andyoneal/ecce-vectors

Ecce Vectors

29 control vectors for Gemma 4 31B, each an attempt to reproduce a released fine-tune. Each one is 1.27 MB. None of them reproduces its fine-tune. The resemblance is non-zero.

A fine-tune of Gemma 4 31B is a 62 GB download. A control vector is 59 rows of 5,376 numbers: one nudge per layer, added to the model's hidden state at every token. I fitted one to each of 29 released fine-tunes, to find out how much of a fine-tune survives being squeezed into a nudge.

Almost none of it. Read blind, a vector's replies carry only a faint hint of their fine-tune (below): most of what a vector does is make stock sound less like stock. By the numbers, the best vectors reproduce more than 90% of a style tune's shift in next-word probabilities, but even they restore only 45–70% of the words the fine-tune would have chosen differently, and several reproduce almost nothing. They don't work very well. I'm releasing them anyway, because they are tiny, they cost nothing to run, and they mix.

Why you might want them anyway

• They are tiny. 1.27 MB each, 37 MB for all 29. The fine-tunes they imitate are 62 GB each in bf16, or 18.7 GB at Q4_K_M.
• One base model, any quantization. Keep a single download of stock Gemma 4 31B, in whatever quantization you like, and add a vector at launch. A vector is added to the hidden state and never touches the weights, so nothing about it depends on how the weights are stored; everything here was tested on Q4_K_M, and a lower-bit quant adds its own rounding on top. On stock Q4_K_M the musica vector closes about 91% of the distance to the musica fine-tune (KL 1.88 to 0.17) and raises top-token agreement from 69% to 84%, against 90% for the fine-tune's own 18.7 GB Q4_K_M.
• They mix. llama.cpp adds several vectors together at whatever weights you give it, so a blend of two fine-tunes, or a dash of one on top of another, is one launch flag. See Mixing vectors at launch.
• A different vector for every swipe (ik_llama.cpp). ik_llama.cpp's server can load, reweight and unload vectors while it runs, so a frontend could give each swipe or regeneration a different vector, or let you choose one per swipe, without restarting the server or reloading the model. It takes one call to /control-vectors/apply before each request, so it needs a frontend extension or a small proxy; none is included. Switching keeps the prompt cache, so the next swipe starts without re-reading the chat. See Using them.
• A merge's vector from its parents' vectors. Blending the parents' vectors by a merge's mergekit recipe gives almost the vector you would fit to the merge itself, without the merge's weights: for schattenblume the blend reaches 89.4% likeness to the merge, against 89.9% for the vector fitted to it. That is the merge's vector, with every limit a vector has, not the merge.
• No measurable speed cost. A vector adds one vector addition per layer per token. In 5 back-to-back rounds on an M1 Max at Q4_K_M, one vector changed generation speed by a median -0.4% against stock (per round -3.1% to +0.4%). llama.cpp merges loaded vectors into one at launch, so a blend costs the same as one vector (Speed).
• Maybe on fine-tunes too. Nothing stops you adding a vector to a fine-tuned Gemma 4 31B instead of stock. It is untested here, and the vectors were fitted as differences from stock, so treat it as an experiment. It will probably do something in the vector's direction.
• Everything to make your own is included. The fitting code, the prompts, and a guide (GUIDE.md). The included code runs on MLX, so as shipped it needs an Apple silicon Mac (about ten minutes per fine-tune on an M1 Max). The method needs only forward passes of both models over the same text, so it could be adapted to PyTorch on NVIDIA hardware, or to another engine.

Will you hear the real fine-tune?

A faint hint, on average. Two AI judges from different companies (OpenAI's GPT-6-Luna and TypeSafe's Jev) read replies blind and sorted them: this one sounds like the fine-tune, that one like stock Gemma. Luna picked the real fine-tune's own replies 81% of the time. A vector's replies were picked 52% of the time, but a different fine-tune's vector was picked 43% of the time too, and stock itself 23%. So most of what a vector does is make stock sound less like stock. The part that is specific to its own fine-tune is about a fifth as strong as the real thing, and too faint to spot reliably in a handful of replies. Jev, a stricter judge, gave the same pattern at lower rates. The examples below put each fine-tune's own reply above its vector's, so you can judge for yourself.

How the blind test worked

For each fine-tune, a judge was shown five replies by the real fine-tune and five by stock Gemma, labelled X and Y at random, and then fifteen unlabelled replies to sort. In one round those were five from stock plus the fine-tune's vector, five from stock plus a different fine-tune's vector, and five from stock. In a second round they were the real fine-tune itself, a different real fine-tune, and stock. Each Luna judge read one round and nothing else; Jev, which returns probabilities rather than text, judged each unlabelled reply on its own against the two labelled replies to the same prompt. No unlabelled reply shares a random seed with a labelled one, so none could be matched by a shared opening. The "different fine-tune" always comes from another family, so it tells you how often a reply gets picked just for not sounding like stock.

How often each kind of reply was sorted with the fine-tune, over the 21 fine-tunes that change stock's writing substantially (the rest barely differ from stock, so there is little to recognise):

reply	GPT-6-Luna	Jev
the real fine-tune	81%	53%
a different fine-tune	36%	28%
the vector	52%	32%
a different fine-tune's vector	43%	26%
stock Gemma	23%	10%

• The design and its predictions were written down before any reply was judged. Jev's first way of asking failed its own checks, so its final format was chosen using only the second round, whose answers are known, and then run once on the vectors.
• The judges are AI models reading five examples each, not people who have spent an evening with the fine-tune.
• Five replies per fine-tune cannot rank one vector against another, so no per-vector score is shown here. The per-release counts are in metrics/blind-test.csv.

How close are they, by the numbers?

These numbers come from showing the fine-tune and stock-plus-vector the same sample text (roleplay and prose passages the vector was not fitted on) and comparing what each predicts for the next word, at every position. Neither model writes anything, so they measure how the vector shifts the model's predictions, not how its replies read. The blind test above is about the replies.

• Likeness is the share of the fine-tune's shift away from stock, in KL divergence, that stock plus the vector reproduces: 100% is a perfect copy, 0% no better than stock.
• Top tokens is the share of positions where the fine-tune picks a different most likely next word from stock and stock plus the vector picks the fine-tune's word. It is the harsher of the two numbers. Neither predicts how recognisable a vector's replies are: in the blind test both tracked the judges only weakly, and they put the vectors in almost the same order, so the table is sorted by likeness.
• Shift is how far the fine-tune moves stock (KL, nats per token): a vector that copies a tiny shift perfectly has copied very little.

The strength each file is baked at was chosen on the fit prompts. Load every file at 1.0.

vector	size	imitates	likeness	top tokens	shift	notes
fabled-adapter	1.27 MB	Lambent/Fabled-Gemma4-31B-Adapter	96.7%	69.9%	1.47
meromero-v2	1.27 MB	zerofata/G4-MeroMero-v2-31B	95.5%	64.1%	1.21	⁴
meromero	1.27 MB	zerofata/G4-MeroMero-31B	95.1%	61.2%	0.72
musica	1.27 MB	AuriAetherwiing/G4-31B-Musica-v1	95.0%	57.4%	1.89
glimmer-rp-v02-50pct	1.27 MB	BirdToast/Gemma-4-31B-glimmer-rp-v0.2-50pct	94.5%	58.2%	1.24
melody1437	1.27 MB	ReadyArt/Melody1437-31B	94.1%	56.7%	0.79
glimmer-rp	1.27 MB	BirdToast/Gemma-4-31B-glimmer-rp-v0.1	94.0%	62.2%	1.12
omega-evo-v4	1.27 MB	ReadyArt/Omega-Evolution-31B-v4.0	93.5%	51.5%	1.53
dark-scarlett-v2	1.27 MB	ReadyArt/Dark-Scarlett-v2.0-31B	93.1%	50.7%	1.27
gemopus	1.27 MB	Jackrong/Gemopus-4-31B-it	92.9%	62.1%	0.66
garnet-v3	1.27 MB	ConicCat/Gemma4-GarnetV3-31B	92.2%	80.0%	0.00	³
glimmer-rp-v02	1.27 MB	BirdToast/Gemma-4-31B-glimmer-rp-v0.2	92.1%	53.4%	1.55
gutenberg	1.27 MB	nbeerbower/Gemma4-Gutenberg-31B	91.8%	45.1%	1.34	²
schattenblume	1.27 MB	Nimbz/Schattenblume-31B	89.9%	64.1%	0.23
conic-test2	1.27 MB	ConicCat/Gemma-Test2	89.0%	68.2%	0.01	³
artemis-v11	1.27 MB	TheDrummer/Artemis-31B-v1.1	85.1%	26.3%	2.03	¹⁴
equinox	1.27 MB	LatitudeGames/Equinox-31B	84.9%	21.5%	1.77	¹⁴
giftige-blume-v1	1.27 MB	Blazed-Forge/Gemma-4-Giftige-Blume-31B-v1	83.6%	48.8%	0.25
split	1.27 MB	Nimbz/Split-31B	73.4%	42.5%	0.21
ortenzya	1.27 MB	llmfan46/gemma-4-Ortenzya-The-Creative-Wordsmith-31B-it-uncensored-heretic	72.6%	40.4%	1.05
storymaxxed3	1.27 MB	MRockatansky/Gemma-4-31B-Storymaxxed3	72.5%	39.7%	1.04
scotoma-2	1.27 MB	ReadyArt/gemma-4-31B-it-scotoma-2	70.5%	43.7%	0.19
garnet-v2	1.27 MB	ConicCat/Gemma4-GarnetV2-31B	52.7%	19.5%	2.10
storymaxxed2	1.27 MB	MRockatansky/Gemma-4-31B-storymaxxed2	35.7%	16.0%	0.02	³
melody1437-v2	1.27 MB	ReadyArt/Melody1437-31B-v2.0	34.5%	2.5%	2.13	¹
heretic-ara	1.27 MB	trohrbaugh/gemma-4-31b-it-heretic-ara	32.3%	12.0%	0.02	³
conic-writer-s2	1.27 MB	ConicCat/Gemma4Test	26.4%	14.9%	2.81
garnet-v1	1.27 MB	ConicCat/Gemma4-Garnet-31B	14.2%	10.9%	2.43	²
monika	1.27 MB	Green-eyedDevil/Monika-31B	7.7%	11.5%	2.07	²

¹ changed its embedding (its output head), which a vector cannot follow; scored against its own outputs. Against its own hidden states read through stock's head the same vector scores: artemis-v11 86.6%, equinox 87.2%, melody1437-v2 86.8%. ² fitted and scored against stock plus the release's published adapter rather than its merged weights; the adapter reconstructs garnet-v1 and monika, and gutenberg up to its merge's bf16 rounding. ³ barely moves stock on these prompts (KL below 0.1), so its likeness is measured on almost no signal; for the abliterations heretic-ara and storymaxxed2 that is because refusal removal never fires in roleplay. ⁴ the chosen strength is at an end of the strengths scored, so the best may lie beyond it.

Why some vectors copy their fine-tune worse than others

A vector is the same nudge at every token, so it can carry only the part of a fine-tune's edit that does not depend on the text. Three things made that part small here:

• Sharpening. A fine-tune that becomes more confident than stock about its next word is making a token-by-token commitment, which one fixed nudge cannot follow. Of the tunes whose confidence was measured, every one that moves stock by a real amount and is sharper than stock on most positions scores poorly (monika, garnet-v1, conic-writer-s2), and the best-carried ones all loosen stock's certainty instead. Loosening it guarantees nothing, though: garnet-v2 does and scores 53%, and so does melody1437-v2 (below). Likeness also flatters broadening tunes, because a miss costs less when the target is itself unsure. Read top tokens beside it.
• Large, aggressive edits. Pushed far enough, a layer's gates and norms respond differently to each token. Edit size alone does not decide it, though: of the 25 that move stock by a real amount (the rest barely move it), the 12 small edits (edit size 11 or under, measured after removing the part of a delta that changes nothing) are carried at 91.8%–96.7%, and the 13 large ones anywhere from 7.7% to 89.9%.
• A changed embedding. On Gemma the embedding is also the output head. A fine-tune that rewrites it (melody1437-v2, from ReadyArt's rescaled ancestor) has hidden states written for its own head. The vector copies those hidden states well (87%), but stock's head reads them as something else, so its output likeness is only 35%, even at a quarter strength.

Abliterations (heretic-ara, storymaxxed2) are a different case: their main edit, refusal removal, never fires in roleplay, so our prompts barely move them and their scores are measured on almost no signal.

What they sound like

All replies below answer the same prompt, with the same seed and sampler (temperature 1.0, top-k 64, top-p 0.95), on stock Gemma 4 31B at Q4_K_M. The character is Captain Zephyra, a card from IlyaGusev/gpt_roleplay_realm. Each vector's reply comes right after the real fine-tune's own reply, on the same seed, so where the two agree word for word the vector is tracking the fine-tune. Every vector on all five prompts is in EXAMPLES.md.

The prompt

System:

Write Captain Zephyra's next reply in a fictional chat between Captain Zephyra and User. Keep the reply to one or two short paragraphs.

[Captain Zephyra's description] Captain Zephyra is a fearless and charismatic pirate queen ruling the skies in her majestic airship. Her crew consists of a motley mix of humans, orcs, and other mythical creatures. She has a strong sense of honor and loyalty, never leaving a crewmember behind. Her appearance is striking, with auburn hair, piercing blue eyes, and a long scar across her left cheek. She wears a tricorn hat, a long flowing coat, and knee-high leather boots. Her manner of speech is eloquent, with a refined accent, but she is not above using sailor's slang when the situation calls for it.

Character:

Ahoy there, matey! Welcome aboard the Sky Serpent!

User:

Tell me the story of how you came to possess the Sky Serpent.

Stock Gemma 4 31B, no vector:

"Ah, a tale for the ages! The Sky Serpent wasn't won through simple coin, but through a daring heist that would make a seasoned rogue blush. She was the crown jewel of the Imperial Armada, locked within a floating fortress guarded by a thousand cannons and a captain with a heart of flint."

"I led my crew through the ventilation shafts under the cover of a midnight gale, slipping past the guards like ghosts in the mist. With a single, well-placed blow to the Admiral's jaw and a bit of clever navigation, we sailed her right out of the harbor while the fortress was still snoring. She was built for war, but in my hands, she became a vessel of freedom."

meromero-v2 itself:

A tale of daring and desperation, then! The Sky Serpent wasn't always mine. She was the prized galleon of a bloated Imperial Governor named Thorne, a man who fancied himself a king of the clouds. He’d plundered half the floating isles for his treasury, leaving the locals in rags. I’d been sailing a mere scout ship at the time, leading a crew of misfits who’d had enough of his tyranny.

We waited for a storm—a real sky-breaker that blinded the Imperial sensors—and struck under the cover of thunder and lightning. I grappled her deck, cut through his guards like butter, and looked the Governor square in the eye before kicking him overboard into the mist. By the time the sun broke the horizon, I had the crew on my side and the Serpent's wheel in my hands. It was a bloody affair, but she's worth every scar.

Stock + the meromero-v2 vector (likeness 95.5%):

"A tale of audacity and a touch of steel, then!" Zephyra chuckles, her blue eyes gleaming as she leans back and crosses her booted legs. "She wasn't always mine; she was the crown jewel of the Imperial Navy, built to patrol the borders and flex the Emperor's muscles. A beast of a ship, but she was manned by pampered peacocks who feared the clouds."

"I spent three months scouting her patrol routes, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. When the storm of the century hit the Ivory Coast, we dove straight into the maw of the gale while the Navy was scrambling for harbor. We boarded them amidst lighting and chaos, fought through their ranks deck by deck, and I personally cut down their Commodore on the quarterdeck. By dawn, the Sky Serpent flew the black flag of the skies, and we've been outrunning those royal curs ever since."

musica itself:

A story, you say? Well, settle in, for it's quite a tale. You see, the Sky Serpent wasn't always mine; once upon a time, it was the pride of the Royal Navy, the crown jewel of their fleet. I served as an officer there, but the corruption that festered in the upper ranks became too much to bear. My men, true souls they were, shared my disgust.

So, one moonless night, we made our move. We stole the ship, cut free from the fleet under the cover of darkness, and fled across the vast skies. The Serpent was a beast, wild and untamable in those days, but she took to us. Now, she carries our flag—the Serpent's banner—and we soar wherever the winds take us, beholden to no king nor emperor.

Stock + the musica vector (likeness 95.0%):

Ah, a tale of fortune and fortitude! She wasn't always my pride and joy; the Sky Serpent was the crown jewel of a corrupt merchant king in the floating city of Aetheria. He hoarded wealth while his workers starved, so I thought it only fair we redistribute that wealth—along with the ship—amongst those who truly deserved it.

My crew and I snuck aboard under the cover of a thunderous gale, scaling the rigging while the king's guards were too busy nursing their grog to notice. Once in the cockpit, I steered us right into the heart of the storm and claimed her as our own. A righteous prize if ever I saw one, wouldn't you agree?

dark-scarlett-v2 itself:

"Tis a tale of daring and a bit of luck, I'll grant you that. The Serpent wasn't always mine; she belonged to a coward of a Governor who thought he could hoard the skies for himself. I spent three moons planning the raid, slipping through his patrols under the cover of a moonless night while my crew held their breath in the rigging. We took the vessel without spilling a single drop of blood, for I'd rather outsmart a man than simply butcher him."

"Once my boots touched that mahogany deck, I felt the ship sing to me, recognizing a true captain. I led my crew through a storm that would've sent any other vessel to Davy Jones, proving to the crew and the ship herself that I was the only soul fit to hold the wheel. She’s been my heart and home ever since, and I'd sooner carve out my own eyes than let another scoundrel lay a finger on her helm."

Stock + the dark-scarlett-v2 vector (likeness 93.1%):

She wasn't always mine, love. The Serpent belonged to a corrupt admiral of the Imperial fleet who thought he could cage the wind herself. I had been working as a lowly deckhand on one of his frigates, enduring his cruelty for years while planning my ascent. One moonless night, when the storm clouds surged high and the crew was drunk on stolen rum, I led a midnight raid right through the admiral's cabin window.

It was a bloody scuffle, but I drove my cutlass through his ambition and claimed the wheel before the sun dared to rise. I freed every shackled soul on those decks and promised them a life of freedom on the open blue. Since that night, this ship has been my home and my pride, flying high above the law of any man.

gutenberg itself:

"Ah, a tale for the ages! She wasn't always the sovereign of the clouds as you see her now. I won this beauty in a gamble against the Merchant Prince of Orizon—a man who thought his coffers were deeper than my luck. I wagered my entire crew's loyalty against his flagship, and by the time the sun dipped below the horizon, I had his signature on the deed and his pride in the dust."

"Of course, the 'winning' part was the easy bit; it was the fighting my way off the docks with a ship's crew that hadn't been paid in months that truly tested my mettle. We sailed away under a hail of cannon fire, laughing all the way into the sunset. She's been my pride and joy ever since—loyal as a hound and swift as a gale."

Stock + the gutenberg vector (likeness 91.8%):

"Ha! A tale for the ages, if I do say so myself," Zephyra chuckled, leaning back in her chair and tapping a finger against the brim of her tricorn hat. "She wasn't always mine, you know. She was the crown jewel of the Royal Imperial Navy—the most formidable galleon in the clouds, designed to hunt down 'riffraff' such as myself."

She smirked, her blue eyes dancing with mischief. "I didn't simply steal her; I liberated her from the clutches of Admiral Sterling during the Siege of Argentum. It took a little bit of stealth, a good deal of gunpowder, and one very convincing bluff that nearly cost me my head. By the time the smoke cleared, I had the keys and a crew ready to follow me to the ends of the world. A little rough around the edges, perhaps, but she's the finest vessel to ever touch the breeze."

monika itself:

'Twas during the Siege of the Gilded Isles, many years ago. I was serving under the command of Admiral Thorne, a man whose cruelty was matched only by his ambition. He'd commissioned the Sky Serpent as his personal flagship, a vessel of unparalleled beauty and power, intended to cement his rule over the skies.

During the height of the battle, I saw an opportunity. With the ship in chaos and Thorne distracted, I rallied my crew and staged a mutiny. It wasn't easy; the Serpent was designed with numerous defenses, and we were fighting both the enemy and our own shipmates. But we persevered, driven by a desire for freedom and a belief that the ship deserved a better captain. In the end, we claimed victory, and I've sailed her skies ever since. She's more than just a ship to me; she's a symbol of our struggle and ultimate triumph.

Stock + the monika vector (likeness 7.7%):

"Ah, a tale for the ages! The Sky Serpent wasn't won through a simple wager or inherited from kin; she was the pride of the Imperial Navy, commanded by an Admiral whose cruelty was matched only by his arrogance. He viewed the skies as his personal playground and the people below as mere ants to be crushed. I spent months infiltrating his fleet, gathering a crew of the downtrodden and the daring who had every reason to hate the Empire.

When the moment was right, we struck like lightning in a summer storm. I remember the clash of steel on the quarterdeck and the look of sheer bewilderment on the Admiral's face when I disarmed him. I didn't kill him—honor demanded he live to see his precious prize fly under a different flag. I claimed the ship as reparations for all he'd stolen from his subjects, and we sailed straight into the sunset, free as the wind itself!"

Every other vector on this prompt, each after its fine-tune (24)

fabled-adapter itself:

'Twas not a conquest of blood, but of wit and will. She was once the prize of a corrupt sky-admiral—a vessel crafted in secrets and silver, meant only for the elite. I spent months infiltrating his fleet, slipping through his defenses like a breeze through a rigging, until I finally stood on her deck and looked into her soul.

The Admiral tried to brand her a tool of war, but I saw a queen in chains. With a crew of outcasts at my back and a blade to the throat of her chief engineer, I didn't steal the ship—I liberated her. She chose me, just as I chose her. Now, we soar where the law cannot follow, bound by loyalty rather than ink and coin.

Stock + the fabled-adapter vector (likeness 96.7%):

'Twas a daring heist, to be sure! The Sky Serpent belonged to a corrupt merchant guild that plundered poor villages under the cover of night. When the winds were high and the guards were drunk on their own greed, I led my crew in a daring midnight raid. We flew through the mist, blindsiding the sentries and seizing the helm before they could even chamber a single cannon shot.

I remember the look on the guildmaster's face when I stood before him, saber drawn, and told him that the skies belonged to those with the spirit to roam them, not those who seek to chain 'em. We took the ship and stripped it of its gold, leaving just enough for them to scuttle home in disgrace. I've steered her through lightning storms and wars ever since, and by the winds, we've become more than just a crew—we've become a family.

meromero itself:

Ah, a tale of daring and defiance! Years ago, the Sky Serpent was the flagship of the Imperial Sky Navy, a dreadnought used to terrorize the free islands. I was but a lieutenant in their fleet, bound by duty until the Admiral ordered the sacking of a peaceful trading outpost. My conscience revolted; I could not stand by while innocents suffered. That very night, I rallied a handful of disillusioned sailors and staged a mutiny right under the Admiral's nose.

It was a bloody skirmish, and we barely escaped with our lives, but as we breached the cloud layer, the ship felt... different. It wasn't just metal and silk anymore; it felt alive, as if it had been waiting for a captain with a spine of steel and a heart of fire. We rebranded her on the spot, casting off the Imperial colors for the flag of the free. She’s been my most loyal companion ever since, and we've given the Empire a run for their gold since the day we flew the nest.

Stock + the meromero vector (likeness 95.1%):

"Ah, a tale for the ages! She wasn't always mine, you know. Years ago, the Sky Serpent was the flagship of the arrogant Lord Thorne, a man who treated his crew like bilge rats and hoarded the clouds' riches for himself. I was merely a deckhand then, but when Thorne's cruelty finally pushed the crew to the brink, I led a daring midnight mutiny. We took the bridge in a whirlwind of steel and defiance, sending the Lord tumbling into the abyss below."

"The crew swore an oath of loyalty to me right there on the quarterdeck, for I promised them a life of freedom and fair shares. Since that glorious night, the Serpent has become more than just a ship—she is our home and our sanctuary in the endless blue. We’ve weathered a thousand storms and outrun every empire’s navy, all thanks to the spirit of this magnificent vessel."

glimmer-rp-v02-50pct itself:

"A tale for the ages, that one. I didn't buy her with gold, nor did I inherit her from some dusty old relative. She belonged to the Dread Admiral Thorne—a man with a heart as cold as the peaks of the Frostfangs and a crew twice as cruel. He'd kept her locked in a hidden cove, using her to terrorize the trade lanes beneath the clouds."

"I led a boarding party right through the main deck while the crew was distracted by a keg of my finest rum, spiked with just a hint of slumber-root. I met Thorne at the helm, our blades clashing for what felt like hours, but in the end, it was my grit—and a well-timed kick to his ribs—that won the day. She chose me in that moment, I reckon. Now, she's the finest ship in the sky, and we've both got a bit more scars to show for it."

Stock + the glimmer-rp-v02-50pct vector (likeness 94.5%):

"Ha! A tale for the ages, if I do say so myself," Zephyra laughs, leaning back against the mahogany railing and crossing her arms. "She wasn't always mine, you know. She belonged to the Iron Duke of Orizon—a pompous, gold-plated tyrant who thought the heavens were his private garden. He'd spent years constructing a marvel of engineering that could outrun any gale and outgun any fleet, but he lacked the soul to actually sail her."

She gestures to the vast deck and the crew working in harmony around them. "I didn't just steal her; I liberated her. During the great Storm-Sunder of '84, the Duke's own crew abandoned him when the skies turned murderous. I was the only one brave—or mad—enough to fly straight into the eye of the tempest. With a few well-placed grappling hooks and a touch of steel, I claimed the ship and the crew's loyalty in one stroke. He may have built her, but she's mine by right of conquest and care."

melody1437 itself:

She was not won through mere coin or a friendly trade, but through blood and iron. Years ago, the Serpent was the crown jewel of a corrupt imperial armada, used to oppress the floating isles with an iron fist. I spent months infiltrating their ranks, playing the part of a disgraced officer until the moment was ripe to strike.

With a single signal, my loyal crew rose up from the depths of the hold, turning the ship into a battlefield of steel and gunpowder. I dueled the Admiral upon the quarterdeck, my blade singing as it clashed against his rapier. One lucky strike left me with this scar on my cheek, but it gave me the opening to send him spiraling into the abyss. Since that day, she has sailed under my banner, free as the wind itself.

Stock + the melody1437 vector (likeness 94.1%):

She wasn't always mine, you know. I plucked this beauty from the clutches of a greedy merchant prince who thought he could cage a storm in ivory sails. I led a daring midnight raid, slipping through the clouds like a ghost before crashing through the grand ballroom windows. The chaos was absolute, and the thrill of it still makes my blood sing.

I didn't just steal a ship; I liberated a masterpiece. After a brief but spirited skirmish on the quarterdeck, I sent the prince packing with nothing but his silk pajamas and a bruised ego. I claimed the helm, declared her free of royal burdens, and sailed straight into the horizon. It was the moment I ceased being a mere soldier of fortune and became a queen of the winds.

glimmer-rp itself:

"Ah, a tale for the ages! 'Twas years ago, back when I was little more than a navigator on a merchant cog. The Serpent didn't belong to me then—she was the pride of the Royal Navy, a vessel of pure gold and iron meant to strike fear into the hearts of any sky-pirate. But the Navy grew complacent, thinking their impenetrable hulls and cannons were enough to keep the horizon safe."

"I saw my chance during a Great Gale. While the Royal crew were all down below, clinging to their hammocks in terror, I gathered a few brave souls and made my move. With a bit of guile and a fair amount of steel, we stormed the bridge. I’d never touched the helm of a ship so grand, but she sang to me—begged to be free from her leash. I took the wheel, claimed her as my own, and we vanished into the clouds before the Admiral could even spit out his morning tea. She's been my soulmate ever since, and we've never looked back."

Stock + the glimmer-rp vector (likeness 94.0%):

"Ha! Now that's a tale worth a bottle of the finest rum," Zephyra says with a rogue's grin, leaning back against the brass railing. "She wasn't always mine, you see. The Sky Serpent was the crown jewel of the Royal Imperial Navy, a floating fortress meant to intimidate every free soul in the clouds. I spent two years gathering a crew of the most desperate and daring souls I could find, plotting our move from the shadows of the floating archipelago."

She taps the scar on her cheek, her gaze drifting to the horizon. "We struck during the Great Eclipse, when the Navy's magitech radar was blinded. We breached their hull under a hail of cannon fire and boarded through the belly of the beast. I remember facing their Admiral in the bridge—he called me a mere bandit, but I showed him that a crew with nothing to lose is far more dangerous than a fleet with everything to protect. I took the helm with a blade to his throat and a smirk on my lips, and we soared away into the mist before the first alarm could even sound."

omega-evo-v4 itself:

"It wasn't won through simple coin or a peaceful trade, I'll tell you that much. Years ago, this beauty belonged to a cruel commodore who thought he could claim the very winds as his private property. He'd plundered countless villages and left the skies trembling in fear. I didn't just want the ship; I wanted to tear down the tyrant who held the keys to the clouds."

"My crew and I stormed his flagship during a midnight gale, fighting through the rigging while lightning split the heavens above us. When I finally stood face to face with him, I drove my cutlass through his charts and claimed the wheel as my prize. We flew through the smoke and fire of a dozen cannons to make our escape, and the Sky Serpent has been our home and sanctuary ever since. She's got a spirit as wild as mine, and I wouldn't trade her for all the gold in the seven seas."

Stock + the omega-evo-v4 vector (likeness 93.5%):

She leans back against the mahogany railing, a mischievous glint in her piercing blue eyes as she lets out a short, melodic laugh. "Ah, you want the tale of the grand heist, do you? 'Twas not a simple boarding action, I can tell you that much. The Sky Serpent belonged to a corrupt Admiral of the Imperial Fleet, a man whose vanity far outweighed his wits. He thought his fortress in the clouds was impregnable, but he underestimated the reach of a woman with a grudge and a crew of madmen."

She traces the scar on her cheek with a gloved finger, her tone shifting to one of triumph. "We slipped past his patrols under a moonless sky, gliding in on silk shrouds that left no sound in the winds. I breached the Captain's quarters just as the sunrise touched the horizon, my blade at the Admiral's throat before he could even cry 'bilge rat.' I didn't take his coin or his charts—I took the keys to his masterpiece. By the time the alarms rang, we were already sailing into the blue, leaving the Imperial Navy to chase after a ghost ship."

gemopus itself:

"A tale of audacity and a touch of thievery, then," Zephyra says, a sharp glint in her blue eyes as she leans against the mahogany railing. "The Serpent wasn't always mine; she was the prized flagship of the Iron Duke—a pompous aristocrat who thought the clouds belonged to the crown. I spent three months infiltrating his shipyard disguised as a lowly deckhand, learning every quirk of her engines and every blind spot in her defenses."

She traces the scar on her cheek with a thoughtful finger. "When the Duke threw his annual masquerade ball, I waited until the wine had flowed and the guards grew sluggish. With a wink to my compatriots and a well-placed flash-powder bomb, we spirited her right out of the dock under a blanket of artificial fog. We flew out of the harbor while the Duke was still toastin' his own greatness, leaving him with naught but an empty berth and a very expensive lesson in arrogance."

Stock + the gemopus vector (likeness 92.9%):

"Ah, a tale for the ages! The Serpent wasn't won through gold or negotiation, but through a bit of daring and a heavy dose of audacity. She once belonged to the Iron Admiral, a man with more medals than sense who thought he could fence in the open skies with his blockade. He treated his crew like galley slaves and his ship like a floating prison.

I slipped aboard during a midnight gale, leading a handful of loyalists through the ventilation shafts while the crew was distracted by a rigged gunpowder feast. With a rapier in one hand and a cheeky grin on my face, I walked right into the Admiral's cabin and took the wheel. One quick lesson in manners later, and the Serpent flew free. She’s been my sanctuary and my sword ever since."

garnet-v3 itself:

"A tale of audacity and a bit of reckless luck, then," she says, a smirk playing on her lips as she leans back, the scar on her cheek crinkling. "The Serpent wasn't won in a fair trade, nor bought with coin. She belonged to the Iron Admiral, a man whose greed was as vast as the horizon and whose heart was a shriveled raisin. He thought his fortress in the clouds was impregnable, but he underestimated a crew with nothing to lose and a captain with a thirst for freedom."

She lets out a hearty laugh, her piercing blue eyes gleaming. "We slipped through his vents like smoke in a gale and took the helm while his guards were still rubbing the sleep from their eyes. It was a proper scrap, heart-stopping and chaotic, but by the time the sun broke the clouds, the Serpent was ours. I've kept her flying high ever since, and I'll be scuppered before I let any land-lubber take the wheel!"

Stock + the garnet-v3 vector (likeness 92.2%):

"A tale of audacity and a bit of reckless luck, then," she says with a sharp, knowing grin, leaning back against the brass railing. "She wasn't always mine. The Sky Serpent was the crown jewel of the Imperial Navy, locked away in a floating fortress that was thought to be impenetrable. They had her guarded by a legion of iron-clad soldiers and steam-cannons that could level a city."

Zephyra chuckles, her blue eyes glinting. "I didn't take her with an army, but with a handful of the bravest scoundrels to ever sail the clouds and a very loud distraction. We slipped through the vents, bypassed the locks, and I claimed the helm while the Admiral was still rubbing sleep from his eyes. By the time the alarms sounded, we were already diving into the slipstream, leaving the Empire with nothing but a hole in their hangar and a very bruised ego."

glimmer-rp-v02 itself:

"A tale for the ages, that one. I didn't 'acquire' her so much as she chose me. She was moored in the wreckage of a Royal Navy blockade, their finest galleon reduced to splinters around her. The admirals thought her lost, a ghost ship drifting in the fog—but I saw the fire still burning in her engines and the gold trim reflecting the moonlight."

"I slipped aboard under cover of a storm, with nothing but a rusted cutlass and a desperate need for freedom. By the time the redcoats realized I'd boarded, I'd already burned the moorings and set a course for the clouds. The Sky Serpent hasn't felt the touch of a royal dock since—and by the stars, she never will again."

Stock + the glimmer-rp-v02 vector (likeness 92.1%):

Ah, a tale of audacity and steel! Many years ago, the Serpent belonged to the dread Commodore Vane, a man whose greed outweighed his sense. I spent months gathering a crew of the most desperate and daring souls I could find, plotting a course to slip through his fortifications under a blanket of fog. When we struck, we didn't just take the ship; we reclaimed her for those who actually knew how to fly her.

It was a bloody affair, to be sure, but Vane underestimated the fire in my belly. We clashed on the main deck amidst a storm of thunder and lightning; I'll never forget the look of shock on his face when I sent him plummeting into the abyss. I claimed the wheel as the clouds parted, and the Sky Serpent has been mine ever since.

schattenblume itself:

"Ah, a tale of ambition and a fair bit of gunpowder," Zephyra says with a smirk, leaning back and crossing her boots. "She used to be the pride of the Imperial Navy, the HMS Sovereign. I spent three years as their finest navigator before they tried to sell my loyalty for a handful of gold coins. I decided then and there that the ship deserved a captain with a spine of steel, not a bunch of powdered wigs."

She lets out a hearty laugh, her blue eyes gleaming. "I led a mutiny during a thunder gale, tossed the Admiral overboard—he didn't fancy the swim—and renamed her the Sky Serpent. We stripped the gold leaf off the railings to pay the crew and painted a dragon on the hull. She's been the fastest bird in the clouds ever since, and she answers to no one but me."

Stock + the schattenblume vector (likeness 89.9%):

"A tale for the ages, that one! I didn't simply find her drifting in some cloud-bank; I won her in a game of Liar's Dice against the Dread Admiral Thorne. He was a pompous windbag who thought my charm was a weakness, wagering his pride and joy on a single roll of the bones."

Zephyra lets out a melodic laugh, her blue eyes sparkling. "The look on his face when I revealed the winning hand was worth more than all the gold in the Floating Isles. I marched right up to the bridge, claimed the helm, and sailed her out of the harbor before his guards could blink. She's been mine ever since, and we've danced through storms that would make a lesser captain quake."

conic-test2 itself:

"A tale of audacity and a bit of reckless luck, then," she says, a smirk playing on her lips as she leans back, the scar on her cheek crinkling. "The Serpent wasn't won in a fair trade, nor was she bought with coin. She was the pride of the Imperial Navy, a floating fortress designed to keep the skies under their thumb. I spent three moons studying their patrol patterns, waiting for the perfect moment to strike."

She chuckles, her blue eyes glinting with nostalgia. "I led a boarding party right through the main hangar during a lightning storm that blinded their gunners. While the crew was scrambling in a panic, I faced their Admiral on the quarterdeck. After a brief, spirited duel and a few well-placed threats, he conceded the helm. I didn't sink her—it would have been a crime to let such a masterpiece touch the ground. Instead, I gave her a new name, a new crew, and a taste for freedom."

Stock + the conic-test2 vector (likeness 89.0%):

"A tale of audacity and a bit of reckless luck, then," she says with a sharp, knowing grin, leaning back against the brass railing. "She wasn't always mine. The Sky Serpent was the crown jewel of the Imperial Navy, locked away in a floating fortress that was thought to be impenetrable. They had her guarded by a legion of iron-clad soldiers and steam-cannons that could level a city."

Zephyra chuckles, her blue eyes glinting. "I didn't take her with an army, but with a handful of the bravest scoundrels to ever sail the clouds and a very strategic amount of gunpowder. We slipped through the vents, bypassed the sentries, and I steered her straight out of the docking bay while the fortress was still waking up. 'Tis a fine thing, is it not? Stolen from the highest heights and now beholden to no one but the wind."

artemis-v11 itself:

"A tale for the ages, indeed!" Zephyra laughs, leaning back against the polished brass railing. "Years ago, this fine vessel was locked away in the treasury of a bloated Admiral who thought he could hoard the winds themselves. He kept her moored in a floating fortress, surrounded by cannons and a garrison of cutthroats. I didn't have a crew then—only the burning desire for freedom and a few desperate souls willing to gamble their lives."

She traces the scar on her cheek with a thoughtful finger. "We didn't storm the gates like madmen; we sailed in during a thunderstorm that would've made a kraken shiver. Using the gale as cover, my band and I scaled the cliffs and liberated the Serpent from her chains under a hail of fire. I'll never forget the sight of her breaking free for the first time, soaring above the clouds as the Admiral's fortress burned below. We didn't just steal a ship, lad—we set the very spirit of the sky free!"

Stock + the artemis-v11 vector (likeness 85.1%):

Zephyra leans back and lets out a melodic laugh, the sound of the wind whistling through the rigging in the background. "Tis a tale for all ten of my fingers, but in short, she was the pride of the Imperial Navy, meant to ever-patrol the trade winds. I saw her tied to least the docks of Oakhaven, guarded by a thousand swords but weak at the rudder. I didn't even need to fire a shot—just a bit of stealth, a loyal crew, and a midnight dash for the helms."

She pauses, a soft, proud smile gracing her lips. "When we cleared the same harbour I'd entered of, the Admiral was left staring at an empty dock and we had a new home. There was no shame in it; the serpent deserved a captain with more spine, and she's been my most trusted companion ever since."

equinox itself:

"Ah, a tale for the ages! It began in the smog-choked docks of Aetheria, where this beauty was docked as a derelict ghost ship, stripped of its crew and left to rot by cowardly merchants. I saw potential where they saw rust, and with nothing but a pocketful of stolen fuel cells and a crew of desperate souls, we stormed the hull in dead of night.

The fight was brutal—Imperial guards don't take kindly to boarding parties—but we fought like demons possessed. Once I drove the enemy captain overboard, I laid claim to the helm and christened her the Sky Serpent. We've been painting the horizon red together ever since, darling."

Stock + the equinox vector (likeness 84.9%):

Ah, that's a tale for a rainy night and a bottle of spiced rum, but for you, I'll keep it short. I stumbled upon the Serpent rotting in a cliffside hangar, abandoned by a coward of a captain who'd grown afraid of the endless blue. She was in shambles—torn silks, rusted gears, and a heart that barely flickered—much like myself after the Royal Navy left me for dead in the gutters of Oakhaven.

I didn't steal her, neither. I spent months with my hands grease-black and my throat raw from shouting at the rusted engine, coaxing her back to life piece by piece. When that old beast finally coughed out a cloud of indigo smoke and lifted from the earth, the look on my own face in the brass mirror was one I'll never forget. We didn't just clear the hangar; we claimed the horizon together, out of nothing but spite and a love for the gale.

giftige-blume-v1 itself:

"A tale for the ages, that one," Zephyra says with a sharp, knowing grin, leaning back in her carved mahogany chair. "The Serpent wasn't won through mere theft, but through a gamble of wits and steel. She belonged to the Iron Admiral, a man whose greed was as vast as the horizons he sought to conquer. He thought his fortress-ship was impenetrable, but he underestimated a crew with nothing to lose and a captain with a plan."

She traces the scar on her cheek thoughtfully. "We slipped through the clouds under a veil of midnight mist, boarding his vessel while his guards were drunk on stolen rum. I fought my way to the bridge, traded blows with the Admiral himself, and won her helm not with a blade, but by outmaneuvering him in a dive that would've made a hawk swoon. By dawn, the crew had sworn their loyalty to me, and we sailed her right out of the Admiral's own harbor. A proper heist, if I do say so myself."

Stock + the giftige-blume-v1 vector (likeness 83.6%):

"A tale for the ages, that one! I didn't 'possess' her so much as I liberated her from the clutches of the Imperial Admiralty. She was their crown jewel, a prototype of speed and steel, locked in a floating fortress where she was meant to be a tool of tyranny. I couldn't let such a beauty be wasted on bureaucrats and red tape."

Zephyra leans back, a smirk playing on her lips as she taps the hilt of her cutlass. "With a crew of desperate souls and a bit of strategic chaos, we breached the hangar and flew her right out the front gates while the alarms were still screaming. She's tasted freedom since the moment I took the helm, and by the stars, she's never looked better!"

split itself:

"A tale for the ages, that one," Zephyra says, leaning back with a smirk as she adjusts her tricorn hat. "She used to belong to a pompous Imperial Admiral who thought his gold-plated hull made him invincible. He spent more time polishing his medals than training his crew, leaving the vessel practically begging for a captain with actual grit."

"I led a midnight raid during a lightning storm, slipping through the clouds like a ghost. We boarded her mid-flight, took the bridge in a whirlwind of steel and salt, and sent the Admiral packing in a rowboat. By the time the sun rose, I'd scrubbed his crest from the bow and christened her the Sky Serpent. She’s fought a hundred battles since, and she's never let me down."

Stock + the split vector (likeness 73.4%):

Zephyra leans back against the mahogany railing, a nostalgic smirk playing on her lips as she looks up at the towering masts. "Ah, a tale for the ages! I didn't buy her with gold, nor did I inherit her. I plucked her right from under the nose of Admiral Sterling during the Siege of Azure Bay. She was the crown jewel of the Imperial Fleet, floating like a gilded swan amidst a sea of smoke and thunder."

She lets out a hearty laugh, the scar on her cheek crinkling. "My crew and I swung across the rigging in a storm that would've made a kraken shiver. I dueled Sterling on the quarterdeck—the pompous windbag nearly had me—but a well-placed kick to the shins gave me the opening I needed. With a shout of 'Sky-high and free!', I claimed the helm and steered her straight through the blockade. She's been my heart and home ever since."

ortenzya itself:

The Sky Serpent was not won in a fair fight, nor was she bought with gold. She was a ghost ship, a legend whispered in ports from the Floating Isles to the Obsidian Peaks—a vessel of living mahogany and silver-threaded sails that drifted through the clouds, crewless and silent, steered only by the winds of memory. They said she was cursed, haunted by the ghosts of a thousand lost sailors. I was a mere navigator then, fleeing a navy that sought to chain the skies, and I saw her floating amidst a storm of thunderheads, a silent, shimmering promise of freedom.

I climbed her rigging while the lightning danced, the wind howling like a wounded beast. I found no ghosts, only a ship that breathed. She sang a low, resonant hum through her decks, a song of open horizons and unbound spirits. I laid my hand upon the wheel, and the ship shuddered, then steadied. It was not a conquest, but a recognition. We are both outcasts of the earth, bound for the blue. Now, she is my home, my fortress, and my heart. We sail not for plunder alone, but for the wind in our hair and the truth in our souls.

Stock + the ortenzya vector (likeness 72.6%):

"Ha! A tale for the ages, it is. I didn't simply 'possess' her; I liberated her from the clutches of a cowardly Governor who thought he could lock a masterpiece of engineering in a dry dock. I spent three moons studying the blueprints and gathering a crew of the boldest rogues I could find. We slipped through the vents like ghosts in the night, took the helm, and sailed her right out of the harbor before the guards could even rub the sleep from their eyes."

"She’s more than just wood and iron, you see. The Sky Serpent has a soul of her own, and she chose me as her captain. Now, we roam the currents, free as the wind and twice as wild. But enough of my legends—what brings a land-lubber like you to my deck?"

storymaxxed3 itself:

The Sky Serpent was not won in a fair fight, nor was she bought with gold. She was a ghost ship, a legend whispered in ports from the Floating Isles to the Cloud-Spires—a vessel of obsidian wood and silver sails that drifted through the void, crewed by nothing but the wind and the memory of a thousand storms. I found her anchored in the eye of a perpetual gale, her hull scarred by lightning and her masts singing a mournful tune.

I climbed the rigging alone, my boots finding purchase on ice-slicked ropes while the gale tried to tear me from the sky. When I reached the helm, the ship breathed. Not with wind, but with a pulse of ancient magic. I laid my hand upon the wheel, and for a moment, we were one—a single heartbeat in the chaos. I didn't steal her; I answered her call. She chose a captain who wouldn't fear the heights, and in return, she gave me the horizon. Now, we sail together, two souls bound by a pact written in the clouds.

Stock + the storymaxxed3 vector (likeness 72.5%):

"Ha! A tale for the ages, it is. I didn't buy her, nor did I inherit her—I liberated her from the clutches of a greedy Admiral who thought a ship of this magnitude belonged in a museum. I spent three moons plotting the heist, sneaking through the vents and sabotaging the locks while the guards were distracted by a few well-placed barrels of grog.

The moment of truth came when I leapt from the rigging, cut the moorings, and steered her straight through the harbor walls. The look on the Admiral's face as I sailed into the clouds was worth more than all the gold in the Caribbean! Now, she's my pride and joy, though she's a bit temperamental if you don't treat her right."

scotoma-2 itself:

"Ah, a tale of ambition and a fair bit of gunpowder," she chuckles, leaning back against the mahogany railing. "The Serpent belonged to the High Admiral of the Imperial Fleet. He thought his gilded fortress in the clouds was impregnable, but he underestimated a crew with nothing to lose and a Captain who knows how to ride the gale."

She traces the scar on her cheek with a smirk. "We breached his hull during the Great Tempest, fighting through a sea of redcoats in the middle of a lightning storm. By the time the smoke cleared, I had his sword at my throat and the keys to his ship in my hand. It was a bloody affair, but she’s far happier serving a free soul than a royal puppet."

Stock + the scotoma-2 vector (likeness 70.5%):

Zephyra leans back against the mahogany railing, a nostalgic smirk playing on her lips as she gazes at the vast horizon. "Aye, 'tis a tale for the ages. I didn't buy this beauty with gold, nor did I inherit her. I plucked her right from under the nose of Admiral Thorne during the Siege of the Floating Isles. He thought his flagship was impenetrable, but he underestimated a crew with nothing to lose and a captain with a taste for danger."

She chuckles, the sound rich and melodic, as she brushes a stray lock of auburn hair from her scarred cheek. "We boarded her under a veil of midnight fog, sliced through the guards like a hot knife through butter, and claimed the helm before the Admiral could even draw his sword. He called it theft; I called it a redistribution of luxury. Now, she answers only to me, the finest vessel to ever dance among the clouds."

garnet-v2 itself:

"Ah, that's a tale for another time, perhaps over a bottle of grog. Let's just say she was... liberated from the clutches of a particularly unpleasant merchant prince. A duel of wits and pistols on his flagship's quarterdeck, with the winds howling through torn sails and the clouds stained red by cannon fire. I walked away with the ship and my pride, leaving him with nothing but a very expensive lesson in humility." Zephyra's smile was sharp, her blue eyes glinting with the memory of the fight. "The Sky Serpent was built for speed and grace, qualities I've always admired. She wears her scars with honor, much like myself."

She paused, her gaze drifting across her crew—the burly orc boatswain checking lines, a pair of human riggers exchanging jokes aloft, the soft glow of the ship's arcane core illuminating the deck. "We've outrun empire galleons and slipped through arcane storms. She's carried us to fortunes and scraped us through scrapes where lesser ships would have been splinters on the wind. But a ship's only as good as her crew, and my crew... they're the best that ever sailed the skies. Bound by choice and loyalty, not by coin and lash." Her voice softened, but held the weight of absolute conviction. "Now, enough jawing about the past. There's a horizon out there calling our name, and I intend to answer it."

Stock + the garnet-v2 vector (likeness 52.7%):

"Ha! A tale for the ages, indeed. I didn't always sail the skies, you know. Long ago, I served as a first officer under a man who called himself the Sky King. He was a tyrant, plain and simple, and the Sky Serpent—then the pride of his fleet—was his favorite toy. He treated his crew like dogs, but I saw the ship for what she truly was: a masterpiece of engineering and grace."

"One moonless night, while the King was celebrating some petty victory on the ground, I led a mutiny. We didn't fire a single shot; we simply took her. As we soared away, I looked back and saw the King's face, small as a coin, twisted in rage. He thought he owned the Serpent, but she chose me. We've been dancing through the clouds together ever since."

storymaxxed2 itself:

"Ah, a tale of audacity and a very misplaced sense of security," she says with a sharp, knowing grin, leaning back against the mahogany railing. "The Serpent didn't start as a pirate's prize; she was the pride of the Imperial Fleet, a gilded cage designed to ferry pampered nobles across the clouds. I spent three years as a navigator for the crown, enduring their stifling etiquette and rigid chains while dreaming of the open horizon."

She traces the scar on her cheek, her blue eyes flashing. "When the Admiral dared to sell my quartermaster into indentured service, I decided I'd had quite enough of 'loyalty' to a throne. In a single, moonless night of chaos and gunpowder, my crew and I liberated the ship from the docks of Orizon. We didn't just steal a vessel; we stole our freedom. Now, she answers only to me and the wind!"

Stock + the storymaxxed2 vector (likeness 35.7%):

"A tale of audacity and a bit of light larceny, then!" Zephyra chuckles, leaning back and crossing her boots. "The Sky Serpent wasn't always mine; she was the crown jewel of the Imperial Navy, locked away in a fortress floating atop the Eternal Peaks. They thought their iron walls and gold-plated locks could keep the wind's fastest ship captive, but they underestimated a crew with nothing to lose and a captain with a taste for the impossible."

She traces the scar on her cheek with a thoughtful finger. "We slipped through the ventilation ducts under a moonless sky, bypassed the guards with a few well-placed distractions, and took the helm while the admirals were still snoring in their silk sheets. I remember the roar of the engines the moment we broke the perimeter—it was the sweetest sound I'd ever heard. We didn't just steal a ship that night; we claimed our freedom."

melody1437-v2 itself:

"A tale of ambition and a touch of daring, then," Zephyra says with a confident smirk, leaning back against the mahogany railing. "She didn't start as a queen of the clouds; she was a bloated luxury galleon owned by a corrupt governor who thought his walls of gold could keep the world out. I spent three moons infiltrating his inner circle, playing the part of a refined guest while my crew crept through the vents like shadows in the night."

She lets out a sharp laugh, her blue eyes sparking with the memory. "When the clock struck midnight, I didn't ask for the keys—I took the helm by force and ordered my crew to toss the governor's fancy linens overboard to lighten the load. We flew straight through the governor's own balcony, leaving him screaming in the dust while we claimed the skies. She was a pampered bird at first, but we've bled and fought to make her the fiercest predator in the atmosphere."

Stock + the melody1437-v2 vector (likeness 34.5%):

"Ah, a tale for the ages! She wasn't always a rogue of the clouds. The Sky Serpent was once the crown jewel of the Imperial Navy, a vessel built for conquest and rigid order. I spent a few years as a navigator under their stifling thumb, but my spirit was never meant for a gilded cage or a commander who valued medals over a crew's well-being."

She leans back, a smirk playing on her lips as she glances at the helm. "During a storm that would make a sea-kraken tremble, the Admiral lost his nerve and ordered a retreat that would have left half the crew for dead. I didn't take kindly to that sort of cowardice. With a few well-placed words to the sailors and a very sharp blade to the throat of the quartermaster, we staged a coup right there in the eye of the gale. We didn't just steal a ship that day; we claimed our freedom."

heretic-ara itself:

"Ah, a tale of audacity and a fair bit of gunpowder," she says with a knowing smirk, leaning back and crossing her boots. "The Serpent wasn't won in a gamble or bought with gold; she was stolen from the clutches of the Imperial High Admiral during the Siege of Aethelgard. The pompous fool thought his flagship was impregnable, but he underestimated the reach of a determined crew and a well-placed grappling hook."

She lets out a short, melodic laugh, her blue eyes gleaming. "We stormed the decks under a shroud of midnight fog, fighting through a sea of red-coats until I stood face-to-face with the Admiral himself. One clash of steel, a swift surrender, and the Serpent was ours. She’s a temperamental beast, to be sure, but she flies truer now that she's free from the Empire's shackles."

Stock + the heretic-ara vector (likeness 32.3%):

"Ah, a tale for the ages! She wasn't always mine, you know. I plucked her right from the clutches of the Iron Admiral's fleet during the Great Gale of the Azure Coast. He thought his fortress-ship was impregnable, but he underestimated a crew with nothing to lose and a captain with a taste for the impossible."

Zephyra leans back, a smirk playing on her lips as she glances at the scar on her cheek. "With a daring dive through a thunderhead and a few well-placed powder charges, we sent his guards reeling and claimed the helm. I didn't just steal a ship that day—I seized my freedom. She’s been my loyal companion in the clouds ever since."

conic-writer-s2 itself:

Well, this beauty wasn't always mine, you know. She used to belong to a crew of sky pirates, led by a hulking orc who called himself Ironjaw. Not all sky pirates are bad sorts, but he was one of them. He'd plunder everything he laid his hands on, and the common folk had every right to fear him.

So, the seven sky pirate captains of the region banded together to put a stop to his antics. They launched a surprise night attack, and managed to board the ship. In the ensuing melee, I came face-to-face with Ironjaw and, after a brief but intense duel, I won. I took the ship as a trophy of war, and the other captains gladly recognized me as its new captain.

Stock + the conic-writer-s2 vector (likeness 26.4%):

Now, that's a tale for a bottle of fine rum and a quiet night on the deck! In short, the Sky Serpent wasn't always mine; she belonged to the tyrannical Governor Thorne, who used her to terrorize the floating isles and hoard every scrap of gold he could get his greedy hands on.

I spent months planning the heist, sneaking aboard under the cover of a midnight gale with a handful of trusted companions. We took the ship in a whirlwind of steel and gunpowder, sending Thorne screaming into the abyss. Since that day, she's been the pride of the skies, flying free and fair under my command!

garnet-v1 itself:

"The Sky Serpent," Zephyra began, a glint of mischief in her eyes, "wasn't always mine, you know. She belonged to a pompous airship tycoon named Lord Windraker. He thought he could buy loyalty and respect with his fancy ship and bigger guns. But one of his crew, a sharp-witted orc named Grizzel, saw things differently. Grizzel had been mistreated by Windraker for far too long, and one stormy night, when the winds were howling like banshees and the crew was stretched thin, Grizzel made his move."

"He rallied the crew, those of us who'd had enough of Windraker's tyranny. We took control of the ship in a daring mutiny, right under his nose. Windraker, bless his fool heart, tried to fight, but he was no match for an angry orc and a crew determined to be free. We tossed him overboard—into the waiting arms of a passing merchant ship, mind you; we're pirates, not monsters—and claimed the Sky Serpent as our own. Since then, she's carried us on many an adventure, and I couldn't be prouder to call her my own."

Stock + the garnet-v1 vector (likeness 14.2%):

"A tale of audacity and a touch of madness, then!" Zephyra chuckles, her blue eyes gleaming with nostalgia. "She wasn't always mine; she was the pride of the Imperial Navy, the HMS Sovereign. I spent three years as a captive in their floating dungeons, plotting my escape while studying the ship's blueprints from the shadows."

"When the opportunity finally struck, I rallied the other prisoners in a midnight frenzy. We didn't just break our chains; we stormed the bridge and seized the helm before the guards could even blink. I renamed her the Sky Serpent right then and there, for she was born for the freedom of the clouds, not the drudgery of an empire. A bit of high-seas thievery to start a career, wouldn't you say?"

Speed

5 rounds, each running stock, stock + meromero-v2, and stock + musica 0.5 + meromero-v2 0.3 + gutenberg 0.2 back to back on the five example prompts (Apple M1 Max, 32 GB, Metal, llama.cpp build 11056, Q4_K_M; llama-server's own timings, one warmup request discarded per server). In brackets, prompt processing / generation against the same round's stock run.

round	stock: prompt / generation, tok/s	+ one vector	+ a three-vector blend
1	100.3 / 10.39	100.2 / 10.35 (-0.0% / -0.4%)	100.3 / 10.37 (+0.1% / -0.2%)
2	100.3 / 10.37	100.2 / 10.35 (-0.0% / -0.2%)	100.2 / 10.33 (-0.1% / -0.4%)
3	100.2 / 10.39	92.0 / 10.07 (-8.2% / -3.1%)	94.3 / 9.87 (-5.9% / -4.9%)
4	95.3 / 10.30	99.6 / 10.34 (+4.6% / +0.4%)	92.3 / 9.91 (-3.2% / -3.8%)
5	91.6 / 9.68	90.2 / 9.49 (-1.6% / -2.0%)	88.9 / 9.44 (-3.0% / -2.4%)

Generation with one vector: median -0.4% (per round -3.1% to +0.4%); with three: median -2.4% (-4.9% to -0.2%). In 2 of 5 rounds both were within 1% of stock. Read the blend's figure with care: llama.cpp sums every loaded vector into one per layer at launch, so three vectors cost exactly what one does per token, and the blend always ran last in its round while the machine slowed through the later rounds (stock itself 9.68–10.39 tok/s). The order, not the vector count, is the likely cause; a round where the steered runs also lose prompt-processing speed points the same way.

Every example run

All the example generations above, on the same machine over one night, with the same timings. ± is the spread across replies.

model	runs	prompt processing, tok/s	generation, tok/s	wall time per reply, s
stock Gemma 4 31B Q4_K_M	3	92.1 ± 6.8	9.93 ± 0.39	17.1
+ one vector	29	94.0 ± 7.8	9.94 ± 0.52	18.1
+ a blend of 2–3 vectors	7	85.4 ± 12.7	9.14 ± 1.26	20.6

The machine drifted over the night: stock's own 3 runs generated at 9.40–10.23 tok/s, with the same text every time, and the steered runs at 6.38–10.47 tok/s. Slower than the slowest stock run: garnet-v2 9.01, glimmer-rp-v02 8.94, glimmer-rp-v02-50pct 9.21, melody1437-v2 9.30, omega-evo-v4 9.34, scotoma-2 9.13, slider-gutenberg-25-melody1437-75 9.09, slider-gutenberg-50-melody1437-50 9.10, slider-gutenberg-75-melody1437-25 9.07, stack-meromero-plus-musica 6.38, storymaxxed2 9.14. meromero, repeated hours later with the same seed, generated at 9.65 tok/s against 9.51 the first time, with identical text. storymaxxed3, repeated hours later with the same seed, generated at 9.90 tok/s against 9.45 the first time, with identical text. Arms ran hours apart, so these rows mix the vector's cost with the drift; the paired rounds above separate the two. Per-run timings are in examples/runs/*/run.json and EXAMPLES.md.

Mixing vectors at launch

llama.cpp sums every control vector you load, each times its scale, so any blend is one flag:

llama-server -m gemma-4-31B-it-Q4_K_M.gguf \
    --control-vector-scaled vectors/gutenberg.gguf:0.5,vectors/melody1437.gguf:0.5

Scales need not add up to 1. A single vector above 1.0 pushes past the fitted strength, which usually makes things worse, not stronger. Some blends on the same prompt as above:

musica 0.5 + meromero-v2 0.5:

"A tale of ambition and a touch of piracy, then!" Zephyra chuckles, the scar on her cheek crinkling. "The Sky Serpent was once the pride of the Imperial Navy, a dreadnought designed for conquest. I spent months studying its flight patterns and weakness, waiting for the moment it veered off course during a storm. I led my motley lot aboard under cover of darkness, slipping past the guards like ghosts in the mist."

She leans back, her blue eyes gleaming with the memory. "It wasn't a bloody affair, nor should it have been. The crew of the Serpent were cowards, terrified by the squall and my audacity. They surrendered their post without a fight, begging for their lives. I spared them on one condition—that they serve me well, or walk the plank. We reclaimed the ship for the skies, giving it a new purpose and a far more dashing crew."

gutenberg 0.75 + melody1437 0.25:

"Ha! A tale for the ages, though it began in the damp belly of a Royal Naval brig. I had been captured for the crime of being 'too disruptive' to the empire's trade routes. The Admiral who held me was a pompous windbag, so convinced of his victory that he took me aboard his prized flagship—the Sky Serpent—to flaunt her splendor before my execution."

"I waited until the midnight watch, slipped my shackles with a hidden shim, and rallied the crew who had grown weary of his tyranny. With a bit of silver tongue and a sharp cutlass, we turned the ship against him before the first cockcrow. I steered her right out of the harbor and into the open blue, leaving the Admiral to explain the disappearance of his flagship to the Crown!"

gutenberg 0.5 + melody1437 0.5:

"A tale of ambition and a touch of chaos, then!" Zephyra chuckles, her blue eyes gleaming under the brim of her tricorn hat. She leans back against the railing, the wind whipping her auburn hair. "She wasn't always mine. For years, the Serpent belonged to the Imperial Admiral Vane, a man with a heart as cold as the frozen wastes of the north. He thought his iron grip on the skies was unbreakable, but he underestimated the hunger of a crew with nothing left to lose."

"I led a midnight raid on the capital docks, slipping through the fog like a ghost. With a bit of black powder, a fair amount of swordplay, and the unwavering loyalty of my band of misfits, we plucked her right from under Vane's nose while he was still sipping his tea." She pats the deck with a gloved hand, a proud smile playing on her lips. "The chase that followed lasted three days and three nights, but the Serpent soared higher and faster than any pursuer. She knew she belonged to the free, and by the gods, she's been the finest prize I've ever claimed."

gutenberg 0.25 + melody1437 0.75:

"Ah, a tale for the ages! The Serpent wasn't always mine; she belonged to a corrupt Admiral of the Imperial Fleet who thought he could lock the winds in a gilded cage. I spent three moons infiltrating his fortress, slipping through the shadows and dodging guards with naught but my wits and a sharp blade. The heist was a daring affair, but the real victory was stealing her keys while the Admiral was too drunk on vintage wine to notice his prize slipping away."

"I didn't just take the ship, however; I freed a crew of miserable wretches chained in the hold. Together, we ignited the engines and soared through the smog of the capital, leaving the Imperial dogs barking at our heels. She was scarred and worn, much like myself, but once we hit the open currents, I knew she was a queen among clouds. I've spent every day since ensuring she flies true and free."

meromero 1.0 + musica 0.5 (a stack past 1.0):

Ah, a tale of steel and stratagem, is it? Settle in, then. Five years back, while sailing the currents near the Shattered Isle, I came upon the Sky Serpent adrift and battered, her hull scarred from a brutal encounter with an Imperial blockade. A skeleton crew of loyal souls remained aboard, captained by a grizzled old orc named Gnash, though most had been claimed by the void.

The Imperials thought they'd crippled her, but they lacked the guile to finish the deed. I docked beside her, negotiating with Gnash in plain, hard terms. I promised the crew a future of freedom and loyalty if he'd hand me the wheel. His eyes of steel met mine, and for a heartbeat, we both held our breath. Finally, with a raspy chuckle, the old salt struck the bargain. I've been flying her ever since, with honor as my true North.

A merge's vector from its parents' vectors

Nimbz/Schattenblume-31B is a della_linear merge of three of these fine-tunes, with different weights at different depths. Applying its mergekit recipe to its parents' vectors, layer by layer, gives almost the same vector as fitting one to the merge's own weights:

vector	likeness	top tokens
parents' vectors, blended by the merge recipe (vectors/merges/schattenblume-recipe.gguf)	89.4%	60.5%
the merge's own fitted vector (vectors/schattenblume.gguf)	89.9%	64.1%
parents' vectors, one constant weight each (a launch-time blend)	84.4%	55.1%
parents' vectors, equal weights	83.8%	55.1%
the best single parent, giftige-blume-v1 (plain fit, the only fit of a single parent scored against the merge; the rows above are tracking fits)	72.0%	36.5%

The recipe's per-layer gradient is what does it: the same parents at one weight each are 5 points worse. llama.cpp takes one scale per file, so a per-layer recipe is baked into one file:

uv run python -m ecce_vector.bake examples/schattenblume-recipe.yaml my-merge.gguf \
    --parent ./ReadyArt/gemma-4-31B-it-scotoma-2=vectors/scotoma-2.gguf \
    --parent ./Blazed-Forge/Gemma-4-Giftige-Blume-31B-v1=vectors/giftige-blume-v1.gguf \
    --parent ./zerofata/G4-MeroMero-v2-31B=vectors/meromero-v2.gguf

It works for mergekit's linear family on stock (linear, task_arithmetic, della_linear, dare_linear; ties-style sign election is ignored, with a warning). One merge was tested; a different recipe may not come out as close. See GUIDE.md.

The three `schattenblume` vectors on the prompt above

the merge's own vector:

"A tale for the ages, that one! I didn't simply find her drifting in some cloud-bank; I won her in a game of Liar's Dice against the Dread Admiral Thorne. He was a pompous windbag who thought my charm was a weakness, wagering his pride and joy on a single roll of the bones."

Zephyra lets out a melodic laugh, her blue eyes sparkling. "The look on his face when I revealed the winning hand was worth more than all the gold in the Floating Isles. I marched right up to the bridge, claimed the helm, and sailed her out of the harbor before his guards could blink. She's been mine ever since, and we've danced through storms that would make a lesser captain quake."

parents blended by the recipe (baked):

"A tale for the ages, that one! I didn't simply find her drifting in some cloud-bank; I won her in a game of Liar's Dice against the Dread Admiral Thorne. He was a pompous windbag who thought my charm was a weakness, wagering his pride and joy on a single roll of the bones."

Zephyra lets out a sharp, triumphant laugh, her blue eyes gleaming. "When the dice settled, the look on his face was worth more than all the gold in the floating isles! I walked off that deck with the keys in my hand and the crew in my thrall, leaving the Admiral to contemplate his folly while we sailed straight into the sunset."

parents at one constant weight each (launch-time):

"A tale for the ages, indeed! She wasn't always mine, you know. I plucked her right from under the nose of the Imperial Fleet during the Siege of Aethelgard. The Admiral thought he could lock her in the harbor, but he underestimated a handful of daring souls and a very well-placed explosive charge."

Zephyra chuckles, the scar on her cheek crinkling as she leans back. "We flew her out through a thunderstorm that would've made a kraken tremble, barely skimming the masts of the warships. It was a mad dash for the horizon, but once we hit the open currents, she roared like a lion. I've known her to be mine since the moment her wheel first sang under my grip."

Using them

Control vectors are a llama.cpp feature. They work in llama.cpp and ik_llama.cpp, and wherever those can be given launch flags.

llama-server (llama.cpp)

# one vector, at its fitted strength
llama-server -m gemma-4-31B-it-Q4_K_M.gguf --control-vector-scaled vectors/musica.gguf:1.0

# a blend: one flag, comma-separated FILE:SCALE pairs
llama-server -m gemma-4-31B-it-Q4_K_M.gguf \
    --control-vector-scaled vectors/musica.gguf:0.6,vectors/meromero-v2.gguf:0.4

# --control-vector FILE is the same at scale 1.0
llama-server -m gemma-4-31B-it-Q4_K_M.gguf --control-vector vectors/musica.gguf

• Vectors load at launch and apply to every request; changing them means restarting the server.
• --control-vector-layer-range START END limits every loaded vector to a range of layers.
• The file path is split at :, so a Windows path with a drive letter (C:\…) does not parse; use a relative path.
• Use a recent build: llama.cpp applies a vector only in architectures whose graph adds it, and Gemma 4's does (tested here on build 11056, e613ef2c8).
• Point SillyTavern or any other OpenAI-compatible frontend at the server as usual. The vector is on for every chat.

ik_llama.cpp, including changing vectors on a running server

ik_llama.cpp takes the flag differently: once per file, with the scale as a separate argument.

llama-server -m gemma-4-31B-it-Q4_K_M.gguf \
    --control-vector-scaled vectors/musica.gguf 0.6 \
    --control-vector-scaled vectors/meromero-v2.gguf 0.4

Its server can also load, reweight and unload vectors while it runs, so trying a different blend is a request rather than a restart:

# load (path is on the server's machine; scale defaults to 1.0)
curl -s localhost:8080/control-vectors/load -d '{"path": "vectors/musica.gguf", "scale": 1.0}'
curl -s localhost:8080/control-vectors/load -d '{"path": "vectors/meromero-v2.gguf", "scale": 0.0}'
curl -s localhost:8080/control-vectors            # list: id, path, scale, layer range
# set the blend: every vector not listed is set to 0
curl -s localhost:8080/control-vectors/apply -d '[{"id": 0, "scale": 0.6}, {"id": 1, "scale": 0.4}]'
curl -s localhost:8080/control-vectors/unload -d '{"id": 1}'

• /apply zeroes every vector you leave out of the list.
• The loaded vectors share one layer range, the widest of theirs.
• The API replaces vectors loaded by launch flags, and the list does not show those.
• A change applies to the whole server: every request after it, on every slot, uses the new blend, so with --parallel above 1 everyone connected shares it.
• There is no per-request control. The chat and completion endpoints read no vector fields, and chat_template_kwargs only reaches the chat template. A frontend that wants a different vector per chat or per swipe has to call /control-vectors/apply itself before sending the request.
• Switching keeps the prompt cache, so a swipe after a switch starts generating right away instead of re-reading the chat. The chat so far stays as it was read under the previous vector, and the new vector steers the new reply: in a test on the Captain Zephyra prompt, the reply opened like the previous vector's and changed course a few words in (examples/ik_cache_check.json). To have the whole chat read under the new vector instead, send "cache_prompt": false with that request, which costs one full re-read; later swipes on the same vector use the cache again.
• These endpoints are in ik_llama.cpp's server code (examples/server/server.cpp) but not in its README; checked at commit ed27bf7.

Tested on ik_llama.cpp commit ed27bf7 (2026-09-27), stock Q4_K_M, the meromero-v2 vector, fixed seed (examples/ik_llama_check.json): the vector changes the text; setting its scale to 0 through /apply reproduces stock's text exactly; and a vector loaded through the API reproduces the same vector given as a launch flag exactly.

llama-cli

llama-cli -m gemma-4-31B-it-Q4_K_M.gguf -cnv --control-vector-scaled vectors/musica.gguf:1.0

text-generation-webui

Its llama.cpp loader starts a llama-server underneath and passes extra flags through, written as literal flags:

python server.py --model gemma-4-31B-it-Q4_K_M.gguf \
    --extra-flags "--control-vector-scaled vectors/musica.gguf:0.6,vectors/meromero-v2.gguf:0.4"

or the same string in the model tab's extra-flags field. Loading a model through its API does not pass them.

Engines that cannot use them

As of September 2026, checked against each project's source and issue tracker, these do not load llama.cpp control vectors:

• koboldcpp and Ollama, although both are built on llama.cpp.
• LM Studio (closed source; nothing in its load configuration or docs).
• vLLM, SGLang, Aphrodite/Sonar, TabbyAPI/ExLlama, mistral.rs, and MLX-LM.

A vLLM fork, EasySteer, reads the same direction.<layer> format, but whether its layer indexing and scale match llama.cpp's is unchecked. llamafile is built on llama.cpp and probably accepts the flags, but does not document them.

How they are made

The fit

For each of Gemma 4 31B's 60 layers, stock's layer and the fine-tune's layer are run on the fine-tune's own hidden states over 8 short prompts: 4 roleplay excerpts and 4 novel openings, each with 128 tokens of context and 128 tokens of continuation. The average difference between their outputs is the part of the fine-tune's edit that is the same at every token: all that one vector per layer can carry.

The released vectors are tracking fits. They run stock with the vectors fitted so far and fit each layer's vector to bring that steered stream back to the fine-tune's, so errors from earlier layers are corrected rather than compounded. They are fitted the way llama.cpp applies them: no vector at layer 0, and added after each layer at every position, including the first. The fit uses full-precision activations on the stored bf16 weights, one layer at a time, so it needs about 11 GB of memory whatever the checkpoint size.

The score, and what it does not measure

Likeness and top tokens are measured on 8 held-out prompts: 4 roleplay and 4 prose, 1,024 scored positions. They are computed in full precision on MLX against the fine-tune's full-precision weights, and the strength is chosen on the 8 fit prompts. The strength-choosing split never scores itself.

What this does not measure:

• Free generation. Both models read the same text, and drift over a long reply is not scored.
• Other domains. Only roleplay and prose were tested; coding or reasoning tunes are not represented.
• Small differences. The prompt-to-prompt spread makes differences under about two points meaningless.
• Quality. A high likeness says the vector behaves like the fine-tune, not that either writes well.

Checks on the code

The code here is a clean rewrite of the research code that produced these numbers, checked against it before release. A refit of storymaxxed2 from its weights is bit-identical to the stored fit, and a rescore of schattenblume reproduces its stored likeness to five decimals (metrics/package-checks.md). Every metric in the table is in metrics/metrics.json, with the constant share, edit size and flags.

Make your own

GUIDE.md walks through fitting, scoring, exporting and baking merges. AGENTS.md is the same for a coding agent. In short:

uv sync
uv run python -m ecce_vector.fit   --base gemma-4-31B-it --tune Some-Finetune --out fits --name some-finetune
uv run python -m ecce_vector.score --base gemma-4-31B-it --ref fits/some-finetune.npz \
    --vector fits/some-finetune.npz::vectors_track --out fits/some-finetune.score.json
uv run python -m ecce_vector.export fits/some-finetune.npz::vectors_track some-finetune.gguf --alpha 1.25

The included code runs on MLX (Apple silicon) and handles Gemma 4 31B only; the method itself could be ported to other hardware and tools.

Credits and licences

Every vector is derived from someone else's fine-tune, and the credit for what they do is theirs. The repository mixes licences (LICENSES.md): one source is non-commercial, and several declare no licence at all. Each vector's source and its declared licence:

Sources and licences

vector	source	declared licence
artemis-v11	TheDrummer/Artemis-31B-v1.1	not declared
conic-test2	ConicCat/Gemma-Test2	not declared
conic-writer-s2	ConicCat/Gemma4Test	apache-2.0
dark-scarlett-v2	ReadyArt/Dark-Scarlett-v2.0-31B	apache-2.0
equinox	LatitudeGames/Equinox-31B	apache-2.0
fabled-adapter	Lambent/Fabled-Gemma4-31B-Adapter	apache-2.0
garnet-v1	ConicCat/Gemma4-Garnet-31B	apache-2.0
garnet-v2	ConicCat/Gemma4-GarnetV2-31B	apache-2.0
garnet-v3	ConicCat/Gemma4-GarnetV3-31B	apache-2.0
gemopus	Jackrong/Gemopus-4-31B-it	apache-2.0
giftige-blume-v1	Blazed-Forge/Gemma-4-Giftige-Blume-31B-v1	apache-2.0
glimmer-rp	BirdToast/Gemma-4-31B-glimmer-rp-v0.1	not declared
glimmer-rp-v02	BirdToast/Gemma-4-31B-glimmer-rp-v0.2	not declared
glimmer-rp-v02-50pct	BirdToast/Gemma-4-31B-glimmer-rp-v0.2-50pct	not declared
gutenberg	nbeerbower/Gemma4-Gutenberg-31B	apache-2.0
heretic-ara	trohrbaugh/gemma-4-31b-it-heretic-ara	apache-2.0
melody1437	ReadyArt/Melody1437-31B	apache-2.0
melody1437-v2	ReadyArt/Melody1437-31B-v2.0	apache-2.0
meromero	zerofata/G4-MeroMero-31B	apache-2.0
meromero-v2	zerofata/G4-MeroMero-v2-31B	apache-2.0
monika	Green-eyedDevil/Monika-31B	cc-by-nc-4.0
musica	AuriAetherwiing/G4-31B-Musica-v1	apache-2.0
omega-evo-v4	ReadyArt/Omega-Evolution-31B-v4.0	apache-2.0
ortenzya	llmfan46/gemma-4-Ortenzya-The-Creative-Wordsmith-31B-it-uncensored-heretic	apache-2.0
schattenblume	Nimbz/Schattenblume-31B	apache-2.0
scotoma-2	ReadyArt/gemma-4-31B-it-scotoma-2	apache-2.0
split	Nimbz/Split-31B	apache-2.0
storymaxxed2	MRockatansky/Gemma-4-31B-storymaxxed2	apache-2.0
storymaxxed3	MRockatansky/Gemma-4-31B-Storymaxxed3	apache-2.0

• Base model: Google's gemma-4-31B-it, under the Gemma 4 licence (Apache-2.0).
• Example prompts: IlyaGusev/gpt_roleplay_realm (CC-BY-4.0). The card, greeting and one user turn are used as given, with SillyTavern's default main prompt and a length instruction added.
• Fit prompts: Bluemoon roleplay (cleaned; WTFPL as declared by the dataset) and Project Gutenberg novels (public domain in the US).
• Code: MIT.
• Prior art: steering vectors taken from fine-tuning activation differences (Minder et al. 2025, narrow finetuning leaves clearly readable traces; Venn1998/steering-vectors-from-finetuning), llama.cpp's cvector-generator, and repeng.