Cylon Model Prompt

A working brief for a new Cylon model

Begin with the fault line. Suppressed designations create questions about who controls history. Civilian and military covers test whether an assigned identity can become a real life. Resurrection damage turns memory into evidence, injury, or disputed ownership. Hardline doctrine and reconciliation doctrine push the same model toward opposite answers about creators, creations, and survival.

Place the result where it can cause consequences. A refugee ship offers scarcity and suspicion. An occupied colony adds collaboration, resistance, and public responsibility. A basestar civil conflict brings model consensus, Centurion autonomy, Raider agency, and Hybrid authority into the same room. Choose one setting, one relationship, and one decision the copy cannot postpone.

Keep the design selective. A biological anomaly or visible chassis cue should alter behavior rather than decorate it. A connection to Raiders or Hybrids should create loyalty and risk. A First Cylon War legacy should reveal a forgotten obligation, not solve every mystery. Combine prompts only when they sharpen the same conflict.

Questions to carry into the scene

• Who benefits from keeping the model hidden?
• Which memory can no longer be trusted?
• What order would this copy refuse?
• Who receives freedom if the model wins?
• What remains when resurrection is unavailable?

Turning the seed into a playable character

Decide whether the prompt describes an entire line or one divergent copy. A line-level idea affects every instance through shared expectations, consensus, and inherited purpose. A copy-level idea works through experience, private memory, and relationships that other instances do not possess. This distinction prevents the character from becoming both a universal Cylon secret and an isolated personal exception at the same time.

Then establish what the model can actually do in the chosen role. An infiltrator needs access, habits, records, and people who would notice a mistake. A political copy needs an institution it can influence but not completely control. A model tied to Raiders or Hybrids needs a specific channel of understanding and a reason that bond is dangerous. A resurrection problem should change trust, responsibility, or identity instead of acting as a convenient reset.

Useful limits

• Give the concept one unusual ability and one meaningful weakness.
• Let the cover identity create obligations that survive the reveal.
• Make doctrine produce a decision, not merely a speech.
• Use Centurion freedom to expose contradictions inside Cylon society.
• Treat old war records as disputed evidence rather than perfect answers.

Finally, write a short scene in which the model cannot satisfy all of its loyalties. Put a human relationship, machine allegiance, religious conviction, and practical mission in conflict, but let only two or three dominate. The choice should reveal what this copy believes it is becoming.

As a final check, hide the franchise labels and read the concept again. It should still describe a specific artificial person with a concrete role, divided loyalty, and consequential choice. Restore the setting terms only after the underlying dramatic logic works.