Biofeedback

Preservers believe that the body is sacred and consider artificial body modification a mortal sin. This often places them at a disadvantage when competing with biogenically enhanced immortals, cybernetically augmented collectors, and other "improved" sentients. In fact, the body mod taboo is usually the first thing non-preservers mention when criticizing the Church.

In response, a number of preserver mystics and psychics have developed a system of self-focused meditation that grants practitioners psionic control over their bodies. The applications of this technique are many and varied, from being able to sense the tiniest details of one's physical condition to levitation and even invulnerability. The power and range of these effects is limited only by a World's Psionics rating.

One thing Biofeedback cannot do is alter the body in an artificial way. Healing injuries is possible, since it restores the body to its natural state, but shapeshifting is out of the question. There might be a way to apply the principles of Biofeedback to such an end, but no preserver is going to research it. Biofeedback either enhances the body's normal abilities or prevents outside forces from altering it.

Biofeedback training involves intense mediations, prolonged sensory deprivation, and some kind of apparatus for feeding information about the body's state to the sentient. (Hence the name "biofeedback.") This three-pronged approach teaches mystics to focus only on their own bodies to the exclusion of other stimuli, while allowing them to bring their involuntary bodily functions under conscious control.

Game Mechanics

The Biofeedback Skill includes all of the below powers, plus any you want to create on your own. Each can also be learned as a separate Trick. Specific game mechanics are given in their entries.

The Inner Eye - Clairvoyant awareness of the body's physical and biological state.

The Outer Eye - Heightened physical senses that rival any cybernetic surveillance system.

Still the Waters - Slow and regulate metabolic processes, blood flow, temperature, etc.

Inner Strength - Boost reflexes and strength as much as biogenic body mods.

Purification - Accelerated healing for injuries, illness, and even poison.

Sever the Chains - Levitation; the name refers to the "chains of gravity."

Sanctity of the Temple - Make the body impervious to outside forces.