Alright, I'll come out an say it: both my players and I suggest a lot of stupid impractical things, and we make it work and have a lot of fun doing it. It's why I like to play with close friends; we're okay being weird together. But this one... this one has stumped me.
This post will contain heavy spoilers for Lessons from the Past, and I'll be including some quotes from Chronicles of the Gatekeeper. The latter shouldn't be
super
spoily, but I would avoid them just in case if it makes you uncomfortable. No harm no foul!
My players completed Lessons from the Past a fair ways into their campaign, after having already tackled a different issue. They've had Val Isa's holocron and amulet for about a month or two now, and - because of aforementioned "crazy idea" shenanigans - are living in a refurbished but still stationary Sanctuary . Recently, one of my players - a Chiss Consular Sage with a background as an academic specializing in Imperial-space Force cults and a penchant for racing ahead towards Force Rating increases (he's FR 3 right now and climbing) - has expressed interest in pursuing some kind of romance with... well, Val Isa . I'd like to preface this by saying that I've already consented to letting him try. What I'd really like advice on is what that might look like. Here's what I've compiled on holocrons form the CRB, Lessons of the Past, and Chronicles of the Gatekeeper. I completely forgot to take inspiration from the gatekeepers in the Beginner Set + PDF extension. I was also thinking Val Isa's amulet may play a role:
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"[T]hese devices use advanced hologrammatic technology to map and store the contents of a single individual's neural pathways. In essence, holocrons record the memories and knowledge of a particular Jedi."
"Holocrons are then accessed through an advanced holographic operating system based on the personality of the individual upon whom the holocron is imprinted. ... The gatekeeper is then addressed, and can teach lessons, answer questions, or simply engage in conversation with the user. Remarkably intelligent and observant, holocron gatekeepers use latent Force energies to read the motives and personality of the user in order to tailor the user's experience to his level of skill, experience, and trustworthiness."
"Though very realistic, and able to respond conversational to a user, the guardian was simply a highly advanced electronic interface and hologram."
"The holocron of the Sanctuary contains a mnemonic imprint of Val Isa's personality, recorded before her death. Her personality manifests itself as a serene older human woman with a hint of impish humor about her. Of course, while very lifelike, the holocron's personality is not truly sentient, though it may be hard to tell this at times."
"Fortunately, as they are Force sensitives, the holocron reacts to their presence if if they do not know what it is ... Like all holocrons, this one possesses an intelligent holographic gatekeeper, generated by the holocron's Force-attuned organotehnological systems. Further, in constructing his holocron, Suljo Warde foresaw at least some details about its future users, knowledge that he passed on to the gatekeeper ... it eventually activates in response to the touch of one of the characters [if failing skill checks left and right]. However, the holocron does not activate automatically for any character who has fallen to the dark side."
"It can only offer conjecture as to later events."
"[T]he gatekeeper guards access to this information and reveals it only when it deems a student ready."
"In addition to being a sophisticated artificial intelligence that could easily be mistaken for a true sentient, the holocron has kyber matrices, which mean the gatekeeper is attuned to the Force."
"Should the gatekeeper learn the fate of the Jedi, it is mournful, but resolute."
"In personality, the gatekeeper is much like Warde was when he created it. It is patient, good-humored, and desires to teach, but can be very stubborn when its pride is wounded. It also has his habit of finishing people's sentences (though it often does so incorrectly, as it cannot imitate his power of foresight)."
If asked "What is a gatekeeper?", Warde's holocron responds: "Well, I'm not a spirit or a ghost. A gatekeeper is a Force-imprinted artificial sentience that inhabits a holocron an allows its users to access the information it contains. Like most gatekeepers, I am based on the personality and memories of the Jedi who created me. Think of me as an echo of him - Suljo Warde."
In the sidebar "Using the Gatekeeper", we also get a lot of good suggestions about the nature of a holocron:
"GMs can use the gatekeeper much as they would any other plot-central NPC, although they should always keep its nature in mind. Of course, the nature of a holocron's gatekeeper is complex. It is more than just an artificial intelligence; in fact, its mind is more like a sentient's than any droid mind could ever be. This is because it is modeled so exactly on its creator, and not merely using technological means, but also drawing on the Force to copy the creator's mind and spirit. Generally, interacting with the gatekeeper is just like it would have been to interact with Suljo Warde at the time of the holocron's creation."
"[T]he gatekeeper can serve as an ally and mentor for the PCs. ... [T]he gatekeeper views them very much as pupils, treating them as a Jedi Master might a Padawan. If the GM wishes, the gatekeeper could tutor the PCs in the ways of the Jedi, much as a living mentor might. The gatekeeper is more likely to recommend that the PCs visit the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to seek entry to the order. Upon learning why this is not possible, the gatekeeper might very well forego the usual procedures and teach the PCs directly."
The adventure also implies that the holocron may speak spontaneously to the group when it has important insight but isn't otherwise consulted. Whether this suggests that the holocron possesses a passive awareness of its surroundings (though likely not a detailed one, since Warde's holocron has no idea of major galactic events since it was last activated) and a will of its own, or that the GM should force the players into activating the holocron, I'm not sure.
This all suggests to me that a holocron might very well be capable of carrying on a romance. They can learn (and react to) new information, they can adapt to that information, and they have emotional responses to events and people. I seem to recall Sith holocrons developing disdain and hatred for specific users. Further, gatekeepers are definitely self-aware, using first person pronouns and clearly differentiating themselves from the "real" counterparts. I do think, though, that a holocron may be incapable of coming of up novel ways to conceive of specific emotions. For more basic emotions, that's fine; the holocron has a long list of things and personalities that Val Isa "likes", and a wide array of types of "like" to experience. Warde was likely familiar with feelings of loss when making the holocron, so his gatekeeper is aware of how to process loss. Love is less common, though. Say, if Val Isa's only experience of love was heartbreak, then maybe the gatekeeper can fall in love, but the only way she has to process that emotion is through a veil of pessimism and pain. The gatekeeper would likely be unaware of why she felt this way, and it's unclear if she could "learn a new way to love", since the neural network she's based on never really allowed for it.
There are a number of ways we could handle this:
1) You can romance Val Isa's gatekeeper. If you wish, she can have recorded the holocron while younger.
2) You can romance the gatekeeper, but it is severely limited or has some kind of adverse reaction and doesn't know why. The problems seem insurmountable, but possibly after Geno's arc - or a combination of your arc and his - the two of you discover a way to augment the holocron and make it even closer to a true sentient. [Geno is an Artisan and the Chiss Sage is interested in holocrons; since I'm encouraging them to be kind of overpowered, I figure there's a way we could get this to work.]
3) You involve the amulet. Another player has already expressed her character is probably unwilling to relinquish "main ownership" of it, which could result in some fun roleplays. It is canonically noted that "her spirit somehow lived on in a talisman she had worn around her neck." When using the Sense power, "the talisman feels like a living thing. It exudes calm and serenity. But you also sense sadness, loss, guilt, and mourning. You intuit a wish to do better, to be better, and you feel that the talisman will help you achieve this goal." Remember that donning it supplied a Force vision, and somehow "as the vision fades, the PC senses Val's parting words: 'Do not follow in my example. Jedi cannot retreat from the world. The must struggle, succeed, and fail with the rest of the galaxy.'" It's unknown how much of Val "lives on" in the talisman. It certainly feels like a horcrux. Holocrons feel quite like Tom Riddle's diary. It's difficult to say exactly how a romance like this might work, but you could use "shared visions and emotions" from the amulet for emotional content and use the gatekeeper as a surrogate for conversation. I'm not sure if the two artifacts would get jealous of each-other, though...?
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