I'm not sure how much I'm going to be using this section, but if I'm using it all I'm going to be doing it right, dammit. Given the cosmological timeframe of my chain it feels pointless trying to describe the full scope of experiences, augmentations and personalities of beings ripped from their native realities by an autistic demiurge and charged with world conquest by him. So instead of writing 24K word posts I was internally debating using one of three systems to describe the companions: The Tech Specs formerly used for Transformers toys, the Glitch TTRPG's character creation system (supplemented by those of other Nobilis games where either content is missing or the companion does not resemble an Excrucian sufficiently to justify it), and the Fate/Grand Order skills/noble phantasm/profile sections. Due to the unusual or arbitrary nature of some characters' existence, it is best to treat these stats as representative of the character on a casual day out, manifesting their preferred avatar, or some other casual but significant presence in reality rather than a conclusive and definitive statement about what they are capable of given enough preptime-or indeed, who would actually win in a fight.
May or may not write an example with Elodie using this template later tonight. If I don't get bored or something.
In what may be a decision I will come to regret, I've decided to use all three with a few tweaks.
Below can be found a rough format for how companions will be described here. Sections with "()" are personalised for individual characters, while sections written in "[]" are explanations for where and how the system has been modified:
(Name)
AKA (Relevant official titles and aliases)
(Quote)
Destructive Potential:
Common Sense:
Mobility:
Vitality:
Narrativium Level:
Heart:
Energy Output:
Finesse:
[Due to some companions being data lifeforms, spiritual beings, literal nonentities or other such things stats like Endurance and Rank are irrelevant. Each stat is listed on a scale of value in cosmic warfare from 0 to 10. For example Energy Output, the most quantifiable of the stats, follows Nikolai Kardashev's scale of energy output-with a 2 for example representing the character can reliably output more energy than a single G type star, but less than the Milky Way, while a 0.5 represents the character being able to produce less than a fraction of a planet's power.
[Other stats are more abstract. Heart represents a grab bag of spiritual strength, the capacity to turn emotional energy into phenomena ranging from giant pink beams like the Care Bear Stare, to outright Miracles like Saints in Saint Seiya]
[Vitality simply covers any capacity to keep oneself alive or functional, and is assessed not just by the scale of attacks needed to render it moot but the uniqueness and/or difficulty of specific phenomena and circumstances needed to bring about a meaningful cessation. The Flood before obliteration by the Halo Arrays would probably rank around a 3, while the Demiurge Jagganoth would be somewhere between a 5 and 6 due to his status as a cosmic constant still leaving him vulnerable to esoteric interference as well as the non-zero possibility of him being fellable by his own hand. Supreme beings such as the Dharmakāya (the unmanifested, "inconceivable" (acintya) aspect of a Buddha out of which Buddhas arise and to which they return after their dissolution) and Yog-Sothoth sit comfortably at an 8]
[As a general rule of thumb Destructive Potential must be equal to or greater than Vitality for one companion to actually be capable of killing another in a way that matters. Companion respawn rules are ignored for the purpose of this section as a source of Vitality for convenience]
[Narrativium Level is a combination of the companion's sensitivity to fate, prophecy and other such matters as well as their influence in metafiction. Highly pushed Nintendo characters such as Bayonetta and Sonic are likely somewhere between a 5 and a 6 given their potential to change the course of entire worlds, while less pushed ones such as Samus and Mario still fall comfortably within the 2-4 range. Common Sense encompasses the companion's capacity to actually apply factors such as intelligence and wisdom]
[Individuals ranks higher than 2 may represent higher increments along the Kardeshev scale OR, for example, a foxgirl from a higher Xianxia realm having a fluffy tail as fluffy as 100 lower realm-dwelling kitsunes' entire fluffy tails. Or a hyper-real triangle operating at a higher level than an insufficiently advanced Flatlander triangle]
Current Arc: [This attempts to match the character to a relevant arc from Nobilis or one of the other games sharing it's setting, a broad indicator of the character's aspirations and the direction that their ambitions and overall capabilities are steering them towards]
Ability: [This stat lists overall competence at mundane efforts-that is, those inclusive of wizardry or advanced science but not to a degree where the action supersedes local reality. Closely correlated with but not strictly speaking equal to Common Sense]
(First divine attribute): (rating)
(Second divine attribute): (rating)
(Third divine attribute): (rating)
(Fourth divine attribute): (rating)
[Divine attributes are broadly representative of how the realer-than-reality divine power in Nobilis is expressed by a given entity. They are not exclusive to certain types of entity; Allegorical for example merely says the character has an extraordinary divine mantle that is in some way twisted, but not whether because they are a fallen angel or a primordial serpent so unthinkably vast the churning of the universe is a shadow of it's true size. Not all divine beings across Jumpchain necessarily have divine attributes, and as mentioned before this is less a definite statement about who would win in a fight-though admittedly, having divine attributes is a MAJOR advantage in the sense that a nuke is an advantage against cavemen-and more about whether or not the character has permanent capabilities that are superordinate to baseline reality, in the sense of Baruch Spinoza's conception of a self-caused "substance]
[Sub-attributes such as Techniques will be mentioned if relevant; Techniques are mechanically superficial paradigms that define the character's usual approach to solving problems in-universe such as "like a forest witch" or "with all the strength of a coursing river"]
(Bonds) [This represents inherent but relatively superficial talents, abilities or approaches by the companion, like a hunger for small children or a compulsion to overthrow the government]
(Geasa) [This represents deepseated laws governing the character's behaviour even when opposed by the rules of physics/magic or cosmological interference, like Cain's curse of sevenfold retribution]
(Gifts) [This represents significant miracles deemed iconic enough to be listed as part of the character's roster][Expand Post]
(Estate) [Strategists and angels have a "sphere" of phenomena they directly govern and Strategists in particular also supposed to be "dying of" something similar to that phenomena, so this section may be customisable for certain companions and instead reflect their most major divine domain or somesuch instead of a strict definition of Nobilis' Estate; clarification will be provided. Many companions have multiple divine domains, this merely represents the one they hold as the most spiritually representative of themselves. If the character lacks a divine domain, this likely represents an advanced paradigm of technology or something ismilar]
(Sanctuary) [This section refers to an inner world, magical realm or other unusual plane of existence bound spiritually to the companion who acts as it's suzerain or in a similar level of authority. They may have multiple such sanctums, but this is the most important one even if not necessarily the most powerful]
(Method of Destruction) [This section refers to the companion's greatest applicable weakness. Even companions that are functionally invincible have a form of ]
(Skill 1)
(Skill 2)
(Skill 3)
[Skills are approximately equal to Bonds and Geasa. In the spirit of Fate, ones listed here will likely be separate from the more generalised Bonds/Geasa listed for companions, and reflect specific achivements or unique circumstances]
(Rank) (Noble Phantasm) (Range)
(Additional Noble Phantasms; optional)
[Noble Phantasms are approximately equal to Gifts. They can be considered the trump cards of companions, whether an ultimate special attack or something like revealing the Holy Grail to heal the land. As above, they are not necessarily the most powerful or unique abilities of the companion but rather those that define them most as a character]
(Story of their life; generally 6 parts)