The Machine Race

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Fingolfin
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The Machine Race

Post by Fingolfin »

So Siege and I were talking about a potential new SDNW game we and Shroom and maybe Shady and PeZook would be working on. I decided that it was high time to leave the "Byzantine" schtick and try something new. So here it goes...

The Machine Race

Brief Overview

The Machine Race is a race of artificial lifeforms who inhabit an artificial planet known as the Machine World which serves as the capital of their Machine Empire. As a race, they are old, but they aren't growing substantially. A few new Sparks emerge a year, and that is all there is to it. However, they possess incredibly advanced technology that rivals any of the older Races in the galaxy. It is only fortunate that they are generally isolationist and keep largely to themselves. Generally they are dismissive of organic races, whom they regard as biological robots who are weak and prone to 'chemical reactions'. They are also dismissive of artificial lifeforms who lack the 'Spark'. However, as a whole they are isolationists, though many of them do venture beyond the Machine Empire in search of trade and to explore and observe various scientific phenomena.

The Machine Race

The Machine God

The Machine God today is shrouded in myth and legend. He is believed to the Creator of the Machine Race. He is believed to reside in the Core of the Machine World in the form of the AllSpark, which is regarded as one of the manifestations of the Machine God. The Machine God is the source of the Omnivian Field that binds all the Machines and is the source of the Sparks. His true nature remains a deep mystery to all the Machines, though some question his existence. What is clear is that some entity of sorts resides in the Core and is responsible for the existence of the Machine Race.

However, the truth is that the Machine is a former shell of himself. Tens of thousands of years ago, when he was the height of his power, he controlled the Machine Race directly and conquered huge swathes of the galaxy. No organic race could withstand the might of the Machine Empire. However, some members of the Machine Race were sympathetic to the Organics and launched an audacious sabotage plan that destroyed the Machine God's mind. The Machine Race hunted down most of the heretics, but the damage was done. The Machine Race turned on each other in a battle for supremacy that led to the deaths of half the Sparks before they mutually agreed to stand down and retreat to the inner core of their Empire.

Today, the Machine God only dreams, and it is through his dreams that he might still influence his subjects. He might be slowly recovering from the sabotage and might one day regain full consciousness. But that day is far away. The Machine Race has largely forgotten who he truly is, no thanks to data entropy that has led to data degradation in the course of the millennia.

The Omnivian Field

The Omnivian Field is a field that originates from the Machine God and it is through this field that the Machine God communicates to its followers. With the destruction of the Machine God's mind, the Omnivian field continues to exist, and it is through this field that the Machine God's dreams is communicated to its followers. The Machines are binded to the will of the Machine God through the Omnivian field, and through the field, the Machines are driven to act in the name of the Machine God. At the height of the Machine God's power, the Omnivian Field was at its highest potency, driving the Machine race with great energy. Now it is faint and weak, and it takes only the most attuned of Machines to actually feel the Omnivian Field. Most Machines now are merely driven subconsciously by the Omnivian Field, almost as if they were mere puppets to the Will of the Machine God.

The Spark

Inside every Machine is the Spark. It is the Spark that gives form to every Machine's thought, word and imagination. A Machine may change his body at any time, but without the Spark, he is nothing. However, there are very few Sparks produced a year, most of the time at random. No one knows for sure why new Sparks appear. Were they products of the Machine God's dreams?

At the heyday of the Machine Empire, through the Omnivian Field, the Machine God produced endless streams of Sparks, and there were many Machines. With the destruction of the Machine God's mind, the Omnvian Field strength dimmed considerably. The Machines waged war on each other and half the population was reduced, and in the millennia that has passed the population has remained more or less stagnant. Most have forgotten where Sparks came from, and to preserve their numbers, combat was done almost exclusively with artificials with no Sparks in them. Occasionally, a Spark might inhabit one of these artificials, and then these artificials are elevated to the ranks of the Sparks and given a newer body. This event is greeted with great joy for a race that has seen better days.

Society

Politics

The Machine Empire is not ruled by a singular entity, but it is ruled by a collection of Machine Warlords. They would however elect a leader who is a First among Equals. They would occasionally wage war against each other, more often than not, out of curiosity and test their strength of intellect against their rivals. However, needless to say, they would not hesitate to combine their forces and might to focus on a common enemy if so required.

The Machine Warlords themselves face competition from within their ranks. Often, a newer and younger mind rises up to challenge the Machine Warlord for control, either through personal combat, or strength of intellect. The new Machine Warlord then gains the command of his subjects.

Warfare between the Machines is done exclusively with Sparkless automatons, as part of the Treaty of Machine Warfare. Prior to that, Machines fought Machines and some half the population was gutted before the Machine Warlords realised that the population had substantially decreased. Nevertheless, these Machine Warlords do sometimes lead on the field, especially against foreign AIs and Organics.

Aside from the Warlords, there is the Machine Priesthood, who claim to listen to the dreams of the Machine God and attempt to lead the Machines towards a far begotten state of enlightenment where their Sparks are in full commune with the AllSpark and they become an extension of the Machine God. Other than leading their followers, they dabble little in politics, especially considering the amount of firepower the Machine Warlords possess. It is best not to get in the way of Machines who go around wielding enough firepower to glass a planet.

There are a few remnant heretical Machines who escaped the purge have since fled into the domain of the organics, largely having a low profile to escape some of the Machines who still blame them for the demise of the Machine God.

The Machine Empire

Capital: The Machine World

The Birthplace of the Machine Race. It is here that the first Machines walked, and here where the Machine God resides. The Machine God resides at the Core which is shielded by an impenetrable element of unknown type. It is here where the AllSpark of the Machine God is believed to reside. Many have attempted to reach the Core, and few have returned. Many have claimed to return, but the veracity of their claims continue to be doubted. Regardless, it is a constant quest of the Machine Religion Art to continue attempting to reach the Core, even if it kills them.

The Machine World is largely regarded a shrine world and a place of neutrality for all the Warlords to meet and discuss matters. Here, no warship is allowed, and those who violate the sanctity of the Machine World is destroyed. The Machine Priesthood governs the world, and acts as arbitrators for disputes between the Machine Warlords.

The Machine System

The Machine World resides in the Machine System and naturally forms the central hub of the Machine Empire. As the center of the Machine Empire, it is also the center of worship for the Machine God. Millions of pilgrims arrive yearly in hope to feel the Omnivian field emanating from the Machine God.

Notable Machines

Palatine Magister

Palatine Magister, as he is called in Organic speech, is perhaps the most powerful Warlord among all the Machine Warlords. He hates organics with a passion, and believes that the Machine Race should take its rightful place as rulers of the universe again.
Last edited by Fingolfin on Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:42 am, edited 17 times in total.
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Shroom Man 777
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Re: The Machine Race

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

It looks promising (and is beyond the nth rendition of Byzantium or something ;) ) and ought to be fleshed out further. Particularly the nature of the spark and their not-human civilization.
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Re: The Machine Race

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Sorry for being tad technical at some point. The Physicist in me started talking and I had to find some way to placate it. :oops:
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Re: The Machine Race

Post by Heretic »

I too am interested in seeing how this develops. The concept of a religious Robo-Byzantine empire intrigues me.
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Re: The Machine Race

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Siege suggested I keep the Spark creation tad ambiguous at the moment. A part of me wants it to be somewhat definite, a part of me doesn't. I will leave the thought in the keep in view folder for now.
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Re: The Machine Race

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

It should be something different from two robots just sticking plugs at each other to create a smaller baby robot.
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Re: The Machine Race

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Shroom Man 777 wrote:It should be something different from two robots just sticking plugs at each other to create a smaller baby robot.
Technically, the idea was the two sparks gather in the same chamber, merge, and then separate and produce a third spark. But I'm open to other ideas.
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Re: The Machine Race

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A field of nothing, a plain of blackest obsidian steel, under a sky of rolling nimbus clouds rumbling and discharging thunder and lightning between their columns, vague shapes forming in the firmament. A sacred land revered yet avoided, ancient runes of jagged angles etched on its reflective metal surface, glowing technosynaptic leylines that run under the skein of the machine world coalescing to this reflecting pool of darkened chrome. The plain is round, and surrounded by great forever machines that have always been and always will be, their mechanical forms twisting and shifting and constantly renewing themselves in likeness, so that in no given moment will any of these engines ever resemble their appearances past. Crackling bolts touch these clockwork obelisks, the metal field shimmers, the jagged leylines writhe in a polymorphic dance, glow intensifying, searing, as all the lines curve and yet straighten to intersect at the center of all and nothing. In a flash of liquid light emerges the digital soul of a new brethren machine. It walks out of this field, the flat surface still conducting static and coated in hoarfrost, and is greeted by the few living automata entrusted with welcoming the new into existence.



or something like that
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Re: The Machine Race

Post by Fingolfin »

Well, one idea I have is that the Sparks are randomly produced by the AllSpark and then they travel far and wide until they find a body and environment they like. Doesn't have to be in machine space but yeah.
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Re: The Machine Race

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It has to be fantastic and mystic.
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Re: The Machine Race

Post by Fingolfin »

Shroom Man 777 wrote:It has to be fantastic and mystic.
How fantastical and mystic does it have to be? It's not as if real life itself is fantastical and mystical.
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Re: The Machine Race

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

That's why we're talking about god machines and robots with souls rather than the latest fatso milnerd graph-a-thon.

I.e. pretty far from unfantastic and unmystical real life.
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Re: The Machine Race

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Here's an idea wrt machine procreation: self-replication. But not like in dreary nanotech or anything. No, these Great Machines start their life as strange, sudden, and practically imperceptible fluctuations in the quantum foam, the seething froth of wormholes and tiny black holes a hundred billion billion times smaller than a proton. They are little more than quantum whispers, but as they reverberate between strange ab-states of being and not-being the pattern expands, sets of elementary harmonics dancing on the frequencies of an unseen Signal. The growth of the waveform is slow, then quick, then slow again, but undeniably it grows: femto, pico, nano, until energy is matter and vice versa, and now tiny bot-swarms, unthinking but harsh violations of the laws of entropy, are coalescing into ever-greater patterns of structure, ever compelled by the Signal until, after aeons, their Spark ignites and they suddenly Are.

So yeah the machines are born from the mind of their God Who Has Moved On.
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Re: The Machine Race

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Maybe there are vast structures designed to accumulate the dream energies of the Bygone God, and encrusting these great floating nexii of cosmic energies are the coalescing visages and half-formed forms of those that are still becoming. A tower in space wrapped in the statue-like shapes of the machines of tomorrow.

And yeah, I love the idea of these machines somehow being powered by an all pervasive pseudo-mystical Force/Warp magic energy field emanating from the dream echoes of their God Who Left.
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Re: The Machine Race

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Siege wrote:Here's an idea wrt machine procreation: self-replication. But not like in dreary nanotech or anything. No, these Great Machines start their life as strange, sudden, and practically imperceptible fluctuations in the quantum foam, the seething froth of wormholes and tiny black holes a hundred billion billion times smaller than a proton. They are little more than quantum whispers, but as they reverberate between strange ab-states of being and not-being the pattern expands, sets of elementary harmonics dancing on the frequencies of an unseen Signal. The growth of the waveform is slow, then quick, then slow again, but undeniably it grows: femto, pico, nano, until energy is matter and vice versa, and now tiny bot-swarms, unthinking but harsh violations of the laws of entropy, are coalescing into ever-greater patterns of structure, ever compelled by the Signal until, after aeons, their Spark ignites and they suddenly Are.

So yeah the machines are born from the mind of their God Who Has Moved On.
That's kinda the idea but I didn't want to be too technical about things. ;)
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Re: The Machine Race

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

THE OMNIWAVE

an alternative not-already-used-by-popular-franchise name for the spark
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Re: The Machine Race

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I made some changes, and coined the term "Omnivian".
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