Quote:Stage two? That's creepy. Really creepy. Mystical+creepy point to oneGiven some of the ingredients I'd suspect some of the more creepy druids and witches (or wannabees) in the UK were involved. It also smells to me of some of the stranger Hermetic stuff, or maybe Alchemy (homonculi). If you want a load of these mystics to be in Marduk, feel at liberty!
city, so I am certain than more than half of those few that know Stage
Two are necromancers and voodoo priests in Marduk.
Quote:I am not sure about the biomods -the whole body counts a a biomod by itself...You might think that, but... This process starts with something non-living, and no blood or other living matter is a necessary part of the (standard) ritual. It produces something living. Biomods occur when you take something already living and mess with them using handwavium. So, no biomod has occured by the end of a Stage Two (standard) ritual.
Now, if once you have your living body you want to biomod it, then, that is up to you. But, that is a different process.
Quote:Which gets me to the second question: I've have not noticed a way for theThat is left as an exercise for the student! [grin]
person to inhabit the new body. How do you do it? Do you have to
preinstall a receptor in the head of the doll?
The Stage Two process just leaves you with a living (empty) body. If you want to get someone into there then that is a totally different task. Hard tech brain surgery isn't up to doing a brain transplant and giving you a working spinal cord afterwards. You could do the transplant to a exact tissue-match body then try a radical biomod to fix everything at the end, with I think quite a good chance of success (try Heinlein's "I Will Fear No Evil" to help the process).
The head of the body includes a perfectly normal (adult) human brain, but with 'nobody home'. If you want to stuff memories into there, or do a high tech 'personality transplant' from a non-AI, I'd suggest a Mad would find this a 'fascinating project'. Anything which makes large scale alterations to the structure of the brain, 'burning' a lifetime's worth of memories into it, isn't likely to be subtle. An AI that is used to moving their mind around is in a slightly better position. But, how they download themselves into the body is unclear. Seriously hacked direct brain feed Virtual Reality kit? That is why Brains 'Stage Three' (luck and the 'Pinochio Effect' was one thing that helped) is such a major innovation on Stage Two.
Quote:Last, the duration. I do not have any problem with the week, but I willYou could have a Lunar Blood Stage Two where the body will live to the next full/dark moon, i.e. about two weeks, sustained by the power of the Moon working on the blood. A week was based on how long a soul-less body might reasonably linger, with some bits about souls leaving bodies after death, or hanging around. I see no reason why you couldn't have a different Stage Two ritual, particularly if it sometimes gives you blood-thirsty or flesh-eating ghouls.
say that the first thing that came to me when I read "ritual" was "full
moon". You may consider to have the bots last a full lunar month, and
the ritual can only be used in the full or dark moon (well, for most
people using it, it would be full or dark Earth.
Brains, or more likely, one of his agents might mention the Stage Two ritual if the conversation turns to how people are mixing mysticism with waving. And how rituals are developing, from crude beginnings. If Oscar said he wanted to know more, it's likely he'd be put in contact with a UK mystic willing to discuss it further. They might even be willing to demonstrate the full ritual for him, given how rich and powerful I think he looks to be even at that early date. Though they might be unhappy about the idea of mixing blood in, and want to be a long way away when he starts trying that.
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"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind