Rethinking Paramatter
Document
See also: Paramatter
Rethinking Paramatter
by Shiro and Ruby Bridges
Collegium of Sigil
(This is a long essay on the theory and practice of using paramatter to create Myxl Forms, or MForms. Here are some key excerpts.)
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Paramatter is well-known in many arcane and magitec traditions and paradigms. It's typically very unstable. Thus, it's usually seen either as a novelty or intermediate step to some other purpose.
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A tynker understands that the multiverse contains three basic substances: matter, energy, and information. These substances are fundamentally interconnected. For example, a wrench has the matter of its physical form, the energy of the heat it has absorbed, and the information how the matter is arranged, who made it, how it's been used, and so on.
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Matter can be converted to energy, such as burning wood to create heat and light. Energy can be converted to matter, such as using a magitec foundry to create an object from thin air. Matter can store information, such as carving runes into armor. And so on.
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Different beings embody different possible relationships among matter, energy, and information. A typical humanoid is composed of matter and information, and processes energy in various ways, including respiration and metabolizing nutrients. Plants have a similar relationship among matter, energy, and information.
Beings who can shapechange have an especially interesting relationship between matter and energy. For example, a humanoid afflicted with lycanthropy can gain or shed considerable mass, as bone, muscle, fur, etc.
A typical incorporeal undead being, such as a specter, is generally only energy and information, but can act on corporeal beings by draining their life energy. Furthermore, a specter cannot remain inside dense matter, such as a wall, without eventually disintegrating. This is a clear illustration that the energy and information of the specter can't escape a relationship with matter, even to the specter's detriment.
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A common use of paramatter is using magical energy to create temporary matter. For example, the spell Grasping Vine converts magical energy into a weaponized plant. But after one minute, the vine disappears.
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Some paradigms use the term "ectoplasm" in place of paramatter, especially when describing the temporary forms that spirits can create for themselves, or the unstable matter left behind by certain magical phenomena. It's more accurate to see ectoplasm as a sub-type of paramatter.
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Creating paramatter is often a temporary goal, when an arcanist or a spirit needs some matter for a limited time. However, it's theoretically possible to create paramatter as a more lasting substance. In other words, the unstable nature of paramatter can be a feature instead of a bug. For example, a body composed primarily of paramatter would especially suitable for shapeshifting, such as changing one's appearance or physical capabilities.
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The Planters and Reavers, as insectoids, are naturally beings of energy and information. However, they assemble matter into bodies for various purposes. The variety is relatively limited.
After a Reaver colony assimilated several clones of Elias Rossman, it broke from the Reaver Combine's superintelligence and became the first Assembler colony. Assemblers demonstrate far greater creativity in assembling matter into bodies. These Assembler Forms or "AForms" can be mistaken for the Assemblers themselves. Like their insectoid forebears, Assemblers are fundamentally beings of energy and information. AForms are only "vehicles" or "appendages" to them.
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Before a tynker can work with paramatter, they must overcome a fundamental challenge. Paramatter is inherently unstable: it is always on the verge of shifting back into energy. It must be contained before and during any application.
In various arcane traditions, casters are taught to bind paramatter inside a "mesh" of their will. For example, at least one version of Bigby's Hand directs the caster to imagine an invisible glove -- woven from their willpower -- into which paramatter is created. When the caster flexes or moves the mesh, the hand inside grasps, attacks, and so on. Other traditions or spells use similar metaphors of containment for a mesh: a ball, a cage, a pipe, and so on. Metaphors involving a flexible mesh, like a woven basket or a chainmail glove, are more common than a fixed, rigid mesh.
An MForm needs a mesh that will bind its myxls regardless of temperature, acceleration, physical trauma, Dispel Magic, and other threats to containment. For a mesh to persist for months or longer, a substantive, continuous power source is almost certainly necessary. Possible sources might include the conscious attention of a god or a powerful artifact.
