Trinity RPG - Varya and the Doyen

[Blue Thunder]

I'm not sure if any of you guys are aware, but the "Story So Far" has had a few alterations in the D20 Trinity sourcebook. They're relatively minor, and add more clarity to certain subjects (like explaining how the Colony was never intended to have an origin, and how he could be anyone from Buendia to the Ubiquitous Dragon).

One of the things added has me a little confused. It has to do with who the Doyen have possessed. From the original Story So Far in the paperback D10 sourcebook:

Though originally a latent with quantakinetic potential, Bhurano isn't like the other proxies -- she is possesed by a Doyen (like Robert Wei in Ascent Into Light or Hampsah Cisse in Stellar Frontier).

Here is what is said in the D20 sourcebook:

Though the human S. K. Bhurano was a latent with quantakinesis potential, she is not like the other proxies. A doyen's essence possesses her (the same is true of Vayra in the opening fiction of this book, as well as Robert way and Hapsah Cisse in the Storyteller sourcebooks Ascent Into Light and Stellar Frontier, respectively).

If you've read the opening fiction to the Trinity sourcebook, you'll know that Varya is the woman trying to get John Zsolt to become a psion. But if you've read the Dramatis Personae section of Luna Rising you should know that Varya is also a Mashriq in the ISRA who works to recruit potent latents for the order.

So was Varya always supposed to be a Doyen-possessed character? I remember reading somewhere that there were Trinity fiction novels planned and that George Alec Effinger, the guy that did the opening fiction for Trinity, was going to write them. Was it Effinger's intention to have Varya a Doyen puppet? Did the developers know this, and decide to add that bit of information into the D20 book?

And how does a Doyen manage to become a Mashriq without Herzog knowing it? Is the Doyen telepathically manipulating him? Is the Doyen so great at possessing Varya that he is completely undetectable, even to a proxy? Does Herzog know, but is waiting for a good opportunity to react to the situation? Is Herzog watching and observing so he can learn all he can about the Doyen? Surely Herzog is able to notice something strange about Varya. He can sense the future better than anyone; if important events were to happen because of Varya's Doyen, I'm sure he would sense something.

Hmmm...maybe if I get around to doing those campaign module e-books I've wanted to do (after my current e-books of course) I can use this small bit of information and tie it in somehow.

[Itai]

And how does a Doyen manage to become a Mashriq without Herzog knowing it?

Well, for that matter how could the Doyen fool the proxies so easily about the Chitra Bhanu ? And then again about the Upeo wa macho ? It seems to me that not only the Doyen have ways to circumvent the proxies powers, the proxies seem to be particularly susceptible to them.

Let's not forget that the Doyen made the proxies, and then all the other psions through the prometheus chambers. We already know they introduced artificial barriers between the powers, so that a psion could only have one set of powers.

I think they also introduced inside the proxies, and maybe in the prometheus chambers too, blind spots, so that no matter how powerful human become, they would always be vulnerable to their powers.

That would explain a lot of things...

[Alex Green]

Point #1: Most of the Proxies don't have the right powers to detect something like that. Specifically the Telepath and the Clare.

Point #2: I would suspect that the Doyen simply avoid those two for the most part.

Point #3: I seem to recall it saying somewhere that a couple of the Proxies *did* think that something odd was going on with the Q leader... although one could argue that "something odd" would be detected if one started manipulating taint and then got corrupted by abbies. Meaning you tend to see what you are looking for.

Point #4: I also seem to recall one of the developers saying that sooner or later the Proxies would figure out some of the Doyen's activities (specifically the power limitations built into the tanks) and would be extremely irate and make them regret it.

[Sprocket]

AFA Proxies that had a clue something fishy was going on with Bhurano & the Chibs? I've read that it was Giuseppe del Fuego (naturally), Bolade Atwan & Rebecca Bue Li. In hindsight, it's painfully obvious why these three haven't gotten together & compared notes. ::wacko

AFA Varya's Doyen possession, I can confirm that it was supposed to be an official subplot for Trinity- they've talked about it in certain Trinity developer chats. You might also try & hunt down the archives for the old Trinity mailing lists; there's more good information in there if you're willing to dig for it. ::smile

[Blue Thunder]

Mailing list?! What mailing list?! Ack, someone give me a link! I want to read the entire thing!

And when I spoke of Otha Herzog detecting the Doyen in Varya, I didn't mean like he looks at Varya and sees it. Clairsentients are open to the flow of future events, and Otha Herzog more than anyone. If the Doyen in Varya was related to some kind of important event later on, I'm sure he would detect it. There's always the chance that he would assume it was just Varya. But even still, he would sense it and keep an 'eye' on her.

[Sprocket]

The Trinity mailing list was once archived at innocence.com. I don't know if it's still up on the Net given WW's cancellation of the Aeon Continuum gamelines, but one can hope.

As for Varya & Friend, there are 2 possibilities why Otha wouldn't interfere with her/its/theirs? ( ::wacko ) activities:

1- The Doyen in question is using a souped-up version of the "psi cloak" effect used by Al Alif. Since Doyen are supposedly superior psi-manipulators than the Proxies, it's possible for one of them to pull the wool over Otha's eyes.

-or-

2- Otha knows perfectly well what the Doyen possessing Varya is up to, but he figures that the positive consequences of its activities outweigh the negative consequences.