Tech Review Soulblade

[Unblessed]

• Intent: To create a weapon and armour as part of a story to be told
• Image Source: Original AI derived art
• Canon Link: N/A
• Permissions: SHIVA [link]
• Primary Source: N/A

• Manufacturer: Unblessed (Original Design: Locke and Key Mechanics)
• Affiliation: Unblessed(s)
• Market Status: (Closed-Market)
• Model: N/A
• Modularity: No
• Production: Semi-Unique
• Material: Two versions: Songsteel, which provides faster Adaptive Absorption, but lower resilience. And Wintrium, which provides greater resilience, but slower Adaptive Absorption.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Multipurpose
• Weight: Very Heavy
• Wintrium Variant Resistances:
  • Energy: High
  • Kinetic:Extreme
  • Lightsabers:Extreme
  • Other: Melee and ElementalExtreme
  • Other: Cryo, Sonic, Extreme Heat Low
  • Other: Radiation, Magick Very Low
• Songsteel Variant Resistances:
  • Energy: Very High
  • Kinetic:Very High
  • Lightsabers:Extreme
  • Other: Melee and ElementalExtreme
  • Other: Cryo, Sonic, Extreme Heat Low
  • Other: Radiation, Magick Very Low

• Songsteel variant: Repurposed Songsteel via Adaptive Absorption
  • The Songsteel variant can use its own Songsteel (while maintaining its original mass) to form blades, thus granting it a more melee combat focus.
• Wintrium variant: The Wind Will Change. Due to the nature of Wintrium, over time it will become less and less moldable to its user, but stronger and stronger over time. While less flexible in itself, the gauntlet will eventually become far more resilient than the Songsteel variant, thus making it ideal for more defensive and brawling styles of combat.
• Material integration via Adaptive Absorption
• Fire resistance via Songsteel or Wintrium
• Lightsaber resistance via Songsteel or Wintrium
• Soulbound crystal
  • The weapon has a personality of its own, granted by the partial soul of a dead Force User that was impressed upon a crystal at the time of their death.
  • Communication with this soul is common.
  • The level of sentience varies as does the moral alignment.

• In the flesh:
  
  • The nanobots created by the Soulblade are released into the users bloodstreams, born from there around their body. These nanobots make the Soulblade to become fused to first the bone and flesh of the forearm, but then integrated and connected to entirety of the hosts body. The nanobots, joined via data connectivity, awaken the Soulblade should any of the senses perceive threat or target. This gives the weapon reaction speeds equal to the hosts own perception, heightened or otherwise.
• Alchemized Effect:
  
  • The nanobots dispersed throughout the users body are alchemized to give off an aura of force sense. This allows the host to increased sensory perception. It was during battle that this effect would ramp up, as the increased adrenaline and heart rate would see the nanobots activity increase in the bloodstream.
• Adaptive absorption:
  
  • The mass of Wintrium or Songsteel in the gauntlet is static (outside of rare occasions where it comes in contact with more of either substance) Instead of repurposing on the molecular level and creating more of itself, the gauntlet maintains the atomic nature of the substance absorbed, but repurposes it into items of need. Metals are the most easily integrated, but glass, stone, wood and bone are also usable. The nanobots break down the material and reform it into what is needed by the host at the time. Weapons, prehensile tendrils, shields and armour are among the most common uses but the full extent of the technologies usage is yet to be achieved. Through this, the environment becomes fuel to the hosts imagination and skill level.
• Soulbound:
  
  • Embedded into the back of the gauntlet is a crystal that has been permeated by the soul of a Force User at the moment of their death. The entirety of the soul is not retained, thus not being the complete personage of the dead Force User but rather a fragment. Insight into the ways and techniques of Force Users is granted, and a spiritual and instinctual bond to the nanobot technology is forged making the host one with the machine.
• Summoning:
  
  • Using material absorbed, the gauntlet can forge weapons and armour as needed. The host, with influence from the soul fragment, dictates what form the items make. The limits of this technology are yet to be fully realised.

• In the flesh:
  
  • The nanobots that bond with the hosts flesh require a constant input of a proprietary substance manufactured only by the Unblessed in order to continue to function. Without regular injections of this serum, the host will begin to age faster and will succumb to a gruelling death in a matter of weeks.
  • This serum is combined with the SHIVA drug that was stolen from Locke and Key Mechanics along with the blueprint for this weapon.
• Alchemized effect:
  
  • Any activity that would increase heart rate and adreneline production in the hosts system would set the Soulblade on an increased offensive status. This makes any strenuous activity outside of battle particularly perilous for those near the host.
• Adaptive absorption:
  
  • Certain locations like spaceships will have limited resources from which to pull from before making the environment no longer livable.
  • The gauntlet itself must also make contact with the resource that is being absorbed and repurposed.
  • The mass of the absorbed substance determines the length of time it takes for the gauntlet to successfully absorb it. Once absorbed the material becomes malleable to the hosts needs, though denser material will mold more slowly to those a weaker will or those who lack discipline to retain focus.
  • The absorption process does not discriminate, the host being the only exception. If biomass is targeted for absorption, it will absorb the closest biomass to the point of contact. This could be an animal, a tree or an ally's arm. The same is true for all other targets of absorption potentially leaving the host without cover, or a floor to stand on.
    
    • Upon contact with the material, nanobots disperse to cover an area necessary for the desired construct.
    • The targeted material is then absorbed.
    • The 'absorption radius' may cross over on to unintended absorption sites if the host is not careful.
    • In the case of another being falling in the absorption radius, the absorption takes place whether the targeted one is willing or not.
    • An 'accidental' target may move out of the radius, but this does not undo what was already done, only prevents more from occurring.
    • OOC: Please note, that just as with all other combat, the degree to which the Adaptive Absorption should be considered a ‘hit’ is left purely up to the writer whose character would be effected, unless consent is granted by the affected character’s writer.
  • The total mass absorbed is usually limited to twice the mass of the host, though in extreme situations this can be stressed though risk of losing control of the host's consciousness to the imbued crystal increases exponentially.
• Soulbound:
  
  • The soul fragment may or may not align with Unblessed dogma. To that end, it may take a lot of willpower to reign in the will of the soul embedded into the gauntlet. The internal battle can take its toll.

What started as a grassroots movement became a terrorist group, and now it vies to compete with the accursed Force User of the galaxy. Desiring to compete with the might of Sith and Jedi alike, the Unblessed sought a technology that could grant to their most ardent devotees the power needed to defeat Force Users. What they created was found on the private work station of a Locke and Key Mechanics scientist. All his research was stolen by the Unblessed operative known as Ariadne . The Soulblade technology has not been able to be replicated, much to the frustration of John Locke .

Fashioned as a gauntlet, the Soulblade differs in colouring, but usually has a fair amount of silver. It covers the top of the forearm, hand and fingers of the host (known as the Souldbound, or in whispered tones the Abomination). On the back of the hand is located the soulbound crystal. Upon bonding with the host, the nanobots fuse the gauntlet to the skeletal and muscular structure of the host making it impossible to remove aside from amputation.

The weapons formed by the morphing abilities of the gauntlet vary in their appearance and are generally dictated by the sanity of the wearer (which does suffer over time). Blades extending from the already present mass of the blade are the most common and quickly generated construct. Armour that generates will grow up from the gauntlet before covering the torso and beyond.

The crystals were sourced at the site of an ancient Jedi and Sith battle where the souls of those that perished were fused with the crystals. Each crystal contains varying degrees of sentience, and an unknown alliegiance in the Force. None of them particularly care for the agenda of the Unblessed, which makes for an uncooperative partner. Only the strong of will may control those crystals that have a greater degree of sentience.

To keep the Soulbound in check, and subservient to the Unblessed, the nanobots require regular injections of the drug SHIVA which has been laced with nanobots carrying the continuation code for those present in the Soulbound’s system. Failure to acquiesce to this treatment leads to a weeks of suffering, and ultimately death.

​

 

[Krass Wyms]

Unblessed

Ah a fellow Pezzini fan.

So I am going to lay it out clearly. This reads like the witchblade. Up to the powers introduced when it crossed over with different characters and they suddenly became wielders so Sara could stop an enemy quickly. Like when it absorbed Sonja's sword so it could reconstruct and use it thousands of years later when her daughter was threatened. Or from the books where the blade influences her more and more. If I dig out my massive compendiums I am sure I could denote almost everything by issue.

So here is what will be needed. The first is a large rewrite to change this from being almost identical to the Witchblade abilitywise. inspiration is one thing. I made a living metal that morphs and can become weapons inspired by the favored NYC detective as well.

 

[Unblessed]

Unblessed

Ah a fellow Pezzini fan.

So I am going to lay it out clearly. This reads like the witchblade. Up to the powers introduced when it crossed over with different characters and they suddenly became wielders so Sara could stop an enemy quickly. Like when it absorbed Sonja's sword so it could reconstruct and use it thousands of years later when her daughter was threatened. Or from the books where the blade influences her more and more. If I dig out my massive compendiums I am sure I could denote almost everything by issue.

So here is what will be needed. The first is a large rewrite to change this from being almost identical to the Witchblade abilitywise. inspiration is one thing. I made a living metal that morphs and can become weapons inspired by the favored NYC detective as well.

Never actually read a Witchblade comic in my life have liked the aesthetic of the metal tendrils moving about here and there, but the imagery was always a little too risqué for me to get into reading. The limit of the reading on the Witchblades actual functionality was the list of its abilities to explain the weird imagery, and then I discarded some of the more ludicrous ones like Invulnerability and Pyrokenesis. So what you read, was actually my attempt to justify the images I had seen, although a Witchblade fan did help with some of the initial writing so maybe that bleeds through. I wouldn’t be able to tell though. I did the bulk of the writing, they just did a paragraph before I reworded it.

So what you are asking for is a rewrite of what it can do, entirely? I guessed to well, it seems.

Um. I will have to go back to the drawing board completely and get back to you, because my imagination is currently tapped out after writing this.

 

[Krass Wyms]

Unblessed

Yes a large rewrite. This right now is almost directly the witchblade with some terms changed for the universe. If you are going to re-write it I would say go for the simple parts of it. Ablative armor is easy, nanotech armor that can make weapons the same. It is the soul, and it making the wearer stronger where you are getting into things.

I will move this to the pre-factory so it can be worked on at your leisure though

 

[Krass Wyms]

Unblessed

That was returned to the main factory. Are you finished with all of your edits?

 

[Unblessed]

Not yet. Been a busy couple of weeks.

 

[Unblessed]

I believe it is ready. Krass Wyms

 

[Krass Wyms]

Unblessed .

Alright here it goes for round 2

First and foemost there is some decent rewrritting here but it is still fairly close. I'll go strength by strength

In the flesh:

• The nanobots created by the Shisari are released into the users bloodstreams, born from there around their body. These nanobots make the Soulblade to become fused to first the bone and flesh of the forearm, but then integrated and connected to entirety of the hosts body. The nanobots, joined via data connectivity, to awaken the Soulblade should any of the senses perceive threat or target. This gives the weapon reaction speeds equal to the hosts own perception, heightened or otherwise.

Okay so it is slightly changed but this is still really close. If I hadn't been judging it from before this is starting to sound on par with a Roddenberry creation the Skrill.

Alchemized Effect:

• The nanobots dispersed throughout the users body are alchemized to give off an aura of force sense. This allows the host to increased sensory perception. It was during battle that this effect would ramp up, as the increased adrenaline and heart rate would see the nanobots activity increase in the bloodstream..

Given that you are combining nanotechnology and alchemical it would fall within the area of the rules where powerful items should have lower production. I would approve this at unique and maybe semi-unique but nothing above that.

Adaptive absorption:

• The gauntlet's mass can grow based on contact with various materials, metals are the most easily integrated, but glass, stone, wood and bone are also usable. The nanobots break down the material and reform it into what is needed by the host at the time. Weapons, prehensile tendrils, and armour are among the most common uses but the full extent of the technologies usage is yet to be achieved.

This is still very close to what the witchblade itself is able to do, forming weapons and armor and depending on certain things it can make tendrils to try and reabsorb parts of itself. That is works like a mini molecular furnace for breaking down and the upper capabilities of it are undefined can be dangerous and overly broken as well.

Soulbound:

• Embedded into the back of the gauntlet is a crystal that has been permeated by the soul of a Force User at the moment of their death. The entirety of the soul is not retained, thus not being the complete personage of the dead Force User but rather a fragment. Insight into the ways and techniques of Force Users is granted, and a spiritual and instinctual bond to the nanobot technology is forged making the host one with the machine.

This seems close to the sentience of the witchblade itself whihc kept fragments of previous wielders. Offering the other wielders the ability to see anad learn from what they went through.

Summoning:

• Using material absorbed, the gauntlet can forge weapons and armour as needed. The host, with influence from the soul fragment, dictates what form the items make. The limits of this technology are yet to be fully realised.

This is still incredibly close, the witchblade in the books is implied to be trying at time to overtake sara and in the series it has a stronger influence over other userrs throughout history even driving them into a blind raage to fight others who have similar items.

THis is still a really powerful thing close to crossover. The mixture of force, technology and quasi sentience from the soul fragment. You are still close to the witchblade in function, look and powerr levels.

 

[Unblessed]

First and foemost there is some decent rewrritting here but it is still fairly close. I'll go strength by strength

So far as my reply is concerned, please know that there is no ill will behind anything I say. And I will endeavour to word things in such a way as they cannot be misconstrued as being angry, or annoyed, because I am not. I do know people get twisted out of shape over these things, and I am not.

Thank you for acknowledging my changes. It is starting to feel like the answer to ‘can I do this?’ is just a straight ’no’. Having looked around at some other subs though (I do not participate in this side of the board very often), it does seem like there are plenty of things that are approved that I could point to them being directly inspired, or even copied from other fandoms.

My case that I put forward is based off the next quote, and also a plea to the role playing opportunities this sub entails, its original intent and the process I went through to get to this write up.

Okay so it is slightly changed but this is still really close. If I hadn't been judging it from before this is starting to sound on par with a Roddenberry creation the Skrill.

Point number 1: I have no idea what a Skrill is. And it seems there may be a predisposed inclination to wanting this sub to not resemble anything remotely like something that is in another fandom. If that is the standard, I cannot meet it, because I do not know everything about every fandom, and neither do all the judges. It just so happens that the person judging this sub knows about the Skrill…and about Witchblade.

- I should also note that my knowledge of Witchblade consists of pulling a list of abilities from a wiki page (not reading any further because I didn’t want to copy every detail) and then discarding several abilities I thought were ridiculous. I do not come into this with a wealth of knowledge about the functionality or the lore behind the Witchblade as you do.

Given that you are combining nanotechnology and alchemical it would fall within the area of the rules where powerful items should have lower production. I would approve this at unique and maybe semi-unique but nothing above that.

I am fine to change it to semi-unique, as I do not think the faction they are for will grow huge.

These will be restricted just to the Unblessed faction.

This is still very close to what the witchblade itself is able to do, forming weapons and armor and depending on certain things it can make tendrils to try and reabsorb parts of itself. That is works like a mini molecular furnace for breaking down and the upper capabilities of it are undefined can be dangerous and overly broken as well.

The Soulblade does not expand upon its own mass, as it looked like the Witchblade does from the images. It does not convert material into its own type of metal, but rather uses the material in its current form, but reshaped. Bone stays as bone. Wood stays as wood. Flesh stays as flesh. From looking at images of the Witchblade, I asked how does this thing increase its mass so it can grow all this armour etc? My answer to that was, I don’t know. So I set about making something that would work, without increasing the mass of the actual gauntlet itself. It’s mass is persistent, but it builds armour and weapons from material around it, later to discard it.

This seems close to the sentience of the witchblade itself whihc kept fragments of previous wielders. Offering the other wielders the ability to see anad learn from what they went through.

This is still incredibly close, the witchblade in the books is implied to be trying at time to overtake sara and in the series it has a stronger influence over other userrs throughout history even driving them into a blind raage to fight others who have similar items.

I didn’t know that. In my process I asked, what would be a great Role Playing opportunity, if the weapon had some sort of sentience, even if it was minor. The sentience is not the weapon itself, but the crystal sourced from a place where Sith and Jedi alike died together. This grants the writer the chance to have their character interact with a vast range of secondary characters within the context of their own writings.

THis is still a really powerful thing close to crossover. The mixture of force, technology and quasi sentience from the soul fragment. You are still close to the witchblade in function, look and powerr levels.

Point 2: Working backwards and coming to the same conclusions should not be punished. If I was to find an image of a spaceship that I thought was cool, and then started writing it up, I would clearly look at the image and ask things like - where is the bridge - where is engineering - where is the fighter bay - where are the weapons - etc. Looking at the image and working backwards would make sense. If someone that knew this image from an old video game that they played all the time just happened to be the judge, I think it would be a bit rough to expect them not to have drawn similar conclusions to where things on the ship go as the original designer. I looked at an image of a Witchblade and thought ‘what a cool and intimidating anti-Jedi/Sith weapon that could be’. Then I took a list, pared back some of them, then more at your request, and the last two issues with the sub are literally things I developed based on looking at the images and saying, “what would be fun to write and how to I explain these things happening.” That I came to similar conclusions to the original creators only shows that they did a good job of conveying what they were designing, or I did a good job guessing.

Point 3: That of intent. My intention with this sub is to create a weapon that could put normal people on par with Jedi or Sith Knights. We will just nuke the Masters. XD I have drastically reduced the strength of this weapon from what the Witchblade actually is, and given the wearers major setbacks, and things to battle. I think this balances things.

Point 4: Role play opportunities. Both of the aspects you wish me to remove, or change, are the things that literally make it what it is. The soul aspect provides an internal conflict akin to the Force. This is fantastic story fodder. Without it, it is just a weapon. The absorption aspect can lead to situations where the very bridge they are on is slowly falling apart because they keep using its material for armour or weapons. Or, perish the thought, they accidentally absorb their colleagues arm while repurposing biomass for their needs. Without this, it is a weapon that changes shape.

Krass Wyms

 

[Krass Wyms]

Unblessed

Solid and well said with no implication of disrespect. It is handled better then some.

Now as to the armor, my predisposition is to get it approved and there are ways to make such armor albiet differently. As it is right now, putting several things together makes it harder. I could just as easily compare this with Jamie Reyes Blue Beetle suit as well for several of the factors to go with a more accessible fandom. Much easier to build off of Charon Battle Armor which does much of the same functions. Creates weapons, forms over the one using it and it can shift so it could be concealed with clothing and grow itself out if needed to cover the body. With that as the base of the technology this would be able to be modified much easier for what you are looking for. I would personally drop the alchemy aspect as it limits you in several places. For one the combination of nano and force is limited production. Drop one of those or both and it could go higher.

 

[Unblessed]

Hello Krass Wyms

A couple of thoughts:

• You could also compare it to a hundred other things. As you could with every other sub. There are no truly original ideas. I think we need to move pas that critique.
• Never heard of the Charon Battle Armor, but highlighting it as an example of how the Soulblade is not unusual or exceptional in Star Wars canon is just as reasonable. In fact,I would suggest the Soulblade is explained in more detail. So I put it forth as an example of how similar already exists in canon.
• I do not wish to go higher than limited production, as stated previously. We only need a few of these weapons. So removing the nano and alchemy combination seems redundant.

At the moment there would only be one PC with this, and I cannot see it being used by more than 6.

 

[Krass Wyms]

Unblessed

Yes there are no original ideas only how it is done. Which happens however to take most things out of the area of crossover the power should be different. This has to much in common and will need to be differentiated from other media of a similar vein. As it stands the power and potential for abuse is far to easy and high. Its power is still going to have to be reduced and altered enough. I have no real qualms and we can go back and forth in circles as many times as you want. It is going to need to look different drastically.

 

[Unblessed]

Krass Wyms

In what way can it be misused specifically? If I know specifics, I can change things specifically. Telling me it needs drastic changes is not helpful. Please be more specific.

I don't think we are going around in circles. I think you are agreeing and then still demanding it be changed anyway.

 

[Ravenfire]

Unblessed Krass Wyms

I can see this sub is going round and round in a giant circle as such I am stepping in with the permission of the Factory Admin John Locke . While I understand this submission may seem close to other fantasy or sci-fi settings such as witchblade, if we were to go based of that then star wars shouldn't exist because the force is just magic, lightsabres are glowing swords, every sci-fi setting has some form of hyperspace or lightspeed, ect. The ruling we have in factory is 6. All submissions need to conform to the general idea of Star Wars. No Gundam Wings, no Transformers, etc. This submission as far as I can see does conform to that ruling.

Okay so first off, lets just drop it to semi unique. You've already said it shouldn't get used by more than 10 characters and an imprinted crystal with a force user's consciousness is I feel too strong for limited access.

Secondly, is this sub a piece of armor, a weapon creator? If its both thats fine but I would like the addition of a resistances area and just list resistances either in a table to show the difference between Wintrium and songsteel or another way that will show the differences in resistances.

Thirdly, you make a mention of this being able to use organic materials such as bone. Could I get a clarification on if it only uses the users bone or if its able to for example take bones out of a enemy combatant while fighting them, particularly as you mention allies bones. So is it a the creature must be willing effect or is it forceful.

Fourthly, You mention the SHIVA Drug and while it does seem you have permission to use it there is no link present anywhere to let people know what it is. I would suggest throwing it in under materials but you can also just put it in primary sources.

 

[Unblessed]

Ravenfire

I have made edits please let me know if that is satisfactory. Thanks : -)

1. Changed.

2. Added some more context, Wintrium tends toward armour and brawling but Songsteel towards dueling and adaptability.

3. Added subpoints to the Adaptive Absorption weaknesses, showing how it works a bit better.

4. Added

 

[Ravenfire]

Unblessed

Alright thank you for the updates.

1. New problem so your balance is now unbalanced.

Semi Unique -3 -3
Very Heavy -2 -5
Wintrium Songsteel
High +1 -4 Very High +2 -3
Extreme +3 -1 Very High +2 -1
Extreme +3 +2 Extreme +3 +2
Extreme +3 +5 Extreme +3 +5
Both sides of the ratings come out to be 5 points over the balance. If you could please just fix this.

Secondly, if you would just an OOC component to the Adaptive Absorption such as (OOC: The receiver calls the hit and how much the gauntlets are able to absorb from them) Just to make it clear that whoever your writing with decides the extent of the damage dealt to their character.

 

[Unblessed]

Ravenfire
Hope those changes are what you were looking for

 

[Ravenfire]

Unblessed

Only issue left is that both ratings are still 2 points over balance. As such I would suggest either lowering a rating in both by 2 points or create a new rating for both that has very low as its rating. Everything else looks great.

 

[Unblessed]

Ravenfire Edited

 

[Ravenfire]

Unblessed

So to my eye it doesn't seem to have been edited in any way towards the goal of balancing it, including even adding another major weakness to offset it in some fashion. So have I missed something?