[Playable] Arcane Puppetry: Revised.

[hex37 734]

LM Edit: Please speak to a LM before playing the first Arcane Puppet. A character must know the necessary magics as to create them. A sign or another way of stating that a character is immobile and in deep concentration while in puppet form is Required to exist while in puppet form (MC name is needed in the sign).

 

Credit goes to Kalehart for the original idea. I've modified it primarily to meet Mechanical Standard, and to a lesser extent, various aspects of magic lore.

 

This magic has been approved by the Lore Masters, however any player wishing to play a puppet must receive LM approval beforehand.

Arcane Puppetry

The fabled puppeteer is comparable to a golemancer, necromancer, conjurer, or any other minion-related magic user. Unlike them, however, a puppeteer exercises the finest of control over their creation, with the most delicate of manipulations, and from as great a distance as possible.
 

~Mechanics behind Arcane Puppetry~

Arcane Puppetry is a subtle, masterful combination of telekinesis, enchantment and Soul puppetry. All three must be understood in one way or another to create a puppet. Allow me to break it down.

Before you start, you need a puppet. It's material is special; made of carefully sculpted, heated clay (with exceptions to various gildings, clothes and metal joints). To be manipulated properly, its size cannot exceed more than twice your weight.

Once a basic form is attained, the puppetmaster must heavily enchant their creation to make it function. A compact telekinetic enchantment is applied to each and every limb and joint on the puppet's body, allowing the puppet to bend and turn at the creator's will from afar. Next, the creation is given manufactured Senses, usually in the form of enchanted gemstones and gold fittings, ensorceled to send responses to the puppeteer through cognative magic. Most often, this comes in the form of basic sight, and hearing.

Finally, the mage must connect to the puppet, using the same methods Soul Puppeteers employ. The mage connects its mind to the inanimate puppet, and prompts it to lift from a distance. There is a tradeoff, however. In exchange for the ability to move with a puppet and sense with its enchantments, a puppeteer must temporarily give up the ability to do such things themselves. A puppeteer who moves his puppet cannot move himself, and if he sees through it, he will be unable to see through his natural eyes while he is doing so.

The connection itself takes at least an hour to attach and detach fully. Both the puppeteer and the puppet are incredibly vulnerable at such points in time.

The distance a puppet can travel, and the amount of time it can be connected with varies widely with puppet mage's skill. A novice can connect with a single puppet a few meters away for more than a few minutes, while a master can maintain a connection for hours, spanning distances hundreds and hundreds of meters away.
 

~Roleplay Example~

The Puppeteer gives a soft smile, his 5’9” puppet laying on the ground before him. He splays his fingers before him, and small threads of arcane magic drift from his fingertips. The strings of shimmering mana connect to the joints of the creaton, and it jumps to life. As the puppet stands, swaying slightly on its porcelain feet, the puppetmaster collapses into a praticed sitting position.

The Puppeteer's breathing slows, sacrificing his very senses to his creation. He enters an almost trance-like state as his own magical aura wells up in a circle around him.

“Perfect.” comes a hoarse, mechanical-sounding voice from the puppet "Better make than I expected..." It turns, and walks out of the home.

 

~Strengths~

• A Tier-5 can even allow their creation to speak, but their mouths would end up looking far, far from a human's.
• -Are able to hear, see, and smell (feel at tier 5) that which the puppet does, at the cost of being unable to use the same senses themselves while connecting.
• -Puppets are more resiliant than a human form, but cannot heal, nor bear the weight of metal armor.(Mech Standard equivalent of clay form resiliance is iron armor.)
• -Puppets are incredibly versatile. Able to do very very complex motions at higher tiers, and can be used effectively for espionage and other such acts.
• -Puppets are disposable.

~Weaknesses~

• -Cannot move while manipulating a puppet.
• -Puppets can never seem fully alive. Sculpting and painting with clay can only do so much- and the joints must always be metal.
• -Mages can easily be broken from their concentration at all tiers by being interrupted.
• -Mages cannot use their Puppets to fight very effectively, a tier 5 having possibly the ability to take on 1 fully armored knight. Perhaps 3 bandits.
• -The weight of the puppet cannot be more than thrice the mass of the Puppeteer. (Fear morbidly obease puppeteers.)
• Puppets cannot float in water, as clay is too heavy.
• -Even a tier 5 puppeteer cannot change the fact that if touched, the Puppet feels very rigid, no matter how much detailing and coloring is done to the outer clay.

 

~Red Lines / Limitations~

• -Puppets will crack and break if exposed to intense heat like fire or lava, just as a mortal would.
• -Creating a puppet requires the semi-restricted magic of Alteration to use.
• -If a player's puppet dies while being channeled, the user loses ALL recollection of the events leading up to the puppet's destruction, just as they would have if they were there, and died normally.
• -Arcane Puppetry can only be used on puppets made of clay (Metal being allowed for joints.) It is possible to gild their body with other material, or encrust various parts of the body with gems, but the basic construction must be clay.
• -Arcane Puppeteers cannot maintain a connection to their puppet while the caster is within Cloud Temple.
• -Puppets cannot fly, even if they take the form of a bird.

[hex37 734]

~Meeting the Mechanical Standard, and addressing concerns~

 

Again, a lot of this magic hinges entirely on it meeting the Mechanical Standard. As such, I've made some pre-written arguments for this magic to counter issues raised in past discussions.

 

Read: The Official Lore Regulations.

 

A concern from a long while back:

New races may not be created, and new subraces require Administrator approval

-The puppets are not living creatures, and therefore do not constitute as a race. They are directly controlled by a handler at all times, and are basically a kind of machine in make, implimentation, and design.

 

Notes from Jistuma, taken from this post.

It then breaks lore by becoming an immortal puppet without a curse in the puppet form.
It breaks other rules such as not losing memory if killed when using the puppet that can hear and see and etc.
Breaks mechanical standard since the puppet is not really there. Also breaks mech standard by floating over water.

-Removed the entire section on 'becoming the puppet.' It is impossible in the new lore.

-Players now lose memory of the puppet's experiences if they're destroyed while manipulating them.

-Mech standard equivalent of the puppet can be mitigated by using an alt account for the puppet, or leaving a sign indicating where the immobile mage is located and playing the puppet with your main character. The latter is very similar to how litches have traditionally worked.

-Puppets are now made from hardened clay, and cannot float.

 

 

I will add more as they come, or as I find them.

[Xerxes_XIII 2 200]

Support.

[Lago 2569]

Basically a clay version of Avatar?

 

(so the poor LMs don't have a hernia.)

Not a great start here, if you follow my meaning...

[hex37 734]

Basically? Yeah.

[Lago 2569]

Can't see any problem with that. Will direct it through the appropriate channels.

[ToenailTickler 290]

I like~

[Jistuma 1995]

You fixed the mechanical standard issues, and inserted lore breaking issues. Mainly it would be magics with lore issues.

Mind magic needs a mind, a living one. I'm afraid puppets don't have a mind, nor are living.

I'm not really sure how one can enchant something with cognitism.

Enchants do stuff automatically, they don't do what the mage is thinking at the moment, but what the mage commanded it to do before hand, so entering the body from afar wouldn't really work on controling it.

My sugestions:

1. Make yourself a temporary Heial in some way, and control the body with telekinesis.

2. New magic that has nothing to do with arcane magic.

3. Making it a new part of Soul Puppetry, where the change of body can be far more easily explained (as in not explained).

Also you need to explain what needs to be done for the mage to leave the puppet instead of just being in a fight or something and go "Puff" and leave the puppet instead of dying.

[hex37 734]

Modified it to be based off of soul puppetry lore, as requested. Decided to keep the name anyways, as most of the art is still arcane in nature.

 

Monkeymo, if you ever read this, feel free to contact me.

[Jistuma 1995]

After speaking to Ritts about these kinds of contructs (not the puppets in particular, but a lot of others as well), I have to state that for this creature to be played, you either have to make it become cannon lore (which might take a while) and then who plays one of those only has to follow the lore, or have an LM decide on individual aprovals of it (each player that wants to play one needs permission), which might be better or worse considering what you want done with this creature.

They fall into rule 3. of the lore rules

Non-canon fantasy creatures, such as fairies and demons, may not be roleplayed without Lore Master approval

 

I wish the best of luck with this lore.

[Graceful Bucko 65]

As a puppeteer who would benefit in no way from this, I +1.

Great work hex.

[EmbryoGod 816]

How long would it take, overall, to make a puppet like this? Also as someone stated previously I feel like it'd be kind of difficult to roleplay, since you would require another body there. But I like it nonetheless. +1

[hex37 734]

How long would it take, overall, to make a puppet like this? Also as someone stated previously I feel like it'd be kind of difficult to roleplay, since you would require another body there. But I like it nonetheless. +1

Well, for the first question, you'd have to be a tad more specific- A puppet like what? A brand new mage just branching into the topic could make little more than a 3 inch tall action figure walk about a few meters away from them, and even then they'd be looking at it from a third person perspective.

 

Also, yes it is a tad difficult to play- there are two approved methods for having two bodies at once:

 

1: Use an alternate account- Get a separate account whitelisted on LOTC, and have your mage idle with sound on while walking around with your puppet.

2: Use signs- Leave a sign stating that your character X is sitted somewhere, meditating with some aura or another floating around them. Then, leave another note beneath the sign asking anyone who wishes to interact with the meditating mage to PM you their actions.

 

I'm planning an update soon to make the magic more clear-cut, and to add various aspects to the lore to make it much, much more versatile a magic.

EDIT: Updated OP with a disclaimer from the LMs.

[EmbryoGod 816]

Well, for the first question, you'd have to be a tad more specific- A puppet like what? A brand new mage just branching into the topic could make little more than a 3 inch tall action figure walk about a few meters away from them, and even then they'd be looking at it from a third person perspective.

I apologize for my vague question, let's assume it's a run-of-the-mill mage. Had a little bit of experience under his belt but has yet to be classified as a master or teacher, for the sake of understanding they'd be a Tier 3 in a 5 Tier scale. The puppet would be average human height (5 feet 10 inches)

[hex37 734]

Depends on the quality. A crappily made, badly baked puppet can be made in 3 days. (Around an hour and a half OOC). One of quality (Can see, speak, bend all the joints in its fingers, etc.) would take about 1 IRL day.