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Apr. 25th, 2019 08:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feotakahariThere are a lot of stories about “what if the world worked like Dragon Quest?” I’d like to propose “What if the world worked like Dynasty Warriors?”
Let’s say there are these totems that powerful psychics can interact with. If you’ve claimed a totem, anyone you’ve psychically bonded to can project a spectral copy of themselves through it. Copies aren’t very strong or durable, but hurting them doesn’t hurt the real person, so if you “die,” you can project yourself through the totem again a couple minutes later. A person who’s physically present will massively outclass a spectral copy in one-on-one combat, but the ability to return endlessly means that a swarm of copies will eventually win, an experience akin to being mobbed to death by armed toddlers.
Naturally, a lot of fights come down to copies versus copies, which leads to a second issue: your physical body is where your brain is, and thoughts don’t travel instantaneously. You don’t want to be too close to the battlefield, or someone can find your real body and kill you, but if you’re farther away than the enemy, you won’t be able to react in time. However, psychics who’re actually present on the battlefield can function as a sort of backup brain for their troops, processing what’s happening and guiding their movements before they’re consciously aware of what they’re doing. On the common soldier’s side, you need to have so much trust in your commander that you won’t fight the control. On the psychic’s side, you need to perceive and react through dozens of eyes at once, including your own, while in the midst of combat and trying not to get stabbed. Psychics are innately good multitaskers, but there’s still a learning curve involved.
This creates a push-pull where the psychics are the most powerful and dangerous people on the battlefield, but also the only ones who can die. If you’re too cocky and overextend, even copies can kill you, but if you stay in the back and don’t really fight, a more aggressive psychic will keep pushing you back and eventually take your totem. No totem = all your copies vanish = better start running.
Direct fights between psychics are wildly dicy, because the powers don’t inherently make you better at fighting. However, two psychics can battle their wills as well as their weapons, seeking to daze or distract each other. Some psychics rely on their troops to surround the enemy long enough that he can’t dodge everything. (But again, psychics are very good at multitasking.) Others get the psychic battle out of the way before the physical one, crushing the opponent’s will before killing them in a single devastating blow.
Since copies come back so quickly, a typical psychic’s weapons are focused on killing as many copies as possible as quickly as possible. Sword and board is out; giant fuckoff scythe that can decapitate multiple copies in a single blow is in. Bows aren’t much good unless your enemies stand in a line, but a magic chakram can slice through an enemy column and return to your hand.
This world is in some ways less ableist than our own. Psychics are uncommon enough that someone who isn’t physically powerful can still be useful as a commander. As for copies, another blade on the field is better than nothing, particularly in the small farming villages out beyond where armies patrol. When bandits attack, the town’s psychic may lead copies of everyone from children to grandparents into the fight.
I don’t have any plot ideas for this setting. I’m not sure what it looks like off the battlefield, either, although “oppressive psychic tyrants” is a pretty good guess. I just think it’s an interesting concept to try and justify.
Let’s say there are these totems that powerful psychics can interact with. If you’ve claimed a totem, anyone you’ve psychically bonded to can project a spectral copy of themselves through it. Copies aren’t very strong or durable, but hurting them doesn’t hurt the real person, so if you “die,” you can project yourself through the totem again a couple minutes later. A person who’s physically present will massively outclass a spectral copy in one-on-one combat, but the ability to return endlessly means that a swarm of copies will eventually win, an experience akin to being mobbed to death by armed toddlers.
Naturally, a lot of fights come down to copies versus copies, which leads to a second issue: your physical body is where your brain is, and thoughts don’t travel instantaneously. You don’t want to be too close to the battlefield, or someone can find your real body and kill you, but if you’re farther away than the enemy, you won’t be able to react in time. However, psychics who’re actually present on the battlefield can function as a sort of backup brain for their troops, processing what’s happening and guiding their movements before they’re consciously aware of what they’re doing. On the common soldier’s side, you need to have so much trust in your commander that you won’t fight the control. On the psychic’s side, you need to perceive and react through dozens of eyes at once, including your own, while in the midst of combat and trying not to get stabbed. Psychics are innately good multitaskers, but there’s still a learning curve involved.
This creates a push-pull where the psychics are the most powerful and dangerous people on the battlefield, but also the only ones who can die. If you’re too cocky and overextend, even copies can kill you, but if you stay in the back and don’t really fight, a more aggressive psychic will keep pushing you back and eventually take your totem. No totem = all your copies vanish = better start running.
Direct fights between psychics are wildly dicy, because the powers don’t inherently make you better at fighting. However, two psychics can battle their wills as well as their weapons, seeking to daze or distract each other. Some psychics rely on their troops to surround the enemy long enough that he can’t dodge everything. (But again, psychics are very good at multitasking.) Others get the psychic battle out of the way before the physical one, crushing the opponent’s will before killing them in a single devastating blow.
Since copies come back so quickly, a typical psychic’s weapons are focused on killing as many copies as possible as quickly as possible. Sword and board is out; giant fuckoff scythe that can decapitate multiple copies in a single blow is in. Bows aren’t much good unless your enemies stand in a line, but a magic chakram can slice through an enemy column and return to your hand.
This world is in some ways less ableist than our own. Psychics are uncommon enough that someone who isn’t physically powerful can still be useful as a commander. As for copies, another blade on the field is better than nothing, particularly in the small farming villages out beyond where armies patrol. When bandits attack, the town’s psychic may lead copies of everyone from children to grandparents into the fight.
I don’t have any plot ideas for this setting. I’m not sure what it looks like off the battlefield, either, although “oppressive psychic tyrants” is a pretty good guess. I just think it’s an interesting concept to try and justify.
