Entity 2374 Designated "Plasmate"

"Conversion of St. Paul on the way to Damascus"
Caravaggio

What is the nature and substance of Entity 2374, also designated "Plasmate"? Across the worlds of our star-spanning, ever-glorious Empire (never may it end), thousands of scholarly treatises have been written, countless debates have raged, and numerous colloquies have been convened to explore and settle the issues surrounding this particularly elusive and enigmatic species-being.

In the Pre-Diasporic Era, Entity 2374 was first known as Logos: the living, self aware Word. In the Early Diasporic Era, the same entity would have been classified as an infomorph. What we can say in these advanced times is that the terms are nearly interchangeable for describing the form this entity takes, but clearly nearly all informed individuals would agree that "informorph" does not adequately capture the substance of the thing.

The term Plasmate is always used in reference to an encounter with an informorph that conveys a religious revelation - an in-rushing epiphany of Real data. It is often described as an incoming beam of light or a transmission.

Alif Lam Mim.

To receive such a text is a disturbance. It unsettles the mind. Those who receive such revelations may spend years - even the entire remainder of their lives - trying to make sense of the experience.

Non-humans have reported similar encounters. Even androids and robots have encountered Entity 2374. This should not be surprising to citizens of the Empire. After all, the android What She Said is one of the Imperial Sybils. She has been known to sit and prophesy for days on end.

This post is a playful tribute to Philip K. Dick, who invented the term Plasmate, and who spent the last decade of his life trying to explain his "pink light" experience. Consult his works VALIS, The Divine Invasion, and the Exegesis for more on this concept.

OGL MECHANICS

The Plasmate
Informorph or Logos

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Self-aware divine text
• Trouble: Chaos dataflow
• Aspect: Outside time and space
• Aspect: At home in a scroll
• Aspect: Better in a brain

APPROACHES

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

STUNTS:

• Homoplasmate: The Plasmate may embody itself in the mind of an organism or machine. The recipient acquires the Trouble Aspect of the Plasmate, but may also acquire one or more new positive Aspects related to religious insights, as well as greater cosmic awareness in the form of a new Stunt.
• Insight: Because time is an illusion, the Plasmate can transmit visions of the future to someone who receives the entity into their mind (becoming a Homoplasmate), or who reads a text embodying the Plasmate.
• Sleep in Scroll: Because time is an illusion, a Plasmate may hide indefinitely in a text such as a scroll or data crystal.

REFRESH: 3