- On the naming of cycloids.
The Cycloid's creation was born of my overwhelming need to create my own anime robot girls with the -oid suffix ala Vocaloid, Nendroid, Lamiaroid, etc. The name itself I chose simply because it sounds cool. In mathematics, a Cycloid is the path traced by a wheel as it rolls along a flat plane, so it could be taken as a metaphor about an iterative cycle, the continuous ends leading into new beginnings to represent the unceasing march of progress. The Cycloids themselves are basically a combination of bacterial contamination Hatsune Miku, the T-800 Terminator, and the Apoptosis girls from Monster Girl Paradox, especially my favorite one, Twinkell. Also a bit of Sarah Kerrigan in the mantis wings.
- When asked "How would a cycloid react to someone flirting with them/trying to court them?"
Combined with their overriding sense of duty to protect their master, each Cycloid has their own personality in the form of a single general character trait - which remains unerring irregardless of the situation {ergo, Cycloids don't have moods. They don't react to things with happiness, sadness, or anger, and they especially don't feel love.}Daphne's trait is sadism. Wikia's trait is by-the-books seriousness and rationality. Fran's trait is curiosity. How they would react to being flirted with depends on the individual trait. In Fran's case, she'd probably just express innocent confusion, as she has absolutely no frame of context for how human romance is supposed to work. Worst case scenario she would interpret the proposition as an aggressive maneuver and defend herself. The only person she would be at all receptive to is her master, but again that's just due to hardcoded programming and not any actual sense of desire. Cycloids are not sapient, and that's exactly how Duchess prefers it. They're simple, and therefor predictable.
- When asked about asexuals in Autumnport
dead_crow is the only example of an asexual character in canon - or at least is strongly implied to be asexual - and yet he was given a stint as the Administrator of Synthetic Cognition.It can be assumed that Duchess has various non-sexual means of extracting her essence tax out of citizens that are not inclined towards physicality, though it's probably not something I'll explore in too much detail. One may also assume that Duchess will still recruit asexual citizens if they prove useful enough in other areas to make up for the deficit, such as a notable talent for the computer sciences.
- Though not exactly asked wings did come up and Norfy had this to say
The way I get around it in Autumnport is that the wings are newtonically nonfunctional, and instead act as antigraviton generators to keep the user suspended in the air. They're effectively like magical radiators or VTOL thrusters, with each flap releasing a pulse of energy.
The Following are Norfy posts
- A technocrat's guide to Duchess's magical powers and abilities, which are seemingly derived from the power of a star
Infernal Limerence: Like all members of the Lilium family of demons {Succubus, Incubus, Omnibus}, Duchess emits a pheromone compound which readily manipulates the hormonal drives of sapient entities, regardless of race or gender. This results in a marked increase in her ability to persuade or seduce, and can also provoke hesitation in combat opponents. The replacement of several parts of her body with cybernetic prosthetics does hamper this ability somewhat, however.
Demonic Strength: Duchess has greatly increased strength compared to a human. She can lift about 5 tons, probably more.
Harbard Implant: Duchess's ocular prosthetic contains extremely minute sensors capable of detecting heat, radiation, and even tiny electrical signals indicative of sodium-channel ionization in muscles or neurons. As a result, she is very skilled at predicting her opponents movements and other actions, greatly improving her ability to dodge or counterattack.
Prominence: A runic artifact of unknown origin. Duchess affixed a viking-style axehead to the top and uses it as both a melee weapon and a magical staff. The object is bound to her soul, and she is able to summon or unsummon it at will. The significance of the Perthro runestone is unclear.
Antigravitonic Levitation: As with most demonic species, Duchess's wings generate an antigravitonic field that allows her to levitate above the ground or soar through the air. She may also levitate external objects or beings of average weight from roughly 30 meters away.
Solar Storm: Duchess can channel her magic into the blade of her axe, manifesting as a crackling cyan plasma burning at roughly the same temperature as a white dwarf star. It can cut through Adamantox alloy like wet cardboard.
Containment Vessel: Duchess can emit a magnetic polarity field around her form to absorb virtually any type of damage, whether it be kinetic or energetic, and at a relatively economic cost of magic. As long as she has magical power to spare, she is effectively invincible. Some types of damage put much more strain on the field than others. Perhaps It'd be in the best interest of Duchess's enemies to find out which.
Gamma-Ray Burst: Duchess can project a 'radioactive deathray' from her hands consisting of high-energy ionic emissions in a tight, medium-to-long range beam. The damage it causes is roughly equivalent to sending a trillion tiny bullets through every cell of her opponents body, and with an added EMP effect to disrupt electronic devices. Extremely painful.
Neutron Poison: Duchess snaps her fingers and produces a crackling cloud of Cherenkov radiation spread out over an arbitrary area. This is essentially an AoE version of her Gamma-Ray Burst for area-denial purposes. Being caught in it stings like a swarm of Japanese hornets.
Quantum Translocation: Duchess can teleport herself and those around her to arbitrary locations. Conversely, she can transport remote objects {especially wine goblets} to her own location, as long as they're placed in advance at one of her personal teleportation sigils.
Biokinesis: With a large expenditure of magic, Duchess is able to produce or repair a biological organism tissue-by-tissue.
Soul Synthesis: Duchess is capable of creating new souls for which to occupy biological forms, but at an extremely high expenditure of magic. If the soul is demonic, the cost in magic is notably less - which has resulted in a large number of demonic progeny.
Golem Creation: Duchess is able to animate otherwise non-living homunculi. A traditional art among Lilium.
- In honor of Valentine's weekend, I shall compile for you the ultimate guide to the Act 1 cast's sexual/LGBT identities. Yes, the thing that absolutely nobody asked for, but here it is. Enjoy.
Lance: Bisexual. Androgynous in manner, but still masculine-presenting.
Duchess: Lesbian. Femme-presenting intersex. Circe: Pansexual.
Molly: Pansexual.
Vicky: Pansexual.
Maxwell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w185NptpLyo
{Pansexual}
Inky: Effectively straight, but probably closeted bi.
Edward {Inky's ex}: As far as we know, straight.
Daphne: Lusts only for murder.
Clockmaker: Gay as the day is long.
dead_crow: Asexual. Has dated a woman in the past. Possibly trans/nonbinary? Generally enigmatic.
Gemory: Lesbian.
- A post about The Duchess
Just to finally put the question to rest for some readers, "Duchess" as a standalone nickname and "The Duchess" as a royal title are both equally valid names for the character."The Duchess" is used to imply respect and acknowledgement of her authority, and is utilized mainly by characters that are intimidated, in awe of, or otherwise enthralled by her. "Duchess" is used as casual shorthand to imply either familiarity or defiance - a refusal to address her as royalty."Chaosdragon" is her previous title/stage name before she was granted the title of Internal Grand Duchess, which was shortened to Duchess for brevity. Chaosdragon remains as a dynastic name, and may be interpreted as a demonic surname of sorts."Mistress" is a traditional honorific used by a succubus or incubus to address their direct ancestor. Clockmaker shortens this to "Missy", again to imply familiarity.Certain female-presenting demons, Duchess included, prefer masculine forms of address as a signature of dominance and power. Gemory and Maxwell both refer to Duchess as "my lord." Nobody refers to her as "my lady."All of the above names are incorrect, as Duchess's true name is unpronounceable.When asked if those saying “my lady” have a death wish the response was“It would be considered patronizing and condescending at the very best”
- Post about names
Trivia time, boys and girls. Origins and inspirations for the names of the characters from Act I
Duchess: Named after and inspired by the Genesis song of the same name
Vortimer Lance: There's a recurring SimCity character named Doctor Vu, and I liked the idea of a mad scientist character whose name starts with the letter V. I got attached to 'Lance' from a similarly named and idiocentric character from the Epic Battle Fantasy series.
Molly Eden: In fact, I had never read Neuromancer at the time I named this character, so the fact 'Molly' is a classic name in cyberpunk was just a happy coincidence.
Circe: A sorceress from Greek myth.
Wikia: Probably named after a similarly named character from the English translation of How to Build a Dungeon: Book of the Demon King.
Fran: Probably named after the main character of Franken Fran. Highly recommended series for biology students and those with a strong stomach.
Kasumi: Named in honor of a character from a really, really funny hentai translation. Originally named something else, but it was petty and I decided against it.
Maxwell Townsend: Named after Canadian prog metal god Devon Townsend.
Inky: Named after the blue ghost from Pac-Man
Officer 206: My artist Ieka95 randomly put '206' on the character's neck for her end-of-chapter artwork, so I rewrote the early chapters to retroactively name her after that.
dead_crow: A name inspired by my research into the Amiga Demoscene and VX virus exchange scene, something suitably heavy metal sounding.
Clockmaker: Named in honor of and inspired by Watchmaker, a character from the concept album Clockwork Angels by Canadian prog legends Rush.
Victoria Jensen: The fact 'Jensen' is a classic name in cyberpunk is, again, a happy coinkidink
