"So, between Circle of Towers Druid and Psion, is there any likely difference in how available they would each be? How feasible would it be to take one of those two now and plan on taking the other at the next opportunity, and is that feasibility substantially different depending which I take now and which I plan to take later?"

Three seconds of consideration. "Developing an Icon that is far from your existing Icons is difficult, but Pinnacle obviates this: with a single Pinnacle aspect, you can take on a traditional Psion aspect, and render yourself able to pursue the path. Classy is worth considering if you want to take both, because it is highly unlikely that you will acquire the second naturally before your second century."

So far, being open about her goals has been working out fine. She lets herself relax a bit, but tries to still keep a metaphorical eye on the possibility that relaxing is a mistake.

"I'm considering Classy but I don't want to commit to it yet because there might be other Exceptions I'd like better. For now I'd like to move on from Icon selection without making a final decision and hear about the next thing."

It's instant as she finishes. "As mentioned before, it's possible for you to have resources directed to you to give you a stronger start. The cost of this is that you align yourself more strongly with the goals of the project by taking on the seeds of a dream. It is not viable to mind control a Hero, and we aren't going to try to cheat our way past that immunity. Even if it succeeded, the destructive power of Heroes is immense."

1.12 seconds. "But a Hero can influence themselves."

1.23 seconds. "Nothing is dramatic, any great change of priority. These each are the seeds of a dream. If you agree to absorb one of these, then in some small way, it will become one of your dreams. Not your most important one, but something that draws your interest, appeals to you. Over time, you'll find yourself making choices to make these dreams happen. It won't put these accepted dreams above your greater ambitions... but it will be there."

One second. "There are dreams of Safety, Change, going beyond the horizon, Legacy, Success, Home, Industry, Discovery, stability, companionship, love, and children."

Two seconds. "Which would you like more detail on?"

"...I think I should hear the details on all of them."

There are no pauses, now, one dream after another, rapid.

"A dream of Safety. People worry about each other, care about what happens to others. They feel a stranger's pain after hearing their story. But it's a distant pain, easily ignored. Harvested from crusaders, healers, and those who devoted themselves to the common good, this is a dream of other people's safety. It will make the voice that cares what happens to people you will never meet louder. You will be more easily moved by causes that help humanity as a whole, and find yourself spending more time and effort on such efforts."

"A dream of Change. A feeling of confinement and escape, the wish for a new start. This is a dream of change, of wanting to try new things, start new things, be new things, of embracing change for change's sake and finding joy and satisfaction in leaving old burdens behind and starting over as someone new. Taken from young adults ready to leave the nest, middle-aged men and women stuck in a self-made crisis, and the old, bitter at everything they didn't do."

"A dream beyond the Horizon. A dream of the young and those young at heart, blazing trails and filling in the map, seeing things few people ever see, and seeing the truth of things for yourself. Adastra had been well explored before the Fourfold Apocalypse. After... not so much. New lands, and lands changed. People who once traded have become strangers. Exploring can be dangerous, but it's needed if we're to reconnect our lands."

"A dream of Legacy. The wish to leave a mark, something that means you'll be remembered positively, or just remembered at all. A dream harvested from the old, from the failures, and from those at the peak. Many dreams can be expressed through legacy, and legacy can become many dreams. This seed has strong synergy with many other seeds."

"A dream of Success. A simple dream from those who were once hungry before they found their way. Like them, you will be hungry and know Want. You will find yourself working harder, setting yourself higher goals, and dreaming grander dreams. This won't so much create a new dream, as make you less willing to settle for a lesser one."

"A dream of Home. A common dream many share. A desire for a home. Not merely a place to stay, but a place that is yours. Many adventurers are defined by wanderlust, people who'll want a place to stay for a few years before moving on. But a powerful individual home claims a territory can anchor it, and a hero is powerful."

"A dream of Discovery. A dream shared by both children and sages - a desire to know. It may develop into the passion and focus needed to research things yourself, or could just inspire you to become a patron of the sciences. It's just the seed of a dream, how it manifests will come from you."

"A dream of Industry. The flip side of discovery, the wish to expand what is done, to make the abstract concrete. A complex dream that can take many forms and comes from many kinds of people. Whether self-aggrandizement, greed, or the desire to improve the world, all of them can share in this dream."

"A dream of Stability. There is something comforting and peaceful in knowing that tomorrow might look much like today. It's not something you realize when you're young, but certainty is a potent comfort once you have experienced its loss. There is no end to the number of people of people who long for and dream of consistency. This dream seed plant a single hope, desire, for that consistency. For no big upsets. The hope that tomorrow is a better version of today, rather than some unrecognizable strangeness."

"A dream together. Whether an adventurer's band, a close knit team, or a clan, there are many ways people find fulfillment through community. Harvested from all walks of life, there are many who don't want to walk alone."

"A dream of Love. To have and to hold, someone just for you, to fulfill you. Romance, and sex, to complete them and be completed by them. Marriage. This is a dream many have and embrace."

"A dream of Children. To have your own children, fruit of your own body. To cherish them, and help them grow. From all walks of life."

"There are other dreams for adaptation, but you do not need them and would not benefit."

She thinks each of these through as she hears them. Safety seems plausibly worthwhile, she doesn't object to helping people though she doesn't tend to prioritize it; Change seems like it'll be useful foundational material... she makes a mental note to ask about that later, actually. Horizon seems reasonable. Legacy seems like it could slot very neatly into her existing plans. Success likewise. Home might be a nice counterbalance to Change, to anchor her first self into a stable situation. Discovery sounds like it will bolster some of the parts of herself she likes best. Industry likewise. Stability fits well with Home. Together sounds useful for getting along with herselves. Love has never historically been something she's interested in, but it sounds interesting to explore. And Children of course fits very well with her plans. Now, about that question...

"If I were to incorporate these dreams, and then later duplicate myself, would the dreams tend to persist through to the duplicates, or tend not to, or would I be able to affect whether or not they did?"

The spirit pauses for six seconds. "The modal outcome is that you are influencing yourself, now, so while it may be possible to change them in duplicates, this would only be in the ways that you could change other preferences in duplicates. The dream seeds won't be persistently foreign: your Cthonic Will would obliterate them."

Wow, that pause was really long. On reflection she's not surprised; that had to be a pretty novel question.

"I think I understand. Thank you. What is there to know after Dreams, then?"

No pause. "You may choose your tribe. You are currently human, and may remain that way, but there are a number of other options that you may wish to consider. There are many races upon Adastra. However, this spell was cast by members of only a few, and while they wish well for all the people of Adastra, they wished well more for their own. As such, you may choose from the tribes of their peoples, and their closest allies."

One second. "Because you have expressed interest in having a large quantity of children, there will be more detail on racial differences, because that will matter more to final outcomes."

One second. "Elves are perfection, as best could be created. They stop aging once they reach maturity, though you would acquire this anyway at the 20th level of existence, most likely around your seventh Ascension. They have an aspect of physical perfection, and another for Glamour that makes them all enchanters. The mind is a complex problem, but while the smartest elf might not be smarter than the smartest gnome or human, their average is higher. And as a healthy body can help support a strong mind, their minds get a lot of support. They are mentally flexible and adaptable to boot. Their minds are further supported by their Glamour-affinity aspect. It's believed that this is meant to support mental exercises, by effectively making the mind's eye 'real' to them, letting them hold and manipulate more information at once, and in a more coherent 'real' way."

Two seconds. "With elves requiring a high level of existence to reproduce, 14 or 15 for normal fertility, and so many elves having risen to the occasion during the fourfold apocalypse, making the final sacrifice, the elves are facing serious population issues. The survivors are mostly either young, or those who have failed to develop themselves for hundred or even thousands of years. They don't exactly face a population crash, as they don't age out, but their circumstances are dire. If you become an elf, expect there to be an attempt at being wooed by pretty much every elven man you meet. Elves are difficult to transform you into, and will take away two gifts from your total." 

Two seconds. "Gnomes have a higher metabolism than most races, giving them a great deal of energy, moment to moment, but if force to exert themselves for an extended time they tend to crash, though they'll also recover from that crash quite fast. Gnomes have a normal intelligence distribution, slightly skewed toward 'high'. They are, however, highly creative and mentally flexible, being contenders for claiming to be among the highest. Well, except for elves, of course. Gnome mature somewhat slowly, and live a long time. An unusually high number of gnomes are able to bond to icons, skewing it longer."

One second. "Gnomes have an average Level of Existence of 4 at birth, and usually reach 5 by adulthood without bonding an Icon. A level of existence of 5 is needed for common Gnome bloodlines to reproduce, but a 7 is better. Their Level of Existence used to be lower, but the average has increase over the millennia, which has resulted in severely falling fertility rates. Gnomes have the most, and the most advanced lineages of any of the races our collage has detailed records for. The Ashfell clan, a rather famous clan of gnome warriors, has a level of existence of 18 at birth, and 20 by adulthood, naturally achieving immorality. They're secretive about their clan's Aspects, but they seem to have ones that both boost physical abilities to make up for their slight stature, and a destructive 'ashblade.' They require a woman of at least the 32nd level of existence. The clan had five mothers before the Fourfold Apocalypse, but three of them died during it. The sons of Ashfall are sponsoring every woman adventurer and ascender they can, hoping to produce a woman who can join the clan, while the daughters of Ashfall throw themselves at danger in search of glory and advancement. The Ashfell are an extreme example, but not alone. Gnomes summon few heroes, and using templating to change a summoned hero's Tribe has never been done before. The gnomes will welcome you, but they'll also have expectations. Gnomes aren't as complicated as elves, and will only take a single Gift."

Two seconds. What follows seems more natural, like it was recorded rather than merely written. "Mentally, Tiefling are known for their focus and a certain tendency to stick to their preconceptions - they aren't stupid, but as a tribe born from a plane of order they naturally value consistency, and so it's harder for them to shift their preconceptions. It can make them less flexible, but more meticulous and methodical, and many Tieflings have excelled as scholars. On the other hand, for a people born of evil, they're a cheerful and friendly people who tend to think the best of others. They rejected their roots in tyranny to such an extent that it has marked their bloodlines with an aspect of Hope, and so they both hope for others and themselves, and bring Hope and find it for themselves. It's a subtle aspect, but at times a powerful one.

1.37 seconds. "Tieflings came from low-caste devil stock, and their lifespans are slightly shorter than average, with them reaching maturity faster. They are normally born at a level of existence of 1, and reach 2 by adulthood. They're a young tribe, and haven't significantly increased their average level of existence yet. There are few Tiefling lineage. One of the strongest is a line is a Clan following the Maylaith. They're born at a Level of Existence of 5, and reach 7 by maturity. Their careful guidance and blessings have kept their requirements low, and a mother bearing a child from that clan needs only 6 levels of existence for the pregnancy to succeed. The Tieflings were hated as traitors by the devils, and their fundamentally good nature meant many of them rose to the occasion during the four disasters. They are by far the most devastated of the tribes you might become. They have no homeland anymore, though the elves have taken in most, and so you may consider that their 'homeland' these days. While the many tribes of men, gnomes and beastfolk make Tieflings welcome in their lands, the Tieflings themselves have an almost anarchist culture among themselves, trusting in each other's goodness more than law, which causes them trouble fitting in among those peoples. The Tieflings need help, and at the same time would put few expectations upon you. It's not in their nature. To become a Tiefling would require one Gift."

Two seconds. "As stated before, Icons were copied from nature, but binding icons happened before the Tribes figured out how to forge them and bind them intentionally. One of the more common ways this happened was through odd conjunctions the influence of a powerful animal in the local region blessed a child with power from that animal, or the reverse, where the influence of the tribes upon a land blessed an animal with an icon of the tribes. Most were infertile, or just bred back into their original race, but on rare occasions a Wolf-Man might meet a Woman-Wolf, and have the pairing breed true. Over time, enough bred true to break away from their original tribes and become Beastmen."

One second. "Beastmen vary tremendously, both based on the animal source and the tribe source. The Kitsune are born of Gnomes and Foxes, the Wolfen from wolves and humans, and so on. The animal influences are sometimes mentally positive, and sometimes negative. The physical influence is almost always positive and comes with an Aspect of the animal they came from. There were too many choices to include them individually, and the differences are small: If you choose this, just focus on what you want and the spell will help you sort the possibilities. To become a Beastwoman would require one Gift."

One second. "The final two options would each require three Gifts, because we will need to raise you to a higher starting Level of Existence than the default of six."

One second. "The Kumiho are one of the few Beastmen tribes born of elves, and having all the elves gifts and more the Kumiho gain a fox-Aspect that fortifies their perfection with a kind of innate cruel cleverness. Elves have a natural affinity for glamour, but that's usually expressed internally inside their own mind, or to craft enchanted goods. The Kumiho can combine it with their fox-Aspect to easily be leveraged into illusions and into enchantments that call upon the cycles of the natural world, using glamour shaped by cleverness to take on other forms for a time, or to invoke natural disasters. The Kumiho are born at a level of existence of 7, and generally reach 9 by adulthood. They grow up somewhat faster than elves. If you become a Kumiho, part of the energy taken by this transformation will be spent raising your level of existence. Kumiho need a level of existence of at least 17 to have healthy fertility. Kumiho have a bad reputation, one they've well earned. They are naturally cruel and duplicitous. But they were key in breaking the Nightmares, and driving their forces to Carilyis, before we snuffed out their sun."

Two seconds. "An elite beastmen tribe born from the tribe of humans and the dragons, the Dragonblooded are a powerful race. They have aspects of 'power' that express themselves generally, aspects of 'physicality' that reinforce their bodies, aspects of 'enduring' that let them shrug off harm, and aspects of 'dragons' that give them elemental, physical, and magical power and weight. They are intense and potent. Dragons are the only race as refined in their making as the elves, but while elves were crafted to have perfect lives, dragons were crafted to be living weapons of destruction. Dragons are largely thought of as an immortal race, but they aren't like the elves, born immortal. Dragonbloods inherit this. Dragonbloods are long lived and are slow to reach physical maturity. Dragonbloods are born at the tenth level of existence, and reach the twelfth by adulthood. If you become a dragonsblood, part of the energy taken by this transformation will be spent raising your level of existence. Dragonsbloods need a level of existence of at least 19 to have healthy fertility."

Two seconds. "Do you have any questions?"

She takes a moment to think this over, wondering idly about the differences in delay length between different sections of that explanation. One of those delays almost didn't seem regimented to a strangely precise interval at all! No, focus.

"...do you have predictions about the approximate timeline of how long it would take to achieve normal fertility as an Elf? You mention using Gifts to raise my starting Level of Existence; can that be done freely, or only in conjunction with these specific choices?"

Two seconds. "With the blessings of Fertility that you will receive, I would expect it to be reasonable to try for a child after your third Ascension, which might take place in a year if you focused on it, or longer if you were slower to accumulate Potential. It is predicted that Psion would be faster than Circle of Towers Druid, at first. It is extremely unlikely that you would be unable to bear a child after your fourth Ascension, which with very high likelihood would take place within three years."

One second. "The only way to directly raise your Level of Existence with Gifts is through your selection of a Tribe."

She mulls this over. It seems pretty reasonable overall. She probably will want to establish herself and settle down a bit before she starts popping out mini-Ellens.

"In that case, I probably want to choose Elf, but I'm not sure yet. What's next?"

No pause. "If you distrust your subconscious or the magics at work, you may dictate how your new body will look in various ways. More important and interesting are the physical refinements. They start off as first Ascension aspects and will grow slowly as you do, generally being at one fifth of your Ascensions."

One second. "Four will give gifts. Enhanced Libido, Pleasure Optimization, Multiple Pregnancy, and Prenatal Optimization. I expect that you will desire all of them."

One second. "Three will be costless. Fertility Control is self-explanatory. Touch of the Naiad makes you healthy and takes you from inhumanly to impossibly beautiful. Mood Balancer was developed by a group of war gods of Adrasta, the Atamata, and given freely to soldiers throughout the land who wanted it. It will not eliminate emotional expressions or prevent you from feeling joy. It is predicted that you will also want all of them."

One second. "The final five would each require one Gift to fuel, and enhance a specific aspect of your body and give you two Aspects to further enhance that. Sphinx's Watchfulness will enhance your senses without risking overload, and give you "Physical Senses" and "Enduring Perception". Metabolic Support will optimize how your body uses energy, improve recovery, and give "Physical Dynamo" and "Physical Recovery". Solid Body optimizes your structural integrity, and grants the Aspects "Physical Stability" and ""Physical Solidity". Kinesthetic Grace optimizes your senses and joints and ligaments, drawing from the lifescrolls of Tengu assassins. Expect improved reflexes and spatial awareness. This is supported by Aspects of "Physical Grace" and "Physical Awareness". Finally, Explosive Speed grants "Physical Speed" and "Physical Endurance". It synergizes with the other metabolic improvements: if you took all four of them, then even without Pinnacle and Outsider you could physically fight at someone of one more Ascension than you on even grounds, all else being equal."

Two seconds. "Do you have any questions?"

Probably she'll just take the lot but she's not committing to anything until she's heard it all and probably gone back and clarified a few things.

"I think I understand, thank you. What's next?"

No delay. "Treasures! Aspect Emblems consume an average of two thirds of the Gifts of users. Aspect Emblems allow people to collectively format Potential into aspect, and allow magic, technique, and glamour to be leveraged into tuning and empowering those Aspects. In this way, out-of-icon Aspects can be forged with precision and intention, and don't depend on the vulgarities of chance. While it's not exactly a drawback, there is a limit on Aspect Emblems. While integrating one is fast, and you can start using the Aspect gained immediately, 'digesting' it is slow, and there isn't 'space' in the spirit for a second Aspect Emblem until the first is digested. The time to digest an emblem is a function of its effective Ascension, and one's one level of existence. It takes around a year to digest an emblem mimicking an aspect at an Ascension one-fourth of your level of existence, with it taking exponentially more time as your Level drops below that, and logarithmically less as it rises above that rank. Many clans will start feeding Emblems to their child - it's one of the reasons children of clans with icons oft bond icons themselves. We can feed them to you as part of the final stage of templating, and the templating will digest them for you rather than forcing you to wait to integrate each one. Language is generally seen as the 'best' skill to directly learn from an emblem, and even that tends to result in some short-term confusion as you don't know what you know. But they're certainly worth taking."

Two seconds. "Firstly there are the free ones: they're so weak, and thus easy to make, and so useful it would be malpractice to not give them to you, though you are allowed to refuse. Common Language covers the five most common languages in your starting location, and give you a minor aspect of Language to help with ones after that. Poise gives four minor aspects for social graces. Courting has minor aspects of 'Romance' and 'Sensuality', which will give you both skill and confidence. Survival has a first Ascension Survival aspect in addition to minor 'Outdoorsmanship', 'Hunting', 'Gathering', 'Camping' and 'Traveling' Aspects. Finally, the Child Care package has five minor aspects around planning, managing, mitigating, encouraging, and enduring children."

Two seconds. "The rest will each consume one Gift, if taken. Athletic Skills is a package of third Ascension emblems common among elves that includes 'Athletics', 'Physical Self-Discipline', and 'Body Training'. The second is a fourth tier Aspect Emblem of 'Sexuality' would make most decadent nobles balk at the price, but is available. Thirdly, an Elixir Field is useful for someone interested in faster progress at internal Orgone manipulation, or simply a powerful boost to physical efficacy for someone uninterested in the art."

One second. "The remainder are more specifically chosen by you: categories and individual options to follow, each still one Gift, with no bulk discount unfortunately. Each will be produced at the fourth Ascension."

They come rapid-fire, one after another after another. "Element Skills. Using an element to do something. Fire Magic, Metal Techniques, Wind Enchantment, Terrakinesis, or similar. A workhorse Aspect - you can't use it to gain access to something as exotic as the Light of Law or Iron Glamour, and, it will be specific to a particular system of power like Magic, Enchantment, Orgone Techniques or Alchemy, or Psionics. A strong starting point to build off of without consuming an Outsider or Pinnacle Aspect."

"Combat Skills. A broad family of weapons. Heavy Swords, Polearms, Fists. Drop off slowly in efficacy as the weapon gets farther away. Heavy Swords would fully engage with all but the largest blade, down to the heavier one handed swords. It would still help, but not as much, with some of the larger 'impossible' artifact blades, and down to short swords. Past that, it would be little aid. Quite common among the upper class. Most Lords and Ladies receive one shortly after bonding their Icon. Like Elemental Skills, this is a sufficiently easy emblem to make that anything can be generated. And yes, your own body works as a weapon Aspect. Many practitioners follow that road."

"Magic Skills. A broad area of magic. Necromancy, Divination, Conjuration, Abjuration, Healing, Influence, and High Ritual Magic."

"Alchemy. A practice of manipulation using Orgone. Life Alchemy, Unstable Alchemy, Transmutation Alchemy, Perfecting Alchemy, and Spiritual Alchemy. A small election of a deep field. Even if it's not your focus, Alchemy can give you a number of tools to back up other skills."

"Psionic Arts. Psychokinesis, Telepathy, Precognition, Incarnation. Adrasta's understanding of Psionics is still shallow, and these were the only Emblems that were understood enough to generate them without lowering standards. They will come as a surprise to most on Adrasta."

"Enchantment. Health, Fortune, Illusion, Invoking, Charm, and Shadowcraft are all available to you. Enchantment can be a powerful art, but take care not to go down a road you'll regret, and remember that once Glamour is physically incarnated, iron can be used against it. If you go down this route, and prove yourself trustworthy, there will be other paths available to you."

"Artistic Integration. Any field of art can be chosen, and used to mix the powers."

"Druidic Arts. Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring. The orthodox paths: a good fallback, or a good starting point."

"I'm not sure I understand what Artistic Integration or Druidic Arts would mean in practice," she says. There are some other areas she's also unsure of, but more in the way of specific subheadings like Psychokinesis under Psionics; she can ask about those later. For the broad overview she wants to understand at least the high-level highlights of everything.

"Bardic arts, sacred geometry, and sage paintings touch upon how the powers mix and become muddled. While a bard might use 'pure' bardic abilities, a painter 'pure' painting, everyone else uses them as a technique to blend the powers. This Aspect will give you a starting point for such things, whether to dabble or as the start of a more serious investment. The ways of turning an art form 'spiritual' are well understood, and so you may pick almost any form of artistic expression to develop. This includes architecture and civic engineering, and would pair well for a Circle of Towers Druid."

"That is understandable. The old druids who named the paths were very poetic. Spring is the magic of growth, change, and plants. Watering one plant to provide for 100, or making vines strike your opponents mid-combat. Elementalism, in a pure practice, can be its own magical art, but working with nature spirits and natural elementals is the path of Summer. Fall is change and transformation, most frequently turning a mortal into a beast, or giving the mortal merely some of their beast's attributes. Winter is the art of observation and stillness: if you want to disrupt the flow of Orgone in another, Winter can provide options, but more frequently it is used for scrying at a distance or connecting the living in some way."

"I see..." Several of those sound potentially useful. And spiritual architecture sounds amazing, though she's not entirely sure she understands how that might work.

"What's next, then?"

No pause. "Chained Sprits. Spiritual entities and those who exist in a different balance of the powers than material beings. Many people on our world make the mistake of labeling every being native to a different plane a Spirit, but that's wrong. The Devils of the Iron Hells are not spirits. The Iron Hells were places of law, and that law created a consistent enough reality to be 'material.' As such, the Devils are not spirits. On the flip side, a Native Outsider like yourself is a spirit. You are a drifting piece of self-contained reality - you could walk into deep Arcadia and not be dissolved, because your laws and rules are internal to your own existence. It's merely the case that those laws and rules are the same laws and rules as those of the material plane. With a few exceptions, like Native Outsiders and Gods, spirits are easier to move through magic, and easier to bind through it. It's possible to subvert the balance of the power that makes them up, and through doing this take control of them by seizing the root of their existence. Technically, it's possible to do that to mortal beings as well - the fae are infamous for their soul eating - but spiritual existence tends to create vulnerabilities. At the same time, these vulnerabilities can be a source of power. A dryad's root of being is sunk deep within her tree, and through it she can draw strength and power from the land. An angel's will and Law blend together, such that they may command Order itself."

Two seconds. "The circle of your own existence is not closed yet. It's closing as the templating completes, but there is still a little time. In it, I may sink the root of a spirit's existence inside you. Such a being would become an extension of you. Not in mind, but in purpose, your purpose would flow down the link and command their will. Such beings would have to have a lower level of existence than you do, and will always have a lower one. As you rise, so shall they, and over time they will Ascend their icons and forge their aspects in service to their root. But more profoundly, your Living Nexus Aspect will strongly pour your will and power into them. They will be as priests to you, channeling your aspects, invoking your exceptions, extending your reach. Wherever they go, you in some sense are. With practice, you'll be able to extend your senses through them."

Two seconds. "This is a... messy way of command. They will have their own natures, and while they will be loyal to you, but as a... principle to uphold first, your living will second, and your words third. They'll be loyal to your goals, but not how you wish to go about them. There are more legalistic ways of binding spirits, but they allow legal loopholes. There are no loopholes here, they can not turn on you so long as you exist, and would have trouble doing so even after. Just remember that their nature defines how they express that loyalty. In addition, even if they were disloyal, they have a strong incentive to keep you safe. So long as you live, their root of existence will live, and so they cannot die. They may be destroyed, but you can assert their existence and restore them without much trouble. You also anchor them, most anti-spirit measures will fail, and they cannot be bound by another. The reverse is also true, but to a lesser extent. So long as they live, they can call the root of their existence back to them, but the process is much harder, and they would need to use external resources and time. And during that time, they could be bound and subverted, breaking their connection to you until you return. If all your bound spirits are subverted or killed, and you are dead, you won't be coming back this way."

Two seconds. "This is novel. People won't expect you to have this. It's a tool that only became possible through the longer, slower templating process that was invented by my designers."

One second. "You may bind a demon, an angel, a fairy, an elemental, or a horror. The first three come in different options, if you wish to learn more. All cost one Gift."

She... is not entirely sure it is okay to do this to a person. But having someone who's loyal to the principle of herself, who wants to help her accomplish her goals and keep her alive, would be really useful.

"Do the options vary only in their capabilities, or also in their personalities? How well can their personalities be predicted ahead of time?"

"They vary in capabilities and goals: personalities are somewhere between unformed and currently unknown. This is most true of the Fae: a traditional faerie handmaiden will attend to your needs, and prioritize that, while an iron fae is tenacious and resilience, a survivor and source of the Third Apocalypse, but at best it can handle direct simple orders. An elemental is a rather blunt instrument, but you would recieve one of Air, and it could communicate with compatriots. It is also possible for you to select a Lesser Horror, though that is not recommended. The universe used to be... different. Not just ours, but most. The divergences between realities originate far back in time, and we've found echoes of that unknowable conflict. We've also run across survivors. Horrors don't bind Icons. They process potential and grow, but do not do so in a way we understand. They are highly intelligent, but their motivations are opaque. It's not merely that they won't answer, but that their answers are unintelligible.  The universe you lived in, the universe I live in... they're all the product of their old war.   Most sleep, but there are places where they stir, wake. Such places are... cursed."

Two seconds. "You may choose one of four types of demon. A lesser iron demon is only a little stronger than a completely unformed faerie handmaiden, and only a little stronger. It will seek to exalt you at others' expense. A lesser Iron demon would seek to support you ever higher, for the only law it loves is yours. A Lesser Demon lacks that well-defined nature, but will still try to exalt you at the expense of others. A lesser feral thing can transform into animals, and wishes to savage everyone who defies you, for you are the fear that it worships. Also known as an Incubus, Succubi are demons born from a number of different sub-planes in the astral depths that represent the triumph of physical want over principles. They can take lovely forms, both male and female, and steal the seed of a man to quicken a woman, enter dreams, and a dozen other tricks.  Succubi end up as political tools, surprisingly often, honestly, from spies to spending intangible messages to messing with succession. They also are young boys' first dabbling in summoning, but that tends to end worse.  For the succubi, you are the completion of all its desires."

Two seconds. "The strongest chained spirit, though also the bluntest, is the Lesser Wheel. An angel of motion and Law, it will move anything that impedes you away, usually physically. A Lesser Angel is to a Lesser Wheel as a Lesser Demon is to a Lesser Iron Demon: a more flexible and general creature uninflected by any specific plane, but also a less powerful one. Lesser Justices are stranger. Born from the paradox of 'evil' 'law', Justices are agents of mercy born from that paradox. Wherever double standards exist, there is a fault, a point where the order of law does not run smooth.  There are several orders of angels that can be born to resolve such things, but Justices are some of the more pleasant ones. A Judgement, for example is... something that helps, but it balances things in negatively, bringing negative consequences upon those who created and furthered such paradoxes. Justices are the opposite, bringing justice to those who suffered.  Justices are kind, but impersonal. They wish to help, but collectively. They command what is commonly called 'white' magic, but their power doesn't concentrate well. They could heal every patient in a clinic as easily as they could a single person. Divided across a large group, and their influence becomes more obvious.   Your cause has been unfairly handled, but this one will bring things to balance. Finally, the Lesser Elysium Attendant is the Angelic version of a Succubus: while boys tend to summon the latter because of the feeling of violation and naughtiness, to the Attendant you are all the joy in the world, and it can make you feel that joy."

Two seconds. "What has been said is all that can be known of them, in advance. But they seek to serve and start malleable: there are better and worse choices, but no wrong ones, save perhaps the Lesser Horror and the Lesser Iron Fae. Do you have any questions?"

Well, that's all a lot. Most of them sound like they will relate to her in fairly inconvenient ways, except maybe the Succubus and/or Attendant? The Justice sounds like they have interesting powers but a concerning attitude. The Succubus overall might be the best bet but their demonic nature is concerning.

However, she can still say: "I think I understand. What's next?"

"The final option is your choice of Bound Arcadia. There are eight options: based on observation you will want the full detail on all of them. Brownies. This fragment is defined by the presence of Brownies, minor fae who perform labor. Around you, there are Brownies. Not that you can see, but sometimes in the corner of your vision. This doesn't create individual fae. It creates the state of there being 'Brownies' around. You can expect tasks to be completed, sometimes in an invisible blur, and sometimes right outside your vision. The stability of their work is defined by their realness - not a concern for you once you finish establishing the bound shard, but unreal hands do unreal work, and that can take many forms. Until then, expect weirdness. The quality of their work is defined by your ascension. As your ascension increases, their work will generally be the work of someone 3 steps behind your Ascension. The form that takes varies, and is unstable at first, but the nature will stabilize with time, and is strongly influenced by the person they're bound too. An ascension below zero means that they're unskilled labor even for someone unbonded to an Icon. The "number" of brownies is tied to your level of existence. Usually the equivalent of one worker for every two levels of existence. Note that that's a somewhat fluid measure. A great deal of work may be done in an instant, only for there to be no work for some time as the brownies 'recover.' Light work may cause 'them' to further 'divide', while heavy work may cause 'them' to concentrate into a smaller 'number.' Also note that, like all Bound Arcadia, this Arcadia really is an expression of your spirit. As such, all the work 'they' do is work you do, so some icons may influence it. That's not normally important for most icons, but you're a hero, a Pinnacle."

Three seconds. "Workshop. This Arcadian fragment is a place where things are 'made.' As all forms of bound Arcadia, while it's 'real', what 'it' is is undefined. It is a little odd, as many things of fairie are. It produces 'craftsmanship.' Not performs, but produces it. The workshop is like a reservoir that produces 'crafting.' You can siphon it out, invest it in things. You can turn raw goods into finish products, and refine finished products with fae craftsmanship. The stability of the work is defined by their realness. Less stable things are... eerie, fickle, and occasionally dangerous. They also can be broken by Iron. It's not something you have to worry about long term, but be aware until it stabilizes. The quality of the "work" is defined by your Ascension. It can be used on its own, or to supplement something you are putting your own effort into, and is 'work' of your own ascension.  It can hold twenty hours of labor for every Level of Existence you have achieved, and produces an hour's labor per hour per Level of Existence. Like all Bound Arcadia, anything it does is done by you. You'll get more from this than others."

Two seconds. "Closet. This is the story of a 'closet' full of 'clothes', a place to store garments. A common form of Bound Arcadia for its subtle usefulness. While it doesn't create, what you pull out of it isn't necessarily what you put into it. You could put in a fine shirt, and pull out a mail coat, or put in a mail coat, and pull out a cloak of shadows. The closet will feed on the reality of what you put into it, at least until it is fully real. Not a long term concern for you, but a constant headache for most. It can concentrate work up to a bit above your own Ascension. The character of the work is informed by the person it's bonded to. It produces nothing on its own. You have to store worked items that can be worn before it can 'extract' work from them. Your level of Existence informs how finely it can concentrate work, and how fast it does so, and how much 'work' it can store. I once saw a bard Hero who wore a cloak of 300 colors. Each color was a single strip of cloth, invested with fae magic - each 'strip' counted as its own article. That Hero was at the 10th ascension, but each strip of cloth was an artifact of the 13th. Like all Bound Arcadia, its actions are your actions, something you can use."

Three seconds. "Gingerbread Palace. While odd seeming, these kinds of Bound Arcadia are popular with both the individually wealthy and major militaries, as they can be reshaped and redeployed more easily than most kinds of 'housing' fragments. A Gingerbread Palace is a Bound Arcadia that takes the form of a 'palace' made of food. Baked goods. These kinds of fragments can act as both shelter and as food, giving them multiple functions. A Gingerbread Palace must be fed raw ingredients, which it will over time 'transform' into 'structure.' Once it has done so, you may extrude them into reality in the form of buildings. The stability of the structure is defined by their realness. Less stable buildings inherit the dangerous of Arcadia, and are in no way safe to eat (like food from Arcadia). They also are dissolved by Iron. It's not something you have to worry about long term, but be aware until it stabilizes. How enchanted it is is defined by your Ascension. At the first Ascension the walls will eventually melt in rain and aren't really edible. Yours probably outperforms this via the Pinnacle's Aspects, but even you will need to make a choice when extruding structure on whether something is mechanically stable, or edible. As your Ascension rises, the walls will become stronger and more resilient when acting as walls, and more filling when acting as food, taking on enchanted properties to support both functions. At the sixth Ascension it's possible to do things like raise houses that are bigger on the inside, or are externally physically separated, but internally spatially unified. Your level of existence defines how much 'ingredient' your Gingerbread Palace can work with. Generally your Level x your level Loads. Hmm, you don't have the same measures. A Load is the amount of weight that can be moved by... never-mind. It's close to 300 'pounds'. It also defines how fast it can process ingredients. It can generally process a fifth of a load an hour per level of existence. Despite the name, it can do more than candy, though it will stay in 'baked goods' without a lot of work to expand it."

Three seconds. "Floating Library. A place that gathers 'knowledge.' A floating library gathers information, organizes it, and compiles it into books. Passively, this Bound Arcadia can gather information like a lake gathers rain, being a metaphysical 'low point' that information flows towards. A book on a nightstand where you sleep, the gossip whispered across the street from where you break your fast. More actively, the library can forge constructs of vellum and papyrus, ravens and rats and stranger things, and send them out hunting for information. The stability of the library determines how faithfully it transcribes information. Low stability information can actually become memetic hazards, rhyme and riddles that are effectively cursed. You'll have to purge the library of everything it gathered before achieving stability, or else it will become an ongoing hazard. The constructs it makes also require spirit to become stable, meaning that this Bound Arcadia has a higher consumption of spirit, and will keep consuming it. Your Ascension will affect the profundity of its information gathering methods, from things within your sight or hearing to begin with, to anything happening within a building when you stand in its shadow, to eventually anything happening before an image of you. It also affects the constructs the library makes. At low Ascension they will be crude things, but they will refine as your ascension rises. Birds will fly, fish will swim, you will gain the power to see through their eyes, and more. Your level of existence defines how well the library processes the information it has, how well it indexes it, and how easily it can compile it into the forms you wish. Remember that its actions are your actions."

Three seconds. "A path from 'here' to 'there.' Moon Roads radiate outwards from the Arcadia, tunneling into reality. Bound by the flow of the natural world, they come and go like the tides, sometime taking people long distance, sometimes shifting them forward in time. And sometimes taking them all the way to their Arcadia, from which they never return. This bound Arcadia is one of the least altered in the process of preparing it. A path that doesn't exist, from 'here' to 'there.' The stability of the road defines how sane the places you travel through are. Less stable paths have a tendency to eat people, or time shift them, or transform them, or... they aren't safe. Being an outsider protects from the more harmful effects, but not from general weirdness.  It's not something you have to worry about long term, but be aware until it stabilizes. Your Ascension defines how easy it is to 'find' a path, with the difficulty dependent on how watched and worked the area you're leaving from and returning to is (with the notable exception of places that are supernaturally yours). Places that "belong" to you in a magical sense are always 'unworked and unwatched.' There are wardings against this very kind of intrusion as well. Your ascension helps counter them. Higher Ascension also let your path be more devoured from reality and more completely avoid searchers and watcher. With a high Ascension, you could wander across an ocean without getting your feet wet and without anyone noticing your arrival. Your level of existence defines how greatly you may twist geography. Generally, the distance you travel doubles every 4 levels of existence. Higher levels of existence also allow you to open more paths, sending people on their way without you traveling with them. There are many ways your icons can leverage this, and be leveraged by it."

Three seconds. "Path of Transformation. Used both in punishments and as part of the normal refinement process, in alchemy, and in a number of other operations, a Path of Transformation is a Moon Road that no longer leads anywhere. It is a path that doesn't move in space, but in state.  A powerful focus for many transformative effects, both of people but also of material. It will do little for you before your sixth ascension, but past that point is an invaluable tool for any craftsman. A tool of alchemists, artificers, and other craftsman."

One second. "Finally, there is the Arcadian Chaos. This shard is almost the opposite of a normal bound shard. Rather than be pushed into a stable narrative, every narrative has been broken down into incoherence.  While the eerie chaos of Arcadia is dangerous, it can also be useful. The 'stability' of this defines how much you can narrow down and direct the chaos. Your Ascension defines how potent and bizarre the chaos you invoke is. Your Level of existence is how much chaos you can hold. A tool of enchanters and wizards."

One second. "Do you have any questions?"

She absorbs all this, trying to understand the alien framework.

"...how likely is it that a Path of Transformation would be useful to me in my chosen goal of transforming my children into copies of myself? And can you give me more detail on the implications of the fact that the actions of Bound Arcadia are in a sense my own actions?"