Artificial Soul III (Solo)
Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2021 1:49 pm
7th of Frost, 120 AS
With the gem freshly infused Lyra returned to her lab, turning the small emerald over in her fingers to inspect it as she walked back to the desk on which the circle of minding was laid out. All of the base requirements were met now. A core made from an infused gem, inscribed with pictographs that would allow it to accept instructions, and given a method to indicate that those instructions were carried out. It was as basic a design as one could hope for, and now all that was left was to see if it worked.
Once at her desk Lyra placed the gem at the center of the circle of minding, ensuring the matching glyph faced down and touched the circle's center itself. She then settled herself down in her chair, placing her hands in the two connected circles, and closed her eyes. The process of connecting with a core was more of an art than a science. Lyra reached with her aeither, the glyphs where her hands touched coming alight faintly as she funneled power into the circle. The glyphs themselves handled most of the work from there.
Behind closed eyes, Lyra 'felt' her consciousness shift and connected through the lines of power to the well of aether that was the core. It was not strictly necessary, but Lyra found it easier to imagine the space was a plain white room with no doors. At its center sat a glowing mass, which was the core itself. In her meditative state Lyra mentally walked around the core, reaching out and touching it gently with her own aether. She felt a thrum in response, aether responding to her intentions, eager and looking for purpose.
It is so unlike the melodies. Lyra thought as she prodded the aetheric mass, The minds of sentient creatures were already shaped, and require much pushing and pulling to call them to change. This, however, feels almost like clay beneath my fingers.
Was this, perhaps, the difference in artificing and the soul path of necromancy? She did not have a mind already formed to work with, but instead she had to GIVE this thing a mind of its own. It was an odd, almost troubling prospect, for how did one give thought to something thoughtless? Could she truly make a soul from pure aether?
Shaking her mental head Lyra put aside that musing for later study. For now, she had a very simple task. She wanted to give this core the ability to use its aether to produce an effect. Now... how could she do that? After some thought Lyra thought it best, to begin with giving it the ability to know what 'itself' was, if only limited. She whispered soft words under her breath as she worked her aether into the core, calling to mind memories of the gem's shape and cut, using their magical connection to pass on that information one image at a time. As she worked she began to feel... understanding? No, it was closer to acceptance from the core as she fed in more and more information about its physical being. It could not think on its own, but instead, she was investing it with a sense of 'self' or 'shape'. As she worked she felt the core begin to regard itself by the images Lyra herself provided, which seemed a step in the right direction.
Nodding slowly to herself Lyra then began defining what was contained inside its 'self', that being the aether which would power its actions. For this Lyra had to consider for quite some time and chose a mental picture of the gem that the core knew to be itself, and made it transparent, impressing that the 'power' was inside of it. She did not go into what aether was but instead focused on the impression that it was power, and it could be manipulated. She then did a demonstration of this, using her own aether to push and pull the aether inside of the core until she felt that same acceptance from before.
With the core able to move its own aether now, Lyra focused back on the gem's physical appearance. In her mind, she created a depiction of the gem's exterior and mentally turned it to focus on one particular glyph, the one which when funneled aether would produce a glow from the gem itself. Once more Lyra demonstrated, manipulating the aether inside of the gem and guiding it to the pictograph, funneling the power into it and causing the gem to glow several times in quick succession. It took more time than before, but eventually, the core seemed to understand. The final step was to give the core something to look for.
One last time Lyra called up the image of the core's outer self, again focused on the glyph that would make itself glow. Lyra then imagined a sensation, a pressure as she tried to recall what 'touch' could be translated to. The gem, of course, had no concept of what touch was, but after trial and error, Lyra discovered it DID know what it meant to have an interaction. So she made it simple. She imagined the sensation of 'something' touching the glyph, obscuring that part from the world, and in response to that, the core was to funnel Aether into the glyph until the interaction stopped.
Breathing a mental sigh Lyra stepped back from the core, withdrawing herself from it and returning to her physical self. She stood and rubbed the back of her neck, tired despite the fact that she did not need sleep. It seemed that teaching the construct, even in a simple way such as this, drew a considerable amount of mental energy from a person. She would need to make note of that in the future. Still, Lyra felt herself growing excited.
Reaching out she picked up the small green gem, holding it up to her eye. Then with one finger she gently pressed on the glyph on its side. A second passed, and then two with nothing happening. Lyra frowned and was beginning to wonder if she had done something wrong when there was a faint flickering. The flickering then suddenly became steady, and a soft emerald glow game from the gem in her palm. Lyra smiled broadly and released her pressure on the glyph. There was once more a delay, and then the glow flickered off. She repeated this several more times, each time the core taking less and less time to react to her touch until it was almost instantaneous.
"It seems you, like a child, needs some time after instruction to fully grasp the mechanics given to you."
Lyra nodded to herself. It made sense. There was a great difference between knowing how to do something, and actually doing it. Perhaps in the creation process, she could have the core's practice? Was the delay related to the gem itself? Would cores made of dragonshards be quicker to grasp instructions than ones created from simple gemstones?
The first trial was complete, and now she had much more she needed to know. Setting the gem back in the circle Lyra sat once more and placed her hands on the circles that connected her to the core. Closing her eyes Lyra felt the connection snap back into place once more, but this time she did not probe into the core itself. Instead with a flick of her essence, she activated the glyphs connected to the side, a series of lines on the paper lighting up as aether began to be drawn out from the gem. Lyra watched from the exterior of the circle itself as the moat of power slowly dimmed as more and more aether was drawn out during the purging. Curiously though, the light of the core did not fully fade. To be certain Lyra maintained the purging for several long minutes before finally cutting it off. With a frown Lyra opened her eyes, picking up the gem on the other side of the paper and inspecting it. She could see, after she placed the aura glasses on, that the purge had been successful. Aether that was once stored inside of the core was now resting inside of the uninscribed gem, though there was a noticeable loss of aether due to the inefficiency of the process.
Looking back at the Core Lyra once more connected herself to the circle and mentally inspected the inscribed gem. What she found made her eyes widen in surprise. There was still aether there, but it had become... a part of the gem itself. The core had defined that aether which made up part of its instructions as 'itself', and it had become integrated into the gem and the pictographs themselves.
"Marvelous." Lyra whispered as she looked closer.
The purge had been successful, but it had merely emptied the gem's 'aether reservers', which the core somehow defined as separate from itself. Aether which was used to give it instructions, and hold information, were somehow interacting with the pictographs and creating an internal layer of consciousness. It was impossible, but for all intents and purposes, this silly little gem thought that it was meant to glow. Lyra could no more strip it of its fantasy than she could strip an actual soul of its sentience. What did that mean?
With the gem freshly infused Lyra returned to her lab, turning the small emerald over in her fingers to inspect it as she walked back to the desk on which the circle of minding was laid out. All of the base requirements were met now. A core made from an infused gem, inscribed with pictographs that would allow it to accept instructions, and given a method to indicate that those instructions were carried out. It was as basic a design as one could hope for, and now all that was left was to see if it worked.
Once at her desk Lyra placed the gem at the center of the circle of minding, ensuring the matching glyph faced down and touched the circle's center itself. She then settled herself down in her chair, placing her hands in the two connected circles, and closed her eyes. The process of connecting with a core was more of an art than a science. Lyra reached with her aeither, the glyphs where her hands touched coming alight faintly as she funneled power into the circle. The glyphs themselves handled most of the work from there.
Behind closed eyes, Lyra 'felt' her consciousness shift and connected through the lines of power to the well of aether that was the core. It was not strictly necessary, but Lyra found it easier to imagine the space was a plain white room with no doors. At its center sat a glowing mass, which was the core itself. In her meditative state Lyra mentally walked around the core, reaching out and touching it gently with her own aether. She felt a thrum in response, aether responding to her intentions, eager and looking for purpose.
It is so unlike the melodies. Lyra thought as she prodded the aetheric mass, The minds of sentient creatures were already shaped, and require much pushing and pulling to call them to change. This, however, feels almost like clay beneath my fingers.
Was this, perhaps, the difference in artificing and the soul path of necromancy? She did not have a mind already formed to work with, but instead she had to GIVE this thing a mind of its own. It was an odd, almost troubling prospect, for how did one give thought to something thoughtless? Could she truly make a soul from pure aether?
Shaking her mental head Lyra put aside that musing for later study. For now, she had a very simple task. She wanted to give this core the ability to use its aether to produce an effect. Now... how could she do that? After some thought Lyra thought it best, to begin with giving it the ability to know what 'itself' was, if only limited. She whispered soft words under her breath as she worked her aether into the core, calling to mind memories of the gem's shape and cut, using their magical connection to pass on that information one image at a time. As she worked she began to feel... understanding? No, it was closer to acceptance from the core as she fed in more and more information about its physical being. It could not think on its own, but instead, she was investing it with a sense of 'self' or 'shape'. As she worked she felt the core begin to regard itself by the images Lyra herself provided, which seemed a step in the right direction.
Nodding slowly to herself Lyra then began defining what was contained inside its 'self', that being the aether which would power its actions. For this Lyra had to consider for quite some time and chose a mental picture of the gem that the core knew to be itself, and made it transparent, impressing that the 'power' was inside of it. She did not go into what aether was but instead focused on the impression that it was power, and it could be manipulated. She then did a demonstration of this, using her own aether to push and pull the aether inside of the core until she felt that same acceptance from before.
With the core able to move its own aether now, Lyra focused back on the gem's physical appearance. In her mind, she created a depiction of the gem's exterior and mentally turned it to focus on one particular glyph, the one which when funneled aether would produce a glow from the gem itself. Once more Lyra demonstrated, manipulating the aether inside of the gem and guiding it to the pictograph, funneling the power into it and causing the gem to glow several times in quick succession. It took more time than before, but eventually, the core seemed to understand. The final step was to give the core something to look for.
One last time Lyra called up the image of the core's outer self, again focused on the glyph that would make itself glow. Lyra then imagined a sensation, a pressure as she tried to recall what 'touch' could be translated to. The gem, of course, had no concept of what touch was, but after trial and error, Lyra discovered it DID know what it meant to have an interaction. So she made it simple. She imagined the sensation of 'something' touching the glyph, obscuring that part from the world, and in response to that, the core was to funnel Aether into the glyph until the interaction stopped.
Breathing a mental sigh Lyra stepped back from the core, withdrawing herself from it and returning to her physical self. She stood and rubbed the back of her neck, tired despite the fact that she did not need sleep. It seemed that teaching the construct, even in a simple way such as this, drew a considerable amount of mental energy from a person. She would need to make note of that in the future. Still, Lyra felt herself growing excited.
Reaching out she picked up the small green gem, holding it up to her eye. Then with one finger she gently pressed on the glyph on its side. A second passed, and then two with nothing happening. Lyra frowned and was beginning to wonder if she had done something wrong when there was a faint flickering. The flickering then suddenly became steady, and a soft emerald glow game from the gem in her palm. Lyra smiled broadly and released her pressure on the glyph. There was once more a delay, and then the glow flickered off. She repeated this several more times, each time the core taking less and less time to react to her touch until it was almost instantaneous.
"It seems you, like a child, needs some time after instruction to fully grasp the mechanics given to you."
Lyra nodded to herself. It made sense. There was a great difference between knowing how to do something, and actually doing it. Perhaps in the creation process, she could have the core's practice? Was the delay related to the gem itself? Would cores made of dragonshards be quicker to grasp instructions than ones created from simple gemstones?
The first trial was complete, and now she had much more she needed to know. Setting the gem back in the circle Lyra sat once more and placed her hands on the circles that connected her to the core. Closing her eyes Lyra felt the connection snap back into place once more, but this time she did not probe into the core itself. Instead with a flick of her essence, she activated the glyphs connected to the side, a series of lines on the paper lighting up as aether began to be drawn out from the gem. Lyra watched from the exterior of the circle itself as the moat of power slowly dimmed as more and more aether was drawn out during the purging. Curiously though, the light of the core did not fully fade. To be certain Lyra maintained the purging for several long minutes before finally cutting it off. With a frown Lyra opened her eyes, picking up the gem on the other side of the paper and inspecting it. She could see, after she placed the aura glasses on, that the purge had been successful. Aether that was once stored inside of the core was now resting inside of the uninscribed gem, though there was a noticeable loss of aether due to the inefficiency of the process.
Looking back at the Core Lyra once more connected herself to the circle and mentally inspected the inscribed gem. What she found made her eyes widen in surprise. There was still aether there, but it had become... a part of the gem itself. The core had defined that aether which made up part of its instructions as 'itself', and it had become integrated into the gem and the pictographs themselves.
"Marvelous." Lyra whispered as she looked closer.
The purge had been successful, but it had merely emptied the gem's 'aether reservers', which the core somehow defined as separate from itself. Aether which was used to give it instructions, and hold information, were somehow interacting with the pictographs and creating an internal layer of consciousness. It was impossible, but for all intents and purposes, this silly little gem thought that it was meant to glow. Lyra could no more strip it of its fantasy than she could strip an actual soul of its sentience. What did that mean?
