Published 2025-06-24 14:56:40
The five major specialty schools of technopathy are Obfuscation, Evocation, Communication, Systemization, and Administration. Most technopath training facilities revolve around these five methods, and the vast majority of technopaths fall under one of these categories (although like anything in the field of technopathy, other approaches exist).
The specialty schools are not formal institutions in themselves, but taught at all training facilities. An evocation specialist trained at Translunar Academy and one trained at Cislunar Institute would be expected to have a similar skillset and mindset, though their specific experiences shape them each into unique technopaths. This results in informal networks of technopaths--a working technopath likely knows others of their specialization from different academies and companies.
These specializations are not merely styles of technopathy, but ways of thinking. There also exists a great diversity of thought within each school of technopathy. Although each candidate has a choice of specialization, it is not truly a free choice--they must pass an entrance exam proving that they have the right type of mind for the school they wish to specialize in. Candidates can attempt multiple specialty schools’ entrance exams, but must choose only one specialization.
That is not to say that an EvoSpec does not learn and make use of CommTech, or SysTech--every technopath uses a bit of every school, but every technopath has a specialization, the epicenter that their technopathy revolves around. For example, an EvoSpec may use ObTech to conceal its attacks, but its ultimate purpose is in the offense, not the concealment. An ObSpec may use EvoTech to damage an enemy’s senses or stage a distraction, but its ultimate purpose is in the concealment, not the damage. A SySpec may use CommTech to facilitate communication within a drone network so that the swarm functions more efficiently as a system, while a CommSpec may use SysTech by using drones to relay messages for the purpose of more efficient communication.
As much as technopaths of different schools often collaborate and make great use of the synergy between their styles, they also form rivalries and compete with each other. Each specialization possesses many tools to counter the others, and to protect its technopaths from them.
Obfuscation represents one of the most important objectives of technopathy: concealment of information. Specialists tend to make heavy use of sensory echoes and other styles of illusion and misdirection. Cryptography is an ObSpec’s playground. A master ObSpec weaves layers upon layers of defenses over a server, a file, or itself--they are the ultimate defensive technopaths. Employers hire ObSpecs to do just that--protect assets, disappear evidence, falsify data, or trap an enemy in an illusory world.
Echoes and all manner of technopathic defenses are forms of Obfuscation that all technopaths utilize, but ObSpecs are by far the most skilled at these fundamentals. Even the expression of avatars in the æther falls under the school of Obfuscation.
Evocation represents the raw power of technopathy, and one of its most crucial functions--the cyberattack. If Obfuscation is the lock of technopathy, Evocation is the lockpick. EvoSpecs use their technopathy to damage, destroy, and kill, and employers hire them to do what they do best. A skilled EvoSpec targets its attacks to disrupt its enemy’s technopathy, but at times a sufficiently strong brute force attack can get the job done.
Technopathic attacks are Evocation techniques which all technopaths are trained in, but EvoSpecs excel at the art of offense. Whether echoes, locks, shields, networks, even servers themselves, whatever a technopath builds, an EvoSpec is best suited to break it.
Communication is a self-explanatory field, but its applications are far-reaching. The art of Communication covers both the tools of communicating--such as language, thought, emotion, and technology--and its application. Social engineering is the iconic skillset of CommSpecs--as masters of language and emotion, an unsuspecting target will not only tell a CommSpec what it wants to know, but will do so enthusiastically. Employers hire CommSpecs for many purposes, such as intercepting or disrupting enemy communications or sabotaging them with false data, as well as for social engineering and all its applications--even basic social skills like deception, or the detection thereof, are invaluable to a corporation.
CommSpecs are also known for their utility as translators--all certified technopaths are polyglots who fluently speak 30-40 languages on average, but a CommSpec will knows hundreds, including conlangs it created itself, which no other mind can easily decipher. Simple messaging and empathic sensing are CommTech applications any technopath can use, but a CommSpec’s skills at communication go far beyond mere conversation.
Systemization is the art of connection, distribution, decentralization. Although all technopaths are cyborgs, often with quite elaborate arrays of augments and modifications to their bodies, SySpecs are on another level when it comes to self-customization. To be a SySpec is to exist beyond your central mind and body, to extend yourself and live as a network. SySpecs commonly employ both physical drones and æthereal constructs to expand their reach. For coordinating anything from a drone array to a fleet of battleships, a SySpec is the technopath to hire. A master SySpec might never be seen at all, often preferring to interact with the surface via drones or android bodies, and in the æther with constructs, familiars, or exopaths.
Many technopaths make use of familiars, constructs, or projections, all forms of Systemization technopathy, but SySpecs are able to coordinate much larger networks and accomplish much more complicated strategies with these tools.
Administration, the smallest field by number, the largest by salary, and the most respected and feared technopaths. While all other schools of technopathy deal with manipulating objects in the æther, Administration controls the ætherscape itself, the serverspace in which other technopaths operate. From a technopath’s perspective, the skills of an AdminSpec manifest as the manipulation of time and space, the logic by which all technopaths navigate the æther.
A modern server is much too large, complex, and vulnerable to leave to its own devices--typically a server has one or more dedicated Admins. To be an Admin is to be one with your server, inseparable, a core part of the server’s operation. Particularly important servers, such as those at the heart of technopath academies, typically have multiple Admins--Translunar Academy, for instance, always has three Admins, of which at least two must physically remain on-world at all times.
To a technopath dissociated in an enemy server, the process of all technopathy typically begins with bypassing the Admin, or finding open channels in which it can operate unhindered by the Admin. Many fundamentals of technopathy, such as opening gateways to dissociate between servers or nodes, fall under the school of Administration, but few technopaths have the mindset to become an AdminSpec. It is rare to encounter AdminSpecs outside of their home server, but their skills can also be very useful in raids of enemy servers--a smaller subset of AdminSpecs focus on this work rather than administering a home server. Direct combat between two Admins of the same server is something best avoided, for the sake of the server.