Psychondria and Psionics (Mortasheen)
Psychondria are bespoke, pseudoliving microscopic forms geared entirely to the storage and transmission of vast amounts of information. They require almost nothing to sustain themselves, and carry out their functions when exposed to an electric current. They are therefore found integrated into the nervous tissues (or analogues thereof) of almost all living organisms on the planet. Psychondria come in two basic types.
Mi-Psychondria
Mi-psychondria are the larger and less numerous of the two, their volume consisting mostly of a dense information storage matrix. Mi-psychondria always occur in clustered networks, tied to a central nervous system (or something close enough).
They constantly update their matrices to reflect, moment by moment, the precise status and connectivity of the neurons they reside within - signaling between themselves to correlate their data. (The data of pslogs and pscapes generated by the host is also kept here.) In this way, they form a continuous record of the current mental state of their host organism, their ability to signal in rough synchrony allowing for the more-or-less accurate measurement of psychological states from the uncooperatively opaque wetware of a live brain. Mi-psychondria that are not within anything resembling a brain usually go dormant, after they fail to receive enough responses to their short-range pairing signals. However, if they somehow become sufficiently concentrated and receive intermittent electrical charges in a site other than a brain, they may begin to fabricate data based off of intercepted psychic signals. These pseudo-minds rarely attain a level of complexity resembling a brain, but purely psychic entities like pstalkers propagate in this way, the physical basis for their existence equally likely to be concealed within city fixtures or the somatic nerves of a monster or metahuman.
Yu-Psychondria
Yu-psychondriaare very small and very numerous, not just in nerve cells but all organic tissue. Their function is to transmit much longer-range signals than mi-psychondria are capable of, and they constantly ping one another and amplify any psychic messages they catch. This makes it easy to detect them in a sample, but they are almost impossible to get rid of.
Free yu-psychondria will bond to similar cellular structures, including mi-psychondria, some nanomons and certain parts of nerve cells. Once this is done, they are able to activate, transfer or access the information of their bonded partner – though only if the right signal prompts them to do so.
The vast majority of yu-psychondria simply repeat the external signals they hear, and if they’re tied to mi-psychondria, fragments of whatever cognition is presently occurring. However, psychically potent organisms have specialized nerve cells that are capable of using their yu-psychondria to consciously send and receive signals. An unmodified scientist or non-psychic monster can receive signals, but require either a lot of practice in the skill of deliberately activating one’s own yu-psychondria or the help of a psipod to send some of their own.
Alchemists and necrotomists replicate telekinetic effects with intensely focused, highly specific thought patterns that imitate the activation stimulus for yu-psychondria in their mi-psychondria (instead of a specialized cell that can produce this stimulus at will). This is more taxing and far harder to learn to do, but it allows for much greater flexibility.
Psijacking
Pairing with a psipod is easy, a matter of focusing in the right way for a few seconds. Indiscriminately psychically attacking people, on the other hand, is difficult. Even the most basic deterrent, a sensation of pain, requires the yu-psychondria located in multiple areas of the brain to be correctly identified and targeted simultaneously, and yu-psychondria will only follow instructions that are specifically addressed to them.
Yu-psychondria paired with mi-psychondria create a vulnerability. If a specific stimulus – known as a vector - is provided, the yu-psychondria will echo the impression of it, allowing them to be identified along with their general location (e.g. the auditory area). This is enough information to send a signal establishing a connection to them, which can then be used to relay enough information to connect to any other needed areas of the brain.
For example:
A Borg is exposed to the song of a Maladirge.
Mi-psychondria in the auditory areas of the Borg’s brain describe the stimulus that the metahuman is currently hearing.
The yu-psychondria in the psychic center of the Maladirge’s brain detect signals describing their vector. This triggers them to signal back, successfully linking with some of the victim’s yu-psychondria.
The Maladirge instructs the victim’s yu-psychondria to deliver information from their linked mi-psychondria about the relative locations of other brain regions and how to link with them, which is available via the mi-psychondria network. (This is carried out unconsciously.)
The Maladirge’s psychic center, now fully paired with the Borg’s brain, begins to inflict hallucinations and confusion via the victim’s yu-psychondria.
Notably, the psijacking process is not inherently much different from benign telecerebral communication. Forming the sensory impressions of a nice anniversary message in a recipient’s mind is very similar to forming the sensory impressions of a white-hot brand scorching the middle of their forehead. This is why trust, and using a proxy like a psipod, is important for psinet safety.
Addenda
A lower concentration of (usually dormant) mi-psychondria is also found in Green Goo.
The mi-psychondria network is the basis for brain scans and respawning methods that utilize them.
Public psims and other psmedia are also stored in mi-psychondria networks, but they are typically run on networks of certain nanomons that are external to the creator’s mind and able to handle numerous users. These can be re-initialized by the creator as needed.
The brains of monsters, and to a lesser extent metahumans, make limited use of their mi-psychondria as a shortcut for information recall (which has the effect of making cognition calorically cheaper). Retrozoa do not, which does not make them immune to psychic effects, but does mean that their mi-psychondria are hitchhikers, having no bearing on their brain function.
Psijacking is more dangerous for metahumans than monsters because it is difficult to ensure your signal won’t reach your own brain. Monsters are sometimes able to get around this by having obtusely reorganized brains that prevent parts of their own signal from getting through. Often, though, they’ll avoid exposing themselves to their own vector, or adapt to simply enduring the effects of their own psychic stream.
One workaround some psychic monsters use for psijacking attacks is to infect victims with their own modified yu-psychondria, which are already linked to their broadcast and will immediately establish connection when one bonds to a mi-psychondrion.
