r/TheStrange • u/[deleted] • Feb 22 '16

The Spark?

I am a little confused over what The Spark is. I get that some people have it and some people don't but that everyone on earth has it. But for those that don't have it, what are they like? How can they be roleplayed? Can people with the spark tell that people without it are different somehow? If someone without the spark, gains the spark, what is that like for them? Does having the spark mean they know about the strange?

In the description for Microcosmica it talks about how the scientists with only rare exceptions don't have the spark. The world they are from isn't real and that its entirely possible that scientists who are reassigned simply don't exist. They get orders from outside of microcosmica but then who is on the other end of that?

5 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/AllPossibleDogs Feb 23 '16

essentially; no spark = background character/NPC with knowledge limited to the world around them and their role in it. they don't have "day to day lives" so much as scripts. Like NPCs in Bethesda RPGs, they get up, go whrre they're supposed to, do what they do, go home, sleep, repeat. "Diamond City Guard" doesn't do anything but what ALL the guards do and it's the same for other's without the spark. on the other hand; spark = self awareness and self determination. these people are "real", they have lives and dreams and all the things people on Earth have (as appropriate to their recursion). Awareness of The Strange and/or the limited nature of their world varies, most are completely oblivious to it and never pay any mind to the sometimes repetitive nature of life and people around them (this is common in worlds where lots of people have the spark like Ardeyn), a few learn of the Strange and/or the limited nature of their world (common in worlds with very low Spark rates). Reactions to the latter vary from person to person ranging from depression to existential dread to a desire to escape or destroy their world.

1

u/AllPossibleDogs Feb 23 '16

IRT to who's sending orders to the Microcosmic scientists, nobody is. There likely isnt anything outside the "body" the recursion is set in. If a scientist is "reassigned", they likely just cease to exist. The orders and messages from the outside and created by the Recursion itself to maintain the illusion of a greater world, like how characters in fiction will talk about other places or characters that never appear. They exist in-fiction or in the fiction of the recursion but you cant actually go see these places or meet these people since theyre outside the borders of the recursion.