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MECHS

Mobile Exoskeletal Combat Harnesses represent the most advanced technology in Newase. They are not built anywhere, though skilled engineers can repair and even modify them -- instead, they are found. Ancient ruins once held Mechs in their depths, but every known site has been plundered down to the last scrap of metal. Now the only new ones come from surveying operations underground or underwater, and finds within the unexplored heights of the forbidding highlands or dark depths of dangerous forests. As such, they are rare, valuable, difficult to obtain, and highly prized.

The most common Mechs, for which the machines are named, are essentially humanoid in shape -- two arms, two legs, and a head, ranging from twenty to thirty feet in height. The control scheme explains the shape: pilots stand inside a web of harnesses that capture their motions and correlate them to the exoskeletal frame. This simple arrangement means almost anyone can use a Mech on a basic level, and melee combat skills in particular translate exceedingly well to Mech battles. Even without such talents, Mechs have exceptional strength and leverage that can benefit any large-scale industry or activity, and the weaker or more common models are found hauling cargo, mining, or laboring.

Not all Mechs take this shape, however. Some that have been unearthed appear as large mechanical wagons or carts, animals or monsters, or even stranger and incomprehensible shapes once or twice. The control scheme for many of these is difficult to master at best. The vehicles, less dangerous, usually enter service after a period of trial and error, but the other rarer ones may never see service.

Mech Class, Techs, and Sync Time

As noted, the harness-based control scheme allows anyone to use a Mech with the same proficiency they use their own body. (Mechs seem oddly short of weight and mass when piloted, thanks to their ogre.) Those skilled in combat can wield equivalent Mech-sized weapons masterfully through them with little extra effort, although ranged weapons require significant adaptation and practice to account for the differences in size, scale, and positioning between their own motions and the Mech's. For basic Mechs, this is as much as anyone can accomplish. To that extent, the majority of common-model mechs in Newase are ultimately larger, stronger, more durable versions of the common soldier or laborer.

More powerful Mechs, known as Carita-class, exceed this performance by the use of Sync Animus-Ogre Reactors. The SOARs draw on and magnify the animus expended by or influenced by natural Techs, allowing Techs of all sorts to be used on the scale of Mech combat to full proportional effect. Curiously enough, even Techs that shouldn't seem to work like this do: healing Arts, for example, will repair a Mech as effectively as they would a human. To even further benefit, Carita-class cockpits have both the size and SOAR power to sync with a Releaser's weapon -- meaning a Releaser can manifest a copy of their weapon in the Mech's hands.

The highest and rarest known tier of Mech, the Varita-class, combine SOARs with special Animus Engines that can power and fuel even stranger weaponry, giving their pilot access to unique Techs. Flaming swords and firearms are just the tip of the iceberg, the best Mech engineers can salvage or create for current use, and barely scratch the surface of the potential in the Animus Engines.

The true measure of a Mech pilot, however, is not their Mech class or the number of Techs they can use through it. It is their ability to enter Sync Time -- a state of being in which the Mirage themselves synchronizes with the SOAR and thus the Mech. The barriers between pilot and Mech fall away and the two become one for a short period of time. Sync Time generally lasts a short period of time, from ten to fifteen seconds, but in that time the Mech is faster, stronger, and more capable than during ordinary piloting conditions. Interestingly, no Mirage has ever proved incapable of activating Sync Time...

Energy and Fuel

Mechs, of course, don't have completely infinite energy -- just partially infinite. Basic Mech operations, such as travel, routine movement and standard labor, and general piloting operations, essentially require no power. Their ogre take up all the slack, blending physical and spiritual power to keep the Mech powered so long as it's functional.

Heavy operations, however, exceed the supply of baseline energy that Mechs possess -- heavy operations, in this case, usually meaning 'Techs'. SOARs and Animus Engines draw off Fuel, a liquid electrochemical compound that is fairly simple to generate and extremely difficult to understand. Though Mechs typically have enough Fuel to sustain themselves through several conflicts, this nonetheless limits their battle capacity and keeps them from performing long-term or long-distant engagements.

Mech... Flight?

That's the dream, but it seems such a long way from reality. No matter the engine or thruster salvaged or built, Mechs can't seem to accomplish more than a proportionally decent jump. Current speculation is that the ogre of Mechs refused to permit it, because no other explanation seems to fit. Those who dream of soaring to the floating islands or surveying the twisted central highlands from aerial comfort will be disappointed.

Hey, This Looks Familiar!

On occasion, a Mirage has seen or discovered a Mech, ruined or operational, that they recognize from memory. On closer inspection, these Mechs appear to be identical to their counterparts as much as is feasible, while still operating under a Newase understanding: they have abilities depending on whether they are common, Carita, or Varita class. A rare few Mirages have found a familiar Mech operating at only common-class level, but upgraded it with SOARs and later Animus Engines to restore more and more functionality.

(In other words: You want your canon Mech? You got your canon Mech. It functions just like any other Mech in Newase, though, so save your XP if you want its Blazing Sword back!)

The MECHanist Institute

The vast majority of Mechs are under the control of the organization called the MECHanist Institute. Based in Asail because of the number of underwater Mechs nearby, the MECHanists are the only major organization capable of consistently and reliably repairing, refurbishing, or modifying Mechs. City governments and the rare private individual can muster or hire enough technical skill and material to polish up their highly infrequent finds, but only the Institute can keep even the few Mechs operational in Newase going on a long-term basis.

The Institute's hold on Mech operations comes with both boon and bane. On the upside, the Institute does not discriminate; it offers training and licensing to anyone who can afford their fee and abide by their pledge, and will offer Mechs to individuals or organizations that they believe will use them responsibly and well. This openness is responsible for the current state of Newase, in which Mechs supplement industrial and labor forces and provide powerful support against the most dangerous creatures of the world, against whom normal soldiers or even powerful adventurers would be helpless. But the Institute also has an undeniable, unfathomable level of influence by virtue of its near-monopoly. No one has been able to identify an ulterior or sinister motive behind their actions, but that doesn't mean there isn't one -- or there won't be one tomorrow, as new researchers and donors come to its political fore.
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