Kickstarter Item Extended Lore

Hello, I was a Kickstarter at the "Design an Item" level
Here is some of the lore around my item that didn't make it into the 1200 character limit for item descriptions

In-game Specifications

The following was created from 3 in-game screenshots and stitched together so all information could be seen in one image.

You’d normally find this item from a mysterious obelisk very late in the game. (and currently does not have visual effects yet)

Original Description

Unidentified description:
This orb floats above your hand on some sort of alien gravity... it has a core so dark you feel as if you are looking into the heart of a dead star, and yet it emanates enormous power. Ethereal green flames can be seen rising from the orb, and yet they do not burn you, they don't even have any warmth to them what so ever... Passing your hand through the flames you feel a chill run down your spine and can't shake the nagging suspicion some small part of you has been whisked away...

Once identified:
E=mc2 such a simple concept... and yet such devastating implications...

This orb is an ancient matter-energy converter; when new it could absorb the kinetic energy of bullets causing them to fall harmlessly at the wielder's feet and storing that energy in a pocket plane, or unleash all the energy stored in the atoms of a grain of sand resulting in an explosion the size of an atomic bomb.

The pocket plane at the center of this orb is a place of utter darkness, but for flashes of lightning as new energy is added, and endless seas of grey sand from all the untapped energy added by previous owners of the orb.

The last owner of this orb fancied himself a Demigod and indeed the orb made him such. He sought to destroy all religions everywhere, but the faithful have their own weapons and banded together to bring him down.

Whatever power the faithful used on this nameless man, it damaged the orb; while there are no visible lines or defects evident, it is nonetheless cracked. The crack is in it's very tie to this plane of reality and those who might have once known how to mend such a crack are long, long gone.

What this means to you is that the amount of energy that may be passed between the pocket plane and your world is limited, and you are unable to break down matter into pure energy. (Probably for the best.) You can still siphon energy out of attacks or draw on a small fraction of the power stored inside this orb to cast green flames out at your opponents.

This orb has heralded the fall of countless civilizations since its creation, one thing is for sure; whenever it resurfaces it brings about a time of great change for the world.

Backstory

Note: “Engine” is synonymous with “orb” but the exact definition is this; the “engine” is the machinery, whatever it might be, at the heart of the pocket plane, buried under far too much sand to every be reached, while the “orb” refers to the fold of space time that is the physical manifestation of the pocket plane in the castoff's world. “Reactor” means an orb + other machinery to feed and draw on the engine. Each engine responses to a designated user's will (unless installed in a reactor); that user binds the orb to his will by speaking the pass phrase (unique to each orb, this one's is “stabatthee”) and unbinding it by speaking a different pass phrase (this phrase has been lost). Once bound the engine will not respond to commands from anyone but the designated user until unbound either by pass phrase or user death... at least that is how it normally works, as these rules only apply to users *outside* the pocket plane.

Full backstory of the Zero Sum Engines:
Eons ago there was a civilization that discovered both the E=mc2 equation and how to exploit it. Matter is only energy in congealed form; and so can be converted one to the other, back again, or even into different forms. They created these engines capable of extracting all the energy stored in matter, storing that energy in a fold of space time called a pocket plane and then releasing that energy back into the world in a different form. This meant they could turn inorganic matter into food, they could power a planet with reactors who housed such an engine at it's core, and of course such limitless potential enabled them to cross the vast distances between stars. But as always, war broke out and the technology was turned into weapons of mass destruction the likes of which have never before or since been seen. This star empire fell and most of the Zero Sum Engines were destroyed either in the war or so that such a war would never again be possible, but not all of them... (draw similarities to nuclear reactors and nuclear bombs)

This orb was last used by an extremist who saw religion as a disease that corrupted and crippled the minds of children before they could think for themselves. He waged a war on all religions; their places of worship, their priests, and especially their religious schools. The various religions, normally fighting among themselves, recognized the threat this posed to all of them and joined forces against this orb user. Whatever powers they brought to bear against him cause the orb to *almost* lose containment of it's pocket plane. The fold of space time started to expand and unravel, engulfing the orb user and then some. If the containment had failed; two realities would have merged on a local level leading to unimaginably bad consequences, not least of which would have been the death of every living thing on that planet. Fortunately the orb stabilized at the last moment and shrunk back to it's normal size... but it took the orb user with it, transported him physically into the pocket plane, an outcome not even the original creators of the orbs would have thought possible.

Inside the pocket plane that orb user still lives, as time means nothing to him in there, and he has access to the full range of the Zero Sum Engine's capabilities, at least within that world. He has formed for himself a sharp and ominous palace made of glowing green glass out of the shifting sands. The engine tries to keep all stored energy inside the orb in sand form since it is more energy efficient (and I really liked that element of the PS:T universe) and the trapped orb user has to maintain all he has built (and himself) through force of will alone. Food and water are no issue for him; he can form anything he cares to eat from the sands, and after it has passed from his body, it becomes sand once more. He has even created soulless automatons to serve him and keep him company, but no interaction with another sentient being will wear on any man's psyche so he has been trying desperately to reach outside his prison and contact someone, anyone out there. If you want to explore the lore of what exactly he has been doing inside that pocket plane it gets a lot darker; solitary isolation has twisted him and he treats his automatons in perverse cruel ways, which the castoff would kill him for if he ever visited the pocket plane and discovered the horrors there in. Oh and he has named the pocket plane the Darkmoor.

That is where the castoff starts hearing his whispers, and might even be able to talk to him, might be able to learn some of this back story, why the orb is damaged, hell might eventually be able to travel to the pocket plane himself.

aka I had hoped that the player could converse with him through the orb kind of like the Justifier weapon from Planescape Torment. I know, I know, I dreamt big :P

Original Capabilites & Appearance

The damage done to the orb means it can either absorb matter/energy or draw on the energy stored inside the orb to affect the outside world, not both like once had been possible. Furthermore, the energy that comes out of the orb is corrupted and chaotic, which is why you can only draw out green flames. It is no longer possible to shape the energy that emerges due to the damage the orb sustained. Energy is constantly leaking out at a very low level which is the reason for those ethereal flames, but when drawn on by the user's will is more intense and directed which is why it can do damage. But even the user's ability to draw on the chaotic flame energy is variable; usually he can only drawn on a small amount but it can come in surges as well, varying the intensity and localization of the effect. Sometimes it might do an AoE instead of single target (20% chance?) or have a very localized area of such intense flame that it vaporizes what ever was occupying that space. Specifically, the flames have a small random chance to vaporize a target's organ (5% chance?) which organ is random. If the brain or heart is affected, it instantly dies unless the target has more than one such organ. If the eyes are affected, the target becomes permanently blind. If a lung is affected then they will suffer an endurance penalty (or something). If the stomach is affected the target will suffer excruciating pain as they suffer internal acid damage. There are also affects if an arm or leg is disintegrated.

Addendum:
The orb does not normally interact with matter since it is not actually made of matter itself; anyone trying to grab the orb will have their hands pass right through it. Only by speaking the pass phrase does the orb bind to a user and allow physical interaction with it. However, this function can be partially disabled. If you press the orb to your forehead and utter the pass phrase again it will pass right through your skull and lodge itself there; thus giving yourself a black baleful third eye. Doing this extends the orb's energy absorption effect throughout your entire body... and also giving you a crown of green flame as you set your head on fire. (reference WoW's Crown of Destruction for imagery)

The damage the orb suffered makes the energy-matter conversion only function in one direction at a time; either drawing on the energy stored in the pocket plane or else adding to the stored energy, and the quantity is severely limited compared to it's original state. This is why it's potential as a weapon of mass destruction has been disabled, but I'd still like to include that tid bit to emphasize just how much energy that pocket plane now contains, as well as give a sense of how dangerous this thing once was. I also call it “Zero Sum Engine #713” to imply that this was some culture's version of a nuclear reactor at one point, and they were mass produced. I can drop the recent history from the description since that was the part that most people complained about and doesn't have to be in there, we can leave the “how” of it being damage a mystery.

[Drake Ravenwolf]

btw please do let me know if the in-game description ever changed in a patch. Some of the devs had notions that item description HAD to fit a really bizarre format which I really didn't like

[Dubious Muldoon]

That's really interesting. Sucks that they couldn't fit the whole thing, but the backstory and description are really good.

[Drake Ravenwolf]

Read about the real world pigment "singularity black" - I'm gonna make a real life one :D

[FACEPALMBURPFART]

Please make an item description for "cheese omelet". You will make it sound promising an profoundly ominous too :D loved it \o/

[小蝦米]

thanks
It's very interesting and helpful

[Superduperlative]

Very creative and interesting. Good job :)

[bestweiss]

Where can we find the item in-game?

[Lady Liza]

It's really interesting to get the whole story.
Many thanks for sharing it!

[76561197970292812]

armor only absorbs physical* dmg -- while resistance only absorbs the unique dmg types (energy, chemical, trans, and mental) -- i can confirm as of the newest beta release *relativistic* dmg counts as one of the unique types of dmg but also bypasses resistance. in other words: its a pure dmg type. goes through everything. have fun with the game guys!

[Duck]

"Everything is relative"