Overview

In the Ninth World, “the numenera” is a term that refers to anything that seems supernatural and that comes from the prior ages of the Earth. From a 21st-century point of view, this means devices, machines, vehicles, robots, computers, weapons, satellites, drugs, and so on. But it also means bioengineered creatures, cybernetic beings, and creatures brought here from alien worlds and dimensions. It also includes things that have been indirectly created by the science of the past—mutants and genetic accidents, the descendants of experiments, and so on. Last, it means ways in which Ninth World people have figured out how to use, manipulate, or master the products of the past, such as the Nano’s use of esoteries and the so-called “nano spirits.” In this chapter, we’ll examine the physical aspects of the numenera—specifically, cyphers, artifacts, oddities, and other devices.

PEOPLE AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NUMENERA

Although the comparison between “magic” and the numenera is worthwhile, taking it too far is likely a mistake. For example, you can imagine someone disbelieving in magic even in a world where it exists. No one in the Ninth World “disbelieves” in the numenera. It’s all around them. It cannot be denied. It’s also more common than magic would be in most fantasy settings. And yet it’s still just as mysterious and strange, mostly because the numenera is varied and unpredictable to those who don’t understand it.
There are people, however, who do understand it—at least to some degree. Not everyone merely scavenges numenera from ruins. Some study it, comprehend a bit of it, and then create their own. Results are mixed, but in certain villages, the local tinkerer or clave of Aeon Priests has made a fabulous discovery not just of technology, but of understanding. Now, with the right resources, the tinkerer or priest can make the device, concoct the drug, or develop the process. A whole community might have access to advancements that are far beyond anything else they possess—a group of farmers using automatons to pull their plows, a village whose thatched roofs are coated in fire-retardant spray, or a band of soldiers with chainmail, spears, and shortwave communicators in their iron helms. It’s important to remember that the player characters don’t look at the numenera the way that 21st-century people look at technology. In the Ninth World, a force field projector and a two-way radio would seem not only like magic, but magic of the same level of power. In fact, the radio might seem more potent because its use is more broad and its effects are “invisible.” Ninth Worlders have no perspective on what sorts of technology are more advanced than others, and they take none of it for granted.

THE APPEARANCE OF NUMENERA DEVICES

Technology in the Ninth World can be categorized as cyphers, artifacts, oddities, and discoveries. These categories show how the PCs interact with the numenera—how it is (or isn’t) useful to them. When thinking about technology, the GM can also consider origin and appearance. This approach looks at devices not from a game-mechanic standpoint, but from the point of view of people living in the Ninth World. When it comes to devices that characters are likely to carry and use, there are four types: scavenged, cobbled, bonded, and fashioned.

SCAVENGED

The most basic type of device is one pulled out of an ancient ruin. It was either a complete device found intact or a portion of another device, removed by a learned person, that can be used for a function all its own. The former might be a bracer-like device with touch-sensitive controls that the wearer can manipulate to create a powerful magnetic field around them. The latter might be a viewscreen, taken from a vast machine, that by itself allows the user to see through an inch of normal matter.

COBBLED

The second most common type of device, a cobbled item, consists of at least two parts joined together to make a function possible. Let’s say a knowledgeable tinkerer takes a lens mechanism from one device and a control mechanism from a larger console and wires them together. Then the tinkerer connects an old power supply that still functions and binds it all together with cord. In the end, they have created a high-powered nightvision telescope and range finder, assuming that the user—through a bit of practice and trial and error—can decipher the symbols to understand the distances shown in the readout.

BONDED

With bonded devices, the setting starts to intrude on the items. Realistically, people in the Ninth World will take existing devices and make them their own. For example, a scavenger might find a device that fires a beam of high-powered energy, but when they sell it to a member of the Jagged Dream, the buyer gets a smith to fashion an intimidating housing around the device, complete with an easy-touse hand grip, a trigger mechanism, and a spiked blade on the front in case the wielder enters close combat. Then one of their artisans etches the cult’s unique iconography into the housing, blade, and grip. In the end, the item becomes a stylish (albeit strange) and likely intimidating weapon. In other words, bonded items no longer look like something found in a trash heap. They are turned into objects that are beautiful or terrifying or whatever the crafter wants. They are incorporated into other items. They are named. They might even come with written instructions on their use.

FASHIONED

The rarest of the devices, but in some ways perhaps the most intriguing, fashioned devices are based on ancient technology but created by people of the Ninth World. Imagine a clave of Aeon Priests who study in an ancient laboratory for years (perhaps generations) and finally recreate an “elixir” they discovered that speeds up wound closure and tissue knitting by an order of magnitude or more. The compounds needed are rare and difficult to attain, but with them in hand, the priests begin to manufacture small amounts of the concoction on their own. Years later, they open houses of healing that come to be known and respected by all in the region.