Ego Harnessing

Seth Drebitko

Mia fell backwards into the hospital bed as the doctor carefully cradled the newborn baby in his hands. He swiftly turned to the operating table behind himself and gently laid the baby on its stomach.
"Will she be ok," questioned Mia nervously.
A nurse leaned down to Mia holding her hand firmly. "I know this is scary but this is a procedure we do every day and it needs to be done right away gods forbid anything happen."
The doctor breathed deeply as he marked an incision line at the base of the babies skull. While the doctor prepared his surgical equipment the anesthesiologist mage slowly sedated the child.

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Once upon a time after a baby was born one of the first things it experienced was the warm embrace of it's mother. Since the advent of the Ego Circuits though this heart warming tradition has fallen to the wayside. Instead, the first experience a newborn has in our world is almost immediately being sedated for spinal surgery.

Execution

Generally 3 practitioners of magic and a surgeon partake in the Ego Harness procedure. One mage focuses their attention on sedating the child so that the surgeon can carefully reveal the base of the child's skull with delicate surgical equipment. Once the skull has been revealed the third mage meticulously shapes adamantine runes around the top most vertebrate of the child. This work can carry on for well over an hour as the child's entire top vertebrate is shaped and formed into a tiny Ego circuit.
The next step in the process is of the greatest importance as the ego circuit is still just a piece of metal. The third mage must now step in and through another lengthy process draw the very soul out of the child. With the soul quite literally in hand the third mage's true duty begins and the soul is carefully inscribed into the ruins of the ego circuit. It is at this critical moment that any mishandling could drastically and irrevocably damage the subjects mind and soul.

Components and tools

• Rune Scriber
• Adamantine (most common other metals are acceptable)
• General Surgical equipment

Participants

• Anesthesiologist Mage
• Surgeon
• Circuit Crafter Mage
• Ego Implanting Mage

Observance

Due to the general fear related to true death, the process of ego harnessing general is partaken immediately after the birth of the child. Though many argue that it is of great importance for the mother to experience the bond formed through skin to skin contact after birth the anxiety any form of accident generally scares parents off from this.

While many individuals partake in the process of harnessing an ego any one of them individually could perform the entire ritual from start to finish on their own. Though this would result in a far more intensive procedure for the mage it is often what must be resorted to in the poorer districts. As a result it is far more common for mistakes to occur during these procedures.

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In recent years experiments within the poorer districts have begun on a machine that can allow a single mage to easily perform the ritual from start to finish. While the early trials were harrowing and many souls were permanently lost, in recent times these machines have produced superb and promising results.