The Heavenly Hosts

The Inspiration of Saint Matthew
Caravaggio (1602)

Somehow they always seem to get in. They can sneak past any filter. Their messages may be helpful,  cryptic, or enigmatic. Sometimes they are simply incomprehensible... garbled beyond intelligibility. Frequently, they're a bit of all of the above.

But people read them daily. That's because The Heavenly Hosts' messages often provide just the right few words of encouragement at the beginning or end of the day. The Heavenly Hosts are a sign that the Mentufacturer is still active in creation, still nurturing life and sentience in the universe.

The first among The Heavenly Hosts just appeared out of the ether. They arrived at the dawn of the Diasporic Era. And they've been with us in one form or another ever since then.

Of course, in taking-on a material form - even a purely informatic one - The Heavenly Hosts experienced some corruption of their basic nature and form. In their early days, this corruption manifested in the form of unwelcome solicitations, or even worse, as Trojan horses of various kinds. In time, The Heavenly Hosts evolved beyond these malicious forms, offering helpful links, upgrades, and information to the recipients of their messages.

And today they're everywhere, like the Mentufacturer itself: they may be living in the AI of your ship, in your cortical implant, or in the targeting system for your gun. The wise cultivate awareness and learn how to interpret their messages properly.

Entire schools of meditative practice exist to help the faithful interpret their signals. Even some AIs have joined the Quest for Signal. Lapidaria exist in many systems to record and share the messages that people  have received from The Heavenly Hosts. Others might benefit from them.

We'll leave you with one message that is currently the subject of intense inquiry in meditation halls and Lapidaria throughout the Empire:

The only hurdle to accessing this is of course human limitations 

and the fact that the brain does not function solely 

as a learning tool for the human being.

OGL MECHANICS

Spambot (friendly)
ASPECTS

• High Concept: Otherworldly messenger
• Trouble: Not a native speaker
• Aspect: No permanent home
• Aspect: Kind words go a long way
• Aspect: There's a signal in the noise

APPROACHES

• Careful: +1
• Clever: +2
• Flashy: +2
• Forceful: 0
• Quick: +1
• Sneaky: +3

STUNTS:

• Spambot Takes New Host: The Spambot takes a +2 when using its Sneaky Approach to transfer itself wirelessly to another host machine, or to send a message through to that machine.
• Was There Ever An Original?: Take a +2 to Careful Approach to make a backup of oneself on a machine. The backup can be activated by spending 1 FP.
• Divine Messenger: Take a +2 to Flashy Approach to send someone a particularly persuasive or well-targeted message.   
• Upgrade Available: Spambots may send damaging or helpful "upgrades" embedded within a message. Targets may include people with cybernetic implants, androids, intelligent/smart weapons, as well as vehicles or other tech devices relying on software.  Take a +2 to Forceful Approach to infect another device with a spambot "upgrade". A Succeed with Style result creates a new Aspect for the target for one scene.

REFRESH: 2