#nanites

[galahadwilder]

New Zombie Setting Idea:

The zombie virus outbreak happened a few years ago. Scientists across the world set out to research a cure, desperate to prevent the fall of humanity.

In contrast to 60 years of zombie fiction, they find it.

The cure is both preventative and palliative. Nanobots inside the body creating an artificial immune system, fully programmable, one that can be tuned to attack anything. Zombie virus. The common cold. Cancer. It’s not just a cure for Zombiism—it’s a cure for everything.

And then the programming glitches.

The nanites want to spread.

And the world falls to pieces under the strain of two competing forms of Zombie virus, one biological and one technological, each with different infection vectors, different behaviors in the victims, different everything.

Except the original zombies would’ve rotted away, eventually. They would’ve starved to death, or frozen, or boiled, unable to take care of themselves or protect themselves from the elements.

The nanites, on the other hand, won’t let their infected die. They can repair any damage their host suffers if given enough biomass—even gunshot wounds. Even partial incineration. Even AGING.

In order to cure Zombiism, the scientists released something far, far worse.

[whenwolvescryout]

Punk Taur

A new design... Macro Punk Demon Taur. definitely not going to end up a common sona form, right? 

If you like my art, you can support me on Patreon or Ko-fi

[thecreaturecodex]

Walrider

Image © deviantArt user NanFe, accessed at her gallery here

[Sponsored by @coldbloodassassin, and my last sponsored post! The walrider is yet another monster in the subgenre of "from a video game I've never played", and in this case never even heard of before being tasked with this: Outlast. It has a very complicated backstory, involving Nazi mad science and corrupt mental institutions, so I streamlined it a bit while retaining the original flavor.]

Walrider CR 18 CE Construct A faint blur appears, an outline of a human form moving through space. It moves with impossible fluidity, as if its joints were more a mental construct than a physical one. The outline lacks a lower jaw entirely, and the fingers are longer than those of a typical human

The walrider is a bizarre construct, a cloud of tiny nanomachines confined to a humanoid shape but able to take over the bodies of others. The first walrider was created in an attempt to create a nanotechnology lab out of the body of a human test subject. The process drove the victim insane in the process of completely disassembling them, and the walrider created possessed a thoroughly warped and thoroughly evil psyche. The walrider still possess an affinity for the mad, preferring to use them as hosts. Those whose perceptions of reality are distorted are even less likely to understand the nature of the walrider’s attacks, and are less likely to be believed if and when they can report them. The damage the walrider deals when scouring the mortal mind for information typically leaves their victim mentally broken.

The walrider can enter a victim not to possess them but merely to take them apart from the inside, and they enjoy using this power in the open as a show of strength. If they cannot possess a host, or if they are expelled through remove disease or a similar effect, they simply beat their enemies to death. They can control their own solidity as a matter of course, being strong enough to punch through concrete when they want to, and then being so diffuse that weapons pass right through them. The walrider is nearly invisible, and uses hit and run attacks in combination with their great stealth to wear enemies down if they are capable of fighting back.

Due to the highly unusual nature of their origin, the walrider may be a unique creature. If it is not, it is highly unlikely that they would cooperate with each other, instead viewing each other as competition. The walrider is a megalomaniac who views itself as divine, and is actively creating a cult of worshipers who view it as the next stage in human evolution. If this cult grows large enough, the walrider could become truly divine, or attract the attention of a competitor who is.

Walrider CR 18 XP 153,600 CE Medium construct Init +14; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +18

Defense AC 27, touch 27, flat-footed 16 (+10 Dex, +1 dodge, +6 insight) hp 169(23d10+43) Fort +7, Ref +19, Will +15 Immune construct traits, critical hits, sneak attack, weapon damage Defensive Abilities evasion,mad insights,swarm-like, transparency; Weakness susceptible to mind-influencing effects, vulnerable to area of effect damage

Offense Speed 40 ft., fly 40 ft. (perfect) Melee 2 slams +33 (2d8+10) Special Attacks infest, possess

Statistics Str 30, Dex 30, Con -, Int 19, Wis 4, Cha 23 Base Atk +23; CMB +33; CMD 44 Feats Ability Focus (infest, possess),Alertness (B),Blind Fight,Combat Expertise,Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus (B), Dodge, Improved Critical (slam), Improved Initiative (B), Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes (B), Mobility, Power Attack (B), Spring Attack, Staggering Critical (B), Toughness, Whirlwind Attack Skills Bluff +23, Fly +35, Intimidate +23, Knowledge (engineering, local) +34, Perception +19, Sense Motive +19, Stealth +47; Racial Modifiers +11 Knowledge (all), +20 Stealth Languages Aklo, Androffan, Common, Undercommon SQ madness,many in one

Ecology Environment any Organization solitary or ride (1 plus 1 possessed host) Treasure standard

Special Abilities Infest (Ex) As a standard action, a walrider can infest a corporeal creature adjacent to it. If the creature fails a DC 25 Fortitude save, the walrider moves inside of its body. A walrider can either remain in the creature it infests harmlessly, as a riding possession spell, or it can start to disassemble its host from the inside, dealing 12d6 points of damage a round. A host reduced to 0 hit points while infested by a walrider is reduced to dust and destroyed (similar to disintegrate). A walrider infesting a host can be expelled by any effect that cures disease, with a disease save equal to this ability’s DC. If not expelled, the walrider can remain inside the host indefinitely. The save DC is Constitution-based and includes a +2 racial bonus. Madness (Ex) Walriders use their Charisma modifier on Will saves instead of their Wisdom modifier, and are immune to insanity and confusion effects. Only a miracle or wish can remove a walrideer's madness. If this occurs, the walrider gains 6 points of Wisdom and loses 6 points of Charisma. Mad Insight (Su) A walrider gains an insight bonus to Armor Class equal to its Charisma modifier. Many In One (Ex) A walrider absorbs the memories of intelligent creatures that it possesses. A walrider that has eaten one or more sapient creatures gains a number of bonus feats equal to its Charisma modifier (6 for the average specimen). It gains a racial bonus to all Knowledge checks equal to ½ its Hit Dice (+11 for the average specimen), and can make Knowledge checks untrained. Whenever it possesses a sapient creature, it may swap out one of its bonus feats and/or one of its languages for one known by the creature it has possessed. Possess (Su) A walrider can possess a living creature it has infested. Unless the creature succeeds a DC 25 Will save, the walrider takes control of its body, as per a greater possession spell with an indefinite duration. A creature that successfully saves is immune to that walrider’s possession for the next 24 hours. At any time while possessing a host, the walrider can attempt to scan its mind, as per a mind probe spell. This possession is taxing to a host; every day the host is possessed, it must succeed a DC 25 Will save or take 2d4 Wisdom drain. A creature that would be reduced to 0 Wisdom is instead reduced to 1 Wisdom and gains the moral insanity madness. The save DC is Constitution based, and includes a +2 racial bonus to the DC. Susceptible to Mind-Influencing Effects (Ex) Unlike most constructs, a walrider can be affected by mind-influencing effects. Swarm-like (Ex) A walrider is comprised of thousands of nanites. Although it is a Medium sized creature, it is immune to spells and effects that affect a single target, damage from physical weapons, critical hits and sneak attacks. A walrider can move through cracks and spaces small enough for a Fine creature. A walrider takes 150% damage from area of effect spells and effects. Transparent (Ex) A walrider is nearly invisible. Attacks made against it by creatures that need to see have a 50% miss chance, and the walrider gains a +20 racial bonus to Stealth checks. This is not dispelled by invisibility purge or see invisibility. Spells like faerie fire and glitterdust reduce the miss chance to 20%, but do not remove it completely.

[bookmothic-dyke]

Here is all my magic systems I’ve made.

They’re listed from favorite to least favorite. The last one definitely needs some work, and is a little problematic currently. Haven’t touched it for a bit. But included it for wholeness sake.

Haemocraft: Blood Sorcery,

Magic User: Blood Sorcerer, Sorcerer

Concept: Blood is used as a fuel source to power the bolstering and alteration of living organic matter. Can change DNA, gene expression, and structure. Even passing scientific limits to a degree.

Limitations: The amount of blood as well as heat and pain capacity are hard limits to use. Works better the closer in genetics the flesh is to the user’s blood. Can’t truly break biology, only stretch it. Takes a lot of meditation and medical knowledge to pull off to any degree beyond basics.

Cost: Fresh blood from the vain is spilt from a cut and burns away. Can lead to anemia symptoms. Also may cause pain and burns, especially with overuse.

Subtypes:

Immolation: Rapid burning of blood to bolster physical ability and/or senses to superhuman levels.

Skinshifting: Altering of gene expression to temporarily change the physical body of the user. Such as mimicking other people or turning into animals.

Calligraphy. Complex “spellcraft” using Blood Runes(nucleotides). Basically genetic engineering. Can be used for trans reasons.

Weaving: Sculpting of flesh, harming or mending it. Good for surgery and murder. Also includes trans surgeries.

Witchcraft: Old Magic, Fae Magic

Magic User: Witch, Curseling

Concept: Accessing the Wode(madness), to alter reality with sympathetic magic (evocations). Innate magic of elemental manipulation and sometimes Legacies(inherited fae curses, turned magic).

Limitations: Magic must be done through the elemental aspect, and draws power from it, as it’s the aspect of reality they are metaphysically attuned to. Also negated by iron, and undone by fae weaknesses and wards. Usually pretty weak and subtle in most cases, besides elemental manipulation.

Cost: Requires blood like Haemocraft, but doesn’t burn. Drains mental energy, overuse can cause psychological harm and the growth of the witchmark(physical representation of the degradation of the mortal soul due to the fae soul shard within them). Overuse will eventually turn a user into a Feylost, an unstable and mad fae creature ruled by their legacies and elemental aspect.

Subtypes:

Human Aspects: Physical aspects of reality’s makeup. Fire, water, earth, air, light, and dark.

Elven Aspects: Temporal aspects of reality’s cycle. Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring, Dawn, and Dusk.

Orcish Aspects: Emotional aspects of reality’s experience. Joy, Terror, Sorrow, Wrath, Love, and Hate.

Bane Origin: Magic inherited though blood of murder. Witch killed a fae, or someone along a chain of murder killed a fae. Magic is generally powerful but unstable. Prone to Feyloss.

Bairn Origin: Magic inherited through blood of birth. Witch has a fae ancestor. Most stable magic, highest potential.

Boon Origin: Magic inherited through blood of promise. Witch made a promise with fae, or someone along a chain of promise keepers. Least powerful, but most specialized.

Winnowing

Magic User: Winnower, Blight Child

Concept: Manipulation of unreality myst, as body has adapted to the Blight caused by the myst, to then warp reality. A single innate winnowing, along various more subtle expressions of their subtype.

Limitations: can’t be used outside of the myst. Highly resisted by man made or altered materials.

Cost: Overuse causes aggravation of Blight symptoms, including paralysis, psychosis, loss of senses, moods of memetic presence, and eventually erasure from reality. As the body becomes unstable and less “real”. Uses myst as the power source as well as medium, so needed.

Subtypes:

Memetic(Wink): Abilities that affect the minds of others (or sometimes inanimate information). Telepathy, mind control, gift of tongues, technopathy, and phuanapathy.

Kinetic(Polter): Abilities that affect physical matter and forces. Telekinesis, pyrokinesis, electrokinesis, kinetic absorption, golden touch, and sound manipulation.

Esper(Glint): Abilities that allow for senses of things beyond normal means. Future sight, enhanced hearing, psychometry, thermal perception, and ghost sight.

Shifter(Pollywog): Abilities that allow for the changing of physical form. Animal forms, face masquerading, monstrous form, shrinking, and sex shifting.

Noding:

Magic User: Runner, Superhuman, Node, Nyxie

Concept: Nanites in bloodstream of those chosen by the sapient city districts. This black blood gives them enhanced physical abilities, senses, healing, and one of two other power systems. Glass or steel.

Limitations: They need the associated element to use their powers beyond physical enhancement. Nanites may also break down over time without connection to the city grid.

Cost: Nanites run out of power eventually, and the users must consume more than normal to sustain themselves.

Subtypes:

Steelstrider: powers related to the generation of electromagnetic force and energy. Can manipulate ferromagnetic metals.

- Termite: skilled at the power to physically move and shape metal.

- Moth: skilled at the generation, control, and absorption of electricity and light.

- Gnat: skilled at levitating and moving about with the repulsive force acting on surrounding metal.

Glasswalker: power related to the use of a sub space accessed through glass. Can phase through glass.

- Sparrow: skilled at navigation sub space to make ranged and precise jumps.

- Crow: skilled at storing objects on sub space and retreating them from the reflections of set panes, or their own reflection (aka pocket).

- Falcon: skilled at looking through glass sub space at range. Using it as a tool of observation.

Charming: Little Magick

Magic User: Enchanter, Inheritor

Concept: Some people have inherited minor magicks from the long gone fae of their world, these little magicks, or “charms” are all that is left of magic. These charms ware tied to a noun, to which they take from and power.

Limitations: Weak, almost non-existent, and usually unconscious in their use. They draw form their noun as a source of power. Flora need the given plant, fauna the animal, Monsterum an associated fear, Stella the celestial body, and Persona a given type of person. Powers relate to both the physical properties of the noun, and it’s cultural connotations.

Cost: Not much cost, besides energy.

Subtypes:

Flora: Phytopathy to a given type of plant, and a power associated with the plant. Rose(love sensing), Poppy(sleep induction), Belladonna(poison kiss)

Fauna: Phaunpathy to a given type of animal, and a power associated with the animal. Hawk(vision), Frog(jumping), octopus(camouflage skin)

Monstrum: Power associated with the given monster. Vampire (draw power form blood), werewolf (partial shapeshift), pheonix (healing)

Stella: Elemental manipulation and power associated with a given celestial body or phenomenon. Sun(fire and sunlight control), moon(moonlight and water control), meteorite (metal control)

Persona: Skills, initiation, and talent associated with a given archetype. Killer(killing efficiency), sailor(sailing and survival at sea), queen(governance and leadership)

Oneirism: Dreamwalking, AONS Syndrome

Magic User: Oneroi, Dreamwalker,

Concept: People with a supernatural neurodivergence caused by the dream realm entering a cyclical overlap with the material world. These people, after a traumatic event, have merged with their “dream self”, able to travel between the realms and draw in the nature of their dream self. Dream selves are connected to one of four realms in the unconscious dreaming of humanity: Arcana(madness and mythology), Gloam(mystery and horror), Cyber(dreams for the future/change), and Under(dreams for the past/stagnation). Dream selves look like the individual, and influenced by how they see themselves and others see them, as the dreaming realms are reflections of the real world.

Limitations: Need to have the neurodivergence to have the magic. Can’t affect physical reality except in certain places of strong emotions and dreams due to early stages of reality merger.

Cost: Can cause extreme metal exhaustion and eat away at sanity over time. Also use brings the realms together faster over time. Including possibly letting things from the dreaming into our world.

Subtypes:

Cyber: Trauma of loss. Dream self resembles a sci-fi archetype. Such as Androids, aliens, or superheroes.

Changeling: Trauma of mental illness. Dream self resembles a fae creature. Such as fae, werewolves, or giants.

Cryptid: Trauma of horror and existentialism. Dream self resembles a creature of urban legend. Such as Bigfoot, eldritch creature, or black eyed child.

Chthonic: Trauma of death. Dream self resembles an undead creature. Such as a ghost, zombie, or vampire.

[nobylu]

Long Ass Logical Lore Conclusion Of The Balor (art at the end)

Let me put you on two trains of thought that will crash together like trucks on Mythbusters in a way that will make sense when they're together.

Train 1: Healing via putting numbers back on your health bar during battle is pretty rare in Lancer. There's really only two robots in the current edition of the game that can do it - the Lancaster can heal everyone and the Balor can fix itself. In fact, I'd argue that the Balor is defined more by healing than the Lancaster - you heal on your turn, you heal more on your turn if you activate your core power, you heal immediately after battle without expending repairs IF YOU ARE A BALOR AND YOU HAVE DAMAGE YOU HEAL and your DM vows to focus all fire on you so at least you take some kind of damage that's permanent (but then you activate your core power and say fuck you DM i rolled a d6 and got a 6 so actually there's no structure damage i am fine because I am a Balor)

Train 2: We all know and love that the Balor is just nanites on some sort of structure and that it goes yum yum yum on anything standing near it via the power of Scouring Swarm and Swarm Body (2-11dmg if you're standing next to one, if you dont know), but now we gotta ask - how do the nanites know where the robot ends and where the pilot begins? WHAT IS STOPPING THE NANITES FROM GOING AUTO YUM YUM YUM ON MY PILOT BECAUSE MY PILOT IS VERY ADJACENT TO THEM. I argue that what is keeping the nanites from snacking on their pilots is that the swarm knows what a human body is supposed to look like on several different levels. If they just know to not eat the skin, then the moment the pilot gets hurt because something got them when an enemy was shooting at the quote "angry water" that is the Balor then they get eaten from the inside out and turned into a fashionable human-sized human-shaped artisan raw leather bag because all the swarm knows not to touch is the pilot's skin. They also gotta know more than "a person is a head, torso, and four limbs" because then the bees will be the Diogenes to our Plato the moment, say, a space murder tiger comes into contact with the nanites and the bees will also cease to recognize the pilot when the space murder tiger rips off a leg because you know what's gonna happen the moment the pilot becomes a head, torso, and THREE limbs you guessed it it's yum yum yum time and now the swarm is the space murder tiger's, congratulations to the lucky tiger. So they gotta know skin, muscle, bones, blood, pilot's DNA, nerves - THE WHOLE NINE YARDS and probably how they sort of go together. (also probably clothes because i'd hate to pilot my bees and come out with my whole entire dick and balls and titties in the breeze because my bees atomized my fit and won't give it back). The subsequent collision of Train 1 and Train 2:

If Balors are greedy heal bots and know how people are put together, what is keeping them from healing their pilots. NOTHING, IS WHAT I SAY. I posit that Balor nanites can, in fact, fix their pilots because bodies are just the frames for the computational core that is the brain. How well you want them to fix their pilots is up to you - for me, the answer is poorly and with balor-ification. Mechanically, it can't be instantly because that would be busted and poor sport, but you can theme your Balor Pilot's revival upon their unfortunate death likely of reactor stress (RIP my shit heat cap) as "they got fixed up by their nanites". And if you really really want, you can add nanites to your Pilot like I did with my guy, Diederik.

Nanite Infestation and the Small Balor Stability Problem

You're familiar with that part of Balor lore that says that they don't work on anything smaller than size 2 because they just need SO MUCH ENERGY, so how do I justify through lore that my pilot has these nanites while also not acting as a size 1/4 Balor. The way I've perceived it is that Diederik, my boy my man my guy, is host to a swarm that 1) does not operate in its fullest capacity and 2) subsequently cannot do mech-level combat.

Balors have specialist nanites used in specific weapons like the Hellswarm, CONSUME/HIVE, and SWARM/HIVE. Something that can damage a mech probably is super energy-hungry, so we can have those be turned off. The only activated nanites would be structural nanites, sensor nanites, greywash (the part that eats), and reconstruction nanites that take what the greywash atomizes and glues it together like a 10 year old making a clay model of a person that makes you go "oohhh, thats... nice. Great job??? It looks just like me?". Just enough nanite activity that it can be powered by the human body at the low low price of "eat more food". (For Diederik, I've gone another step and will say that the reactor of the Balor is made of reactor nanites but that running them inside a human body uuuhhhh cooks it so those are off too.)

The cool thing about having Balor nanites permanently on you is that you can flavor all sorts of things as nanite shit. My pilot melee weapon is nanite knuckle dusters. I flavor my successful pilot-level rolls as the nanites doing something or alerting of something. I'm running the Bond Magus so all my Magus powers are just nanites doing their thing - skincrawl (get a bad feeling and react fast) is just the nanites telling Diederik about the bad thing in time for him to react, Geist (touch someone and experience what they do while unobserved even when far away) is just planting a nanite bug on them, Possession (ask the dark presence inside you a question) is just asking The Maw their/its opinion, etc.

(Another tidbit to chew on is that the swarm is still going to run a little toasty, so pilots hosting Balor nanites post healing are in turn going to be a little toasty just kind of always. Hello 100 freedom degree perma-fever.)

[kaiger-the-kaiju-loser]

Been watching Generator Rex with pookie and

[siryl]

A nanite diagram by Michael Okuda, scanned from Star Trek: The Continuing Mission by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.

[pierogispies]

My toaster in crime Mobius

[raphaelcrossofoliver]

[iggika]

Make way to start the Revolution!

[whenwolvescryout]

Stream Commissions

Some examples of the updated stream commissions from this week that I was really happy with, so I'm sharing. Had four colored lineart pieces in one day, which made for a nice looking sheet. 

If you like my art, you can support me on Patreon or Ko-fi

[hisuian-history-makers]

I’ve been thinking about N, J, and Doll being able to repair themselves. N’s head has restored itself two times. Eldritch J was still able to repair her when a majority of it's body was blown up. Doll seemed to come from oil???

Just curious what you think.

[nobylu]

The really cool thing about Balors in Lancer is that all they are is Nanites on a frame of some sort. There's no real specifiers about WHAT the frame HAS to be made of, so you can make a Balor out of ANYTHING YOU WANT.

Relevant to this line of thinking is this bit of lore crafting that I made for my pilot's turbulent history with Balors and planetary civil wars.

So uh, make Balors out of weird things. Let your nanites do arts and crafts. You too can have your pilot ride around in a lovingly built homemade flayed skeleton powered by bees.

[foolstojoinmyevilarmy]

This is my first in the series of Starfinder characters I will probably never get to play in Society.

In the Starfinder setting, androids have numerous nanites traveling through their bodies the same way cells do in ours. They can be enhanced through various feats and even used as healing items, but the most notable nanite related piece of lore is the Nanocyte class. This class is infused, perhaps infested, with a sentient cloud of nanites that can form into weapons, encase it in a concealing sheathe, or transform into weapons temporarily.

This android was a simple laborer, not really notable until their nanites began malfunctioning, generating more than their system needs. They became a subject of study by the Starfinders, and have been asked to go on missions so their nanites behavior can be studied. They are terrified, unable to completely control the nanites at certain that one day, their consciousness may be subsumed by the multitude.

[oui1024]

ashlii draw to celebrate being done with finals

[mothduchess]

Well not everything I do is huge. This is a doodle for my Starfinder character "Choir", an Anassanoi Nanocyte.