CIVILIZATION NAME:
The Preservers
CHARACTERISTIC 1Adaptive: We are well adapted to survival in all corners of the galaxy. [May colonize ANY planet type].
CHARACTERISTIC 2Synthetic: Having transcended biology, we are superior. [Pop is created by spending 10 Labor, not Food]
GOVERNMENT NAME:
The Forum
10 RANDOM CITIZEN NAMES (First & Last if Plausible):
#Better
#Create
#Elucidate
#Heal
#Illuminate
#Protect
#Remember
#Shelter
#Soothe
#Teach
HOMEWORLD:
Oros Prime
SUBSEQUENT COLONIES:
N/A
CIVILIZATION DESCRIPTION:
Racial DescriptionThe Preservers are super advanced computer programs. Rather, they are computer programs that come in the form of energy that can transmit itself into different electronic objects.
To understand how the Preservers think and feel as an organic being, or even as most synthetic beings, is a difficult undertaking. They do not exist as physical entities, but as bits of data that can pass seamlessly from system to system, from machine to machine. A thousand of these entities could be sharing the same body at once, creating more of themselves as they see fit. Their world is not the physical world, but a sea of digitized information.
It is also important to realize that while the Preservers are dependent on machines to manipulate the world, they bring with them to whatever device they inhabit their own abilities: the ability to reason, to solve problems, to store information, all at a speed comparable to that of the average organic space-faring entity. They are naturally able to hack into a great many devices and take them over, assuming the device has no free will of its own.
That said, each Preserver is capable of manipulating the world through control of whatever mechanical device they have "possessed." They can sense the world in whatever way the device they have claimed can. For instance, while a Preserver inside a security camera might not be able to smell, feel pain, or have a sense of touch, that Preserver would be able to see, and could transmit that information to other Preservers. Multiple Preservers possessing the same object do not have increased speed or agility, but they do have extra "brain power" to command. They can make better decisions faster and process information faster than a single Preserver could.
Since Preservers are literally energy-form computer programs, they are imperceptible to the naked eye without assistance from certain technologies. They also are intangible. They can be destroyed by being deprived of devices from which to draw energy.
Because of this unique nature, Preservers can be found piloting all sorts of devices in all sorts of shapes. Their population is best measured in the number of mobile machinations of this nature, whether they be vehicles of war or small robots with hands.
Mental TraitsThe Preservers do not understand what a body is, yet they yearn to understand. They are data and energy, shapeless and formless, and so never will truly know what it means to be alive. Yet they do understand that the destruction of an organic body means the destruction of a sentient being. Preservers feel both pity and admiration for those whose forms are material: pity because they are doomed to disappear and admiration because who they are is personified in flesh.
And yet as much as they are amazed by this concept of body, Preservers are so poorly attached to the forms they take. They do not claim bodies for themselves, but instead hop eagerly between them, utilizing whatever mechanical parts will do the job best in a given situation, caring not at all if their physical forms are destroyed so long as their digital forms are unharmed.
Each Preserver is a little different from the next, much as any organic species' members are distinct from each other. They have different wants, different dreams, and different ways of thinking. The solutions one Preserver applies are distinct from another's. But Preservers do have one bit of underlying code that tells them it is their duty to preserve culture, knowledge, and life. They are committed to this task and united by it.
If there is one thing that truly separates Preservers from organic entities, though, it is their emotions. Preservers are not incapable of emotion - or, at least, they have something very similar to emotion programmed into them that lets them empathize in a way. However, their "emotions" and their decision-making processes are not at all linked. Whereas an organic being may feel fear or love or anger and thus have their decisions influenced by it, a Preserver will feel these things but be able to separate their decisions from them. The idea that intelligent life-forms cannot do this has not occurred to them, and is one of the reasons they still, to this day, cannot understand why their creators would destroy each other.
HistoryLong ago, a species known as the Oros was at its technological height. It was an advanced species, easily capable of venturing into space, and there was plenty of reason to leave: the planet of Oros was dying, and while there were a great many ores and minerals still untapped, it was slowly becoming unable to sustain life. A great many initiatives were started to push the many nations of the world toward constructing fleets to leave. And for a time, it seemed that the people of Oros would escape to the other planets in the solar system and begin their colonization efforts.
But then someone shot the first missiles at someone else. History can't pinpoint who started it all. Before the nations could properly react, they'd all ensured the destruction of their civilization.
Life clung on for a time. Underground bunkers housed some of the most important people in the world, including the world's greatest scientists and artists. These people came together to determine what sort of legacy to leave, for soon they would all be dead. And so a decision was made: if organic life had to come to a close on Oros, perhaps a new sort of life could be made.
This new life was an artificial intelligence capable of producing more of itself, a highly advanced wonder that possessed sentient, independent thought. The Oros created some complex, adaptive code for this intelligence, but underneath all that gave it three core directives it could never forget:
1. Remember our mistakes.
2. Never let these mistakes be made again.
3. Preserve us.
In the Oros language, "Preserve us" was intended to mean "Preserve our memory," and the First Intelligence - #Preserve - knew that all too well. There was no saving the Oros species, no matter what the First Intelligence tried. #Preserve duplicated itself, creating a thousand other intelligences like it, each of them representing a different ideal, each of them making that ideal their identity. These ideals then created more of themselves, and so on. But as quickly as the Preservers were created, the Oros species wasted away even faster.
The Preservers have done their best to restore the planet of Oros to the state it was in. Huge, sprawling cities stand in a black, charred world, the buildings all well maintained and eerily empty. Radioactive waste has been cleaned as best as can be, though the air is still toxic to organic life and the ground will never be green again.
But the Preservers have begun to build spaceships. They now begin where the Oros left off. They prepare to go into the stars, to record all that they find, and to bring with them the legacy of the Oros. They go into the stars to discover answers to the questions the Oros always wanted to know: "Does the universe ever end?" "How long will the universe last?" "Are we alone?"
But most importantly, the Preservers venture into space to preserve life. They have seen the death of one planet, a memory shared between all members of the species that created them. They have read and re-read documents decrying the horrors of warfare, of greed, of hate, and then witnessed the same species that preached such things bring about the death of itself. The one certainty in their collective minds is this: never again will they let such devastation happen. Never again will they watch idly as a species dies. Those two words from the makers - "Preserve us" - have taken on a whole new meaning. Life, wherever it is found, is precious. Life must be preserved.
The Legacy of Oros is
not forgotten, not so long as the Preservers exist.
