Macro Animii
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Contents
Introduction
Macro Animii are stronger and larger, albeit far clumsier and less efficient Animii, that rely upon a finite fuel source known as Red Oil to function. This Red Oil is processed in what has been dubbed the ‘Gear Stomach’, a much more aggressive form of Animii Engine that consumes its fuel in a manner akin to a beast of burden consuming calories.
For instance, a machine of similar size and output capacity to a plough horse would require a similar equivalence of Lifeblood to be burnt as calories intaken by a beast of burden, operating on an identical basis to the mana-charging to spell output ratios of magical enchantments.
Rather than carefully managing the energy output of Lifeblood to power clockwork in the long term without wasting any of the liquid (as Gear Hearts do), the Gear Stomach is capable of outright burning it as a single-use fuel for immediate short-term bursts of power.
Overview
History
Garumdir, the Aengul of the Invention, birthed the first engines upon his realm, Val’garis, in the form of the Gear Heart. With this he was able to put to use the alchemical formulae now called ‘Lifeblood’, in order to power his Animii and later his valkyries in more complex forms.
In the process of his tinkering, however, came a prototype modern Tinkers and Animii Crafters refer to as the ‘Gear Stomach’; where the Gear Heart is small in scale and efficiently cycles fuel around a mechanism, a Gear Stomach is far larger, inefficiently digesting its own unique fuel with each single use for a higher output of energy. Effectively in constant overclock, the Gear Stomach is an engine far larger than that which an Animii can usually house, far less efficient in its resource use and far more clumsy in its energy output.
These crude engines dotted the landscape of Val’garis, upturning its soil in an ever-growing thirst for the alchemic components to lifeblood, which it greedily burnt through, poisoning its air with a thick smog of alchemical fumes. Dissatisfied with this imperfection, Garumdir undid his polluting mechanisms, soon enough perfecting them with larger scale versions of the Gear Hearts we know today, far too intricate for descendants to replicate.
Eons later, however, through similar trial and error did a simple tinker manage to replicate this Gear Stomach when trying to fuel a sort of walking laboratory. Thus, the Gear Stomach was reborn.
Red Oil
The fuel of all Macro Animii, Red Oil is a bastardised form of the typical Lifeblood found in more complex Animii.
A crude modification to the original recipe, Red Oil is a single-use substance, which must be cycled and replaced once its energy has been expunged. This is achieved by digestion via a Gear Stomach, which cause Red Oil to glow like a roaring furnace before it evaporates into a thick black smog, harnessing all of its energy output at once rather than prolonging its use as a Gear Heart might with Lifeblood.
When this process takes place, Red Oil strangely remains the same temperature, and if one were to stick their hand into a Gear Stomach whilst the process was undergoing, it wouldn’t be burnt or damaged. The real hazards come in Red Oil’s slickness, and its corrosive effect on the vulnerable tissue when in liquid form. One would struggle to clothes and skin, causing rashes and irritation after prolonged contact, whilst exposure to the eyes can cause temporary blindness and ingestion would bring on symptoms akin to alcohol poisoning.
Furthermore, in its gaseous form - once vapourised in a Gear Stomach - the dense smog produced would induce coughing and irritation to the throat and eyes, being deadly in high enough doses such as a poorly ventilated space with a Gear Heart being left to run for long enough.
This smog also causes nearby plantlife to experience a searing pain, akin to the effects of Red Oil on a descendant’s skin albeit tenfold; whilst the smog wouldn’t be capable of outright killing plants, it would stunt their growth if subject to prolonged Red Oil pollution. This would notably alert nearby Druids and Fae, bombarding them with the angered cries of the wilds and likely provoking retaliation against the sources of said smoke.
The recipe for Red Oil, as mentioned, is similar to Lifeblood, but with some tweaks. Primarily the addition of powdered Redstone dust and other catalysts in place of the more mild components to the fluid, which turns the substance into burgundy coloured, viscous substance. This addition of Redstone, a volatile ore comprised of ancient solidified mana, also adds vulnerability in the form of Voidal disruption. Whenever a Voidal mage establishes a connection closeby, the reactive substance will bubble and fizz. This would cause jamming in Macro Animii even when the fuel is being processed by a Gear Stomach.
Red Lines:
-The recipe for Red Oil must be taught through Roleplay means.
-Each sample of Red Oil must be signed by an ST-Writer so as to confirm its legitimacy.
-All reagents gathered for the Red Oil recipe must be - as with any product of Alchemy - gathered through screenshotted roleplay, with the exception of Redstone which relies on minecraft mechanics and will require mechanical Redstone Dust to represent it.
-Red Oil in its liquid form is not flammable, let alone combustible. Even when being processed by a Gear Stomach it will not change from room temperature.
-Red Oil in its liquid form will only cause similar irritation to a sunburn to skin after exposure for over ten narrative minutes, lasting for 3 OOC days. When splashed upon eyes it will cause pain and temporary blindness, though this blindness only lasts for a narrative day before normal eyesight is restored. There are no remedies for these effects at present and their duration must be Roleplayed accordingly.
-When vaporized, the smog Red Oil produces will have similar effects on the body to real world Carbon monoxide; it can and will damage the throat and lungs when inhaled, though its effects will only be lethal in extreme doses such as staying in a confined space flooded with the smog.
-The pain caused to plantlife by the smog from Red Oil will only minorly disrupt Druidic spellcasting to the extent of adding a single emote to Druidic Communion spells in a 10x10 radius from an operating Gear Stomach, though its effects in paining and angering the voices of Nature will spread over a 50x50 block radius from an operating Gear Stomach (past the point where smog is still visible or damaging to Descendants) and it is perfectly plausible for a Druid to find the connection between the pain brought to the wilds and its source - the smog.
-If a voidal connection is established within 5x5 blocks Red Oil in its liquid form, it will bubble and fizz. This is not combustive, nor could it effectively be weaponized, but it would create a nuisance and wastage when the fuel is not properly contained.
Gear Stomach
The Gear Stomach is an essential component for all Macro Animii. An engine, similar to the Gear Heart proposed in regular Animii and smaller contraptions, albeit far larger and less efficient. Whilst the Gear Heart can fuel humanoid or smaller sized machines indefinitely, by winding key and perpetual lifeblood circulation, only damaging this process in overclock, the Gear Stomach acts in an effectively constant state of overclocking.
These bursts of overclock would be far too damaging to any complex animii capable of thought or movement beyond simple kinetic tasks (walking, hammering, etc) and alongside pressure that might overload the intricate interior of said machines, would also produce a thick smog to be expelled from the machine, which will eventually suffocate individuals if flooded into a confined space. Because of this machines are incapable of producing force outputs superior to that of a Golem, or moving at a speed superior to a horse, without MArts.
They are also effectively useless in melee combat applications, being unable to effectively sword-fight, for instance, due to their lack of agile movement (beyond locomotive contraptions) and their inability to think and react for themselves in a complex manner.
To accomplish this straining vaporisation of fuel, Gear Stomachs are typically far larger in size, being at bear minimum no larger than a grandfather clock represented as two mechanical minecraft blocks, which would produce enough energy output to run a Macro Animii’s moving parts to the equal labour output of a plough horse. Additional output could be achieved with larger engines, scaling at the rate of half of the aforementioned output from a beast-of-burden per added block.
They are built much like the Gear Heart of a usual Animii, albeit far larger and requiring much more reinforcement, in the form of a ferrum (or stronger) shell akin to a stove, so as to prevent it from bursting from the pressure produced when Red Oil is converted into energy output. All vessels and tubing attached to a gearheart must then be fully metallic pipes, or reinforced with segmented or ringed metal so as to remain airtight and sustain similar pressure, as the energised Red Oil runs through its tubing far more violently and quickly than the Lifeblood circulation of a usual Animii.
Red Lines:
-The design for Gear Stomachs must be taught through Roleplay means.
-Gear Stomachs can not be paired with playable Animii or Machine Spirits.
-Gear Stomachs can not be paired with any sensory Animii parts bar
-The smallest form of Gear Stomach would run at maximum capacity for two OOC days of consistent on 1 litre of Red Oil. Each added enlargement (each successive minecraft block) to the Gear Stomach would require an additional 0.5 litres of Red Oil for consistent running.
-Gear Stomachs regardless of size or Should a pipe or reinforced vessel be burst or sabotaged on a working Gear Stomach, all of its contained fuel would be sprayed out and evaporated near instantaneously, wasting it.
-Gear Stomachs at their minimum size will only produce an energy output equal to that of a plough horse.
-Any Gear Stomach intended to rival five or more plough horses (an engine mechanically larger than 8 blocks) in energy output will require a MArt, along with the Macro Animii it is meant to fuel.
-Any damage caused to a Gear Stomach will require an Animii Crafter to repair it.
-Any Voidal connection established within a 5x5 radius of a Gear Stomach will cause it to stall and stop functioning, requiring an Animii Crafter to unjam it before it may again operate.
Macro Animii
Macro Animii are contraptions put to use by the power output a Gear Stomach can achieve, surpassing the usual size and strength of normal Animii, those in the macro scale are capable of far greater outputs of force than usual, at the expense of complexity.
Whilst the regular Animii is capable of the same range of senses, intelligence, dexterity and overall function of most animals and descendants, the Macro Animii is only capable of converting power from a Gear Stomach into kinetic force, which is dictated by a mix of the material durability of its components and the energy output of the Gear Heart running it, making it incapable of more complex functions found in the usual Automaton.
Typically, this kinetic force is harnessed in simple acts of pushing and pulling, for purposes akin to making legs walk, making hammers clang, making bellows squeeze and so on. Its overclock-reliant nature requires apparatus too large to be carried around by a single set of Descendant hands, and too clumsy to perform any task more complex than walking.
Furthermore, restricted by the dense vessels and tubing that’d be paired with a Gear Stomach, Macro Animii are singular in their functions. This means that a machine intended to perform tasks like striking down a fixed hammer could not also be affixed with legs to carry it around, and would require a seperate Gear Stomach and device altogether if one wished to have a moving powertool.
Typically, then, the Macro Animii appears an array of metal apparatus, in the form of churning cogs, pumping vessels and so on, whilst also always requiring some sort of chimney to exhaust out the smog produced by a Gear Stomach lest it overflow and jam. In consistency with their lack of artificial intelligence and complexity, they would also all require some form of components affixed for someone to operate the machine, be they in the form of cranks, pulleys or levers, as it would continue to perform the same task (such as a walking Macro Animii continuing in the same direction and stumbling over obstacles or crashing into walls without a pilot) indefinitely without further instruction and would be unable to receive or process auditory commands like most smaller and more advanced Animii.
Red Lines:
-The design for Macro Animii must be taught through Roleplay means.
-All parts fashioned for Macro Animii Red must be - as with any product of Alchemy - produced through screenshotted roleplay and provided to an ST-Writer on request.
-The process of building a Macro Animii takes 2 IRL weeks (or half the time with assistance from another Animii Crafter).
-All Macro Animii must be mechanically represented by a minecraft build or, in the case of moving Macro Animii, a minecraft horse.
-Any Macro Animii larger than a caravan that is intended to move will require an approved MArt.
-Any damage caused to a Gear Stomach will require an Animii Crafter to repair it.
-Any Voidal connection established within a 5x5 radius of a Macro Animii will cause it to stall and stop functioning, requiring an Animii Crafter to unjam it before it may again operate.
General Red Lines and Tier Progression
General Red Lines:
-All humanoid shaped Animii larger than an Orc and non-humanoid shaped Animii larger than a plough horse now require a Gear Stomach and Macro Animii fueled by Red Oil to function.
-Gear Stomachs can only be used to power simple parts that result in the movement of appendages attached to machines (such as walking legs on a horseless carriage,rowing oars on a crewless boat, pulling rakes on a horseless plough , etc). All other non-kinetic Animii parts would be overloaded and disassembled when linked with a Gear Stomach, making all forms of obedience vessels, thinking, seeing, hearing, smelling and feeling machinery past the scales already outlined in Animii Crafting impossible to create (no supercomputers, no house-sized Automatons without MArts, etc). This in turn means a machine will always need to be physically interacted with in some way for it to work, as there is no means of conveying verbal or visual commands to a machine.
-Any machine complex enough to require manual control (such as any form of locomotion past a fixed point in space, ie piloting a crewless boat with self-rowing oars, that would need to have their speed, steering and fuel levels constantly monitored on a situational basis) will need an accepted Animii Crafter versed in Macro Animii Crafting’s instruction to operate it. The only exceptions to this would be intentionally simple machines that would only require the simple crank of a lever to activate or deactivate.
-Whilst non-Animii Crafters can be taught how to make Red Fuel, repair tubing and pipes, and produce various replacement parts for Gear Stomachs and Macro Animii, actually assembling and repairing the more intricate parts of these devices will require an accepted Animii Crafting FA and instruction from a teacher.
-Any weaponization of Macro Animii will require an approved MArt (someone choking on smog or getting caught in the moving parts of a stationary machine would not constitute 'weaponisation'; Macro Animii do not simply 'cease to exist' in combat). Furthermore, attempts at siege weaponry involving Macro Animii would require further approval from War moderation.
-Mobile Macro Animii mounts that are intended to remain functional in combat can not weigh any more than 1,000lbs without a MArt; the maximum weight for an Olog or horse. All mobile Macro Animii larger than this (but still not larger than mentioned in previous redlines as requiring a MArt) such as caravans, must remain stationary or cease any current movement during combat, the only exception being during events where an ST-Actor has been consulted and allowed the use of these larger 'vehicles' during.
-Macro Animii are by nature clumsy contraptions. They can only produce kinetic force in pulling, pushing, turning and bending motions. All other applications of Animii Crafting would immediately malfunction and break if added to a Macro Animii’s system. For instance they could not spin a motor reliably enough to move atop wheels, or in more extreme circumstances would be completely inept when attempted to turn propellers or flap wings for the purpose of flight.
Tier One
Anyone can be taught how to make Red Fuel, repair tubing and pipes and produce replacement parts for Gear Stomachs and Macro Animii.
Tier Two
Animii Crafters can be taught how to undo jams and very basic repairs (such as diagnosing a broken part) on Gear Stomachs and Macro Animii.
Tier Three
Animii Crafters can be taught how to produce Red Oil, as well as how to perform complex repairs (such as jamming) on Gear Stomachs and Macro Animii. They can also be taught how to make Macro Animii.
Tier Four
Animii Crafters can be taught how to create non-moving Macro Animii and may also deduce how to operate complex Macro Animii on their own.
Tier Five
Animii Crafters can be taught how to create moving Macro Animii, and can also experiment with MArts for larger or more complex contraptions.
