Question: Morphing II

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Question: Morphing II

Postby Charles on February 26th, 2013, 9:07 am

Hey guys, me again with another question about morphing.

I Just re-read the Morphing page and there is something I do not quite understand.

"The transformation is undone after a while unless he keeps fueling it, and the body returns to normal, much like an elastic material."

and

"Typically, if a wizard is capable of such a feat, he spends so much time in alternate shapes that his original form is all but forgotten."

So my question is how exactly Djed is consumed whilst morphing. I have a theory which I'll detail here but if I'm wrong please correct me. Given that the second quote is in reference to a skill only obtainable by master morphers I have come to the conclusion that morphing initially requires two separate uses of Djed.

First: Djed is used in the actual re-shaping of the body. Bigger changes require more Djed but practice and familiarity with a form and morphing in general can reduce the usage as the users body becomes more accustomed to morphing.

Second: Djed is needed to maintain the form. Especially at earlier levels the body acts like an elastic band; it is always trying to assume its original form. Djed is expended to prevent this happening. This is when overgiving can occur. The elastic band 'snaps' and all manner of hell breaks loose. However, upon becoming a master, a morpher is able to completely overcome this pull. His body is so used to changing that the elastic band, for all intents and purposes, ceases to exist. Granted, he still needs to use Djed to actually morph, but it is such a small amount compared to the Djed needed to maintain a morph at lower levels.

It is at this point that morphers are most vulnerable to an identity crisis and psychological damage (multiple personalities, etc.) as they effectively have no limits in their morphing and no reason to return to their original form. In this sense, morphing is a double edged sword.

"Those who wish to be everything must be prepared to become nothing."

Thanks,

-Charles
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Question: Morphing II

Postby Evalin on February 26th, 2013, 3:50 pm

Hey Charles!

I first want to point you to This video.

In morphing you are not fueling the transformation with djed, your actual djed is changing. If you look at it this way those quotes in the lore become simple to understand :)

1) By fueling it means you need to hold onto your concentration, keep feeding it and pushing to keep your djed in this altered state. At novice level this is a difficult process because the djed is used to being in one form and thus if you stop concentrating, lose your focus for even a second it snaps back into its original shape, like a rubber band. Djed is not a fuel source, or a magical supply. Don't think of it as Mana or MP. It is who you are, it is your code that makes you what you are. In morphing you are rearranging that code, and when you first start out it doesn't like it too much so it keeps trying to spring back. That is why you have to focus and concentrate to state in that alternate form :)

2) As for the 2nd quote, think of it like an elastic waste band that has been stretched too much. After a while you stretch it so much that it does not just spring back into place. The same thing happens with djed. At novice level you have to really try hard to change something and keep it changed, other wise it springs back to the way it was. As you go up in skill you are stretching your djed more and more, until finally when you reach master there is almost no elastic quality at all. Your djed will not snap back to your alternate form because it has forgotten what that is. Thus you don't have to try so hard to maintain a change. In fact it is the opposite. You have to concentrate to get back to how you originally looked. For many they change so much that they completely forget what they originally looked like.

So djed is not used, it is stretched (in a sense). Like an over used waste band it can only take so much before the elastic gives. until it gives though you have to put concentration and effort into maintaining a concentration. I personally do not use Morphing that often, but that is how it was explained to me a while back. So hope this helps!

Regards,
Evalin
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Question: Morphing II

Postby Charles on February 26th, 2013, 10:39 pm

Hey Evalin,

The video was very helpful, thanks!

"The transformation is undone after a while unless he keeps fueling it, and the body returns to normal, much like an elastic material."

The wording just put me off slightly, but your explanation was terrific. If you do not mind, I have a couple of small follow up questions.

1) In regards to overgiving: So how exactly does overgiving work as a morpher? Is it that you become a mutant-like-humanoid and lose your ability to morph further? Or does the mutant form become your new 'default' form and until you reach the level of a master it is the form your Djed will keep trying to snap back to?

2) At what level is Morphing practical for use 'outside a classroom''? That is, when does the average morpher reach a stage when maintaining a transformation becomes something they can micromanage in their heads whilst putting something else at the front of their minds? Would expert+ be a good ballpark?

3) In regards to morphing speed and models, the wiki says that a model transformation can be performed "more quickly than a generic transformation (seconds)". Now, assuming it scales with one's level and familiarity with a form, would it be plausible that a master morpher changing into say, a dog (which he has a model for), could almost be mistaken for a Kelvic? It wouldn't be instantaneous and a trained eye could spot the difference, but it would still be so quick and fluid that it would be hard to tell the difference.

4) If high level auristics was used in conjunction with morphing would it be plausible for a morpher to learn an animal language? (e.g. Dog-speak) Not necessarily something I intend to explore IC, I am just curious.

I hope these questions aren't too silly. As you can probably guess I want to play a morpher and I like to know my limits within the lore so I do not make too many people rage. ;)

Thanks again,

-Charles
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Question: Morphing II

Postby Evalin on February 27th, 2013, 3:51 pm

1) Your second guess was pretty close lol. When you overgive your djed sort of "forgets" what it was supposed to be for a time. At a novice level this is really easy. If you use morphing over and over, stretching again and again (even something simple like changing your hair to blue) to the point of overgiving, your djed suddenly goes "Wait, what was I supposed to be again?". The ST will give the details in your overgiving, but common examples are your hair beeing stuck blue for a season (becoming your default until your djed recovers), getting some other strange deformity like an extra finger, ect. Basically in overgiving you have stressed your djed to the point that it is not sure what it is supposed to be and just makes whatever you happen to be (usually) your default form for a while. This is at the ST's discretion though :)

2) At competent level you are more or less skilled enough to do simple morphs and multitask. I once had a water dance in Alvadas who would change her hair color and eye color before every performance. She would then go out and perform with a mix of acrobatics and water reimancy, and as long as she did not do anything too complicated she could maintain the blue hair relatively easily. She tired quicker of course, and she was often close to overgiving when she was done, but she was able to do it. If you are in like a combat situation and you are morphing then it might be more difficult, but generally competent level is when morphing using simple transformations can be more or less done without too much thought to hold it in place. Again that depends on how hard the task you are performing in and the amount of concentration it takes to perform it. Trying to keep your hair blue while studying for an exam the next day probably wouldn't work XD

3) A morpher will never be mistaken for a Kelvic for the simple reason that when Kelvic's transform they do so in a huge colorful showering of sparkly lights! Morphing has your entire body shift and change, almost at once, but the light show is not present so no one would be fooled. Now if you are already a dog and a master morpher then no one would be able to tell the difference, except for those with high level auristics. But no the transformation process itself would give it away.

4) My answer would be no because the two really don't have much to do with learning to speak an animal language (if that is even possible outside of a gnosis mark). If you transform you can make your mouth parts able to make certain sounds, ect, but Auristics probably would not help you at all in learning a language. You can of course observe an animal's actions and the sounds it makes and decipher meanings from them, but as far as being able to talk to a dog like you would a human I would more or less say that isn't happening.

No such thing as a silly question. Hope this helps :)

Eva
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Question: Morphing II

Postby Charles on February 27th, 2013, 10:11 pm

Hey Eva,

Your answers are amazing and have really helped me further understand this particular discipline. No further questions for now. :P

-Charles
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