As with what Kristy said, the Vessel cannot be the only one with the singular talent of not dissolving into the Gestalt. He has the advantage of never having been in a true gestalt, because his teep ability was below the consideration of the collective, so he long ago established an sense of Self too strong to be overwhelmed when the mega-hivemind arises. The Collective regularly forms and breaks group Psi unities, so they're used to it, expect it, and open themselves to the prospective touch of a gestalt and - WHAM - the super meme blows into them like a January blizzard, burying them in the white noise of 'Find others, help Me'.

The thing about the Vessel is this: He was never 'good' enough, his teep abilities too weak. The Collective never accepted him, turned him away, and deep down in his subconscious he rather resents that. He has lost his willingness to be a Part of them, and built up his mental defenses to that end.
When he suddenly finds that he can suddenly Reach them, and push, he pushes with everything he's got, maintaining his Self throughout.

Yeah, so he's got this annoying little ankle biter trying to muscle in - but he's no mage, he's got nothing for the spirit to latch onto. His Psi let him pass their tests, but it was a pure false-positive. Annoyed by the pest he snags it by the scruff of the neck and boots it out the proverbial mental 'door', directly into the now ravening Gestalt…

Nasoj or whomever has never dealt with teeps, they were never a potent force in his time era and he has only attracted magic talent in the centuries since, so when the Vessel spreads his awareness into the collective Nasoj is taken along for the ride - as a bundle of snowflakes - only to suddenly find his little snowflake self consumed by the blizzard only to become so many snowdrifts. His knowledge and history is likewise scattered across this psionic arctic wonderland and it takes him considerable time and monumental effort to drag himself back.

By the time he regains his Self he's too weak to contest the current Vessel, or even be heard shouting "What the f*k are you doing!?".

[Kristy]
Okay, so what aside from being "PCs" makes Abbey and her cell unique among the Collective?[/Kristy]

Like the Vessel, they have established their individual Egos and group sense of Self. One or more of them have instinctive, unconscious shields strong enough to withstand the Suggestion, even when they open themselves to the expanding Gestalt. Those individuals, or even just one, reflexively expands their shields when they hear the roaring voices, allowing the others to leap back and immediately GTFO of there, maintaining their individuality and group Self. Or maybe even remain a part of the Gestalt but with the volume dial turned way down - they can hear what's going on, but not so powerfully it turns them into drones. That also gives them a leg up on dealing with it - intermediaries between the Teep Drone Army and everyone else.

As for Murikeer… the sudden dissolution of Nasoj will hit him like a freight train loaded with Tanks charging down hill with no brakes.
And he can do *nothing* against teeps. He assumes their abilities are magic and tries to sever them from their Mana - only to fail. He's thrown into a bit of a panic and has to rely on the mortal Heroes to tell him WTF is going on.
Sure, he can still level city blocks, but against a single Teeper poking holes in his thoughts or throwing him around with TK, he's a ragdoll. A very, very powerful ragdoll when his anger is aroused… but still, left completely out of his element.

After Nasoj's spirit has manifested in a mortal vessel and vanquished, Muri suddenly finds himself standing before the Void, knowing that Nasoj can claw his way back through their shared link.
But standing there before that rift, quite visible to everyone, are a Mink and a white skunk (the former glowering at the latter, but both beaming at him). He joins them and they step into the rift, which collapses rather violently inward behind them.

It's a weighty issue, to be sure, that would require a good bit of consideration before executing.

Now, if Murikeer were to sacrafice his life it would have to be after the destruction of Nasoj. He would have to come to the realization that Nasoj would eventually reconstitute himself if Murikeer was still alive because their link was two-way. So, how would he do it?

Well, the linchpin of Nasoj's plan was that he was going to open a gate to the Nine Hells, in order to gain their power for himself. Kate knows that the only way to save Jared and the other psis from their collective madness is to draw out Nasoj and break his hold on the mortal plane — something they can only do if they give him a more tempting target that he can possess.

Kate goes to the Rift, gets mutated into a psi by its radiation, banks up a huge amount of its life-aspected mana, and then gets a bunch of the Rift-spirits to ride along inside her for the trip back to Metamor City. (They're going to burn out her body eventually, but for now the life-mana keeps them from doing so.) Kate gets everyone thinking that she's gone power-mad, and that she's going to beat Jared by wresting control of the Collective away from him. Nasoj is taken in by this ruse and comes out of the distributed consciousness of the Collective, recognizing in Kate a better vehicle for him to use to work his will. The Rift-spirits blindside him in the process, and while they're fighting for control of Kate's body, Murikeer shoots Kate, killing her (as the two of them had previously arranged). That breaks Nasoj's hold on the mortal plane, and the Rift-spirits drag him off with them to the Nine Hells. Nasoj didn't see it coming because, while he understands the pursuit of power, he cannot understand the idea of self-sacrifice.

At that point, we could say that there's a hole between the worlds, created by Nasoj's two-way link to Murikeer. Murikeer could seal it either by jumping through the hole or simply by shooting himself. Either way, the crack is sealed and the world is saved.

Personally, I think it would have more dramatic impact if Muri did have to sacrifice his life to
help save the world — perhaps not directly because of the link between him and Nasoj, but
through some means. It's very important to me that we play on the theme that you can't just
kill the bad people and make the world all right again. There's always a price.

True enough, I guess. I had imagined that merely being made mortal would be an adequite price (Artela's gift stripped away with the death of Nasoj… meaning that Nasoj truly did transfer her gift away from Muri, but not wholly).

Now, if Murikeer were to sacrafice his life it would have to be after the destruction of Nasoj. He would have to come to the realization that Nasoj would eventually reconstitute himself if Murikeer was still alive because their link was two-way. So, how would he do it?

Did anyone ever pause to consider that who the Vessel is does not really, well… matter much?
His role is to manifest Nasoj's mortal incarnation again, and finally succeed…
… until he is slain with the destruction of his entire sepulcher (by means discussed long, long ago and perhaps no longer canon) (??)

You're right, that's no longer canon. As discussed elsewhere, Nasoj miscalculates badly when he tries to possess Jared Tamlin. Jared instinctively reaches out to the Collective for help, and manages to distribute Nasoj's consciousness enough throughout the psi population that Nasoj's personality is effectively nullified. Of course, the downside of this is that everyone mind-linked with Jared becomes infected with Nasoj's megalomania and paranoia, which is what leads Jared and his people to attempt to claim their Manifest Destiny by force. Jared's soul-shaping/metapsi power ensures that he becomes the dominant personality in this gestalt, thus making him the leader of a group that has never had true leaders before.

Oh, and just to be accurate:

Murikeer does not perish with the death of Nasoj, he merely becomes as mortal as Nasoj. With Artela's gift he will still live a long time, but he will no longer go into his protracted sleep cycles.

Personally, I think it would have more dramatic impact if Muri did have to sacrifice his life to help save the world — perhaps not directly because of the link between him and Nasoj, but through some means. It's very important to me that we play on the theme that you can't just kill the bad people and make the world all right again. There's always a price.

His role is to manifest Nasoj's mortal incarnation again, and finally succeed…

… until he is slain with the destruction of his entire sepulcher (by means discussed long, long ago and perhaps no longer canon) (??)

Oh, and just to be accurate:

Murikeer does not perish with the death of Nasoj, he merely becomes as mortal as Nasoj. With Artela's gift he will still live a long time, but he will no longer go into his protracted sleep cycles.

when Nasoj's homies try to perform the 'soul transplant' that is their main purpose in life, Things Go Horribly Wrong — the Vessel turns out to be more than Nasoj's restless shade can decently handle, and said shade is basically reduced to a bad dream, more or less.

True, but there are a couple of layers of complexity to that.

First, the process of trying to put Nasoj inside the Vessel is a gradual one; after the initial torturing/testing period, Nasoj is not yet free but does have an ability to whisper to the Vessel and persuade him to accept more of his power (not that Nasoj is revealing who he is). The Cultists, at this point, are playing the Morden card — "What do you want?" They can establish the connection between Nasoj and the Vessel against the Vessel's will, but completing the ceremony can only be done with his consent — so they spend some time seducing him. In that respect, Interloper23's question is a valid one.

What does the Vessel want? The destruction of the Vampire Syndicate in Metamor City. He works for the MCPD, so he sees the corruption that the syndicate fosters and what guys like Malcolm ard'Valos are able to get away with — and, to add the personal element, his wife was killed by the vamps years ago when they tried to use her to get to him (as is mentioned in Making the Cut). At first, of course, the Vessel wants nothing to do with the Cultists — they were inflicting something on him that felt like torture, after all. But with the right chain of events, and with Nasoj whispering in his ear, eventually the Vessel decides to use the tools available to him to do what the cops cannot. A series of incremental steps down that path eventually leads him to undergo the ritual that will imbue him with Nasoj's power … and thus we come to the moment of Nasoj's disastrous miscalculation. The Vessel, finding his telepathy and metapsi abilities enhanced beyond all reckoning by the surge of Nasoj's power, uses that same power to deal with the invading mind of Nasoj, spreading it out across the Collective to dilute its influence and maintain control.

And that leads to the second twist — for while Nasoj's mind has been spread so thin that he can no longer be quite considered conscious, his megalomania and paranoia infect everyone in the Collective who is touched by him. Since the Collective is already rather paranoid, and has a bit of a superiority complex, Nasoj's influence enhances their worst traits and drives them to unite behind the Vessel, who becomes a kind of messianic figure to them. They have always been driven to do whatever they had to in order to survive; with Nasoj thrown into the mix, they quickly come to the decision that the best way to ensure their survival is to establish their dominance over the mundanes before it's too late. By claiming the power of the Nine Hells, they will make themselves invincible, insuring that no one will ever be able to hurt them.

The Collective, and even the Vessel, aren't bad people. They're driven by very sympathetic, very understandable motives. But as Nathan mentions early in Making the Cut, the Collective society is very vulnerable to toxic meme infection, and that's exactly what happens when Nasoj gets spread across their shared consciousness. They are a society driven mad, willing to crush everyone else under foot in order to make the world safe for them and their children.¹ Nasoj isn't consciously leading them into villainy, but he is nevertheless the root of the diseased thinking that is driving them.

And that leads to another issue: the question of how Kate and her friends will win the day against this sort of threat. But that's something I'll be tackling soon in another thread…

I was wondering about the actual motivation of the Vessel, why he would allow Nasoj to take him over and /or what “hook” would allow Nasoj in.

It might be interesting if it was an absolute fear of death of the self. This would go into the ability to not be able to be dissolved in a Gestalt as such a thing would be a type of “ego death”, something which would be absolutely unbearable to him. This would make the character sympathetic as very few people like the idea of their selves dying and it would make any sort of evil acceptable to the Vessel. Nasoj could promise him the ability to live forever as a self which, if you have a strong enough phobia of ego death, would be extremely tempting.

There is definitely room for more heroes, since the overarching story arc has only been defined in its broadest strokes. We have to be careful to limit the number and involvement of the Immortals, since there's a very real danger that they could overwhelm the story.

If you have ideas for additions to the story world, the best thing to do is share them with the rest of us before they get too big or too detailed. Give me your general concepts of who your character is and what you might like to see them doing during the arc, and I'll work with you to make it fit with the rest of the setting. :)

Cheers,

Raven

1.) The Collective actively works to prevent mundanes from conducting research on psi, except in the very limited sense of the intelligence industry developing drugs to boost psi-powers or diminish negative side effects. Mundies who look for volunteers on psychic research projects don't find them, while those groups that have tried to research psi against their subjects' will have gotten shut down hard and fast. The Collective doesn't want mundies getting their hands on anything that would tell them how to weak or incapacitate psis.

2.) Since the Collective's own research is driven by consensus, the conventional wisdom of those who are considered knowledgeable tends to steer the course of research. If the psis studying psionics don't believe that metapsi exists, they won't put their efforts toward looking for it — particularly when there are other areas of study that seem more immediately fruitful.

3.) When metapsi has been seen in action, it has been misidentified. As I noted in the psionics entry of the bible, there are persistent rumors of antipsis out there — people with the power to negate psi abilities. These stories are dismissed by the scientific-minded as mere urban legends, the paranoid ramblings of psis who couldn't control their powers well enough and made up a bogeyman called "antipsi" to excuse their failure. In truth, antipsi doesn't exist — but a metapsi can weaken or disable another psi's powers, by tweaking their soul and disrupting their psychic hold on whatever they're manipulating. LIke you say, metapsi has probably been proposed as a purely academic idea within the Collective, but thus far nobody has actually linked it to the urban legends of antipsi.

In Making the Cut — the story of the formation of Abbey Preston's cell — Danni Sharabi's first sexual encounter as a woman is with a low-powered teep named Jared Tamlin. Danni/Daniel is in a "trial phase" at this time, using a potion from Artax that mimics the effects of the androgyne variant of the Curse, so that ey can see if it is something ey can live with long term.¹ Ey hasn't entirely adapted to eir new body's sexuality yet, and though ey is enthusiastic enough during their gestalt, Daniel experiences some severe cognitive dissonance on the morning after. Daniel/Danni feels like someone else was in control of eir body, which ey chalks up to the effects of the pseudo-Curse — but if Jared were a metapsi and didn't realize it, he could have been subconsciously tweaking eir soul in order to make em be more receptive.

This would also provide a built-in reason why Abbey's cell didn't become infected by the Nasoj-meme: if the experience with Jared unsettled Danni enough, the entire cell would probably avoid contact with him in order to avoid upsetting her. It's just a quirk of fate that this personal conflict is the one thing that saves them from assimilation into the Big Bad. :)

I think the Vessel should be a relatively low-end psi, until Nasoj's cultists kidnap him and subject him to their usual "we're just testing you" tortures. This intense stimulus forces the Vessel's mind to travel paths it never would have otherwise, causing the Vessel's power to bump up a few orders of magnitude. And, of course, this way you get the delicious irony that Nasoj's loyal flunkies are directly responsible for Nasoj getting nuked…

Hmm. What if his power is metapsionic — i.e., the power to control the expression of other people's powers? Psychokinetics influence matter/energy, telepaths influence psyche, healers and egoists influence living tissue, and espers don't so much influence things as perceive them — but what is it that controls the expression of all those abilities? Where is the seat of the psi's power, the thing that allows her to exert that influence on her body or the world around her? What if the Vessel can somehow control that?

A metapsi could potentially redirect psychokinetic attacks, trigger a surge or a shutdown in another psi's powers, or manipulate the web of a telepathic gestalt to do something that its component members had never planned on — like using it as a storage bank for the megalomaniacal consciousness of a spirit of godlike power. :) He could be fully capable of entering a gestalt as a "normal" member, but because of his metapsi abilities he could also take a step back from the web of minds, maintaining his own identity while also having access to the consciousness/memories of anyone else in the gestalt when he has need of it.

It would make perfect sense that such a power might never be recognized for what it is. The Collective tests a psi's abilities on a one-on-one basis, so a power that emerges only in concert with the powers of other psis might be completely overlooked. Such a psi might have extraordinary levels of talent in this metapsi ability and yet test out as a fairly unremarkable low-level telepath, particularly if he had no idea (at the time of testing) how to access or use his unusual ability. If he discovered it later and realized its potential, he might hide it for fear of being labeled a threat to the Collective — or, just as bad, being embraced as a leader in a society that properly has no leader. And because he could direct the shape of the gestalts he entered into, he could hide those memories without anyone ever realizing that he was hiding anything.

Such a person might be relatively harmless until exposed to a mind like Nasoj's. I've commented in a few places in the MK Bible about insanity being contagious within a group of telepaths; a warped psyche can warp others in turn if they aren't extremely careful, much like prions can cause healthy proteins to go bad just by associating with them. A powerful metapsi would be the absolute worst person in the Collective to become infected with insanity, because his ability to control the flow of the gestalt would allow the madness to spread unnoticed until it was too late to stop it. And when the madness is of a kind like Nasoj's — the megalomaniacal belief in his own superiority, in his right to rule, in his worthiness to grasp the powers of the Nine Hells and gain immortality — then that is a recipe for turning a relatively peaceful and good-intentioned organization into a threat to the entire world.

I can envision many of the ideas that we've discussed here coming to a union in this concept. The Nasoj-infected Collective would be driven by completely understandable and sympathetic goals: the desire to make the world a better place than it is now — a place without the war and strife and hatred that so often define the interactions of mundane humans — and to make the world safe for their children. In pursuing that objective, they could be driven to the use of horrific means by Nasoj's ambition, arrogance and amorality. The Vessel would be the one in control, dispersing Nasoj's consciousness over such a vast number of minds that he couldn't assert his individuality to control any one of them — but at the same time, they would never have pursued the methods they now pursue if his mind had not become part of the Collective.

Furthermore, it brings into the forefront the mundanes-vs.-teeps subplot that has been simmering in the background — but in such a way that neither the mundies nor the spookies comes off as the "bad guy". Left to their own devices, the teeps would be willing to wait their turn to "inherit the earth" — or at least wait until the mundanes made the first move to try to destroy them. That's not likely to happen anytime soon, though, because the mundanes don't really see the teeps as a threat: they're quiet, generally well-mannered, don't poke their noses into others' business, and are vastly outnumbered by wizards and sorcerers. The mundies have never seen what the Collective can do if they work together as a unit in the aggressive pursuit of a single goal — and they certainly haven't seen what that Collective can do with Nasoj's power (or the power of the Spark) running through it. Neither side is prepared for what's about to hit them.

Another thing that I like about this idea is that it puts a limit on how far you can take the whole myth of "redemptive violence" that is so often a part of modern entertainment. Killing the teeps isn't the best solution to this problem, because it really isn't their fault that they've been warped by Nasoj's power. Defeating the enemy isn't enough; the heroes have to save their opponents from themselves, to purge them of a sickness that could easily destroy them and everyone else along with it. Nasoj's disembodied consciousness becomes a metaphor for the poisonous attitudes that lead us to hurt others in our quest to make the world safe for us and our loved ones; true victory comes not from purging the evildoers who threaten us but from changing hearts and minds, from purging the darkness within ourselves.

And I think that's a story worth sharing. :-)

So, what sets them apart? As the Nasoj-control meme spreads, they bond mentally to their non-telepath allies, who form a natural barrier/buffer against the meme-assault, precisely because they aren't telepathic. They provide anchors in the storm, as it were, voices that can't be swallowed into the mass Gestalt but who also can provide enough focus and identity to those telepaths they know well to anchor them and protect them from the memetic invasion. That means we need somewhere for their cell to form a reasonably good friendship with somebody who isn't a telepath, perhaps someone who in all other ways would be good breeding stock but who was rejected simply for lack of that particular talent.

It is these well-grounded and well-insulated groups who have these associations to protect them from the Nasoj-meme. Once the initial wave passes, they'll have the ability to protect themselves, but from that point on they'll need to be very careful with whom they try to bond telepathically.

Wow. It's honestly not an idea I'd ever considered. It brings a whole bunch of chickens home to roost, too, particularly the Collective's tendency to marginalize people with less-than-stellar psi talents.

One thing we'll have to do, if we're going to use this idea, is figure out how our starring heroes from the Psi Collective — Abbey and her cell — manage to avoid getting swallowed up by the cascading Vessel/Nasoj meme. I've put too much effort into creating these characters and building them up as heroes in the ongoing story for them to become drones under the control of the bad guy. :) Abbey, her cell, and maybe a few other allies in the Collective (at minimum) need to escape the control of the meme so that they can aid the Key and our other heroes. A crisis like this one would give them a very serious, very significant reason to want to help defeat the Vessel — they want to save their own people from a meme that is going to destroy them, and possibly the rest of the world along with them.

So how do we keep the meme from hitting them? It can't just be Abbey's brute strength as a telepath, though that could play a role. There are other teeps in the Collective who are stronger than she is — not many, but they're out there — and if her strength alone were enough to shield her and her cell from the meme, most of the Collective Elders would be similarly unaffected. We need either a combination of factors that is unusual within the Collective, or we need a stroke of Fate roughly akin to Bilbo putting his hand down on the Ring in the middle of a dark cave… :)

1) He's a teep.
Magic, while not something that the average person can use, is at least a field that's pretty well documented. There's an entire school of study dedicated to understanding ana flow. Psionics, on the other hand, are still in that creepy-bad-touch stage, a realm that nobody really understands at all and that makes even the mages just a wee bit uncomfortable. This provides an opportunity at every turn to at once give reason for the other psionically-active people in the group to try to prove to the rest of the world that they're just like everyone else, while under the surface sowing the seeds for something truly drastic to happen. He doesn't have to be a strong teep; probably he's the kind of guy that the Collective would have written off as "not worth the breeding fodder".

2) He's an empathic manipulator.
This may be an overt ability, perhaps a covert one. He may know of his power over others' emotions, or he may not be aware of it. Either way, he has some measure of influence over how others feel, and perhaps he's even in a field that allows him to use this to great advantage. Forensic psychologist? Police counselor?

3) He has one singular ability: he cannot be dissolved in a Gestalt.
This isn't to say he can't enter into hive-minds with other teeps. In fact, quite the opposite: he synergizes beautifully with other telepaths and serves as an excellent group-mind participant. However, the barriers between his ego and everyone else's never fully dissolves. In fact, others find as a result of number two above that he has an unusually influential effect on whatever gestalt he helps form. This would probably further the Collective's general view that he's not really prime breeding stock, since he's not capable of total ego-dissolution.

Why are these important? Because at some point during the course of the story, he becomes the voice of the Collective.

How does he avoid destruction once possessed? Because in the act of taking him, the Vessel instantly spreads that power and energy throughout the entire body of the collective, or at least through every mind he can touch with his abilities. He contacts minds and carries the single suggestion: find others and help me. They in turn extend their minds outward and link into the growing gestalt, spreading the same meme to their circles, swallowing up the Collective under a single voice. His own mind, incapable of truly submerging into the Gestalt, becomes the sole surviving "distinct personality" when the power that Nasoj forces upon him fuses into his being, creating for him an army capable only of thinking his thoughts, following his will. Nasoj? What is one voice in a million-member chorus all singing the same note?

What didn't Nasoj count on? The Vessel being a telepath. To a mage, a psionic is probably something easily discarded. Alone and isolated, no one psi could handle the forces that a mage could muster. The power just isn't there for it. Psionicists, though, never act alone, and with the Vessel serving as "king of the Collective," he can draw on the power of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of minds all acting in concert, essentially pulling Nasoj apart at the very root of his consciousness and dispersing all of the power he's collected among that many people.

Why suggest all of this? As Anton Chekov once said, "if there's a gun over the mantle in act one, it had better fire by act three." The talk of the coming war between the Collective and the mundane is something that has been pretty well established, at least on the side of the Collective, and if we're going to have multiple catastrophic world-shaking events, we should probably find a way to tie them together.

Kristy

P.S. As always, I'm late to the party and I brought the wrong appetizer. Feel free to salad-bar the suggestions as you see fit.

There's also the fact that the "weird, obsessive coroner" probably would come across as creepy enough that people wouldn't bond with him as a sympathetic character, particularly when contrasted with Morgan's panache and droll sense of humor. I want people to like this guy, at least in the early stages of the story; there can be some subtle hints that there's something wrong with him, but I want the extent of his corruption to be a surprise.

(Minor technical point: Coroners are the people who come out and collect bodies and evidence from crime scenes. Medical examiners are the people who actually conduct autopsies and analyze the evidence. Sometimes that's one and the same guy, but only in relatively small police forces; people are highly specialized on a force the size of the MCPD, and the coroners are basically "grunts" who work under the direction of the M.E.)

Hmm. That leads to another idea: what if he's a student of conjuration magic? Not only would it provide a nice counterpart to Kate's illusion magic — he manifests things that are real, albeit short-lived, while Kate's abilities depend on tricks with light and shadow — but it would also explain how he gets a one-up on Nasoj. A conjurer is going to know a bit about moving things from one place to another, and it makes sense that he might pick up a little necromancy on the side (to understand how to conjure living things and have their life-force make the trip along with them).

For even more fun, what if he was previously subjected to personality execution because he was really seriously studying necromancy, and got a little too … enthusiastic in his use of test subjects? Some of that knowledge might stay with him on an instinctive level even after the conscious memories are gone, and it might trigger just enough alarm bells in his head that he would take some precautions that Nasoj and the cultists don't expect.

As for how he avoids obliteration, if we go for the imperfect personality execution that might be explanation enough. The spell Nasoj casts is designed to obliterate and replace one person that he'll take the place of. But there is more than one person in the Vessel at the time. Whether you keep the good, the bad, or a little of both would be a matter of discussion if that path is pursued.

1.) I've been debating whether or not Kate and the Vessel should already have some kind of relationship to one another at the start of this story. Might they be neighbors in Isri Fallon's apartment building? Members of the same school of magic? Members of rival schools of magic, who have met at competitions and seminars? Or maybe he's someone she knows from work — another cop, or even a Street-level informant.

A personal connection between them would help internalize the conflict between Key and Vessel, and would give each of them reasons to want to keep the other alive (over Muri's and Nasoj's objections). It might explain why their first fight, at the end of Book 3, ends in a stalemate; at that point, perhaps neither of them is really ready to kill someone they know.

There might be an element of sexual tension here, too. Perhaps the Vessel is a guy who was previously turned down by Kate — the old "I like you but not in that way" thing — and he obsesses over her as a result. I could envision him, in the later stages of the story, dreaming of becoming a god and raising her up to be his radiant consort and rule beside him … and if she doesn't love him, well, he'll be able to show her the truth of things once he ascends.

What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? Classic drama, hokey cliché, or something in the middle?

2.) I've also been thinking about how the Vessel avoids the fate Nasoj plans for him. Why is he able to avoid being consumed when Nasoj possesses him? Presumably Nasoj has been planning this thing for centuries and thought he had accounted for every variable. What did he miss?

One thing that occurs to me is that the Vessel has to be a smart guy. If he knows something about magic going into this experience, perhaps he is able to do some research on the side and figure out what the cultists aren't telling him — namely, who he's drawing this increasing amounts of power from with their ever-so-helpful assistance. If he's clever and has the right sorts of connections, maybe he can obtain some sort of enchanted item or modify the summoning spell in a way that works to his advantage. Perhaps Agemnos, who for milennia was the unquestioned master of soul-craft, will have something lying around for taming possessing spirits — something he would be willing to part with if the Vessel will use his cultists to whittle down the business empire of his rival, Talia.

At this point I'm just throwing this out there to see what sticks. :) What do you guys think?

However it plays out, I'm definitely in agreement with Cubist that the Vessel should be more than Nasoj bargained for, and I do like the idea of him eventually subverting Nasoj's plan in order to accomplish his own mad goal of rebuilding the world "the right way." The interaction between the two of them could be more interesting if neither of them has complete control, and their disagreements on certain subjects (such as what to do with the heroes) might play to our protagonists' advantage. I don't want this to be a total rehash of the Harvey Dent/Two-Face relationship, but there may be some valuable notions to be gleaned from that corner.

As for who the Vessel is along the way allow me to toss out the following thought for picking over: How about someone who has been the subject of a personality execution (one that has been botched and done in secret lately, or just the first to show a long-term degradation of the spell given that the last legit one was done 100 years or so ago). Sure the Vessel is a nice easy-going sort of person, wants the best for mankind, likes to look out for others, etc….but then there are the thoughts. The out of character emotions or ideas that the Vessel itself doesn't understand, or perhaps can't even identify as being askew. It could start with a lot of dual motive types of things. For example, in the beginning they might come across some defenseless innocent and leap to the rescue, because thats the good programmed thing to do. But what if on some subconcious level its the opportunity to do violence that helps propel him/her forward? The Vessel might see a noble goal to be accomplished, but for some reason all the tools/methods that come to mind to achieve it seem to come from the reptoire of a serial killer or scar-face style criminal mind.

The Key and the Vessel are products of something greater than the fallen gods — be it Fate, Destiny, or whatever. Their coming was foreseen by Zhypar Habakkuk, the last of the Felikaush — who were secular seers, remember, not religious ones — but he did not comment on their origins, or whether some higher power was responsible for them. They might just be the result of human choices, and the inevitable fusion of bloodlines that happened between the descendants of the ancient heroes. Their unique powers might not be the result of divine manipulation, but some curious quirk in the laws of magic. Whatever the cause, Nasoj anticipated their significance, and saw in them a way to free himself from the prison where his soul has been trapped for all of these centuries.

Thinking about the "rerun of that old plan" notion, I had another idea: The Starchild thing flopped because the mortal they chose didn't want to play ball. Well, what if the Fallen Aedra decided to try it again, but ''this'' time, they decide to mold/influence their mortal tool from birth, so that the guy sees things their way and voluntarily chooses to do what the FAs want? "Okay, it blew up in our faces the last time, but we know what went wrong and we can do it right this time!" The guy would be kind of like Teela Brown — the Universe likes him, or at least the Fallen Aedra's manipulations would make it seem that way.
Now bring in Nasoj's cultists. Our Vessel-to-be has innate power that they'd be interested in, right? So they kidnap him and put him thru their… heh heh… "personality tests" (does anybody else think that makes Nasoj sound like L. Ron Hubbard?). The Vessel-to-be has only ever had pleasant experiences in his previous life, so Horrific Agony is a completely new and unexpected thing for him. Thus, he snaps… and the rest is hysteria.

Yes? No?

That said, I think Cubist's idea is so good that we have to use it in some fashion. The basic idea that Nasoj tries to take over the Vessel and suddenly finds the tables turned is one we should definitely implement. Perhaps, rather than being utterly consumed, Nasoj is imprisoned within the very body that he tried to take over; the Vessel figures out a way to draw on his power and knowledge without letting him have control, leaving Nasoj stuck in another kind of prison as an imposter uses his power to accomplish his own ends. This way, Nasoj won't actually be slain until the Vessel himself is, which means that Muri will be around to help advise the heroes.

While I agree that there are many who have the genetic heritage to become the Vessel, the cultists will also be looking for the person who has the right personality to serve their purposes. Whoever it is has to be someone they think they can sucker into drawing on enough of Nasoj's power that he can be taken over by their master. Someone who doesn't show the will to use force, the capacity to kill, and the desperation to make an unholy bargain for power isn't going to pass their personality tests.

One of the chosen many (very, very many) decended from the right string of events and ancestry to provide the proper capacity.

What happens to him?
Methinks… history. He comes to realize just what he is: a pawn in something so huge it makes him, his (or her) mortality seem so small as to be insignifigant not only cosmically, but spiritually, and corporeally as well. In essence, he feels that if he should die… going out in a blaze of glory or in something as mundane as a car accident… no one would notice much or care. Certainly the cosmos, the god(s), the world, or even the city would not give a damn. So, considering that he has the blood of famous ancestors, and yet is little more than a pawn on a chessboard crowded thick with pawns, he chooses to become greater than just a Nobody on a board of anonnymity. He's angry at Fate, pre-ordaned destinies, the god(s) and life in general. While he may not have started as much good or evil, his anger at his percieved doom makes him a ripe target for the seduction of evil powers… especially those that can give him great power of his own. Enough power to affect the locality, the world, or even the heavens/hells.

Of a note to consider: There are many who could capably become this Vessel, and some of them should have to go through the same tests and pass, letting the reader believe that they may be the One. Through certain events they die off (perhaps killing each other off), some gloriously and others ignominiously… lending weight to a particular Vessel and then offing them 2/3 the way through the story in some truly insignifigant fassion would certainly be a harsh twist, thence bringing a more obscure Vessel forward.

Personally, I believe that NONE of them should be able to obliterate Nasoj… he has to be made corporeal to be slain, after all. But setting him back in a display of force would certainly make that Vessel look to be the One. It would also remove Murikeer from the story arc rather unexpectedly, too, until Nasoj recovered enough to slay that particular Vessel.

This, I think, is the answer. The Immortals are uber-powerful, but they're hidebound by centuries of approaching problems the same ways. People like Merai and Murikeer are so intimately familiar with the threat posed by Nasoj that the sudden change of direction will throw them off the scent big-time. Our more mortal heroes, who still have the adaptability and creativity necessary to change gears and think of new ways of dealing with new problems, will be able to realize the nature of the new threat faster and brainstorm ways to counter it.

This leads to other questions: When should the Vessel pull his switcheroo on Nasoj? Should he know from relatively early on that he's dealing with Nasoj — contrary to my initial idea that he's taken by surprise by the wizard's possession of him? Does he ride along and let Nasoj have control for a while, learning the elements of Nasoj's plans so that he can reassert himself and use Nasoj's resources to his own advantage? Or does he consume Nasoj's soul at the moment of the bonding ritual, consuming his knowledge and experience along with it?

What about the cultists? Do they know that the Vessel has taken over and follow him out of fear, or does he assert control in a manner sneaky enough that they still think they're following Nasoj? If the latter, then the heroes have an added layer of confusion to deal with, because they have to first realize that Nasoj is no longer in charge before they can figure out how to respond to it.

And why is this guy so bent on exterminating all forms of evil? What has twisted him so thoroughly that he is willing to destroy creation and remake it in his own image?

Again, fantastic idea, Cubist. Let's keep this going!

1. Nasoj's scheme is basically a rerun of the Aedran plan to nuke the Daedra. As such, it's only fitting that this plan crash and burn the same way, and for the same reason: Namely, the mortal that was chosen as a tool decided to queer the deal.
2. Nasoj has always been the setting's #1 badass. By taking him out, the Vessel proves himself to be a truly dangerous threat that must be opposed.
3. You want the Vessel to perform an irredeemably evil act? Nuking a soul ought to qualify, if anything does! Necromancy, right?
4. You want the Vessel to be sorta-kinda sympathetic, even as he's committing ghastly crimes. Eliminating a truly vile example of Evil is a good thing — but at the same time, the means by which this 'good' was accomplished should squick people out, big time.
5. The Good Guys have been operating on the assumption that Nasoj is the foe; they have made all their plans, assembled all their resources, with Nasoj as the intended target. But with Nasoj out of the picture, it's the Vessel they have to worry about, and who the heck knows what's on the Vessel's agenda? Thus, the good guys may as well wad up all their plans & preparations and throw 'em into the nearest dumpster, and they have to frantically improvise a new set of plans. Can you say, "Good drama"? I knew you could…

Speaking of the Vessel's agenda: He wants to eliminate evil. All evil, everywhere in Creation. And if this means genocide on a literally astronomical scale (because all existing sentient life is incurably flawed), that's a price the Vessel is willing to pay, because he knows he can re-create sentient life the right way. Just ask him, he'll tell you so himself… before he sucks your soul out…

Oh, sure, ultimately the villain is Nasoj, but he's little more than a particularly badass ghost. Without the right body he can't do jack, and that's where the Vessel comes in.

Here's what I do know about the Vessel:

• He's an ordinary guy, not heroic but basically likeable in the beginning. Our readers won't have any inkling of what he's going to become until sometime in Book III (see the Storybuilding page); he's just another protagonist among a fairly large cast.
• Something really tragic happens to him. People don't just wake up one day and decide to be evil, or to take insane risks for the sake of amassing supernatural power; there has to be a motivation, a reason why he is tempted by the power that the cultists of Nasoj offer him. Either he's trying to set right something in the world that he sees as having gone terribly wrong, or he's out for revenge against the people (or creatures) who wrecked his life.
• He is kidnapped and "tested" by the cultists of Nasoj. That in itself is not extraordinary; there are a lot of people out there whose bloodlines indicate that they have the potential to be either the Key or the Vessel, and the cultists intend to kidnap and test each of them until they find the true Vessel (while executing any potential Keys who "fail" their tests).
• He "passes" the test, proving himself to be the Vessel to the satisfaction of the cultists. I'm not sure quite how this happens, but it's likely that it involves him killing some of the cultists and beating some more of them into submission in his attempt to escape. Before he makes good on his exit, though, something or someone convinces him of the potential power at his disposal if he learns what the cultists have to teach him. He begins to see that he can use this power to either make things right or settle the score on whatever caused the tragedy in his recent past (see above).
• The Vessel doesn't know that he's being prepared to eventually be possessed by the spirit of Nasoj. All he knows for certain is that the cultists (the "Brotherhood of the Sepulcher") worship some kind of ancient god who will give him power in exchange for performing certain actions and rituals. He slowly slips into doing more and more at Nasoj's behest, loosening the bonds that imprison him until he finally breaks loose and takes complete control of the Vessel. At this point Nasoj is in charge, and our tragic antihero/villain has been consumed by the dark wizard and his schemes.

The key thing in all of this is that the Vessel has to be a sympathetic character for as long as possible. Even when he is using the power of Nasoj (unwittingly) to accomplish his personal agenda, he should come across as a sort of antihero: maybe some of his tactics are questionable, but his aims are totally understandable and reasonable. Slowly, that sense of reasonability slips away, until finally he does something absolutely horrifying in his quest for power (probably sacrificing an innocent person). It is at that point that the readers see that he has gone off the deep end, and the power that is flowing through him is something inherently dark and evil.

I'd like to hear some ideas about what the Vessel's back-story might be and what drives him to the extreme measures he takes in his journey of self-destruction. My initial thought is to play him against the Vampire Syndicate in some way; they have their fingers in a lot of different pies, and a war against the bloodsucker crime bosses by a man whose life they wrecked would certainly gain the sympathy of the audience. It would also give us a way to rope Morgan into the plot, since the vamps might decide to put some pressure on her to help them find out who this new guy is that's terrorizing their organization — and the Vessel might then target Morgan and her loved ones, on the grounds that she is a vampire and a collaborator with the Syndicate. If anyone else has some better ideas to offer, though — or ways to flesh out this one — I'd love to hear them.