Datascape Races: Programs, Users, and ISOs

[Game Master]

Datascape Race Directory 
[ Users | ISOs | Death in the Datascape ]

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Programs are the native Denizens to the Datascape, either created by people outside of the Datascape or by the MCP to accomplish something. Programs in general are very simple beings, and their society doesn't have the emotional and relationship content that the outside worlds possess. This is because Programs are not created with a Heart or a Soul.

Despite these limitations, Programs are an intelligent and efficient species. They can process information very quickly, but they are also specialized to fulfill specific roles. While a User may be able to do many things well, a Program can do a few things with Mastery. However, because of the nature of them and their world, Programs are completely incapable of using or learning Magic.

Most commonly, one can find Programs working throughout Space Paranoids and the Grid. Some Rogue Programs have rejected their culture and fled into the depths of the server worlds and the Data Worlds. While Programs may go Rogue for a variety of reasons, it is common for Programs that manage to develop a Heart to do so more than the rest. A catch-all term used for both the orderly and the rogue programs is BASIC.

Aside from the BASICs, there is another kind of Program called a Virus. When a Program loses its Identity Disc for any reason, its code can begin to deteriorate. This decay will result in processing anomalies analogous to a variety of mental illnesses, though mostly reflecting either Emotional Disorders or Psychopathy. Viruses tend to be malicious and destructive even if they lack the self-awareness to recognize themselves as such, but are thankfully very rare.

Program Racials

• A Program is born without a Heart or Soul, and is a being of Information. It can use the Data Element without needing an Identity Disc, and will keep its permissions even after the loss or destruction of its Identity Disc until it can be properly contained.
  
• In order to receive permission updates, create new Commands, and apply earned statistic points a Program must have its Identity Disc. Without this Identity Disc it can not do anything of these things, and will slowly become more Viral in nature. The Identity Disc also constantly saves the Program's progress to the MCP and the servers as long as the Program has it, but will cut off automatically if the Program loses it or is infected with a Virus.
  
• Programs are beings of information, and can not physically enter the Realm of Light or the Realm of Darkness. They can navigate these realms through a mobile medium such as a Robotic Body, but they can not truly exist outside of those mediums. However due to the similar nature of the Realm of Sleep, and the neutral nature of the Realm of Nothing, they can be enabled to enter those planes as though they had bodies.
  
• Programs can freely move through and inhabit other Digital Spaces, as they too are similar to the Datascape (if smaller in scope). However, that does not mean they carry over their permissions and commands to this new area of coding, unless it was hacked into using the Datascape. Through this way, they can usurp the control of digital spaces and become the MCP of those areas.
  
• When not in Space Paranoids or The Grid, a program may freely alter its appearance to suit itself to the world around it. It retains its Identity Disc, but it becomes invisible until activated.
  
• Programs, as beings of information, can not utilize Magical or Supernatural abilities. All of their skills and abilities will be assumed to relate to the Datascape. Additionally, their Magic will be Tier 0 and can not be raised.
  
• Programs are capable of Networking with other programs within their AOR in order to share their Memory Capacity, their Available RAM, Usable Commands, and permissions. This process is additive, and the Memory and RAM are shared among programs. If two programs that have already used up their Memory then Network, they have access to the Commands occupying the other's Memory and no more. If one has an ability that is using up RAM, that Ram is used up for all Programs involved.  In order for Programs to Network, the participants must be willing.
  

It should be noted that whichever Program is the MCP not only has the highest permissions, but it is Networked into the other Programs far more thoroughly than they are into it. The MCP has access to all Commands that exist in the Datascape. It does not share its Memory, RAM, Commands, or Permissions with other programs unless it desires to, but despite being Networked into other Programs already can not increase its own available Memory and RAM until those Programs have the MCP within Networking range. The MCP still requires permission from these Programs to access their resources.

[Game Master]

Datascape Race Directory 
[ Programs | ISOs | Death in the Datascape ]

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Users are the catch-all term for beings from the worlds outside of the Datascape, though it most primarily refers to Somebodies who enter the Datascape through the "legal" method of digitization. While their abilities do not change, they do gain new ones specific to them in the Datascape, such as the ability to link with Programs and utilize the Commands at that Program's disposal through an Identity Disc. They can be given the same permissions as Programs, but need to be linked in order to fully utilize those abilities.

Nobodies and Heartless can not be digitized. Nobodies are esoteric embodiment of non-existence, and Heartless are esoteric embodiment of Darkness. Since the digitization process only works on what it can turn into information, it doesn't recognize the nature of either species as being compatible. That is not to say that they can not enter the Datascape- they must simple do so through alternative means.

Entering the Datascape through any method other than digitization, while possible, will trigger a security alert. The MCP can choose to respond to this through a variety of methods. Entering this way also prevents a person from gaining an identity disc and being converted into Data. This means that Commands won't work on them directly, but prevents them from utilizing Commands as well. More over, Commands that change the environment still have the same effects upon them, and instead of taking virtual damage they run the actual risk of real Death.


User Racials

• Users gain an Identity Disc that can be used as a weapon, and allows them  to link  to Programs that allow them to do so. Linking to these programs will allow them to share permissions, memory and RAM while gaining access to the Program's Commands
  
• Where a Program would retain all of  its information without an Identity Disc, a User only retains what they entered the Datascape with if something happens to their Identity Disc. If their Identity Disc is destroyed, they will be treated as though they entered illegally
  
• Since the User entered the Datascape through a terminal, they are able to log out at any time by simply wishing it, even if they lack their Identity Disc. Logging back in will restore the Identity Disc to them, and they will be "reset" to the exact point before the MCP lost contact with that Identity Disc
  
• Users can not die in the Datascape. If they KO'd and then subsequently killed, they are forced out of the system and re-digitize in the real world
  
• Users can be banned from entering the Datascape for as long as the MPC decides to ban them for
  

[Game Master]

Datascape Race Directory 
[ Programs | Users | Death in the Datascape ]

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Despite the ordered nature of the Datascape, it does have its random components that aren't as noted or advertised within the world. These random bits of code and information, when catalyzed just the right way, create something within the Datascape that isn't accounted for.

These Isomorphic Algorithms, known as ISOs, are very rare beings that spawn within the Datascape. Unlike Program which are purposefully created to an end, ISOs are accidents pure and simple. Yet, because of the nature of their creation they display very human tendencies. They have Hearts and Souls, and thus a full range of emotions. However, they are still Programs in a fashion, capable of being deleted and killed like any other. If deleted in the Datascape, while their information may remain their Heart and Soul go to the underworld. Attempting to recreate that ISO's physical form afterwards will simply result in a Program based off of that ISO.

Despite their emotions, ISOs are a more constructive and orderly race than their counterparts from the outside world. Since they lack bodies, they don't have physical desires or needs, and their emotions are not chemically based. Leaving the Datascape can give them a physical form, but unlike other bodies this one is absent of things such as hunger or lust. As long as nothing kills the ISO, they can live a full lifespan in the outside world without physical needs interfering.

At the same time, since they are simple like Programs they are capable of acting as an MCP. They manipulate Data the same way as programs, but they can also be taught to use Magic. Because of their random occurrence, their skill trees aren't required to be specific to the Datascape.


ISOs Racial

• To have an ISO, you must have at least one character Tier 3 or higher
  
• ISOs not only get either light or darkness as their Heart Element, but they also gain Data too. Data does not occupy a primary slot for them.
  
• Like Programs, if an ISO loses its Identity Disc it can not gain updated permissions, or create new Commands. However it can still gain statistic points, create spells and its code doesn't decay into a viral state
  
• ISOs have the ability to passively heal damage and injury. If an ISO is KO'd, it automatically begins to rapidly restore itself to full health. It only takes two posts to do so per END tier. After the ISO is fully healed, it automatically awakens from KO. If an ISO is not KO'd, they slightly heal themselves every two posts
  
• ISOs are capable of entering the outside world without using a medium (though they can use one like a Program). Leaving the digital space may be disorientating at first for them, though
  
• ISOs can not be affected by abilities that play on physical wants or needs
  
• Like Programs, ISOs can Network with other Programs and gain the same advantages.
  

[Game Master]

Datascape Race Directory 
[ Programs | Users | ISOs ]

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What happens in the Datascape when a Character dies?

It is important to note that Programs wouldn't recognize death in the same manner somebody from outside would. When a program is "killed", either because it is deleted, derezzed or otherwise destroyed it doesn't truly disappear. Its most recently preserved information is in the possession of the MCP, who is capable of recreating that Program as it was at the point it was preserved. Due to several protective features, this is always at a point before the program was infected with a Virus, or at the last moment the Program had an intact Identity Disc.

Users who have come in legally don't die, either. Instead of being killed, they are forced out of the Datascape and are not permitted to enter again for a full day while the MCP sorts their information appropriately. Upon their next log in, they will be back to their most recently preserved status before being "killed" prior.

An ISO is a different scenario altogether. If an ISO is killed in the Datascape, its Heart and Soul go to the Underworld. However, its information is preserved by the MCP. The MCP can recreate the ISO's body as a Program, but the ISO remains in the Underworld. If it gets back into the Datascape, it can re-enter its body, however it will retain that body's permissions in the Datascape.

If a User enters the Datascape through illegal means, then if they are killed in the Datascape they die as if they died in the outside world and no special conditions are applied to them.

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