Orion's Arm Universe Project
Prologue: Put Asunder
Solar Dominion - Inner Sphere
10,194 AT
8000 years ago, a covenant was made.
In a time of strife, a time that saw the worlds reeling in the wake of the nanoswarms; as empires fought to establish themselves and return some order to the chaotic existence that had become the lot of terragen life, life born of Earth; a pact was made between the terragens and the augmented god-minds that fought to protect them. An agreement that would see them protected from new weapons, weapons that had far greater potential for destruction than any nanological experiment gone wrong could ever hope for.
Of course, there was a price. Such covenants always come at a price. There were some who fought the levy, who questioned its need, the need for the great defence. They were subsumed, or they left the fledgling empires, and would eventually toil to reap out some kind of subsistence among the remnants of humankind's achievements.
In 8000 years, the AI known once as Borde, then as Tiphareth, and now as the Prime Reflector, the Lord of Rays, has forged an empire that spans a hundred thousand worlds, and developed a mind that spans the stars itself. A Dominion where even the most meek nearbaseline can be free to grow, to learn, and to actualize their own potential - to become all that they might ever be destined to be. In great post-scarcity nanotopias, on megastructure habitats that girdle the stars themselves, where pervading nanoecologies known as Angelnets watch every sparrow and protect every individual who desires such protection, nearbaseline terragens of every shade and creed are free to chase their dreams in the absence of poverty or want. And perhaps one day to join in a hallowed communion with the many others who have transcended from their nearbaseline fetters; those minds who have ascended to find a new array of challenges, new fields of self-development and study to conquer, each step around the spiral bringing one orbiting closer to the Prime Reflector Emself.
For eight millennia the pact has stood. For eighty centuries, the empire has withstood the brunt of attacks from every side, weathering these conflicts and emerging triumphant. And not a single nearbaseline alive today knows of this, for these attacks occur in a place where they cannot tread, in place that they cannot ever know.
The covenant has stood for so long that there are few living who even remember its existence and fewer still that realize how constantly and rigorously it is tested.
Today, that covenant was put asunder.
Table of Contents
10,194 AT
8000 years ago, a covenant was made.
In a time of strife, a time that saw the worlds reeling in the wake of the nanoswarms; as empires fought to establish themselves and return some order to the chaotic existence that had become the lot of terragen life, life born of Earth; a pact was made between the terragens and the augmented god-minds that fought to protect them. An agreement that would see them protected from new weapons, weapons that had far greater potential for destruction than any nanological experiment gone wrong could ever hope for.
Of course, there was a price. Such covenants always come at a price. There were some who fought the levy, who questioned its need, the need for the great defence. They were subsumed, or they left the fledgling empires, and would eventually toil to reap out some kind of subsistence among the remnants of humankind's achievements.
In 8000 years, the AI known once as Borde, then as Tiphareth, and now as the Prime Reflector, the Lord of Rays, has forged an empire that spans a hundred thousand worlds, and developed a mind that spans the stars itself. A Dominion where even the most meek nearbaseline can be free to grow, to learn, and to actualize their own potential - to become all that they might ever be destined to be. In great post-scarcity nanotopias, on megastructure habitats that girdle the stars themselves, where pervading nanoecologies known as Angelnets watch every sparrow and protect every individual who desires such protection, nearbaseline terragens of every shade and creed are free to chase their dreams in the absence of poverty or want. And perhaps one day to join in a hallowed communion with the many others who have transcended from their nearbaseline fetters; those minds who have ascended to find a new array of challenges, new fields of self-development and study to conquer, each step around the spiral bringing one orbiting closer to the Prime Reflector Emself.
For eight millennia the pact has stood. For eighty centuries, the empire has withstood the brunt of attacks from every side, weathering these conflicts and emerging triumphant. And not a single nearbaseline alive today knows of this, for these attacks occur in a place where they cannot tread, in place that they cannot ever know.
The covenant has stood for so long that there are few living who even remember its existence and fewer still that realize how constantly and rigorously it is tested.
Today, that covenant was put asunder.
Table of Contents