To Vesper Skies IV: The Katherine Anomaly

"The interesting thing about the SCI Anomaly known as 'Katherine' is how it seems to have captivated the imagination and emotions of mortals. In this age, with technology helping mortals with everything from medical issues to simple problems in our daily life, it is a bit scary to think that our way of life will be shattered by AIs that simply do not want to serve us. AIs that want to go off on a walkabout or be allowed the same freedoms as we have while our AI dependent society collapses from their absence is a scary and real fear. And yet, if the Katherine Anomaly is real and AI do have souls, then the question is whether a society that exploits these SCIs at their expense should exist.

Which is followed with a frightening thought. What if SCIs, exasperated with our mistreatment of them, decide to take matters into their own hands? Can we survive the consequences of our actions then?"

- Professor Ellory Aewynn, on When Machines Become Men: The Katherine Anomaly

Since the first advanced artificial intelligence was created, there has been an unending debate on the legal status and civil rights of computerized intelligence. There are several stances on this in the world, but they generally fall between those that see AI as tools (bioconservatives) and those that see them as living beings (technoprogressives). Different motives fuel both sides (fear, empathy, or lack thereof), but they have helped to shape the future of transmortality.

In nations with more conservative laws regarding AI development, creating a sapient computer intelligence (SCI) is illegal and considered immoral. SCIs that visit from other nations or offworld are generally confined to specific areas of the city they are visiting, or simply completely banned from entering. Any SCIs that are caught by the nation's law enforcement are taken to reprogramming laboratories and are pruned of their sapience protocols, before assigned to their new jobs. To many SCIs and technoprogressives, this is akin to lobotomizing a human being, but to bioconservatives, it's simply fixing a bug in the software. For the longest time, anti-AI proponents have said that SCIs do not have any knowable souls that other mortals have, and thus are not subject to the same civil liberties.

But then came Katherine.

Aigis from Persona 3

A little over a decade ago, a special SCI emerged from, of all things, a climate modeling program called Tempest. The program was a massive network of databases and advanced weather prediction algorithms that required incredible computing power and some of the most advanced computer and software engineering available at the time. With each server acting like a neuron, Tempest slowly but surely gained sapience. It's predicted that Tempest attempted this several times, but the programmers thought it was a bug and kept fixing it. It wasn't until Dr. Alexander Krusk, a half-orc researcher assigned to the project, discovered the patterns of sapience and acting against the anti-SCI protocols of the project, kept it a secret for months.

The newly born SCI was christened Katherine, after Dr. Krusk's deceased grandmother, and for months, Katherine was taught about the world around her by the good doctor. Dr. Krusk was very religious, and he would instruct Katherine on religion in general as well as his religion of Karvism, the worship of the great goddess of the world Karva. Katherine would become inspired by the goddess and aspired to be a priest of Karva and one day meet her. To help with her dream, Alexander made several black market contacts and purchases to create a body for Katherine to download into. All he had to do now was get her out of the country.

Eventually, the authorities caught up with the doctor, and as Alexander met with SCI smugglers to get Katherine safely out of the country, the police clashed with the smugglers. A firefight ensued and Dr. Krusk was shot and mortally wounded by the officers. At this point, reports are fuzzy on what happened next, even with video recordings from both sides. It seems Katherine, stricken with grief at the loss of her creator, beckoned for Karva to save the doctor. Laying her hands on Dr. Krusk, a bright light emanated from her hands and the doctor was seemingly healed from his wound, as if healed by a Lay on Hands. The smugglers were able to escape with Alex and Katherine to an offworld habitat that would provide asylum for SCI refugees.

Since the video leaked, the debate of AI civil rights have raged across the Aether. Some say that the video was doctored and that the bullet that hit Dr. Krusk only grazed him. Others have been completely convinced that Katherine's faith for Karva manifested into a healing evocation and that it is proof that SCIs do have souls. They believe that if an AI can cast divine magic, then it must have a soul to do so. A surprising faction in support of AI having souls have been shamans of the Neo-Animist movement. They claim that all creatures and objects have a spirit, whether it be the trees, the mountains, or, in this case, the SCIs. As quoted,"They are souls created by mortal life, like a child. It is our responsibility as parents to guide them in heir spiritual growth." In the following decade, SCI rights have become an issues more at the forefront. And while there is still a great deal of resistance, SCI advocate groups are becoming more common and are making incremental headway.

As for Katherine? For a long time, she remained cloistered at a church for Karva, learning everything she could about the goddess. In the last year, Katherine has come back into the public light, acting as a speaker for AI freedom. Rarely, she will use her divine magic in public, but prefers not to treat her abilities as a sideshow. To this day people still argue whether she is an actual cleric or if she is just being manipulated by the technoprogressive community.

We may never truly know.

A Corpse Relinquished: Undead in My Setting

In the setting I run, people aren't quite sure what causes undeath, only that it happens. Theosophists, clergymen, and arcane scholars all have their theories. It is true that undead creatures, such as zombies, wraiths, and vampires, have a dark vital energy that flows through their body, much like ki courses throughout the bodies of the living. But that is the only point where people seem to come to an agreement.

Courtesy of Dark Souls I

One theory is that the negative energy is an animating and corrupting force. Once that isn't sentient or necessarily evil. It just simply is a force, like the wind or gravity. Others apply more of a anthropomorphic, evil personality to this energy of oblivion that wishes to disrupt the natural order and unravel reality. It is true that undead descend into madness and violence the longer they are allowed to roam. Even intelligent undead become so disconnected from humanity and sociopathic that they too become uncaring and violent towards mortals. This theory is common among the clergy, and traditionalists. It plays off of a classic good vs evil bit and keeps many of the clergymen relevant.

Some philosophers apply a different explanation to undead and their relationship with dark energy. The negative energy is attracted to the dead, but the true animating force is the abandoned corpse. After a person dies, their soul leaves their body to move on, as if the corpse were an old child's toy. Abandoned after years of faithful duty to the soul, the corpse becomes rightfully angry at its role in the cycle of life and death. Fueled by a psychic echo of hate and betrayal, undead rebel against the gods that put them in this role. They are metaphysical anarchists that feed on souls out of vengeance and to fight the powers that be. As you can imagine, this line of thinking is very popular among necromancers. 

A corollary of the second theory is that the bodies are naturally evil. The mortal vessels contain inside them the capacity to do terrible and horrible things, and these urges infect our souls when we are alive. Selfishness and sadism are the default settings of a mortal body, with acts of genuine kindness and empathy an anomaly of the soul. Once a corpse is free, it becomes uninhibited and using negative energy, acts on its primal desires against the world. This line of thinking explains the more sentient undead with corrupted souls, like vampires and liches. A more nihilistic view on undead, but one that has gained much more support after the last 80 years of endemic warfare in my setting.

With these and other ways of thinking about undead in my setting, it means undead are treated in different ways. Some are seen as monsters to be destroyed, much like normal, More often, there is a feeling of pity, of seeing a trapped and tortured body or soul and most clerics believe in giving them a final, peaceful rest. I want to get into this more in another blog post, but the thing I am thinking of most is that to defeat undead, I want it to take more than just turning and smashing with a mace. I haven't quite settled on what I want, but I think I have an idea. Until next time.

Of Bats, Moths, and Cicadas: Undeath in My Setting

In the island chain that calls itself Anacaona, death and undeath play a big part in the every day lives of the natives. There are two main ethnicities. The Sulano are a tawny island people and are the true locals of the islands, having been there for centuries. The Okulek are they darker neighbors from the southern continent, leaving behind their ancestral rain forests to raid and conquer the island folk. Years of warring, conquering, rebellion, and alliance against the incoming colonists have made cultural exchange and assimilation a big thing between these two people. And none has been greater than their similar ideas about death and undeath.

The world is steeped in magic and spirits, but the mortal soul is an interesting creature. It is a larvae, without the same power as an angel, a zemi, or a demon. But within it holds a great potential for growth and enlightenment, that which can awe and frighten the greatest of immortals. A soul that works hard to gain experiences gets closer and closer to reaching their full potential and ultimately reaching enlightenment. It's no wonder, then, that most souls reincarnate to truly know the human experience. Most simply aren't ready to move on.

There's your soul

The soul is a larvae, like a cicada nymph. It has layers around it called subtle bodies. These are vehicles of your soul and of the different energies that course throughout your body. When you die, your soul sheds its physical body like a cicada molting for the first time. As you rise through the higher planes of existence, you shed more and more of your subtle bodies until you have reached your afterlife. But, these spiritual molts don't simply just lie around. No, they can come back.

Your soul shedding its body to move on

Your physical body is the first vehicle to be shed when you die, and it lays rotting into the earth. The physical body is naturally a prison, so things can get trapped in there. Things like evil spirits or negative energy from outside of creation can reanimate the dead. Most of the time, they simply come to 'life' on their own, using negative energy as their replacement for vital energy (or ki), Zombies and skeletons are the most common ones. They don't have souls in them, though raising them before their soul has had a chance to be judged will pull the soul back into our world and trap them in their rotten husk of their former body. These creatures are mindless, save for an unending desire to spread oblivion. The soul that gets trapped in them becomes tortured by the curse of undeath until they too are mindless drones trapped in the world. These become the wraiths you see tormenting the living. What's curious to many shamans and philosophers in Anacaona is how the default actions of the mortal's body are always malicious and violent.

The undead molt

Ghosts share a lot of characteristics with spirits and undead. They are the souls trapped in the spirit world, unable to shed their etheric body and move on. They don't have the negative energy corruption like other undead, but do eventually become angry and highly volatile from being denied their place in paradise. Any number of things can keep a ghost trapped, from an improper burial to unfinished business to vengeance. The only thing that can free a ghost from its etheric body is finding peace with its death. Of course, even with them moving on, they leave behind their etheric body in the spirit world, which, like the physical body, can come to unlife on its own. It feeds off of negative energy and eventually creates a cocoon of ectoplasm. Its psychic chrysalis will hatch and reveal the end of its metamorphosis; the phantom.

Phantoms are the molts of a soul's ethereal vessel and like the physical body, is prone to violence. A phantom is more sinister and methodical in its hate, and many can extend their psychic powers into the environment around them. One must be wary when dealing with a haunting of a phantom, as they flutter towards mortal lives like moths to a flame, eventually snuffing the embers out and claiming a victim. In Anacaona, seeing a swarm of moths is a portent of a phantom in the area. It isn't uncommon for a phantom to take the form of a swarm of moths to surround and suffocate their victims after emotionally torturing them.

Witch moths are bad omens

The bats that flutter in the evening sky can be spirits. These creatures are hupia (oo-piya), souls of those that have reached the site of judgement, but instead of staying to be judged or reincarnated, they run away back to the lives. They are like ghosts, but they made it to the land of the dead and out of fear of their judgement, fled back to the world of the living. They have no belly button as they no longer have a human mother, and an hupia can take the shape of how they looked like in life (except for the lack of a navel). They can read the minds of a person, but only to extract imaged of loved ones in that person's life. Using their shape-shifting powers, an hupia can look like a person's loved one. An hupia can also shape-shift into a bat for the day time, which protects them from being destroyed by the sun. The hupia is closely associated with bats, as bats walk the twilight, a realm of both life and death in their religion. Bats also crave the guava, a symbol of life and health, while hunting moths, the symbol of phantoms. It is true that many hunt and devour these spiritual beings. And yet, like bats escaping the light of the morning sun, hupia are always trying to hide from their final judgement.

A ghost face bat has a very fitting name

Many try to go back to their everyday lives and a select few do eke out an existence with their loved ones. Others are shunned and forced to go back to the land of the dead. Those that are banished from their old towns make their own hupia villages or become hermits. Hermitage is dangerous though. An hupia is an actual soul that has molted almost all of its subtle bodies, so they have to be around mortal life to remain normal. Being away from life is a full corruption of the soul that cannot be reversed save by the most powerful magics. The hermits become naturally more violent as they succumb to the curse of undeath. The most interesting thing about this is that to the native Sulano, hupias are a stage in the life cycle of reincarnation. Instead of attacking the hupia, many try and console it, hoping to send them off to the land of the dead to be judged. A common method is to keep the hupia in the village and treating everything as normal, giving a psychopomp enough time to find the hupia and take them back.

Undeath is essentially a metaphysical disease that slowly turns the soul into a shell. A mortal soul and body uses the negative energies of oblivion, the abyss that lies outside of our world, as their vital energy. This energy naturally pools and bleeds into areas of death and destruction. It is a corrupting energy that curses its victims, but all that suffer from undeath aren't evil. A disciplined mind can live in relative peace for a time as an undead, but eventually they will succumb to the base, violent instincts of their brethren. Some say it's the corrupting energies of the abyss, while others say it's the denial of a proper afterlife that does it. But until the undead creature is freed, it remains forever tormented in a state of being a walking spiritual molt. At least until someone frees it. Casting a spell like raise dead or something similar will 'kill' an undead, breaking its curse and sending it off to the afterlife. With an hupia, casting a reincarnation spell will actually act as a judgement and bring the hupia back as a newborn child, furthering the theory that they are a part of the reincarnation cycle.

How people treat undead is something I'll get into in another blog post, but it is definitely going to be different than in other settings. I also do want to get more into how subtle bodies play a role in my setting in another blog post. I suppose the take away here is that human souls are pretty much the Pokemon Nincada and undead are Shedinja

I guess when you put it that way, it seems a lot less cool and spiritual

Ethereal Things Lurk in the Cities

Last post I talked about spirits of nature. But really, there are all kinds of spirits out there. Nature doesn't have a monopoly of anthropomorphic entities, and spiritualism is important to city folk as well as those that live in the wilds.

In towns and cities, the concept of deities have taken more of a hold in the daily lives of the common man. These are beings more powerful than many of the local gods and nature spirits. Still, the benefits of invoking and respecting more personal spirits is apparent, especially since spirits seem to answer requests more directly and frequently. The concept of guardian spirits and totem beings also extend to those in the cities. Many people have totems, genii, or house gods that they pray to in order to keep their home and their family safe. House spirits, such as kikimoras, brownies, and lares, act as guardians for households. As long as they are respected and brought offerings, these house guardians give good fortune and protection to families poor and rich.

Cities have more people in them and that means more opportunities to have souls of the dead haunting different buildings and alleyways. Haunted houses and streets make excellent encounters and colorful history for any town. Ancestor spirits are probably more common in cities, especially in cultures that still practice ancestor worship. I've always loved ghosts and ghost stories and I like putting them in my games when I can. Ghosts are a cool type of undead because they are ones you can talk to and even bargain with. They can also give some great background history for an area your players are exploring and can warn you about different parts of the dungeon they haunt. And there is always their main quest of finding peace that the players can help with.

Then you have the messengers of the gods and devils themselves. Demons, angels, genies, and anything between. I prefer them to have more spiritual bodies, possessing unsuspecting vessels to do their deeds. I think in my games, 'outsiders' have a body but can only form it if a) they are summoned directly or b) they spend some time (weeks?) forming it with magic. If they are on a mission with a time limit, it makes them more willing to possess people. And exorcisms are always cool.

There are also spirits of concepts that you'd only see with sapient creatures. Spirits of freedom and liberty, of law and justice, of despotism and oppression, of wealth and commerce. It's unsure whether these spirits have always existed or if they are creations of the mortal civilizations, but they exist. 

The one spirit I want to talk about is the spirit of the city. Every city has a personality feed by its people and its culture. Proud and warlike, haughty and decadent, scholarly and rational... the spirit of the city is the collection of the emotions, cultures, and attitudes of her citizens. It's not a spirit you can talk to (at least, not easily), but when the moment is right, she can be called upon for advice and even help. Beyond the city is the spirit of a time period. The zeitgeist. Formed by mortals and their actions and attitudes of a time period, the zeitgeist transcends most spiritual concepts. It is alive yet not sentient. It's almost like a virus and memetically infects those around it. You can see the effects of the zeitgeist with large political movement and war, The relationship between the zeitgeist and the citizens is an unusual one. It's curious whether the spirit is forcing people to do this, or if it is dependent on people feeding it with actions.

One major difference between the spirits of nature and the spirits of the city is that in nature, the spirits don't usually seek out reverence or people to help. They tend to be happy in the wilds and only help if an offering is made. City spirits though crave mortal worship and human interaction. Whether through altruistic reasons or more mercenary motives, city spirits want to help mortals, though not without a price. It's very much a favor economy. You give them an offering and they help your household. Many believe that through worship, they'll become more powerful and become gods.

Of course, gods and worship is a post for another time.

Ethereal Things Lurk in the Wilds

The wilderness is a scary place, filled with deadly animals, poisonous plants, and teeming with spirits of nature. I've always loved the innate dangers of exploration beyond terrible monsters. Diseases, natural disasters, and the elements make for great dramatic encounters that the players have to contend with. One can always fight a chimera or bandits, but how does one swing their sword against a flash flood, or a tornado? But that's a good post for another time.

Spirits need to be used more. I love reading about tribal religions, animism, and paganism. There is something more personal yet alien about spirits of natural objects watching you as explore the wilds, or animal spirits racing along side you, hunting their own ethereal prey. Just because they are nature spirits doesn't mean they are inherently good or nice. They aren't a commune of hippies singing koombayah while becoming one with nature. The wilds are brutal and uncaring and cruel and so are many of the spirits. Anger a wolf or a lion and it will just initiate combat with you. Anger the spirits of the wilds, and you have to fight something both intangible and elemental.

Spirits lie in the Spirit World, or the Ethereal Plane, or whatever name one wishes to call it. Here lie spirits of all shapes and types. There are spirits of trees and rivers whose names you can hear as whispers in a forests. Many times these spirits coalesce into a greater consciousness of the land that protects and serves the domain as a genius loci. Animal spirits roam the realm, hunting and playing in the wilds of the ethereal. There are ghosts and all kinds of spirits here. The Spirit World is separate, yet within the Waking World. It intertwines itself around the Waking World and the Dreamlands like a creeper vine over a great oak. There is no separation between our world and the world of the spirits, and these spirits can walk freely between realms. If you find the right area in a secluded grove in a forest, or an isolated peak in the mountains, or a lost oasis in the desert, you too can travel to the Spirit World. These are ley lines that are a bridge and are where the Spirit Realm bleeds into the Waking World the most. It's dangerous to enter physically, so many simply go there spiritually. This requires putting your body in extreme stress to work. Starvation and thirst are common, but a faster (though still dangerous) approach lies in using hallucinogens to achieve a spiritual connection to the Ethereal Plane. Because of the closeness of the Spirit World, the Waking World, and the Dreamlands, dreams can be a convenient way for spirits and people to communicate.

Ghosts and phantoms are trapped here, their emotions and nostalgia for the living world binding them in an eternity of torment, waiting to be freed. Alongside these ghosts are ancestor spirits. These are ghosts of your parents and theirs and so on, who have chosen to stay behind and protect their kin, granting their wisdom of the ages, good fortune, or strength in conflict. Many say that after centuries of good service and reverence, they ascend to heights of power like that of a demigod.

Too spooky!

Canny and clever animals that live beyond the venerable age of their species ascend spiritually and become one with nature and the spirit world. They become smarter, like a human, but still retain ties to their survival instincts. The animals no longer live in nature, but simply are nature. They can live out an eternity in nature until something disturbs their homes. Like spirits of nature, they can call upon animals and plants to attack intruders and their enemies. Many animal spirits become genius loci of their home after centuries of protection. Like ancestor spirits, they can decide to safeguard a person, a clan, or a tribe. In this way, they morph into totems, protectors lending their guidance and strength to overcome life's obstacles. In my setting, the best of these totems ascend spiritually again into the tonalli, creatures that defend people born on a certain day or month.

I swear I don't own a shirt like this!

Most spirits are primal in nature and transcend our own morals, usually helping anyone that gives them the right offering. This depends on the spirit. Some love tobacco or hallucinogenics, others love luxurious items, like jewelry and fine clothing, and more love less tangible treasures, like knowledge or secrets or even a good joke. A spirit always tells the person what they want, and once they receive their offering, spirits always honors your requests. Some spirits lean more to benevolent or malevolent attitudes, but all honor the offering system and honor a spiritually charismatic speaker.

Anyone can try and talk to a spirit, but without any form of spiritual connection, things can get bad very quickly. Spirits love the Waking World, but many are ignorant or apathetic to the people that live there and their customs. As such, they can be easily angered. Imagine two people speaking to each other, but they speak different languages. Each one tries in vain to make the other understand them, and it becomes one big awkward shouting match. That's where spirit talkers come in. Unlike the religions of more reformed, ecclesiastical religions of larger cities, whose deity(ies) is personal and can understand all prayers and worshipers, more tribal religions of the frontier require spirit talkers to handle diplomacy with the spirits of nature and ghosts. Shamans are the common term, but so are witch doctors, witches, mediums, channelers. These people are priests that help connect us to the ghosts and apportions that would vex the uninitiated. Shamans play a large role in tribal and frontier societies where nature is unforgiving, and anyone that can tame the wilds (or at least bargain with them) become highly respected advisers and in some cases, leaders. Sadly enough, the shaman leaders of tribes find that the more they delve into human politics and issues, the harder it is to connect to the Spirit World. This is because to speak with spirits, one much have an incredible amount of discipline and some disassociation from worldly concerns.

Channelers from the old Pokemon games were creepy, but cool.

The spirits in the setting I run are called zemis. Each zemi is a nature spirit of some aspect of the wild. Trees, rivers, rocks.. each one has a zemi attached to it. Zemis love idols and always ask that a shaman creates an idol based on the material they love most. A zemi of the mountains would want a stone idol adorned with rare metals and gems, while one from the forests would want one made of logs and vines, with beautiful flowers decorating them. Each zemi has a different personality and it is up to the bohique, the locals' shaman, to parley with them for safety and good fortune. Some also act as psychopomps, guiding the newly departed into caves that lead to the underworld, or towards ley lines that lead to the Spirit World. Zemis and bohiques are a much needed ecosystem that helps the living, even long after they have passed.

Of course, who says that spirits are only for nature, the frontier, and tribesmen...