Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => Gear => Topic started by: HarshRhettoric on <04-26-14/1933:18>
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So I am a Street Samurai, the most lethal predator in the sprawl. There is nothing I cannot kill. I have just come into a lot of money--enough to go from Wired Reflexes 2 to a Synaptic Accelerator 2.
What happens to the essence that is left over? Do I get it back? Can I get clonal parts to restore my meat? Can I use it immediately to get different augmentations that have little or nothing to do with my nervous system? Am I stuck with these implants until I'm old and the wired reflexes kill me? This is an oft-overlooked aspect that most GMs gloss over, because no one wants to tell their player that they will be stuck at .8 Essence forever. I always sort of imagined that most shadowrunners get into the business on the assumption that someday, they will be able to shed all of the skillwires and adrenal pumps and live a relatively normal life.
Thoughts?
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The rules in previous editions have made it pretty clear; you are stuck at .8 Essence forever. If you remove augmentation, you get an "essence hole". For example, my character has a R4 Used Skillwire system and an R4 Used Skilljack, totalling 1.0 Essence cost. When she eventually upgrades them to R5 Betaware, together they will only cost 0.7-- But she still only has 5 Essence. However, if she gets more 'ware, like, say, a Pain Editor that costs 0.3 Essence, it would "fill" the Essence Hole first, and wouldn't end up lowering my Essence by more.
Here's another example if that one was kinda scatted.
Buy R2 Muscle Replacement: 4 Essence
Sell R2 Muscle Replacement, buy R2 Muscle Toner & R2 Muscle Augmentation: 4 Essence with a 1.2 Essence Hole
Buy R1 Wired Reflexes on top of the Muscle Toner and Muscle Augmentation: 3.2 Essence
Essence doesn't come back, sadly. Related, this is why critters with Essence Drain (like Vampires) are so dangerous.
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There was a crazy expensive treatment in Augmentation for SR 4 i believe that allowed you to slowly heal back essence (Might have been cyber induced essense only) aaand thats about it.
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There was a crazy expensive treatment in Augmentation for SR 4 i believe that allowed you to slowly heal back essence (Might have been cyber induced essense only) aaand thats about it.
Oh yeah, here it is. It gave you back 0.1 Essence (that wasn't currently being taken up by augmentations) back per month, with a price of 75,000¥ at the start and then an extra 20,000¥ every months, and you needed to spend 7 days every month in the clinic, or else you had to pay the 75k "starting cost" again.
It'd probably be more expensive now; everything else went up in price, and there's almost no way it was done without some kind of nanotechnology making it easier (thus explaining an increase in price, as that can't be relied upon anymore).
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I would totally allow essence to heal up over time. Years, really, but still, it should come back.
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I would totally allow essence to heal up over time. Years, really, but still, it should come back.
You can "regrow" a Soul?????
Cause that is what essence represents. Your Soul, Will-to-live, Super Ego.... Essence is that intangible 'thing' that makes you unique. ... Not sure how you regrow that..
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Think of it in the sense of recovering from traumatic evets sure they'll never be who they were but eventually they'll still be able to function. Rather good example of this is in the rose queen where a guy is tortured and broken when young. Eventually over the course of the book he recovers and becomes a strong leader and warrior but he's never who he would have been.
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There was a crazy expensive treatment in Augmentation for SR 4 i believe that allowed you to slowly heal back essence (Might have been cyber induced essense only) aaand thats about it.
Oh yeah, here it is. It gave you back 0.1 Essence (that wasn't currently being taken up by augmentations) back per month, with a price of 75,000¥ at the start and then an extra 20,000¥ every months, and you needed to spend 7 days every month in the clinic, or else you had to pay the 75k "starting cost" again.
It'd probably be more expensive now; everything else went up in price, and there's almost no way it was done without some kind of nanotechnology making it easier (thus explaining an increase in price, as that can't be relied upon anymore).
And of course the most important part: Damage done to Magic/Resonance was not restored, so your maximum remained the same and your current value as well.
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i feel like with great attention to self, serious reflection, and a good deal of private time, yeah. you can re-grow a soul.
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or with the right mojo, just steal some from someone else. ;D
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I would totally allow essence to heal up over time. Years, really, but still, it should come back.
You can "regrow" a Soul?????
Cause that is what essence represents. Your Soul, Will-to-live, Super Ego.... Essence is that intangible 'thing' that makes you unique. ... Not sure how you regrow that..
Well, considering that there is no evidence a soul exists in the first place, I suppose that how it works in game depends on what mythology you prefer. But essence is also a reflection of your humanity and identity.
Let me pose a question. You buy and axe. When the handle breaks chopping wood, you replace the handle. Later that summer, the head chips and you replace the head. Is it still the same axe? When you have cyberware installed, that's the question your essence is asking. If your souls is comfortable in your body, it sticks around.
Now, why that is relevant is this: our bodies are growing and shedding cells every day. Every seven years, all of your organs have been regrown and replaced, you literally have a new body. So, if you don't lose essence every seven years, what does that imply? I think it means that your essence becomes accustomed to its container. Each scrape or scratch won't peel off your essence. Even nearly bleeding out won't. So, the way I see it, you essence will eventually regrow to fill it's container, cyberware included. Will it ever get back up to 6? Maybe not.
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Yeah, no. Fluff and mechanics are against it.
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Yeah, no. Fluff and mechanics are against it.
Apparently, not in 4th edition. What makes SR unique among RPGs is that each edition follows a coherent timeline in which all the other editions still exist. A technique or practice from S4 still exists in the setting. Thus, existing magic treatments that restore essence would still be possible in this edition.
Besides, we're talking hypothetical, not practical. Your Shadowrunner will have to have all his cyber replaced by the time their essence would regrow into it, negating any benefit.
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Yeah, no. Fluff and mechanics are against it.
Apparently, not in 4th edition.
A very expensive special procedure is far from natural recovery like your idea, and even that did not help against magic loss. Furthermore, you were talking about regrowing even past cyberware, which was not in SR4. SR4 merely let you slowly heal your essence hole. So no, even in 4th edition the fluff and mechanics are against it.
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I agree with Michael - from what I've read of the process, it involved some weird bastardization of magic and technology, and still had its limitations. Once you've lost your humanity, it's lost to you. You might be able to fake it with some tech, but the real thing is gone.
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[/quote]A very expensive special procedure is far from natural recovery like your idea, and even that did not help against magic loss. Furthermore, you were talking about regrowing even past cyberware, which was not in SR4. SR4 merely let you slowly heal your essence hole. So no, even in 4th edition the fluff and mechanics are against it.
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All we know is that magic relies on essence, and essence doesn't rely on magic. After all, not everyone has magic, but everyone has essence. Even so, magic loss isn't permanent - in previous editions it could be gaesed and even in SR5, initiation can be used to grow your magic rating.
That being said, interpret how you want. If you'd like to cite your references for the fluff, please feel free. It's always been my understanding that essence is something not well understood by the SR scientific community, and left as a fairly big mystery in the main setting, something to be mulled over and discussed over beer or coffee while thinking about last night's run.
I understand that essence is a game balance element, and my ideas for regrowing essence are prohibitively time consuming and impractical for in - game use, so that doesn't interact with game balance. It really only affects retired characters (of which I have one - an elf samurai turned mercenary/pirate company commander from the 2060s, who has had most of her cyberware removed and essence restored).
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How about we look at the actual process from 4th edition and see how it works?
the theory is that scientists realign qi from astral shadows by genetically remodeling DNA to repair damage to the aura or balance to the body’s systems, and thus the patient regains Essence.
All we know is that magic relies on essence, and essence doesn't rely on magic. After all, not everyone has magic, but everyone has essence. Even so, magic loss isn't permanent - in previous editions it could be gaesed and even in SR5, initiation can be used to grow your magic rating.
While magic loss might not be permanent, loss to maximum magic almost always is.
What we know is that every living thing is tied to the astral plane. Everything has an aura. We know that essence is tied to your aura as well. This is all evident by looking at how assensing works. In addition, we know that cyberware takes chunks out of your aura.
Combine all that with what we know about Revitalization above (it's repairing damage to the aura), and it would indicate that healing the body and mind has very little to do with the process. It's the aura that's important for essence. It doesn't heal naturally. It shows all the nasty scars from what you've done to it.
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All we know is that magic relies on essence, and essence doesn't rely on magic. After all, not everyone has magic, but everyone has essence. Even so, magic loss isn't permanent - in previous editions it could be gaesed and even in SR5, initiation can be used to grow your magic rating.
That is not the same as regaining your Magic. Your Magic is still capped out by your lost Essence. Essence can be restored, but only via this one, incredibly expensive, incredibly rare procedure. And it's been that way for five editions. Feel free to house rule it however you want, but be aware that you are stepping on some rather holy ground in the world of Shadowrun.
That being said, interpret how you want. If you'd like to cite your references for the fluff, please feel free. It's always been my understanding that essence is something not well understood by the SR scientific community, and left as a fairly big mystery in the main setting, something to be mulled over and discussed over beer or coffee while thinking about last night's run.
It's not really something that needs to be mulled over at all. Essence is the thing that makes you you. If you lose your Essence, you die. If you steal Essence from someone else (via vampire-like abilities) then that person can die easily. The in-game scientific community doesn't have a name for this phenomenon. It's simply known that if you put too much chrome in you, you lose your self in the chrome. It's not just a game balancing issue, it's a core component of every single aspect of Shadowrun for the last 25 years.
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That sucks, though I guess in a dystopian future, when you get these augmentations to be more efficient/better at what you do, even if you want to have them removed at the end of your career/revenge arc/whatever, you are still stuck with the essence loss. That's the rub. You can take the Shadowrunner out of the shadows, but you can't take the shadows out of the Shadowrunner.
I must debate how important this is to me, and whether knowing it will factor into things my character does.
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I got an NPC paying 10 grand a month to upkeep Masked Quickened spells on himself because he's refusing to dip below 2 essence, trying to hang onto what's left of his soul. If he didn't care about losing his humanity he could have gone full-cyberlimb instead. The same choice is there for PCs: Humanity and just improving your skills and gear, or going crazy on the ware.
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To quote SR4s Augmentation;
When a character has an implant removed to be replaced or upgraded, this leaves what is known as an “Essence hole”—a disparity between the total Essence Cost of her implants (see Cyberware and Bioware, p. 84, SR4) and her current Essence. This Essence hole never “heals” naturally.
Also note the following passage:
Note that Essence lost from other sources—addiction, a blood spirit’s Energy Drain power, etc.—does not leave an Essence hole that may be filled up with implants. That Essence is lost for good.
GMs are of course free to house rule this, but the book is exceedingly clear on Essence Holes never healing naturally, as well as what actually leaves an essence hole.
And cheers for providing info on the revitalization technique, I never even knew it was there.
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Interestingly, the Revitalization paragraph (Augmentation p88, if anyone else is interested), specifies that Essence lost to essence drain CAN in fact be healed, which is contrary to the Essence Hole paragraph quoted above.
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That is not the same as regaining your Magic. Your Magic is still capped out by your lost Essence. Essence can be restored, but only via this one, incredibly expensive, incredibly rare procedure. And it's been that way for five editions. Feel free to house rule it however you want, but be aware that you are stepping on some rather holy ground in the world of Shadowrun.
Holy ground? I can't conceive any reason why a setting-specific concept would be too taboo to talk about. What's the point of a shared universe if we can't discuss what that universe is? However, I do encourage anyone who would rage out at the notion of discussing the setting to just ignore me.
It's still in the books that your essence can be restored. That's part of canon now, has been since 4th edition. Considering that it is canon that no one really knows what essence is in SR, this leads me to believe that there may be other untapped methods for the same process. What I'm interested in seeing is where in the fluff, fiction, what-have-you directly supports or explains what essence is. I don't think that supporting material actually exists.
The SR5 book does say "When it's gone, it doesn't come back." I don't consider this to be important, because the core book is myopic in it's scope of time - it also don't reference Aging rules, or State of the Art upgrades, or long term health effects.
Finally, without a good, in-depth explanation of how essence works, it falls to the GM and the table to decide what the long term prognosis of essence loss is. In my case, I'd allow a character to regrow essence over a sufficiently long period of time (again, out of the scope of actual play). I think it's in the flavor of how I run my games, and what aspects of the setting I choose to show.
It's not really something that needs to be mulled over at all... It's not just a game balancing issue, it's a core component of every single aspect of Shadowrun for the last 25 years.
The reason essence is worth mulling over is exactly because it's one of the great mysteries of the 6th world, and has been for the life of the game. If you don't consider it worth discussing, why would you discuss it?
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Considering that it is canon that no one really knows what essence is in SR, this leads me to believe that there may be other untapped methods for the same process. What I'm interested in seeing is where in the fluff, fiction, what-have-you directly supports or explains what essence is. I don't think that supporting material actually exists.
Yes and no. They know what essence is (as in what the stat represents), they just don't know what that is. It's like the soul (or whatever you want to call personality) today. We know that there is something that allows each of us to have individual personalities, desires, dreams, vices, and nightmares. We all have our humanity. We don't know exactly where that comes from though. We haven't narrowed it down.
That said, we can look back and get several answers for what essence represents:
Man and Machine, page 10
In SR3, Essence is defined as a body's life force, it's wholeness, its cohesive and holistic strength.
Augmentation, page 20
This attribute represents the body’s natural life force and holistic integrity. Extreme modi fications or implantations push the body further and further from its natural state and closer to the mysterious threshold where the spirit seems to give up on the flesh.
SR5, page 23
Each time you get one of these augmentations, you give up a piece of yourself. You lose something inside of you, the essence of metahumanity.
You can call it whatever name you want, soul, humanity, spirit. The past few editions make it clear that this is what is lost when you wire up. You're ripping it away for a cheap boost in power.
Combine that with the only known way to restore it, which focuses on repairing the aura, and we can be pretty sure that it is tied to the character's aura.
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Three things here.
Holy ground? I can't conceive any reason why a setting-specific concept would be too taboo to talk about. What's the point of a shared universe if we can't discuss what that universe is? However, I do encourage anyone who would rage out at the notion of discussing the setting to just ignore me.
First, my ignore list is getting bigger. Not raging out, but you're being myopic as hell, and I can't have a conversation with someone who so blatantly ignores two decades of canon in favor of a house rule, and then treats the rest of us like morons.
It's still in the books that your essence can be restored. That's part of canon now, has been since 4th edition. Considering that it is canon that no one really knows what essence is in SR, this leads me to believe that there may be other untapped methods for the same process. What I'm interested in seeing is where in the fluff, fiction, what-have-you directly supports or explains what essence is. I don't think that supporting material actually exists.
Second, martinchaen covered the specifics of Essence loss in the rulebooks well enough that I don't have to repeat them. I will simply point out that Essence can ONLY be restored in this one method. That's the crux of it. You are free to house rule it sure, but don't go acting like the rest of us don't know what we're talking about or acting like your house rule is somehow more canon.
If you don't consider it worth discussing, why would you discuss it?
Third point: I'm not the OP. I didn't create this topic to discuss it. I commented on what the OP asked, which is the restoration of Essence. You actually started this "regenerative Essence" line of discussion, and I rebutted it with fact. If you want to house rule your regenerating Essence, go for it. But again, don't go acting like it's anything other than a house rule.
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AFAIK, Great Dragons in Earthdawn had the ability to heal someone's Pattern (which is like a core of your aura), after it got damaged by blood magic abuse or other stuff. Thus, if I were to house rule a possibility to regain Essence in Shadowrun, I would give the ability to a Great Dragon, although it would probably be something to place in the epilogue of a truly epic campaign - a one-time only event.
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If I lose a hand and go around with a stump, do I lose essence?
Yet, if I attach a cyber hand to help me get past the time where I'm waiting for a cloned replacement, I permanently lose .25 essence? (or .31 if it is a lightly used loaner hand)
even it I later remove the loaner hand and replace it with a vat cloned replacement. I don't remember if SR4 had hooks, peg-legs, or other non-cybernetic replacements.
I do know they had costs and rules for replacing limbs without essence loss.
Feel free to house rule the essence hole however you want. If you can regrow your soul, how long would it take? Even if you lived a spiritually fulfilling life.
If say essence regrew at a rate of 0.1 per year. How much essence would be regrown in average life expectancy of the normal shadowrunner?
Didn't they make a movie about an evil drone hand?
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If I lose a hand and go around with a stump, do I lose essence?
Yet, if I attach a cyber hand to help me get past the time where I'm waiting for a cloned replacement, I permanently lose .25 essence? (or .31 if it is a lightly used loaner hand)
even it I later remove the loaner hand and replace it with a vat cloned replacement.
Yes. You'd have an Essence Hole, because you made part of you something that should never have been part of you. If you had walked around with the stump, you wouldn't have lost essence.
And yes, you can houserule this. You can houserule resurrection, and teleporation. Nobody's forcing you to obey the rules and the essence of what is Shadowrun. But don't be surprised when to my opinion, you're now at Essence 0.01.
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If I lose a hand and go around with a stump, do I lose essence?
Losing a limb doesn't cause you to lose Essence.
Yet, if I attach a cyber hand to help me get past the time where I'm waiting for a cloned replacement, I permanently lose .25 essence? (or .31 if it is a lightly used loaner hand)
even it I later remove the loaner hand and replace it with a vat cloned replacement.
Yes, because it's the replacement of said limb with something completely foreign to your being that causes the loss of Essence. Once you integrate the cybernetics into your brain, your body, and your soul - you lose the Essence. As Michael said, if you run around with a stump or something that doesn't integrate into your being, your Essence is fine.
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Crazy theory: you know how people who've had limbs amputated get phantom pains? That's because the essence of the limb is still there. Replace it with a cyberlimb, however...
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It's not just phantom pains (that's just what people complain about). You can feel like the limb is there with normal pressure as well. You can push it against things and your brain makes it feels like it should. It's quite common for amputees to make mistakes when they wake up for a while because they're brain tricks them into feeling like its working fine.
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Three things here.
Holy ground? I can't conceive any reason why a setting-specific concept would be too taboo to talk about. What's the point of a shared universe if we can't discuss what that universe is? However, I do encourage anyone who would rage out at the notion of discussing the setting to just ignore me.
First, my ignore list is getting bigger. Not raging out, but you're being myopic as hell, and I can't have a conversation with someone who so blatantly ignores two decades of canon in favor of a house rule, and then treats the rest of us like morons.
It's still in the books that your essence can be restored. That's part of canon now, has been since 4th edition. Considering that it is canon that no one really knows what essence is in SR, this leads me to believe that there may be other untapped methods for the same process. What I'm interested in seeing is where in the fluff, fiction, what-have-you directly supports or explains what essence is. I don't think that supporting material actually exists.
Second, martinchaen covered the specifics of Essence loss in the rulebooks well enough that I don't have to repeat them. I will simply point out that Essence can ONLY be restored in this one method. That's the crux of it. You are free to house rule it sure, but don't go acting like the rest of us don't know what we're talking about or acting like your house rule is somehow more canon.
If you don't consider it worth discussing, why would you discuss it?
Third point: I'm not the OP. I didn't create this topic to discuss it. I commented on what the OP asked, which is the restoration of Essence. You actually started this "regenerative Essence" line of discussion, and I rebutted it with fact. If you want to house rule your regenerating Essence, go for it. But again, don't go acting like it's anything other than a house rule.
I honestly don't know where you're getting that attitude from. Regardless, I've said my piece and don't have anything else to add to it. I would like to point out that as a "house rule", it is both in line with and doesn't change the setting, such as, say 'Teleport.' Honestly, it's a question of GM purview and group consensus. If you and your players don't want to be flexible with the system or setting, don't be. There's no wrong way to play. I just don't think it's unrealistic, and I'm glad that other people are receptive the to idea.
If say essence regrew at a rate of 0.1 per year. How much essence would be regrown in average life expectancy of the normal shadowrunner?
The average shadowrunner? At that rate I'd say .03, maybe .05. Depends on how snarly the dragons are.
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Maximum magic loss can be offset by initiation grade I mean I want to be at least grade 5 so I can summon all 10 spirit types (even if I'm not sure how I'm meant to pick their role is the spirit of fire combat, illusion, healing?) and I probably wont raise my actual stat that high so I'll wind up with a higher max than I actually have anyway.
Nah make it common if largely uknown. If the players want to deal with a dragon to recover essence loss do it then show them WHY one of the big rules of runners is "Never deal with a dragon." 8)
Honestly though essence holes are of less interest to me than this ability to restore loss that doesn't leave a hole. There's a bunch of cyber/bioware that interests me e.g. implanted links for accessing the matrix, only needing to sleep 3 hours a night, improved logic and memory functions. Right now I'm avoiding most of them due to the essence hit if there was a way (rare and expensive as it would be) to have them and still get my essence back to its maxiumum that would be very, very interesting.
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Maximum magic loss can be offset by initiation grade I mean I want to be at least grade 5 so I can summon all 10 spirit types (even if I'm not sure how I'm meant to pick their role is the spirit of fire combat, illusion, healing?) and I probably wont raise my actual stat that high so I'll wind up with a higher max than I actually have anyway.
This isn't related to the discussion, but I feel like I should warn you that you can only summon spirits that are appropriate to your tradition.
Honestly though essence holes are of less interest to me than this ability to restore loss that doesn't leave a hole. There's a bunch of cyber/bioware that interests me e.g. implanted links for accessing the matrix, only needing to sleep 3 hours a night, improved logic and memory functions. Right now I'm avoiding most of them due to the essence hit if there was a way (rare and expensive as it would be) to have them and still get my essence back to its maxiumum that would be very, very interesting.
You can't get Essence back if you still have the cybernetics installed. The only Essence that can be restored is from an "Essence Hole" caused by the loss of such cybernetics.
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Namikaze has it right on the money, Senko. You can't have your cake and eat it too (even though it's a stupid saying);
In game terms, revitalization regenerates the Essence “hole” left by the removal of an implant from the body. Revitalization is slow and Essence is restored by recurring gene therapy sessions at a rate of 0.1 Essence per month. Though Essence points lost to implantation, Energy Drain, and addiction may be restored through gene therapy, Magic/Resonance points lost are never returned and reductions to the maximum Magic/Resonance attribute remain in effect.
Revitalization can be performed without permanent hospitalization during the treatment time. Characters have to spend at least 7 days per month in the clinic to continue the treatment. If the character has not attended the clinic for two months the treatment stops and has to be started anew (including the starting costs) to continue the effect. Note that this treatment cannot be attempted if the implant is still present.
Emphasis mine.
Also note the underscored part; this is the paragraph that deals with healing Essence lost to drain attacks and similar.
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...and SR5 core dont have essence "holes" at all (at least not yet) ;)
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Xenon
Or the Revitalization rules, so that's a moot point all together...
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Maximum magic loss can be offset by initiation grade I mean I want to be at least grade 5 so I can summon all 10 spirit types (even if I'm not sure how I'm meant to pick their role is the spirit of fire combat, illusion, healing?) and I probably wont raise my actual stat that high so I'll wind up with a higher max than I actually have anyway.
This isn't related to the discussion, but I feel like I should warn you that you can only summon spirits that are appropriate to your tradition.
Honestly though essence holes are of less interest to me than this ability to restore loss that doesn't leave a hole. There's a bunch of cyber/bioware that interests me e.g. implanted links for accessing the matrix, only needing to sleep 3 hours a night, improved logic and memory functions. Right now I'm avoiding most of them due to the essence hit if there was a way (rare and expensive as it would be) to have them and still get my essence back to its maxiumum that would be very, very interesting.
You can't get Essence back if you still have the cybernetics installed. The only Essence that can be restored is from an "Essence Hole" caused by the loss of such cybernetics.
I was referring to that comment about great dragons healing pattern damage which from the context seemed to indicate they could heal essence loss that didn't leave a hole as there'd have been no cybernetic back then just essence draining creatures.
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I was referring to that comment about great dragons healing pattern damage which from the context seemed to indicate they could heal essence loss that didn't leave a hole as there'd have been no cybernetic back then just essence draining creatures.
So you were talking about Earthdawn? Cause dragons in Shadowrun don't do that without house rules.
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Apparently, not in 4th edition. What makes SR unique among RPGs is that each edition follows a coherent timeline in which all the other editions still exist. A technique or practice from S4 still exists in the setting.
Skinlink says hi.
...and SR5 core dont have essence "holes" at all (at least not yet) ;)
Its not unreasonable to file this under RAI though, since otherwise replacing cyber would be downright unsustainable.Honestly though essence holes are of less interest to me than this ability to restore loss that doesn't leave a hole. There's a bunch of cyber/bioware that interests me e.g. implanted links for accessing the matrix, only needing to sleep 3 hours a night, improved logic and memory functions. Right now I'm avoiding most of them due to the essence hit if there was a way (rare and expensive as it would be) to have them and still get my essence back to its maxiumum that would be very, very interesting.
Interesting in what way, anyways? It would beat the entire point and fluff of essence, the fact youre giving uo a piece of your humanity for that extra technological edge. If you could regain esence that is in use... Cyber would have no consequence, it wouldnt be a tradeof.. It would ruin the concept of essence!
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Essence Holes exist under the HotPatch errata for now. They weren't in Core in SR4 either.
Skinlink, on the other hand, was in Core. And anything dropped from the same book is likely dropped forever.
(You know, with the wireless bonuses added to the game, I'm not entirely sure why skinlink was removed anymore. If they'd given us a system or suggestions where wires are risky and can get caught on things or damaged, I'd understand, but if the sole advantage is not having a visible wire, and you still lose out on the wireless bonuses, I don't really get it anymore. In SR4 it was overkill because you could avoid using visible wires and would have a dozen items skinlinked, but in SR5 the wireless bonuses already punish you for avoiding being hackable.)