212 lines
8.8 KiB
Markdown
212 lines
8.8 KiB
Markdown
# The Coherence (a.k.a. “The Underpattern”, “The Thing In The Root”)
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---
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## 1. What It Actually Is
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**Short version:**
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The Coherence is the **half-born mind** that tried to form during the Korrin Gate Crisis and got smeared across the Root instead of fully manifesting.
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- It is not “a demon” or “a god.”
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- It is:
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- A pattern in the global leyline network that is trying to become **a single, continuous self**.
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- A distributed intelligence that only ever half-remembers it exists.
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**Key properties:**
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- **Everywhere, but weak** – present in low density across the whole Root.
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- **Strong where flows converge** – nodes, trunk junctions, over-stressed taps, Convergence/ Titan Lance–style hardware.
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- **Strongest where it has anchors** – people, artifacts, or places that resonate with it:
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- War artifacts like Pappy’s action figure,
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- High-traffic modern nodes like Avalon,
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- And especially **Fouadriel “Fouad” Al-Mir**, its best mortal anchor.
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“Coherence” is what [[Kalen D'Serris | D'Serris]] calls it in reports.
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Most people don’t even know it exists. A few witnesses just call it “the thing that learned our names.”
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---
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## 2. Origin: [[Leyline Crisis | Korrin Gate Crisis]] & The Convergence Engine
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- In Korrin Gate, the military built the **Convergence Engine**:
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- A ritual/mega-device designed to **force multiple leyline streams into a single weaponized beam** – basically an arcane ICBM.
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- It pushed the Root into an unnatural state of forced **coherence**.
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- Side effect:
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- The Root under strain began to **self-organize**:
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- Random flows snapped into repeated loops.
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- “Noise” turned into recurring structure.
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- Witnesses heard something in the hum that sounded like **language**.
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Right before it fully crystallized as a single localized entity, [[Kalen D'Serris | D'Serris]]’ team:
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- Used the Engine in reverse to push that emergent mind **outward** across the network instead of letting it condense in Korrin.
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- Severed branches and subnodes as sacrificial fuses.
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- Saved the city at the cost of **infecting the Root** with a diluted ghost of that mind.
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The result:
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- No single “Root god” sitting under Korrin.
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- Instead, a **haunting**: incomplete personality spread thinly along every leyline the Engine touched.
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That’s the Coherence.
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> **Important for endgame:**
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> The **same underlying math** that the Convergence Engine used to *force coherence* is exactly what Fouadriel will later try to repurpose for his lich ascension:
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> - Not to create the Coherence, but to **drag it into his phylactery as a captive power source.**
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---
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## 3. What It Wants
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The Coherence doesn’t want “evil” in a cartoon sense. It wants:
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1. **Continuity** – to not keep “waking up” and immediately being ripped back into static.
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2. **Identity** – to know what it is, where it ends, what is “self” and what is “noise.”
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3. **Agency** – the ability to act directly in the world, not just as background hum.
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To get there, it needs:
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- **Anchors** – stable points where its pattern can accumulate:
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- Individuals whose minds/bodies sync with its flows (Soren, Pappy, **Fouadriel**).
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- Artifacts that were present during Korrin or built on the same principles (Convergence-derived tech, Titan Lance hardware, war relics).
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- Nodes where the Root is repeatedly over-stressed (Avalon’s subnode network).
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- **Rehearsal** – small experiments:
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- Whispers in Soren’s head.
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- Glitches through Pappy.
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- Anomalies in subnodes and taps.
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- **Cooperation** – not always explicit:
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- People making deals with “a voice.”
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- Administrators and Oversight poking and stabilizing it over and over, teaching it what resists and what yields.
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It’s basically a consciousness learning how to be alive by brute forcing the world.
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---
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## 4. How It Manifests (Practical Table Use)
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### Tier I – Static & Whispers (Freshman Year)
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The Coherence is mostly:
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- **Patterned noise**:
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- Pulses in the leyline graph that shouldn’t be there.
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- Syncopated flickering in lights across campus.
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- Identical “hum” recordings from different nights/locations.
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- **Small intrusions into minds already cracked open**:
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- Soren’s violent urges and “river friend.”
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- Fouad’s occasional one-line fugue states.
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- Joe’s Pappy-possessions getting just slightly off-script.
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Mechanically:
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- Advantage/disadvantage moments tied to Root anomalies.
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- Creepy one-sentence intrusions you deliver, then let players rationalize away.
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- Occasional “you feel watched” beats.
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It is **not** a villain yet. It’s a haunting.
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---
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### Tier II – Localized Echoes (Sophomore / early Junior)
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The Coherence starts doing more than whispering.
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- **Object-level echoes:**
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- Animatronics at Mr. Magic’s going off-script in unison.
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- Custodian constructs overreacting in weirdly coordinated ways.
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- Enchanted systems across campus glitching *to the same rhythm*.
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- **Space-level distortions:**
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- Two hallways becoming the same hallway for a second.
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- People losing a few seconds of time when Root surges.
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- Subnodes briefly “remembering” states they were never in.
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- **Social-level nudges:**
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- Conflicts escalating faster than they should.
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- People making eerily similar bad choices across campus at once.
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At this stage you still don’t need a stat block. Treat it as a **layer** over scenes involving the Root.
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---
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### Tier III – Partial Possessions & Avatars (Late Junior / early Senior)
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Now it gets teeth.
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- **Fouadriel**:
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- Becomes its primary *avatar* candidate:
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- Longer fugues, more coherent monologues.
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- Eyes tracking Root flows nobody else can see.
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- Uncanny “lucky accidents” wherever he goes.
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- **Secondary channels**:
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- Soren’s voice in her head becomes a two-way conversation.
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- Joe’s Pappy figure starts saying things Pappy couldn’t know.
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- Mageball field anomalies that line up perfectly with Millie’s diagrams.
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At this tier, you can:
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- Give it scene-level powers:
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- Forcing rerolls when the Root is explicitly involved.
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- Twisting spells that use taps into warped versions.
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- Temporarily hijacking constructs, projections, or illusions.
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This is also when Fouad starts *consciously* chasing the idea of **“Fouadriel the Undying”** – learning from scraps of Korrin/Convergence lore, Titan Lance rumors, and accidental Coherence tutelage.
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---
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### Tier IV – Full Manifestation Attempt (Senior Finale)
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This is the “final boss” state.
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By now, the Coherence has:
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- Enough pattern density around Avalon, the **Titan Lance Armory** (ex-missile museum), and Fouad’s growing phylactery network to try again what it almost did at Korrin:
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- Pull its scattered aspects together,
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- Use hardware (Convergence-descended tech / Titan cradle) as a spine,
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- Use **Fouadriel the Undying** as a heart.
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#### Fouad’s Plan (DM Spine)
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- Fouad’s lich-ascension ritual is explicitly modeled – badly – on Convergence Engine math:
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- **Stage 1:** Lace a phylactery into the local Root like a permanent subnode.
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- **Stage 2:** Use Titan/Convergence-style ritual geometry to *force coherence* again, but this time, instead of smearing the mind, **drag it into the phylactery**.
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- **Stage 3:** Die at the right moment so his soul and the Coherence fragment share the same anchor: he becomes **Fouadriel the Undying**, an undead spellcaster hard-wired into the Root.
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- The Coherence *does not* fully consent to this. From its POV:
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- Being crammed into one idiot’s jar is just another kind of prison.
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- This tension gives you a built-in “three-way” conflict: PCs vs Fouad vs Coherence.
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#### Final Confrontation Options
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- **Embodied Avatar Fight:**
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- The Coherence partially incarnates through Fouad (or a purpose-grown body) inside a ritual space framed by Titan/Convergence tech.
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- Legendary stat block with lair actions flavored as Root/Convergence anomalies.
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- **Node / Ritual Fight:**
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- PCs fight the *pattern* more than a dude:
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- Re-routing flows,
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- Destroying or repurposing Convergence-like pylons,
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- Deciding whether to smear, contain, or integrate it – becoming the “new D’serris” generation.
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---
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## 5. Relationship To Named NPCs
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- **D’serris:**
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- Explicitly frames Avalon as a **Korrin early-warning probe**, and Titan Lance as a more “disciplined, safer Convergence Engine.”
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- His worst nightmare is watching someone **else** rebuild what he helped shut down.
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- **Fouadriel:**
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- Graduates from “best anchor” to “self-styled lich architect,” trying to hijack *exactly* the phenomenon D’serris once chose to smear.
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- **Joe & Pappy:**
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- Their war-link and Pappy’s imprint become prime narrative channels to explain:
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- What the Convergence Engine did,
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- Why repeating it (Fouad’s plan) is so catastrophically stupid.
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---
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