Interlude: Gate Mythology - Rational Species, part 2 - The Unforgettables: A ZeroYear litRPG.
SUMA
Name in ancient language: nírì (nailia: ni-í ri-ì)
Human translation of the name the species called itself, in most cases, is based on the sound: suma (nicknamed "spirits").
Galaxy of origin (human transliteration): All galaxies right after Gate and any given galaxy that brews rational life became part of the same observable universe. Or any rational being that is born inside Umbra.
Description:
Suma is the general name given to all inhabitants of the world of the dead. When any being dies or ceases to exist (stops thinking) within the Gate's known universe, a copy of it comes to exist in the Umbra. The hypothesis is that the Umbra is a parallel dimension to Gate and that every being exists in both dimensions simultaneously. In the Umbra, however, the states of things are replicated and replaced over time according to what happens in the real world, with a time delay. In the Umbra, all things remain dormant and inert when their link with the real world has been broken.
Only (minimally at least) rational entities, or things that have a link with rational entities in some way, end up "floating" in the Umbra until eventually "hatching" in the Spirits' Fields. Rational entities that reach the Fields in this way awaken from their sleep and begin to exist and act in the Umbra.
With the accumulation of rational entities in Gate's known universe that go to the Umbra, the Spirits' Fields eventually became a very populous place. To accommodate all these people, a city was built in the Umbra called the City of Spirits. For many years, it became much larger than Metropolis, only being surpassed when rational entities stopped dying in the Old Metropolis and the magic to raise the dead became commonplace.
The time it takes for a rational entity to float from the deep Umbra to the Spirits' Field without any aid depends on how far it is from Gate, and other random factors that the Suma call "ethereal turbulence." However, it rarely takes less than 100,000 Gate years for someone to emerge if they died on Gate's surface naturally, and it can take billions or trillions of years if they died in a distant galaxy. Some magics, however, can accelerate this process and retrieve someone from the Umbra to become a Suma immediately, or even bring rational entities from the Umbra directly back to the world of the living.
Therefore, a Suma does not have a defined physical form because they replicate the form they had in life, unless they have spent too much time in the City of Spirits, causing their bodies to degenerate, or they were born in the Umbra. Any Suma can reproduce with another Suma regardless of what they were in life. Sumas born in the Umbra have incomplete or altered bodies that would function very poorly in the world of the living, but generally resemble their relatives or what they were in the past. In "The Unforgettables," Amanda is a Suma who was born in the world of spirits, whose parents were likely bipedal humanoids. When she returned to the world of the living, even with Gate's environment providing basic-level superpowers, her body was fragile and not very functional for most physical tasks. Still, this did not stop her from doing anything, but it would clearly require a long period of adaptation.
Sumas are also very peculiar beings; they are not biologically alive unless they are incarnated in the world of the living, and even then, it is a transitory state. They are always directly linked to magic, and their existence depends exclusively on magic. So much so that they have a great advantage in the use of magic, both culturally due to ample study material, and because every Suma is a potential mage, as all possess some mana to continue existing, this is a double-edged sword, however: just as a mage who uses too much mana becomes exhausted and needs to rest, if a Suma uses all their mana they die, they don't just get tired but actually cease to exist. If nothing is done, they will end up back in the Umbra or worse; in the best-case scenario, they will remain dormant there until they float back to the Spirits' Fields for a short time.
Sumas have some advantages when transitioning from the world of spirits to the world of the living. They need "revive the dead" magics to do this, but they can perform this on themselves while awake in the Umbra. When this is done, they can try to control where they will appear in the world of the living, and they can always choose to visit the world of the living with or without a physical body, depending on how much interaction they intend to have and how long they plan to stay. If they opt for a physical body, they will need to feed like any other living being and also feed on mana; if they return only as spirits with no physical bodies, they only need mana. In "The Unforgettables," Mosh and Vaud spent so much time in the world of the living that it would be difficult to know they were also Suma if they didn't use their specific dialect in their communications.
Beyond physical characteristics, Suma society tends to be one of the most diverse in the multiverses, and in M8-9 they developed a bizarre society resembling a liberal democracy with a strong capitalist bias, but with democratic values strong enough to position them in conflict with Biggus's autocracy. Although the Suma society in general is somewhat fearful and reserved, they have pretty extensive social programs for people from the world of the living who help them. In "The Unforgettables," it was referenced that Seneca had already worked for the City of Spirits, which greatly facilitated the group's diplomacy when they first met Mosh and Vaud, as soon as they learned they were on a mission to find Seneca. And when the group actually helped them on their mission concerning the Big Bang, they reciprocated quite generously and genuinely, breaking the stereotype of unscrupulous traders fostered by Metropolis's propaganda.
Game System for New Metropolis:
In terms of game mechanics, every Suma will always be considered undead, which means some effects will not work very well on them. Besides that, they only have supermana instead of superlife in terms of powers they can train, and their bodies, even physical ones when incarnated, are made of solidified mana. Therefore, if they receive damage in any way, their mana is affected.
Most of the time, when a Suma visits the world of the living, they choose to incarnate. By doing so, their bodies will have some resistance and full mana-using capability, but if they suffer damage in this form without time to de-incarnate beforehand, they will have more trouble being revived. If they choose to remain in an ethereal spirit form in the world of the living, they will appear as ghosts but will be extremely fragile. If they somehow suffer damage in this ethereal form, they merely remain unconscious for a few days before normally returning to the world of the dead and their City of Spirits.
Another major peculiarity of the Sumas concerns transportation: they can attempt to reach any location in the world of the living by casting the "revive" magic on themselves while in the Umbra. This is a way to try to reach completely new places without needing to travel there beforehand, and it works relatively safely in Gate if they can perceive where they are trying to go. This is used moderately, not because there is a significant risk of it not working, but because Gate is a somewhat dangerous place, and appearing in a new and potentially dangerous location, likely alone, might not be a very wise idea. That said, Sumas can use the "revive" magic on objects in the World of the Dead to send them anywhere in the world of the living. In this regard, Sumas does so without many scruples because, in the worst-case scenario, the object is lost, although the cost of this type of delivery service tends to be quite high.
SCHROGAE
Name in ancient language: arreta (nailia: rrarreta)
Human translation of the name the species called itself, in most cases, is based on the sound: schrogae
Galaxy of origin (human transliteration): Unkjabi (most used in Gate, also the same name used in schrogae homeworld's late language)
Description:
They are giant humanoids, 4 to 6 meters tall (13~19 feet), originating from a gigantic and paradisiacal planet in the Unkjabi galaxy. Although they do not have a technologically oriented culture compared to other species, the Schrogae were one of the first species to develop space travel, and they quickly colonized dozens of planets and moons in their star system.
Their home planet was not part of Gate's known universe when the first Schrogae were revived, but their galaxy is relatively more recent than others. Unlike many other species, it was possible to find their galaxy of origin and travel back there. In doing so, they came into contact with their ancient civilization. They also managed to re-establish contact with the Paerul, another rational species that lived in a distant system in the same galaxy and were also revived in Gate over time.
The Schrogae are renowned explorers and possess an extraordinary curiosity and a penchant for mysteries. They love to travel and discover new and different things. On their home world, their civilization reached more advanced levels than humans and developed some technological wonders much more rapidly. Despite this, they maintained their highly distributed social structure. They always preserved a nomadic culture with an incredible degree of organization and complexity, where various nomadic tribes from the same region coordinated to form a kind of cooperative, which was the closest their culture came to human states because, despite being nomadic and independent, they shared laws and customs within these groups.
Physically, the Schrogae are one of the most robust species and possess multiple upper limbs. Most of them have 4 arms, with rare cases of 6 and even 8 arms, but when in greater numbers, the excess limbs are generally less developed than the standard 4. Their legs are much more muscular than their arms and have a bony hook protecting their heels, which, if not trimmed, pierce the ground where they walk. They have a small residual tail of a few centimeters, and their skin is quite thick but completely smooth and uniform, in shades ranging from red to brown. Their face is the part of their bodies most similar to humans, only larger in proportion. Schrogae do not have any type of hair, although they have a concentration of pigments on their faces, accentuating their expressions. Despite their smooth skin, they have the custom of adorning their bodies with piercings and tattoos whose visual effect closely resembles human style, but the creation process is quite alternative and involves the use of various pigments and bone parts from other animals on their native planet.
Schrogae society lasted much longer than human society, with its golden age occurring from the moment they developed space exploration. In their native star system, they colonized more than a dozen planets and moons before they set out on interstellar voyages. Because they were in a denser galaxy, exploration between different star systems was immensely facilitated. In addition to this, the cultural diversity of the Schrogae in Gate became even greater, especially when members of older civilizations were revived and began to live as immortals in Gate with other Schrogae who still lived in their home galaxy. At that time, these Schrogae were already spreading across various star systems. Hence, the vast majority of Schrogae decided not to live in Gate, but either to continue living in their galaxy or to travel through space, exploring new places. This behaviour annihilated the great majority of them in the cataclysmic event between M8 and M9 since only a few people in Gate survived.
Game System for New Metropolis:
Regarding their particular powers, Schrogae have an excellent aptitude for physical and mental coordination, enabling them to enter higher timeframes more smoothly than others. This causes their superior reflexes to combine perfectly with powers like Super-Dexterity, giving them a significant advantage. In game terms, any penalties for acting in 1 additional timeframe are nullified.
Stolen story; please report.
The Schrogae still nurture strong ties with their tribe. Their culture has managed to harmoniously combine commitment to their group and family with direct democratic participation in different instances. Thus, they have the individual private sphere, then the sphere of the direct family and tribe (which depends on the civilization of each), followed by the sphere of nomadic states, which in Gate are shared with other species. They also have a collective sphere for all rational beings from which they stipulated universal rights. However, in general, the various Schrogae cultures do not consider animals as rational beings nor as having access to similar rights, hypothetically because they are almost completely carnivorous; the sphere of rationality was an even more restricted criterion than in human society. But regardless of their culture of origin, the Schrogae have an enormous facility for learning some basic skills within their tribe before venturing out into the world. Their learning process is elaborate and highly valued by their culture, so every Schrogae will possess some basic power, generally physical, before becoming independent.
Finally, the Schrogae have their entire society focused on facilitating campaigns, adventures, and travels, and they offer maximum benefits to all who share the desire for adventure with any of them. When a Schrogae is part of an adventuring group, that group is invited to participate as a friend of their tribe, if not an integral part of it. This implies broad and maximized social support for all members, bringing people of other species into their tribes without asking for anything in return, except for company on their travels and adventures, in addition to money and equipment. What is surprising is that the Schrogae tribes in Gate are capable of elevating the family spirit and harmonizing different essences and powers for the group when setting out on an adventure, to the point of developing a collective of abilities (in practice, every member of a group with a Schrogae can possess any extra fourth ability as a specialty, as well as coordinated training in that ability) as well as a greater affinity for adventure, making better use of the great victories and epic moments resulting from their campaigns (conferring double effects for the first Milestone for the group).
BO
Name in ancient language: baora (nailia: babora)
Human translation of the name the species calls itself, in most cases, is based on the sound: bo (sometimes they call themselves aliens).
Galaxy of origin (human transliteration): Milky Way (most used in Gate. Bo called it Oxo, which means "zero" in their homeworld's late language. The Bo had a new logical name for Milk Way that is a concatenation of a space-time fixed spherical geographical coordinate in Gate format and a time reference to the last candidate-place where they believe their home galaxy was, 802.332.314,191612099501Sf : 526.554.192,110290083710Wf : 0.165349188275627739165481623638817235 E+24 : T0f, this name has a 12 digit precision on the altitude (in Km, Bo used another metrics so their original numbers are different, Bo also use duodecimal number base on their tradition but adopt decimal base as universal numbering after Gate since both nailia and humans use decimal, because of that this name can be quite different depending on context) from Gate surface to the place where Milk Way should be at year zero considering that zero means the time the first rational species on M9U8 share the same observable universe with Gate at the exact fixed position Gate surface should be at that time. Most Bos like to give "number" names to things, but they prefer to call their home galaxy the Milky Way since "zero" may be too confusing and the logical name too verbose.
Description:
The Bo are the stereotypical aliens of human culture. Physically, they are small humanoids with enormous heads and grayish or bluish skin (though with some rarer variations like purple and green), completely black and huge eyes, but very reduced noses, jaws, and ears. They have shiny, viscous skin, are completely hairless, have few wrinkles or folds, and have a texture similar to rubber.
In cultural terms, they are famous both for being intellectually brilliant, perhaps the species with the greatest aptitude for technology in Gate, and also for their exaggerated sense of humor and shenanigan behavior, which is often considered bizarre by almost everyone else. The Bo cohabitated the Milky Way with humans, but even this was only theoretical, given that after arriving in Gate, it was not possible to find (for sure) their home galaxy in Gate's known universe, at least not until the M8 cataclysm occurred.
Bo culture is quite different from others. They are autonomous individuals in terms of subsistence, with a Bo being considered mature when they can survive completely alone without any need for social life. They can even reproduce asexually if they wish by laying a type of soft egg, more akin to an external placenta, which is generally kept in specially designed incubators. The Bo do not need to have biological sex like many other species, as all possess three distinct genomic sets integrated into their cellular constitution, making all of them complex chimeras by definition. In addition to possessing various structures similar to mitochondria, these structures are divided into those that live only within their cells and some others that can enter and exit their cells according to their complex and bizarre physiology. Therefore, they are chimeras with organelles that are ancestral endosymbionts along with other more recent or even more autonomous endosymbionts. These characteristics allow the Bo to reproduce asexually, generating descendants with distinct gene expression profiles, modulated by epigenetic and environmental factors specific to the replication process, but they also often manipulate this process through technological cloning if they so desire. The Bo can also reproduce sexually, although the sexual ritual is a very lengthy process. Some Bo cultures, or rather, individual Bo, prefer to have children one way and others another. Bo cultures exist, but they have very few elements in common, other than the ability of each individual to do whatever they want in a completely independent and different way from all others. Bo cultures are generally focused on rights, laws, and other social elements, with cultural layers quite different from human ones and a higher degree of separation and classification.
It isn't very easy to define the Bo culture of the entire species throughout the ages, even considering that most of them values creativity and good humor, in the story of "The Unforgettables," none of these characteristics can be observed because the Bo who appear there are atypical (Biggus and Adarian). Still, it is mentioned that not even the Bo community supported Biggus in New Metropolis, but the complete opposite happened, thus inferring the great diversity of opinions and characteristics among them.
In the Milky Way, there is no consensus on what their relationship with humans is. Most Bo say they have never met humans personally before Gate, and that if any contact was made, it was not public or was in a future era relative to when they were alive. Other Bo categorically state that they knew humans and already had interspecies relations, and others even say that humans are just experiments created by the Bo, but it will never be known if these are different realities, different eras, or if it's all just a big joke by the Bo.
Game System for New Metropolis:
In terms of game mechanics, the Bo are individuals focused on their mental capacities. Their minds function on a different timescale, without needing any Gate powers. However, when these powers are combined, the final effect is unbelievable. A Bo technology specialist has elevated potential and a speed that is difficult to rival. Every Bo (and members of a group a Bo is part of) can undergo optimized training, generally done within a psionic or technological time chamber (where time passes faster). There, the Bo and their group are tested on impossible tasks and challenges to be solved with engineering alone, regardless of the students' mental capacities. They are only allowed to leave the confining time chamber after having graduated from the course. Hence, everyone who undergoes this type of training ends up learning, in a bizarre and generally painful way, knowledge of Gate's superior technology. This training is available to anyone crazy enough to subject themselves to it, and not just the Bo are offered this "opportunity," because, in truth, for the Bo, they are obliged to do this in their childhood, or shortly thereafter, if someone discovers they have skipped classes and tests eventually. Thus, every Bo ends up being a potential engineer unless they really managed to escape classes, but this is after they arrived in Gate. Before, in the Milky Way, the class-torture was done as a mental challenge to define puberty because technology was necessary to subsist independently, and at that time without any benefit in terms of powers as later occurred in Gate.
But the minds of the Bo are not limited to just technology. Anything they learn, including schools of magic or other abilities, functions as if it were 10 times faster. They live multiple lives in parallel within their minds, so whatever their abilities, they are potentially better. Their very essence is potentially greater due to the fact that their minds process life much faster. Thus, when they perform superior technology power tasks, all their productivity is at least doubled.
SHAUFI / JUFEI
Name in ancient language: xufi (nailia: xufi)
Human translation of the name the species called itself, in most cases, is based on the sound: shaufi (most used in Gate), jufei (most used in Shadow Universe, also used in New Metropolis right after the Cataclysm)
Galaxy of origin (human transliteration): Dead Galaxy rogue planets, or Dead Galaxy for short. Shaufi had no name for the original galaxy until their late civilization, when they found out that they once had a galaxy of origin. By that time, their star systems were far away from it, and the galaxy was already extremely old. In the most common language at that time, they named it "Pfelg," which roughly means "egg.", probably this galaxy ot only is not in the Gate observable universe, but also not in the Gate universe at all since the time for such a place exist makes it extremely old and it should be part of the observable universe, and somehow it is not.
Description:
Shaufi in Gate are not precisely a species since they transformed to something else long ago, before dying and going to Umbra, but rather a type of transformation that occurs when any individual spends enough time within the psynet, such that their physical body comes to exist only within the psionic network, becoming merely a shadow of what it was before, and which comes to exist when this individual returns to the supposed real world.
Shaufi can also come into existence in alternative ways, such as when someone dies within the psynet and is somehow revived later. This can sometimes cause the revived individual to become a Shaufi, or when someone is born within the psynet or other places with strong ties to psionics, the chances are very high that the baby will be a Shaufi.
Regardless of how each Shaufi individual came to be, they generally share a strong bond with psionic powers and the essence of Shadow, often being considered incarnations of this type of power. There is no common Shaufi culture in Gate due to their diversity, rarity, and the difficulty of finding one that is not hidden in the shadows, taking care of their lives and interests. Due to the nature of shadow powers, Shaufi are individuals and use all their powers in a completely discreet manner, making it impossible to detect them unless they expose themselves.
There is, however, a Shaufi culture within the so-called Shadow Universe, a place outside of Gate that can be reached from the depths of the psynet, a place that few dozen individuals have reached due to the high level of power required to do so, and in most cases, these individuals had already become Shaufi long before. The Shadow Universe is not part of the psynet nor Gate, but an independent universe that is much larger and has more resources than Gate, but without some types of powers. The Shadow Universe is an "almost" completely deterministic place where there is no room for naturally true random events, only circumstantial random due to lack of complete knowledge about them, and where every event can be traced back in a cause-effect chain, just as there is a great capacity for prediction. And it is here that the only potential break to determinism lies, due to the ability to rationalize and make decisions based on context from what would have been previously stipulated as deterministic, if this information were not obtained and passed on to a rational entity that could potentially do something different from what it was supposed to do.
The Shaufi from the Shadow Universe who returned to Gate after the cataclysm were, in most cases, allies of Biggus and his autocracy. Upon returning, they constructed the narrative of being different from all others, calling themselves Jufei to support the argument that they were somehow superior to other Shaufi who might live in Gate.
Apart from this, most Shaufi remain integrated into the society they were part of before becoming Shaufi, and even in the Shadow Universe, the same occurs. Their discreet nature often makes them pass for usual individuals of their original species, given that the visual effect of the shadows is almost imperceptible until they use a particular power to merge and literally become a shadow.
Game System for New Metropolis:
In game terms, any individual who wishes and has some psionic power can become a Shaufi, but the process can take some time (without any extraordinary event, 5 milestones of time and access to the psynet are good references for how long it would take). Shaufi powers do not actually interfere directly with psionic powers, so their potential remains unchanged. What happens is that all other powers now count as Shadow essence for the Shaufi. This can facilitate their training due to limits and learning sources, but on the other hand, it can prevent some powers from being developed because all powers become exclusively Shadow. Chaos and Knight's Art powers can become almost impossible for a Shaufi to learn, and even if this somehow happens, the Shaufi's advantage of being discreet would be completely lost, given that it is practically impossible to be discreet and use, or even learn, powers that would initially be of Darkness or Chaos essences.
In addition to their native discretion (since no Shadow essence power can be detected), Shaufi can also merge entirely with shadows, becoming a living shadow if they choose to do so. In this state, their existence passes mostly into the psynet (even if they don't have powers to access the psynet directly), and only an immaterial shadow of them can interact with the real world. In this form, they cannot perform normal physical actions (but could use telekinesis, for example), and normal things that eventually cause them damage also have their effects mitigated.
