Spungle, or: How I Learned To Stop Hard Sci-fiing and Love The Supernatural

# Spungle, or: How I Learned To Stop Hard Sci-fiing and Love The Supernatural This'll be a generic document on everything in Shiptest lore that's more or less vaguely supernatural or strange, and our attempt at tying it all together. > One idea I had for tying stuff together is taking Bloodcult and Clocks as mirrors for Id + Ego respectively as in Freudian psychology, with reality as Superego and underlying Spungle stuff as Unconscious. Any thoughts? > > This'd essentially set up Clockwork as linked with logical thought but emotionally detached, which hopefully links nicely into how that prospective "Posibrains capture a soul" lore works. Not sure if that should be more general than Bluespace, but if IPCs experience emotion here it probably should. [name=Ashturi] ## Cults InscryptionCults, here, basically, because we ARE doing that and it's awesome. Think it'd be cool if these tended towards being commentaries on specific types of SS13 players. > What's the defining thing for Inscryption aside from the cards? [name=Ashturi] > basically the whole defining thing is how resource management for each type of deck works. blood requires sacrifices, energy builds power over time, bone gains power from death, mox is a shitpost [name=zzzz] ### Clockies > Howie thought brass was the height of style, now he's got something of a steampunk smile. [name=OH MY GODDD NEIL CICIEREGAAAAAAA <3] [Might be good as being about excessive levels of Engineer Gaming?] [We should also probably do something about the fact that the original clock cult lore that we didn't write riffs pretty heavily off of Hollow Knight (though largely only aesthetically and not in actual thematics.) Tie this into moth lore. Moth Engineering is canon.] > Heavy focus on logic, mastery over natural forces, but a kind of fatalist bent? Dr Manhattan and his celestial clockwork / puppet who can see his strings vibe? [name=Ashturi] Forge Frenzies/Strange Moods are a thing, huge clockie influence to them. People will become overcome with the Want To Build A Shed, said shed may or may not have supernatural/clockwork properties. Kugel-class, the Solar Orrery, and possibly Ratvar himself are all likely results of strange moods. ### Bloodcult This links back to Kalix lore somehow, I think. (also make it about Beasts in the inscryption sense lol) blood, but in the homestuck sense, which also ties in with kalix lore somehow > What's Blood as the homestuck aspect actually represent? I get the vibe it's an interpersonal bonds thing [name=Ashturi] >Should the bloodcults be tied to the Necropolis or just linked by the same underlying force?[name=Ashturi] Sacrifices must be made. Blood, oil, marrow, it matters not, if it bleeds, it can be sacrificed. And you must *lose something* to gain something. The Geometer demands it. From yourself, or taken from others, she doesn't care, but *sacrifices must be made*. ### Magicks > what if being sufficiently irony poisoned let you cast Barrier III [name=any%] wiznerds the wizard federation isnt a real organization but everyone thinks it is one. in reality everyone who is a wizard is too much of an asocial dipshit to ever organize with another wizard. However, outside of these ultrapowerful-but-loser-loner wizards (which for simplification we can refer to as "full" wizards) we have the "apprentices", or imitators. They're the Ted Kazcynzki stans to the Unabomber that is full wizards. These apprentices represent the less powerful but much more approachable class of wizards who ape the aesthetics and often attitudes of full wizards but with none or occasionally a fraction of the magical power. Apprentices usually obtain their power from stealing, purchasing, salvaging and very rarely replicating the magical artifacts often utilized by full wizards, such as spellbooks, wands and even robes or magic mirrors. Many apprentices do not "worship" full wizards, as you may assume. Many adopt witchhunter aesthetics and attitudes, hunting wizards (with mixed success) in order to both proclaim their superiority and, as often as possible, "confiscate" whatever remains for personal use. These apprentices represent both those you would encounter on ships such as the Lamia, as well as a smaller subset who endeavor to eliminate full wizards whenever they appear, even when their choice of occupation or total lack of backup would usually dissuade one from doing so. The inverse ratio of power or pursuit of power to cooperation is very easily observed in wizards – as their power decreases, their likelihood to be friendly or enlist the assistance of other creatures increases. The more philosophical among observers may liken this to the old adage: "absolute power corrupts absolutely."  ### The Necropolis This one's the most defined out of what we have so far. The Necropolis is the definition of tunnel visioning into Miner Gaming, at the expense of all else. Actually let me just make a separate note of the thing I wrote for this and link to it here? https://hackmd.io/x52Pw-uhSHuCrpM1G3PrOA Stuff about an excessive, grotesque exaggeration of cycles of death and undeath, for the sole sake of Death Itself. Legions are zombies, etc. The Necropolis has always had extremely strong ties to Kalixcis, with its drakes being straight from Kalixcian mythos. Ashwalkers, in specific, are based off of a single Sarathi who just went, like, stupid hard for the Necropolis, and got basically absorbed by it? > Having them make their own hell is a great cliche to toy with especially if there's several different sources on what actually produces it internally (as far as having lots of people all linked into the Necropolis) > > I'm not sure how I feel about it all being just the one dude powering all the Ashwalkers, but the entire situation is pretty bizarre to begin with.[name=Ashturi] > theyre not like Powering It its more he's the baseline for ashwalkers the way some nonsapient animal was probably the baseline for stuff like goliaths or whatever. but the ones that are created by the necropolis are all warped and fucked up, the way ashies are compared to sarathi [name=tiramisu] ## The Rim People in core systems don't actually know about the kind of shit that goes down in the rim. Elements of the supernatural are almost entirely exclusive to isolated frontier sectors, and anything strange that's happened in them is almost always assumed to just be legend and myth. It's not like anything of the sort is capable of happening in core systems, anyways. So clearly people who have been on the rim are just fucking insane. Nobody actually believes them about anything. A lot of them prefer it this way. Magical artifacts and the like lose their power the closer they get to reality. Necropolis tendril loot, specifically, tends to dissolve into ash and sand. ## Bluespace latent spungle fallen heaven influences allows people to passively exert influence while shrouded deeply in bluespace something something its the warp but based because we are based and 40k isnt ## Souls These are real but nobody in-universe has any conclusive proof that they do. Everything related to the reviveability of dead people (plus things like cloning people/filecopying positronic intelligences) is colliqually attributed to something that's called a soul but in scientific terms has some other, lamer name or names, or something. Nanotrasen owning the souls of its employees is canon, but it's noted in the contract that this is essentially provisional in the event that souls are proven to exist. Just in case. ## Moths Moths are more affected by and more capable of influencing others with psionics. It's a double-edged sword, though, as moths tend to be tormented mentally by their attunement to psionics. Actually more moths just kind of are suffering due to this than any are capable of anything at all interesting. Whoops. Moths tend to get headaches during bluespace transit. ## Carinae Carinae are completely psionically deaf. They can't be affected by, or affect anything, psionically. Other types of magics tend to work on them but not very well. Carinae tend to feel sick and experience some instability of form when in bluespace transit. > Would humans have developed an insensitivity to bluespace since it just isn't present in Sol the way it is for other species? [name=Ashturi] > Bluespace is present in Sol, the deadzone encases it. It's like having a bedrock wall around your base but only in the Nether. [name=tira] ###### tags: `Lore` `Cults`