Diving

Diving: going into Nous, which most of the city treats as something closer to a spirit realm than a machine. Those who feel that most strongly call it Abzu.

Diving is what other cyberpunk worlds call decking: entering a virtual realm and working with the systems inside it.

What sets diving apart is how Deshret sees it: closer to magic than to plain technology. A deck makes it happen, but divers have no real insight into how the deck works. They know how to operate it and keep it running, and the rest is a black box. So the whole thing keeps an edge of the mystical.

Nous is usually seen as a data-driven spirit realm laid over the physical one, and those who see it that way often call it Abzu. Divers are almost like astral travellers, sending their minds out of their bodies to wander another world. That view does not come from nowhere. People who die after being splintered, but before they are brought back in the flesh, often appear in Abzu.

Everyday Diving

Most citizens dive at some point, and many do it often. There are interesting things to explore, and there is the simple pleasure of socialising in any body you like. Some even dive as a religious practice, to explore the spiritual realm.

Diver is a loose word. It can mean someone who spends a lot of time in Abzu, or someone who has the skills to use it for more than exploring and socialising.

Jacking In

Divers use dive rigs: padded chairs that hold the body while the mind is away. The chair connects to the brain wirelessly, so there is no cable to pull. Portable hardware can connect too, but it only gives a shallow glimpse, not full immersion.

Most divers jack in from a public dive rig rental near the Cortex, one of the two huge data centres Abzu runs on. The Abkal, Abzu's main custodians, run it. Symphony owns the other data centre, in Delos.

While a diver is jacked in, their body is unconscious and vulnerable. If the connection drops, they get mild after-effects like headaches. If someone drags them out of the rig, it is worse, and can mean real physical harm.

Inside Abzu

Inside, the diver's mind is awake and sees the world differently. They can take any shape they like, free of their physical body. Intelligence and knowledge matter here, not strength.

Rooms are more like a web of routers and connected devices, and a diver can walk into any device on the network. This is not hacking as we know it. A diver does not write code; they physically walk into the device and handle what is inside. Stealing data means picking up a file and carrying it out.

Divers do not have to rely on their own two hands. They have sprites: something like lesser spirits or familiars. Some are built or rebuilt by people with the skill; others seem to have simply come into being. Sprites are not sapient, but they have their own talents. Some are better in a fight, and some are better for tinkering and tuning.

When divers clash, the fight usually happens through their sprites, but it can reach the divers too, with devastating results. A diver who dies in Abzu is thrown back into their body, to die in reality as well.

Diving is not a weapon in the physical world. A diver cannot fry someone's brain from the network.

Read next: help abkal, help symphony, and help technology.
For the game side of diving, see help abzu and help dive rigs.
On the Agora: https://agora.underspire.net/t/diving/55