Revision as of 15:01, 4 March 2005

This is an attempt to create some interesting stuff based on the idea of tasked daemons as a power source. A nice effect of this is that one can use the Daemon personalities from Savant and Sorcerer without players having to do something stupid. Also, it seems to me that people would try something like this at some point.

History and Intro

"Daemons do what you tell them to, not what you want them to"

Daemon based technology has never been incredibly widely used, although it was much more common in the First Age. In the Second Age, the Realm does not approve of daemon summoning, which makes DaemonTech almost unknown, given that only the Exalted can really summon effectivly. That being said, now some of the Solar engineers have returned, and it's possible for the techniques to resurface. Also, the dangers are generally portrayed as greater than they are. DaemonTech is usually simple, problems generally arise from one of two areas, either circumstances change, creating difficulties for the daemon to do it's task, or the task was badly specified in the first place. The first cause is by far the most common. In a well made system, the daemons would generally not accumulate limit unless very bad things happened the basic system they were part of. For example a daemon told to turn a crank would be confused by the destruction of the crank.

Some features are common in almost all Daemon based technology

• First Circle -- Only first circle daemons are used. If you really need more power, use several. This is probably one of the strongest rules. How stupid can you get?
• Confinement -- A common feature is that the daemon is confined to an area. This always part of the task(do not leave this area), although physical confinement is common, and also keeps them out of sight. It also looks like a safety feature.
• Simple Task -- The daemon is given a simple task to do repetativly, usually at a fixed rate. The task is usually short, but includes a laundry list of injunctions not to leave, dematerialize, communicate, stop, start, etc... In fact, if the task is specified well, and things do not change to much,
• Control -- A simple control mechanism is usually provided. Sometimes this is a simple series of flags the daemon is told to watch for, sometimes the control is entirely mechanical, i.e. a daemon that provided power for a mill might be engaged and disengaged via a crank. The very best engineers used a combination of both methods. Primary control was provided mechanicly, while secondary control was provided via flags that caused the daemon to suspend and resume it's task(to allow repair of mechanisms).
• Valve -- For more complicated tasks, the daemon was given a condition that would allow it to stop. This condition was usually easy to fulfill. Even if the condition was not met, the daemon could not attack it's summoner or other, but it generally had much greater latitude to be annoying. Basicly, the hope that the conditions would not be fulfilled gave the daemon something to look forward to. Examples:
  • A pound of raw meat a month
  • A human sacrafice once per 1000 years(actually, this meant you got a mage to summon a new daemon that often).
  • A condition that was natural to it's task. A daemon that ran a water pump might be guarunteed wet feet.

Sample Tech

The Mill of Stone not Water

The mill had always been there. There was no stream, but it mattered not. The gigantic stone paddle wheel turned just fine, despite being suspended in the air outside the building. In ancient times a prince had given the villagers the mill in gratitude for circumstances long forgotten. There was an obsidian tablet at the front of the mill, written in some langugage none could read. Presumably, it said what deed the gift was for. Some thought it was a gift from spirits of the air, but it worked the same no matter which way the wind blew. Lightning once struck the building, destroying the wooden parts with fire. While this happened, the wheel still turned. The fire burned the mounting for the obsidian tablet, which fell and broke. It was sold to help fund the reconstruction. The wood was rebuild onto the stone structure, and some thought it was the spirits of the earth. A thaumaturgist was brought in to try to bargin with them to make the mill go faster, but he failed, and was run out of town. Eventually, people stopped wondering too much and just accepted it. Sometimes the wheel would start to squeek in an highly obnoxious way, but that was easy to fix. Then, one day, the mill stopped, and no prayers or offerings could make it go again.

Actually, the wheel had a daemon inside with the '1 sacrafice per millenium' condition. After this ran out, it stopped. The tablet explaining this has been lost. If the wheel were broken, what would happen is the daemon would attempt to kill to statisfy the condition, and, if it succeded, it would attempt to resume it's task!

Hundread Wheels Palace

Deep within the chaos, something moved. Something big. Eventually reality become more solid. Out of Wyld the mighty tower rolled. In the window, the lone survivor smiled. While the structure itself was relativly protected, creating a road was difficult. An order was passed down to the motive power below. Smoothly, the giant structure turned toward the Pole of Earth, continuing as it always had. At the apex, the survivor smiled, not noticing the monstrocity behind them. Several days later the structure encountered a lake. Crossing this cleaned a mess off the roof, but had no other effect on it's progress.

One of the strangest manifestations of this trend was the Hundread Wheels Palace. Created for a paranoid ruler of old, it was a massive circular stone tower. Underneath a reinforced stone and iron skirt, daemons in gigantic wheels labored to move the mobile castle according to the will of it's master. Supposedly, it was created because something that could be lifted by a Wind Spirit was not defensible enough. Other tales say the owner refused to be parted from the earth. Scholors suppose that this was one possible origin of the Rolling Earth Carpet spell, even if it is not, the spell was definaly required to move the contraption, which took up most of the spell's area. The palace was supposedly lost to the Wyld, although this is not known for sure. It is believe that the palace was protected against chaotic influences, although, how long these would last is a mystery.

While not speedy by any means, being limited to the running speed of the daemons moving it, the Hundread Wheels Palace could cover surprising amounts of ground, simply due to not needing to stop. Some legends speak of it being able to move underneath the ocean, although this slowed it somewhat. This forms the other guess as to it's current location.

Comments

I was not sure where to link this in, it's more setting that rules. Anyway, hope people find it fun -- FlowsLikeBits

Exalted spells it "demon". -- Will