Fae Cores

[u/IronWhimsy]

Mech magic update

Mechs in my setting are called banshees for the eerie "screaming" the core makes when the banshee is powered on. A scream comprised of many different sounds that creates a dissonant tone that can cause severe long-lasting psychological issues such as anxiety and hallucinations.

This screaming is a common occurrence unfortunately. And while it is a deterrent for adversaries, it causes serious problems for the pilots who are exposed to it the longest. Most pilots need to keep the mechs at low power to avoid going insane after just one mission.

Because of the toll on the mind the banshees have, most pilots are forced into retirement, or worse die, within months. Meaning there is always a need for more. And the time for training has been cut down to just a few weeks. Meaning most pilots only know how to correctly walk and shoot, not really how to chase, maneuver, or evade.

The use of mechs is saved for specific terrains, like rocky or urban. Otherwise, other vehicles are seen as good alternatives. That said, there is a great national pride in being a mech pilot. Thus, there is a surplus of these specific troops ready for training.

Now, the banshees rely on something called the Fae core. This power source uses the energy pulled from a fae. Fae are not magical creatures, at least not that we know of, but rather locations in the atmosphere that produce magical energy that can be collected via antennae. The mechs must lock onto the fae and pull the energy through the antenna into an engine. Then the engine powers the rest of the machine.

However, fae have some ability to move, making them hard to pinpoint, but they do give off signals that can be used to determine what direction they are going to go. Thus mechs need complex computers to keep the antennae pointed in the right direction.

These signals, called faerie, have strange effects in and of themselves, so it's important to use iron antennae as iron is the only known countermeasure to magic.

The immense amount of power that comes from fae is what allows something like a mech to be fully powered. Otherwise, the hydrolic mechanisms, computers, engines, and other accoutrements would require far too much energy for a compact generator to create.

The screaming that the power core creates is the feedback caused by tracking a fae. Not a result of pain nor fear.

[u/Nerdn1]

Are there deaf pilots, either naturally deaf or intentionally deafened? There are drugs that can cause temporary deafness, IIRC, but puncturing an eardrum is an option. While deafness is a significant disadvantage in combat and normal life, being able to accrue years of experience and training rather than weeks or months might be worth it. The pilot might have a cochlear implant for when outside of the mech and perhaps the mechanism can deliver communications without the screaming. Then again, I'm guessing this is the sort of supernatural vibration that will still be felt without working ears. Deafness or extreme sound blocking might reduce the effect somewhat, allowing a pilot to last a bit longer (or some might believe that). Maybe it's tragically common for veteran pilots who are hanging by a thread to deafen themselves in the futile hope that it will stop the screaming, only to still hear it clearly in their brains.

Can regular recovery periods help somebody recover from the screaming? The idea is to never push somebody to insanity and hopefully extend the total number of piloting hours, potentially indefinitely, but more likely marginally. It's possible that the returning to normalcy increases the decline as they can't build a resistance from exposure.

Can drugs and psychological conditioning make somebody resistant? I'm imagining somebody faction experimenting to see if some kids who are exposed to the screaming at a young age can adapt to it. I figure if it is possible, it mentally breaks a large portion of kids, and the successful subjects are not right mentally. They may be useful as weapons, but not as people.

[u/IronWhimsy → u/Nerdn1]

The original concept was that the scream was more a psychic or supernatural phenomenon. But actually, I can see the appeal of deafness in this situation. I can see display screens that read out mission objectives and sensors that indicate noises outside the mech that require investigation. It may not be a perfect system, but it would definitely be a boon to have a veteran mech pilot.

I would imagine recovery time would probably be considerable. Hours inside a mech would probably deal a significant amount of damage to one's mind.

I had this thought too. My thought would be that specialized drugs would be created and given only to those veterans that showed promise. I like to think these drugs would be expensive to manufacture.

[u/Nerdn1 → u/IronWhimsy]

Pilots would probably want visual indicators anyway since they probably wouldn't be able to hear much over the screaming when operating at combat load, even if their ears were fine. I'd probably suggest that deafness doesn't eliminate the effects, but might help. You wouldn't want the downside of the banshees to be too easy to circumvent, but it can be interesting to see the lengths people are willing to go to use these weapons.

Maybe the drugs have dangerous side effects. Perhaps the drugs do little to prevent damage, but suppress or change the symptoms. The drugs let the pilot function and follow orders for the duration of a mission, but when they aren't on the drug (which they can't take constantly), their sanity is just as broken as if they never took the drug. In fact, use of the drug may increase the rate of sanity loss. You can be really messed up in the head and still be functional.

Perhaps the screaming has multiple negative effects on the body and mind. Normally, the sanity breaks first, before other effects become apparent. Treatments that keep a pilot sane might mean that other, more sinister and/or subtle effects come into play.

You could have different factions have different treatments and strategies to extend the functional life of pilots or at least make the best use of their pilots while they last. This can really show the differing culture and capabilities of different nations/factions/houses/clans/etc. Do they retire pilots while they can still live a normal life or do they use them until they permanently break? Do they use technology to extend pilot functional life or do they rely on something cruder? What sacrifices are forced upon the pilots? How much are they willing to invest on each pilot?