Major Tom
A vagabond engineer. Is he a ghost or an AI?
We found him adrift on a wrecked Wayship. He and his crew were long since dead and decayed, but there he was, or at least his suit, still working away.
The systems on board were in a bad way, but from what we recovered they were attacked before the Melancholic Lacuna and blown massively off course and he's spent the last thousand years fixing all the damage and getting it back into orbit.
One of the humans named him Major Tom. Seems as good as anything.
Major Tom is an entity of uncertain property and drive. In life he was an engineer, as evidenced by his engineering-oriented assistance suit and his habit of working on whatever vessel he's on.
Communication
Major Tom does not communicate by any other means but hand gestures.
Attempts to establish a MetaLink are unsuccessful, as his armor is nonpermiable and so requires a higher-level psiolic to cast into. He does not speak, barely responds to complex conversation, and walks away from prolonged interaction.
Allegiance
Major Tom holds no allegiance except to the ship he is on. While he is aboard he will endlessly toil at maintaining, repairing, and upgrading any vessel, but at any port may leave the ship without warning to find a new place. Whether his travel pattern is planned or random is uncertain.
Temperament
Major Tom is pacifist and will not engage in combat unless someone attempts to open his suit. He will, however, repair weapons systems during a fight, and upgrade them periodically. What systems he works on is seemingly arbitrary. Tom seems to favor people who treat him well, bring him tools, and allow him to go wherever he wants, and in return they may periodically find that he has upgraded his gear.
Ghost in a machine?
Major Tom has extensively upgraded his suit. It is difficult to tell if he is the onboard AI of the suit on autopilot or if he is the ghost of the skeleton within keeping it animate. Because lower levels of Divination cannot permeate his sealed, armored suit, and because he refuses to interface directly with any other technology, the nature of his being remains a mystery.
Enigmas
I would like people to use Major Tom as an NPC in their campaigns, read the Authors Note below for more!
Major Tom is David Bowie. Not the David Bowie, singer-songwriter from Earth who lived in 20th century Earth prior Humanity's great space exploits and contact with other Sophonts. But an Icon that emerged during the Resurrection Craze in the decades following the debut of Proudly Sung's Encore where dupes were created to emulate and allow public interaction with deceased celebrities. Self aware and independent, the Icon chose to pursue a career as a Wayship engineer in honor of his Progenitor's greatest hit songs thus becoming the immortalized Cosmonaut. He has since entered a stage of severe Flanderization, wherein his personality and behavior have deterioratd to basic almost mechanical motions. He can no longer speak, his communication limited to hand gestures. He exists solely to fulfill his duty as Major Tom...
That is extremely possible. I am touched you made the effort to make something so lore-compliant.
Check out my summercamp by going here and checking out any of my gold-star articles!
Of course. We Somnolent take our Ethnis-lore very seriously.