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Die Kerzen: a sketch for an Eclipse Phase novel

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pegritz pegritz's picture
Die Kerzen: a sketch for an Eclipse Phase novel
Hey, folks. I'm currently about halfway through the Eclipse Phase manual, and I really like the world! So, of course I feel the need to write something based in said milieux. I actually have a story broadly sketched out which was originally intended for a different setting, but it's proven very easy to port it over to the Eclipse Phase universe. Here's a brief teaser to just sketch out the basic narrative: Jaxon In-Cat-CATAG is little more than a glorified janitor sleeved in a general-purpose maintenance synth aboard the infomorph "colony" Tiferet in Solar orbit high above the ecliptic and far from the general mess of the rest of the Solar System. Tiferet is really nothing more than a processor core and associated hardware producing a number of simulscapes for people wishing to live in various fantasy worlds or recreations of Earth. Aside from occasional commands and directives from "the Management" or Tiferet's extremely-limited monitor AIs, Jaxon is completely alone. He has no idea how he ended up on Tiferet, and has become resigned to his fate. At one time in the past, however, he was an AGI researcher named Simon Casterman based at Carnegie Mellon University's Cognitive Technologies Laboratory working on developing intelligent software to act as cognitive prostheses for people with irreparable brain damage. During the Fall, he apparently helped in the fight against the TITANs, and just before...well, something happened in Pittsburgh--something that wiped the city off the planet so utterly that there is no trace whatsoever that a city ever existed on the bare, grass-stubbled landscape at the conjunction of the Three Rivers--Simon was uploaded and his ego transferred off Earth before the final shoe dropped. His memories of those days, however, are extremely fragmented and Jaxon is sure that they were purposefully edited by whomever uploaded him. Since "waking up" on Tiferet, though, Jaxon has given up on his old identity and his memories. He nearly drove himself mad trying to figure out who he was and what he'd done...but, fortunately, he learned to ignore the memories of his shattered and largely incoherent past. They're all irrelevant to his present existence, anyway. Until the day a ship identifying itself as Knife Missile comes to Tiferet bearing a particularly interesting crew. Every entity aboard the ship, including the ship's own mind, claims to be an instantiation of Simon Casterman--or, at least, an inheritor of his memories. Various versions of Simon Casterman have popped up all over the System, and the "original" Simon Casterman--Prime Simon, as he arbitrarily calls himself--has been trying to track down the widely-scattered forks of himself and gather them together in order to figure out just what the hell happened to him.... Aaaaaand, that's what I've got so far. I'll be sure to post more information as it evolves, but, at present, I'm only halfway through the manual--so it definitely needs work. But, considering that Eclipse Phase itself is an open gaming system, I regard this plot seed as an open-source effort as well! So...any suggestions, anyone? All comments are welcome and, more importantly, greatly appreciated. And, yes, the music of Gary Numan and Aphex Twin will both feature prominently in this sucker. :) D. Pegritz
Psyfer Psyfer's picture
Re: Die Kerzen: a sketch for an Eclipse Phase novel
Shows promise. Although not Transhuman, a good source for something like theis could be the currant X factor line of Marvel comics. One of the principal characters (James Madrox, the Multiple Man) has an entire story arc based around him finding himself face to face with other versions of himself. So, apart from being a janitor, what sort of man is Simon? good guy, bad guy, average guy? Are his forks of similar disposition, or have their own experiances/memories tinted them different shades of Simon? Are all his memories real, or are some (maybe even all of them) faked? Who else is interested in him? Does he have enemies? Does he have friends? Does he know who they are, or has knowledge of some of them been lost along the way? On what scale would the protagonists discovery of the truth behind his past effect the setting? Would it be a personal victory, limited in signifigance to himself and maybe a select few others, or would it's cope effect a hab, a world or even the entire solar system?
Just another Ghost in the Machine...