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Echoes explained
TL;DR
Echoes are both central to the plot and an important game mechanic. Characters "echo" parts of their preincarnated lives as results of encountering plot or reocurrences. Reocurrence, short recurrence, is the word for a character experiencing for the first time something that reminds them of their former life. An example would be the reincarnation of Smaug from the Hobbit learning fire breathing, and echoing the ability to actually breathe dragon fire without any tools from it.
Echoes can be anything from a character's former life: Memories, personality traits, items, abilities, physical traits, and so on.
During the current [2nd] season, the effects of echoes only exist within the Mossgate Echo Boundary, an area covering a radius of six miles around the mouth of the river Moss in England. All echoes, as well as access to the network and all memories of anything relating to the network will be lost if a character leaves the Echo Boundary and recovered in full as soon as they return to the Echo Boundary.
WHY?
Echoes happen because player characters are reincarnations of their canon selves. They lived their canon existences in their canon worlds as per their canon, and then at some point, their universe's timeline ended. All that remained of their destroyed universes were a few Shards, pieces of those universes that contained everything that makes a person a person - the player characters' Shards. And Earth, strong enough to defend her universe against the destruction, gathered all those Shards and stored them in her belly to plant them into growing life to be that creature's "soul".
Since about a hundred years before game start, Shards have started to be awakened in the Mossgate Echo Boundary, causing first echoes and the receiving of numbers. Then, on the 15th of June 2018, Northern Lights appeared above Mossgate, the Network went live, and people started receiving more and more echoes, which slowly made them become increasingly similar to their original lives...
HOW?
Echoes triggers come in two types.
The first are plot Echoes - they are obtained from a character encountering the plot. Sometimes this is as easy as looking at the sky, sometimes characters have to go places and do things for it, but generally plot echoes are designed to be as accessible as possible. In general, a plot Echo may be used to obtain any effect that you like - any one can be used to obtain a mental, physical, item, or creature Echo unless otherwise stated, and what exactly is obtained does not need relevance to the situation or trigger.
The second are canon reoccurrences - experiences that are parallel or unconscious "reminders" of a character's previous life. Canon reoccurrence always causes an Echo related to the original experience. Example: Bilbo Baggins' reincarnation is buying wedding bands with his partner and for the first time in his life slips on a solid golden ring. He could receive one of the following: A deranged possessiveness over the ring he slipped on (mental echo), a certain gauntness typical for ringbearers (physical echo), the One Ring (item echo) or the One Ring's power of invisibility (item echo if he already has the One Ring).
A Echo effect will be triggered the first time a character experiences an event (for example, a character cannot obtain an Echo from watching a vampire movie if it wouldn't have been their first time doing so), and can only be triggered within designated Echo boundaries. We will be more lenient about what counts as "first time" (how different it has to be from other experiences) with characters who already have a wealth of experiences due to their age.
The ways in which echoes manifest are varied: An item echo may show up in the location where the character is when it is triggered or somewhere else (like their bedroom). A physical echo may manifest instantly or take weeks up painfully morphing into a new shape. A memory might return in a dream or just suddenly be there in the back of someone's mind. Be creative!
HOW MANY?
A character who has been in game for longer than three ACs may receive up to five echoes per month.
A character who has been in game for three ACs or less may receive up to ten echoes per month. This mechanic is meant to allow newer characters to catch up with oldbies more easily. (You do by no means have to hit the limit! It is simply a higher allowance).
Double Echo Tokens gained from surpassing AC can expand how much gain this means. Double Echo Tokens are rewards for going above an beyond AC requirements. Spending a DET on an echo, recurrence or plot, means that one trigger will yield two echoes: An item and a memory, two memories, a physical and a mental trait, and so on.
A maximum of one echo may be gained from the same event or conversation, to prevent echo trains in which members of a cast use one another as "echo chambers". Event, in this case, means a single interaction or the witnessing of a single context. Example: If Bob is in search of his sister and runs first into a restaurant where someone yells at him and then, in a different thread but in pursuit of the same goal, manages to fall into the Moss River, that are two events. If he however falls into the river because the person yelled at him, that would be one event.
WHAT?
Mental Echoes:
Mental Echoes return something of the preincarnation's mind. This can be a memory, knowledge-based skill, a feeling, a sensation or a personality trait. Mental Echoes can return something incomplete or out of order. Example: Darth Vader's reincarnation echoes the a terribly guilty feeling that comes over him every time he sees his children's hands months before he gets the memory of hacking off Luke's hand.
Physical Echoes:
Physical Echoes return something of a preincarnation's body. An ability based on a part of physiology (like muscle memory), degrees of strength in their abilities, appearance, old wounds, muscles, better health, illness and so on. Physical Echoes can return something incomplete, out of order, or stretched out over a long timespan. Example: A vampire whose reincarnation is 70 but whose preincarnation never looked a day older than 30 might "deage" to look 30 again over the span of multiple months, their need to drink blood might come in before the teeth that they need to feed, or their superhuman speed might come in before their brain's ability to think fast enough to keep up, making them accidentally slam into walls.
Item Echoes:
Item Echoes return an item which belonged to the preincarnation. A weapon, clothing, a vehicle, money, a childhood stuffed toy. Anything, really, as long as it belonged to them. Items may return in strange or incomplete forms, and require more than one Echo to be completely restored. For example, a sword which has special abilities originally may return as a normal sword, and then another Echo will restore a portion of its power.
Note: No items specifically from your character's canon exist on this Earth. You may be able to find something similar enough to trigger an Echo, but it won't be exactly the same. And the item that triggers the echo will not vanish once the echoed item appears. Example: If a witch's reincarnation touches a broomstick for the first time and it triggers an item echo for her canon broomstick, she's now standing there with two broomsticks.
Creature Echoes:
Creature Echoes do not directly effect the character, but instead a related life form which associated with them in their past life. They operate as above but for another being, such as their preincarnated life's animal companion, mount or pet. Example: Misty's reincarnation echoes a regular fertile egg that seems to be an ostrich egg. The next echo gives the egg strange blue and red markings, and the next echo makes Togepi hatch from it without any powers. Following echoes return one by one Togepi's personality, ability to create sounds, and its powers.
If the preincarnate's companion creature was sentient and you wish for the creature to be sentient once more, you must combo app them before they can gain sentience, as the trait of sentience constitutes a character. Sentient swords or motorcycles also fall under this rule if they will potentially speak or interact with characters other than the primary character whom they would be applied to. Creatures that were echoed can be combo-apped retroactively and will retain any creature echoes that they have received as their status changes.
WHAT IT FEELS LIKE
The only trait that is common to absolutely all Echoes is that when the process begins the one undergoing the change briefly feels as if they are completely hollow and a powerful noise as if from a particularly strong heartbeat resounds inside of them. It tends to leave people feeling a bit dizzy.
The process itself doesn't make it clear what's happening. There's the initial physical reaction and then they have to work out what has happened to them. Some might be more obvious (like suddenly having a tail as opposed to getting more sarcastic), but there's no inbuilt understanding of what's going on. In cases where they receive a memory they'll experience it as a memory, not relive the moment.
MECHANICS
To request an echo, you must first acquire Echo Tokens by submitting activity to the A href=>Echo Token and Double Echo Token page.
Most echoes need to be requested on the echo request page and receive mod approval before they can be implemented into game play. This is necessary to make sure that they comply with the rules and the playing field is as even as possible for all players. We try to see to echo requests as quickly as we can, but often this will sadly mean that threads will have to be put on hold until approval has been granted.
The one big exception are memory echoes. Memory echoes, since they are relatively straightforward, must still be submitted on the echo request page, but they count as "approved by default" and threads can thus continue without further delay. We do reserve the right to ask for revisions on memories, though, should they be excessive. The guideline is: A memory may not exceed one event or one important fact, though they can be less. Examples include: They may be as big as a whole conversation, a battle, an eventless journey or the fact that the character is a vampire, and as small as an important sentence someone said or the fact that the character's teeth used to feel different.
All reoccurrence echoes must be triggered by experiencing something for the first time and may not be gained off-screen: At least the initial trigger must take place in a thread or toplevel.
FIRST ECHOES
First Echoes are something like warm ups. They are an echo that the character gets together with their number and should be fairly innocent - no blatantly inhuman physical changes or great powers. They can be sudden (a memory, a small item) or start a process (like slowly deageing). The first echo of characters who were reincarnated as a plant or animal must be sentience (and, if applicable, the ability to have visceral experiences in the future). First echoes are a fairly common thing to get a revision on, so please do not be worried if we want to chat with you about it. They are also a way of easing the player into how echoes work.
When applying for a character, they'll have experienced their first Echo already, potentially many years in the past (the earliest possible date for an echo is one's own birth, more specifically, a person's first direct touch with Earth/its atmosphere).
First echoes may be reoccurence echoes or plot echoes. Plot echoes that are available for this are, at this time:
SEASON SPECIFIC RULES
Due to the Season Directives of Season Two, characters may now echo anything the players wish them to echo as long as it is not worldbreaking.
Echoes are both central to the plot and an important game mechanic. Characters "echo" parts of their preincarnated lives as results of encountering plot or reocurrences. Reocurrence, short recurrence, is the word for a character experiencing for the first time something that reminds them of their former life. An example would be the reincarnation of Smaug from the Hobbit learning fire breathing, and echoing the ability to actually breathe dragon fire without any tools from it.
Echoes can be anything from a character's former life: Memories, personality traits, items, abilities, physical traits, and so on.
During the current [2nd] season, the effects of echoes only exist within the Mossgate Echo Boundary, an area covering a radius of six miles around the mouth of the river Moss in England. All echoes, as well as access to the network and all memories of anything relating to the network will be lost if a character leaves the Echo Boundary and recovered in full as soon as they return to the Echo Boundary.
WHY?
Echoes happen because player characters are reincarnations of their canon selves. They lived their canon existences in their canon worlds as per their canon, and then at some point, their universe's timeline ended. All that remained of their destroyed universes were a few Shards, pieces of those universes that contained everything that makes a person a person - the player characters' Shards. And Earth, strong enough to defend her universe against the destruction, gathered all those Shards and stored them in her belly to plant them into growing life to be that creature's "soul".
Since about a hundred years before game start, Shards have started to be awakened in the Mossgate Echo Boundary, causing first echoes and the receiving of numbers. Then, on the 15th of June 2018, Northern Lights appeared above Mossgate, the Network went live, and people started receiving more and more echoes, which slowly made them become increasingly similar to their original lives...
HOW?
Echoes triggers come in two types.
The first are plot Echoes - they are obtained from a character encountering the plot. Sometimes this is as easy as looking at the sky, sometimes characters have to go places and do things for it, but generally plot echoes are designed to be as accessible as possible. In general, a plot Echo may be used to obtain any effect that you like - any one can be used to obtain a mental, physical, item, or creature Echo unless otherwise stated, and what exactly is obtained does not need relevance to the situation or trigger.
The second are canon reoccurrences - experiences that are parallel or unconscious "reminders" of a character's previous life. Canon reoccurrence always causes an Echo related to the original experience. Example: Bilbo Baggins' reincarnation is buying wedding bands with his partner and for the first time in his life slips on a solid golden ring. He could receive one of the following: A deranged possessiveness over the ring he slipped on (mental echo), a certain gauntness typical for ringbearers (physical echo), the One Ring (item echo) or the One Ring's power of invisibility (item echo if he already has the One Ring).
A Echo effect will be triggered the first time a character experiences an event (for example, a character cannot obtain an Echo from watching a vampire movie if it wouldn't have been their first time doing so), and can only be triggered within designated Echo boundaries. We will be more lenient about what counts as "first time" (how different it has to be from other experiences) with characters who already have a wealth of experiences due to their age.
The ways in which echoes manifest are varied: An item echo may show up in the location where the character is when it is triggered or somewhere else (like their bedroom). A physical echo may manifest instantly or take weeks up painfully morphing into a new shape. A memory might return in a dream or just suddenly be there in the back of someone's mind. Be creative!
HOW MANY?
A character who has been in game for longer than three ACs may receive up to five echoes per month.
A character who has been in game for three ACs or less may receive up to ten echoes per month. This mechanic is meant to allow newer characters to catch up with oldbies more easily. (You do by no means have to hit the limit! It is simply a higher allowance).
Double Echo Tokens gained from surpassing AC can expand how much gain this means. Double Echo Tokens are rewards for going above an beyond AC requirements. Spending a DET on an echo, recurrence or plot, means that one trigger will yield two echoes: An item and a memory, two memories, a physical and a mental trait, and so on.
A maximum of one echo may be gained from the same event or conversation, to prevent echo trains in which members of a cast use one another as "echo chambers". Event, in this case, means a single interaction or the witnessing of a single context. Example: If Bob is in search of his sister and runs first into a restaurant where someone yells at him and then, in a different thread but in pursuit of the same goal, manages to fall into the Moss River, that are two events. If he however falls into the river because the person yelled at him, that would be one event.
WHAT?
Mental Echoes:
Mental Echoes return something of the preincarnation's mind. This can be a memory, knowledge-based skill, a feeling, a sensation or a personality trait. Mental Echoes can return something incomplete or out of order. Example: Darth Vader's reincarnation echoes the a terribly guilty feeling that comes over him every time he sees his children's hands months before he gets the memory of hacking off Luke's hand.
Physical Echoes:
Physical Echoes return something of a preincarnation's body. An ability based on a part of physiology (like muscle memory), degrees of strength in their abilities, appearance, old wounds, muscles, better health, illness and so on. Physical Echoes can return something incomplete, out of order, or stretched out over a long timespan. Example: A vampire whose reincarnation is 70 but whose preincarnation never looked a day older than 30 might "deage" to look 30 again over the span of multiple months, their need to drink blood might come in before the teeth that they need to feed, or their superhuman speed might come in before their brain's ability to think fast enough to keep up, making them accidentally slam into walls.
Item Echoes:
Item Echoes return an item which belonged to the preincarnation. A weapon, clothing, a vehicle, money, a childhood stuffed toy. Anything, really, as long as it belonged to them. Items may return in strange or incomplete forms, and require more than one Echo to be completely restored. For example, a sword which has special abilities originally may return as a normal sword, and then another Echo will restore a portion of its power.
Note: No items specifically from your character's canon exist on this Earth. You may be able to find something similar enough to trigger an Echo, but it won't be exactly the same. And the item that triggers the echo will not vanish once the echoed item appears. Example: If a witch's reincarnation touches a broomstick for the first time and it triggers an item echo for her canon broomstick, she's now standing there with two broomsticks.
Creature Echoes:
Creature Echoes do not directly effect the character, but instead a related life form which associated with them in their past life. They operate as above but for another being, such as their preincarnated life's animal companion, mount or pet. Example: Misty's reincarnation echoes a regular fertile egg that seems to be an ostrich egg. The next echo gives the egg strange blue and red markings, and the next echo makes Togepi hatch from it without any powers. Following echoes return one by one Togepi's personality, ability to create sounds, and its powers.
If the preincarnate's companion creature was sentient and you wish for the creature to be sentient once more, you must combo app them before they can gain sentience, as the trait of sentience constitutes a character. Sentient swords or motorcycles also fall under this rule if they will potentially speak or interact with characters other than the primary character whom they would be applied to. Creatures that were echoed can be combo-apped retroactively and will retain any creature echoes that they have received as their status changes.
WHAT IT FEELS LIKE
The only trait that is common to absolutely all Echoes is that when the process begins the one undergoing the change briefly feels as if they are completely hollow and a powerful noise as if from a particularly strong heartbeat resounds inside of them. It tends to leave people feeling a bit dizzy.
The process itself doesn't make it clear what's happening. There's the initial physical reaction and then they have to work out what has happened to them. Some might be more obvious (like suddenly having a tail as opposed to getting more sarcastic), but there's no inbuilt understanding of what's going on. In cases where they receive a memory they'll experience it as a memory, not relive the moment.
MECHANICS
To request an echo, you must first acquire Echo Tokens by submitting activity to the A href=>Echo Token and Double Echo Token page.
Most echoes need to be requested on the echo request page and receive mod approval before they can be implemented into game play. This is necessary to make sure that they comply with the rules and the playing field is as even as possible for all players. We try to see to echo requests as quickly as we can, but often this will sadly mean that threads will have to be put on hold until approval has been granted.
The one big exception are memory echoes. Memory echoes, since they are relatively straightforward, must still be submitted on the echo request page, but they count as "approved by default" and threads can thus continue without further delay. We do reserve the right to ask for revisions on memories, though, should they be excessive. The guideline is: A memory may not exceed one event or one important fact, though they can be less. Examples include: They may be as big as a whole conversation, a battle, an eventless journey or the fact that the character is a vampire, and as small as an important sentence someone said or the fact that the character's teeth used to feel different.
All reoccurrence echoes must be triggered by experiencing something for the first time and may not be gained off-screen: At least the initial trigger must take place in a thread or toplevel.
FIRST ECHOES
First Echoes are something like warm ups. They are an echo that the character gets together with their number and should be fairly innocent - no blatantly inhuman physical changes or great powers. They can be sudden (a memory, a small item) or start a process (like slowly deageing). The first echo of characters who were reincarnated as a plant or animal must be sentience (and, if applicable, the ability to have visceral experiences in the future). First echoes are a fairly common thing to get a revision on, so please do not be worried if we want to chat with you about it. They are also a way of easing the player into how echoes work.
When applying for a character, they'll have experienced their first Echo already, potentially many years in the past (the earliest possible date for an echo is one's own birth, more specifically, a person's first direct touch with Earth/its atmosphere).
First echoes may be reoccurence echoes or plot echoes. Plot echoes that are available for this are, at this time:
- Any characters who were present in Mossgate on the 30th of June 2018 may have received their first echo from the Northern Lights above the city that activated the numbers, even if they did not see them.
- Any animal (or plant) character may get a first echo from their first contact with the water of the Moss river - drinking it, swimming in it, or other. This is meant to level the playing field a bit for those characters, as sentience can be hard to come by through reoccurences.
- Encountering one of the dormice.
SEASON SPECIFIC RULES
Due to the Season Directives of Season Two, characters may now echo anything the players wish them to echo as long as it is not worldbreaking.