Probably George
Honorary Truckfighters member
We use their technology, and suffer from their echoes.
The Where
Chroan is an island continent hundreds of miles from the nearest land mass. The majority of land is covered by desert dotted with oases, with most cities being along the coast. There are some exceptions, but the tools to live landlocked were only recently invented. Fauna become larger and more aggressive the further inland one goes, but what lies in the water is an even bigger concern.
The various coastal cities have an uncomfortable relationship where they help each other little as possible due to polarizing politics, yet still rely on one another for certain resources. Inland civilizations are mostly often self sufficient and only keep trade with other cities to keep up technological development.
There's a cross continent agreement to trade all newly discovered technology, most of which is reverse engineered from an ancient civilization with few sites dotting across the land. The mixture of advanced reverse engineered tech combined with man's natural, more primitive creations causes a clash in aesthetics across the cities. Even as new technology comes, the old is still used as people always expect the better version will be invented soon. There's a saying: "Don't get a donkey drone when you already have a donkey, wait for the mk.2 to come out."
Do not go out alone. But if you must, ignore the voice.
The Why
Shortly after the invention of the enigma engine, a small device that allows people to communicate to each other without the need for other hardware or any infrastructure, rare spatial anomalies began popping up in random locations with a couple shared traits:
- Only appearing above bodies of water, often small puddles
- Emits a familiar voice, crying for help
If an individual follows the voice to its source, they will be invaded. An unseen force will come into the person and anchor to their mind. Once anchored, the individual becomes a host until death. From there on they are referred to as Anchors, hosts for Enigmas. Once bonded the enigma can communicate with its anchor, described as a soft voice that's always behind you, always using a familiar voice.
The appearance of these anomalies show up in waves, ranging from every 3-10 years. During the first wave, anchors were treated like the possessed.
It turned out that the enigmas were not only intelligent, but allowed the anchors to create physical and spatial anomalies for self preservation, because if the anchor dies so does the enigma. The strength of these anomalies is dependent on how much of the anchor's mind is occupied by the enigma.
A couple years after the first wave, a closely monitored anchor had become a gargantuan glowing humanoid referred to as an Eidolon. It had quickly outgrown and subsequently destroyed the building it was inside, then proceeded to tear through the city until it hit the beach, where it ventured into the sea and disappeared. When the news had spread, every city chose to crack down on anchors and deal with them. While most people would simply call for the death of anchors, and some cities are more than happy to do so, more cities decided to put them to use. After a continental meet up, most cities signed an agreement called "The First Line," which gave anchors a choice: hunt anchors, or be hunted by anchors.
...What was his life like?
The Who
You are an Exterminator, an anchor forced to hunt other anchors and bring them back dead or alive. You are also responsible for assisting local authorities in investigating anchor involved crimes. It was this or execution, as it's very rare that an anchor is given a different job. And even then, it is exclusively because of their anomalies and they are heavily monitored at all times.
An anchor suspected of being a soon to come eidolon is almost immediately executed, although the methods for figuring out when an anchor becomes an eidolon is based almost entirely on superstition.
You are owned by the city of Slaughter's End as part of one of their exterminator groups, "Heliopause." One of the few groups in the continent allowed to leave their home city, but only for extermination based reasons. After a short training regiment you're sent to the field with the rest of your group to investigate a recent incident.
This is a story I've been brewing on for a couple years, and I've finally decided to see how its current iteration works out.
Not asking for a novella per reply, but no one-liners either. As long as you give room for a reply, all's fine.
Of course rpn rules stand, and no power playing. If you have an idea which leaves you unsure whether or not I'd allow it, don't hesitate to ask. The more creative, the better!
"How do I know how strong is too strong?" Good question: as a start the exterminators will have little power from their engimas, only being able to create a handful of different anomalies at most, and they aren't very powerful. Ie: an anchor who can grow protruding metal poles anywhere on their body, but only for 6 inches and they're not pointed. Or being able to create fire, but only from the finger tips and only from a couple feet away. More variety comes at the cost of power, generalists and specialists both valued.
But as an anchor uses anomalies more often, the enigma can take more control and thusly provide stronger anomalies.
Edit: As of 3/11 we're open again!
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