Tech Level: 8
Cost: 15,000+ firebirds
The Erling Chair is a “merciful technal” used exclusively by the healers of the Amalthean Order. It utilizes the myste- rious Pan-Physics of Dr. Victor Erling, although he did not invent it. As such, it is technology forbidden by the Church except in the hands of trained Amaltheans.
The chair includes a seat molded of high-tech plastic, built to exact mathematical specifications and supported by repulsor pads capable of finely vibrating the chair in line with certain frequencies generated by an accompany- ing synthesizer (older models used a complicated array of springs to balance the chair and achieve the proper vibra- tions). The core of the device is the VIRA, or Vibration Refraction Accelerator, an artifact from the Second Republic. Only three such devices were built since the Fall, each by master Engineers, one of whom went mad after testing it.
The VIRA creates subatomic wormholes into higher dimensions and brings higher energies into three-dimen- sional space. The tenor of these energies is somehow controlled through music played on the synthesizer, using a process that is more art than science, for the Amalthean musician usually enters a prayerful trance and afterwards rarely remembers what notes she played. The result is a deep soul healing for any patient sitting in the chair, bathed in the higher energies. Deep-seated psychological complexes and negative associations are slowly dissolved after even a brief exposure to the Erling Chair. While the Church does not believe that the chair erases sin or blemishes on the soul mirror, the Amaltheans claim that it cures the propensity for sin that is usually caused by past traumas. Additionally, many physical ailments that have their cause in mental prob- lems, such as stress or repression, soon clear up. Arthritis and fibromyalgia can also be cured.
The most famous recent case was Martin Capoldi, son of Reeve Dean Garibold Capoldi. Martin was one of the most notorious tyrants in the Known Worlds, rivaling even many noble princes in his cruelty to the lower classes. He routinely killed peasants for fun, and the Capoldi fortune was threatened by the mass of ruined property suits brought against him by royal houses. Dean Capoldi brought his son to Artemis. After one application in the Chair, Martin broke down and confessed all his sins. He then tried to jump from a high cliff but was stopped by his father’s bodyguards.
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Martin was retired to a hesychast monastery on Grail, where he spends his days copying ancient agricultural manuscripts. The Church touts his example as one of reform.
The only known working version of an Erling Chair still in existence is on Artemis, and many pilgrims travel far and join a long list of applicants to sit in it. Rumors, however, say that the Amaltheans guard another chair on Grail, although that one is said to be haunted or cursed, more likely to harm than heal.
Another Erling Chair was discov- ered by freebooters in the ruins of a Second Republic clinic on Shaprut in 5003. They hired an Apothecary to figure out its use and leased it for high prices to the elite. The terrible disaster that ensued has only rein- forced the Church’s edict that only Amaltheans be allowed to handle the device. The Hawkwood baronet who was the second and last to use the chair, which has since vanished again, is still under care by Amalthean physicians on Ravenna, but few believe he can ever be cured. He speaks of terri- ble “shades” who haunt him and whisper to him, bidding him to perform hideous deeds, including f linging himself beyond a jumpgate, into the dark between the stars.
Traits
The Erling Chair requires a unique, special Learned Skill to use. Rating in this skill cannot be higher than the character’s Remedy and Performance skills. A successful roll (Faith + Erling Chair skill) involves acti- vating the machine, attuning it to the proper frequencies (based on the patient’s EEG activity) and playing prayerful music.
The game effects are entirely up to the gamemaster’s discre- tion. The chair, when successfully used, cures psychological traumas, neuroses, and even psychoses, although a patient’s remorse over past deeds might overwhelm him if he doesn’t receive counseling from Amaltheans during the curative period (about two weeks to two months). Patients can even be freed from dark influences, such as possession by demons or enti- ties. Psychic Urge or Theurgic Hubris cannot be cured, however, although patients can receive a bonus on their attempts at penance.
Repairing an Erling Chair requires the High-Tech Redemption skill and access to expensive parts (TL 7).
Omoikane
Tech Level: 8–9 Cost: Not for sale
The omoikane, named after a pre-reflective spirit from ancient Urth, is egg-shaped and about the size of a human fist. Its smooth metal- lic surface tapers to a blunt end, where a number of port connections are located.
These terminals allow for the input of power and the outflow of data to a
regular think machine.
The omoikane is a prototype design produced at the height of the Second Republic and combines sophisticated AI with theories of Pan-Physics. Nobody (not even the omoikane itself) remem- bers the genius who dared to create such a sophisticated intelligence. The omoikane needs a large fusion genera-
tor to work.
Without power, the omoi- kane is inert and weighs about two kilograms. The moment a power source is attached, the mass drops to that of a feather. The AI contained within the egg surpasses anything else known to have survived the Second Republic — in part because of the intricate construction and because the machine gener- ates a wormhole within its tiny shell (hence the drop in mass). The electronics of the machine are moved into a higher vibrational state above the normal three dimensions and so bypasses the temporal limits of processing massive amounts of data. In essence, the tiny think machine can perform unlimited computations in the frac- tion of a second it takes to transmit data to and from the miniature wormhole. Because time does not exist, all computational tasks are in effect instant — regard- less of complexity.
If the omoikane is used as an aide to code breaking, think machine programming, or other logic-based tasks, it can perform Herculean computations in an instant. The device is self-aware but needs to draw upon other interfaced think machines for information as its own storage matrix was never designed to hold more than a few hundred thousand terabytes. Consequently, it cannot simply provide answers to queries that require detailed technical or historical lore.
Omoikane technolog y encroaches on the princi- ples behind the workings of the Jumpgates. However, a
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hyper-dimensional space cannot exist within another hyper- dimensional space, so the device must be powered down to travel through a Jumpgate. If somebody tries to force the activated omoikane through a gate there is likely to be a catastrophic disaster which could lead to the sealing of the Jumpgate (or, at least potentially, the destruction of both the Gate and the omoikane).
Traits
The omoikane is an incredibly gifted savant, brilliant at logical and fuzzy logical problem solving, but lacking context as it does not store vast amounts of data for itself but needs access to external systems. When using the omoi- kane to assist with logic, fuzzy logic, and computational based tasks, they can be completed in a mere second. Note that the omoikane must have a large fusion generator to provide adequate power and be linked to a regular think machine to provide answers.