“Ah, that was yesterday. The me you talked to yesterday is dead. Today you talk to me.”
The Artisans edit their minds to be more creative. The Heterolinguists edit their minds to protect themselves from memetics. The Tritogeneia edit their minds for the sake of editing their minds.
“Tritogeneia” refers to the Greek god Athena. Specifically, her birth from Zeus’s head (near the river Triton). It embodies the ideals of the Tritogeneia, who seek to create (and become) entirely new people by editing their minds.
Tritogeneia modify their minds to adapt to any situation they come across. If a person needs to be a skilled orator, they may pick up a lens in it. A Tritogeneia would also permanently modify their personality to enjoy orating and deeply believe what they are saying… even if they normally wouldn’t. Moreover, most people treat skill lenses as tools. Tritogeneia treat them as real modifications to their minds, something to be embraced as part of themselves. They intentionally build the lenses into their minds, improving and personalizing them organically.
All this editing comes with a price, although the Tritogeneia rarely see it that way. Every Tritogeneia character has edited out some undesirable part of their personality, such as their anxiety, fear, hatred, sadness, frustration, or boredom. Logician Tritogeneia often edit out distractions such as the ability to perceive music, hunger, tiredness, or pain.
Tritogeneia are most common among the Logicians and Stardwellers. Some younger Stored have experimented with Tritogeneia, often with disasterous results. Masqueraders consider Tritogeneia anathema, as it destroys a person’s identity.
Their symbol is a neuron crossed with a wrench, combining the cellular symbol of consciousness with the ancient symbol of engineering. Or, as their detractors describe it, the symbol of the “wrench in the works”.
Benefit:
Tritogeneia have a minimum Cognitech of 6. If their civilization does not support Cognitech 6, they will have to sell out to reach it. Given a week, Tritogeneia may increase the level of any profession lens by 1, and give it 2 reserve. This may only be done once for each lens. Tritogeneia characters start with up to three lenses improved in this way.
In addition, Tritogeneia characters must have at least one theme related to their ability to edit their personality to adapt to any situation. They get one additional twist each session which can only be spent on those theme(s).
Tritogeneia must have an undesirable part of their personality edited out.
Example themes effects
Plot Immunity: The Tritogeneia can edit their skills to be whatever is needed at the moment. Complications often involve additional personality flaws.
Intrigue: The Tritogeneia has several spy personalities and often makes new ones on the fly.
Empathy / Magnetism / Romance: The Tritogeneia can edit his/her personality to best mesh with the immediate person / group. This can result in some really bad feelings later, when he/she changes again.
Comprehension: The Tritogeneia can modify him/herself to think the same way as the people he/she is up against, predicting their actions. Complications usually involve changing core values to match the enemy.
Core Value: Adaptability - Tritogeneia value the ability to mentally adapt to any situation. In addition, they may use this to prevent someone from convincing them not to edit their own minds in response to events. As the Tritogeneia view it, adaptability is the opposite of the Masquerader idea of Identity.
