Lore - Convergence Technology

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This article is a "Third Tier" lore article, and is filed under Magic & Tech (Tier 1) - Other Tech (Tier 2)

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Note to Editors
Most of the info on this page is a word-for-word copy from the mk2 Convergence book, which we're not supposed to do. It was put on this wiki years before the Lore project started in earnest.

I checked this article with PP staff who said in this case it was okay. But this article is an exception to what we're supposed to do with regards to copyright.

Vectors

Assimilator

With its arcane displacer drive generating a low hum of geomantic energy, the Assimilator floats above the fray, its graceful design belying its deadly weaponry. The vector's rending claw snaps open and close like a vicious beats's and its assimilation auger grinds hungrily behind whirring gears as its disserving microswarm launcher rotates and locks into position, ready to deliver the next devastating salvo.

Though vector armament frequently relies on kinematics, few weapons showcase the science of manipulating force as effectively as the disserving microswarm. This tri-barreled cannon fires javelin clusters with two models of attack. Should a javelin strike its target (or fall to the ground), a spring-loaded impact trigger causes it to detonate in a spray of bladed gears. Alternatively, the controlling warcaster can trigger the explosion in midair to shower a target area with a multitude of cutting projectiles.

Those who close with an Assimilator hoping to halt its deadly barrage quickly learn to fear its rendering claw as well. This versatile weapon can make quick work of opposing warjacks and then use the scrap to patch up its own damage.

Cipher

In many respects, the servitor stands as a fundamental achievement of the Convergence of Cyriss; many of the sect's most miraculous devices derive from it. Though individual servitors are neither as complex nor as versatile as their more sophisticated brethren, their underlying principles continue to drive innovation in the forges of the Convergence. The Cipher's servipod mortar in particular is a shining example of how the sect applies the foundational genius behind servitor technology in groundbreaking ways.

Every shot of a Cipher's servipod mortar discharges seven miniature servitors that disperse in flight for maximum coverage. Loading chambers within the Cipher ready groups of servipods customized to the warcaster's current needs. Once the correct ammunition has been determined, the servipods are launched in a withering volley. For example, blasting servipods tear through lightly armored enemies; lumichem servipods tag enemies with the same chemicals used by the Attunement Servitors; and tunneling servipods burrow into the earth before releasing a charge that ruptures level ground with treacherous sinkholes.

Convergence warcasters favor the Cipher not only for its versatility against distant charges but also for its raw efficiency against enemies that breach the front lines. The vector wields a pair of heavy piston spikes designed to sunder the heavy armor plating of any foe sturdy enough to reach the Cipher intact.

Conservator

The Conservator is a popular choice among priests expecting to come into close contact with opposing forces. Indeed the vector is equipped with sturdy shields and low-traction gyros that allow it to intercept attacks directed at its controller with great alacrity. On offense, the Conservator boasts spin-controlled field drives in each of its great ablator blades. In addition to granting supplemental kinetic energy to the weapon's basic strikes, the devices empower secondary collection fields. These fields capture energy released in the destruction of clockwork warrior vessels and then convert that energy into a temporary surge of power directed back into the ablator blades. In essence, a Conservator functions as both a bodyguard for clockwork priests and a hovering weapon of retaliation.

Corollary

The versatile servitors of the Convergence of Cyriss have long utilized arcane displacer drives to allow exceptional freedom of movement, but it was only recently that innovations allowed even greater mass to be held aloft. The Corollary was the first vector to benefit from these advances.

Its internal compartments house a suit of arcane accumulators that store the residual energies generated by the warcaster and his battlegroup in combat. These energies are captured by a set of irises recessed in the Corollary's hull, then dispensed at the warcaster's command to empower other vectors. Additional relays serve to extend his range of control. A warcaster supported by a Corollary becomes exponentially more efficient.

In battle, the Corollary orbits its warcaster, constantly reorienting itself to most efficiently collect arcane emanations. At the warcaster's direction, the Corollary can act as a conduit for another vector's focus inductors, boosting it with a charge of power, amplifying the warcaster's tactical options and energy efficiency.

Diffuser

Outside the Convergence of Cyriss, a single Diffuser would be considered a clockwork marvel, yet these light vectors are produced in only slightly lower quantities than the ubiquitous Galvanizer. The sect has dedicated multiple foundries to producing the clockwork parts necessary to field these battlefield wonders in the quantities required for the Great Work.

The Diffuser's ripspike launcher, a channel catapult powered by a high-tension spring, is its simplest component. Each individual ripspike features tiny fins capable of adjusting the spike's trajectory in flight. This innovation allows the projectile to follow a flight pattern set by the controlling warcaster at the time the weapon is fired. Assuming a well-calculated course, the ripspike maneuvers through the air around battlefield variables before hitting its mark - a vast tactical advantage over ammunition limited to straight lines.

Even after a Diffuser's ripspike embeds itself in flesh or steel, the vector's job is only half-done. As a secondary function, its arcane relay sends targeting data to other vectors, clockwork vessels, and priests of Cyriss to faciliate termination of the compromised enemy.

Galvanizer

The oldest vector configuration in current use, the Galvanizer forms the backbone of many battlegroups. Its metal saw might lack the high rotation speed of its cousins in the lumber trade, but it is much better suited to ripping through iron and steel. The circular blade is capable of power and precision in equal measure. In one instant, it can be cutting through the heaviest armor; in the next, it exhibits the meticulous dexterity required to remove dented plating from an ally, thereby restoring operational range of motion.

Couple this versatile tool with the Galvanizer's field repair array, and the vector becomes the ideal vehicle for effecting battlefield repair. In fact, it possesses even the finesse required to mend the plating that protects a clockwork's delicate soul node.

In battle, Galvanizers resemble robotic insects scuttling over the landscape to swarm hostile machines. They shred enemy warjacks like a host of voracious locusts, bringing once-mighty engines of destruction crashing to the ground. Perhaps even more disconcerting for the enemy, however, is how they scramble over the battered forms of their own - not to scavenge but to restore a vector or clockwork vessel from impotent scrap to empowered killer.

Inverter

The forge masters of the Convergence are subtle and obsessive craftsmen - traits that sometimes lead to the implementation of complex solutions to simple problems. This is not the case with the Inverter. Its weapons were designed with one straightforward imperative: to apply raw force to the most enduring foes in an effort to reduce to so much scrap.

On the battlefield Convergence warcasters send Inverters charging directly toward the most seemingly unassailable enemies. Once an Inverter engages its target, it sends its massive Macropummeler smashing into the enemy's mass with staggering impact; properly placed blows can send a heavy warjack to its knees or outright obliterate smaller targets. While weighty gears slowly crank the Macropummeler back into position to be used again, the Inverter continues its assault with blows from its whirling Meteor Hammer. The vector continously makes calculations during the attack so that each strike inflicts maximum damage, its arm shifting through countless micro-rotations to find the perfect angle of attack no matter what efforts the doomed target makes to preserve itself.

It is the oldest Cipher-chassis vector.

Mitigator

The hum of rapidly spinning rotational accelerator presages the attack of the Mitigator. Once this vector engages the enemy, its hurlon chamber begins to whirl its ammunition, a razor-sharp and precision-tooled bola, at tremendous speed. The bola round spreads open in flight to envelop targets in a brutal web of steel upon impact. Its roots may be in an ancient weapon employed by less sophisticated forces, but the razor bola of the Mitigator fires incorporates advancements that transform into a thoroughly modern instrument of war.

The Mitigator is a precision tool in the arsenal of its controlling warcaster, who with its careful deployment can alter the entire course of an engagement. Its weaponry is equally well suited to shredding close formations of troops and to destabilizing single substantial threats, bringing them low for other Convergence elements to annihilate. This flexibility enables a warcaster to remain both nimble and responsive with his forces.

Mitigators are highly effective when used as supporting weapons. A few volleys of razor bolas can thin even the most heavily armored troops or clear a path to targets of priority.

Modulator

At first glance, the technology behind the Modulator bears a striking resemblance to the inherent of Cygnar's storm-based mechanika. Rather than being generated by a system of rune plates and storm chambers, however, the electro-arcane energies of the Modulator are rooted in the voltaic nimbus generator. This ingenious device, invented by Fluxion Baley, is capable of converting stored geomantic energy into a powerful electrostatic field through the use of a series of gears, pulleys, and charging rune plates.

The extreme electrostatic charge created by Bailey's generator coruscates along the Modulator's hull, protecting it from all manner of electricity-based attacks and generating a powerful shock against any foe that strikes the vector without proper insulation. Further, a pair of galvanic arc emitters allows the Modulator to channel this charge into a bolt of pure energy that not only hits a designated target but also electrolutes everything in-between. After preliminary testing, the emitters were modified to allow a warcaster more precise command over this electrical arc; in practice, the adjustment enables the controller to single out an enemy target and avoid collateral damage to clocwork vessels and priests.

Monitor

The Monitor is one of the most powerful instruments of war fielded by the Convergence. Beering peerless optical arrays, this vector can isolate and identify targets despite natural camouflage and even occult concealment techniques. Its optical system rapidly shuffles through an assemblage of lenses, each calibrated or alchemically treated to pierce the most sophistic physical or arcane defenses. After detecting its targets, the machine uses an intuitive interface the relay the data back to its controlling warcaster, who calculates the most accurate trajectories possible for the Monitor's deadyl Ellipsaw Flinger.

The Ellipsaw Flinger hurls spinning saw blades that strike with tremendous force. Each blade can be induced to alter its axis of rotation in mid-flight thanks to customized internal accelerator wheels. This capability allows the blades to strike targets at angles of vulnerability increasing the damage inflicted.

In addition, the Monitor wields a powerful spring-spike fist backed by an ingenious counter-recoil mechanism that captures excess force to reseat itself to fire repeatedly. Each activation of the fist's spring coils sends the spike forward with tremendous speed and force that rapidly neutralizes the immediate threat, allowing the vector to seek new targets.

Battle Engine

Though now fielded in battle, the Transfinite Emergence Projector was developed for an altogether different purpose. Due to the scattered placement of geomantic conjuntions, the Convergence must often engage in the arduous task of removing structures from an area before construction of an astronometric nexus can begin. Properly tuned, an Emergence Projector's aperture pulse can quickly clear entire sites of buildings, fortifications and soldiers.

These machines do not operate with the help of interface nodes or souls; instead, each machine goes about its work semi-autonomously. The apparatus relies on a sophisticated engine able to coordinate smoothly with the motions of the Permutation Servitors that maneuver around it and which it utilizes to regulate its energies. These Permutation Servitors, similar to other Convergence servitors, employ computational algorithms to help determine focal positioning for the Projector's aperture pulse. Through precise positioning they can modulate the puls for pinpoint accuracy, destructive intensity, or area saturation, depending on current combat needs.

Permutation Servitors additionally serve as dispensable shields. Leveraging a propulsion system related to the one used by Reflex Servitors, they can quickly alter their own trajectories to intercept incoming threats. Each Emergence Projector contains within its voluminous interior an efficient assembly plant and the components required to fabricate a steady stream of replacement servitors. Newly built servitors emerge from one of the lateral bays and quickly fly into formation as the machine prepares to fire its powerful aperture pulse at the next unfortunate target.

Units

Clockwork Angels

Clockwork Angels represent the newest innovation in Cyrissist technology: the true flight. To achieve this breakthrough, the Convergence leveraged the revolutionary compact displacer drive invented by Aurora, Numen of Aerogenesis. The polynomial beams of individual angels are more than capable of cutting down ordinary soldiers. When faced with a more daunting foe, however, the angels can combine their beams to achieve an exceptionally more powerful blast of raw energy.

Aurora personally selected the first Clockwork Angels from among their most capable followers. Their close relationship with the young warcaster and the time they had spend fighting together enabled them to adapt quickly both to the angelic vessel and to the new tactics Aurora developed to exploit their advantages. As the form has continued to prove itself in battle, more volunteers have come forward, each hoping to secure a place in Aurora's host. Among Cyriss' faithful, only those veterans who are fully attuned to the control of clockwork vessels can meet her standards for consideration; fewer still possess the mental dexterity required to master flight itself.

Eradicators

To outsiders, an army of the Convergence appears to function as a terrifying machine, singular in purpose. Its movements occur in perfect synchronicity, and its components mesh seamlessly together. This impression disappears, however, when they find themselves faced with the fury of the Eradicators.

Though the Convergence's fundamental doctrines overwhelmingly emphasize unity in motion and purpose among its members - with each individual serving as part of something bigger than itself - they also stress independent thinking and ingenuity. Because such tenets can be easily forgotten after countless decades of service, ranking priests closely monitor clockwork soldiers for signs of loss of self. Those so marked have their essence chambers extracted and placed in Eradicators so that they may be reminded of the importance of freedom of thought and action while in service of the greater whole.

On the battlefield, an Eradicator has but a single objective: close with the enemy and annihilate it. Unlike many other Convergence units, which fight and react as synchronized cogs, Eradicators engage the enemy as distinct individuals. Indeed, they are encouraged to aggressive action as they plunge into waves of foes. After one enemy has fallen, an Eradicator uses the momentum of its attack to drive even deeper into enemy lines.

An Eradicator's primary weapon, the protean buckler, is perfectly suited to its role of a frontline shock trooper. Once engaged with its foe, an Eradicator uses spring-loaded mechanism within the shield to release a pair of bladed fighting claws. The transformation of the protean buckler frees the Eradicator's arm for greater mobility and accuracy, allowing it to unerringly strike down even the most nimble opponents with surgical precision.

Obstructors

With the Convergence joining the battlefields of the Iron Kingdoms, Obstructors have begun to gain renown as relentless frontline troops. Though each Obstructor is a capable warrior in and of itself, the unity of actions is the conduit through which the Convergence's forces will achieve victory.

When non-clergy members perish in battle, or are otherwise deemed worthy of immortality, their souls are preserved in essence chambers, whereby they can begin service as soldiers of the Convergence. The first step in a long evolution of forms begins with the Obstructors, which number among the most basic, but also sublimely perfect, of soldier forms. Mirroring the size and form of a man, these clockwork soldiers are well suited to helping a new soul acclimate to its journey to transcendence. Once interred, neophytes begin to internalize the core tenants of the Convergence and to become part of a larger masterwork in service to the goddess.

These units must learn to anticipate and emulate the thoughts and actions of their fellows during battle, doing so requires putting aside their concepts of self. Obstructor armament is ideally suited to these early lessons, as their intricate heavy shield feature ingenious clockwork locking mechanisms that can quickly join together an impenetrable barricade. Whereas the so-called shield walls of other armies allow for missteps of individual movement - and therefor gaps in mutual protection - the barriers errected by multiple Obstructors remain perfect and unassailable.

Optifex Directive

Subordinate priests of the Convergence are no less eager to contribute to the accomplishment of the Great Work than their higher-ranking colleagues - and they often do so at tremendous personal risk. A team of Optifex priests, collectively known as a Directive, take to battle in order to perform field modifications and repairs to clockwork vessels and vectors. Though these priests occupy a relatively low position in the sect's hierachy, the dangers they can face are very real, and those who risk ther flesh in Cyriss' name are recognized and rewarded for their faithful devotion.

Optifex Directives are composed of battlefield mechanics whose superlative technical knowledge makes them invaluable elements of any Convergence battlegroup. Each carries a plethora of tools both to repair vessels and vectors and to effect hasty recalibrations in response to shifting combat needs. In addition to optimizing a vector's mobility, a skilled Optifex can even rapidly recalibrate the arcane tuning of the machine's weaponry to function against incorporeal or otherwise supernaturally protected enemies.

See Also

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