Opal Light

The Opal Light is one of the most common and effective ways of dealing with hostile Transcends. Similar devices to this type of technology can be found in virtually any multiversal civilisation, given the widespread distribution and prevalence of Transcends across the multiverse.

## Description

Like most Void based technology, Opal Lights tend to be capable of shapeshifting, and thus there tends to be little in the way of a standard form between different Lights. The name comes from their glow, which appears as an iridescent light.

## History

Within the Weave, the development of the first Opal Lights was a sordid affair. First developed in the millennia before the First End by the Carrion Queen Beria as a way to add others to mind control others into being her servants and soldiers, the Opal Light served as an extremely potent tool for her conquests. Eventually, her opponents in the Aedentide and Event Horizon, the two major powers at the time, reverse engineered the Light and turned much of her army against her by reversing their mind control. Beria retreated into an empty space region of realspace largely enclosed within a Void Storm, creating a barrier of Void protoplasm to bar the entrance.

On her return, Beria was captured after her second and final attempt at conquest. In an act of irony, the creator of the Opal Light was sentenced to be punished by her creation. Beria's mind was stripped away, and she was no more. In the days since, the Opal Light has featured in every conflict involving Transcends. being among the most effective weapons against them.

## Mechanism

The Opal Light is a Void protoplasm construct designed specifically to interface with and use the power of a Transcend's own projected Void. When an Opal Light is activated via intent within the radius of such a field, the Light partially dissolves into it. Doing so allows the Light to interface with a Transcend's Pattern, and through using their Void field's power completely bypass a Transcend's immunity to most forms of mind control by directly manipulating the Pattern of their Void Core. The interfacing process itself is rapid, though not immediate, meaning that a Transcend will still have enough time to either retreat or fight back should the user not be able to catch the Transcend by surprise. This time is further increased if the Transcend continually creates decoy Patterns over its Void Core, forcing the Light to sift through several fake Patterns to find and interface with the real one. Depending on which stage an individual is at in the Transcendence process, their output of such fake Patterns will vary; First Stage Transcends are often much more limited in their output compared to Second Stages, and Second Stages are limited relative to Full Transcends in turn (with full Transcends having an arbitrarily large output of such fake Patterns). Opal Lights are thus rated in their speed of interfacing for the stage of Transcend they were made to be used against. Once the interface process is complete, the Transcend's mind is at the mercy of Light's wielder.

An Opal Light's grade is as follows:

* Opaque: Opal Lights meant for First Stage Transcends. These are the weakest grade, and can be trivially produced by even Bound civilisations. Useless against higher stage Transcends. Has a fixed interface speed.
* Translucent: Lights meant for Second Stage Transcends. Almost every civilisation included within the Weave and its remnants can mass produce these with relative ease. Has a fixed, though higher interfacing speed compared to Opaque grade Lights. Completely ineffective against full Transcends.
* Transparent: Lights meant to be used against full Transcends. Unlike the previous two grades, Lights of this grade are able to scale their interfacing speed with that of their opposing Transcend, giving them a consistent time to control. Mostly mass produced by fully Transcended or Old Brethren civilisations.

In conflicts and the post Tor Weave remains, the most common and permanent way of dealing with a Transcend is to destroy their mind entirely, inflicting something equivalent to death on the Transcend. The new blank slate of a Transcend is then free for being raised into a part of the user's own forces, or left entirely to develop on their own.

A less common, and more unethical approach is to enslave a Transcend with the Opal Light. Such an application is widely despised, however, and the sight of an enslaved Transcend will often prompt their brethren to fire on the slaver on sight.