This is the online version of the Hierophantics documentation.

Hierophantics

If media can be seen as threads, if minds can be seen as tangles of such threads, then what is to stop me from weaving them together?

Thus far, when extracting the minds of villagers, I have inserted them only into artificial subtrates, but I can do better. I can become better.

By weaving additional minds into my own, I will gain the ability to cast Hexes without requiring any conscious thought! I can simply provide a Hex, and a condition under which to cast it, and the embedded mind will handle the rest on its own. With all the bothers of everyday life automatically handled, I can finally dedicate myself to whatever I... whatever we...

...what am I?

Focus, focus. There is a snag in the plan. I cannot modify the structure of my own mind midway through a Hex without running the risk of unraveling it entirely – and I am not yet that insane.

Thus, I require some artifice. I can create a bed of sorts which, when provided with an extracted mind via the usual process, can weave it into my psyche without requiring any cognition on my part.

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Imbuement Bed

I can then use some external device to perform the extraction itself, transferring the mind into the bed while I simply lay there until the process – the integration – is complete.

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Imbuement Bed

Villager must be a Master or higher

100

20

10

The process requires a master-level villager, which can be transferred into either of the two blocks that make up the Imbuement Bed. However, if I am not in the bed at the moment the spell is cast, the mind will be wasted.

Allay Imbuement

Using allays, I have been able to enhance the media density of a solid crystal. It has become increasingly clear that my own mind is nothing more than a particularly active cluster of media, so why not apply the same process to myself? The resulting mental convolutions will allow me to cast much more efficiently, conserving a significant fraction of the media I would otherwise consume.

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Imbuement Bed

25

5

The unique properties of allays make the process less expensive than usual. However, those same properties also mean that the mind cannot remain permanently interwoven with my own - it will inevitably disspate over time.

I can mitigate the dissipation by simply weaving in additional allays. However, the more I add, the less additional duration I seem to gain from each one.

I've also noticed some side effects. Perhaps my enhanced mind can more easily glimpse the true shape of the world?

Everything shimmers and twists, and the threads glint beneath, and it is all one grand tapestry in and out and up and down and EVERYWHERE

Villager Enhancement

Many of my recent constructs require a sufficiently developed mind. Thus far, such development has only been possible by submitting to the demands of villagers, and providing them with an increasingly eclectic array of materials and gemstones.

Such work is clearly beneath me. Now, with the Imbuement Bed, I finally have a solution!

Mine is not the only mind that can be augmented. Rather than exchanging meaningless trinkets for hours on end, I can directly increase the capability of a villager mind by simply weaving in an extra one.

As a side effect, any trade offers from the source villager will be merged into the subject - but what need have I for such petty, material gains? The very mind itself is as clay in my hands!

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Imbuement Bed

Villager must be a Novice or higher

100

20

10

The process is nearly identical to embedding a mind into myself. The subject must lie in the Imbuement Bed (a certain spell may be helpful) and a new mind must be woven in - though the source here can be of any level.

When there is only one skill set involved in the merger, the resulting villager will retain those skills. However, if the two villagers are of different professions, the result is something entirely new, which I have dubbed a Quiltmind.

The more I study this, the more I find my earlier dismissal too hasty - perhaps there is some merit to this process beyond simply developing the mind for later extraction.

Like any other villager, Quiltminds require a workstation to refresh their stock of goods. However, their unique mental state means that any normal workstation, even the one the villager originally used, will not suffice.

They require something capable of shifting at a moment's notice to reflect a new state of mind and an entirely new skill set. Luckily, my recent experiments with allays have provided the perfect material.

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Edified Workstation

I've noticed that quenched allays tend to morph in response to stray thoughts. This is mostly a nuisance, but here it is critical - the surface of the workstation can adapt itself to whatever the Quiltmind currently needs.

Hierophantic Patterns

Once I embed a mind into myself, I will need to instruct it as to its purpose. This is accomplished using mind reference iotas, which work much like entity iotas but for embedded minds. As such, I can freely create and destroy these iotas without affecting the existence of the minds themselves.

A Note on Privacy

Since mind references can be written to a storage medium, it's possible that another player may gain access to iotas refencing my own minds. Such an individual will not be able to modify my minds (the results will be similar to attempting to save my True Name) but they will be able to view the trigger and Hex associated with each mind.

Hierophantic Triggers

My embedded minds are independent to a point, but they cannot truly think for themselves. Thus, in order to begin casting, they require a trigger of some kind. The patterns listed here are used to create these triggers, based on a variety of common occurances. Once created, a trigger can be assigned to a mind using Trigger Gambit.

Some triggers, when activated, may cast their hex with an iota relevant to the triggering event already on the stack, to allow for a more fine-grained response. The triggers that do this are listed below, along with the iota they provide:

Damage: amount of damage

DmgType: amount of damage

Drop: dropped item entity

Attack: attacked entity

Break: position broken

Teleport: offset vector