Vissi Compendium (walkthrough)
This is the text of the Vissi System Walkthrough available in game in the Vissi Compendium.
Tutorial: How to Use the Vissi System
Introduction
First and foremost, if you have not yet laid claim to a pair of arcarium, I recommend doing so before going any further.
Your first step, if you haven't already, is to WEAR your arcarium. Do not try to give your arcarium to others, for when you accepted them they became attuned to your ur'vissi. As such, they will only function for you.
Although powerful artifacts, your arcarium can be worn or removed just like any other clothing accessory, and you can opt to wear just one should you desire, though naturally you would only draw the benefits of that arcarium / Orb should you do this.
Your arcarium is your own, and you may eventually discover merchants that are willing to modify their appearance as long as they retain their original nature.
Player Note: Arcarium are character-attuned and cannot be used by other players. If you have multiple characters, each character is eligible to collect a free pair of arcarium. Additional arcarium can be purchased for aevit if you wish to possess extra sets for purposes of swapping out full configurations, but only one arcarium of each type can be worn at a time.
Activation & Suppression of Orbs and Default Ambients
Once worn, your arcarium are tapped into your ur'vissi, but they are not yet active. Arcarium can be set to active or inert; when they are active they will reflect their full power and your Orbs will be released, whereas when they are inert your Orbs will not be present. Since occasions may arise where you wish to tap into your vissi in a more discreet manner, our Lady formed her artifacts in such a way that most vissi functions can be invoked even while the arcarium are inert.
To make your arcarium active, PROD each one. As you do so, you will notice that the Orb housed with its arcarium is now released and floats above your shoulder. Your arcarium are now considered active, and commoners can now easily see that you have been graced with our Lady's exquisite gift.
Since the Orbs respond to your vissi and ur'vissi, you may notice some occasional random effects as echoes of your vissi flare within the Orbs. Pay these displays no mind; just as a flame will occasionally flare and crackle as it catches a pocket of moisture or gasses, the Orbs will do similarly as they respond to the ever-present emanations of your ur'vissi.
Nonetheless, if these emanations become too distracting for you, you can COVER your Orb, which will suppress them.
Player Note: PRODding your arcarium will toggle it between the active and inert state. When in active state, your arcarium will produce an orb that can be seen when someone LOOKS at you. The orbs come with some default ambients, and one will periodically fire off every 2-7 minutes (random duration within that range) after the first ambient fires, but if you would prefer to suppress them without setting your arcarium back to inert state, you can COVER MY ORB. The orb will visually remain, but the ambients are now deactivated. You can COVER your orb again to toggle them back on anytime you would like.
Inserting Vissi & Activating Abilities
When you are ready to insert a vissi into your arcarium, hold it in your hand and PUT it in. Your vissi is now activated, and you will see its presence if you ANALYZE your arcarium carefully. As you do so, you'll notice that your analysis also shows you how the vissi within your arcarium can be invoked. You can either accept the arcarium's decision or you can ATTEND to your vissi to select another method of activation.
Some boons that your vissi provide are passive in nature and cannot be directly invoked, so if you do not sense an activation method during your analysis, then that would be why.
If your vissi possesses an ability that can be invoked, you will use your arcarium as a go-between. Use the activator that is paired with your thread on your arcarium, and your vissi's ability will be invoked.
Player Note: Vissi are inserted and removed from your arcarium just like any container, except that your vissi will require you to be holding an extractor before you can remove it if you are outside the Inquisitor's domain.
When you attempt to insert a vissi into your arcarium, you will be required to CONFIRM it. This is to prevent accidental insertions since removing it again outside of the Inquisitor's grounds will require the use of an extractor.
When you insert a vissi into your arcarium, if the arcarium has a direct function that can be invoked, then a verb activator will be assigned to it. Not all vissi have abilities that are directly invoked; some, for example, may offer passive boosts that trigger automatically when the vissi is in your arcarium.
If your vissi has an ability that can be invoked, you can ANALYZE the arcarium to see what the current activator is set to. The five verbs that are used as activators are RUB, TAP, PUSH, PULL and POKE. If you would like to change the activator for your vissi, you can do so using ATTEND (my vissi) WITH (one of the five activators). Alternatively, if you are using the Wrayth front end, you can click on the item link and select an activator directly from the menu. LOOK IN your arcarium to quickly see the inserted threads and click on them, or use ANALYZE for a lengthier summary.
Once you are ready to use an invokable vissi, you will use the activator set to the thread on your arcarium to trigger it if the ability is intended to be self-cast. For example, if your thread was set to activate with RUB, then you would RUB MY ARCARIUM to activate it. If your ability can be targeted at another, you would use RUB MY ARCARIUM AT (target) to direct it. Alternatively, if you are using the Wrayth front end, when you click on your arcarium you will notice an ACTIVATE option on your menu; you can use that too.
If you had multiple vissi inserted, each with its own invokable ability, then you would simply use the activator set to each vissi on your arcarium to trigger that specific vissi's ability. Once you are happy with your activator settings, whether they be the ones assigned by default or a configuration you set with ATTEND, from that point on your arcarium will handle the invocations.
Vissi Configuration
Each arcarium can house a total of five vissi, but due to the unrestrained nature of primal vissi, our wise Lady has limited your arcarium to using a maximum of three primal vissi at once since controlling more primals would be difficult for the novice. Although chimera vissi can be chaotic in their own right due to vissi being isolated remnants of the whole, their nature is more restrained than primals, so there is no limit to how many chimera vissi you can insert.
Player Note: If your primary consideration is abilities that directly benefit your character, then the optimal setup for you would likely be 2 chimera vissi and 3 primal vissi, for the total capacity of 5. If you are not in combat and instead wish to prioritize RP / flavor-oriented vissi, you can fill your arcarium with 5 chimera vissi. Your exact configuration is entirely up to you; pick the vissi that best match your PC's interests. Just remember that you are limited to 3 primal vissi whatever configuration you ultimately decide on.
Elsewhere in this codex I explained how the two Orbs reflect our dualism, and as such each Orb may respond differently to vissi inserted into the arcarium housing the Orb if the vissi complements the Orbs' dualistic nature. Read that chapter if you desire a more thorough explanation.
Player Note: You are free to insert a vissi into whichever arcarium you prefer; all vissi function with both. Vissi that have a single suite of abilities will function identically regardless of which arcarium you slot it in, but vissi that possess two ability suites will respond differently based on whether they are inserted into the arcarium housing the Aversaris Orb or the arcarium housing the Vangaris Orb, so when planning your configurations, keep an eye out for dualistic vissi and house them based on the abilities that most appeal to you.
Tiering Vissi Via Duplicates
Our wise Lady has opted to limit your current primal vissi to a single boon, whether singular or dualistic in nature, because controlling the unbridled nature of a primal vissi is challenging, and she would not wish to see you become harmed by losing control.
With that clarification in place, it is important to note that a vissi can possess multiple abilities, and this is frequently seen with chimera vissi that have been empowered through the feeding of duplicate vissi, which segues into my next set of instructions.
If you would like to empower an existing vissi, you can hold a copy of the same vissi type in each hand and BUNDLE them similarly to how an herbalist would bundle herbs. The stronger vissi will absorb the lesser vissi, increasing its progression towards the next milestone.
Alternatively, if you would like to empower a vissi housed within your arcarium, you can simply PUT the duplicate copy of the vissi into your arcarium. If it is a duplicate, it will merge with the existing vissi, thereby bringing it closer to reaching the next milestone.
Although a vissi can hold multiple abilities, it would be unsafe for the untrained to attempt to invoke them simultaneously, so your arcarium have been designed to designate one of those abilities as active at any given time. You may change the active ability if you TILT your vissi.
There is no limit to how many times you can TILT your vissi, so you can adjust its abilities on the fly; just remember that only one can be designated as active at a time.
Player Note: The vast majority of vissi can be tiered up through the use of duplicate vissi, with ephemeral vissi being the exception. When you feed a same-type vissi into another, both will be merged into a single copy, and the existing copy will have moved closer towards unlocking the next tier.
Tiering can enhance the original ability so that it performs stronger, permits more uses, or a combination of both (which is generally the case with primal vissi), or it can result in unlocking new abilities, options, or customizations (which is generally the case with chimera vissi).
To feed a duplicate vissi, you can either use BUNDLE if holding a copy in both hands OR you can feed a duplicate directly into an original already housed within your arcarium by attempting to PUT the duplicate thread into the arcarium. In the latter case, it will merge the vissi rather than insert the duplicate.
If a vissi has multiple abilities, whether by original design or unlocked through tiering, only one ability can be active at a time, but you can change the active ability as much as you would like via TILT (my) VISSI. Alternatively, if you are using the Wrayth front end, you can click on a vissi and select TILT from the menu.
Customizing Your Chimera Vissi
Whereas primal vissi are instinctual and typically single-minded in nature, chimera vissi are much more "aware," and as such their empowerment is sometimes reflected in broadening a chimera vissi's ability to react rather than unlocking an entirely new ability. This can result in you having a firmer control of exactly how a chimera vissi's emanations or abilities will react or appear.
Should such a mastery be unlocked within your vissi, you can target elements you would like to change by TURNing and TWISTing your thread. When you TURN your thread, you will direct it to a specific element you wish to change, and once you have selected that element you would then TWIST that thread to modify the selected element.
Player Note: Since chimera vissi have a heavier focus on atmosphere and roleplaying abilities, often segments of text within their ambients or abilities can be customized so that the final output better matches your tastes or your character's personality (though usually these customizations will need to be unlocked by tiering your vissi up).
If you have unlocked these customizations, you can modify them at will via TURN and TWIST. When you TURN your vissi, you will be provided a text snippet that includes some bolded words. The bolded text is the segment that can be customized, and the surrounding text within the snippet helps provide you context of how the customized text will appear within the greater sentence. These segments can be as simple as changing a single adjective or as complex as changing an entire reaction or sentence, and multiple customizable segments may be available within the same sentence. Simply TURN to rotate through any customizable segments that you've unlocked, and when you've reached the end of the list of available customizable segments, you will simply return back to the start.
When you have decided on a segment that you would like to customize, you will then TWIST your vissi to rotate through the available customizations. As with TURN, each time you TWIST your vissi, the customized text will be highlighted, and you will be given a snippet of contextual text before and after the bolded text.
You can TURN and TWIST your vissi as often as you like, so feel free to experiment and change them as your mood, character, and surroundings take you. Just note that you will have a five minute period in which to start TWISTing your thread after a TURN. If you TURN your thread and five minutes elapsed before you attempted to TWIST it, you'll be told that you need to TURN your vissi to begin the customizations. That just means the timer ran out; use TURN to rotate back to the segment you wanted to modify, then your ability to TWIST through the customizations will be available.
Selecting & Disabling of Desired Ambients
Finally, you may have noticed that I stated with mastery of your chimera vissi that it is possible you may be able to influence the appearance or responses of emanations, so let us circle back to one of the points we covered at the start. As I started previously, your Orbs can react to your ur'vissi's emanations and flare occasionally, and the same is true of vissi.
Your Orbs serve to amplify the power of your vissi and thus have no "mind" of their own, so their responses to the ur'vissi emanations cannot be guided by you. You may command the Orbs to keep the emanations hidden, but that is the extent of your control over the Orbs.
Since your vissi is drawn directly from the ur'vissi, some vissi can retain enough intelligence or malleability to allow you to influence the emanations. So, whereas your two options with the Orb are to either accept the inherent emanations or suppress them, some vissi threads may additionally allow you to guide how they appear or react.
Player Note: Some vissi may contain an ambient, and whereas orb ambients cannot be customized, a vissi ambient might allow customization as stated in the previous Player Notes section.
If an inserted vissi has an unlocked ambient within it, that ambient will be added to the list of available ambients your orb can randomly choose from when it fires. COVERing your orb does not deactivate all ambients; it simply suppresses the default ones. What this means is if you do not want the default orb ambients to fire but did want your vissi ambients to fire, you can accomplish that by simply COVERing your orb to toggle the default ones off. From that point on, any time your orb fires an ambient, it will only choose from among any active vissi ambients since the default ones connected to orb were suppressed.
You can also COVER (my) VISSI to suppress an ambient that is active on an individual vissi. The system was designed to give you full control. Do you like most of the ambients but dislike a particular vissi's ambient? Simply COVER that vissi to suppress its ambient; the default ones and any other vissi's ambients will continue to fire. Want only your vissi ambients to fire? Just COVER your orb and keep all vissi ambients active. Want to force a personal favorite vissi ambient to fire each time? COVER your orb and all vissi except the one you want to remain active, then the system will fire only your preferred ambient and suppress the rest.
You can also shut all ambients off instantly by PRODding your arcarium to set it to inert, though that will cause your orb to be hidden away within your arcarium. So as you can see, you have a great deal of control over how flashy or inconspicuous you wish your Orbs of Vicissitude to be, and since abilities can still be activated when your arcarium is inert, you aren't sacrificing anything by taking the discreet path if that better matches your tastes.