Backer Post: The Daemons of the Deep Engine

 

This turned into a longer project than I expected.  When I began Undercity Noir, one player wanted to play as a Zathan, a Ranathim Sorcerer, with connections to the Deep Engine, the monumental, necromantic infrastructure left over by the fallen Eldoth race. (Yeah, this is pretty "insider baseball"). But he didn't want to mess with Dimensional Induction, he went straight for a Daemonic Contact.  That is, he wanted one of the sentient servitors of the Deep Engine to act as his interface with the Deep Engine. Rather than risk exposure to the corrupting power of the Deep Engine itself, he'd ask the Daemon to do it.

"But I need some details on what Daemons are like."

Hence a month of working on this.  I dove into some of my weirder sources, and came up with at least three ideas.  Oh, but technically I'd need to cover military protocols, oh and more than one security daemon would be nice, oh and how did they handle transits between Deep Engine sites? Oh and I forgot Zathare daemons! Oh, and what about Corrupted Daemons!  And shouldn't you be able to fight them? And do you have to invest in them to interact with them? The result blew up from a quick three samples to a full treatise on the topic and ELEVEN daemons.

• The Carrion Lord: A surveillance daemon tasked with commanding, maintaining and building the the Ash Crows of the Deep Engine.
• The Cyber-Angel: A zathare daemon that exploits the Deep Engine to hack into physical computer systems, but has been corrupted with a messianic complex.
• The Knight of the Black Sun: A bored military daemon who once monitored the materiel of the Eldothic Union as well as commanded some its engines of mass destruction.
• The Lady of the Symoblic Donative: A vain daemon tasked with handling transactions and issuing Deep Coins.
• The Lethean Archivist: A data-collecting daemon that will exchange valuable information for memories.
• The Mysterious Stranger: A zathare daemon dedicated to helping sorcerers evade the security of the Deep Engine and, sometimes, to find love.
• The Slender Sentinel of Nightmares: A former security daemon now monstrously corrupted by the false Exarch, the Orphan King
• The Sorcerers’ Nemesis: A paranoid daemon tasked with securing the Deep Engine for zathan sorcerer infiltration.
• The Star Weaver: An overzealous daemon tasked with governing the transportation networks of the Deep Engine.
• The Unconquerable Wyrm: A zathare daemon that defeats the security of the Deep Engine through sheer, brute force.
• The White Magistrate: A corrupted security daemon once tasked with cleaning up necrokinetic overflow, but now uses its position to command the ghosts and dark gods that arise from broken Deep Engine sites.

I've been drip-feeding this to my backers for awhile, to give them a sense of momentum, but it's ready now.  You can read the entire work if you're a $3+ Patron and Subscriber. It clocks in at a bit more than 20k words. Once again, thank you to all my backers!

• Daemons of the Deep Engine (SubscribeStar)
• Daemons of the Deep Engine (Patreon)