Technomancy: An Emerging Magic
The origin of all magic is shrouded in mystery, but this is most true of technomancy. Though it seems to draw from older magic, responding strongly to the delicate metalwork of Goblins and even to the barest sparks of fire magic coursing through, it is almost an unknown entity.
The secrets of its production are kept under the strictest contracts, with rumours that Unbreakable Vows are in use at some corporations. The products are therefore very difficult to replicate.
Because of its delicate age and the interest of powerful corporations, lawmaking has been slow going. There is little regulation over communications or amplifications, or even physical augmentations.
One most notable piece of legislation pertains to mandatory implantation. In the first law of its kind, it was mandated in 1980 that all who possessed the Sight must be fitted with a small chip behind their ear. It has become a widespread belief that, following strained relations with the fae, all witches have a right to prophecies. The implanted chip records any prophecies as they are foretold, much the same as the glass balls that are found in the Department of Mysteries. In due course, in a process that is said to be completely automated, it is broadcast to anyone possessing a Ticker (see below). This takes the form of an amplified audio recording of the prophecy in question.
Physical Augmentations
From the smallest implants to fully replaced limbs, witches are beginning to take advantage of technomancy in its most visceral sense. These are used both for convenience, like those pale eyes that act as a foe glass, and for brute strength, like an arm that hums and whirs with machinations that amplify channeled magic. It has revolutionised the lives of those who have lost limbs or functionality due to cursed wounds, taking root where no other magic would adhere.
Those who are most invested in technomancy then are visible - shining in the sunlight, ticking in the quiet of night.
Many augmentations come from CHIRON, a technomancy giant that dominates the industry, but there are always other means to get one's hands on an augment. Illegal black market parts are installed by people known as Renders. These are less regulated not only in their installation, leading to rejection from the body, but in their content. This trade is a highly illegal and dangerous one, and there are many horror stories of backalley augments gone wrong. Renders, though they do not have any level of organisation or accreditation in their ranks, are a trade based on apprenticeship. They are teaching one another, and are therefore able to pass down a code that they largely adhere to - Jacky’s code, so named for the Render who was given a sentence to receive the Kiss after one of his clients died from augment rejection.
The code, many times transcribed and retold, is shaky at best. It states that no Render should cause a client undue harm intentionally, that no augment should be made to automate an Unforgivable Curse, that no calling cards are to be used that may draw attention - and finally, that any Render seen to betray the trade should be found and killed.
Conduits
A “conduit” is anything that can channel magic, similarly to a wand. Many conduits act as enhancements to physical augmentations, or objects.
The most common conduit, however, takes the form of a pocket watch - now commonly called a Ticker. Once a sentimental marking of a witch coming of age, it has become a communication device that rarely leaves a witches’ hands. They are able to write messages, to send their voice across the gulf, and there are further developments on the horizon. It is recently becoming common practice to channel magic from conduit to conduit, sending incantations along these lines of communications to another side. Only simple charms and hexes have been able to make it to the other side so far, but the implications of this more remote form of magic is a topic of hot debate among corporations and politicians.
Conduits come in all shapes and sizes, the most extreme of which being an augmentation to one’s wand. Many witches will not consider this, even beyond augmentation of their own body; the wand is a sacred symbol of human supremacy, and many struggle with the idea of corrupting it.
Viruses
The first viruses passed by witchkind with hardly a blip on the proverbial radar. Easily, it was assumed that technomancy, bolstered by its intertwining with magic, would not be susceptible to the same problems. It wasn’t until New Year’s Day of 1982 that they experienced a virus firsthand.
PearlDust, named for the ingredient common to all love potions, swept across Tickers all over Europe. Non-malicious, experimentational, pulled off just to prove that it could be done - it was little more than a self-replicating bubble charm. At midnight, amid cautious celebrations tinged by a bloody war, heart shaped bubbles spewed forth in a multiplying numbers.
Sweet though it was, accompanied by a message reading “KISS A LITTLE LONGER”, the PearlDust virus presented a large Statute of Secrecy breach, and marked the beginning of a contentious battle between corporate interests seeking to keep the market unregulated and an increasingly nervous government.
The implications of, and indeed the viruses following, PearlDust have been much less innocuous. Those specialising in defensive technomancy, who have developed methods for protecting Ticker channeling, have seen tremendous increases in profits. Likewise, interest in using these viruses for gain or political momentum has seen an uptick in collectives forming. Their goal is usually attempting to outsmart defensive technomancy, even if only to point out its flaws.
