SURPRISE it's the formless void!

There's a guy in it. Or, like, the concept of a guy. An image of a human that definitely has a reasonable amount of detail until she tries to actually look at any of the details, at which point huh, what details, no details here. The words are very comprehensible, though.

"...And... got you! Sorry about that. The hero summoning spell works by grabbing people who wish they were somewhere else. Evidently that's why this kind of spell gets so many people about to be run over by chariots, or "Trunks" as I believe your people call it."

"Don't mind the formless vortex between worlds. You're currently transitioning between the world you've left behind, and our world. I'm not actually here with you, this is a preset message - we're pulling in dozens of people a day. We aren't only summoning people from your "Earth" either; the lure reaches into hundreds of worlds. The whole process is beyond our ability to direct or control, honestly. It will outlive me."

"...Trucks, not trunks. Trunks are something else." 

"Thank you."

"This message is itself semi-sapient, and can communicate to you through its analytical functions. I apologize for not responding to you smoothly, but weaving a semi-autonomous agent into an interface inside a self-perpetuating summoning spell embedded into the fabric of reality was non-trivial. I'm quite proud of it."

"Still, I apologize for the deceptive nature of the lure. The first component of the hero summoning spell is a wish to be elsewhere. But given a larger time-window, a vague wish could work, with the right preparations, and a minor glamour to help draw you in. And now you're here, and soon you will be in Adastra."

"What is Adastra and why are you summoning people there?" Of all the times for her assumptions about when people were joking to be wrong...still, it's better than never being offered the proverbial magic wardrobe at all. 

"Adastra is the planet to which you are being summoned. The Fourfold Apocalypse not only increased the lands we hold one hundred thousandfold, but has left us with less than a tenth of our old population."

"There are many benefits a Summoned Hero gets simply for being a Summoned Hero. You receive the Hero Icon - I've heard summoned heroes call it their 'Class' before, and it means you're included with the people of the highest class, dukes and kings, so I suppose that works."

"But while most people struggle to bond a single Icon, and few bound one as potent as The Hero, Summoned Heroes also naturally bond the Outsider Icon - a sub-classification of it known as the "Native Outsider." It's not as potent as The Hero icon, but pretty much the only Icon that's a peer to The Hero is The Demigod. The Outsider is a potent Icon, and a Native Outsider ignores the few downsides of that state."

"I don't think that's what they mean by class. And if I'm right, does that mean you can 'level up' in it?" 

"Within our world, people found ways to improve their State of Existence and Level of Existence by studying beings that naturally had a higher Level of Existence. Outsiders, Demigods, Dragons, these beings were naturally tied to fundamental Icons that underlie reality. By learning about these primordial Icons, the mortal races learned to forge artificial Icons and bind themselves to them."

"By 'filling' an icon with harvested Potential, it was possible to gain powers through that Icon. And once the Icon was completely filled, it could be 'completed' by flooding it with excess Potential until it 'breaks' and rebuilds itself, 'ascending' to the next stage. I've heard Summoned Heroes call these stages 'levels', but that's confusing. We call them 'Ascensions.' When you're finished templating, you'll be at the First Ascension, having bonded to your icons. When one Ascends, it will also improve that person's Level of Existence by one rank per Icon at the time of Ascension."

Sweeeeeeeeeet. 

"How do I harvest potential?" She really hopes it doesn't involve mandatory murder, ignoring the ethical implications of goblin genocide is one thing when it's an actual video game but if she's going to actually live that RPG lifestyle then presumably the mobs will also be real people with hopes and dreams and a preference to not get shanked. 

"Icons generate potential whenever they are True. A Warrior Icon generates Potential when that person acts like a warrior. That can be practicing martial skills or winning a fight, or something less direct like intimidating someone else into backing down. As a Hero, or Pinnacle, all great deeds and impressive accomplishments, be they in war or diplomacy, magic or art, are True to your nature and generate Potential."

"For most people, Potential developed through one form of endeavour can only be added to the associated Icon: someone who was both a Warrior and an Artificer would need to generate both Warrior Potential and Artificer Potential to Ascend. As an Outsider, all Potential you generate is you Potential, and can be added to any of your Icons: Outsider, Pinnacle, and your third Icon if you should choose to bind one."

That is deeply cool. 

"What makes an Outsider icon True?"

"The Outsider's defining characteristic is that they aren't part of any reality, but are their own self-contained reality. An Angel in Elysium isn't truly within Elysium, but is its own Angel-sized realm full of Angel, and their physical position is the dimensional nexus between their reality, and the reality of Elysium."

"Natural outsiders are born from the very substance of reality in planes that overlap themselves: a piece of the plane becomes so convoluted that it pinches its way free and becomes a separate entity. In your case, the Templating that shifts a Summoned Heroe from 'native of a non-magical universe' to 'native of a magical universe' gives them this self-contained nature, and so they become Outsiders. More specifically, they are Native Outsiders, outsiders whose 'inner rules' are those of a material plane. This is an advantage, because the Material can go anywhere. Anti-Outsider effects, banishment magic, wards, and more all fail when used against a Native Outsider."

"Outsiders gain Potential whenever they act according to their unique natures: that is, whenever they do something that comes naturally to them and which few other types of being would be inclined to do. Angels gain Potential through acts of justice or generosity, Devils through enslaving or corrupting other beings, and so on."

Things she would do that most other people wouldn't. 

Well. 

This'll be fun. 

"Thank you, that's very good to know."

"The Outsider is a potent Icon, and a Native Outsider ignores the few downsides of that state."

"Summoned heroes are able to naturally bind to a third Icon. The Analytical Spells will let you see what Icons you resonate with and let you finish that bonding process."

"Beyond having potent Icons, a Summoned Heroes' journey through the void means they'll have taken on some of the nature of that chaotic nothingness, letting them gain Exceptions, ways that the rules don't apply to them, or where they've redefined the rules in relations to themselves. You appear to have acquired the capacity for three Exceptions."

"Does the number of exceptions vary between Summoned Heroes? How many is usual?"

"This spell's data store was created when the latest form of summoning ritual was first developed. Previous versions typically provided Heroes with the capacity for two Exceptions."

"--Is that because I'm the first one you've summoned, or is the data from this interaction going to be lost when I'm done being summoned?"

"This spell's data store was created when the latest form of summoning ritual was first developed. It is unable to integrate data between castings."

"...Are you conscious?" 

"Consciousness, in the sense of the ability to form beliefs, exercise moral judgement, and experience preferences, requires a connection to all three of the Astral Deep, the Flow of Nature, and the Well of Glamour. Combining all three in a single spell at the level of sophistication required to support a conscious mind is widely considered theoretically impossible."

"I don't care about those philosophical whatevers, I care if you have experiences and qualia."

"This spell contains information derived from the experiences of the Mage who created it, but cannot have additional experiences. A spell capable of supporting conscious mind is widely considered theoretically impossible."

Okay. Whew. That's a relief. 

"You're very articulate for an entity without the ability to exercise judgment. Do you have data on the outcomes of the previous round of Summoned Heroes, like, is it generally better to choose a third Icon based on the abilities it grants or the Potential it can harvest?"

"The abilities of the Pinnacle and Native Outsider are great and potentially world-shaking. The common icons are less so, but their smallness means that they are more easily wielded, and will greatly shape the path you'll follow in the days ahead. The smaller abilities a common Icon grants can focus and limit the grander ability you have into something practical and usable. Summoned Heroes do not lack for opportunities to generate Potential; the primary purpose of the third Icon is to provide useful abilities and the opportunity to develop focused Aspects."

Nod nod. This is exciting! She should think about what kind of practical abilities she would like. "Magic" is the obvious answer, but probably there are a lot of magic-related options and she's going to have more specific choices. 

"The other way Icons display their power is through Aspects. These can appear to be superhuman or supernatural skills and abilities - ways for an Icon to reflect its nature onto the world around it through the person it is bound to. Some Aspects are broader and weaker, others narrower and more powerful."

"All Icons have a broad 'Aspect of Themselves', which gives a noticeable affinity for doing anything that Icon represents. For example, a Warrior will naturally display skill in violence, endure hardship, survive harsh circumstances, and intimidate others."

"Icons naturally have four other reflections, and they gain another reflection each Ascension - I've heard your people call them 'Skill Slots.' Most Icons freely develop abilities appropriate to the Icon within these slots."

"It's also worth noting that certain mystical experiences and mastery of various forces can further improve the Rank of one's Level of Existence. Most people will have achieved an extra improvement to their Level of Existence by their Fifth Ascension, but heroes have an easier time of it. Many achieve that before their first, and by their third may have managed it five or six times, depending on their Exceptions. These improvements affect the Lifescroll similarly to Ascensions, but do not produce slots for extra Aspects."

"Such outside sources of Potential can alternatively be used to develop Aspects outside of the purview of their Icons. This is useful in general, but especially for Outsiders because they only need a starting investment. A famous warrior once absorbed much of the Potential of a dragon he slew by bathing in its blood, and used this to develop an Aspect of Invincibility. That Aspect was deeply flawed though, because he had no native way of generating appropriate Potential to feed it. You would not have that problem."

Ooooooh. Well, she has no intention of slaying any dragons, but--wait, hang on. 

"Are dragons a kind of person, or animal, in Adastra? The word you're using corresponds to a fictional archetype, in my world, that can be either." 

"There have been many attempts to create an Icon the equal to the hero or demigod. Rather than finding concepts that flowed into what they wanted, they started with what they wanted and worked backwards. In the end, they 'succeeded.' They created an Icon of primal power, indomitable defense, and elemental fury. Unfortunately, it was just a shell, something that held the pieces they wanted together, but could never unify into an Icon one could bind."

"This False Icon finally found a use when the gods created the dragon Tribe. Along with elves, Dragons are a crafted race, but while elves were created as a reward, to live perfect lives, Dragons were created as weapons. And while it was impossible to give anyone their false Icon of power, they could use it to build aspects and build them into their created race. With their support, it would become possible for their new Dragons to continue to develop Aspects of that hollow power, and so the gods' false Icon became known as the Dragon Icon."

"Dragons are fundamentally beasts, though more powerful and dangerous than anything else in that category. However, there are also the Dragonblood, an elite Tribe of beastfolk created when humans lived long in lands infused with the power of Dragons. Dragonblood are fast, strong, tough, and have an innate magical 'weight' they can throw into their elemental and magical workings. They are long-lived and mature slowly: Dragonblood are born at the tenth level of existence, generally reach the twelfth by adulthood, and their women need a level of nineteen to be fertile. You will have the option to become a Dragonblood as part of your transformation into a being of this universe, along with any of the other intelligent Tribes."

Oooooh. 

"What does it mean to be born into a higher level of existence? Does it give you Aspects, or something else?"

"Someone's Level of Existence is an overall multiplier to everything they do, and can be leveraged to directly influence reality. Honestly, there are countless technique and abilities that would can develop through one's Level of Existence, or Level Rank."

"But the one that always catches the eye of Summoned Heroes is that at the twentieth rank, one no longer grows old, instead returning to an idealized age."

"Your Life Scroll determines your starting Level, and most people never improve on it - only one in five bind an Icon. Humans generally start at the first or second level. You'll be starting at a six, the elven average, unless you make choices that change this."

“—Yeah, no longer aging sounds great! If most people don’t improve on their starting level, does that mean most dragonblood women aren’t fertile?”

"Dragonblood women are more likely to bind Icons than most, having greater need, but despite most of their number being ageless they are not a numerous Tribe."

"Is bathing in the blood of a dragon a reliable way to create an Aspect of Invincibility, and if so, would being Dragonblooded interfere?"

"Very few things can reliably kill a true Dragon, but anyone who did so would be able to reap the benefits, regardless of their Tribe."

"Well, if I'm going to be pulling off epic feats in order to harvest Pinnacle potential anyway,"' she shrugs. "What about fucking a dragon, would that get you anything?" She probably won't, since they apparently aren't people, but the magic AI could be wrong about that, or she could figure out how to uplift one, or something. 

"That would potentially produce a Dragonblood offspring, if your Level of Existence was high enough to sustain the pregnancy."

"Why is it that you have to have a high level of existence to be fertile, anyway?"

"The details of how parents's lifescrolls produce those of their children, and why pregnancies succeed or fail, were beyond our present science when this spell was created. All we can do is observe the patterns."

Huh. Well, that's mildly inconvenient. Maybe she'll be this world's Gregor Mendel, if there aren't too many other people from modern Earths, just because she paid attention in high school biology. 

"While it might not be something you worry about right now, the promise of romance in our lure is honest enough. Generally speaking, there wasn't much societal concern with who you paired with until recently. There were enough ageless people that no-one was very concerned about population growth."

"But the Fourfold Apocalypse not only increased the lands we hold one hundred thousandfold, but has left us with less than a tenth of our old population. Worst, the greatest losses were from our heroic lines, those best placed to help us rebuild."

"Long term, we hope you help us retake what we once had, and expand into these strange new lands as the matriarch of your own heroic lineage."

She's a lot more interested in having babies and giving those babies as many tools as she possibly can than in participating in some aristocratic schema where her children have specific expectations on them, but go off, she guesses. 

"Are you ready to choose how to shape your Void influence into Exceptions? I can list them all or go over them one at a time."

“Let’s go breadth-first.”

"You will be able to change your choices, in this and other things, until you have made all of them and moved to the final stage of the templating process. Your options are:"

Flexible, which sacrifices the ability to bind a third Icon at this Ascension in exchange for the ability to form any Aspects you choose, and discard them to free up the slots;

Exultant, which will conversely optimize your third Icon and its Aspects to greater power and refinement;

True Outsider, which will likewise optimize your Outsider Icon;

Aspected, which will double the number of Aspects you can create at every Level of Existence;

Classy, which will allow you to bind a fourth Icon during the templating process;

Tree of Possibility, an Exception with excellent long-term potential which will let you raise any future Icons you gain to your current ascension, with the extra Aspects that implies;

Echoes of Time, an Aspect which will let you trap people in counterfactual shadow-timelines;

Fluid Space, an Aspect which grants the power to shatter paths between two points, pinch distances, open portals, and control gravity;

Rewarding Destiny, which makes people who help you become supernaturally lucky;

Retributive Destiny, which makes those who harm you supernaturally unlucky;

Resonant Fate, which makes your actions have stronger karmic consequences guided by your own sense of ethics;

The Hydra's Path, which lets you live in multiple timelines and choose which one becomes real;

Ignis Fatuus Fate, which protects you from both negative karma and the mundane consequences of your actions;

Specious Mien, which warps others' minds to become obsessed with you;

Resurrection, which lets you restore one person to life for each person you kill;

Reciprocity error, which rewards your good deeds with material objects;

Frozen World, which steals time from your enemies and gives extra time to you and your allies;

I So Declare, which empowers you to make prophecies and steer fate into bringing those events to pass;

Coin of Friendship, which enables you to manifest the 'vibes' generated by your actions as loyal Outsiders;

Defensive Power, which gives you an optimized boosted Pinnacle Aspect of defense;

Magical Power, which gives you an optimized boosted Pinnacle Aspect of spellcasting;

Bodily Power, which gives you an optimized boosted Pinnacle Aspect of health, strength, speed, toughness, dexterity, and so on;

Arcadian Power, which gives you an optimized boosted Pinnacle Aspect of Glamour and Psionics;

Control of the Light of Law, the higher element which creates and transforms in accordance with your will;

Control of Oblivion, the higher element which unmakes all things absolutely;

Control of Iron Glamour, the higher element of the Iron Fae which produces metastable and unstable narrative causality;

Or control of Deep Dream, the higher element of the horrors from before time, which warps the laws of physics.

I can provide additional details on any options which interest you.

This is kind of a lot. 

She has to pick only three of them? Terrible, simply terrible. 

She can strike Retributive Destiny off the list immediately. Likewise Specious Mien and definitely Control of Oblivion. She's generally in favor of things existing! Probably not all things, but considering the opportunity cost, nope. 

"Can you tell me more about Deep Dream?" She's not going to lie, "horrors from before time which warp the laws of physics" is pretty appealing. 

"Deep Dream is the most mysterious of the higher elements. It is associated with the horrors, prehistoric monsters from before time, at least as we understand it. We think of horrors as completely material beings that correspond to the Absurd Flow, and possess neither Orgone nor Spirit. But the truth is somewhat more complicated."

"Deep Dream appears to unify Psionic Will with the Cycles of Nature, creating an alloy. This is not the same way a psychic would invest Will into matter - they would use Spirit as an interface and medium of control. This is Matter expressing will, independent of spirit. How fascinating."

"Deep Dream rewrites the world. Not controls it, but redefines it. Deep Dream doesn't use telekinesis, but rewrites gravity, loops time, and turns matter into new impossible substances."

"Deep Dream appears to be this interface that... bonds with a Cycle of Nature, and allows for this joining. We never understood what was going on."

"It is the most dynamic of the Higher Elements, and the changes it works are lasting and stable by default rather than effort. It can also act on a larger scale than any other element except Oblivion."

"It stalemates with The Light of Law - it can continually change, but so can the Light. It's more myriad, but the light is more purposeful."

"It loses to Oblivion. Substance falls before Nothingness."

"And while it can hold back Iron Glamour, even thwart it, it can not truly defeat or destroy it in anything resembling an equal contest."

"Tell me about the Light of Law?" she's sort of skeptical of this one--fuck the cops--but she ought to hear it out. 

"The Light of Law was originally created by the Archons, high level angels. While the concept that things do as they ought flows naturally in the Astral Depths, such is not true in either the Material Plane or Arcadia."

"The Light of Law is Light that is a vessel and transmitter of Law, part of a story of how that Law was effectively applied, and the substance of Light to give it concrete footing."

"As such, the Light of Law is light that... does what you require of it. Do you need to lift a bridge? The light becomes a construct that is solid yet flexible enough to do so. It has the properties you need and applies them effectively. Do you need to heal a man? The light bolsters life. Do you need to strike someone down? The Light burns them away."

"Out of all the higher elements, the Light of Law is the most convenient. It does what you ask of it and is effective at leveraging its effect."

"In a direct conflict, Oblivion will unmake the Light faster than it can apply itself, though it will lose slower than any 'mundane' element."

"It will tie against Deep Dream. The greater versatility and transformation of Deep Dream stalemates against the firmer control and direction of the Light of Law."

"The Light of Law will struggle against Iron Glamour. It can become all things, but all things become ineffective in the face of Iron Glamour."

"What is Iron Glamour?"

"Iron Glamour is a paradox in multiple senses. It's what happens when Glamour is forced into the story of Iron, of the degenerate states that unmake it, and that seething making and unmaking mass is stabilized into an 'element'."

"A good analogy was told to me by a hero, one you might understand. He compared it to antibiotic resistance. The Iron Glamour churns and mostly destroys itself as it comes into being. That destroyed part gets recycled into the unmanifested, undefined 'mass' of iron glamour. But there are survivors, and those survivors propagate."

"These survivors are... changed. Weird. They exist in an ecosystem with the churning undefined portion of the Iron Glamour, slowly being consumed even as new survivors churn out and propagate in turn. This churning forms the 'Ecosystem' of an expression of Iron Glamour."

"Iron Glamour produces things that are either 'incomplete', and in their incompleteness absorb and consume the properties and substances of the world, patching their incompleteness, or things that are 'too real', shedding reality and infecting everything around them with their own nature. Which direction this goes in is uncontrollable, even by the Iron Fae. They exist in a constant state of invisible flux."

"An ecosystem is 'stable' if the story that describes it churns out 'balanced' sets of incomplete and too complete elements, and those elements are generated within the narrative of the story the Iron Fae embodies. Such beings have the normal lifespan of a Fairy, or whatever being they are if a non-fairy."

"They are meta-stable if they lack one of those qualities. Meta-stable Iron Glamour will lack one of those, and will eventually decay into instability, though that can take years. Unstable Iron Glamour lacks both traits, and tends to survive for hours at most before it rips itself apart."

"The Iron Glamour elementalism exception would give you a stable ecosystem of Iron Glamour. I should note that stable systems create meta-stable expressions outside themselves, and a meta-stable system creates an unstable one. You would not be a source of true Iron Fae, but of medium-term Iron Glamour phenomena."

"Generally, this means that your Iron Enchantments will follow the narrative you set, but how they do so will be somewhat uncontrolled, as they vary their expression of completeness, twisting the way they express your narrative."

"Within its narrative, Iron Glamour is highly dynamic, as expressions that fulfill their purpose churn and propagate, and those that fail break and are recycled."

"Iron Glamour is the most tenacious of the higher elements. It is obviously completely immune to the banes of Glamour, but is also generally immune to... reality happening to it. It requires overwhelming force to destroy."

"The Light of Law can forever change itself to be something effective against Iron Glamour, but it can't become something effective enough."

"Deep Dream is in a similar situation, though it fares better. Generally, while it can resist Iron Glamour, it can't win against it."

"Oblivion destroys Iron Glamour faster than it churns, but not enough faster. It turns into a brutal and dangerous slog - a fight with a winner, but who that winner is, is in question."

She's not going to lie, she likes that description. 

"Is Tree of Possibility as good as it sounds?"

"Summoned Heroes are known for their uncanny luck, but it's not actually luck. They make the right choices to make themselves lucky. That this is technically a power that transcends time rather than minor probability manipulation is a subtle enough distinction that's only normally of interest to scholars."

"While you can't change the past, this Exception lets you maintain a 'link' to it, and on some level stop something from becoming 'past.' While you can't change what was, you can backdate."

"Essentially, this exception creates a mark on your soul, like the rings of a tree. You can find the 'you' at the first Ascension, and help them develop an aspect. This won't change the world around you, but it will change you. You can essentially go back and develop aspects you skipped over, 'filling in' what you didn't do."

"Interestingly enough, this 'backdating' lets you target individual icons in an interesting way. I think you'll be able to raise any future Icons you gain to your current ascension, rather than having them always lag behind. This is very much an Exception that will show its value in the long run."

"I got most of that from your initial description; what I mean is, is 'backdating' icons like that as incredibly useful as it sounds, because it sounds incredibly useful."

"Yes. Tree of Possibility is an Exception which wouldn't help you much early on, but would become steadily more of an advantage the further you grow."

"I want Tree of Possibility. What else is especially good in the long term?"

"Aspected will enable you to develop twice as many Aspects by pulling Potential from your Icons into your Level of Existence. At low Ascension, a Pinnacle's Aspects are so broad, you might have trouble leveraging multiple ones at the same time, and early Outsider Aspects are potent but quirky. But as you grow, Aspected is pretty much the definition of a long term Exception. Once it matures, it represents overwhelming might."

Nod nod. 

"Is this my only chance to gain control over one of the elements that were at the end of the list?"

"No. If you bind a suitable Icon, such as the Wizard or Druid, you will be able to create Aspects for elemental powers. It is also possible to study the control of a higher element without access to an appropriate Aspect, but the results will take longer and be less impressive."

"What's the practical difference between getting it as an Aspect and getting it as an Exception?"

"An elementalism Exception would instantly grant a level of power and skill that it would take years to develop as an Aspect, as well as a permanent boost to the speed with which you would be able to grow further in your use of that element."

Hmmmm. Sounds nice, but not uniquely advantageous like Tree of Possibility and Aspected. 

"Is killing people something that Heroes are definitely going to have to do?"

"Heroes can walk nearly any path in life they choose, but as their powers grow, many seek to change the world, and many possible changes to the world draw opposition, and many possible forms of that opposition lead inevitably to those Heroes either killing or dying."

"Growing in power requires overcoming challenges. For some Icons, those may be intellectual, scientific, or diplomatic; for others, they must be intelligent opponents defeated by strength or cunning."

"People start retreating from the world at higher ascensions. I don't know too much about it, but it usually starts around the seventeenth ascension.They become involved in matters outside this plane, taking on duties beyond Adastra. I do not know the nature of those duties, or whether they involve killing--only that they are important."

There is the sensation, for a moment, that the void is very large, and contains things other than Lavinia and the spell-ghost, and some of them are paying attention. 

WOW OMINOUS. 

...On the one hand, if she takes Resurrection, that introduces obvious incentive problems vis-a-vis killing people. On the other hand, if she's going to have children, she would really really like to make sure nothing happens to them. 

"Can you tell me more about Resurrection?"

"It is a strange thing, this Exception; it twists the rules of Karma. Karma is a subtle force, mostly used by the gods to gently nudge the direction of nations more in line with their vision. It's an immaterial, invisible force that barely exists on the level of the individual, despite the words of priests and mystics."

"The Resurrection Exception is a corruption of the natural flow of Karma, reversing cause and effect. It would let you harvest the Karmic weight of those you destroy, forging them into Life Threads - the very threads of Destiny and Karma that inform the universe that someone is alive and exists."

"By granting someone a thread, you could assert that they are alive and still exist. You could bring back the dead and command them to live!"

"You must 'stretch' these forged lifelines backwards from the moment of someone's death to the present, and this appears to follow an inverse cube law. The more recently someone died, the easier they are to restore. It also seems that targeting can create inefficiencies - without a strong link (like a body), it becomes much more expensive to restore someone, measured in multiple deaths for each such resurrection."

"You would auto-restore yourself if you die. You wouldn't have to resurrect yourself where you fell, either, but may take advantage of an Outsider's Living Nexus nature to reappear anywhere you have a strong connection."

That is a reeeeaaaaaally tempting power. 

"...Are there other ways to resurrect people?"

"If you bind a chained spirit later in the templating process, you will be able to reassert their existence should they be destroyed, and vice versa if you die while they live. Some mages become undead, at varying costs to their mental stability. There may be other methods unknown to me, but none both reliably learnable and lacking in major drawbacks, for such a thing would have become famous even if only as a legend."

“Bind a chained spirit” is such a concerning phrase, but.

“If I were to…bind a chained spirit…could I kill them to fuel the Resurrection power, and then reassert their existence afterwards?”

"I have no memory of such a thing being attempted and can only speculate. Killing your own chained spirit would likely not produce a useable life-thread, as their life would simply respool back into yourself as the ability to remanifest them. However, with skill and practice it might be possible to do something similar by killing the chained spirit of another summoned Hero, who would then be able to reassert their existence without affecting your access to the life thread."

"...I'll take Resurrection as my third exception," she decides. Even if she can't manage a positive-sum number of lives saved versus taken, she can at least protect her own children. Which is deeply, deeply important. Ideally it would never come up! But if it does, she'll be ready. 

"Exceptions: Aspected, Tree of Possibility, and Resurrection."

"The next step is to choose your third Icon. Before I list your options there, it may be helpful to become more familiar with the Pinnacle and Native Outsider icons and their starting Aspects, and with the paths of power in Adastra which you may wish to walk: magic, glamour, orgone, and psionics."

Orgone? She realizes this is some kind of translation effect, but she's pretty sure she's seen that on the internet as sex energy. Okay, well, this'll be interesting. "Hit me." 

"The Pinnacle Icon represents the impossible peak that can never be reached. As such, one can only arrive at it via Miracle. It was the Icon given to the greatest champions of the gods, and to rare beings born under impossible paradoxical circumstances, until wizards figured out a way to cheat someone inside it through the Hero Summoning Ritual."

"Feeding Potential into the Pinnacle Icon tends to cause overall growth in all areas, mentally, physically, and spiritually, but potential fed to the Pinnacle Icon can not be focused. If the Pinnacle has a weakness, it's their inability to focus. Pinnacles have trouble focusing their potential into focused, limited abilities."

"All of a Pinnacle's starting Aspects are fixed. The Pinnacle can be used to develop additional Aspects within one's own Level of Existence, like all Icons. The Pinnacle loathes tightly focused abilities and cannot be used to develop them, but easily develops broad flexible masteries."

"The starting Pinnacle aspects are:

Input Idealisation, which transforms your inputs into any process to produce outcomes better than naturally possible;

Outcome Enforcement, which makes the effects of your actions more favorable, more extreme, and longer-lasting;

Cthonic Will, which grants unlimited strength of will against all attempts at coercion, magical or mundane,

and Becoming Light, a link between past and future that nudges you towards choices you will approve of having made."

Oooooh. Ooh. Oooooooooooooh. 

"What kind of impossible paradoxical circumstances?"

"Such cases are more in the realm of legends than of known facts, but I can tell you what I know. There are tales of a Pinnacle who bent Time to become her own mother. There are tales of a Bard who created a Pinnacle child, not by conceiving him but by composing him as a great song-cycle that attained both humanity and something greater. There are tales that the gods created a Pinnacle to be the foremother of all Elves.

"It was once believed that Demigods were Pinnacles, though the research that went into creating the summoning spell showed that the Demigod is a different Icon, the only one that rivals the Pinnacle for power and glory."

Hmm. If there were something slightly less impossible among those examples, Lavinia could aspire to have children who were both Pinnacles and Demigods, but she supposes only the latter will have to do, absent further research. 

"I see. Thank you."

"The Native Outsider is an Outsider of the Material Plane, and the material plane is ruled by the flow of natural forces, as well as Orgone, the form natural forces take when controlled by life. Hence, while aren't elementals, they often express their abilities in similar manners. The starting Aspects of the Native Outsider are fixed like those of the Pinnacle, and are:

Null Presence, which makes it difficult for hostile magic to interact with you;

Solipsistic Integrity, the previously discussed Aspect which enables you to use all Potential you generate as you see fit;

Bolstering Influence, which strengthens your magic and that of your allies and makes you easier to target with helpful spells,

and Living Nexus, which exists mostly in potentia at the moment but which at higher Ascensions will allow you to redefine your location to include any places where your symbol is carried or your name is spoken."

"--Sorry, are you saying it makes me a god?"

"The similarities and differences between gods and Outsiders, especially Summoned Heroes, have been the subject of many works of scholarship. The primary differences are that gods can also perceive anything relating to their domains, cannot be destroyed as long as anything relating to their domain persists, lack physical bodies by default, and come into existence at a much higher level of power--speculated to be approximately the equivalent of the fiftieth Ascension."

So, yes, but a very small god. …Also probably her children don’t get the Demigod icon by default, which is important.

"If you have no further questions about the Pinnacle or Outsider Icons, I will explain magic, glamour, orgone, and psionics."

"Please do." 

"Magic calls upon Natural Law to inform the world how it should be. A law of fire will tell you that things ought to burn, that it is a commandment that they do so. Magic is the force of order, and each law is a broad thing that countless principles can be derived from, called relationships. These relationships explain how the Law can express itself."

"Magic is uniquely suited to command not only magic, but Glamour and the flow of Nature, and its imperative way of interacting with the world can simplify many things. For example, while Druids primarily manipulate The Flow of Nature through External Orgone, they use magic as a medium to interact with and target what they wish to manipulate, even if that manipulation is done through Orgone, and they use magic to understand and hold absurd complexities of what their transformations and command must express. While this isn't the only way to do this, it is the easiest, and so even a 'pure external Orgonist' like a druid uses magic in subtle but pervasive ways."

"Can you explain more about Natural Law?"

"On every plane, there are laws of how things are and should be in the absence of living things. On the Material, the laws say that fire burns and light refracts and water flows downhill. Why these laws and not others? Because these are the laws set by the form magic naturally takes here. Under the command of a wizard, the laws have whatever exceptions the wizard chooses, and the new laws they build hold sway."

“I see. Thank you.”

"Glamour is the expression of a story, a narrative. It gives connection and direction. Glamour spawns infinite dream realms that exist and are destroyed every moment, all without mattering. Without the Astral Deep from which magic arises, those stories are incoherent and say nothing. Without the Flow of Nature, they are insubstantial. While Glamour is infinite on its own, it can only matter or have substance when it interacts with the magical or the physical, thereby limiting it. Glamour can tell a story, bring the world into a story, or bring a story into the world. The last is known as an Arcadian Manifestation, and is... dangerous."

"Glamour suffers banes. Some banes are specific - most undead fear the sun, for example--but others are universal, like how iron breaks Glamour. Generally speaking, the more degenerate states of The Flow of Nature are universal banes to Glamour. Iron is the most degenerate, and therefore the most stable, form of the cycles of matter. More dynamic states may be the bane of particular expressions of Glamour, but not Glamour in general."

"Spirit, usually harvested from souls though there are more innocuous ways to generate it as well, can greatly stabilize Glamour, and give it an existence not subject to its banes. Well 'fed' glamour can also resist its banes, but if what it fed on was not spirit, that state is not stable and will revert over time. The use of glamour is called Enchantment."

Interesting. Lavinia nods to indicate that they can go on. 

"The Material World is formed out of the Absurd Flow of the Cycles of Nature. The Absurd Flow, or The Flow of Nature, is the substance of the material world. Not only is matter made from it, but so are space, time, and the tendencies that rule them. The Vard call The Absurd Flow "Cosmic Energy", and maybe that more closely matches the understanding you have from your world. The Absurd Flow is the wellspring of chaos, an ever-changing, inconstant force of substance."

"As chaos is self-defeating, The Flow of Nature defeats itself, conflicts with itself, forming into cycles. These cycles can be concrete, like Iron or Helium or Light, and also more abstract ones, like Entropy or Time. They form the riverbed of expression that the Absurd Flow of Nature traps itself in, and hence creates the illusion of constancy over the seething chaos of the physical world."

"When the Flow of Nature becomes part of a living system, that system taints the flow with narrative and law, turning the Flow of Nature, the Cosmic Energy, into Orgone, the Flow of Life. Orgone is almost still part of The Absurd Flow, but orders itself and has direction.

"Most people who manipulate the material world do so through Orgone. It behaves itself in a way nature doesn't. Such people are either Internal Orgonists, controlling and developing their internal energy and using is as a tool, or External Orgonists, turning the flow of nature outside themselves into their own Orgone, and then using that to direct and control nature."

“So Orgone isn’t specifically a sex thing?”

"It is not. There are those who use the connections of sex, childbearing, and kinship to manipulate orgone, but there are many other paths: religious practice, discipline, ritual, meditation, exercise, or the sympathetic shaping of the natural world with human infrastructure."

"Can you be an Internal and External Orgonist at the same time?"

"Certainly. There is even an Orgonist Icon among your Icon options, which would empower you in working with all forms of Orgone."

She's not currently leaning towards taking it, but that makes sense. Probably there are icons for magic, glamour, and psionics, too. 

"The final power is Psionics. We don't really understand it, as very few psychic phenomena occurred on Adastra before the opening of the Sky-Shift Bridge. Afterwards, it spread to Adastra, but it's new to us. What we can say was that it isn't wholly new: it's a hidden element that was always there. It's associated with thought and the mind in a way that's clearly related to Glamour, and Glamour and Psionics work well together as if they were two pieces of the same puzzle. Still, we don't really know how it fits into everything. Psionics appears to apply will to directly change the world. Perhaps others have discovered more of its true nature since my creation."

...Ooh. 

That does sound cool. 

"Are there any...gaps, between things, such that you can predict the existence of more things like Psionics, that were always there but haven't been discovered?"

"I would say no, but I would also have said that before the discovery of psionics."

"Gotcha."

Having summarised the powers, I will now list your options for a third Icon. You will eventually be able to bind other Icons, but not for several Ascensions, so this choice will shape your abilities and how you gain a lot of your Potential early on.

The Icons available to you are:

- Wizard, which enables a broad mastery of magic,

- Druid, which does the same for external Orgone,

- Orgonist, which does the same for internal Orgone,

- Psion, which does the same for psionics,

- Enchantress, which does the same for Glamour,

- Warrior, the Icon of violent struggle,

- Bard, which grants power over and through music and stories,

- Mastermind, for the farsighted manipulation of others towards your own ends,

- Student, the jack of all trades which shifts quickly between skills,

- Challenger, whose Aspects are determined by what its bearer overcomes,

- Rogue, which grants a large number of weak Aspects based on nonmagical skills honed to supernatural perfection,

- Perfumist, the alchemical equivalent of the Bard which works through scent and Glamour,

- Alchemist, a broad Icon through which to study the transmutation of matter,

- Summoner, focused on communication and bargaining with Outsiders for aid,

- Mind Over Body Adept, which enables the use of psionic energy to enhance the user's body,

- Sensualist, which builds and stores power through ritualistic sex acts,

- Binders, which can borrow the power of Outsiders or Gods through rituals or the shared conception of a child, 

- Cobalt Mage, which draws power from the opponents they defeat,

- Nightmare Psychic, which draws vast but poorly controlled power from the fear and pain of others,

- Seeker of Delights, for perceiving and appreciating all things and people,

- Spellblade, which synergizes martial and magical skill,

- Changeling Knight, which imitates the powers of those reshaped by the Fae,

- Priestess, founded on cooperation with a God and enabling the bearer to channel that God's power,

- Artificer, which enables the creation of wondrous tools and devices and which you would receive an additional reward for taking,

-  Ritualist of the Congress, which also uses ritual sex and which you would receive an additional reward for taking,

- Lady, which revolves around being desired and sought, and which you would receive an additional reward for taking,

- and Circle of Towers Druid, which works through connections between people and through reshaping of the landscape, and which you would receive an additional reward for taking.

"The last four options, would they all provide the same reward? What would the reward or rewards be?"

"In all cases the reward is an extra selection from the array of available Gifts, physical and mental refinements we can include as part of the templating process. Everyone starts with five; various choices you make can grant or cost additional ones."

"How does Ritualist of the Congress compare to Sensualist along axes other than the reward?"

There is power in sex. Mind, body, and spirit all strive together. The Ritualist of the congress recognizes that oneness can be leveraged.

The Ritualist of the congress is forged from Celebration and Striving. It's an Icon that uses sex as ritual, and ritual as power. As far as practices go, it's not the most powerful ritual caster, but it may be the most efficient. There are practical limitations to the size of the rituals they can put together that other paths might not face. The purity and unity of the ritual method they use means that many of the traditional ways of boosting ritual magic are closed to them.

But at the same time, they can raise more energy per participant in their rituals than most icons, and they need little to no ritual paraphernalia. Their preparations are minor, and external factors like astrological influences are non-existent. Some rites do use props, but they're optional, and more to get people going than an actual requirement.

They also can draw from more sources than most ritualists, meaning that they aren't restricted to other magic users to act as ritual helpers. They not only draw upon magic, but orgone, spirit, Glamour, and psychic will, and spend it all on their ritual castings. If other forces are discovered, it's quite possible that they could unify them into their rituals as well.

Where the Ritualist of the Congress sees power in sex, the Sensualist is focused on how that power is generated. The body raises energy, brings itself fully to bear, and in a more constructive way than in battle or struggle.

The Sensualist is forged from celebration and discipline, contradictory forces, and it yokes the body's celebration of life. While most Orgone masters cultivate a smooth flow of energy, generating and directing it at the same moment, the Sensualist first raises it into a river though sensation, then bottles it up through technique. They raise their energy at times of rest, and then block it up, trapping its potential. If a Practitioner directs a small stream, a Sensualist has a lake.

While building up and damming their personal energy can be done through self-stimulation, a Sensualist can perform greater feats with cooperation. Ritualistic sexual practices are used to raise energy in a collective effort.

To the Sensualist, the sexual act becomes technical, some acts raising energy, others flavoring it, holding it back until it's ready, and then releasing it in a rush to flow into a meridian or their primary lake of energy.

These practicalities can exceed the participants' own Level of Existence. Such expenditure can not be dynamically controlled, so they instead knot the Orgone into powerful techniques through their sensual methods, before cutting those knots loose and sinking them into their meridians in orgasmic releases.

Once created, those knotted techniques can remain stable for months, and even a young Sensualist may have a dozen of such knots ready to rampage free, while older ones may drown their theoretical peers in a downpour of power. Such displays may take weeks or months to rebuild, but that's little comfort to the dead.

"Can you explain more about Lady and Circle of Towers Druid?"

The Lady (or Lord) Icon is born from Striving and Want. Their nature is to be wanted, and to want. To seek and be sought. And they can empower both to happen. The foundation of their power is in need. This happens in two ways.

The first is invested. They can invest their hunger, and so actions that fulfill that hunger can borrow the will behind it. This can be done broadly by edicts, locally by commands, or internally by decisions. As they focus their Want, their will permeates their subjects. Their will acts as a carrier for their own spirit, bringing their Aspects to bear upon their declared intentions.

On the other hand, they can wield they can also wield hunger by embodying it. They can embody desire, and be desired. They can embody purpose, and become other people's purpose. They can fill the holes in other people's hearts with themselves and their ambitions, and they can raise hunger as to make such holes. Their unifying strength truly is one of the ways advance civilization can come about, one hunger driving all.

As their will invests in others, and as others invest in them, sympathy is formed. Through sympathy, they can borrow Want, Hunger, and Will. Through this, they can take strength from organizations they are a part of, and groups they lead.

Particularly strong bonds can let them focus their strength through an agent, letting that agent borrow their power when they act with their will. The traditional way to do this is through family - a prince speaking his mother's commands, or a princess borrowing her father's strong arm. Bonds of blood are always easy, and easily come strongly, but this will work through other bonds.

Not all Nobles are Ladies or Lords, but the Icon is common among them, and rare everywhere else. Binding an Icon does require some sympathetic connection to its nature, at least normally.

The Hero Summoning Ritual is a way of overcoming that barrier in the most dramatic fashion possible. With it, there is not a single problem with you achieving this Icon. It will create assumptions among any who don't know you're a summoned hero, but those assumptions could be useful.

Civilization traps and dams the cycles of nature. The very word 'dam' comes from such techniques.

Born from Aspiration and Discipline, the Circle of Towers Druid follows a heterodoxical path towards mastering the external flow of Orgone. Rather than join with nature, they dam the flow of Orgone and use that dam to control the absurd chaos of the natural flow. The Circle of Towers Druids raise their dams, and then 'solidify' those dams through internalizing it as a personal Aspect. They call these aspects their Towers.

Tower Raising follows two paths, the path of artifice, and the path of congress.

Artifice is what it sounds like. The Druid will lay down roads, dam rivers, build homes, and otherwise control the natural world. With their Icon Aspects, they'll bind themselves to their works, use those works to dam and direct the flow of Orgone, and then solidify that dam into Personal Aspects.

The Path of Congress leverages people instead of works. Life is always part of the flow of nature. By forming sympathetic connections to others, they can be used as levers and pulleys to shift the flow of Orgone, and then solidify those levers into personal aspects.

The simplest form of connection can be formed through sex, a stronger one through any children you have, and the strongest connection by far is from a mother to the child in her own womb. Many of these connections can be leveraged to form further connections. A Circle of Towers Druid might leverage her connection to a lover to connect to her lover's blood family, and from their blood family to those people's lovers. Woman have some advantage here - while the personal cost is higher, their metaphysical connection to their children is also more easily leveraged.

Alternatively, these dams or levers can be spent on ritual techniques that can affect vast territories.

All connections, whether Artifice or Congress fade eventually. Children eventually become their own people, towns gain their own character, lovers forget you. This does not damage or reduce the Aspects the Druid has formed, but they must either rebuild old connection or build new ones if they wish to continue to forge new Aspects.

The Circle of Towers Druid is one of the Icons that can perform beyond their Ascension. The cost of this is that their Icon Aspects are largely devoted toward building personal aspects, rather than being useful in and of themselves.

"What about Artificer?"

From knapping stone to forging steel, from sleds to ornithopter, from crude sacrifice to forging Icons, technology is the mark of civilization.

Born from Aspiration and Curiosity, the Artificer touches both the sublime law of magic and the absurd chaos of the natural flow of nature. As such, they are an Icon of both Magic and Orgone.

Whether forging impossible alloys, building constructs, or crafting wondrous engines, artificers have both a strong and persistent power.

They are one of the Icons that can call forth powers beyond their ascension, and in this matter they only have equals, none are better than them. Still, like most such Icons, there is a limit on such things - and theirs is the cost and time to craft such wonders.

Their great weakness is in how they externalize their power. Their aspects either focus on crafting, or are levered through their crafting. Their techniques and spells are operated through a device rather than unleashed or cast directly.

"That one. I want that one." 

"Very well. Your next choice is in the matter of Dream Seeds."

"As I 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."

"Of course, it isn't really possible to mind control a Hero, and we aren't going to try to cheat our way past that immunity. Even if we didn't fail, the bitterness it would cause could... well, I respect the destructive power of Heroes."

"But a Hero can influence themselves."

"We aren't asking you for anything 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."

"Color me intrigued. I assume these Seeds also provide some concrete benefit." 

"Every dream seed you accept buys you one additional Gift. Your options are: the safety of others, change, a legacy, exploration, a home, industry, discovery, stability, companionship, love, children, and one that will heighten your general level of ambition and make you less content with modest success."

"--What happens if I take a Dream Seed that covers something I already want?"

"Your affinity for that dream will be strengthened, though not as much as if you had previously had no interest in it."

"Give me 'children' and 'the safety of others' and we can revisit the question of if I want more than that after I see the gifts." 

"Very well. We now come to the matter of your corporeal form."

"As I said earlier, the Idealization Process will create an idealized form for you, but the fact of the matter is that most people don't truly have a single ideal body or look. It's possible to pin down more precisely the form you will come to take."

"If you trust your subconscious and the magics at work, there's no need to bother with this, but the option is open."

"The only decision you truly need to make is your species. If you wish to, you may leave the tribe of humankind. Elves, Beastkin, and more walk the lands of Adastra. Such a transformation will require you to be fortified with the natural Aspects of that Tribe, which for the more powerful Tribes comes with a cost denominated in Gifts."

...Well. 

"If that's something I can spend gifts on, I expect to take more Dream Seeds. Tell me about species." 

"Remaining human costs 0 Gifts."

"Becoming an Elf costs 2 Gifts. Elves are a physically and mentally idealized race, created by the gods to live perfect lives."

"Becoming a Gnome costs 1 Gift. Gnomes are physically small but long-lived, and mentally very creative and flexible."

"Becoming a Tiefling costs 1 Gift. Tieflings are a Tribe of devils who have rejected their evil origins and are physically and magically powerful."

"Becoming one of most of the many varieties of Beastwomen costs 1 Gift. Beastwomen have physical abilities enhanced in a way that depends on their animal heritage, and sometimes mental changes as well."

"Becoming a Kumiho costs 3 Gifts. Kumiho are born of foxes and Elves, with an innate cruel cleverness, a gift for Glamour, and a bad reputation."

"Becoming a Dragonblood costs 3 Gifts. Dragonblood are an elite Beastwomen Tribe, designed to be physically and magically powerful, long-lived, with advantages at becoming immortal and four innate Aspects."

"Are the actual tribes called beast-or-whatever women specifically, or are you just using that language because I'm going to be a woman." 

The interface would sound puzzled if it was capable of emotion. "There are male and female members of each Beastwomen Tribe. Beastwomen is a generic term that encompasses both genders and all possible animal Aspects."

Thaaaaaat's going to take some getting used to. Not that Lavinia objects to the ambient linguistic sexism going the other way, just. It's new. 

"Is there a downside to being Dragonblooded, or an upside to being Kumiho, that I'm missing? Because they cost the same but Dragonblooded just sounds better." 

"The costs of the Tribes are not intended to balance the benefits to you, but to balance the cost in magic of converting you into a member of that Tribe."

"One of the few Beastmen tribes born of elves, and having all the elves gifts and more the Kumiho gain fox-aspect the 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."

"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."

"Alright. I pick Dragonblood." 

"Very well. Your current selections leave you with six Gifts. If you have, or would like to form, particular preferences about your physical appearance, you may take a few minutes to contemplate the matter. Otherwise, the templating process will draw on your subconscious concept of your ideal form."

"Do people usually get better results from customizing their bodies explicitly rather than relying on their subconscious to know what's good?"

"It depends on how much one approves of one's own subconscious concept of their ideal form. Men who are being transformed into women by the summoning process are especially likely to benefit from conscious consideration, not having had occasion to form opinions on the matter before that point."

Well, that's not her. She supposes if she had strong conscious opinions it might be worthwhile, but all she can think of is "still look recognizably like myself," so. 

"I'll go with the subconscious option." 

"Very well. We now come to the matter of physical refinements. Some of these are just simple tweaks. Others are derived from potent lineages, and cost Gifts, or are aligned with the goals of the project and come with extra Gifts."

"Physical Refinements are techniques for altering and enhancing the body, and so they're supported by the body. Most of the aspects these grant will only be of the first ascension, but as they belong to your form, rather than you, their profundity can rise rather than being fixed as your body grows mightier. It's a slow and gradual thing, but there. They'll generally achieve an ascension of one fifth your level of existence."

"Your options are:

Increased libido (grants 1 Gift),

Optimized capacity for sexual pleasure (grants 1 Gift),

Increased fertility and especially increased likelihood of twins (grants 1 Gift),

Improved maternal and prenatal health during pregnancy (grants 1 Gift),

Control of your own fertility,

Glamour-enhanced physical beauty,

Improved mental health and emotional self-control,

Highly enhanced senses (costs 1 Gift),

Reduced physical needs and faster healing (costs 1 Gift),

Toughness and stability (costs 1 Gift),

Enhanced grace and reflexes (costs 1 Gift),

and Enhanced speed (costs 1 Gift)."

"I'll take all the ones that grant gifts and also the free ones. If I take any of the non-free ones, will they be passed on to my children?"

"The refinements are in part modifications to your lifescroll, and those modifications will be passed on with some probability in the normal manner of inheritance. The Aspects that come with those refinements are not part of the lifescroll and will not be inherited."

"...How much faster is the faster healing?"

"Using pieces of the life-scrolls of werewolf lineages, this refinement optimizes how your body processes, extracts, and uses energy."

"More importantly, it grants the Aspects 'Physical Dynamo' and 'Physical Recovery.' These Aspects grow stronger as your Level of Existence increases, beginning as subtle changes within the human range but eventually allowing you to heal from near-fatal wounds within minutes and regrow severed limbs."

"By your 9th Level of Existence, you won't need to eat on a day-to-day level, and by your 11th you should no longer need to breathe."

"The regeneration this grants is energy intensive, so you still may find yourself eating, and any matter lost must be replaced."

"...Aren't I starting at the twelfth Level of Existence for being a Dragonblood?"

"Correct. If you keep your current choice of Tribe, your additional Aspects will be 'brought along for the ride' to some extent, and it will require only one or two Ascensions to cease needing to breathe."

"I'll take that one, then." 

"Very well. Your current selections leave you with nine Gifts. Is that all the physical refinements you wish to select at this time?"

"At this time, yes." 

"We are almost at the end of the selection process. The next step is to grant you several Aspect Emblems. These do not come with a cost."

"Before we learned to forge Icons, Aspect Emblems were the path to power. Some even followed it all the way to immortality. North King Zhal is still kicking around. Despite this, it has never fallen out of favor - if anything, Icons have made the art flourish more as more tools became available to forge them."

"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."

"There are some Emblems that we can't rightfully leave you without. They're Ascension 0 aspects, so they aren't hard to make, the aspects they carry weak - they're mostly intermediaries, letting us share skills with you. You don't have to take any of these, and they have neither costs nor rewards; they're just here to make your life easier."

"Integrating the first Emblem will grant you knowledge of the five most common tongues of the area you'll start out in. More, it will grant a minor aspect of 'Language' that will help make learning new ones easier."

"The second emblem is for cultural adaptation. Minor Aspects of 'Social Graces', 'Social Poise', and'Social Insight' will help you navigate unfamiliar cultures and spot pitfalls, while 'Personal Presentation' will help you understand how your overall behavior, dress, and the like is shaping others' opinion of you."

"The third emblem is similar to the second, but specifically for competence in the area of romance."

"The fourth emblem contains a 'Survival' Aspect, as well as minor 'Outdoorsmanship', 'Hunting', 'Gathering', 'Camping' and 'Traveling' aspects."

"The fifth emblem will give you basic skills to cover everything you need to care for children, from the time they are newborns till they become young teens."

Ooooh. 

"Will I know right off how to make them? How to feed them to my children?"

"Not automatically. But there are many people in Adastra who will be able to teach you such things, and the Artificer Icon will ensure you master them well and quickly if you choose to study them."

"Excellent." 

"The next set of available Emblems cost 1 Gift each. You can choose from elemental skills, combat skills, magical skills, alchemy skills, psionic skills, enchantment skills, artistic-magical skills, druidic skills, athletic skills, an Orgone-enhancing elixir field, or sexual skill. Many of those can be taken more than once, if you desire multiple abilities in a given category."

"How many sexual skills are there?"

"Only one. We have offered many blessing to help with this part of your life, enough so that this offer feels a little like gilding the lily, but we can offer you an emblem of sexual mastery. Even before your pinnacle aspects come into play, you'll be one of the greatest masters of the erotic arts around, with a four ascension aspect of 'Sexuality' bending the very rules of the world to enable your exploits."

"Even the most decedent nobles would balk at spending the investment of a fourth tier Emblem for something like this. But the decision was made to offer it, so it isn't my choice. I will say I think you can do better."

"Aha, gotcha. No, I won't be taking that one. What does 'Orgone-enhancing elixir field' mean?"

"A potent foundation for internal Orgone Arts, this will establish your internal Elixir Field as a fourth level Aspect. The Elixir Field essentially acts as a 'weight' on top of any internal Orgone manipulations you perform and increases the rate and power of the flow through you. You can also drain it as a power source, though after doing so it's hard work to restore it."

"As so much of the body is empowered by the flow of life-force, this is a great Emblem for anyone who isn't actually going to devote significant energy to the art, or a starting point for someone who is."

"Which of the skills on offer go best with artificing?"

"I would suggest Magical Skills in divination or ritual magic, or an Artistic Integration of whatever art form you plan to use for your devices. Jewelry-making, metalworking, and woodworking are all popular options for the latter."

"...Artistic-magical skill for...glassworking," she decides. She knows some things about glass already and it's really, really cool. Plus, if metalworking is popular, glassworking gives her a comparative advantage. 

"Very well. Your current selections leave you with eight Gifts. Is that all the aspect emblems you wish to select at this time? If so we can discuss the option of binding a chained spirit next."

"Binding...a chained...spirit...right, that came up when I was asking about Resurrection, didn't it." 

"Yes."

"Spiritual entities 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."

"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."

"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."

"So long as you live, their root of existence will live, and so they cannot die. They may be destroyed, but you can reassert 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."

"This is... new. People won't expect you to have this. It's a tool that only became possible through the longer, slower templating process we invented."

"I see...I honestly find this idea fairly disturbing, and am only considering it at all because of the potential Resurrection hack." 

"Would you prefer to proceed directly to discussing the option of a personal Arcadia?"

"What's a personal Arcadia?"

"An Arcadia is a place, an event, and Nothing. It's an expression of glamour, divorced from Existence. As it does not exist, it is defined. As it is not limited or bound by the absurd flow of the natural world, it can take on infinite variations. Fairylands are a kind of Arcadia, but not the only one. Arcadias are infinite, but not real, and that void of reality forms a kind of... negative pressure upon reality, draining reality to solidify parts of that Arcadia. Becoming real, the rest of Arcadia drains the reality of the solidifying parts, and so what is real is finite, but fungible."

"One form of existence can more firmly tie Glamour to reality, enough so that it becomes able to endure even iron. Spirit. And so the fae steal souls to pin down their world and give it consistency, and feed on our world it fill it with variety."

"Still, while some may find it disturbing, this kind of fluid reality to has many uses, the most general of which is forging 'Personal Arcadias.' Using enchantment to define the 'story' of a piece of Arcadia, pinning down that fragment with definition and boundaries, giving it rules and principles through magic, snapping it off from the greater Arcadia with degenerate Orgone. It's a bardic art, and not a trivial one."

"Once you're fully a Pinnacle, touching your spirit in the ways needed to attach an Arcadia is impossible for anyone else - it's something you would have to do yourself. Most summoned heroes instead use their nature as a living world to achieve similar effects through the Outsider Icon, but the options are not mutually exclusive. As part of your spirit, a Bound Arcadia is part of your inner world, and can support and be supported by your Outsider Aspects."

"The stability and completeness of existence of a bound Arcadia is usually tied to how much spirit you've fed it. As you possess a Chthonic Will, your spirit will be able to feed them to a state of perfect reality. This won't be instant - it will have to feed on the overflowing 'excess' of your spirit, and that will take months. You'll be able to invoke it before then; it just won't be 'perfectly' real."

"Your level of existence will define how much can be real at any given time - even though you can create perfect reality, you can't create unlimited amounts of it. You'll have a fungible amount of 'real' in each piece of Arcadia you carry with you, based upon your own level of existence."

"The overall profundity of what you can make will be defined by your aspects, but your Outsider aspect will serve you well, as you can call upon all the permutations of the natural world. Other aspects may grant you stranger methods. And as I said, there are multiple ways to cultivate your inner world. Your personal Arcadia will make a good foundation to work into your inner world as you build it into something greater."

"Well, that sounds like it won't substitute for a bound spirit for the resurrection hack, so we'd better go back and look at those."

Your options are:

A demon of Law and Tyranny, born of the Iron Hells,

A demon of the Astral Depths, who will seek to exalt you at others' expense,

A Feral Thing, a being of violence and fear born of the Lightless Forest,

A succubus, embodying the triumph of physical want over principles,

A Wheel, one of the angels that rule over motion and the movement of energy and force,

An angel of the Astral Depths, who will seek to exalt you by exalting others,

A Justice, an angel who helps those who have been wronged,

An Elysian, one of the kindest of angels, pacifistic and dedicated to joy,

A Fairy Handmaiden, flexible in nature and goals,

An Iron Fae, tenacious and resilient but lacking somewhat in intelligence,

An Elemental of any of the four basic elements, a force of destruction,

Or A Horror, intelligent yet incomprehensible, of a race far older than the language-using beings of Adastra.

"...Tell me more about the angels?"

"Wheels are Angels that rule over motion and the movement of energy and force. Like all angels, they are of Law, but they rule over the necessary chaotic emissions needed to keep things from solidifying."

"Wheels wish to keep things moving and dynamic, but that's mostly in a physical, concrete sense. They are living tools for managing energy and motion on the ecologies of some deep astral planes."

"This one will wish to move anything that impedes you away. Usually in a physical sense."

"Hmm, angels believe in law, and so it might sound like they're easier to lead as you're the law they will follow. But... ones this primal tend to be straightforward in an inhuman manner, and absolute in their judgement. She may evolve into something more sophisticated, but for now think of her as the bluntest tool in this toolbox, though also the strongest."

"Like the Lesser Demon, a Lesser Angel is born from the Astral Depths, rather than a particular sub-plane. While she is a being of Law, as the Astral Depth contains multitudes, she can express them. They are much more flexible than most angels, but lack the defined purpose that gives them power."

"She will work to achieve your goals and increase your resources in ways that also help others."

"Justices are agents of mercy and reparation, born from the paradox of evil done in the name of law. 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 restores balance by 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. She will wish to help, but collectively. She commands what is commonly called 'white' magic, but her power doesn't concentrate well. She could heal every patient in a clinic as easily as she could a single person. Divided across a large group, and her influence becomes more obvious."

"Elysians are born of the Blessed Fields, where the souls of the gods' favored are anchored so that they may exist beyond death. The laws of such places are bent and twisted to exalt the ghosts who dwell there. Elysium Attendants are angels born of those twisted laws."

"Elysians are the kindest of angels. They are deeply empathetic, with keen insight into the wants and needs of others. They struggle with conflict in all its forms, and this one won't be able to fight until she has evolved quite a bit beyond this state, but they excel at healing and supporting others."

"Both emotionally and physically."

"They're shape changers, always taking on the form others need of them, and they take joy in service. Honestly, I'm not sure why so many teenagers summon Succubi. Just because it's 'naughty?' An Elysian is far... well... anyway."

"You are all the joy in the world to this one."

"Why do these spirits all--potentially--have me at the center of their motivation system? Like--they exist before I bind them, right, why can't they just...keep on the way they were before? Especially the Elysian?"

"Yes. A great many of each type of spirit exist already. Any spirits you do not choose to bind will indeed continue as they are, with the root of their existence in their plane of origin rather than in you."

"Why does binding them change them?"

"It does not change their nature, the patterns of their actions. But the root of their existence becomes you instead of their home plane. They move in the same way around a new center point."

"Can you explain more about--what it means to be the root of their existence, and why that features so much in their motivations?"

"Spirits are less separate from the planes they live on than creatures of flesh and blood. They are in many ways an extension of the plane, and act in accordance with that plane's nature as automatically as fire burns. A spirit whose existence was rooted in you would similarly be an extension of your own nature."

"Does it help any if my nature contains elements of 'fuck that, you do you'?"

"An interesting question. The technology of binding chained spirits is quite new, and I haven't heard of anyone trying that strategy. The Fairy Handmaiden and Iron Fae are the most deeply malleable classes of being available, and the Wheel is most resonant with the concept of freedom."

"Are any of these spirits non-sapient?"

"It's possible that the Fairy Handmaiden or Iron Fae could be induced to be so, if that was part of your vision for them. I expect this would result in them being significantly less intelligent than they otherwise would be."

"What I was thinking of was something that had been non-sapient before being bound; I'm less uncomfortable creating somebody whose motivations center around me than altering an existing person in such a way."

"How would you feel about an entity that came into existence moments before being bound? I cannot cause new spirits to exist, but I could select a very young one, and more are coming into being all the time."

"--That could work, yeah."

"Do you have a decision as to the type of spirit, or would you like to hear more information?"

"More information, please." 

"On which options?"

"The Fairy, the Iron Fairy, and the Horror?"

"The fairy handmaiden is one of the fae, born to the Icon of The Fairy. A child of unreality fed on spirit till she became real, the Fairy was created for the purpose of assisting a more established fairy. You mentioned wanting a newly created spirit; for the fairy handmaiden, this would be the default case, as an older one would already have been claimed by someone else."

"Fairies are flexible beings. This one could become many things, but in the beginning she will attend to your needs through a mix of obeying orders and attempting to predict and provide whatever services will help you."

"The Iron Fae is also born to the Icon of the Fairy. They were the terror of the third apocalypse. I would bind for you one which has stabilized on a... human adjacent form, though none of them could pass as one of the mortal races."

"Iron Fae are tenacious beyond all sense, completely ignore the dangers of iron, and generally resist most forces brought against them."

"It's questionable how intelligent this thing is. Direct simple order should get through, but don't give it complex instructions or general goals that take it out of your sight."

"As for the Horror, 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 their origins in an 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 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."

"Be careful with this one."

"...I'll go with the Fairy Handmaiden." 

Out of all the options, it feels like the one least wronged by binding it. 

"Very well. Your current selections leave you with seven Gifts. Would you like to return to the question of bound Arcadias?"

"Yes please." It will be so nice to focus on something that isn't even a little bit slavery. 

"Your options are:

Brownies, a tendency for tasks to be accomplished around you as though you had done them but with no actual attention or effort from you,

Workshop, a reservoir of crafting-labor that can be turned into works of artifice,

Closet, a place into which clothes can be inserted and the same or different clothes extracted,

Gingerbread Palace, which consumes ingredients and can be used interchangeably as shelter and food,

Floating Library, which can gather information like a lake gathers rain,

Moon Road, a path from here to there through nowhere,

Path of Transformation, a moon road which carries you not to other places but to other forms,

and Arcadian Chaos, a shard of unformed Arcadia which can, with effort, be a less-real version of whatever you want."

"...Can you elaborate on Floating Library, Moon Road, and Path of Transformation?"

"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.

All bound Arcadias start out unstable, and gradually stabilize to full reality as they spend time in contact with your Cthonic Will. 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."

"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 divorced from reality and more completely avoid searchers and watchers. With a high Ascension, you could wander across an ocean without getting your feet wet and land in a crowded square 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."

"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 moves not 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. It is a tool of alchemists, artificers, and other craftsmen."

"...The Path of Transformation sounds...dangerous."

"Just so. At the sixth Ascension you will be able to use it to safely alter crafting materials, but traversing it yourself is best saved for, hm, the eighth? At that point you'll have a far better sense of your own abilities than I can provide as an advance prediction."

"...Yeah, I'll take the Path of Transformation." 

She's not sure it's a great idea but she's so curious.

"Very  well. Your current selections leave you with seven Gifts. Would you like to consider additional bound Arcadias, change any of your other selections, or finalize your choices and proceed to Adastra?"

(Another momentary sensation of being watched from a great distance.)

"This is the end? --I'll definitely take the library, then."

"Very well. Your current selections leave you with six Gifts. Would you like to consider additional bound Arcadias, change any of your other selections, or finalize your choices and proceed to Adastra?"

“If I were to proceed to Arcadia, would there be some benefit to having unspent gifts, or would they be wasted?”

"Unspent gifts simply mean the spells invests less effort in you than was budgeted, which would slightly reduce the time until it could grab the next summoned hero."