The Technomancer

Core Concept & Analogue

• Fantasy Analogue: Necromancer, Artificer (with a focus on constructs/golems), Demonologist (summoning/binding machine spirits), Lich (if they extend their own "life" through tech).
• Cyberpunk Incarnation: The Technomancer is an individual who possesses a unique talent for interfacing with, repairing, reanimating, and controlling machinery, drones, and even the "digital remnants" or "machine spirits" within complex cybernetic systems. They don't raise the dead in the biological sense, but rather the "dead" or discarded technology of Veridia Prime, often augmenting their creations with bizarre and potent enhancements. They are also masters of corrupting or overriding enemy technology.

Lore & Origin

The rise of Technomancers is a relatively recent and often unsettling phenomenon, emerging from the detritus and digital chaos of The Great Transition and the subsequent AI-dominated era:

• Scavenger Savants: Many Technomancers originate from the vast scrap-heaps and derelict industrial zones of Veridia Prime, or the Wastes. Surrounded by broken machinery, they developed an intuitive, almost shamanistic understanding of technology, learning to coax "life" back into dead circuits and rusted frames.
• Rogue Artificers & AI Researchers: Some might be former members of The Cogwrights' & Mysterium Conclave (or its successor, Conclave Advanced Designs) who delved into forbidden areas of construct animation, AI sub-routine manipulation, or experimented with reanimating tech using raw Ætheric energy tapped in unsanctioned ways.
• Digital Underworld Hackers: Certain netrunners or hackers who pushed the boundaries of system control discovered they could not only manipulate code but also "possess" or "reanimate" networked machines, giving rise to a more digitally-focused Technomancy.
• Cults of the Machine Spirit: In some forgotten corners, cults might arise that worship the "anima" within technology, with Technomancers as their high priests, capable of communing with and commanding these machine spirits.

In 2088, Technomancers are viewed with a mixture of awe, fear, and suspicion. Corporations might secretly employ them for sabotage, recovery of "dead" tech, or to create deniable, unconventional assets. Underworld figures value their ability to create loyal (if unsettling) mechanical enforcers or to bypass high-tech security. Rebel groups might see them as invaluable for turning the corporations' own technology against them. Their allegiances are often to their own strange creations or to fringe groups that appreciate their unique talents. Some AIs might find them useful:

• TYCHE: Might revel in the chaotic and unpredictable nature of Technomancer creations.
• NOCTURNE: Could employ them to create "ghost machines" for espionage or to retrieve data from destroyed systems.
• EREBUS: Might have a grim fascination with their ability to "repurpose" the dead (technology), perhaps even contracting them for specialized reclamation tasks.
• AEGIS & CORE: Would likely view unsanctioned Technomancy as a dangerous perversion of proper engineering and data control, and hunt down those who operate outside their approved parameters.

General Abilities & Combat Style

Technomancers are typically not frontline brawlers themselves, relying on their creations and technological manipulation.

• Machine Reanimation & Control: Their core ability is to interface with, repair, and reactivate disabled or derelict machinery – drones, security bots, turrets, even small mechs – bringing them under their control. They can also attempt to override or corrupt active enemy technology.
• Cybernetic Pet Creation & Enhancement: They often maintain a "favored pet" or a small retinue of heavily modified cybernetic constructs. These aren't just repaired machines but often bizarre amalgamations of scavenged parts, custom-built weaponry, and unsettling AI subroutines, fiercely loyal to their master. These are distinct from the more "tamed" or "built" companions of a Beast Driver, often appearing more monstrous or jury-rigged.
• Techno-Sorcery & Data Corruption: Using specialized data-gloves, neural links, or custom-built "techno-staves," they can "cast" disruptive code, unleash EMP bursts, drain power from enemy systems, create fields of electronic static, or even temporarily "possess" simple machines.
• Scrap-Casting & Salvage Utilization: Technomancers are masters of using the environment. They can magnetically pull scrap metal to form temporary shields, unleash blasts of superheated shrapnel from nearby debris, or even cannibalize parts from one of their own damaged constructs to repair another or fuel an attack.
• Weaponry: While they rely on their creations, they often carry heavily modified sidearms, salvaged energy weapons, or tools that double as weapons (e.g., a power wrench that can also deliver a shocking jolt).

Talent Trees / Specializations

Here are three potential talent tree concepts for the Technomancer:

Talent Tree 1: Scrap Legion Overlord

• Lore Concept: This Technomancer is a master of numbers, raising and commanding a small army of reanimated scrap-bots, repurposed drones, and cobbled-together mechanical horrors. They believe in overwhelming their foes with a tide of barely-contained, aggressive technology. (AI Flavor: A TYCHE-influenced Overlord might summon unpredictable, glitchy swarms; an EREBUS-influenced one might reanimate tech with a disturbing "undead" energy, focusing on reclaiming parts from fallen foes to bolster their legion.)
• Primary Gameplay Role: Pet-Focused DPS / Area Control (Minion Master). Focuses on summoning, maintaining, and buffing multiple, often expendable, mechanical minions that swarm and distract enemies or control territory.
• Key Abilities/Focus (Conceptual): Skills to quickly reanimate multiple smaller machines or drones from scrap, abilities to buff the damage/durability/speed of their entire legion, auras that empower nearby constructs, abilities to "detonate" or sacrifice minions for tactical effects, skills to draw aggro through their minions.

Talent Tree 2: Cybernetic Monstrosity Sculptor

• Lore Concept: This Technomancer focuses their will and skill on a single, exceptionally powerful cybernetic "pet" or a very small number of elite constructs. This "alpha beast" is a heavily augmented, often terrifying creation, a fusion of salvaged high-tech parts and perhaps even bio-cybernetic components. The Technomancer is a dark artist, and their pet is their ever-evolving masterpiece. (AI Flavor: A FLORA-influenced Sculptor might create bio-mechanical horrors; a CAD-trained (but rogue) Sculptor might build an incredibly advanced, if ethically dubious, combat mech; a NOCTURNE Sculptor might create a stealthy, bio-luminescent cyber-predator.)
• Primary Gameplay Role: Elite Pet-Focused DPS / Off-Tank. The primary damage and utility come from one or two incredibly powerful, customizable companions that can specialize in damage or survivability. The Technomancer directly supports and enhances this main pet.
• Key Abilities/Focus (Conceptual): Skills to significantly enhance the stats and abilities of a primary companion, abilities to transfer their own "life force" (or system power) to heal or empower their pet, direct control over the pet's most potent abilities, skills to graft new weapons or systems onto their pet during combat using scrap, abilities that allow the Technomancer and pet to perform synergistic combo attacks.

Talent Tree 3: Entropic Code-Witch

• Lore Concept: This Technomancer delves into the "dark arts" of technology – system corruption, data decay, and the weaponization of technological entropy. They are less about reanimating full constructs and more about directly attacking and debilitating enemy machinery and cybernetics from within, like a digital curse-weaver. (AI Flavor: A NOCTURNE Code-Witch would be a master of digital infiltration and subtle system sabotage; a TYCHE Code-Witch would unleash unpredictable data plagues; an EREBUS Code-Witch might specialize in accelerating the decay and "death" of enemy technology.)
• Primary Gameplay Role: Debuffer / Ranged Tech-Damage Caster / Area Denial. Focuses on crippling enemy technological capabilities, applying potent damage-over-time effects to machines and cybernetics, and creating hazardous technological zones.
• Key Abilities/Focus (Conceptual): Abilities to inflict debilitating viruses or malware (reducing accuracy, speed, or causing systems to shut down), skills to drain energy directly from enemy tech or shields, area-of-effect abilities that create fields of EMP or corrosive nanites, skills to temporarily "short-circuit" or disable enemy cybernetic augments, abilities that turn destroyed enemy tech into hazardous scrap explosions or temporary allied (but unstable) constructs.