We feast on the Battlefield
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Óðinn á yðr alla
Technical briefing regarding the development of the Erysichthon Model
Background:
"Personification" is a phenomenon in which a (usually humanoid or human-like) entity becomes strongly ontologically associated with a concept, either concrete or abstract. This phenomenon can be affected by widely held beliefs depending on the strength and number of people holding that very belief. ORIA, for instance, employs genies that came into existence because of the world’s belief in them.
Historically, humans have tended to personify all aspects of nature. This has resulted in the existence of a vast number of Nymph-class entities, usually female personifications of various bodies of water, streams, and the like. According to the theory of Conservation of Ichor1, however, their vast numbers have resulted in their individual abilities becoming too weak to serve Valravn's needs. Valravn's efforts to find a way to extract ichor from captured Nymph-classes are ongoing, yet largely unfruitful.
Fewer in number, however, are the entities formed out of the concepts of absence. The thoughts forming whose mold were merely the thoughts of negation of other concepts. Health, the absence of disease. Peace, the absence of enmity. Famine, the absence of plenty.
In most situations, such entities would fail to exist, because there are few people who would think of the negation of a concept as a person. However, Ovid's Metamorphoses2, records just such a personification of Famine, whom Ceres sends to Erysichthon in order to avenge his felling of a sacred grove and the murder of its nymphs. In Ovid's conception, such a personification has the ability to fill a person with unending hunger. Given the wide reach of the Metamorphoses across the millennia, as well as the beliefs at the time of writing that it must have drawn upon, Valravn commissioned a student project at ICSUT3 to verify the existence of such entities. These efforts were successful4. Valravn has deemed such a Famine spirit a prime candidate for capture and psychological conditioning to enter our ranks.
Technical description:
The Erysichthon Model has proven to be highly cost-effective, especially compared to other assets of similar strategic value. A containment unit can be produced for under 2000 USD since most of its components are non-anomalous and can be secured through mainstream providers.
The capture of each Erysichthon Model is simple. R.U.N.N.E.S searches for atypical patterns of crop failure, unexplainable by mundane factors. Once one has been detected, hundreds of containment units should be airdropped into the area. In 68% of cases, an Erysichthon model will be secured during the first 48 hours.
Inside its parachute and packaging, each containment unit consists of a power source, an internet connection unit, a Famine Entity Detector (F.E.D.), and a Famine Entity Adoration Shrine Trap (F.E.A.S.T.)
A F.E.D. consists of a voltage meter connected across a piece of fruit. If the entity spends a prolonged period of time within ten meters of the F.E.D., the fruit will decay and desiccate at a highly advanced rate compared to the baseline. This will cause its electrical resistance to change at an accelerated rate when a Famine entity is near, which the voltage meter will detect.
A F.E.A.S.T. consists of one ordinary smart cellular telephone device with a screen and full internet access. All F.E.A.S.T. models have had their software cloned off of a template model. The algorithms of various social media and internet advertising platforms have been trained to see this template model as a voracious consumer of advertisements and posts about various weight-loss methods, especially fasting.
Nymph entities crave worship, yet have been denied it for more than a millennium. Seventy percent of Erysichthon models which have discovered a F.E.A.S.T. have kept their total attention onto it for the duration of the testing period5, and during that time their effect on organic matter drastically decreases in radius.
It is safe to transport and store an Erysichthon model inside such a containment unit. The danger comes when an agent must turn off the power to the F.E.A.S.T. in order to deploy the entity. For these purposes, agents assigned as handlers of the Erysichthon Model must be adept in psychological conditioning techniques, to prevent the models from going AWOL or destroying Valravn assets. Handlers must carry an intravenous feeding apparatus at all times, in order to ameliorate the constant nutrient drain that comes with prolonged close contact to the models.
Tactical and Strategical Justification:
The asset allows the benefits of a scorched-earth campaign without the negative publicity and blame that would otherwise follow.
There are situations in which a long-term, subtle approach to warfare is preferable to the straightforward path. By their nature, insurgent elements must isolate themselves from the rest of the world. Yet they must eat. Rebellions survive on the produce of the interior of the land they control. When our clients merely want their enemies to fail, with no suspicion that any outside forces were involved, then the Erysichthon Model is the best tool in our arsenal.
Ariadne Nox
Lead Djúpúðga6 of the Secret Siege Division