HorizonVirtual:Daemons
(Created by Igtenio; originally posted on Fantasy Flight Games' official Horizon message board.)
Daemons (Named for Computer Daemons) are wakers which Awakened either on their own, or (as some claim) had an experience with a User which brought about the Awakening. Daemons are a new phenomena in Program Space, occuring rarely and surviving for any length of time even less. Few Daemons are rogue programs, often either being destroyed by former sleeper and dreamer brethern when they believe the Daemon to have "malfunctioned", and of those that do survive, many often join User Cults, believing that their sentience is a direct result of User intervention.
Personality[edit]
Daemons vary in personality. Those who are rogue programs tend to be loners, having a hard time fitting into the rest of waker society, either due to ideological beliefs (some Antiviral Daemons believe many wakers to be little better then the progenitor viruses which created them), or wakers believing that the Daemons are agents, knowingly or not, created by the progenitors. Those who stay on as system programs often find themselves in well to do positions, their fellow dreamers and wakers believing them to be a major upgrade of the program. Daemons who become user cultists are often the most zealous of their kind, and often rise to positions of power, as "Direct Agents of the User(s)". A rare few have even gathered entire armies of wakers, believing themselves to be a messiah of sort to Program Space. Luckily, these armies, more often then not, are busy fighting the fellow "false-messiahs" to bother the rest of Program Space too much.
Physical Appearance[edit]
Daemons tend not to diviate too much from their appearance as dreamers. They might obtain features they didn't have, but generally they'll be the same shape, size, color, etc as they had as a dreamer. It's not uncommon for a Daemon to, say, grow hair when Awakening, but not to go from being a userclone to primal in the process. They simply do not have the same "rush" of sentience that other wakers do, and thus have more time as they gradually go from dreamer to waker, until they're fully sentient, and adjust their form to match their individual outlook. However, since there is no sudden insight of Sentience, they retain much of their memory of being dreamers.
Daemon Traits[edit]
No Attribute Bonuses or Penalities: Daemons come from a wide range of origins, thus have no specific bonus or penalty.
Non-Viral: Having nto been Awakened due to the actions of a progenitor virus, Daemons do not exhibit the same viral traits as other wakers, and thus are not treated as Viral by Anti-Virus Scanners and Antiviral dreamers.
Viral Weakness: Daemons have a weakness to viruses, which results in a +5 to DC checks to resist Codeeaters and Microviruses.
Knowledge: An Daemon possesses all memories of being a dreamer, and thus gains a +2 Bonus to all Bluff, Diplomacy, and Survival checks when on his Home System. He also gets an Daemonatic +2 to ALL Knowledge checks which directly involve his Home System. Thus, he could, for instance, know that User Cultists regularly come through the System on a pilgrimage, and when they do.
Purpose: Possessing memories of being a dreamer gives an Daemon training with his former position in the system. The Daemon may choose two Skills which are currently not Class skills, and designate them as Class Skills. They MUST be related to his former job, however. For instance, a Program that had been a crafter of items could take Craft (Basic Items), and Knowledge (Codecrafting), for example. A former Data-Storage program might take Knowledge (User Space) and Knowledge (Program Space).
