# Quick TL;DR - Spirit anchors (or xenic anchors, or mind anchors) are little devices that can be implanted into the base of your skull to "back up" your xenic body or soul. - That way, if you die your body can be revived by putting it into an anchor tank, which restores your spirit to your body and repairs your body back to the point it was at right before you died. - If your body is totally mangled or completely destroyed you can still come back, you just need to have someone retrieve the mind anchor and put that into the anchor tank. The anchor tank will then restore, or "recorp", your body. This process takes about a week. - Every time you are revived or recorp you get a level of spirit decay! - People with spirit anchors age much slower than usual, but once you get past your natural lifespan you'll start to get spirit decay # Overview Sometimes called xenic anchors. Also called mind anchors in Valda (or brain anchors, but thats kind of a misnomer). A device you can have implanted into you that basically enables functional immortality, but with some side effects. If your body dies your spirit anchor just needs to be retrieved and then you can get your body back (though its better to get the whole body back as well as the anchor). Spirit anchors have the shape of a shard of crystal, with a long, very thin and tall pyramid or cone on either side. In the center is a bit of a special white gem with multicolor flecks suspended in a glass vial. Looks kind of like this but with sharper angles = <•> Spirit anchors are pretty rare, though they are popular with people who have dangerous professions, adventurers, and the very rich. There are some risks in implanting them, and sometimes there can be botched recorpings (the process of regenerating one's body), which can be very messy and painful. They're illegal in most civilized places, though in some of those places they are an open secret. Xenic anchors can be created by utilizing magic or technology, works either way. When you get your body back after losing an old one it's restored to exactly as your body was right before you died. Then the anchor tank that's recorping you will heal you up to where you were before. This doesn't get rid of curses, chronic diseases, cancers, or other effects—there are other treatments for those (sometimes). There's no "backing up" of a body to be reset back to at a later date. The anchor saves how the body was when you died, and it goes back to that state but healed. It doesn't fix amputations or other maiming, it only goes back to the state when the body last worked and was alive (that way there is still some sort of in-world "punishment" for being super reckless, having a death wish, etc.). ## Terms - Recorprealizing (recorping): recreating your body in a anchor tank after you die and lose your body bur manage to retrieve your spirit anchor - Waking up, Coming back, Being revived: having a body die and then putting it in an anchor tank, which revives it - Losing a body: having a body die and be so unrecoverable that its better to just take the spirit anchor back and start from scratch - Switching out: transferring your xenic anchor (and your brain, if you still have one) into a new bio or tech body in order to get a fresh start. Can come with some pretty severe side-effects, sometimes including xenic decay (spirit decay), and is usually extremely expensive (you gotta buy a new body). - Anchor tank: the tank that recorps you or revives you after you've died # Details and Effects - People with spirit anchors age much more slowly, but you still can't live much past your normal lifespan because of [[Spirit Anchors#Spirit Decay|spirit decay]]. - The aging slowdown kicks in about your mid-twenties, after the brain has finished maturing. - Recorping gives you back your body right before you died; if you want to reset to a younger or more capable age, there are other ways to do that (such as giving yourself a tech body, a different bio body with a brain and spirit anchor transplant, growing a younger body from your DNA, or (on the less-expensive end) getting extensive surgery to replace body parts). "Resetting" has to be hard and/or expensive, not anyone can do it on a whim. - DESTROYING THE SPIRIT ANCHOR IS NOT THE END, especially if the person has a cyber body. If the brain stays alive, then they can always get another anchor. The surest way to kill anyone is a stab or shot at the base of the head to destroy the mind anchor as well as destroying the brain itself. - It's technically possible to tie the spirit anchor to a completely mech body, even without your original brain. In that case, putting the spirit anchor (or the spirit anchor and your original brain, if you still have one) into a new body is called "switching out". - Some people even decide to grab a new bio body entirely after having problems with an old one and transplanting their brain and mind anchor from it, also referred to as "switching out". - Cheap spirit anchors might just not work, or they may work but give you more spirit decay when you recorp. ## Anchor Tanks - Anchor tanks are usually quite expensive, like 1000 Valdan Credits at the minimum. More expensive ones can reform cybermods, and the really *really* insane ones can do plastic surgery, brain transplants, store alternate bodies for you, etc. etc. (these can be like hundreds of thousands or even millions of credits, think like the CEO of a major corp-amounts of money). - Reforming a full body from just a xenic anchor takes a whole week if you're using a normal anchor tanks (and they can get *spendy*). - Anchor tanks can heal up and revive a dead body with an anchor, unless it's too mangled. It won't reform a body from dust or pulp, you'll have to start from scratch. - The anchor tank uses stem cells stored in it, as well as a large source of green xeon, to reform the body. - (Most) anchor tanks don't reform cyber enhancements or cyber bodies, so you'll have to get reoutfitted with your old cyber parts (if you could recover them). If you have them you can just put them in the anchor tank and it'll reattach them, but they'll need to be tuned up again. - Anchor tanks, especially the lower-end ones, can get out-of-whack and make mistakes! They'll need servicing once in a while. Anchor tank mistakes can range from a mole getting misplaced to gaining spirit decay to completely mangling your body! So try to keep up-to-date on the servicing schedule, and don't cheap out too much. # Risks ## Spirit Decay You gain a level of [[Spirit Decay]] when you recorp or are revived, so people with spirit anchors who are going for immortality still try to make their present bodies immortal so that they don't have to recorp. You also definitely experience spirit decay at some point after your natural lifespan has exhausted itself just as a natural result of an unnaturally-long lifespan, and that can be very unpleasant and almost always deadly (often so unpleasant that the victim of it will remove and destroy their spirit anchor of their own will either before or after the spirit decay sets in, to finally finish their mortal journey). THERES NO SOLUTION TO SPIRIT DECAY. Most people who use spirit anchors know that they'll die at some point and just use it for an added measure of safety. ## Trauma Recorping is usually pretty traumatic, as you just felt the pain of dying but didn't actually die. If the person with the spirit anchor doesn't confront it they can become a shell of a person, hollowed out by death and rebirth. All of this is in addition to spirit decay which may take time to set in but will always claim its victim. ## Bad Recorp A bad recorp can tweak your body and brain, resulting in mental issues, disorders, weakened immune system, or even cancer. A lot of this can be fixed by surgery, magical healing, or cybermods, but this can be expensive and sometimes it doesn't even work. ## Mental Breakdown If you recorp too much you can also start to lose your sense of self, as recorping (especially a bad recorp) can slightly tweak your body and brain. This can result in all sorts of mental disorders. # Notes ## Brain vs Anchor The brain is the first anchor for the spirit, so if there's some sort of contest between an anchor and a brain, the brain wins. This only really has happened when someone with an anchor goes catatonic and they've tried a brain transplant (which never goes well because the brain is still tied to the xenic body or spirit of the brain). In some circumstances the owner of the brain and the owner of the anchor will fight over control of the brain and body, and that never turns out well either.