Is it possible to take awakened materials and grow magical symbionts or would the two kind of cancel each other out and become inert?

Maybe they would work if they were grown with paracritter genetics then implanted into metahumans thus granting some of the critter's capabilities? Possibly creating some kind of dual natured organism?

Is it possible that awakened symbionts could grant limited magical ability (spells, adept powers)?

Could they possibly be living foci?

Could symbionts be possesed by spirits?

Perhaps it could work if imps (from threats2) merge with symbionts?

And on another vein...

Could symbionts gain intelligence? Maybe this could happen after they become parasites?

Uh yeah...just a few questions.

Symbionts are genetically engineered, so the answer is "probably not."


Not impossible or implausible...of course, the leech band in Arsenal and the glow symbiont in Augmentation are probably the current limit on that kind of tech.


Lots of things are possible.


Except this.


When attached, symbionts are part of the organism and can't be targeted separetely from them.


Imps only possess foci and haven't be reintroduced in SR4, so that would be a significant hurdle to overcome. Even if you did have a spirit that possessed or merged with a pre-implantation symbiont (anybody else picturing a giant centipede wending its way through your guts?), whether or not it would submit to implantation, or have the same effects if implanted, would be questionable.


Probably not. Its generally assumed to take a fair amount of neural mass for most animals to be considered sapient or sentient (spirits and some highly magical paracritters notwithstanding), and a symbiont just wouldn't be big enough for that.

Could some form of sentience be gained if someone designed some kind of neural symbiont that started borrowing its host's brain functions?

I guess if this were possible then you could have symbionts "possessing" their hosts.

I'm seeing shades of Gou'ald from Stargate SG-1 cropping up here...

Also AH, if a symbiont did Awaken and became an Adept , then why couldn't it take Living Focus? It would be munchkin on a level not seen in... well EVER, but what's to stop it from happening.

I could just imagine what having a duel-natured critter on your kidney would do as you pass through a ward. Well, that's why you have two.

Hmm I didnt even think of the Stargate SG1 angle. There is probably quite a bit that could be ripped off from that show if anyone cared to run with this wacky idea.

I wasnt really attempting to min/max and make some crazy Adept monstrosity. I just had one idea that led to another.

ssounds to me like someone is gunning for a custom designed changeling...