Technological Magic

Where to start on Technological Magic... It's just as weird as Void Magic, in its own way. It lacks any Crysium Shards, yet has a bloodline legacy somehow even more tenuous than Void Magic. Its power is truly special, but the costs of that power are intensive indeed... and as far as everyone in the cluster is concerned, it doesn't exist.
— Tsuki Koike, Eleventh Radiant Empress of Aurelia

Technological Magic is one of the most recent magical innovations of the cluster, and the one most closely blending the magical and technological aspects of life. As far as most corners of life are concerned however, its existence is effectively repressed and denied.

History of Technological Magic

Before the Gates

As far as most studies have shown, the Hysilens had little inherent knowledge of anything approaching a technological magic in the vain of modern technological magic; they understood a nonmagical principle known as Artifice - which Aldrin utilises actively - but never anything like true technological magic.

Early History

By all metrics, the Terran's initial forays into the cosmos and study of magic was what began to slowly unravel community research into technological magic, and even at this early a stage, its power became evident, but its reputation would be all but destroyed after the AURA - a creation of Terran Technomancers designed to terraform worlds for human colonization - went rogue and became immune to Technological Magic, waging the brutal AURA War against humanity itself. While the threat to humanity had been defeated, Technological Magic was effectively stained forever by the reputation of being to blame for the rise of AURA, especially in the cluster where the machines never ceased to be problematic.

Modern History

In spite of the stained reputation, Technomancers still received training for their craft all across the cluster; ostensibly, technological magic had been heavily curtailed, but in reality it was simply flourishing behind closed doors, and with significant governmental oversight, ensuring that nothing like the creation of the AURA could happen again.

A Spotty Legacy

The sheer power of technological magic in the current climate of the cluster is directly to blame for its clandestine nature, as opposed to its role in creating the AURA - yes, the machine collective was a big reason for the situation, but it was far from the only reason, the reality is that its ability to so greatly influence the cluster has led to control over Technomancers being very tight. This is for very good reason, as technological magic has proven capable of controlling most-all technology they encounter; not without risk, mind, often very significant risks, but all the same the ability to usurp control of a starship's AI systems like the AURA can is directly to blame for the lack of automatization across the cluster's spacecraft industry, and while the AURA is the cited reason for that, Technomancers have a big part to play, too.

Uses of Technological Magic

Technomancer by Von Milano

Technological Projection

All powers of a Technomancer require them to progress linearly, as they build upon one another, and the very first one they have to master is the power of Technological Projection, which is - in layman's terms - a form of magic that allows a Technomancer to access the Sector-wide node of the GalNet, and in so doing use their mind to browse and access technology, often anonymously. While this aspect of the magic is potent for information-gathering, it cannot actually make any changes to the technology being accessed, nor can it brute-force access to technology disconnected from the GalNet. For that, a Technomancer has to use Technological Interfacing, which steps up the power significantly, but also the dangers.

Technological Interfacing

Technological Interfacing is a subset of technological magic focusing on hacking and the access of technological systems. It's an extremely powerful form of technological magic, being capable of fully usurping computer systems in the hands of a professional Technomancer. That being said, it's also a very complicated and threat-laden form of the magic, as the magic works by projecting the mind of the Technomancer into the dataspace to hack and attain control of the technology. This fact makes it extremely potent, but also means that Antiviruses and other anti-hacking methods are not just counteracting some code, but are actually resisting and attempting to expel the Technomancer themselves, which can have very real impacts upon their psyche and mind if they're not careful. Another significant downside is that at this stage of skill, close contact is required to use the power on a piece of technology.

Technological Mentalism

Regarded as the pinnacle of a Technomancer's studies by many, Technological Mentalism is the final subset of powers that allow a Technomancer to affect technology at range, en-masse and in a limited fashion through the medium of the GalNet itself. In addition though, their powers at this stage can work to effectively control the intricacies of circuits and other machinery, to easily break or destroy technology, or effectively recode it to do as they require. For good reason, this is an incredibly feared part of the art, and all societies feature significant investments in warding important government infrastructure against the tampering of a Technomancer's Mentalism techniques, so as to minimise the damage a rogue Technomancer of this skill level could inflict. To be clear, individuals of this power are extremely rare, with only one or two recorded Technomancers being of the subsequent skill to learn Mentalism.

Onryo - Key Art Practice by Samuele Bandini

Data-Tampering

Understandably, one of the biggest concerns of Technomancy is its potential ability to tamper with data stored in systems, especially with how early on in a Technomancer's career they learn the techniques required to make those fears a reality. It's for this reason that so many security measures are placed on even commercial data storage in the cluster, and why the training of new Technomancers requires extensive vetting and personality judgements by the back-alley organizations specializing in their tutelage.