Faun

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''He knew his name once, but those days are long gone. The memory is retained, but that part of his mind is physically separated from the rest of his brain, if such a natural word could be used to describe what he uses for thought now. It is there, though, waiting to be accessed again, masked by two scars which serve as warnings and reminders of the two times he had uncovered it before, only to seal it away again. It is his true name, his first life, and the genesis of what he is now.''

If one could find that memory, a tangle of neurons without connection to the rest of the brain, they might be able to peak inside. They might push past the two warnings that are there and continue to look deeper. There is a great sadness there, though it is only personal. To those who are capable of reading this memory, floating in an obscure pocket realm, the pain of such internal tragedies may seem insignificant in their abundance. However, they forget themselves. Such emotional pain has been the death of those who would never die another way. 

Overview
Faun is the child-god, a walking example of the duality of experience and ignorance. She is absurdly emotionally intelligent, but somewhat ignorant of many worldly things at the same time. She is innocent, yet experienced. She is a powerful shapeshifter, and fancies herself some sort of nature-god, though her mind is not tainted with the draw toward competition and hierarchy that a human's mind is.

She is also an ex high-roller from the 1250s. She suffered a great pain at that time in her life and sealed the memory away. She spent the next few hundred years living as various animals, eventually returning to human society around 1900. She then garnered lots of power and began to invite other beings on games. She is obscure and powerful. Her goals involve the rebalancing of nature and the preservation of life on earth. What follows is a more in-depth but still not exhaustive summary of Faun's character. It's a joyless, textbook-like examination of her character, but there's so much to tell that a more emotionally satisfying telling would probably fill the pages of a novel (who knows? Maybe I'll write it one day.)

A Brief History
Text in italics are parts of Faun's memory that have been sealed away. [removed] things are bits of information that she has permanently destroyed in her mind. Not even traces are left.

-The Genesis- He was born in 1218 AD, England. This is the first life, the genesis. His name was [removed], he was a male human. [removed] was a skilled thief and archer, and he loved his wife and two daughters [all names removed]. During the 1250's he began to participate in the House Games where he was granted his supernatural powers, though at this time they were remedial. There was a group that she was a part of. It contained several supernatural beings who would go on adventures. But which one was she? One day, he was caught hunting the local king's deer. The king then slew his family as punishment. Driven mad by pain, the man inserted himself into the womb of a she-wolf using his shape shifting abilities. While inside the womb his brain was opened and he grew familiar with its format. He took this opportunity to lobotomize himself, sealing away all knowledge of his life thus far.

-Alpha and The Waking Sleep- And so was born a wolf, female, particularly smart for an animal. She had no name because wolves do not name each other, and the concept did not exist. We can call her Alpha, though. Alpha grew to adulthood, mated, and gave birth to a litter of pups. While out hunting one day, her den was invaded by the beasts that walked upon two legs. She could do nothing but watch from a safe distance as her pups were slain. Animals do not have the luxury to live with a broken heart, and she knew it was her duty to pass on her genes. She could not fail.

Alpha did succeed. She gave birth to a new litter two springs later. This time she was fiercely protective of her children. They grew quickly and she lived to see them escape. Alpha died of old age.

The next thing she knew, she was trapped inside a small place. She broke out of her dark prison and into the world, though now she was not a wolf, but a bird and a male. Still he remembered all from his time as Aplha, but that is not who he was now. He could not dwell on the past, so he lived his new life. This cycle continued for many years. Each time it was born as a different (non-human) animal, somewhere else in the world. It was a fox, then a bacteria, then a starfish, then a shark, then a tiger, and so on. The memories between lives persisted, and the new creature began to think about itself. It began to think about life and ponder purpose. These creatures were very successful at passing on their genes. Then, 642 years later, she was reborn as a female wolf again.

-Sunkmanitutankapi- One winter passed, and the wolf was near full grown. At this point a male wolf mated with her and she conceived a child. She peered into her womb as she had learned to do over the years. Inside her body, though, she felt a strange new life growing. It was male, but there was something decidedly different about the way it wore its flesh, even at this point in his life. She extended her will into it and forced a change. The fetus within her began to change its shape, and when she gave birth to the metis werewolf, she was given the name Sunkmanitutankapi. The name of the child was T'ankapi Oihankesni Hena.

Eventually rage overtook the caren on the subject of the father was was said to have produced a metis offspring. This was a great taboo, and Sunkmanitutankapi and her mate sacrificed their lives to give T'ankapi time to flee the tribe. As her spirit drew near to a possible new body, she made the conscious decision to seal her mind away within a timed egg, and to live her next life purely with the intelligence of a human, for that is the creature she had next chosen.

-Rebirth, Direction- Tom was born in 1910 in Whitehorse, Canada. He was raised as a normal human to the age of twenty, which was when the egg broke. The young man's mind was flooded with the experience of centuries. His life was vastly overshadowed by the sheer amount of other beings that his mind now contained the memories of, and he ceased to be Tom at that point. Still, though, there was no new identity to cling onto.

With the mentality of a human still fresh in his mind, he decided to keep himself alive and adopt a goal. The cause that he adopted was to preserve the earth and to rebalance and enforce a new relationship between humanity and nature. He would not fight battles, though, no his strategy was crafted slowly and carefully. He would gather power and knowledge. He prepare until he could achieve his goal in an instant. For anyone else this would have been impossible, but he was special.

-Rise to Power- What followed next was a somewhat unprecedented expansion of personal abilities without outside influence. During the next few decades the being made many leaps and bounds in the honing of its skills. First it mastered the art of shapeshifting, though it continues to learn to this day. Next it created a method by which it could displace a portion of another entity's soul, thus drafting it into its own being. These drafted entities would be known as the disciples. Underground lairs made of living flesh were constructed around the world, laying dormant or used as storage spaces, workshops, areas of meditation, living quarters for the disciples, etc. These were called the grottoes.

At this point one of the disciples, the entity known as the eyes, created a plan for a new networked brain system that would increase productivity dramatically. After the implementation of the new brain, the being of interest was able to superstantiate itself. The brain has been improving itself since. A new method of gathering information was invented. This was a variation on the disciple drafting technique. It would allow for the creation of “thoughts.” These beings were bound with a one-way link that fed memories, knowledge, and emotions into the disciples. The disciples then pass the information onto the being. The link is elegant and subtle, it is unlikely that anything short of the Clever Prince would even notice it. This new knowledge base, currently containing over 3000 of the top mortal minds on the planet, led to further increases in the efficiency and complexity of the brain.

Construction of several viruses commenced next. The mew virus would imbue a single, chosen mortal out of those infected with the power to continue the being's cause should it die a permanent death. Several less important viruses were also crafted in this time with various small effects. One pioneers the possibility of using viruses to shape shift others on a large scale. While effective, this virus takes a very long time to complete its course. Also discovered at this time was a special DNA end-cap molecule that could be applied to biological matter to prevent alteration through any mortal means. The cap consisted of Flourine, Gold, and Nitrogen. One atom each.

The most frightening thing produced in this time, however, was the Omega virus. The being foresaw that although its obscurity was a very powerful asset, the day would come when it would need to leave that shelter and enact the final stage of its plan in public. When an inevitable confrontation arises, the being will need an ace in the hole to assure its safety. This is that gun; the gun that can be pointed at the head of the earth. The virus is designed to require a specific input that only the being itself, with its unique abilities, could provide. Deprived of this input for long enough, the virus would mutate into a very lethal form. It has the capability to infect and kill any mortal, living animal life on earth and probably some supernatural life that would be killed by organ and brain failure. This virus has been created successfully, but it remains locked away in the central grotto. The being has not yet decided to use it, but if it continues with its plan, it may need to use it as a threat to assure that its plans proceed without interference. After all, most would prefer a small alteration to the balance of nature over the extinction of most animal life on earth (similar to what happened with the dinosaurs, although probably a bit more severe than that). The risk, though, is so great that the being is still weighing the option of using it or not. Weighing that option very carefully.

-The Name- Several of the next steps of the being would take it into direct confrontation with the supernatural community. In order to preserve its anonymity, it decides to hire gamers to do the dirty work. The powers that be provide it with names through thoughts directly implanted into the brain. These are the names and locations of the high-rollers of course. In order to interact with humans again, the entity would need to decide upon an identity to put forth. It decides that the form of a human woman and the name “Faun” is ideal and fitting for interactions. So the games begin.

To date, the only request for a reward that she has put into the Powers that Be (through thought) is to be protected from time-travelers.

Abilities
Faun is a shapeshifter. A great shapeshifter, actually, probably the best in the world. She really possesses only three supernatural abilities, but she has absolute mastery over two of them. They are as follows: 1. The ability to alter her own biological substances (shapeshifting) 2. The ability to reflect, refract, and shatter souls and spirits over analog dimensionality (soul prisming) and 3. She is a very, very fast learner.

Being a very fast learner (like the fast learner merit only with a point value of 100 instead of 5) has allowed her to master and pioneer advances in her other two abilities that brings her past the level of just about anyone else who wields them. This ability is not a physiological portion of her anatomy, but a separate force that creates connections in her brain for her. Later, in the construction of her new brain, this ability is utilized as a foundation of thought processes. Other than that, though, it is rarely used.

Soul Prisming is a more commonly used ability of Faun. With it, she learned to exist simultaneously in total analog dimensionality. Essentially that means that she maintains a conscious, single presence in all dimensions (shadowlands, umbra, pocket realms in the area etc.) as well as the spaces in between all dimensions. In the “real” plane she exists in space-time 6, or three dimensions of space and three dimensions of time. She has not yet figured out what the ramifications of existing in three dimensions of time means, but she is fairly certain that it makes her less susceptible to attack and not more. Her triple time dimensionality is something that she cannot wield as a power and does not actively perceive or regulate. It's just there. With soul prisming she is also capable of transubstantiation other living things into private dimensions where they will be susceptible to attack that will manifest itself in the real world. This skill allows her to This is a key ability, as it is part of what allows her to shape-shift others.

Faun's shapeshifting ability is the most developed and relevant of her three powers. It is her identity in a way, and she can rely on it when she can rely on nothing else. Soul prisming is a necessary chore to her, something that protects her, and shape shifting is her art and her love. She alters her form on a cellular and molecular level. She is frighteningly quick with it, and absolutely in-tune with all activity inside her body. In fact, she consciously makes all connections and thoughts in her brain with her shape shifting abilities as a defense against mind readers and thought control. More on that later, though.

At this point in time, fawn does not draw upon a power source for her shapeshifting abilities, not even her will. To her, her entire body is like a thought is to us, able be altered, created, destroyed, or forgotten at whim. If she can conceive of it, she can probably shape-shift into it. If nothing stopped her, she could easily transform into a massive creature and consume the earth, though she would never do so. Anatomy is an art to her, and her skill with the craft is beyond all comprehension. She makes grandmaster flesh crafters and werewolves look like twilight fanfiction writers.

Though she is only able to technically shape shift herself, she has devised several ways in which she can extend her influence to those around her. The most rudimentary way in which she does this is by creating designer bacterium and viruses within her self and then releasing them at a target. These can have any number of effects, but usually dramatic transformations are out of the picture with this method. She typically carries a small pocket realm with her and uses soul prisming to substantiate all living things around her into it. Once there, she extends tiny tendrils into the milions of reflections and joins their bodies to her own. This allows her to shapeshift others as though they were herself. The reflections are rendered unconscious by a massive triptophane overdose instantly, so they are unaware of the event.

Needless to say, these shapeshifting powers are nearly useless on the undead or robots of the like. Faced with such an adversary (which has happened maybe once? Twice?) Fawn can decide to smush them into tiny pieces (she is a very capable fighter given her shape shifting abilities), or revive them in order to kill them again. Restoring life to a corpse is very, very difficult, though, so she would almost certainly just attempt to destroy their bodies. Given her overwhelming adoration of life and anatomy, she harbors some bad feelings about the undead and robots. “A corpse that has fooled itself into thinking it is alive. This is an abomination.”

Given all the freaky supernatural things in the world and her lack of supernatural ability variety, Faun has needed to be very creative with her defenses. Her brain, for example, exists in tiny pieces, scattered throughout partial dimensionality. Each piece must shape-shift to produce thought or access memories or anything like that. If one part of the brain is compromised, the rest of the brain has permission to terminate it (cutting out the cancer). Think of each of those pieces as being like a cell in our body, the whole of which creates a completely new organism. This brain is further enhanced by the presence of “thoughts” and “disciples.” She has invented a type of networked super hive mind that allows her to process information very quickly. She uses almost 100% of this extra brainpower to deal with this massive constant stream of information the brain is receiving from all of her “thoughts,” “Disciples,” and sensory organs existing within every dimension.

Presence in the Supernatural Community
Fawn has almost no presence in the supernatural community. Her main communication with other supernatural beings is through the games, where she is given opportunities by the powers that be (spoken into her head), and she contacts the gamers for the job. Of course once upon a time she was also a gamer, but that was about 800 years ago now. Other than that, she once stole three supernatural beings and bound them to her (her disciples), and once she was a wolf that is known in Garou society (Sunkmanitutankapi).

She has very little knowledge of supernatural culture beyond these things. She is a part of no culture (supernatural or otherwise). If she encounters other beings, she just plays by her rules. In this way she is somewhat like a wild animal: approach her at your own risk. Those knowledgeable of her presence generally see her as dangerous enough not to approach and neutral enough not to be worth approaching.

The Games
The very first objective was to activate and spread the Mew virus around the world. Using a blood ritual with her own blood (she crafted the daggers and sheathes from her own flesh within her body and then removed them to give you the players), she activated the virus and grew a tree to produce the virus en masse (the shape of a tree is a natural focus). The three was successfully created by utilizing the energy of a life-spirit incarnate, and the virus it produced was spread around the world. She found that the life spirit was tied to a mason being that she remembered from Genesis, the first life. She sends her hand to kill him, as he may be responsible for the pain she keeps locked away, or have secrets that she could use.

The mouth was sent with a new group of high-rollers to Gralam's lair, where they were to find the klaive of First-to-Fall. The Rokea who were charged with the protection of the area were no match for the mouth, who had been given the ability to turn into a sea serpent before the game by Faun. The Klaive was successfully retrieved for study, and then the spirits trapped within it were freed. The empty blade was dropped into the water.

Both Capitaland and a local werewolf tribe in Singapore were fighting over a bit of land that contained one of Faun's grottoes. Also in the area was Pierre, a man who had unwittingly killed the Mew Tree by walking near it a few little while earlier. Of course the tree's job was already done, but you don't fuck with Faun without getting bitten. So she takes out three birds with one stone by sending the gamers in and letting her eyes and mouth manipulate the situation to her favor. After changing the appearance of one of the mercs to look like Adrian, Pierre's spirit was broken. The land deal was forgotten and vengeance was extracted, but Fawn took mercy on poor Pierre and brought him back to life in the body of a cat she had created for him. This way he could continue to watch his brother. He is a possible candidate for becoming a disciple in the future.

With the knowledge that she gained from studying the klaive of First to Fall, Faun decides to bond an army to herself. Such an army exists in canada in the form of a cult that has already taken steps to join their spirits. The Gamers are sent to finish the ritual in Faun's favor and they succeed. Faun has bound to her now two hundred and fifty “Teeth.” She can transform them and control their actions at whim. They are her elite troopers now, but they spend almost all their time sleeping in her Grottoes.

At this point it was brought to the attention of the faun through a thought that her sole surviving son, T'ankapi oihankesni hena, had been captured by a group of scientists that were hired to study the medical benefits of werewolves. [The employer of these scientists has been left unestabished] She sends gamers into the area and then wipes out the scientists with her teeth. The cure that was discovered there would certainly upset the balance of nature and force her hand too soon. Again, two birds with one stone.

Faun remembers Delir from when she was a high-roller, and discovers that he is coming back. She decides that she wants to take the opportunity to talk to him, so she sends the gamers to capture him. [The resulting information gained from their conversation was left unestablished].

Faun's pissed. How difficult is it to go kill an embodiment of Qwyrl that's just sitting out there in the umbra? She sends her eyes, disguised as a wolf, to rally the high-rollers and help them defeat the beast. Her anonymity is preserved, and the embodiment dies. This is one of the only direct actions she's taken in line with her ultimate goal.

Faun learns that there is such a thing as a soul prism (probably from Delir). Obviously such a device is massively dangerous to Faun, as it allows something to affect her as a whole body instead of just scattered pieces. She sends the high-rollers to gather the worldstones that are needed for entrance into Atlantis, but they are intercepted by the Illuminati who have their on agenda. Faun proceeds to be pissed about human information systems and culture for a while, but she can put her eyes to work creating the moonstone that the players failed to obtain.

We've already talked about Minutellus.

Recently, Faun sent a group of high-rollers to capture two humans that she had turned into animals (animals she designed) by a prototype virus. The players succeed, and she keeps the beasts in one of her Grottoes now for further study.