Role Maintenance and Destruction

By Eric Bertish

Role Maintenance

Just as relationships are living things that must be maintained, so too are roles, for they are in many ways a celestial's relationship with human society. For each level of Role the celestial possesses, it must spend one hour per day in active pursuit of that role's identity in order to keep this relationship healthy. This maintenance may be neglected for brief periods with no ill effect, but if at the end of a week's time the celestial has not performed the requisite hours, the Role degrades by a level.

A notable exception to this rule is the Role/1. Consisting mostly of paperwork, there is little that needs be done to maintain it (except in cases of Role Destruction; see below). Simply by being in the vessel to whom the Role belongs, and answering to its name, is sufficient for maintenance. Degradation only becomes an issue if the vessel has not been occupied in over a week.

Degraded Roles may be returned to their previous state only through concentrated effort. If, during the next week, the celestial spends double the amount of hours neglected, the Role may be returned to normal on the eighth day. This penalty is cumulative, which means that any Role higher than 2 becomes effectively impossible to repair if neglected.

1. Investigation. As one might expect, a Role cannot be compromised if it is not known to exist. Surveillance of known Tethers is standard operating procedure for both sides, and anyone whose frequency of appearance is deemed 'suspicious' is targeted for Penetration. Surveillance can take any number of routes, including but not limited to: Visual observation, listening devices, satellite photography, Resonances, Songs, and pure dumb luck. For this reason, tethers often have anti-surveillance teams which sweep the surrounding areas on a frequent, yet random, basis.
   
   
2. Penetration. Cross-checking through police records and DMV files will typically yield the name, address, and social security number of the suspected celestial. As these are the minimum requirements for a Role/1, any individual without such credentials is immediately pegged as a celestial; however, Role destruction is then impossible in this case. For all other instances, in-depth research is begun to trace the individual's paper trail and search for inconsistencies. To determine if a Role is penetrated, roll against its level for each week of scrutiny. Most investigations will not last more than four weeks, and depending upon circumstances a GM may assign bonuses for each week after the first. Note that all mortals have effectively impenetrable roles.
   
   
3. Destruction. Compared to the previous steps, this last stage is pitifully easy. Deletion of credit records, alteration or destruction of paperwork, and 'liquidation' of those able to affirm the celestial's identity are all standard procedure. By destroying each link the celestial has to the Role's 'realness', the less effective it becomes. Assume it takes one week of active 'deletion' to degrade a Role one level. A celestial whose Role has been degraded thusly may attempt to repair it using the aforementioned method - but its time will be better spent in finding and eliminating those responsible for its degradation.

   

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