Techno-magic

Techno-magic - also known as technomancy - is the application of advanced technology - including Shadow Technology - that creates the illusion of magic. It is utilized by the techno-mages.^[1]

Techno-magic Abilities[]

• Shield: With practice, techno-mages can cast a shield around their body to absorb damage or contain a breathable atmosphere in hostile environments. The tighter the energy weave of the shield, the more effective it was at blocking matter or energy. Shields that had much more loose energy weaves, like a standard grid with wide squares, were particularly weak and could be overwhelmed. Isabelle was well known for her talent for shields.^[2]
• Associate/Disassociate: Techno-mages used this power to make or break connections to their ships, staffs, places of power, or other compatible technology.^[2] Since the implants used by the techno-mages were Shadow technology, adept mages could link with other Shadow technology and vice versa.
• Fireball: Techno-mages can hurl fireballs.^[2][3][4]
• Lightning: Blaylock was capable of casting bolts of lightning.^[3]
• Platform: This ability generates an invisible platform that can suspend items above the ground. With further abilities, mages can move and even ride on these platforms.^[2] They can also be made in a variety of shapes, colours, and textures, although the standard is an invisible rectangle.
• Hologram: Techno-mages can generate holograms like Alwyn's famous red-eyed, golden dragon^[3] or more complex holo-demons, which can actually interact physically with their environment. Holo-demons are capable of possessing computer systems to wreak havoc on the owner's computers.^[1]
• Homonculus: A homonculus is similar to a hologram, but tangible and with apparent substance and weight. Under a techno-mage's control, they could see through the homonculus' eyes snd it could interact with its environment similarly to a holo-demon; unlike a holo-demon, machines (and perhaps people) can physically interact with a homonculus or pieces of one.^[5] Maintaining an homonculus spell required great focus and concentration.^[5]
• Healing: Techno-mages can, with the help of a special crystal, inject their organelles (organic nanomachines) to heal the wounds of other individuals. Master Ing-Radi was the greatest healer the Order has had in centuries. ^[2][3][4]
• Equation spell: Essentially a highly-advanced computer program, an equation spell is a self-replicating data construct that follows the orders given to it by its caster.^[1] The spell can interact with the system and adapt to changing conditions, making it almost impossible to get rid of without being dispelled by the techno-mage who cast it.
• Electron incantation: Through this technique, techno-mages can establish real-time communication with another techno-mage regardless of distance. While under the effect of this ability, the speakers' consciousness is manifest within a sort of dreamscape in which time moves quickly enough for the participants to have whole conversations in the span of seconds or fractions of a second. It is possible to establish contact with non-techno-mages, but it is difficult.^[2] Though techno-mages employ Electron incantations fairly often, even they do not understand the exact means by which it functions.^[2]
• Spikes: Elizar was able to materialize metallic spikes and hurl them at oponents, like in his duel with Isabelle. A variant of this spell could continue functioning on its own inside the victim until killing them.^[2]
• Cylinders of Darkness: Razeel possesed a secret that allowed her to summon cylinders made of darkness that could concentrate energy inwardly, not outwardly, burning anything inside of them with gruesome results.^[6]
• Gust of Wind: Galen used a spell to frighten Londo.
• Fog: Galen used this spell for dramatic effect while frightening Londo.
• Download from the dead: Techno-mages are capable of downloading information from dead brains. This involves cutting up the brain, which may appear to pulse with life for some moments after the process.^[6]

Primal Powers[]

Through the course of their studies Galen and Isabelle uncovered several energetic, primal abilities that underlie the conventional mage abilities and relate to their connection with the Shadows. Galen referred to these primal powers as "basic postulates."^[7] These abilities include but are not limited to:

• Cloak: Galen and other techno-mages can cloak themselves exactly in the manner the Shadows are able to cloak themselves.^[7] This spell underlies a mage's ability to create illusion. However, others who can wield this spell, like Elizar, are capable of penetrating the cloak and seeing a cloaked individual's exact location. Though Galen was cloaked at one point in the tunnels of Z'ha'dum, Elizar was still able to locate him.
• Destruction: Techno-mages can collapse parts of the universe into smaller universes, destroying them completely.^[2] Turbulent and devastating, the Spell of Destruction was accompanied by a feeling of local space-time slowing and distorting, followed by a deafening thunderclap-like sound as the affected region imploded into oblivion. Spherical chunks of the ground, walls, and even body parts disappearing were hallmarks of the Destruction spell being used on an affected area. Galen was the first techno-mage to discover this power^[2], though later on, the Shadows shared the ability to evade this power with Galen's rival, Elizar. Elizar managed to recreate the spell using his own spell language by piecing together information gathered from his interactions with Galen and forcibly retrieved telepathic information from Galen's friends. ^[7] Galen observed that the maximum radius of the Destruction spell was approximately 15 feet, meaning any living beings or objects within the target radius would be obliterated. Galen has used the Spell of Destruction to kill numerous Humans, Centauri, Drakh, and even Shadows. He leveled the City Center skyscraper on Thenothk IV through repeated use of the spell and later destroyed a Shadow vessel and Drakh escort ships in near orbit.^[3][7] A conventional weapon equivalent of the Spell of Destruction would require enormous power. But for Galen, he could call upon the Destruction spell repeatedly in rapid-fire fashion, not needing to pause between uses of the spell. This was due to the techno-mages' implants utilizing zero point energy, granting them incredible power.^[2] Kosh observed that Galen commanded energies as powerful as those wielded by the Vorlons when the spell was used.^[2] The only known defense against this spell was moving a forming sphere of destruction. Only Galen and Elizar possessed this ability. But even when a target could move these spheres, the target could still be overwhelmed with numerous spheres of destruction forming all around them. This was how Elizar ultimately met his demise near the heart of the Great Eye of Z'ha'dum.^[7]
• Plasma Beam: Techno-mages can fire plasma beams from their bodies. Galen, Elizar, and Razeel usually fired the beams from their palms.^[7] Ironically, Razeel was ultimately killed by plasma beams fired from the Shadow substrates near the heart of the Great Eye of Z'ha'dum.^[4] Galen had taken control of the Eye and directed the substrates to kill Razeel.
• Shadow Skin: Underlying a mage's shield spells is a primal spell that can cover the mage in a skin composed of material similar to Shadow vessels. According to Galen's findings, the Shadow skin is 100 times stronger than a mage's shields. Despite the skin's shimmering black external appearance, a mage within the Shadow skin can clearly see everything around them. Additionally, the Shadow skin can filter air for the wearer. While inside a collapsed underground tunnel at Z'ha'dum, Galen could breathe clean air while the area surrounding him was filled with dust.^[7]
• Eavesdrop: This ability allows the techno-mages to hear the Shadows' communications. This ability was originally discovered by Isabelle.^[2] When she used it, she lost consciousness and repeated out loud everything that the Shadows were saying, as though possessed. Galen later refined the ability but the spell still had the effect of subsuming much of a techno-mage's consciousness to monitoring and translating the Shadows' communications with each other and their servants.^[7]
• Shadow Interface: This ability, only used once by Galen late in the Techno-mage trilogy, allowed Galen to directly interface his tech with the main computer systems present on Z'ha'dum.^[7] This interface allowed him to gain information regarding critical Shadow technology, namely the Shadow substrates that were part of the Great Eye. The substrates were living beings or pieces of living beings that were used as components of the Eye.

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