[World Building] Cloning, Ghosts & Multiple characters.
You are not required to strictly adhere to Umbra lore during character creation. The aim of this page, as well as other lore pages is to provide in-character friendly reasoning behind mechanics of the game. Any character's lore is considered valid until deemed not lore-friendly by a Lore Master or Project Manager.
This page is the 1st public draft of world building on cloning, spectator ghosts and why someone you would usually only see 1 of someone's characters at a time during a shift. It is subject to change & review.
Basics: Signal Resonance & the Null-Gradient Field
Common terms for Signal Resonance and the Null-Gradient field are "Souls" and the "super Sargasso sea." This field, or "sea" is the origin point of a signals energy output. "Souls" are described as signals resonating from a metaphysical source, the Null-Gradient field, to the brain of a sapient creature. Groups of individuals can share the same resonance signal, and this signal bounces between those sharing it.
At the very basic level, this means that certain individuals share the same "soul." One soul could be responsible for many unique individuals. - Due to the sensitivity of researching this theory and it's unknown reactions to bluespace machinery, Nanotrasen has elected to enact regulations that prevent individuals whom "share the same soul" from working at the same time without permission from Central Command.
Players whom want to have the basic level of knowledge their character would have should only need to know:
"souls" are barely-understandable signals that share different hosts. When someone is cloned, it's like making a new anchor for their resonance signal.
- The player is a soul, giving the character effective self-consciousness. You, the soul, exist in a separate metaphysical plane.
- Your characters all share the same soul, you.
- It is up to the you if your characters are in any way affected by this. Characters could reject or have their own unique ideas.
This is all a player needs understand to interact in a lore-friendly way to cloning, death or ghost-related issues, if they wish to use it.
When you return to us, your past lives will be watching, cheering you on. Like a movie theatre!
- An unknown Chaplain
CLICK THE DROP-DOWN BELOW TO VIEW A FULL BREAKDOWN OF "THE SUPER SARGASSO SEA."
Information within this box is not needed for understanding the the basics, and is subject to change.
Historic Framing:
During the forgotten times before space-flight, humans created the concept of the super Sargasso sea. This term described the fictional trope of a land where all things lost or forgotten end up.
Loose change under the cushions. That sock in the hamper missing its twin. Where did they go? They fell into the sea.
When someone is lost in life or just aimlessly wandering, it was not uncommon to be compared to feeling "lost at sea."
And when humankind began traveling the frontiers of space, nobody knew this concept would become the basis for describing scientific breakthroughs in the nature of cloning and the metaphysical phenomena of "Souls."
Scientific Framing: The Branch Effect
The super Sargasso sea is defined as the "null-gradient field," a metaphysical space which overlaps the entirety of the known universe.
It's discovery was made when a senior professor found resonating signals in the brains of sapient creatures that were not present other life. Experiments were ran where clones of the professor were spliced with the DNA of other species.
The experiment was successful in creating duplicates of the same signal resonance as the professors brain four different times, and using Bluespace Scanners (Which can be simplified as futuristic hand-held ghost detectors) found that when the signal was silent in one mind, it would be active in another, bouncing between each of them with the same resonance. Later, other researchers began to investigate and found similar signals between even strangers whom never met each other.
It was concluded that similar signals shared between two or more individuals resonate on an atomic level.
- At the base description, the null-gradient field (or super Sargasso sea) is a 5th dimensional space housing multitudes of unique energy fluxes that are drawn to baryonic patterns in groups of sapient individuals brains.
- In layman's terms, strands of atomic energy is constantly traveling around us, pinging between different self-conscious people. There could never be more than 1 unique person, because resonance signals cannot remain motionless in only one individual.
- "A self can only observe one of itself."
Social Framing: Legal & Ethical Effects
The gravitational null-gradient field that all every sapient individuals resonance signals dissipate into claimed it's namesake as the super Sargasso sea, with cloning being the device which pulls people from death beyond death. The unnerving morality of a metaphysical energy that drives sapient creatures has had it's effects on some social structures. Nanotrasen has enacted new regulations which prohibit individuals sharing the same signal resonance from working on the same shift while the phenomena is being researched.
Educational & Philosophical writings on the subject are still being developed, but most share the same key principles:
- Resonance signals can be likened to the memories, subconscious or "Soul" of an individual.
- Two individuals with similar resonance signals can still be utterly different from each other.
- Cloning an individual is to "create a new node to pick up their previous resonance signal" or;
- Cloning an individual is to "craft a vessel able to house their previous soul."
Summary
Though the super Sargasso sea has opened many new avenues into research, simply discovering it has not altered our measurements of how people act.
A "soul" or resonance signal can be simplified to a stream of energy that pings between two or more people. The "sea" is a metaphysical space which these signals originate from.
While impossible to ever fully determine complete likeness in a clone, when the procedure is done professionally and with minimal to no errors, the clone almost always exhibits to have the same signal resonance as they had previously. Although,
- A clone who exhibits complete memory & behavioral patterns of the original may be considered the same person.
- A clone who exhibits memory lose or changes in their biological makeup may be considered a different person.