Guiding Lights
Dec 15, 2017 0:07:41 GMT -5
Post by Melusine on Dec 15, 2017 0:07:41 GMT -5
General Info
Singular: Guiding Light, Guide, Light
Plural: Guiding Lights, Guides, Lights
Young: Wisp/Wisps
Group: Constellation
Naming Conventions: None
According to the lore of Guiding Lights, they were created by a deity they call the Wayfinder, whom they believe also created this reality. There was peace and joy everywhere, perfect harmony between all beings on Planet - it was paradise. Then the Wayfinder opened the paths to other realities, inviting any in search of an adventure to explore this world - and chaos and darkness descended upon the realm. The Wayfinder saw this and was saddened for the dimming of its vision, so it reached out to the cosmos and took hold of Light. The Wayfinder sent forth the Light into the world with one mission: guide those brought to this reality to peace and joy once more.
Guiding Lights, commonly referred to as Guides, are spherical energy creatures about the size of a tennis ball that typically have an appearance similar to a clear glass orbs with a diffuse light filling their centers. They change appearance based on the function they are currently serving, as outlined below. Guiding Lights are safe to touch in any mode; they are cool to the touch with a smooth surface and deform slightly under pressure with a rubbery feeling. Guides have no sex or gender identity, and have no particular preference regarding pronoun use. They accept whatever pronoun their bonded selects, as with naming.
Rest mode
When not actively performing a function, Guides retain their base appearance of a light-filled orb.
Guide mode
When leading a person or critter to a goal of any kind, the light in a Guide spreads out to cover their surface until they look like a ball of softly luminous fog.
Interpreter mode
When facilitating communication, the apparently firm outer shell of a Guide softens and flows like water, rippling actively as they translate between parties, and their glow is muted to a vague suggestion of color.
Breeding mode
When gathering to breed, Guides have the appearance of a ball of fire with flames rising from the base of their sphere to crackle around their tops.
The color of a Guide's light indicates emotion; the brightness of a color indicates the strength of that emotion.
Relaxed/calm: green
Pleased: blue
Excited: indigo
Confused: violet
Angry: red
Scared: orange
Breeding: yellow
Guiding Lights have fully developed telepathic capabilities, allowing them to easily communicate with each other even though they lack physical speech capacity. They can extend this ability to their bonded partner, enabling comprehensive communication between a Guide and its bond. Guides are highly individual in their personal speech behaviors and patterns, and may develop speech traits over time. Guiding Lights can form a seamless link with each other that permits the bonded partners of each linked Guide to understand each other; concepts and speech are translated by the linked Guides to their respective partners. Linking is temporary and requires a focused effort by the Lights involved; they cannot serve any other function while acting as interpreters. Any given Guide can maintain up to five links at once, but they can communicate with any Guide that is in the link network at that time. This function is also limited to creatures with a direct bond to a Guide; they are unable to 'piggyback' on the link between their bonded partner and another bonded critter to provide the same service.
Mating Info
Guiding Lights gather periodically in an event known as the Conflagration, named for the fiery aspect Guides take on when they breed. All available Guides in a region cluster together into a massive ball of flaming yellow-gold orbs, bobbing through the air to an unknown rhythm for the better part of an hour - during which time their glassy shells unravel. Once all of the assembles Guides have lost their shells, they press tightly together and flare brighter for an instant. When the light dims, the Guides spread out into a hollow sphere shape - leaving a glowing mass of diffuse, gold-colored fog at the center of their gathering. Over the next few minutes, as the mature Guides cool from molten gold color to a merry sunshine yellow and reassemble their shells, the fog breaks into individual golden spheres about the size of a ping pong ball.
Called Wisps for their foggy, mutable shape, these young Guides spend their first hours protected by the mass of their parent constellation. During that time, Wisps are given the history and purpose of their species. Once they have absorbed all of the necessary knowledge, each Wisp extrudes its own glass-like shell and takes on the appearance of a Guide. When all of the Wisps have completed this change, the mass of adult Guides breaks up, releasing the new batch into the world to seek out bonds.
The number of Wisps produced from a Conflagration is directly related to the number of Guiding Lights available at the time of the event, as each must contribute a portion of their energy to the massed gathering to create new Guides. On average, it requires the energy contributions of ten Guides to create a single Wisp. As the average Conflagration in Whazzit attracts over a hundred Guides, these events routinely produce ten or more Wisps.
Bonding Info
Guiding Lights are a prolific species that consider their entire purpose in existence to be bonding with the residents of Planet. As such, they are relatively easy to bond, and most anyone will end up with one of them eventually. Guides gravitate first to those with no other Guides so as to spread their effect to all; beyond that, they are attracted to people who are in distress, seeking to resolve the cause of the strain and make their lives easier. Guiding Lights are generally considered the Shiny most likely to bond to other Shinies, since this allows them to further expand their communication functionality, but they prefer non-Shiny bonds over Shiny bonds whenever available.
Ranks
Guide
There is only a single rank of Guiding Light; all Guiding Lights are identical in basic appearance and capabilities. They are as varied in personality and manner as humans, but all have a core desire to help - though their efficacy is by no means assured.
PSP: 1
Singular: Guiding Light, Guide, Light
Plural: Guiding Lights, Guides, Lights
Young: Wisp/Wisps
Group: Constellation
Naming Conventions: None
According to the lore of Guiding Lights, they were created by a deity they call the Wayfinder, whom they believe also created this reality. There was peace and joy everywhere, perfect harmony between all beings on Planet - it was paradise. Then the Wayfinder opened the paths to other realities, inviting any in search of an adventure to explore this world - and chaos and darkness descended upon the realm. The Wayfinder saw this and was saddened for the dimming of its vision, so it reached out to the cosmos and took hold of Light. The Wayfinder sent forth the Light into the world with one mission: guide those brought to this reality to peace and joy once more.
Guiding Lights, commonly referred to as Guides, are spherical energy creatures about the size of a tennis ball that typically have an appearance similar to a clear glass orbs with a diffuse light filling their centers. They change appearance based on the function they are currently serving, as outlined below. Guiding Lights are safe to touch in any mode; they are cool to the touch with a smooth surface and deform slightly under pressure with a rubbery feeling. Guides have no sex or gender identity, and have no particular preference regarding pronoun use. They accept whatever pronoun their bonded selects, as with naming.
Rest mode
When not actively performing a function, Guides retain their base appearance of a light-filled orb.
Guide mode
When leading a person or critter to a goal of any kind, the light in a Guide spreads out to cover their surface until they look like a ball of softly luminous fog.
Interpreter mode
When facilitating communication, the apparently firm outer shell of a Guide softens and flows like water, rippling actively as they translate between parties, and their glow is muted to a vague suggestion of color.
Breeding mode
When gathering to breed, Guides have the appearance of a ball of fire with flames rising from the base of their sphere to crackle around their tops.
The color of a Guide's light indicates emotion; the brightness of a color indicates the strength of that emotion.
Relaxed/calm: green
Pleased: blue
Excited: indigo
Confused: violet
Angry: red
Scared: orange
Breeding: yellow
Guiding Lights have fully developed telepathic capabilities, allowing them to easily communicate with each other even though they lack physical speech capacity. They can extend this ability to their bonded partner, enabling comprehensive communication between a Guide and its bond. Guides are highly individual in their personal speech behaviors and patterns, and may develop speech traits over time. Guiding Lights can form a seamless link with each other that permits the bonded partners of each linked Guide to understand each other; concepts and speech are translated by the linked Guides to their respective partners. Linking is temporary and requires a focused effort by the Lights involved; they cannot serve any other function while acting as interpreters. Any given Guide can maintain up to five links at once, but they can communicate with any Guide that is in the link network at that time. This function is also limited to creatures with a direct bond to a Guide; they are unable to 'piggyback' on the link between their bonded partner and another bonded critter to provide the same service.
Mating Info
Guiding Lights gather periodically in an event known as the Conflagration, named for the fiery aspect Guides take on when they breed. All available Guides in a region cluster together into a massive ball of flaming yellow-gold orbs, bobbing through the air to an unknown rhythm for the better part of an hour - during which time their glassy shells unravel. Once all of the assembles Guides have lost their shells, they press tightly together and flare brighter for an instant. When the light dims, the Guides spread out into a hollow sphere shape - leaving a glowing mass of diffuse, gold-colored fog at the center of their gathering. Over the next few minutes, as the mature Guides cool from molten gold color to a merry sunshine yellow and reassemble their shells, the fog breaks into individual golden spheres about the size of a ping pong ball.
Called Wisps for their foggy, mutable shape, these young Guides spend their first hours protected by the mass of their parent constellation. During that time, Wisps are given the history and purpose of their species. Once they have absorbed all of the necessary knowledge, each Wisp extrudes its own glass-like shell and takes on the appearance of a Guide. When all of the Wisps have completed this change, the mass of adult Guides breaks up, releasing the new batch into the world to seek out bonds.
The number of Wisps produced from a Conflagration is directly related to the number of Guiding Lights available at the time of the event, as each must contribute a portion of their energy to the massed gathering to create new Guides. On average, it requires the energy contributions of ten Guides to create a single Wisp. As the average Conflagration in Whazzit attracts over a hundred Guides, these events routinely produce ten or more Wisps.
Bonding Info
Guiding Lights are a prolific species that consider their entire purpose in existence to be bonding with the residents of Planet. As such, they are relatively easy to bond, and most anyone will end up with one of them eventually. Guides gravitate first to those with no other Guides so as to spread their effect to all; beyond that, they are attracted to people who are in distress, seeking to resolve the cause of the strain and make their lives easier. Guiding Lights are generally considered the Shiny most likely to bond to other Shinies, since this allows them to further expand their communication functionality, but they prefer non-Shiny bonds over Shiny bonds whenever available.
Ranks
Guide
There is only a single rank of Guiding Light; all Guiding Lights are identical in basic appearance and capabilities. They are as varied in personality and manner as humans, but all have a core desire to help - though their efficacy is by no means assured.
PSP: 1