Cephalomancer
From the depths of Europa and The Hidden Sea on Ceres, the octopi clades watch and study humanity. While the basic uplifted octopod bodies made full use of the fine motor skills and keen intuition genetically encoded into the species, the cephalomancer morph represents a fine tuning of the basic uplifted octomorph body toward the mental. In this way it is much the same as the Menton morph, but funded by the considerable resources at the disposal of the octopi clades.
Specially designed for trend-spotting and planning, the morph is designed for out-witting opponents, predicting probabilities and rapid situational analysis. This combined with the often sobering alien attitudes the clades support (as part of the Mercurial faction) often give the false impression of genuine presentient ability. As with all octopod morphs the cephalomancer is designed to tolerant dry-atmosophere and underwater conditions as well as Cere-ian ammonia-rich water. The celphalomancer body is used by diplomats, clade executives and ego-hunter cadres and represent a powerful threat to corporate politics and market forces.
Human versions of this morph labelled 'Seers' and sold as modified Menton morphs by Cognite, and 'Philosophers' within the Ultimate faction (modelled off the highly successful Ultimate morph - the Remade) exist and come with similar implants and a higher price tag.
Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Direction Sense, Enhanced Vision, Chameleon Skin, Oracles, Mental Speed, Eidetic Memory, Math Boost, Hyper Linguist
Aptitude Maximum: 30
Durability: 30
Wound Threshold: 6
Advantages: 8 Arms, Beak Attack (1d10 DV, use Unarmed Combat skill), Ink Attack (Blinding, use Exotic Ranged: Ink Attack skill), Limber (Level 2) trait, 360-Degree Vision, +30 Swimming Skill, +10 Climbing Skill, +5 COG, +10 INT, +5 to one other aptitude of players choice.
CP Cost: 70
Credit Cost: Expensive (Minimum 50,000+)
Welcome! These forums will be deactivated by the end of this year. The conversation continues in a new morph over on Discord! Please join us there for a more active conversation and the occasional opportunity to ask developers questions directly! Go to the PS+ Discord Server.
Cephalomancer Morph
Mon, 2010-07-05 16:59
#1
Thampsan
Cephalomancer Morph
Mon, 2010-07-05 20:49
#2
Quincey Forder
Re: Cephalomancer Morph
something that has been puzzled me since the beginning
do only uplifted octopi (with the aforementioned concepts) use cephalopod-based morphs, or do other transhuman ethnies and faction use them as well?
if they do, how are they looked at by the uplifted themselves, be they Mercurials or from other factions?
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Mon, 2010-07-05 21:01
#3
nezumi.hebereke
Re: Cephalomancer Morph
They aren't exactly 'common' (their cost doesn't necessarily justify the advantages), but yes, they're used by non-cephalopods. Honestly, I imagine that, number-wise, you probably see more non-cephalopods wearing the morphs than vice versa :P They're awfully useful for Europa and such.
Mon, 2010-07-05 21:33
#4
Quincey Forder
Re: Cephalomancer Morph
speaking of vice-versa
Neo-octopi (and other uplifted for the matter) rarely use morph that aren't of their "species", then?
it could be a good motivation, tho
for an uplifted character in a Synth morph, to earn enough to purchase a morph of his uplifted brethen.
And the reason why he or she would have been in a Synth morph to begin with
—
[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center]
Remember The Cant!
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Tue, 2010-07-06 03:15
#5
Thampsan
Re: Cephalomancer Morph
It depends, when you research octopi it is important to consider several things:
* Pre-uplifted Octopi generally lay about 200,000 eggs - and while not all of these survive one can imagine that uplifted octopi being sentient creature, would likely attempt to refrain from consuming their young or at least drastically increase the odds of survive among their young by being able to ward off predators. How many eggs an uplift might lay is hard to tell, but we'll say less, simply for the sake of being conservative say only 10,000 eggs with the gestation time likely longer.
* I don't know how feasable it is, but what are the chances that every basic octopus has basic mesh inserts, a cortical stack and basic biomods? Regardless of this, considering their uplifted status an uplifted octopi likely matures and grows much faster than a human anyway so a plentiful supply of dumb bodies to modify and sell to the octopi or air-breathers isn't exactly going to be hard to come by.
So what this all adds up to is a thriving society of uplifted octopi on Ceres and Europa (and anywhere else with water), likely less commonly outside of it with some very interesting politics and culture. I imagine that male octopi no longer die after mating (since they now have a desire to stay alive and not swap bodies too often).
Tue, 2010-07-06 03:20
#6
GreyBrother
Re: Cephalomancer Morph
Quincey: Re-instantiated and couldn't afford a proper octomorph?
Tue, 2010-07-06 04:19
#7
Thampsan
Re: Cephalomancer Morph
Other suggested octo-morph implants or advantages: Poison Glands (appropriate for uplifted octopi species that had poison to begin with), Temperature Tolerance (unless the oceans of Ceres and Europa aren't as cold as I imagine), Toxin Filters (to deal with the toxic water of Ceres).
Tue, 2010-07-06 09:26
#8
nezumi.hebereke
Re: Cephalomancer Morph
I see no reason to assume that. In fact, quite to the contrary. All of our tools, ships and even our social structures are built upon the assumption that you are an upright biped with two arms and so on. Even permitting handicap access and all that, it's just convenient, and makes you stick out less. Plus, humanoid morphs are cheaper and more common. So I'm sure many uplifts have accepted standard morphs for matters of convenience, cost, taste or necessity. The only uplifts who would maintain their original forms are those who have a strong psychological attachment to it and the currency to pay for it, or those that escaped from Earth in their original forms and haven't changed to another form for whatever reason.
I do expect that the likelihood of an uplift sticking to its original bodytype is related to the species. We have as of yet to see a single whale in a whale body (for obvious reasons!) and I doubt you'll see a space elephant any time soon. Similarly, the jump from gorilla or chimp to human-like seems minor enough, I doubt they'll pay extra money for the pride of genetic data, rather than mod a standard homo sapien body. We've seen plenty of ravens in raven bodies, suggesting they do have a preference (and the price is low enough). Octopuses may stick to octopus bodies if it's relevant to the work they do, but otherwise I see nothing indicating they have a strong preference. We haven't heard much about dolphins, but I suspect given their size, and the usefulness of a non-dolphin body, we'll see them change-over whenever they're not on Europa.
Tue, 2010-07-06 11:41
#9
Thampsan
Re: Cephalomancer Morph
Humanoid bodies are only so cheap because humans currently have the population numbers to dominate the morph industry. There is no reason that given a few years the uplift population with it's tendency to breed much more quickly and in greater numbers won't over take the population numbers of humans (especially the octopi).
The core book is very anthro-centric, but that is alright because most players aren't interested in playing primates, cephalopods or parrots.
As for the body type preference look at the Integrations and Alienation chart, one of the penalties to adapting to a new sleeve is the 'Exotic Body Penalty' - which I imagine would not apply to members of that species re-sleeving in their own body. It's less 'what is convenient' and more 'what feels natural'.
A human in a neo-avian body is going to have trouble learning to fly, and the staggering difference in sense a human would have going into an octomorph body is going to cause problems. Again, beware anthro-centrism it might just be what causes the first Human/Uplift war!
Tue, 2010-07-06 12:45
#10
nezumi.hebereke
Re: Cephalomancer Morph
I disagree on the breeding note. While octopi can breed in tremendous numbers, there's no reason to assume that they will. In the wild, raising them like that is alright because there's no actual raising involved. The reason humans have one child at a time is because of the tremendous investment required to educate a child. That requirement now applies to octopi. Also, the same pressures that depress human birth rates in this situation (the staggering cost of raising a child to adulthood, the refugee status of most people, the lack of functional reproductive tracks and the interference of non-compatible genetic modifications) all apply to octopi.
True, but that's only temporary - like on the order of days. I don't think that trade-off is a serious concern compared to the benefits of getting a morph more appropriate to the job at hand.
edit: Also worth pointing out, mechanically, the humanoid form is simply one of the most efficient shapes for the sort of work transhumans are up to. There's a reason why humans are that shape! Not only does the upright, bipedal, two-armed shape give excellent robustness in capabilities for its costs, it's what all the equipment we used is formatted for. Unless you're doing a specialty job or in a specialty environment, you're probably going to find the transhuman body outperforms in most situations (or at least in most situations under Earth-like conditions).
Tue, 2010-07-06 13:07
#11
Thampsan
Re: Cephalomancer Morph
Humans attempted to rebuild population numbers with the disastrous 'Lost Generation' indicates a desire on the part of at least one sentient species to edge away from brink of extinction, I can't imagine this would be limited only to our species.
I agree with you though, the human form is superior at least under earth-like conditions, but when it comes to water and micro-gravity all bets are off. Also remember that a lot of work can be done entirely via the mesh. As such the mesh levels out performance output based solely on body design, maybe 8 arms don't help you if you're welding a bulkhead shut, but it doesn't make much of a difference if you're both programming nanites or gene splicing.
But aquatic environments are not the forte of bipeds you can adapt a human and give him gills and webbed feet and hands - but he will still be out performed by any aquatic creature. Especially an uplifted one with 8 limbs, so in those environments (like Europa and Ceres, and any aquatic exo-planet).
More importantly these environments aren't particularly attractive to bipeds and they can get around these problems by getting into synth morphs designed for under-water usage. But I dare say that for the most part they would be just as happy to let the uplifts have the damn world and set up their own colonies on water planets or moons.
The penalties for a critical failure on the Integration test last until resleeving.
The point I am trying to make is that uplifts have a lot of interesting features and are as alien to a human mindset as you will find without dealing with the Factors or TITANS. I think that there is a lot of story potential here.