Agiera

The War Machines of the Old Ones

I swear I can hear their heart beating, their breathing. What if we're just piloting the giant while it dreams? ... What happens when it opens its eyes?

---

-- First-Time Pilot

Structure and Materials

The Agiera is a 19 to 25 meter tall bipedal machine that is piloted by a single person and powered by an eneleizion tourmaline core.
The machine takes a form akin to Old Man, also known as The Old Ones; it has a distinguishable head, arms, legs, and torso. However, the proportion, and, at times, shape of these are altered.
There are usually four notable differences: 1) The Agiera does not possess a neck, and instead slightly curves its upper back which creates a slight forward overhang; 2) The arms of the machine tend to hang below the hips, just above the knee; 3) The feet are unnatural in that they resemble that of a frog's which have 3 splayed toes and one back "dewclaw" that can be impaled into the ground for stability; and 4) the machine has two exposed areas--the heart, and the stomach/womb area-- both of which make use of an external force which power the Agiera itself.
While there are variations depending on the model of the Agiera, the aforementioned are constants.

The Known Models:

• "Mantis Agiera" - Scythes for arms, used for close quarters combat. Typically smaller units.


• "Wadjet Agiera" - A Flamethrower for an arm with its fuel tanks behind the head of the machine.


• "Impala Agiera" - Unguligrade (backwards, like a horse) legs, used for jumping long distances; has a thinner frame.


• "Atlas Agiera" - broader frame, greater pronunciation of muscles on arms and legs; considered a carrier with loading bay in back.


• "Garuda Agiera" - Capable of Flight, and travel to different planes of reality.


• "Mariana Agiera" - Built to withstand deep ocean pressures. Can walk along the bottom of the ocean or "swim" with turbines.


• "Dural Agiera" - First Agiera to be modified to drill in Thaigh Dural.


• "Exos Agiera" - An Agiera with an exoskeleton made completely of Animetal that reacts and reforms to pilots desires.

Overall, the machine boasts a mixture of synthetics and organics, namely a flexible 'live metal" known as Animetal that function both as armor and foundation "bones", and muscle-like structures which are made up of layers of microorganisms that make up the machines "muscular system".

Animetal: the Live Metal of Animail Prosthetics

As the Agiera were studied, not all civilizations that claimed these machines considered them a worthy investment. Many of these machines were actually stripped apart and melted down, creating the first production of Animail, derived from the Animetal. The Animetal itself served as a flexible, sometimes fluid metal with a propensity to conduct bio-electricity through a kind of a neural network. As such, the Animail was molded into the first prosthetic that could interpret the electrical signals from an appendage and then move accordingly.
However, this was not an absolute science as the metal could also take a form (like a blade) that appealed to the user. While the transmogrification was possible, it was just so, and could take long hours to go back and forth between two separate forms.
To control this, though really to prohibit this, the "muscular tissue" of the Agiera were added inside the Animail to help it keep its shape.

"Animail Poisoning"

Animail, while a powerful metal, is prone to tarnishing. When tarnished Animail is attached, it can cause the skin to absorb the tarnish which causes an allergic reaction to some. This is known then under the pseudonym "Animail Poisoning"

Power and Propulsion

Refined eneleizion is responsible for generating the power necessary to get an Agiera moving, which is placed at the core of the machine. The refined Eneleizion generate a small electromagnetic field which is enough to start the engine as it's innermost layer will begin to spin, like a circular but contained rail gun. This spinning increases with the engine as it heats up due to the stone's pyroelectic capacities. Additionally, the engine can be overclocked by "talking to it" as the stone vibrates at the frequency of the human voice.
This electric spark will then be stored in the Agiera for some time, in case the stone is dislodged, there is an emergency, or there is some malfunction with the engines response to the stone. This electrical charge can also be diverted to activate the wings and small turbines within the Agiera itself.
As the Agiera is bipedal, it makes use of the live metal, Animetal, and its "muscle tissue" in conjunction with the electrical impulses that the eneleizion produces in order to keep a forward momentum when walking or running.
When in the streamspace, the Agiera is well adapted to amplifying the intent of its user in order to navigate that ethereal realm. Similarly, the machine will use electromagnetism to activate the rotation of turbines in order to power the machine. This is greatly taxing on the engine and requires more power from the eneleizion by way of heat or the pilot speaking to it.

Piloting the Agiera

The Agiera is piloted by climbing from its pelvis and entering into the machine's chest cavity, known as the Amniocyst.
From the machines pelvis, one can find weathered steps, sometimes a ramp, which leads into a cavernous chest cavity, approximately 7.2 meters in height, 10.7 meters in diameter. Herein there is a ladder where long the spine, where one can reach the core, where refined eneleizion may be placed. However, placing the stone alone is not enough to power the machine. While once a voice used to speak to the pilots, as is recorded in the myth of the Larva Machina, this is no longer the case. Instead, while it is customary to speak one's name and purpose to the machine, one instead gives the machine a sample of their own blood, placed in the groves of the eneleizion itself.
Once this is done, the blood circulates briefly in the machine as is calibrates and powers on. Finally, the main platform on the bottom will alight and lift up 4.1 meters. This is considered the pilot's seat. Once they arrive, on the outline of the platform, a thin, gelatinous membrane will rise up about half a meter, and five tendrils will greet their pilot.
These tendrils connect to the joints of the pilot; two will attach to the back of an elbow, each; two more will attach to the soft skin behind the knee, and another will attach at the base of where the brain stem would be. Once these are connected, the membrane will rise and connect into to a half sphere and fill with Amnia, a breathable liquid. While there are means of getting around the machine's measures, the pilot completely loses the ability to control the machine, and the core must be removed to restart the Agiera.
Thus, A pilot of an Agiera is not faint of heart, and must be mentally grounded. One the tendrils are attached the the Amniocyst is full of the breathable fluid, the pilot can either move in order to direct the Agiera's movements, or a pilot may be able to focus enough to move their Agiera by merely imagining it.

Other Associated Conditions of Piloting

Even an experienced pilot's body is not able to handle the strain of piloting an Agiera long-term. Whether a pilot goes for long hours in a single stretch or pilots monthly over the course of one's lifetime, the body is ill equipped to deal with stresses such as: breathing in the Amnia, handling electrical discharge from the tendrils to the body's nervous system. These are aside from the previously discussed downsides, such as agieranoia and "Animail Poisoning".
When it comes to breathing in the Amnia for too long, there are a long list of conditions that develop as a side effect; the following are in order of severity:

• Loss of Gag Reflex
• Decreased Heart Rate
• Difficulty Breathing
• Asthma / Chronic Pneumonia
• Unable to breathe in High Altitudes (known as Lung-Rust)
• Seizures
• Vision Loss

These result as the high oxygen Amnia is exposed to the lungs which, while nourishing, is detrimental to the health of the body overall.
Additionally, the other condition, Lysynapsis, or Synpatic Shock, occurs when electrical discharge from the Agiera feeds back into the pilot, shocking their brain and spine, causing them to become a husk of a person. While the body can be retrieved, often, it is encouraged not to. This is due to the common thought that those injured in their Agiera, especially when bonded, will slip into the Streamspace, where the Agiera's spirit, is in order to recover. Most people will dismiss this as, effectively, the pilot becomes catatonic.

Armaments & Defense

The Agiera, while not an efficient machine, is a formidable one. In terms of weaponry alone, the suit can function as a force of mass destruction, able to exert a force of 50.750 kilonewtons. It can wield massive weapons, including railguns that some models have embedded into their arm, made of steel and requiring another, larger eneleizion core, and swords.
The Animetal carapace of the Agiera which covers the microorganism sinew is a flexible metal. While it may be bent out of shape fairly easily, it is considered shock absorbent and can even be utilized as a weapon as seen in the Exos Agiera. As it also can detonate its core as an EMP by overclocking the engine, it can also destabilize other Agiera or electrically dependent weapons.

Communication, Sensors, and Auxiliary Systems

While most pilots are unable to communicate with their Ageira, a few who link up can feel the "Intent" of their own machine, as though the Agiera itself has its own desires and, sometimes, feelings. This has allowed pilots to develop a "spinal reflex" to the feeling of an enemy or danger behind them. Now, whether or not this is projection on part of the pilot is currently up for debate. Regardless, this feelings are viewed negatively by society, and thus began the diagnosis of Agriera Paranoia, or "agieranoia" as it is called. It typically exhibits itself in pilots who have bonded very closely with their machine and have spent a fair amount of time together. As a sidenote, The Tribe of Faust (ie. Faustites) seem to have an immunity to the ageiranoia, though this hasn't stopped the general public from viewing Faustites with fear.
What has been documented are extremely rare cases of pilots who have displayed chronic agieranoia being protected by their Agiera while nothing is piloting them. The Agiera has had their power source still within them, and may be just a function of the pilot's intent manifesting as a way to externally control the Agiera. Attempts to replicate this have had little success, and most are afraid to truly jeopardize the Agiera's pilot if such a tale were true.
Aside from communicating with one's machine, putting two machines in close proximity to one another for an entire day allows them to develop a telepathic link. This allows telepathic messages to be sent back and forth between the pilots of their respective machines. This is due to a sensor, Agiera engineers believe, that is yet undiscovered.
In addition to this unnamed sensor, the Agiera also has the ability to be "completely transparent" on the inside. So far, it is theorized that the Agiera projects the images of its outside environment on the inside of its chest cavity for its pilot.

Price and Rarity

Kingdoms have risked the lives of their soldiers for just one of these Agiera. Due to their strength and versatility, each kingdom's Agiera has solidified a kind of national identity surrounding the machines. As such, the machines are thought of as priceless. Everything will be risked to keep them safe.
Presently, there are only 51 Agiera in all of Tara. While most have been lost to history or even metaled down, still about 30 exist and are known by a model name, and a personal name bestowed upon them by their keepers, or self-given.

Author's Note

_{While admittedly an odd choice of music for fantasy, I wanted the electronic element to make the Agiera alien, even if grandiose. Another reason this particular song was chosen was the muffled drum that sounded like a heartbeat or breathing, thus mirroring the strange duality of man and machine in one, as discussed in the article.}

Table Of Contents

1. Structure and Materials
• The Known Models
• Animetal: The Live Metal of Animail
• "Animail Poisoning"
2. Power and Propulsion
3. Piloting The Agiera
• Other Associated Conditions of Piloting
4. Communication, Sensors, and Auxiliary Systems
5. Price and Rarity

Detailed Specs.
 
          
Nickname
          
 (Model) Gier, or Machine 
        
 
          
Beam
          
 11 meters 
        
 
          
Height
          
 19 - 25, avg. 
        
 
          
Weight
          
 45 metric tons 
        
 
          
Speed
          
 Walking: 90 m/s,
 Running: 180m/s, Flying: 200m/s 
        
 
          
Cargo & Passengers Capacity
          
 1 Pilot, unless otherwise specified 
        

Animetal
 
          
Nickname
          
 Live Metal 
        
 
          
Characteristics
          
 Auburn colored, conducts electricity through
 specialized veins 
        
 
          
Properties
          
 malleable under electrical pulses 
        
 
          
Origin
          
 No record of mining; only found on the Agiera 
        
 
          
Observations
          
 This is the only metal known that
 the charagma does not assimilate 
        

The Blood-Bond Ritual
Bleeding into the Eneleizion core before
 placing it into the Agiera's engine became
 commonplace due to The Tribe of Faust.


Faustites once did this symbolically, as they
 are no strangers to the macabre or trying to
 make their bodies like others or even a part
 of others. -- Thus they first did this to 
 "become one with" or "kin of" the machine.
 To them, it was a sign of solidarity and 
 trust. As the practice spread (though it was 
 heavily modified), other cultures realized 
 that those who bled onto their machine
 (either on the core or in the Amnia--) 
 completely reduced the chances of a
 condition known as Lysynapsis, or more 
 commonly as Synaptic Shock.


Others have well refused to bleed on their
 machines and have instead developed a kind
 of Exosuit that redirects power surges away
 from the brain and nerves.


Because of these odd rituals those of the
 Shaperate have theorized that the original
 source of power for the machine perhaps
 was not eneleizion.

How the First Agiera
Opened Its Eyes
It is said that one individual was able to
 Open the eyes of its Agiera. However, most 
 would never try as he did.


---


One day, alone, he howled in his Agiera 
for hours, some say days,until, finally, the 
 core, as if angry, spatelectricity down his 
 spine and uphis back. He collapsed in the
 fluids of his machine.


Some asked why he did this. He said, "I heard 
 it calling me. It kept calling me." So he 
 called back, had howled but was now still 
 and silent.


Years passed, and he floated there, shriveled, 
 but those cords hung on.When he woke up, 
 he could notmove; he was not in the Agiera.
 He looked around and was meters above the 
 ground, looking down at the others like ants.


And he thought, ah, yes, I understand now. 
 And walked away, after all those years.


---


Most others take this tale now to
mean how one is supposed to
connect with their Agiera--through
meditation. Others think that the
Agiera's eyes can be opened and have
tried dying in their Agiera to prove it.

Agiera by Invictia

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