if they require certain advanced Precursor technologies keyed to particular groupings of people? Makes tech feel akin to a spell-like ability, furthering the fantastic feeling while keeping things largely within sci-fi trappings.
Weapon & Servitor Races - Were the Precursors just master geneticists, or might they also have been conjurers and vivimancers? - In some ways it seems Psi may be an effect brought on by magic(k)al practices, esoteric powers of which The Way is but a remnant. Void Knights might've been the last decrepit line of an ancient school of black magic like an attenuated legacy of something like Moore's Empire of Tears.
There are animals & sometimes even sentient races out there that seem to utilize bizarre psychic powers at times while others are more likely using Post-Singularity technology like access to a Data Net & nanites....though exactly where the relay satellites are or how the nanites work in concert with a creature's thoughts is all too often unclear. Perhaps the tech extends into another dimension, a not unreasonable hypothesis as there are also creatures that utilize dimensional portals to travel or, at times, even alter the laws of physics in a small radius. Other creatures live in volcanoes, the cold Void, possibly even in the hearts of stars or within black holes if some rumors are true - if their resilience isn't due to magic it must be technology that alters not just atoms but probability and/or natural laws.
The idea of living ships has been seen in D&D as the Spelljammer setting had living ships of varied kinds. The show Farscape which used this conceit to great effect as Moya felt like another member of the party, a character in her own right. A ship that can be infected with disease, that can be a mother, that can sense damage done to her internal cavities in which the crew resides provides a lot of adventure seeds.
Another great use of the living ship idea is the less well known sci-fi work of Aliette Bodard - thankfully one can catch up with this freely available story.
"Push,” the birth-master said again, and more blood ran out. Push push push—and Zoquitl’s eyes were open, looking straight at her, and Dac Kien knew—she knew that the rhythm that racked Zoquitl, the pain that came in waves, it was all part of the same immutable law, the same thread that bound them more surely than the red one between lovers—what lay in the womb, under the skin, in their hearts and in their minds; a kinship of gender that wouldn’t ever be altered or extinguished. Her hand slid to her own flat, empty belly, pressed hard. She knew what that pain was, she could hold every layer of it in her mind as she’d held the ship’s design—and she knew that Zoquitl, like her, had been made to bear it.
Push.
With a final heart-wrenching scream, Zoquitl expelled the last of the Mind from her womb. It slid to the floor, a red, glistening mass of flesh and electronics: muscles and metal implants, veins and pins and cables."
Mental Entities - What to make of the claims that there are entities that seem to only exist - at least in this dimension - within a "place" inaccessible to the best technologies Post-Cataclysm civs have access to? Are they Precursors who uploaded their minds to fields outside the electromagnetic spectrum? Demons? Ultra-terrestrials? Gods?
Such oddities, even if their existence cannot be explicitly confirmed, would offer some interesting opportunities for adventurers. They could be hired by parapsychologists/clergy/Star & Void Knights/mystics who want to confirm their particular theories on how Psi and the more unusual stuff like Near Death Experiences and supposed Medium Communication should fit together. (Examples of such theories would include those mentioned in Beyond Physicalism and Nobel physicist' Josephson ideas on Wheeler's Law Without Law.) Could have a galactic (or even intergalactic) X-files type unit made up of allied races in the emerging inter-planetary post-Cataclysm era. Also areas like Twin Peaks perhaps made that way by the occult workings of the Precursors. These likely would be of special interest to Void & Star Knights given connections to the "White Lodge" and "Black Lodge" which were drawn - AFAICTell - from Theosophy's Great White Brotherhood.
"Tibetan Master Djwhal Khul speaks of cosmic evil whose origins lie beyond humanity or indeed beyond the planet. Cosmic evil is associated with powerful, intelligent beings, comprising a “Black Lodge,” who seek to retard human evolution. They work in opposition to the Planetary Hierarchy, the Great White Lodge, whose mission is to promote human progress: “Just as the White Lodge is the representative or correspondence of the cosmic centre of light… the Black Lodge is… representative of ancient and cosmic evil.”
-Alice Bailey, Externalization of the Hierarchy
Technological Variety - I would use Patrick Stuart's Cryogenic Rats as an example, also Star Control II. All sorts of weird possible technologies whose invention was based not only on what resources were available but also dependent on how species think and interact. Might also be dependent on what seems to be a psychic resonance or at least intuition. Are all technologies reproducible/usable by all races? What if they require certain advanced Precursor technologies keyed to particular groupings of people? Makes tech feel akin to a spell-like ability, furthering the fantastic feeling while keeping things largely within sci-fi trappings.
Weapon & Servitor Races - Were the Precursors just master geneticists, or might they also have been conjurers and vivimancers? - In some ways it seems Psi may be an effect brought on by magic(k)al practices, esoteric powers of which The Way is but a remnant. Void Knights might've been the last decrepit line of an ancient school of black magic like an attenuated legacy of something like Moore's Empire of Tears.
There are animals & sometimes even sentient races out there that seem to utilize bizarre psychic powers at times while others are more likely using Post-Singularity technology like access to a Data Net & nanites....though exactly where the relay satellites are or how the nanites work in concert with a creature's thoughts is all too often unclear. Perhaps the tech extends into another dimension, a not unreasonable hypothesis as there are also creatures that utilize dimensional portals to travel or, at times, even alter the laws of physics in a small radius. Other creatures live in volcanoes, the cold Void, possibly even in the hearts of stars or within black holes if some rumors are true - if their resilience isn't due to magic it must be technology that alters not just atoms but probability and/or natural laws.
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