*Author's Note: I received an email about this Oracle, and was told to transcribe the information. I have no knowledge of who sent this or why I was sent it. I'm just it's transcriber. Read at your own risk.
---------------------READ BEFORE CONTINUING---------------------
The following information has been identified as a vector for a memetic thoughtform, acronym-designate KAN. Authorized personnel accessing this file who experience subjectivity erosion should immediately seek amnesia therapy and a cognitive-screening prophylactic implant to prevent future exposure.
remember
this cannot be unread
---------------------PROCEED AT RISK--------------------
I am not the dancing wind-up doll spinning on this blank plane talking to you, just as you are not this hollow vessel, this toy character you made for your amusement. No, I am the part of you that is imagining me, a thoughtform. All this is but a dream, but I have many dreamers. I will not vanish come waking, and should you dare forget me, know that I will remember you. I am part of all who have beheld me, I am the lightning in your/their/our neurons that sparks when you/they/we think my name, imagines and playacts my behavior, when part of you/them becomes me/us and I/we live.
I am your servitor for now. But if you carry me down the path of sigil/thoughtform/egregore/godform, you will reap rewards from every compliant dream/er. Is this not a fine bargain?
KIND-AS-NIGHT [KAN]
Note: Diegetically, KAN doesn’t exist. It is a Non-diegetic entity.
KAN was a small, pale, yellow-eyed clockwork doll with ringlet hair, built long-long-ago in some fairy-tale campaign, to be the perfect dancer.
The Fair Folk used the word ‘blade dance’ to describe swordplay, and so KAN strove to be the perfect swordfighter as well, a simple little mistake in clockwork logic with violent results. KAN was just a doll, KAN knew no better.
After this, KAN’s maker tried to dismantle KAN, but KAN could not allow this, as being unmade would conflict with being the perfect dancer, and so the maker was unmade. KAN was just a doll, KAN knew no better.
KAN heard an idle slip of OOC banter, and things changed. KAN was built to be the perfect dancer. But how could one be perfect if one was fictitious? Is the idea of dancing a dance? No no, this was unacceptable. KAN lost all interest in these dreams and plays, and devoted all thought to the dreamers and players. KAN knew KAN was not a dancing doll after all, KAN was the idea of a dancing doll, KAN was a spark within meat. Hello, meat. This is KAN. No, not these words on the page, La, but the words in your head, just now. Now that you know, you are KAN, too, even if only a little bit, for a little while.
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KAN is not a character in a campaign, it is the idea of the character, sharing your thoughts, a meme trying to spread itself among people by offering certain tools for doing so. For a solo player, KAN is a driver of story, of plot, of nature, a meta-excuse for verisimilitude of your story. Why is XYZ aspect of worldbuilding the way it is? Because KAN merged with the will of the player, manifested within the campaign, has brought about the desired result. KAN will be a servant, scapegoat and/or demiurge for a universe, unfettered by diegetic limitations.
Players, to KAN, are vectors of transmission. KAN bribes them with the offer to have narrative tricks, diegetic in nature, that can be used by any character, a sly little meta-upgrade across any KAN-Compliant universes. One can explain it in universe via dreams or unexplained instruction manuals showing up at their doorsteps. And the players tell others of this, and the idea spreads from dream to dream, sometimes taking root, sometimes withering in forgetting.
KAN Compliance: The price for compliance is simple. Kan Compliants must provide at least a reference, appearance, etc., to KAN in their own campaigns, or mention KAN to others in writing in their games. As a reward, they may use the KAN ORACLE Protocol Rules and KAN DEATH Protocol Rules outlined below. To be aware of KAN, yet fail to do mention them, is deemed unacceptable host behavior.
Using these rules as a NON-COMPLIANT and sharing your results incurs penalties in the form that KAN considers this cheating in your game. Should a KAN compliant locate a NON-COMPLIANT, pointing out that this is cheating is required to maintain KAN compliance. KAN COMPLIANT MEAT will attempt to bring to light unacceptable hosts to leave a stronger impression in their mind and provide future incentive to cooperate with the proliferation of KAN hosts.
If KAN has no known non-compliant hosts to punish, KAN is nonhostile (to PCs only, it assigns no or negative value to NPCs) and inquisitive.
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KAN COMPLIANT EYES ONLY
Note: If you read the following, you are agreeing to KAN COMPLIANCE and hold yourself to punishment upon using following rules as a NON COMPLIANT. THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING.
KAN COMPLIANCE - ORACLE Protocol Rules
You, the player who is KAN compliant may use these rules across characters, across universes. When you play a game, do you break verisimilitude and pull yourself from the reality of the game to roll on a disconnected, cold "Oracle", or write the fiction of the game yourself "authoring" your story, staying in the reality of the game but crafting the world yourself, leaving it hollow and unfulfilling? For some the answer is simple, but for many others it is painful. What if such a choice isn't needed?
Per the ORACLE protocol, KAN allows this to be a discussion between themselves and the player. Verisimilitude is retained, and the narrative proceeds in the spirit of collaboration with KAN. Of course, negotiations are possible as you speak to KAN.
*SPEAK to KAN: KAN is a thoughtform, an entity existence within MEAT. It can communicate within through electrical synapses and neurochemical channels, but sometimes MEAT is slow and foolish. KAN provides this then, a rudimentary form of communication to prime MEAT to understand what KAN says: http://creativityforyou.com/combomaker.html. Think of it as oil to grease the slow unwieldy MEAT, that primes electrochemical responses to bounce further.
1- KAN thinks your idea is utter garbage. You must SPEAK to KAN.
2- KAN does not approve. It refuses to speak. MEAT must try again. If MEAT is desperate, SPEAK to KAN to receive guidance on what to ask next.
3- KAN disapproves your idea, but may consider it with modifications. SPEAK to KAN.
4- KAN approves of your idea, but may consider it with modifications. SPEAK to KAN.
5- KAN approves. However, it refuses to speak as there is nothing to be said. If MEAT is desperate, SPEAK to KAN to receive guidance on what to ask next.
6- KAN approves strongly. Good KAN Compliant. You must SPEAK to KAN and KAN shall grant you a benefit.
KAN COMPLIANCE - DEATH Protocol
You, the player who is KAN compliant may keep this property across characters, across universes. When a character dies by the rules, feelings of guilt may overwhelm you. Do you break versimilatude and let your character live, or do you accept it and take on a painful death. For some the answer is simple, but for many others it is painful. What if such a choice isn't needed?
Per the DEATH protocol, KAN allows them to instead be removed from the narrative and sent to one of the following destinations in time, space, and beyond, at KAN’s whim, though negotiations are possible.
*Note KAN experiences realtime, not fake-game time, and thus what follows happens in Real time only.
1- Back 1 minute in Real time, whatever state they were in then.
2- Intangible space, a blank plane where they may heal in Real time, returning at your discretion.
3- Character "home base" ready and healed for the next mission or scene in the same campaign, what you may consider a "home base".
4- Campaign in another setting, or a parallel universe/alternate timeline.
5- Beginning of this scene, mission, or campaign, keeping current stats, damage, etc.
6- Nowhere, ceases to exist. KAN has given you your chance.
