Jetver, The Walking Tower of Yulth

Cherekof's Lair

The point of tangent between two universes always produces dimensional friction [...] The walkers tread through it, and one can use that to power one's own research.

— Excerpt of the journal of the nanomage Cherekof

Image from https://alienplanet.fandom.com/wiki/Emperor_Sea_Strider

Knowledge of Numenera suggested, but not required

Background

In the continent of Adiath, deep within the badlands of Yulth, lies the Ravenous Basin; a carnivorous landlocked sea resulting from the intersection of two universes. Therein microscopic life seeps through into our universe and gathers into a massive predatory conglomerate powered by the exotic energies of their home dimension.

The Hulking Walkers are massive creatures whose feet have mouth-like organs that rip chunks away from the sea they walk on every time they take a step. Reaching up to 120 ft (32 m) tall, they look like vertical structures with two armoured legs, half-moon shaped head with 2 glowing spots used to communicate with other of their kind, and a set of front-facing extendable tentacles on their chests equipped with sensorial and reproductive organs.

Jetver

Hundreds of years ago, Cherekof, the Quotien Nano, came across the Ravenous Basin and the Walkers within. Their elder mind recognized the area for what it was and his hunger for power flared. Using the vast knowledge of the Numenera available to them, they entered a sleeping Walker at the edge of the sea and got to work on their new slave.

Over the decades, they used their power to transform the creature from the inside out: chambers hollowed out of flesh and held up with bone; new nerves grown out of organic metals; old nerves rewired and reprogrammed; essence and energy worked into new organs, both physical and ethereal; mental processes chained and twisted to an alien biding; Tentacles converted to gather information; mouths mutated to improve energy gain; dimensional friction harvested and used to power the new tower.

They carved, crushed and moulded, with their knowledge, the beast they would come to call Jetver, his beloved. And thus, the ancient Cherekof looked upon his work and saw it was good.

Once finished the Quotien retreated into their slumber-chamber, meditating on the knowledge transmitted by the tower and waiting for the next stage of his plan. The Walkers mind was programmed and compelled to follow the will of his master and creator, and for years he did so, unaware of his serfdom. It still walks and feeds, but his tentacles probe and experiment, driven by a curiosity alien to one such as he. The mind of a quotien is convoluted and vast, and their reasons are unfathomable, but someday, Cherekof will awaken with newfound knowledge and continue the work they started.

Cherekof's Plan

Why should one have a living tower on this side of the tangent when one could have the same tower twice... on both sides of the tangent.

— excerpt from the journal of Cherekof

Realizing the limited scope of their investigations on this side of the Universal Tangent, Cherekof ultimately intends to explore the other side. For now, the more complex part of the plan is to understand and replicate the sophisticated entanglement mechanics between universes. Once they achieve the required understanding and gather the necessary energy, the plan is to capture a second Walker, entangle it to Jetver and send it to the universe on the other side. This, they expect, will permit the safe exploration of the other side of the tangent while controlling all operations safely from the original tower. In the future, they presume, it will be possible to entangle the two slumber chambers and cross the tangent themselves.

For now, they wait and meditate. There is still much to do.

Purpose / Function

Jetver's purpose is to walk the green Ravenous Basin and gather information for his master. It is equiped with the capacity to probe the universal tangent and detect several kinds of physical manifestations and magnitudes with its tentacles, or use them to capture new experimental subjects.

Alterations

Jetver is in constant mutation according to the will of Cherekof. See sidebar.

Architecture

The room and corridors are composed of two walls connected by tendons and flexible muscles. The inner wall is able to shift and move in relation to the outer wall in order to stabilize the room as Jetver moves. The floors and walls have a supple consistency, warm to the touch and with a slightly acrid smell of offal. Smaller rooms are secured by specialized muscles while larger ones are sustained by bone supports. If the situation calls for a more stable flooring, the Walker can secrete a chitin ceramic coating or grow a lining of organic metal over a longer period of time. The rooms are connected through sphincter like corridor structures which remain closed when not in use and which, due to the levitation capacity of Cherekof, are oriented in any direction required.

The disposition of the rooms, size and function of the rooms changes according to the needs of the Quotien, but a few are fixed over time:

Slumber-Chamber

Located just under Jetver's brain casing, it is a flesh casket within which Cherekof meditates and which allows the nanomage to thoroughly control his tower. Pseudo-organic nerves connect the chamber to Jetver's brain and to any integrated devices in the tower, feeding information directly into the quotien's exposed brain. A bright glittering liquid constantly flows through veins lining the chamber dripping out as needed and solidifying into the growing rods that serve as the solid state storage of the nanomage.

Tentacle Relay Chamber

Located just inside Jetver's chest tentacles area there a chamber filled with tendons, muscle protrusions with the capacity to change their shape to form straps and vats, bones shaped into holding pens, and arms with organic metal tips. The front-facing wall is filled with sphincters connected to the hollow tentacles engineered for capturing. This room serves as the first triage stage for the experiment subjects

Main Sensor Array

Located inside the hollowed out front horn, this room's walls are made of nerve incrusted bone. Several types of modified crystalline blood clots hang from the walls, levitate in gentle or rapid pendulations or rest on the floor or walls resonating silently with what's they're been made to detect. The main purpose of this room is to gather information about the physical conditions outside, mainly the state and nature of the universe tangent upon which Jetver walks.

Energy Storage Gizzard

There two such chambers located in legs just above the mouths. These mostly unmodified gizzards still serve the purpose of digesting the microbe conglomerate, but carefully crafted metallized muscle nodes gather and store the energy of the dimensional friction. Small specialized stomachs and bile glands have been added and attached to the main gizzard in order to allow the Walker to feed on any number of organisms in addition to its normal diet.

Universal Resonance Cavity

Located just above the storage gizzard, these modified adrenal glands are hollow chambers crossed by tendons hardened to the point of sharpness and luminous high energy beams of light seemingly random directions. The sole purpose of this room is to align the entanglement of the Walker when the time comes to start the next phase of Cherekof's plan.

Other Chambers

Chambers are created and destroyed according to the current research and production needs of Cherekof. There are simple rooms inside the tail which serve to store the cyphers and artefacts before they are ready to be implemented into Jetver's mutated body. Some rooms may be grown with integrated machines fusing muscle, bone and essence to create tools and substances as needed. others may be created as holding pens or temporary storage. There are rooms created with the sole purpose of testing new architecture or recreating and testing new environments or reality laws.

The imagination and reason of a quotien reach far beyond the understanding of most mortal minds and the chambers of Jetver reflect that.

Owner

The Nanomage Cherekof

Type

World wonder

Alterations

Cherekof has used his powers of the numenera to alter Jetver's body to better suit his purposes. New rooms may be generated or recycled at will but the main alterations are:

Chest and tentacles

The tentacles can be hollowed out to be able to transfer items and subjects to the testing areas. New attachments of bone or organic metal can be grown as needed. Modified blood clots can be used to produce and control energy and plasma tools and weapons.

Digestive system

Jetver's digestive system has been improved to allow the creature to feed on any organism it encounters, as well as on other forms of pure energy, including the dimensional friction of the tangent.

Immune and lymph system

Jetver's lymph system has been modified to allow the production of workers that carry out the transport of experimental material through the tower when no other means are available. Immune cells have been upgraded in case the tower needs to be protected from any, more persistent, dangers.