posted 07-22-99 07:11 AM ET        

I have looked through the manual and there seems to be limited discussion of the basis for Psionic Power (or perhaps I am not looking in the right place). So, my friend and I developed the following document about it. Perhaps you could tell us if we deviate from the intended archetype. I printed the following post on the Apolyton Forums to explain the use of Psionic Power in the writing of the Spartan Chronicles:
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My friend and I were discussing Psi power on Tuesday as we were drinking our afternoon coffee. It arose from our discussion of The Spartan Chronicles, where I write for the Psi Corps, and Kinjiru's prompt to develop a method and a base for the Empath's Psionic power. We had made the single intuitive leap to establish a "Psionic Force" (along with Gravity, weak, strong, electromagnetism) and, from that axiom alone, we have developed a Psionic Physics. We wrote our ideas down on Wednesday. This being the work of only one afternoon, there are things that we did not get to--largely for purposes of the story itself:
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THE PSIONIC FORCE the fifth and most recently discovered fundamental force of nature that underlies all forms of sentience and complexity. The psionic force is unique among the five forces in that its interactions with matter cannot be described by differential equations using standard physical quantities, and its effects when measured in the laboratory appear largely qualitative. Because of its lack of clear physical implications, the psionic force was never hypothesised by Earth scientists; it only became apparent in conjunction with experiments with mindworms on Alpha Centauri in the twenty-second century. While the other four fundamental forces have been shown to merge into one unified force at high levels of entropy, a Grand Unified Theory for all five of the forces has never materialised, even though a great deal of scientific endeavour has gone toward this end. While this is partially due to the remarkable difficulty of studying the psionic force under laboratory conditions, it has been hypothesised that the psionic force is more fundamental than the other four, so the five cannot merge into a single force�

All objects radiate a psionic wave, the propagation of which may be described by Maxwell's equations, as is also the case for electromagnetic waves. The amplitude of this wave is directly correlated to the amount of information encoded by the object. Roughly speaking, this quantity represents the extent to which an object is alive; since an of entropy (guaranteed by thermodynamics) necessitates a corresponding decrease of information in a system, evolution arose as the sole process by which information may increase against such a gradient. The process of evolution essentially entails increasing the information between two sets of data (DNA and protein, for example) to the extent that copies may be made of both sets before entropy disables the original two sets. Likewise the frequency of this psionic wave encodes what clairvoyants say amounts roughly to the thoughts of the object. While the psionic waves emitted by a given object encodes sufficient information to reproduce the thoughts of the organism, in the cases of the vast majority of complicated living organisms, the radiation of an organism and those of the various organisms that comprise it (for instance, a brain and its individual cortices or neurones, or a body and its individual organs or cells) are not synchronised and therefore serve to interfere with each other, nullifying nearly all of the information into a confused garble. Because of this phenomenon, the psionic force has been extraordinarily difficult to study in the laboratory, and all but the most basic information known about it is known through clairvoyants, a fact that many scientists resent�

According to clairvoyants, the principle that both underlies the mindworms and the clairvoyants themselves is that all organisms that comprise a larger organism (and the larger organism itself) radiate waves as close to in phase with each other as possible, minimising destructive interferance and allowing psionic waves from different organisms to interact with each other. This interaction is the genesis the various psionic abilities. In practice, this imposed synchronisation of waves, or 'clarity,' as clairvoyants call it, is difficult to perfect, though in terms of measurable psionic power, a gain of one decimal place is worth an order of magnitude of measurable psionic power (the amplitude of the wave being held constant). Among humans, the record 'disclarity' has been measured at 2%; most human clairvoyants fall near 10%. Among mindworms, disclarity is universally around 1% except for some D�mon boils, which have reportedly ranged into the millionths of a percent, though D�mon boils typically range from .1% to .01%. Experiments have shown that only after boils stop growing in size (complexity), do they increase in mental finesse� Further, D�mon boils have occasionally been known not only have low quantities of disclarity, but also to regulate their impure waves as harmonics of the fundamental wave, and sometimes to produce recognisable chords and scales. It is this regard, particularly for measuring psionic potency, wherein the value of the Fourier transform has presented itself. The significance of this is not known as yet, though recent research has shown Planet itself to play a certain r�le in the�

Scientifically, the roots of psionic abilities such as telepathy and telekinesis is unknown. According to clairvoyants, each object in the universe is sentient to some extent, as per its complexity, so that even the simplest atoms and molecules may be empathised with. Control of the clairvoyant's own psionic emissions allows him slightly to modify the fine structure of another organism's psionic patterns, essentially amounting to the projection of thoughts; the mutual practise of this amounts to telepathy. These results are preliminarily corroborated by experimentation with spectrum analysers on psionic emissions, but experiments such as these amount merely to circumstantial evidence for the assertion, leaving an accepted axiomatic theory to be desired. The explanation for telekinesis that is given by the clairvoyant community is even more widely rejected in the scientific community for its wide implications on the nature of the universe: each of the constants of the universe (the charge of an electron, the relationship between mass and gravity, distance and the weak force, &c) are agreed upon at the psionic level by all sentience in the universe. Telekinesis reflects the temporary change in one or some of these constants (frequently the gravitational attraction between two objects), leading to a physical return to a new equilibrium�

ENCYCLOP�DIA CELESTIA *

posted 07-22-99 07:15 AM ET            

Chapter the Second

The way gives them life
And virtue rears them;
Things take shape
And vessels are formed.

Hence the myriad creatures all revere the way and honour virtue. The way in being revered, and virtue in being honoured are constantly so of themselves without anyone bewtowing nobility on them.

The way gives them life and rears them,
Brings them up and accomplishes them,
Brings them to fruition and maturity,
Feeds and shelters them.
It gives them life without claiming to possess them;
It benefits yet exacts no gratitude for this;
It is the steward yet exercises no authority over them.
Such is called dark virtue.
--Lau Tzu, Te Ching, 14

Ishmael Skye pondered the situation before him. Through telepathic link with a mind worm, he could see the troops of the Spartan First Expeditionary Force settling on the edge of the fungal bloom that engulfed the Ruins. Not "see," really, for mind worms did not have the visual sensors that humans did. Nay, they perceived the world through a much more primal medium: that of the raw thoughts of the sentient being. Ishmael could feel the very emotions juxtaposed like the shadows that followed every being. The air seemed to teem and almost vibrate with the pheremones of group consciousness. At times like this, he almost wondered at how these lesser humans could be so blind to it.

Thoughts meandred in and out of the consciousness of space time. Tangent upon tangent, Ishmael followed the ramblings of his mind. He could feel the secrets of clairvoiyance just within his grasp. But to no avail did he toil to that end.

Jostling himself out of his reverie, Ishmael opened his eyes to the dark world that surrounded him. The huge chamber lay underground at the centre of the Ruins. From this great hall there extended many passageways leading into the unknown. The air was icy cold but stale, far from the intense heat of the Great Dunes that lay only a few hundred feet above. In the distance could be heard the steady drip drip of water.

The huge cavern glowed with a dull luminescence, the source of which no human eye could trace. It seemed that the air itself glowed independently, without any central source. The entirety of the chamber was made of a smooth, black rock. The great ceiling was roughly dome-shaped, yet, upon closer inspection, the twisted curves and lines that marred the ceiling could be made out. In contrast, the floor was smooth and without blemish.

The central figure to this daunting image was what, in all appearances, looked like a throne. It was situated hundreds of feet from the floor and could be reached through a grand flight of stairs. The whole structure took up a good sixty degree arc of the entire chamber perimeter. The throne itself was huge, made for a big human. It was made of the same black stone as the rest of the chambre. It had a tortured and sharp look to it. On the back of the throne could be seen the engraving of a dragon claw holding a planet in its grip.

Ishmael could never tell whether that planet represented Earth or Chiron. Look at that monstrosity. Made precisely to fit earthbeings. And yet, it must have been constructed millions of years ago. How did Planet know? How does Planet know? Ishmael stood at the base of the stairs, watching the throne with a curiosity tinged with a morbid sense of dread.

Until the Gods themselves we become, not can we rest our efforts. Not until the Chosen Ones transcend the flesh and join the ranks of the divine. Not until the dirty pagans have been purged from our Planet can it truly be ours! Ishmael's thoughts returned to the Spartan Expeditionary Force lingering around the Ruins.

There will be time for genocide. For now, we must tread this dangerous path carefully. Ishmael extended his awareness to the life all around the Ruins. Here resided the most powerful mind worms that Ishmael had ever seen. There was at least one Great Boil, he knew from personal experience. When Planet had first lured him to this sanctuary, he had found himself faced with a huge Great Boil Mind Worm whose collective length was at least 100 metres. He was greeted with immense pains that flooded his whole body. In retrospect, the psionic power that the Great Boil was capable of was almost unbelievable to Ishmael. But at that moment, he had not time to think of aught but the pain. As Ishmael started to feel his sentient being transit from his body--and his brain almost bursting from his skull--the pain dulled to a slow-tempo song. A Voice had spoken to him: welcome to the Ruins, earthishmael, we have been waiting...

Now that he thought of it, Ishmael realised that the Great Boil carried in it far more power than it had showed him, and that only a small fraction of its psionic energies was needed to bring him to his knees. Planet had even given hints to him about even greater mind worms--Daemon Boils, they were called--that lurked deep within the fungal forests of Chiron.

After skimming the native life around the camped troops with his mind, he latched onto one particular hatchling to take a closer "look" at the soldiers. XForce, they called themselves, led by Captain Elyias. This will be far more difficult than that lone Peacekeeping scout. We had managed to destroy it before it sended out any signals to the U.N. Destroying an entire expeditionary force would arouse suspicion. They must survive, but they must also not be allowed to reveal our position. Not yet. Perhaps...

Ishmael decided upon what course of action to take, however, he was unsure as to what forces he should marshall. If I send the Great Boil at them, will it listen to me? Even if it does, will my Empaths be able to handle even being in its presence?

Ishmael Skye sent out a telepathic message to the worms.

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Captain "Paco" Elyias was in his bed chamber when a loud crash woke him up. In the next instant, he could hear screams of pain break the ghostly stillness of the night. He immediately rose and donned his combat suit. In such uncertain places like this--the Great Dunes--he was never far from it. Keeping his shredder pistol at hand, he stepped out into the desert night. Immediately, he fell to the floor, clutching his head and screaming. Immense pain flooded through all corridors of his being. Through the corner of his eye, he saw a huge mind worm boil--at least 150 metres long--tower above him. Quickly, the voracious mind worm larvae jumped off the great boil and eagerly onto Elyias's writhing body. He could see his men, throughout the camp, falling under the same fate. He remembered the scientific studies that he had read on mind worms--only in passing, during one of his lazy searches through datalinks. He recalled reading that they burrowed into the brain, injecting their ravenous larvae. Elyias would be food. He readied himself for death...
...But it did not come. Elyias's convulsions were brutally stopped as the larvae completely covered his body in the frozen form of a semi-boil. As the pain in his head became more and more intolerable, his muscles screamed to move. He wanted to cry out, but the mind worms had choked his throat and covered his mouth.

Through the pattern that the larvae had woven over his face, he could see three men dressed in dark Great Cloaks traversing his camp. As they passed by soldier upon soldier, the larvae released their hold and scurried into the protection of the fungus. The soldiers lay there, unconscious or dead. As the hooded men approached Elyias, the excruciating pain eased, and he could feel a voice in his head. Forget your pains...forget your glories...forget this place, earthelyias...

Captain Elyias fell into dream.