Editing The Firmament (section)

===Interaction with Parahumans===
The firmament is essential as the diagnostic and the information-gathering tool for when a shard triggers and decides the parameters of the powers it grants,<ref>'''Chiro'''<br/>I was wondering as of late, why Taylor can't control Breed's parasites? Is it because they as lifeforms don't fall into the portfolio of creatures Taylor controls, or because Breed controls them already?<br/><br/>'''Kyakan'''<br/>might be as simple as them not being around when Taylor's power was defining what counted as "bug"<br/><br/>'''Wildbow'''<br/>Kyak has it right. Bonesaw talks about how shards conceptualize their idea of what X is when the trigger happens.<br/>It's why Taylor's notion of what a 'bug' is remains pretty nebulous, including some things (crabs, earthworms, arachnids, insects) and bypassing others (skin mites, bug case 53s).<br/>And it's not just Taylor- it pulls from the shard network of wider human knowledge across hosts. - [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/53539480 Discord conversation Archived on Spacebattles.]</ref> as well as the modeling structure for [[Precognitive]] abilities.<ref>It's worth stating that a lot of the simulation is only possible because the shards are already there, gathering, sharing, and collating data. - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/3f6bcg/_/ctm6uft WB on reddit]</ref>

When a group of capes entered the shardspace through a dream room of [[the Mall Cluster]], they were de-powered and constantly sent out visible [[:wikipedia:ping_(networking_utility)|pings]] of light to the avatars of their [[agent]]s. The intensity of pings seems to vary depending on distance or their mental state. The hosts and agent-avatars, presumably, can voluntarily merge when nearby.

The hosts are also semi-immortal while inside the shardspace, since they always can get a new, memory-based "body" from the crystal surface. However, fatal wounds still can sever the connection and render them brain-dead in real space.

After [[The Ice Breaks|reality broke]], cracks opened into the world that allowed anyone to enter the shardspace. When entered this way, the capes in question retained some of their abilities, though they become significantly weaker, the further they are from the conventional reality. [[The Wardens]] deployed artificial portals to provide power-support for their capes forced to act inside the Firmament.<ref>“Don’t stray too far from the portal!” Moonsong called out to Furcate.  The portal near the center of the work site was their lifeline, feeding them their powers, in this place where powers were dampened or gone. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2020/01/28/infrared-19-e/ Excerpt] from [[Infrared 19.e]]</ref>
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