Furio Cabrini/Paradigm

Magick: The Code

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xxxxxSince their days in the Technocratic Union, when they were known as Difference Engineers, the Virtual Adepts have understood a most important truth about the universe. All things are composed of information. The human mind, as the vehicle of the Genius, has the unique ability to interact with this fundamental Code. Quantum observation creates reality. Conception + Perception = Form is a simplification of the process that all mages have understood since the dawn of time. Within the last century, the Masses have begun to grasp the same principles through the study of quantum physics. One of the first concepts of quantum physics is that of the Observer Phenomenon--the idea that the mere act of observing a thing can change it. This is key to the way Virtual Adepts like Furio make their magick. The Awakening brings with it new means of perceiving the universe. The Awakened mind can make observations that can make changes far more profound than one that is not Awake. Furio refers to these acts of magick as 'accessing the Code'--utilizing his Awakened observations to change the universe.

Quintessence and Paradox: Currency and Bad Debt

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xxxxxAs a banker and financier, Furio sees each access of the Code as a transaction. Quintessence is the Currency of the universe, the metaphysical cashflow with which reality 'buys' its realness. The metaphor is a useful one, considering the Awakened have used Quintessence, Tass, and Nodes as renewable resources and currency for millenia. Currency can be Hard Currency or Cash, in the form of Tass. It can be Liquid Credit, held in Trust by the Genius. Nodes are Vaults, where Currency is deposited and renewed by the natural motion of the universe. Access to Prime Code allows a mage to manpulate Currency in fundamental ways. However, when one touches the universe, one is touched in return. The Masses remain blissfully unaware of their countless observations shaping reality all around them. The Awakened do not have the luxury of ignorance. Every time they access the Code, they run the risk of Paradox. In Furio's mind, Paradox is Bad Debt, a metaphysical negation that can invalidate Currency. When allowed to accumulate, Bad Debt can become a Default. Lesser Defaults smooth themselves out on their own. Larger ones can have serious complications. The worst can manifest as physical injuries as Furio's own body is strained to right the metaphysical imbalance that led to the Default. Bad Debt can be avoided by preventing conflicts between Awakened and unAwakened observations. The more plausible and acceptable a piece of Code is, the less likely it is to accumulate Bad Debt. Conversely, performing the seemingly impossible is almost sure to guarantee a Default.

Avatar: The Genius

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xxxxxThe Virtual Adepts are the newest Tradition, having defected from the Technocratic Union just over sixty years ago. As such, they still retain much of their Technocratic understanding, particularly when it comes to matters of the human soul. Though newer Virtual Adepts are beginning to accept the concept of the Avatar, there are many who still refer to it by its Technocratic term--the Genius. Furio in particular subscribes to this method. He has never actually seen his Avatar. For him, his higher self has taken the form of an enlightened intuition. A means of seeing the universe not with his eyes, but with his mind. When he undergoes Seekings to advance his Arete, he does not enter a dreamscape. Rather, he solves puzzles and riddles in the waking world. It is there, in the world he shares with every other human in the world, that he finds the answers to all his questions.

The Spheres: Codebase

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xxxxxLike all mages, Furio recognizes nine fundamental ways in which the universe can be changed by application of Awakened will. These Spheres form the Nine Codebases from which he draws his magickal power. As former Technocrats, Virtual Adepts require tools and foci to access the Code, and Furio is no exception. Unlike other more mystick Traditions, Furio will not be able to surpass his need for foci until he reaches the ultimate enlightenment, when he will transcend human experience and become part of the Code himself.

Correspondence The speciality Sphere of the Virtual Adepts, and the first one that Furio has studied to Adept level. His focus is a smartphone modified with a penta-core trinary array. This device allows him to work the highly complex hypermathematical computations necessary to control space, dimension, and geometry. Like anything else in the universe, location is a matter of information. All points in space have a value relative to one another, which is equal to one. This is the Correspondence Point, the rational constant that enables a willworker with understanding of Correspondence to view other places, manipulate things at distance, change their own location, and modify the parameters of geometry. Entropy This Codebase grants a willworker access to powers over chaos, order, random chance, and statistical inevitability. If he were ever to study Entropy, Furio would use a random number generator program to help him crystallize variables into the patterns he requires. By locking the appropriate variables into place within his mind, Furio would become able to assert those variables upon the universe, granting himself fortune, cursing others with bad luck, reinforcing order, or promoting chaos. Forces Energy in all its forms is the purview of this Codebase. If he were ever to study Forces, Furio would make use of a holographic emitter to help him shape, contain, and alter patterns of energy. By utilizing visible light as a base, he would become able to generate any number of superquantum forms of energy. Electricity, heat, magnetism, gravity, and even interactions of nuclear forces become possible for a willworker studied in Forces Code.

Life Study and manipulation of living organics is covered by this highly esoteric Codebase. To focus on Life Code, Furio utilizes a breed of nanomech that he designed himself. These machines, each one no larger than a cell's nucleus, form a reactive network within a living organism. Given direction through trinary computer instructions, a nanomech field can make edits to a living organism at the subgenetic level, literally rewriting physiology on the fly. Furio's access to Life Code is currently remedial, and he lacks the understanding required to alter complex organisms. He is currently limited to working with nonvertebrate life and his own biology. Matter Nonorganic material is expressed through Matter Code. Furio makes use of a holographic data prism to scan, study, and project alterations to material substances. Paired with a trinary device, he is able to sample a substance's atomic structure and make changes to it via quantum induction. As with his understanding of Life, Furio has only remedial access to Matter Code. But even this limited understanding allows him to change uniform substances. With addition of Prime Code, he is even able to transubstantiate new materials out of pure Currency. Mind Conscious thought and emotion are governed by the Mind Codebase. If Furio were to study Mind, he would turn to parallexin, a tailored smart drug, to unlock higher forms of thought. Parallexin increases neural conductivity and accelerates active cognition, allowing thoughts to be formed in ways that mimic psychic phenomena. True masters of Mind Code are capable of forging entirely new consciousness, the source of true AI.

Prime This Codebase gives access to Currency itself--the Quintessence of the universe, the metaphysical essence that forms all things. It is the fundamental Fifth Force, simultaneously representing potential change and concrete existence. Furio utilizes physical currency to help him focus his mind on perceiving and directing Quintessence. Quintessence can fuel Code access directly, or it can be used in the creation of Devices--objects invested with Code of their own. Apps are single-use items, while Devices hold specific lines of Code. A Server even contains logic gates and subroutines to allow the unAwakened to use the Code they contain, while Mainframes can store Currency for later use. Dimension One of the more esoteric Codebases, Dimension Code grants access to the Outworlds beyond the Divide that separates the Gaiasphere from the rest of the universe. It also allows interaction with the xenophorm entities that are native to those myriad subdimensions. If he were ever to learn Dimension Code, Furio would make use of a xenodimensional oscillation device, a hypertech unit that could be given trinary instructions to manipulate the Divide, allowing allow passage beyond and enabling interaction with the xenophorms found there. Time This demanding Codebase gives a willworker command over time itself. Just as all points in observable space coexist simultaneously, so too do all moments in time coexist simultaneously. This being the case, knowledge of Time Code allows a willworker to view other moments in time, either past or future, and to alter the way the motion of time is experienced. To access Time Code, Furio has designed a smartwatch with an isolinear tachyhedron, a crystalline structure that accumulates and emits tachyon particles, which can be used to manipulate individual points in time.