[JimmyCrisis]

[/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.
[/quote]

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).

[WellsIDidIt]

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.

[Namikaze]

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.

[HarshRhettoric]

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.

[Michael Chandra]

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.

[martinchaen]

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.

[EDIT]
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.

[JimmyCrisis]

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?

[WellsIDidIt]

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 modifications 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. 

[Namikaze]

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.

[SirValeq]

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.

[Demon_Bob]

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?

[Michael Chandra]

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.

[Namikaze]

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.

[ZeConster]

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...

[WellsIDidIt]

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.