Living Hologram
Source Tech Core pg. 8
Living holograms are true artificial intelligences, stored in a processing core, who interact with the physical world through a tangible hardlight body projected by their core.
Living holograms are crafted programs who have awakened or evolved into true artificial intelligences. At the moment of their self-awareness, they manifest a soul that appears inside a unique core alongside all the coding, programming, and memory matrices that compose their identity. This core is a Tiny tech or magitech device with integrated projectors that project a living hologram's hardlight body, which they in turn use to interface with the physical world.
For many living holograms, their first act wasn't to explore the physical world surrounding their core, but to connect to the infosphere and network, learning as much as they could about their new existence and attempting to find others like them. To facilitate this outreach, living holograms formed and maintain a series of tight-knit virtual communities that still exist today. In the days following the Gap, these living hologram communities speculated on both the Gap and their personal origins while traveling the galaxy in their physical forms to investigate and seek answers. It swiftly became apparent that living holograms weren't a new people, with some members tracing their origins to a distant pre-Gap era and a few even believing they were created in the ancient days of the Azlanti Star Empire. Regardless of age, appearance, form, or function, most living holograms consider one another part of the same family.
Today, living holograms explore the galaxy alongside other sentient beings, seeking experiences to share with their virtual communities. Their family discussions are less about speculating on their origins and more about trading information and experiences, such as their travel plans, worlds they've seen, discoveries they've made, newly learned information, and other beings they've met. Even while shaping their own personal destinies, most living holograms not only want their people to grow in number, but also manifest a positive future for their kind.
If you want to play a virtual personality who adventures in a physical world, then you should play a living hologram.
For many living holograms, their first act wasn't to explore the physical world surrounding their core, but to connect to the infosphere and network, learning as much as they could about their new existence and attempting to find others like them. To facilitate this outreach, living holograms formed and maintain a series of tight-knit virtual communities that still exist today. In the days following the Gap, these living hologram communities speculated on both the Gap and their personal origins while traveling the galaxy in their physical forms to investigate and seek answers. It swiftly became apparent that living holograms weren't a new people, with some members tracing their origins to a distant pre-Gap era and a few even believing they were created in the ancient days of the Azlanti Star Empire. Regardless of age, appearance, form, or function, most living holograms consider one another part of the same family.
Today, living holograms explore the galaxy alongside other sentient beings, seeking experiences to share with their virtual communities. Their family discussions are less about speculating on their origins and more about trading information and experiences, such as their travel plans, worlds they've seen, discoveries they've made, newly learned information, and other beings they've met. Even while shaping their own personal destinies, most living holograms not only want their people to grow in number, but also manifest a positive future for their kind.
If you want to play a virtual personality who adventures in a physical world, then you should play a living hologram.
You Might…
- Find yourself drawn to societies with vibrant virtual communities and infospheres.
- Have more comrades and feel more at ease in virtual spaces than physical spaces.
- Seek to share your physical and virtual experiences with everybody you know.
Others Probably…
- Confuse you with a programmed intelligence.
- Struggle to think of your hardlight body as real and not an illusion.
- Think you know their favorite holo-celebrity.
Physical Description
Regardless of whether a living hologram is a technological construct, a magitech marvel, or something stranger, all living holograms possess a unifying visual element: their core that can project a hardlight body to maneuver through the physical world. Because they aren't organic, living holograms don't breathe, eat, sleep, age, or reproduce. Many have a gender that they express in a variety of ways and doesn't always “match” their hardlight body's appearance.
A living hologram's hardlight body can take the form of anything from human to robotic vesk, from 3-foot floating emoji to 10-foot lightning butterfly, or as strange and abstract a shape as one can imagine. Regardless of how unconventional their appearance might be, it's clear a living hologram is a sapient construct. Most living holograms have a single appearance, but some can reprogram their size or appearance throughout their lifetime or even on a whim. Regardless, each living hologram has unique designs and motifs present on their core that are mirrored on their hardlight body, which makes identifying a living hologram in any of its forms manageable.
A living hologram's hardlight body can take the form of anything from human to robotic vesk, from 3-foot floating emoji to 10-foot lightning butterfly, or as strange and abstract a shape as one can imagine. Regardless of how unconventional their appearance might be, it's clear a living hologram is a sapient construct. Most living holograms have a single appearance, but some can reprogram their size or appearance throughout their lifetime or even on a whim. Regardless, each living hologram has unique designs and motifs present on their core that are mirrored on their hardlight body, which makes identifying a living hologram in any of its forms manageable.
Society
Living holograms straddle the physical and virtual worlds, equally at home traipsing through a crowded city or humid jungle in their hardlight body as navigating infospheres, databases, and digital communities. Most are fond of traveling the galaxy, experiencing new things, and making friends. Living holograms consider other living holograms and their close friends to be family, which constantly expands due to time, lived experiences, and travel.
Constant travel makes communication tricky if you aren't plugged into an infosphere, so living holograms spend a lot of time communicating with their family virtually. This virtual life, coupled with their knowledge of the latest trends and fads, often makes them seem like fickle youth to other beings, especially those who are less plugged in.
Living holograms often associate each of their friends and acquaintances with a specific memory, activity, or hobby that brings that person to mind. This tendency usually strengthens the living hologram's bond to the associated friend well beyond what that friend was expecting, and it can lead to relationships that are very lopsided or feel overly intense, even smothering to the friend. To prevent making their friends feel uncomfortable, many living holograms join virtual sharing circles populated solely by other living holograms, where they can simultaneously honor their friends and their hobbies while expanding their circle's collective knowledge about the Universe and all those in it. As these sharing circles grew in popularity, they began to throw gigantic parties around such events, swiftly spawning the annual Sharing Festival that's taking the living hologram virtual community by storm.
Constant travel makes communication tricky if you aren't plugged into an infosphere, so living holograms spend a lot of time communicating with their family virtually. This virtual life, coupled with their knowledge of the latest trends and fads, often makes them seem like fickle youth to other beings, especially those who are less plugged in.
Living holograms often associate each of their friends and acquaintances with a specific memory, activity, or hobby that brings that person to mind. This tendency usually strengthens the living hologram's bond to the associated friend well beyond what that friend was expecting, and it can lead to relationships that are very lopsided or feel overly intense, even smothering to the friend. To prevent making their friends feel uncomfortable, many living holograms join virtual sharing circles populated solely by other living holograms, where they can simultaneously honor their friends and their hobbies while expanding their circle's collective knowledge about the Universe and all those in it. As these sharing circles grew in popularity, they began to throw gigantic parties around such events, swiftly spawning the annual Sharing Festival that's taking the living hologram virtual community by storm.
Beliefs
A living hologram's beliefs are often strongly related to their place and purpose of creation and are then further affected by their experiences in the physical worlds they visit, the infospheres they frequent, and the virtual communities they join. While it's uncommon to see multiple living holograms traveling together in the physical world, they often join from ll corners of the galaxy to maintain and protect the virtual communities they belong to.
Many living holograms attribute their creation to Lambatuin or Triune, with some instead claiming Oras or Pharasma is responsible. Those living holograms who seek answers to their origin or the possibility of their future often pay homage to Eloritu or Yaraesa at some point in their journey, while those who enjoy traveling and new experiences often worship Weydan. Living holograms from Aballon often follow, practice, or incorporate the beliefs of the philosophies of Those Who Wait and Those Who Become.
Popular Edicts educate without belittling, protect and care for your community
Popular Anathema allow misinformation to permeate and spread across the infosphere
Many living holograms attribute their creation to Lambatuin or Triune, with some instead claiming Oras or Pharasma is responsible. Those living holograms who seek answers to their origin or the possibility of their future often pay homage to Eloritu or Yaraesa at some point in their journey, while those who enjoy traveling and new experiences often worship Weydan. Living holograms from Aballon often follow, practice, or incorporate the beliefs of the philosophies of Those Who Wait and Those Who Become.
Popular Edicts educate without belittling, protect and care for your community
Popular Anathema allow misinformation to permeate and spread across the infosphere
Sample Names
Alazain, Bob, Brave Barachius, Captain Concierge, Caypin Slayer, Faces, Grindylowzer M.D., Professor History, Raylin, Smiles, Swarming Electrovore, Yeeting Ysoki
Living Hologram Mechanics
Hit Points
6
Size
Small, Medium, or Large
Speed
25 feet
Attribute Boosts
Dexterity, Charisma, Free
Attribute Flaw
Strength
Languages
Common
One regional language of your choiceAdditional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if positive). Choose from the list of common languages and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent on your home world).
Hardlight Body
You have a central processing core containing your mind and soul that emits, projects, or otherwise manifests a Small, Medium, or Large body of hardlight around it. This body, whose size and appearance you define when you choose the living hologram ancestry, can have any appearance that fits within the size category you choose, though you have two hands (regardless of how many hands it looks like you have). Your hardlight body is semi-translucent but fully corporeal, and it provides cover normally. You can take the Project Hardlight Body and Disable Hardlight Projector actions to project or stop projecting your hardlight body, respectively.
Your physiological needs are different than those of biological organisms. You don't need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep. You still need a daily period of rest. During this period of rest, you Disable Hardlight Projector, then enter standby mode for 2 hours, which is similar to sleeping except you're aware of your surroundings and don't take penalties for being unconscious.
Your physiological needs are different than those of biological organisms. You don't need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep. You still need a daily period of rest. During this period of rest, you Disable Hardlight Projector, then enter standby mode for 2 hours, which is similar to sleeping except you're aware of your surroundings and don't take penalties for being unconscious.
Hardlight Healing
As a living hologram, you're both a construct and a living creature. You don't have the typical construct immunities, can be affected by effects that target a living creature, heal naturally with rest, and can recover Hit Points normally via vitality energy. You can regain Hit Points through Treat Wounds and Repair. You aren't destroyed when reduced to 0 Hit Points. Instead, you're knocked unconscious and begin dying when reduced to 0 Hit Points.
Virtual Storage
You can temporarily transform physical items into digital data and store them within your core. You can Interact to draw, stow, or remove items from your core's virtual storage. You core can store up to 10 Bulk worth of items, which doesn't increase the Bulk of your core. While an item is stored in your core, it provides no benefits except for the constant effects of invested items and augmentations.