Piloting 101

The Basics

Simply put Piloting is a way to move throughout Shadow or within a single Shadow. Pilots, as that is the title given to those who initiate to this Power, can also transport other beings and/or matter along with each journey they undertake.

While several of the Significant Realms have means to create Pilots and have different organisational structures and operational parameters, the actual abilities of Pilots from different Realms seems to be fairly constant.

The Piloting ability is in fact a Logrus-based Power, that is to say, it relies on the use of metaphysical Tendrils to pull Pilots and any associated passengers or cargo to move within and among Shadow. However, it is very limited to what it can do when compared to other Logrus-based Powers, although this is offset to some degree by the fact that Pilots can move a far greater of amount of material in a single trip.

Getting Started & Climbing the Ranks

Becoming a Pilot is a dangerous undertaking for it risks both the life and the sanity of the aspiring initiate entering the Pilot Logrus for the first time. As a rule, the Pilot should have some degree of shapeshifting, a reasonably strong mind and a hardy constitution to have any hope of surviving the ordeal. Many do not make it out again.

However, even then success is not guaranteed as some potential initiates fail the challenges presented to them when inside. These challenges are shaped in some way by the personality and subconscious of the initiate and therefore each initiation is unique. There is sometimes a maze-like affair, other times a conflict, or it could be a series of obstacles that have to be overcome. There is a theory that what these challenges actually represent how the initiate perceives and interprets what is actually happening inside the Pilot Logrus.

If the ordeal is survived, the initiate should emerge as a newly qualified Pilot. A Pilot’s rank is determined by a similar set of parameters to those needed to survive the thing in the first place. There are three ranks available and in order of seniority they are known most commonly as Courier, Master and Grand Pilot. The actual rank names may differ from Realm to Realm. However this is largely cosmetic detail in terms of actual Piloting ability, but can carry varying amounts of status and responsibilities of a more temporal nature.  

In reality the most striking differences between the ranks is how much load the Pilots can transport whether it is passengers or cargo. The Courier Pilot is able to carry about 10 tons of material. The Master Pilot is able to shift about 5000 tons. The Grand Pilot can move up to the region of 100,000 tons.

An important note is the carrying capacity is rated in terms of mass not weight. Thus the strength of the local gravity is immaterial in calculating how much can be carried.

Perhaps needless to say, the Courier Pilots are the most abundant type of Pilot and the Grand Pilot the least common.

If through experience or training a Pilot eventually qualifies for the next rank, the Pilot can attempt to enter the Pilot Logrus again, and while the risks are still there, if the Pilots re-emerges, the Pilot will be now operate at  a higher rank.

There is however, no advancement beyond the Grand Pilot rank. While it is true that Grand Pilots can learn some extra tricks and skills to do with Piloting, these merely reflect refinements and enhancements than a major increase of transporting capacity.

A Question of Size & Mass

The size of an object to be transported is of lesser importance than the mass. As long as the Pilot can firmly hold or make a good contact with an object and it is within the Pilot’s transporting capacity, then there should be no problem in transporting it. The only other issue is whether the object can fit into the space into which the Pilot hopes to transport it.

The more important consideration for Pilots is an object’s mass, or rather its metaphysical mass.

Luckily for Pilots in the vast majority of cases, a person’s or object’s metaphysical mass is identical their actual mass. However that said, the Items of Significance have a greater metaphysical mass than their actual mass or size would suggest. In some instances when dealing of Items of Significance, the difference of the metaphysical mass and the actual mass of something the size of a ring is so great that it could only be transported by a Grand Pilot.

The Pilot’s own mass and any equipment carried is the first consideration to working out the load of any given trip. Pilot with multiple forms should also bear in mind the differences of size and mass of each form.

When transporting others or other items, these also all count against the Pilot’s transporting capacity.

Getting From ‘A’ to ‘B’

Piloting can be used to move between different Shadows or to move between different points on the same Shadow. However the first thing to point out here is that Piloting is effectively a retrospective power meaning  that Pilots can only go to places that they previously know about. They can’t explore systematically Shadow by use of the Pilot Logrus, nor can they actively seek things in Shadow either. Similarly Pilots can only move between points on a Shadow previously known to them.

Trips invariably take several seconds of relative personal time for the Pilot and any passengers and there is always a slight period of disorientation upon arrival. Thus Pilots are vulnerable at that point.

There are four main methods that Pilots use to move around.

The first is via line of sight. Pilots can simply jump to point that they can see with a certain degree of clarity. While this method has very limited range, it can provide certain tactical opportunities and can bypass certain obstacles barring one’s progress.

The second is via familiarity.  Pilots can travel to places that they have frequently visited or resided in for some time.   The key to how quickly a Pilot can become familiar to a place depends on how striking and unique a place is. The more unique a place is, the quicker the process becomes.

The last two methods involve the use of some of the main tools used with the Piloting ability, namely Piloting Markers and Piloting Stones.

Piloting Markers and Stones

Piloting Markers are smallish ordinary objects of a size that can easily picked up by one hand and are always very intricate in design. Every Pilot usually carries a number of such objects upon their person, although what these markers actually look like is usually down to the whim of each individual Pilot and each marker that a Pilot owns is subtly different to the rest. They could be baseball cards, coloured marbles or small metallic abstract shapes just to pick a few examples. Pilots can travel to any of their own markers, and whatever one they desire. A Marker, for the record, does not have any intrinsic power of its own. It is the uniqueness of its form that is important.

Markers have two main uses. The first is they can be used to give Pilots a point of return to a place they are unfamiliar with. The second is that Markers can be handed to others who can use their own abilities to explore ahead and after finding a suitable spot allow the Pilot to follow on afterwards, usually bringing any supplies and back-up in tow.

There is important consideration to the placement of Markers. They must be placed in an area big enough to allow the Pilot and anything else being transported to fit. This can limit the places a Marker can be hidden on more covert missions and therefore limit their usefulness.

It is theoretically possible for two or more Pilots to use the same set of Markers but this isn’t the norm.

The same can’t be said of Piloting Stones. Piloting Stones are, by their very nature, designed can used by all Pilots theoretically.

These are specially created by Grand Pilots, usually but not exclusively out of stone and tend towards the size of a manhole cover, and often are very ornate. They are often used as longer term or sometimes even permanent installations and are often included as part of the structure they are housed in. Like Pilot Markers, the Stones have no intrinsic power of their own. The placement of such a Stone creates a point where many Pilots can come and go as often as they wish or require.

Since many of these Stones have been placed both Inside and Outside, their locations are widely known, a network has been created across Shadow to allow Pilots to easily ferry others about Shadow, often for a price.

Many Realms have set up official Stones in secure locations similar to Ports or Airfields where they can monitor those entering their domains. Many organizations and important personages have privately owned Stones, not all are known to the Powers that be.

Once again, a Pilot has to know the existence of a Piloting Stone before it can be used by that Pilot. The Piloting ability can’t detect unknown Stones, so they have to be discovered by other means. However, Pilots often exchange locations of Stones with other Pilots, and the Piloting Guilds make sure their Pilots are aware of the Official Stones nominated by the various Realms.

When a previously unknown Stone is discovered, Pilots are expected to report its existence to their Guild or to the relevant authorities where the Stone is located.

Every trip via the Pilot Logrus carries an element of risk, especially when it involves crossing Shadow boundaries. The trip assaults both mental and physical well-being and can have fatal consequences if things go wrong. The Pilot Logrus environment during the trip is particularly hazardous to non-shapeshifters. 

Carriages and other Vehicles

So to protect passengers and any cargo from the ravages of a trip, Pilots use specially shielded, windowless vehicles. It is into these vehicles which the passengers and the cargo are loaded into. Its door is hermetically sealed just before the trip. The Pilot usually sits on top of the vehicle, makes the trip and then let everyone out at journey’s end.

The vehicle provides physical protection from the Piloting Logrus, shields all but the most sensitive from the mental assaults (and even then it causes no more than feeling of anxiety), and allows the Pilot good metaphysical contact with every passenger and every piece of cargo. Also it can help mitigate the worse effects should anything go wrong.

The most common vehicles used by Pilots are known as Carriages, and are designated to carry a load that roughly approximate to that which a Courier Pilot could transport. Other vehicle sizes include Trains (which is larger than Carriages), Ships (even larger still) and Coffins (a vehicle designed for a single occupant). Carriages and other vehicles are built by Grand Pilots.

The downside to using Carriages or any of the other vehicles is that Pilots need to include their mass as part of the calculation for a trip and on more subtle missions, any vehicle used must be hidden or taken back to a safe location to avoid discovery.

Because of a relatively new development in Pilot transportation, a new way to be shielded, called a Bag, because it resembles a body bag. Being both portable and lightweight, it is good enough to provide protection for a single Piloting trip.

One thing to note is that it is possible to dispense with the use of any of these vehicles for journeys that take place within a single Shadow, as the hazards involved are greatly reduced. However the Pilot may still opt to take a vehicle for logistical reasons or if one or more of the passengers has a form that is so vulnerable to effects of the Pilot Logrus that the shielding is still needed.

Some Realities of Piloting

Piloting does allow fast travel across vast number of Shadows, but is tiring, especially for long journeys, attempting multiple journeys in a short time or when travelling at or near to one’s mass limit.

The Piloting ability can be used to travel both on the Inside and the Outside, but not directly from one set of Shadows to the other.  Pilots need to briefly stop at one of the Gateway Shadow between the two Multiverses such as St. James, before continuing onto their destination.

Pilots can’t see via the Tendril their projected point of arrival, so therefore Pilots have no idea of what may be waiting for them at journey’s end.

Through choice or desperation, passengers can travel outside a Carriage, and for journeys take place on a single shadow, in all likelihood they should be fine.

However for journeys that cross Shadow to suffer no ill effects from the journey then they need to possess the same qualities as prospective Pilot initiates. Not possessing these qualities is bad, very bad and can lead to insanity, brain damage, getting Chaos cancer, all manner of injuries of varying degrees, and possible death.

Pilots should be aware that any journey they make can be traced and tracked for a while after it is completed and may set off alarms or wards if someone has thought to include Piloting as a trigger for such things. This is more likely the case on the Inside where Piloting is more widely known about, but it is also becoming more common on the Outside too as more people become aware of its existence.

Pilots are advised to use the official Pilot Stones nominated by the various Realms, unless they have previously obtained permission to arrive elsewhere.

Going Nowhere Fast

Sometimes Pilots are unable to begin a journey at all which can be embarrassing. However there are numerous reasons why this may occur.

It can be as simple as the Pilot’s carrying capacity has been exceeded, possibly due to some object whose metaphysical mass far outweighs it actual mass. The Pilot will be aware of such an item exists if this case.

Alternatively, the trip is being stopped by the use of a Power on either the Shadow of departure or arrival. Here the Pilot Logrus Tendril is unable to lock on to the target hence no travel. The Pilot will get an idea on which Shadow the Power is being used on and whether someone is actively using the Power to stop the travel or it is a passive effect. A Pilot, maybe with some effort, can push through such barriers.

In a similar vein, the problem could be down to some inherent property of either the point of departure or one of arrival and this property stops the Pilot from using or invoking the Piloting Logrus at all.

However, the most likely reason for a Pilot’s failure in starting any journey is that the Stone or Marker being used as the end point for the journey is ‘blocked’. This is to say the Stone or Marker is covered or enclosed in such a way that the Pilot and whatever cargo can’t physically fit into the space left. The use of simple mundane materials will suffice. The Pilot will know the journey is blocked but not necessarily how it is blocked. It might be possible that the Stone already has a vehicle on it and the Pilot simply needs to wait for its removal before becoming ‘unblocked’ again.

In rare occasions, trip failure could be down to the destruction of the Stone or Marker. Again the Pilot will know this but will not know in what circumstances.

If any journey can’t be commenced then if circumstances allow, the Pilot can always attempt it again later to see if it has become possible.

When things go wrong

There are many causes can contribute towards a Piloting trip going wrong, such as tiredness or injury to the pilot, being near on maximum transportation capacity, trips across Shadow, whether the trip needed to be forced through and so on.

While it is not possible to always know why a trip goes wrong, as there are often no survivors, from those examples we know about it, it is due to something happening at either precise moment of departure or during the trip itself.

During the trip itself, it tends to be the fault that some Power has been invoked either by a passenger or an Item either deliberately or by accident and the combination of the Piloting Logrus and the invoked Power causes the Pilot to lose control.

Or in cases where a vehicle is not being used, an unshielded Passenger has physically assaulted the Pilot either deliberately or due to the loss of mental control, could cause the accident.

The examples of Power clashes and physical assault on the Pilot also apply to instances where the problems occurred at time of departure.

However, other examples included additional mass being added to the load at the time of departure, such as people jumping onto a carriage which can distract a Pilot at a critical time and may mean the total load exceeds the Pilot’s transporting capacity.

Another is the Pilot being forcefully separated from the load at that exact moment resulting in both the Pilot and whatever load departing but neither in control.

When things go wrong during Piloting, it is always bad especially for the Pilot who was the one in control of and at the centre of the process. It can result in insanity, brain damage , something that is referred ‘burn out’ which is the loss of all mental facilities, getting Chaos cancer, all manner of injuries of varying degrees, and possible death and these results tend towards the more harmful and lethal. The only thing that can mitigate these effects is the Pilot’s own ability at shapeshifting.

Similarly any passengers unshielded suffer the same level of harm as the Pilot with only shapeshifting as a real defence. Those in a vehicle do have an extra level of protection due to the shielding effect but only up to a point.

Sometimes the journey can be completed, though it may end up in the wrong place and with possibility of being stranded. However, all too frequently some or all are lost in and to the Piloting Logrus.

Conclusion

Hopefully this document proves useful to both Pilots and non-Pilots alike, in pointing out some of the methods used and some of the potential pitfalls. Obviously there are few technical details I felt didn’t warrant inclusion in a ‘101’ document and I wonder if a document like this can ever be a complete guide. I have tried to keep it in general terms for all Pilots rather than biased towards any one Guild.