Power, Permission, and Interpretation
In Novera, power is not learned through incantation, lineage, or faith alone.
It is installed.
Abilities, talents, and specialized combat doctrines are encoded into modular constructs known collectively as Chips. These are not tools in the traditional sense—they are arguments, written in executable form, about how reality should respond when challenged.
Chips are how Novera remembers what it once believed was possible.
A Chip is a compact, self-contained execution module designed to interface with a thinking entity—synthetic or organic—and grant access to a specific capability.
Each Chip contains:
Encoded methodology (how a problem is solved)
Activation logic (when and why it triggers)
Resource interpretation (what it consumes to function)
Safety assumptions (often outdated)
A Chip does not force obedience.
It offers a solution.
The danger lies in accepting too many solutions without questioning who designed them.
Executable Outcomes
Ability Chips represent direct, discrete effects—the closest equivalent to what other worlds might call “spells” or “powers.”
They answer the question:
What happens when I decide to act right now?
Ability Chips are:
Actively triggered
Situational
Often energy-intensive
Designed for immediate impact
Examples of encoded outcomes include:
Emitting destructive force
Rapid relocation or traversal
Restoration or stabilization of systems
Environmental manipulation
Short-term personal enhancement
To a Synthetic, an Ability Chip feels like unlocking a function that always existed but was restricted.
To a Humanoid, it feels like forcing a foreign logic through a fragile interface.
Citadel authorities view Ability Chips as regulated force multipliers.
Open-Belt communities view them as survival tools.
Waybreakers view them as statements of intent.
What matters is not what the Chip does—but when you choose to use it.
Embedded Behavior
Technique Chips represent persistent or conditional capabilities, equivalent to feats, passive traits, or learned doctrines.
They answer the question:
Who am I when nothing is actively happening?
Technique Chips are:
Always active or conditionally triggered
Low-energy but high-impact over time
Integrated deeply into behavior patterns
Harder to remove once bonded
They modify:
Reflexes
Decision-making heuristics
Physical optimization
Resistance profiles
Interaction with other Chips
Unlike Ability Chips, Technique Chips reshape the user rather than the environment.
Long-term Technique Chip use can subtly alter:
Combat instincts
Emotional responses
Risk tolerance
Moral prioritization
This is not considered corruption.
It is considered adaptation.
Some Waybreakers deliberately curate Technique Chips to redefine who they are becoming.
Others lose track of where their choices end and their Chips begin.
Doctrine Made Modular
A Class Chipset is not a single Chip.
It is a cohesive suite of Chips designed to function together, built around a shared philosophy of conflict, survival, or influence.
Class Chipsets are how Novera formalizes roles without enforcing destiny.
They answer the question:
How do I solve problems when the system fails?
A typical Class Chipset includes:
Core Technique Chips (defining baseline behavior)
Signature Ability Chips (iconic actions)
Upgrade paths (evolution through interpretation)
Compatibility rules (what synergizes—or conflicts)
Installing a Class Chipset does not lock a character into a role.
It frames their decision-making.
Waybreakers are not unique because they use Chips.
They are unique because they refuse to accept default configurations.
Most sanctioned operatives operate with:
Curated Chipsets
Locked upgrade paths
Enforced safety limits
Waybreakers:
Mix incompatible Chipsets
Override restriction layers
Install Chips never meant to coexist
Rewrite how Chips interpret inputs
This is why they are feared.
Not because they are stronger—
but because they prove the system is negotiable.
Chips integrate directly into internal architecture
Execution is clean, fast, and precise
Overload manifests as logic collapse or runaway escalation
Synthetics risk becoming too aligned with their Chipsets—mistaking optimized output for truth.
Chips require external execution (bracers, rigs, implants)
Integration is imperfect by design
Feedback includes pain, strain, or emotional bleed
Humanoids risk becoming dependent—relying on Chips to justify action rather than intent.
Neither path is safer.
Both are valid.
Some Chips are not restricted because they are powerful.
They are restricted because they:
Violate systemic assumptions
Remove consent checks
Ignore ethical governors
Rewrite failure states
These are often called Black-Kernel Chips in the Open Belts.
Citadel doctrine insists such Chips must never exist.
History suggests they already do.
In Novera, Chips are not magic.
They are philosophy encoded into action.
Every Chip asks:
Who decided this was the correct response?
Under what conditions?
And why should that answer still apply now?
Installing a Chip is not a mechanical choice.
It is an ideological one.
Novera does not limit power.
It distributes it—fragmented, modular, and open to interpretation.
Chips do not define who you are.
They define which answers you are willing to execute.
And in a world that no longer agrees with itself—
that choice matters more than any system ever intended.