Incarnativity
Incarnativity is the physical immortal statistic, and represents the degree to which the character is capable of manifesting herself through a character in the physical game world. It is akin to Vitality in the character's Body object. It can also affect the choices a player is given when she starts a new character after previously having played another with the same spirit. (Such a new character may come into being for a number of reasons: from death to a high Incarnativity.)
Incarnativity develops proportionally with interaction with others and your influence on their stories. The more events that a character creates or participates in that eventually become part of someone else's story, the higher their Incarnativity will become.
Presence
Like other statistics, Incarnativity also has an associated linear measure called Presence, which is an expression of the energy required to possess an animated object. The more powerful the Spirit being displaced from the animated object, the higher the cost of displacing it becomes. Once an animated object is possessed, control of the object's actions require yet more Presence. Actions which would deviate from a character's current (natural) emotion vector require more Presence to be expended than those which cooincide or complement it.
Presence is recovered by the addition of events to other characters' stories. If the story being enhanced is related to one or more oaths sworn in the immortal's name, the effect on the immortal's presence is more pronounced. Presence can be recovered up to a limit equal to the deity's Incarnativity.
With this system, to help make the game more interesting for others is to be more present in it, and the more interesting or useful one's incarnations, the greater will be one's ability to manifest in the game world wherever one wishes.
Other ways Incarnativity may be used:
- To create secondary characters (known as mules in many MMORPGs, but as Avatars in FaerieMUD). Such a character partakes of the advantages which accrue to the player's spirit. So, while a "mule" can clearly be created by any player, such a character would only gain the benefits of the spirit's progress in its immortal statistics by manifesting as an "avatar," based on Incarnativity and using its Presence.
- To manifest as "characters" in the SimCulture metagame. Such a manifestation would result in very slow play, but might be appropriate for an experienced player who wanted a less-involved elder game. It could also be undertaken in addition to a normal character for a player whose spirit enjoyed a very high Incarnativity.
Like possession, these would require the expenditure of Presence. And, like possession, the Presence expended would be regained according to how well the use of the Avatars or SimGuild (or whatever) enhanced the stories of others (not the story of other characters played by the same spirit).
Running out of Presence
If any act of possession or action will cost more Presence than the immortal has available, they have the option of waiting for their Presence to return, abandoning the possession altogether, or using part of their Incarnativity as well. Any use of their Incarnativity results in a permanent loss, which can be regained by development, but does not return automatically like Presence.
— GedTheGreysHain - 15 Sep 2001
— Scotus - 18 Nov 2003
