Psionic Abilities

There was once a concept in computers called the "Silicon lottery." This was a semi-joking term meant to refer to the potential limits when overclocking a core processor, either you "won" and the upper limits would be significantly higher than the standard limit, or you "lost" and any attempt to increase the power of the unit would instantly bluescreen the device. Psionic Matrices are similar; the process to generate spontaneous quantum field excitations is an extremely complex and taxing task, and even with extremely advanced Mind Modification , the end product has just enough variance that some win the "Neural lottery," and some lose.

Psionics, and their users, known as "QFIs" or "Quantum Field Influencers" in databases, are created through a function known as a "Psionic Matrix." A Psionic Matrix is, possibly, the vaguest term that can be used to describe the function, but with good reason. A Psionic Matrix is best described as the hardware of a digital machine; it's physical construction of the process - the architecture. Altering quantum fields is an extremely difficult and grueling task, and requires and extremely specific, refined, and nearly perfect alignment of said hardware; even minor disturbances can cause programs running on said hardware - the psionic abilities themselves - to completely break down, often into nothing. These Matrices, while their physical condition and construction is vital, the actual medium they are made of or in is borderline inconsequential.   Anything can be a Psionic Matrix if built properly, meat, machine, electricity - anything. Through engineering, devices could be made that used a Matrix and electrical energy. Through programming and circuits, a Matrix could be artificially constructed from diodes and timing. Through genetics, brains of individuals became the matrix, their neural activity the programs and energy required.

What isn't there to say? When the The Uprising of the Rakkari added the genes to make any species Psionic in the released Genetic Immortality strain - it was a mess. While most of the population got almost nothing, many feeling no change at all, some won the "Neural Lottery," and had, what they considered, to be literal magic powers, even if it was inexplicably purple. Some could control it, some couldn't, some didn't even try to.   The sudden influx of Psionics caused an uproar - each government dealt with it in different ways, many poorly. Those who couldn't control their abilities were lumped in with those who intentionally made it worse - those with extremely minor abilities were seen as potential threats. Most of the galaxy ignored the warnings and instructions from the URK of course. Those that didn't however, went to form Tesseract's Key, made of those with inherent Psionic Abilities, and built their own Faction by helping and communing with others, until finally they joined together to become what the Faction is today.