Journey: Tokens

From Trinity Wiki
Revision as of 22:06, 5 October 2008 by GnomeWorks (Talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search

Here, we're going to talk about the various kinds of tokens in Journey, as well as the token pools they inhabit.

Tokens

Faith Tokens - Force: Divine (Philosophy)

People of faith, given proper training and knowledge of the proper words, are capable of using their faith to alter the world; these effects they are capable of are known simply as prayers, and it is understood that one wielding the power of prayer is acting as a conduit for raw divine power. Such divinity is not easily channeled, however: there is only so much divine strain that an individual can suffer before they can no longer channel power of such magnitude.
As such, the faith tokens in the faith token pool are never spent - instead, they function as a limit to how much divine power a person can wield. Whenever a prayer is invoked, its faith token threshold is compared to the supplicant's current faith tokens: if the threshold is lower or equal to the number of tokens in the pool, the prayer is successful; if it is higher, the prayer fails to produce any effect at all. In addition, channeling the same effect over and over is difficult - each time a prayer is invoked, its threshold increases by a certain amount, which is different for each prayer.
The number of faith tokens in a faith token pool can be manipulated, though doing so is greatly difficult. Standing in a sanctified building can bulwark a supplicant's faith, while certain magical or even divine effects can cause a creature to lose its faith. While mental effects can impact a person's faith, they do not necessarily impact their faith token pool - as zealous as you may be, there are still limits to the amount of divine power you can call upon.
Time spent in prayer to the supplicant's patron can restore the supplicant's ability to call upon divine power; however, this is a time-consuming process, and is often only possible under certain conditions, unique to each patron (for instance, a sun god may require prayer-granting supplication during the noon hour).
In order to have a faith token pool, you must have the Talent: Priest. If you possess faith tokens, you can begin studying prayers.
 

Mana Tokens - Force: Magic (Reality)

The whole of creation is suffused with a strange powersource known as "mana." This source of energy allows those who tap into it to shape it into reality-altering power: mana is a bridge between the physical and noumenal worlds. With it, one can reshape the world. One who is trained in the ways of mana grows to understand this strange substance, harnessing it and using it to perform deeds unfathomable.
Mana tokens, then, represent how much of this substance a mage can "carry" in their mind at any one time. Conceiving of and holding onto mana is a difficult task, and while a mind attuned to it gradually recovers what was expended over time, it can also be rapidly recovered - though this is dangerous to the mage. These mana tokens are held in a mana token pool, which is a hard limit on how much mana the mage can work with: the ability to withhold such a conceptually-difficult substance.
Each time the mage wishes to cast a spell, some of this mana must be expended. Fortunately, most mages learn of a method by which they can prime mana, allowing them to reliably produce the same effect again and again; some mages even learn how to modify some of these set formulae, expanding their repertoire of spells to encompass effects of which no apprentice could dream.
Once a mage's mana token pool is exhausted, they are incapable of casting further spells - their supply of mana has been depleted, and one cannot work with what is not there.
In order to have a mana token pool, you must have the Talent: Mage. If you possess mana tokens, you can begin studying spells.
 

Memory Tokens - Force: Blue (Remembrance)

As creatures live and die, they generate memories - snapshots of a time and place, pieces of knowledge, or ribbons of thought. For the majority, these memories are personal entities, accessible only to those who hold them, and are lost with death. For the trained akashic, they know that this notion is false: memories, once created, are permanent, and those with the knowledge can tap inot them.
The way of the akashic is a relatively simple one: through an understanding of the world and the people it contains, the akashic gains the ability to tap into the collective world memory. This is a dangerous thing to attempt, however: it is incredibly easy to lose oneself in the memories of others, and the sheer amount of information available is absolutely staggering. Only one who has been trained in the ways of the akashic can ever hope to find what they are looking for and retrieve it without losing their mind to the past.
Memory tokens represent how much memory the akashic has retrieved from the world memory; these tokens are collected in the memory token pool. An akashic's memory token pool begins empty, and fills as he retrieves information; when the pool is full, the akashic can no longer retrieve memories. The mind was not meant to hold that much information - in order to learn something new, he must forget something.
The memories gained from the past are fleeting, and easily lost if conscious control over them is not kept. An akashic's memory token pool empties whenever he sleeps for an extended period. While some memories can be retained, this is stressful and not easily accomplished.
In order to have a memory token pool, you must have the Talent: Akashic. If you possess memory tokens, you can begin studying Talents, but we can't call them that because there are aleady talents. Crap.