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Original post by TechnoGoth
hmm, it almost seems like you are saying that psybionts are ghost of psionics. If they perhaps you could work that some how into the game. Maybe they react to the places of their death or when they meet their killers. Perhaps generating a quest or event, That provides a one time benefit.

You could make the quest sutble such as you come across a derlict ship when all of sudden you feel an urge to explore it. Inside you discover the remins of a long dead pilot, and you can''t help feel that this person diserves a prober burial.

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Now this is very cool. And what''s great about it is that it doesn''t need to be too sophistocated, either. I remember playing Morrowind and walking into a crypt where I got a message saying something like, "A rancid stench nearly overwhelms you. This isn''t the smell of the dead, it is something else."

Even though I had entered dozens and dozens of crypts, just that little text message made that one crypt different.

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hmm, I''m a little confused. Do psybionts have their own supply of energy that is used when their talent is invoked and supplied from part of the characters energy. Or does the energy used to invoke the talent come from the player? I assumed it came from the player, and that the psymbiont simply provided an additonal talent.

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I should have been more clear about this. Let''s say that you have 100 points of energy. Your Psi stat is 100 as well, which divided by 10 gives you the maximum number of "slots" for powers (Talents) you can learn.

Now, if you''re an enervative Psionicist, this means that you have 100 points that generate from YOU when you rest. If you''re a channeler, you can tap into up to 100 points, but may have less according to the environment (say, only 50 at a site that only provides 50, or is dampened by a -50 psi-dampener).

So you decide that you want 11 Talents, and acquire a psybiont. You and the psybiont agree to 10% of your points. Now you have 90 points for all of your powers, which can be used at will, and the psybiont has 10.

As you use your talents, you only draw from your pool of 90. If you''re an enervative, then you use up your 90 points and restore them (with rest or restorative items). If you''re a channeler, then you keep using any Talent that doesn''t cost more than 90 points to use. (Yes, this seriously imbalances the two, but remember that the enervative cannot be dampened like the channeler can).

Just thinking about this, I realize I have a flaw in the psybiont design: The psybiont is meant to limit you to a certain number of "powers per day," whether you''re a channeler or enervative. To do that, it must DEPLETE whatever psi energy you''ve given it, then restore it when you rest. Otherwise as a channeler you simply add another power to your list without any real strategic tradeoff.

If you''re an enervative, it makes sense that it works this way. But if you''re a channeler, I''m not so sure. It might work to simply make the psybionts for channelers stick to a percentage which, once reduced, limit both channeler and psybiont. So if you''ve given it 10% of your 100 and are suddenly reduced to 50, you have 90% of that (45) and the psybiont has 10% (or 5 points). If you had some Talent that took 50 points, you would no longer be able to use it while dampened.

btw, I also see for balance''s sake I''m going to have to make the cost in psionic energy for Talents more for channelers than for enervatives. If a telekenetic wall of force costs 20 points, the enervative with 100 can use it 5 times. But the channeler can use it forever until he''s dampened to 19 points. It might be more fair to give channelers only half the number of points and make it cost twice as much to progress to get more.

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Just waiting for the mothership...

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Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
This idea is absolutely fascinating.

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Thanks! I really appreciate the feedback and critique.

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I''m a little worried, however, because I and apparently some of the other posters on this thread are not able to see the "big picture" of your design. I think that I for one am putting too many eggs in the psionics basket, some of which might fit better under technomancy or some other category of which I''m not even aware.

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No worries. I waste nothing! There are some elements that I haven''t had a chance to reveal, yet, but they''re more variations on a theme than outright changes. I see the psionics and the "tech magic" and any racial special abilities as being three heads of the same hydra, so to speak. Morrowind does this REALLY nicely in how it handles resistances, magic and special abilities. Their approach of making everything a matter of spells (even resistances) and changing the duration and cost is one of the most flexible approaches I''ve ever seen.

What I''m going to end up with ultimately is a list of powers; requisite items they need (a psionically charged gem for psionicists; an emitter for engineers; nanites for the Syncrotech); states needed to use the powers (x points of psi energy, or plasma, or nanites); and the stats of the power varied by the class using them (range, "casting time", duration, reliability, etc).

Once that''s done and the three types are different, I choose what powers are blacklisted by race and by class, and what natural resistances and vulnerabilities each side has. As in Freedom Force and Morrowind, this should serve to make the two sides different enough to be satisfying (without making me commit suicide trying to come up with thousands of unique powers).

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Original post by Wavinator
With an enervative psionic, the system feels a little bit like the "magic points" (MP) system found in many RPGs. One of the things that I found most annoying about the Super Star Wars games was the fact that Luke Skywalker had a "Force Meter", and whenever he did something using the Force, it would deplete. You had to pick up little items to refill it. That seemed so dumb to me.

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You see, in my universe Luke would be a channeler. He could use his force powers all day until he was somehow reduced. Physical injury, psi attacks, and changes to the environment would reduce him. Let''s say that his saber block costs 15 of his 100 points. He could block incoming blasts forever as long as he was never dropped to 14. But if he took a number of hits to health, then walked into a dampened area, he''d be in trouble.

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There''s a flash game at Adult Swim''s webpage based on the anime show Inuyasha. In it, you use a stamina/energy supply to perform different maneuvers in a simple duelling system. Each maneuver has a cost associated with it, and you regain a small amount each turn. If you are getting low on juice, though, and need a boost, you can sacrifice an active turn to perform a charging move, which doesn''t attack or defend, but instead builds up your energy for the next turn. That seems more like how an enervative psionic would regain energy, instead of using an item.

Another example is the Musou Meter in the Dynasty Warriors games. It fills when you kill people or as you lose health, sort of like a limit break system, and when it''s full you can do special moves and whatnot. If you want to just fill it without fighting, you can stand still and hold in the special attack button. You are vulnerable and stationary, but your meter fills up. Maybe the enervative psionic could recharge (perhaps at a rate determined by the psionic "richness" of his surroundings) by meditating or performing some kind of mental exercise. Temporary vulnerability and uselessness in exchange for increased potency later on.

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Okay, this does have alot of merit. You''re right, I was going for more of the magic point feel as in Morrowind and most cRPGs. But there IS room to do something different.

I''ve played Dynasty Warriors before, and I do like that system. Just because your Musou charges with hits and attacks doesn''t mean that you''ll be godly.

What about this idea: I have need of slight variations on a theme to help fill out how psionics works for the different races. I want the feel of playing a Terran, for whom psionics are new, mostly latent, and iffy, to be different from that of the Zelenae, who have been using them for 3 million years.

What if the Terran enervatives have the MP idea, where they have a limited pool and must rest when depleted. Then, blend in that great idea of dangerous restoratives, so that Terrans are doing things like injecting themselves with neuropeptides / stimulant cocktails which damage health or some other stat.

Then you have the Zelenae as "mindgods:" Their enervatives naturally generate psionics with the Inuyasha / Dynasty Warriors mechanic. They can stop, sit and meditate in order to completely recharge (leaving themselves vulnerable), or naturally "drain" some of their enemy''s psionic energy on successful strikes.

To vary channelers, I could make the two races more or less sensitive to dampening. I could also give Terran players an unstable "range" of channeling energy they can tap into, making their psi energy rove from high to low (60 to 100, for example).

The holy grail for me, btw, is the ability to create distinctive gameplay simply by varying stats in the game (jump height, psi recharge time, resistance to cold, etc). Rather than using up alot of limited time developing unique features that only get used in one way, I''d rather have variants a mix of features that, when added together, make for distinctive play experiences (that can be tested and debugged in a more reliable way).

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This idea gets better and better as I read more about it. I can''t wait to learn more about the world you''re building. You''ve obviously put a great deal of effort into it, and I''m dying to learn about the races and the world. Fascinating.

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Thank you, this is very inspiring! I''m looking forward to getting criticism on a bunch of areas I''ve been ironing out in silence for many many months now. You guys are awesome!


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Just waiting for the mothership...

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Original post by ahw
As usual, you come up with great ideas Wavy :-)

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Thanks! I''m glad to see you''re still haunting these boards! Now if I could only get Nazrix to come back.

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Some thoughts on the psymbiots :

I am starting to get a feel that those psymbiots (I am pronouncing that like "symbiots" in Stargate) are jsut ghosts really.

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Yes, I wanted them to be somewhere between ghosts and semisentient "dying will / last wish." This works into a couple of plot points in the game, such as where the monsters known as Siegers come from and why they''re attacking everybody, and why another race that drains the lifeforce of other races exists.

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I dunno if you know the roleplaying game called Wraith, but basically, you play ghosts. And there are a LOT of concepts developed in there that seem to resonate with ideas you are talking about here.

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Aha! Another resource to stea-- *ahem* consult!

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This in turn binds the ghosts (I am using "ghost" here, but you can hopefully draw parallels for yourself) to places, to people.
There is only two possibilities for a ghost, ultimately.
Oblivion or Transcendance.

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This is fascinating.

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Now imagine your psymbiots as ghosts.
Why are they psionics creatures ? Because they are pure willpower.
The problem is that they have their own internal conflict, one side wants to give up, go to sleep, embrace Oblivion. The other wants to live again, to reincarnate, whatever.

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Okay, I''m with you. This would almost make psybionts / psymbionts (still haven''t decided which sounds cooler) somewhat like NPCs that take up residence in your mind. It''s a very funky / unusual concept, which I like, and reminds me of Great Sky River, Greg Bear''s novel where people consulted the compressed memories of dead ancestors imbedded in their skulls. The tradeoff was that the personality fragments could argue with one another and distract, just as much as they could help.

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If you expand the concept of ghosts to alien races, you can have some very strange and hard to understand "ghosts", you call them psymbiots.

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Hmmm... What about the "spirits" of the First Ones, the first species to ever become sentient in the entire universe? What if it was their will moving around. This actually MIGHT work for the whole backstory I have in mind (which I don''t yet want to give away but involves what happened to a race that experienced the collapse of their own universe).

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There are also those beings which are the very stuff of collective consciousness. Created from the nightmares or dreams of people. Those dont know about being alive, having a body, they are curious, possibly friendly beings when formed from dreams. Needless to say their nightmarish counterparts are the bane of living beings and want nothing more than to abuse or destroy life.

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This is more where I imagined psybionts coming from. Regions that experienced great trauma would breed viral or parasitic psybionts as well as malignant creatures like them that only did harm. Regions that experienced tranquility, on the other hand, would build up so much psionic energy from minds being overlayed millennia after millennia that psybionts would arise.

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So you would still have your nomenclature of more or less powerful psymbiots, depending on how long they have existed in that form,
then you would have their origin : are they of the same species as the psionists, are they from an alien species, or are they creatures of sheer phantasm ?
then what is their alignment/goal : Oblivion or Transcedence. Are they benevolent towards life or not, do they seek to corrupt and destroy the psionist to feed on her once he is dead and a newly born psymbiot ? Or do they just want a master/friend because they feel so alone and miss being alive ?

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Now THIS provides some intricate detail without a massive amount of extra effort (stat variation, rather than animation and such). However, in order to have this, there would need to be fewer psybionts, or you might get inevitable clashes. What does it mean to have one psybiont who wants oblivion while another wants transcendence? I forsaw psybionts as a way of increasing player Talents. This is more like the mag concept in Phantasy Star, where you have a magic "familiar" that does things for you.

I''m definitely not against the idea, I like some of the uncertainty and nuance. But if I were to use it, I''d have to synthesize some of the elements you''ve mentioned. As I mentioned above, I''m looking for ways to vary races. Maybe one variant is how psybionts work. In fact, the Zelenae mindgod race may be far too powerful compared to other races. What if psybionts functioned on multiple levels, with the Zelenae aware of and susceptible to psybiont motives. Perhaps being so powerful, Zelenae draw to them more sophistocated, willful psybionts?

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Ultimately, even if the psymbiots can help the psionist, they feed on her. The question is, is the loss worth the gains ?
Abuse the use of psymbiots and ultimately, they will erode your sanity, feed on your emotions, drain your willpower, your spakle of life, turning you into an empty shell of a living being.

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Okay, time to make a post about a sanity meter (coming soon )

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What is psychic energy ?

Now, I love the concept of channeler/enervator.
The way I see it, the enervative type is your typical monk, using his Chi to gain superhuman powers.

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Right, you''ve got it!

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What I am having trouble with is the channeler. The concept is sound and all, but how do you decide the amount of energy available ?

I am considering several ideas :

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I like these possibilities. The way I see it, though, is that all life is fundamentally connected via a "vital spark" concept, no matter the time or place. Everything that existed, exists and will exist, exists simultaneously in some frame of reference. Life is a kind of willful energy, inhabiting the smallest space and time possible (planck space) that wells up to infuse matter and changes it according to matter''s limits. This can create anything from bacteria to a human being.

Channelers tap directly into that medium, that lifeforce, and move it through the matter of their own flesh. Now the matter is EVERYWHERE at once, but channelers can only tap into areas of the highest concentration they can relate to. This usually means lifebearing planets, and especially places where intelligent beings have resided. It can also exist in deep space wherever intelligent life (such as superconducting silicoid creatures) have existed.

Ordinarily, this would make channelers absolutely useless in most places because the bulk of the cosmos would be a desert to them. While this is somewhat true, there''s an in-game phenomena called a "warpfall" that''s changes things. Warpfalls are ripping up the fabric of time and space in the game, creating hazards and swapping locations in the local galaxy. They appear to be related to Siegers, the monsters in the game, and anything related to them is highly psionically charged. So planets and these volatile warpfalls, which can stretch for kilometers or light years (through empty space or even stars and planets), are like reefs for channelers.

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1) the small god (as in Terry Pratchett''s novels)

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I''ve got a variant of this in a race called the J''tiri. J''tiri have no form, but rather shanghai the bodies of other races (leaving me with one less race to model and animate, btw ). They gather together as many slaves as possible and convert their health to psionic energy. The more slaves, the larger their psionic reserves. (This is almost like the player playing a psybiont, come to think of it.)

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The trick is, the emotions tend to "taint" the channeler.
So a happy crowd will make the empath happy, and will make his powers more "happy" (how a wall of power can be happy... that''s a good question), while a place of death and sorrow will impede the character, making him relive those bad events.

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Interesting. I have an empath as a personality type in the game whose morale goes up or down based on surroundings. However, it would be interesting to play around with the concept of tainted energy. Maybe this would be a great way to help balance out the channeler and enervative psionicist? The channeler has to deal with environments that fluctuate AND energy taint, while the enervative draws on her own energy, but with the tradeoff that it is limited.

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as a side note, the advantages of having a psymbiots become obvious for the channeler that is in a deprived environment.
The empath going to deep space in a cryotank will particularly appreciate the company of psymbiots to keep her happy during the flight but also to have some sort of back up power source.

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Since the psybionts draw from the user''s energy, the channeler would have problems in deep space or other barren areas. I feel this should be balanced with an idea of interdependence between channeler and enervative. Maybe the two can transfer energy between one another with certain strategic tradeoffs? I haven''t thought this out carefully, but maybe this is one way psionicists to work together in tandem: Enervatives can bond together and be a source for channelers, and channelers can feed a limited amount of energy at a time to enervatives?

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the Psionic schools

I have thought about it and I cant help but put my two cents (based on Mage the Ascension RPG).

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I like many of the changes you''ve suggested here. The names are more scientific, as well-- I may just use them for Terrans who have discovered psionics with the scientific method, and leave what I have for more mystical folks like the Zelenae.

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scale and precision
I think you could have some sort of value that indicates the particular scale to which a psionist uses her powers.

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Micro, macro and nano/pico are good variants, and they also expand psionic Talents by segmenting them with little extra work.

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Being proficient on one doesnt necessarily prevent a psionist to work on another scale, but it should, to a certain extent.
For someone used to blastin ships by unleashing force waves at them, it should certainly take some mental exercise to affect
another person''s body on the molecular level without blasting them to little bits...

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What do you think of the idea of a Talent tree, where as you improve, you can invest in different branches, but some tradeoffs need to be made because some paths are irreversible? For instance, at the outset, you can choose to specialize in an individual power in its three forms (micro, macro, nano). If you choose all three, you can develop all three later on. If you choose only two, then after a certain point, you can''t go back and develop the one you left off. Same for choosing only one form, you can''t go back and develop the other two.

Theoretically, you''d either advance quickly and specialize, or be a generalist who is weaker overall.

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Now, by combining various schools (Mage the Ascension calls them Spheres), you can do some pretty amazing things.
As you begin, you can usually do thing on a normal scale (human scale). As you progress in power, the magnitude of the effects you can achieve increases too, but as I said earlier, it would be interesting to make it difficult for someone used to work on a certain scale to have troubles with another.

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Again, great suggestions. I''m going to need some time to play with the ideas you mentioned. One of the things I like is the promise of mixing and matching schools to form new powers that affect different things-- such as mixing Force with Entropy prevents certain events from even happening. However, this could get VERY HAIRY very quickly, as I''d have to be sure that for every permutation there isn''t hiding some dominant game strategy that suddenly makes the game no fun. When you design discrete powers, you can test them and balance them individually. But when you blend them, you''d better have a very good system for resolving potential conflicts.

Of course, I''m coveting the power creation gameplay that Morrowind and Freedom Force provide, so I''ll definitely look into this.

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Just waiting for the mothership...

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Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
I''d like to see the psionic energy that channelers tap into as a sort of metaphysical overlay to the world.

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You see this as I do. I like the wrinkle of natural eddies, though, too. One idea I''ve been messing around with is the greening of the universe (imagine lifeforms stretching lightyears... but anyways...) I want an excuse for flora and fauna, and even some intelligent life, that arises away from gravity wells. This could be the ticket, eddies where life/psi energy wells up and takes hold of matter if the conditions are right. This means you can have extremophiles made of complex liquid metals on a Mercury type planet; carbon-based life dipping in and out of a gas giant; and life on the fringes of warpfalls, feeding of the heat and energy being released by these anomalies.

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Perhaps the Zelenae have charts of these currents, and use them to plan their shipping routes and colonies. It would be like the ancient maritime charts, with "doldrums" in areas of minimal psi and "Here Be Siegers" written over areas where ships had been lost.

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Hahaha! I like this. Zelenae also use living starships that can soak up psionic energy in order to survive the "doldrum" areas. Hey, maybe the ships work like diesel submarines: They store up psi energy, then use it to move and travel FTL. Deep voids would be strategic no-go areas for them, creating interesting strategies in interstellar conflict.

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Other psi-sensitive races and characters could learn about these patterns as well, perhaps with a specialized form of prescience or ESP, but no doubt the Zelenae would have the most sophisticated documentation.

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Yes! According to the backstory, they''ve been spacefaring for 3 million years, so they logically should have this.

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Perhaps they would guard it jealously. You''ll have to tell us more about this world, Wavinator, before I start getting too used to my own ideas of what these critters are like.

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Hey, your ideas are certainly welcome! But I should post a bunch of the backstory stuff in Writing, though. Isn''t it funny how you find that gameplay and story/backstory are intimately intertwined? One feeds the other and is constrained by the other.



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Just waiting for the mothership...

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Maybe the two can transfer energy between one another with certain strategic tradeoffs? I haven't thought this out carefully, but maybe this is one way psionicists to work together in tandem: Enervatives can bond together and be a source for channelers, and channelers can feed a limited amount of energy at a time to enervatives?

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I'm not sure thats such a good idea. Since it sounds like a way of removing the psionists limitations. What is stopping a player from having a bunch of of weak channelers constantly feeding power into a stronger enervatives during battle? Or a channeler using enervatives as batteries?

Altough thinking more on the subject it seems that the two are greatly unbalanced. Espically when it comes to things like constant cost talents. For instance if a force wall cost 10 energy a round to maintain this means that mainting that single talent would quickly drain the enertaives entire days supply of energy, while at the same time being almost meaning less to the channeler.

I suppose one solution would be to give enervatives a far greater supply of energy then a channeler to can channel in a single round.



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Writer, Programer, Cook, I'm a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document



[edited by - TechnoGoth on March 21, 2004 9:43:37 PM]

Just a quick though on Channelers and Enervatives.

The Dark Sword books had an interested twist on this.

Most everyone in the world was equivalent to enervatives. They had a pool of energy to pull from. They would then naturally "charge" back up as the sourounding energy slowly seeped into them.

The channelers (or catalysts) have a very low pool of energy to pull from personally, but they could form a conduit to the souringing environment (or other people) and channel that energy into someone else. So battles would usually be between Channeler/Enervative pairs and the enervative would be responsible for protecting his channeler.

It made for some interesting fights in the book.

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Original post by TechnoGoth

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Maybe the two can transfer energy between one another with certain strategic tradeoffs? I haven''t thought this out carefully, but maybe this is one way psionicists to work together in tandem: Enervatives can bond together and be a source for channelers, and channelers can feed a limited amount of energy at a time to enervatives?

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I''m not sure thats such a good idea. Since it sounds like a way of removing the psionists limitations. What is stopping a player from having a bunch of of weak channelers constantly feeding power into a stronger enervatives during battle? Or a channeler using enervatives as batteries?

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You''re right about removing the limitations, which is what makes for the strategy. However, what if you create undesirable side effects as a result of the mixing of energies? What if for each transfer, the power has a chance to become unstable, causing stat damage to all involved? Or what if it has a chance to cause a difficult to remedy status effect, such as a coma? Perhaps the chance increases the more often the energy is transfered, so that the more often the strategy is used over time the more dangerous it becomes (with the risk reducing over a certain amount of time, such as days).

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Altough thinking more on the subject it seems that the two are greatly unbalanced. Espically when it comes to things like constant cost talents. For instance if a force wall cost 10 energy a round to maintain this means that mainting that single talent would quickly drain the enertaives entire days supply of energy, while at the same time being almost meaning less to the channeler.

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Yes, this is a problem if they employ the same strategy versus each other. But like with asymmetrical warfare, I''m hoping that actual tactics can balance the two. Take the example of guerrillas versus regular forces: In a set-piece battle, regulars often can beat guerrillas hands down because of formal tactics, the ability to focus firepower, and wage a war of attrition. But when they step into the jungle or city, tactics can rebalance the natural imbalance.

If the channeler spends time concentrating on a continuous use power, they aren''t doing anything else. The enervative needs to press the attack at that moment. The enervative needs to physically injure the channeler, which will reduce the amount they can channel; or they need to dampen the area being affected.

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I suppose one solution would be to give enervatives a far greater supply of energy then a channeler to can channel in a single round.

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Yes, the ratio might have to be 1:4 or even 1:5. So an enervative that has attained a level where they have 1000 points, facing an equally accomplished channeler, will be facing a psionicist with a 250 or 200 points. Theoretically, the enervative would have access to higher, more powerful talents, but would have to swat the channeler before that power ran out.

Another way of balancing the two is to limit the effectiveness of continuous effect powers-- though you''ll only know that by testing. This can be done by making the psionicist vulnerable while projecting (like lowering your shields for a long action versus the default of making a quick action). Or all continuous powers can be made more mild.


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Just waiting for the mothership...

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Original post by Kars
The channelers (or catalysts) have a very low pool of energy to pull from personally, but they could form a conduit to the souringing environment (or other people) and channel that energy into someone else. So battles would usually be between Channeler/Enervative pairs and the enervative would be responsible for protecting his channeler.

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Thank you, this is an interesting scenario. I have in mind that there''s a religious schism between the two, but it would be interesting to have heretics of both groups working together to form a 3rd faction.



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Just waiting for the mothership...

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I have in mind that there''s a religious schism between the two...

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Melding Psybiont:
Melds with one person permanetly, sucking the life force from the hosts body but supplying psionic power from the sournding enviroment. After you meld with a Melding Psybiont, your resistance to deseases goes down, some other physical attributes suffer, i.e. less streangth, less hitpoints, etc. As the host gets more power/expearance, the Psybiont also becomes more powerful.
Due to this permanet melding, working with other types of Psibots is not as effective due to the "mixed" energies of the host and Psibot. Once melded the Psybiont can''t be removed unless the host dies (killing the Psybiont as well?).

This way the Channalers are actually regular people that have melded with a Melding Psybiont and the rift could be the "purity" of the human race.

Wow ! I am surprised you even *read* through my post, let alone that you liked some of the stuff I mentioned :-)

Now for some more thoughts.

First, as I said before, clarifying WHAT exactly is that energy psionists are using would be an important step forward, as it would allow you to have some sort of "this is how it really is" basis to work from.
On top of that, races can have their own interpretation of what''s going on. Whether they are right or wrong only creates more opportunities for interesting stories.

Mage The Ascension calls that the paradigms.
In the game, reality is based on the Prime energy, which the mages can manipulate freely through their knowledge of the Spheres.
Each mage has her own perception of what she is doing, the best example being the Technocrats, who DONT believe in magic, and yet are able to manipulate reality just like mages. It just happens that their paradigm is entirely based on "science".
You might note the parallel between Prime energy and psyonic energy ?
The only problem there is that Prime is effectively *everywhere*, some places making it easier to tap into it than others. Those places are called Nodes, and are like geysers of pure magic power, that allow the mages to recover their forces. Needless to say, they are important and highly defended places, usually used by some faction for their own rituals (in Mage, Werewolves would typically set up a Cairn on such a Node of power, if it''s in the wild, making it rather hard to get access to it)

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Concerning the psymbionts (apparently it is "on ts"),

- if you like the idea of psymbionts as ghosts, one thing to note is that not ALL living beings end up as ghosts. Only the ones with reasons to do so. Those who have so much willpower or issues to resolve in their now ended life that they persist despite the lack of a body.
Of course, to keep "living" as a ghost, you need some sort of reason to keep you going.
This is where the Oblivion/Transcendence comes in.
I think in the context of what you describe, Transcendence would be the return to the natural cycle of life/death, which means the psymbiont "dissolves" in the natural currents of psychic energy/Prime and is reused by the universe (insert appropriate reference to reincarnation here )
In other words, a ghost/psymbiont is just a temporary phase that a dead being experience, before it is returned to the normal flow of events. For most people with uninteresting lives, their spirit dies shortly after the body, and they become psychic energy/Prime again.
This ties in nicely with the fact that Prime (I am tired of typing two words) is more readily found near life sources.

Now the *interesting* part is what happens to psymbionts/ghosts/spirits that get corrupted in that intermediary stage. Unfortunately I am being kicked out of the labs, so I ll try and think about it for tomorrow.


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oh, I forgot two Spheres when I was describing them :
Time and Location
Time allows you to manipulate, you guessed it, Time.
Location allows you to manipulate Space, based on the one principle that all locations are just really One location (think of it as "the universe is just one point being stretched out, and out ...")

sorry

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Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !