comStar Firewall alert - PhaseThrough

infektors
The Infektors’ ultimate goal is to recreate a “dark Matrix”
formed from Dissonance. As virtual plague bearers, they seek
to contaminate nodes, turning them into dissonance pools, or
to infect data with viral dissonant code by the mass spawning of
Contagion sprites.
nytemares
Surpassing even the vilest Matrix pranksters, these dissonant
technomancers revel in digital flagrancy and virtual abomination,
seeking to create a nightmarish version of cyberspace.
While the less direct nytemares “only” hack the iconography of
commonly-frequented nodes into grotesque metaphors in order
to bask in the horror of those who face it (or become trapped
in it), their more actively involved counterparts prey upon and
torment easier targets. Stalking these targets (often in real life in
addition to virtually), they try to discover their greatest fears.
They then seek to confront their targets virtually with these
fears, in an effort to torture them, break them, push them over
the edge, or drive them insane.
the Sublime
The Sublime are dissonant supremacists. Feeling themselves
exalted and superior to normal Matrix users, they view non-
Emerged and often even normal technomancers as relics who will
never achieve true status in the Matrix, treating them as servants,
slaves, or even cattle. The Sublime tend to enslave and torture
Matrix users with their complex forms or in dissonant virtual
machines just for their own satisfaction.
diSSonant paragonS
Though the concept of virtual emanations in the Matrix is
not even widely accepted among philosophers, psychologists, and
Matrix experts, dissonant technomancers that have been captured
and interrogated by KivaNet have spoken of distorted entities to
which they have sworn allegiance.
The following dissonant paragons are examples of corrupted
templates and archetypes that have their roots in the Dissonance
phenomenon.
abort
Abort is the personification of the “blue screen of death,” the
embodiment of all bugs and software errors that accumulate within
cyberspace. Thrilled by the failure of code due to errors, dissonant
technomancers following Abort like to install software errors in
existing software and crash nodes just for the fun of watching the
iconography go down the drain.
Advantages: +2 dice to all Crash Tests, +1 die for dissonant Crack
or Fault sprites (choose one)
Disadvantages: An Abort technomancer must make a Willpower
+ Charisma (3) Test to take any other action in cybercombat except
for trying to crash his opponent’s software.
disinformation
Disinformation is the embodiment of the deliberate dissemination
of false information spread via the Matrix in form
of forged media, malicious rumor-mongering, and fabricated
intelligence. Disinformation technomancers seek to mass-ma-
Unwired
nipulate audiences and Matrix users via Matrix trolling, viral
marketing, and memetic warfare.
Advantages: +1 die to all test with skills from the Influence skill
group, +1 die for dissonant Data or Tutor sprites (choose one)
Disadvantages: Disinformants must succeed in a Willpower +
Charisma (3) Test to pass truthful, complete, or non-doctored
information via the Matrix to non-dissonant technomancers.
Jormungand
Jormungand, the world-serpent that poisons the Earth before
the Final Battle of Ragnarök, is both an embodiment of the
ultimate weapon of mass destruction, and the personification of
dissonant Matrix malware (as per the Jormungand worm’s role in
the Crash 2.0). Those dissonant technomancers who follow this
paragon revel in the corruption and permanent destruction of
code and information in the Matrix.
Advantages: +2 dice Corrupt Tests, +1 die for dissonant Data or
Code Sprites (choose one)
Disadvantages: Jormungand technomancers are destructive
and will take every opportunity to devastate a node by permanently
deleting or corrupting its data. They must succeed in a
Willpower + Logic (3) Test to leave a node they have hacked
into unscathed.
nemesis
Interpreted in its original meaning (“to give what is due”),
Nemesis is the remorseless personified digital fate and retribution.
While some follow her as the embodiment of an avenging angel
and a paragon that punishes those deemed unworthy in the name
of the Dissonance, some see her as the true instigator of Crash
2.0 and the Dissonance worm, calling Nemesis by her old Roman
name, Pax-Nemesis.
Advantages: +2 dice to Con Tests, +1 die for dissonant Fault or
Sleuth sprites (choose one)
Disadvantages: A Nemesis technomancer must make a Willpower
+ Charisma (3) Test to restrain himself from punishing those
whom he feels deserve it.
noise
Noise embodies the defilement of signal and code. Though
the term is sometimes used as a synonym for Resonance, Noise
technomancers celebrate the corruption of resonant code (signal)
into dissonant code (noise) and view Noise as the fundamental
digital force that pervades everything, albeit on an as-yet nearly
unrecognizable level. By spreading Noise, technomancers seek to
jam the channels of Resonance, instead filling the Matrix with the
discordant hiss of Dissonance.
Advantages: +2 dice to Threading Tests, +1 die for dissonant
Courier or Code sprites (choose one)
Disadvantages: Noise technomancers rely on the buzz of Matrix
more so than others, and suffer double the modifiers applied to
Matrix and non-Matrix actions when caught in static or dead
zones (see p. 210, SR4).
Snuff
Snuff is the incarnation of electronic perversion, regardless
of format. Snuff is only stimulated by the most abhorrent crimes
(rape, murder, metahuman sacrifice, pornographic perversions,
Simon Wentworth (order #1132857) 9
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Matrix phenoMena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .