Elliot

Biodata

Power Progression

• Rank remains unconfirmed: Elliot cannot initially access [Touch the Supernatural · First Tier]. The engine rejects his attempt with “[You cannot reach this place]”; no later attainment of that tier is documented 34.
• Advancement mechanism: He discovers that sacrifices fill nodes and fuel connections toward further choices. Multiple branching routes converge on the First Tier gateway 34.

Background / History

Transmigration and Confinement

Elliot’s soul enters the body of the Sterling Family’s heir one day after the original owner is confined. His predecessor was a responsibility-shirking playboy whose latest trouble apparently involved several deaths, though Conrad refuses to explain the incident. Elliot inherits neither the original owner’s memories nor a clear account of what happened 2.

After unsuccessful attempts to sneak out, he resigns himself to life inside the mansion. Newspapers become his main source of information, while the absence of computers, phones, and the internet makes his privileged surroundings feel like imprisonment. His mother, Lady Camilla, later rejects his letter and sends additional guards to enforce the confinement 2 8.

Discovery of the Difference Engine

Seeking entertainment, preferably something supernatural, Elliot follows Conrad into a room concealed behind the study’s bookshelf. There he finds a wall-spanning, steam-powered Difference Engine that the family’s machine priest has inspected and declared safe. Its first printed character card depicts an unemployed girl suffering from hunger, hypothermia, and a rapidly declining near-death counter 2.

The girl, Vanessa, survives hospital treatment and becomes an orderly while the engine continues operating without Elliot. He becomes absorbed in managing her cards, experimenting with food, work assignments, dialogue, and inventory. His keyboard tests frighten gang member Allen, and removing Allen’s folding-knife card transfers the weapon into Vanessa’s possession 7 8 9.

Investigating the “Game”

Elliot first suspects that the game is real when Vanessa and Dorothea discuss legislation he has just heard about from Conrad. He takes a card to the butler, who finds golden threads inside it and identifies Troy Society workmanship. Conrad then explains that newspapers can be scanned into the engine, temporarily convincing Elliot that the matching news is merely a programmed deduction 12 13.

He nevertheless studies the engine’s history, alchemy, and occult literature. Vanessa’s decision to help a dying old man unsettles his detached attitude, and her independently earned clue prompts him to test the cards themselves. Destroyed or removed clue cards are replaced, but duplicate copies are automatically discarded 15.

Elliot subsequently controls Vanessa through a fight against a frenzied attacker and its reanimated corpse. His real-time card handling helps her survive, while the resulting mutilated body contributes to her reputation as the hospital’s terrifying new orderly 18 19 20.

Sacrifice and Its Consequences

The old man’s hidden books introduce Elliot to a supernatural system based on sacrifice. Eager to test it, he compels Vanessa to prepare a blood-drawn ritual and initially selects [Path · Omniscience · Part Two], favoring its two potential ranks over the slower Flesh Ascension route 24 26 30 32.

He withdraws the Path card after reading Vanessa’s fear that sacrificing her emotions and frontal lobe would destroy her identity and compassion. This marks an explicit change in his perception: he recognizes her as a living soul rather than merely a game character 32.

By scanning written character descriptions, Elliot creates additional cards and discovers that his own card can serve as the ritual’s recipient. Vanessa’s small fingernail offerings then allow him to bestow Path cards, explore the advancement map, and select [Distortion], which produces [Secret Art · Trigger]. Vanessa loses a finger upon learning the art, sharply undermining his excitement about supernatural power 33 34 35.

After gaining Spirit Vision, Elliot sees luminous blood in the secret room that Conrad apparently cannot see. He becomes more cautious, although he still cannot establish whether Vanessa lives in his world, a parallel world, or some other reality connected to the engine 35 37.

Contact with the Mourning Poetry Society

Elliot uses his position as the Sterling heir to seek information unavailable to Vanessa. Conrad’s unusual hesitation over the Hammer Brotherhood attracts his attention, but he avoids pressing the subject and instead asks about the Mourning Poetry Society 37.

Conrad responds by arranging a visit from its leader, Flora Prescott, known as Miss Elegy. Elliot questions her about Communion, symbolic consumption of deceased companions’ flesh, and charitable work, then authorizes an additional donation. During the conversation, Spirit Vision reveals brief white motes escaping her body, leading him to conclude that she is a supernatural practitioner 38 39 40.

Vanessa’s Devotion and the Rescue Mission

When [Clue: Faint Cry for Help] appears, Elliot intervenes and obtains [Mission: Rescue]. Vanessa’s card changes to [Devout Girl], reflecting her growing faith in the presence controlling her. He recognizes that she now regards him as support despite his repeated coercion, while also noting that her reduced resistance makes control easier 50.

Through the engine, he sends Vanessa and Dorothea toward people besieged by plague-infected corpses. His attempt to control Dorothea directly fails when her card is ejected 50.

Appearance

• General impression: His personal card depicts a languid young noble seated at a card table, supporting his head with one hand and holding a card in the other 33.
• Casual luxury: He wears a snow fox fur cloak when first introduced 2.
• Formal attire: For Flora’s visit, he wears a black wool evening coat, a light gray jacquard waistcoat with enameled silver buttons, dark trousers, suspenders, and a silk cravat. His servants style his hair with oil and apply perfume 38.

Personality

Elliot is inquisitive, impatient, and strongly attracted to the supernatural. He reads occult material even when it is presented as disproven and tests the Difference Engine’s rules through experiments rather than accepting its apparent limitations. His enthusiasm for the game is genuine, but he also uses his apparent gaming obsession to reduce conversations that might expose his lack of the original owner’s memories 15 26 33 38.

His early treatment of Vanessa is callous: he overrides her wishes, sends her into danger, and considers sacrificing parts of her mind for faster progress. Her compassion and fear gradually disturb that detachment. Even after recognizing her personhood, however, he remains willing to benefit from her dependence and obedience 15 30 32 50.

Once supernatural effects reach him personally, Elliot becomes more guarded. He avoids unnecessary confrontation with Dr. Norman, limits direct control during conversations, and disguises probing questions as interests consistent with his predecessor’s eccentric behavior 37 38.

Abilities & Skills

Difference Engine Control

Elliot directs Vanessa by manipulating character, equipment, clue, and action cards 8 18 24.

• Actions: Assigns work, initiates searches, equips weapons, and selects attacks or dodges 8 18 19 24.
• Speech: Types through the engine’s mechanical keyboard to make Vanessa speak 9.
• Inventory manipulation: Takes Allen’s folding knife by removing its tool card 9.
• Limits: Control is available during specific tasks rather than continuously. Vanessa can act independently and initially resists his combat choices 10 19.
• Precision: He cannot finely control facial expressions, making impersonation during conversations risky 37.
• Target restriction: Possessing Dorothea’s card does not allow him to control her 50.

Spirit Vision

A permanent +1 blessing lets Elliot perceive otherwise unseen supernatural traces 34 35.

• Sees faintly luminous blood with no detectable smell or physical residue in the secret room 35.
• Notices brief white motes escaping Flora when she becomes angry 40.
• Can switch the ability off through concentration; maintaining it imposes a tolerable mental cost 38.
• Finds no unusual traces on Conrad or throughout the mansion, leaving concealment and absence unresolved 37 38.

Sacrificial Interface

Using his own character card as a ritual target gives Elliot access to [Bestowal], [Blessing], and [Distortion] 33.

• Bestowal: Materializes a selected Path card at Vanessa’s ritual site 33.
• Blessing: Opens a branching map of supernatural advancement and activates its nodes 34.
• Distortion: Produces [Secret Art · Trigger], which Vanessa receives; learning and using the art costs her fingers 34 35.
• Restriction: Each ritual selection leaves only one of the three options available for that offering 33 34.

Card Creation and Rule Testing

Elliot uses the engine’s scanner to turn written character descriptions into printed cards 33.

• Cards for Sun Wukong, Dong Zhuo, Nini, and Astartes are rejected as ritual targets 33.
• His own card uniquely includes an illustration matching his current posture and is accepted by the ritual interface 33.
• Attempts to duplicate a clue fail because the engine replaces missing cards but discards excess copies 15.

Equipment / Items

• Difference Engine — Steam-powered gaming apparatus installed in the mansion’s hidden room. It continues processing events while Elliot is absent and lacks a save function 2 7.
• [Elliott Sterling] card — Scanned representation of himself, accepted as the recipient of Vanessa’s sacrifice 33.
• Path cards — [Path · Flesh Ascension · Part One] and [Path · Omniscience · Part Two], derived from Vanessa’s reading and used in his sacrificial experiments 31 32 33.
• Occult reference books — Materials supplied by Conrad for Elliot’s research into Difference Engines, alchemy, and occult studies 15 37.

Relationships

• Vanessa — The person represented by his principal playable card. Their relationship develops from coercive control and fear into her reliance on him as a source of security and faith; Elliot remains troubled by how little kindness he has actually shown her 32 42 50.
• Conrad — Family butler, caretaker, and main source of information. Elliot trusts his loyalty but conceals his transmigration and watches his reactions for evidence of hidden knowledge 2 37 38 39.
• Lady Camilla — Mother of the body’s original owner. Previously doting, she imposes and reinforces his confinement after the predecessor’s undisclosed scandal 2 8.
• Flora Prescott / Miss Elegy — Leader of the Mourning Poetry Society and a potential supernatural contact. Elliot supports her society financially and uses an invitation to sample her cooking as a pretext to maintain contact 39 40.

Notable Quotes

“No computer, no phone, no internet, and I can't even leave this mansion. What did I transmigrate here for? To serve time?” 2

“Every sacrifice is a choice, ultimately carving out a unique road.” 34

“But I can see every road.” 34