Turn 29 (Patreon)

[SPOILER]

[X] Plan: Gas and Air For All

-[X] Concessions

--[X] Binding CPUMoon Assault Agreement +2 Rep, +1 AV Influence

--[X] When Heck Has No More Room +1 FA Influence

--[X] Dead Body Delivery +1 FA Influence

--[X] Repaired Manufacturing Complex +2 Rep

--[X] Positron Defense Agreement +6 Rep, +1 AV Influence

--[X] Gene Key Forgery Project +1 AV Influence

--[X] Trade Route +3 Rep

--[X] Offering to the Ark

---[X] -2 Warp, +10 Rep

-[X] Requests

--[X] Room Contents

---[X] Lab WHA-02X -10 Rep

---[X] Archive OZM-666 -1 FA Influence

--[X] Transporter Research Program -10 Rep

--[X] Watchmaker Historical Records -5 Rep

--[X] Marjak Medical Cooperation -1 FA Influence

-[X] Reputation

--[X] Trade (2) AutoVessel Influence for (10) Reputation

--[X] Reputation: 20 --> 28

--[X] AutoVessel Influence: 4 --> 5

--[X] Forbidden Archive Influence: 2

-[X] Fleet

--[X] Drydock

---[X] TKK Accomplishment

--[X] Visit/Resupply Red Sun Monitor

---[X] TKK Valiant

--[X] Assisting the AutoVessels

---[X] Discovery

-[X] EXP 118/118

--[X] Endeavor Reactor Printer 0/25 --> 25/25 -- -3 Nuclear Material, reduces Nuclear Material cost of Endeavor-class by 1

--[X] Megahaulers 0/25 --> 8/25 -- +EXP

--[X] Sandscorn Cloud Generator 25/25, Sandscorn gains Cloud Generators, increasing Respect by 3.

--[X] Secure Holding 0/10 --> 10/10 -- -1 Artifact, -1 Warp

--[X] Mongus Gas Harvesters 0/10, increases EXP from Industrial and Medical Gas. Increases NK by 1.

--[X] Mongus Air Refineries 0/10, increases EXP from Terraforming and Breathing Gas.

--[X] Meeklak Gas Harvesters 0/10, increases ACD from Caustic and Volatile Gas.

--[X] Meeklak Air Refineries 0/10, increases ACD from Precious Gasses. Gain 1 NK.

--[X] Repaired Manufacturing Complex -10 EXP

-[X] CUL 75/90-15

--[X] Archetypic Spirits: 11/25 -> 25/25, begin cultivating Archetypic Spirits, increasing CUL. Costs 1 Warp and 1 Living Metal.

--[X] Warded Visitor Centers 25/25, establish Warded Visitor Districts, increasing CUL by 1 and Yr Albain respect by 1.

--[X] Ritual Livestock 15/15, grants Ritual Livestock tradition, increasing FTH and granting 1 Warp.

--[X] Frontier Academy Compartment 9/25 --> 25/25, increases crew competency on all ships, cost 1 Network. Requires drydock to install.

--[X] Orbital Pioneer Agri-Ships 5/15, upgrades Orbital Pioneer Initiative with Agri-Ships, increasing EXP and Warp.

-[X] FTH 100/100

--[X] OrphiaTek DreamPods 25/25, gain DreamPods, increase Forbidden Archive influence and FTH.

--[X] //PATH TekTalismans 23/25 --> 25/25 -- -1 Warp, +EXP, +CUL, +FTH, +ACD

--[X] .ARCHON (Craft) 4/15 -> 15/15, develop .ARCHON (Craft), increasing EXP and improving the quality of all relics, artifacts, and occult implements.

--[X] Antianima Shrine 6/10 -> 6 + 4 Society/10, create Antianima Shrine, empowering both Antianima and other Night aligned spirits such as devils, increasing FTH.

--[X] Lost Plays of Om'tzaggar Kadath 4/15 -> 15/15, gain the Lost Plays of Om'tzaggar Kadath, increasing Warp by 1. Mother gains King in Silence, a tragic play. !@#$ you.

--[X] Faerie Shrine 3/15 -> 12+3 (Society)/15, upgrades Toy Makers Temple with Faerie Shrine. Unknown effects.

--[X] Psi-Rituals 0/25 -> 25/25, increases Yr Albain rep by 3 plus bonus. Cost 1 Warp.

--[X] Holywick Lantern Candles 4/15, Gain Holywick Lantern Candle Artefact, increasing FTH and conferring an additional degree of protection.

--[X] When Heck has No More Room -10 FTH

-[X] ACD 78/78

--[X] HyperTek Forge 10/30 --> 30/30 -- -3 Artifacts, -1 Network, +10 Nuclear Materials, ++EXP

--[X] Khimer Multitutorials 0/15 --> 15/15 -- -1 Network, +3 Khimer Reputation

--[X] Warp Drive Refinement 0/20 --> 18+2 Society/20 -- +warp drive

--[X] Tricorder 0/25 -> 25/25, gain Tricorders, increasing EXP and ACD. 01000111 01001001 01010110 01000101

-[X] Resource Management

--[X] Art: 7 --> 3

--[X] Biodata: 11

--[X] Living Metal: 1 --> 0

--[X] Network: 4 --> 3

--[X] Nuclear Material: 5 --> 12

--[X] Warp: 4 --> 0

--[X] Net Forbidden Archive Influence 2-->3

[/SPOILER]

Slowly, the deal was hashed out. A binding assault agreement would ensure that in a centuries time the Directorate would aid in the freeing of CPUMoon. Beyond that, the Directorate offered a variety of different concessions both to build goodwill and to further its own interests in the system. An agreement to ban research on Positron Technology without explicit approval from the Auton community. Assistance completing a Gene Key Forgery project. Helping researching the strange phenomina that had occured in the Forbidden Archive. An offering to the Ark, to appease the more spiritually inclined members of the Autons. Mass donation of corpses.

In exchange, the Autons agreed to a variety of concessions in turn: offering the contents of WHA and OZM. Assistance with Directorate teleportation research programs. Hardcopies of the Watchmaker historical information. Obtaining an agreement with Marjak to form a joint nekroscience project. Thus was born the Huercus Accords, named for the AutoFacility responsible for helping to negotiate the deal.

In the coming days, the Manufacturing Complex was restored, allowing the Autons to begin expanding their infrastructure: combined with the resources and facilities of the Archive, they finally had a force capable of assaulting CPUMoon. Excess resources would find themselves spent on building more facilities: for harvest, research, intelligence.

Meanwhile, the Discovery would perform extensive research ops and delivery missions for the Forbidden Archive, helping them document the extent of changes wrought by OrphiaTek’s ritual and deliver both dead bodies as well as lifeforce.

The bodies, sourced from volunteers in the Home System, were preserved in a variety of conditions: a request of Marjak themselves, who would use them as fodder for experimentation in cooperation with both the Khimer and Directorate researchers who had joined the program. From this research cooperative would emerge new, experimental technology: medical tissue reanimation serum intended to treat severe necrosis. Means of converting reasonably well preserved neural organs to necrotic wetware processors. Methods of petrifying and unpetrifying corpses for easy preservation.

These researchers would establish a decent rapport with Marjak, who, while eccentric, afflicted with occasional bouts of extreme paranoia, and prone to enforcing oblique, inconvenient rules at the behest of the Poliad (who remained unseen within the heart of Bxixis), was otherwise a highly competent lab manager.

The rest of the facility, meanwhile, found itself studied extensively. The research contained in WHA and OZM would be provided to the Directorate. The former lab had been non-functional, shut down during the Organocide: its studies into the possibility of colonizing the warp ended before they could truly take off. Perhaps in time this project would have produced the first wards, or particle field barrier for the Watchmaker civilization.

Instead, all they had managed to succeed at before the end is developing a form of metamaterial designed to be somewhat resistant to warp pollution. They had even managed to craft a prototype hull for a hypothetical ‘Warp-Bubble’, a five auton bathysphere intended to collect data and information.

OZM meanwhile proves far more enlightening. Within was, as expected, the sum total of the Watchmaker governments knowledge of the arcane. Some of the tomes within are of extremely dubious provenance: books of prophecy penned by mad mysteks. Grimoires penned by ancient watchmaker Alchemists. Several scrolls of what can only be described as protochaotic profane theurgy. On the whole, most of these compendiums are of only marginal interest to the relatively more mystically advanced Directorate, with the exception of four specific items.

The first is the Autonomicon, dedicated to a deity termed in its contents as ‘The Forgemaster of Souls’. Used by ancient darkwrights of the Watchmakers, supposedly it contained fel rituals of enchantment and creation, used to bind dark spirits into bodies of cold metal or create cursed and malign artefacts such as a sword that drunk the blood of its victims. It is separated into five chapters: Wheel, Weapon, Wand, Wine, and finally last, Walker. Supposedly, there had once been a final chapter, Star, but it had been reduced to cinders, and the book spoke yet of a chapter yet to be written.

The second is the Mechanābhārata, an ancient story writ on a scroll of papyrus detailing the war between the gods of the Watchmakers against the Beast of the Star, ending in the gods using the power of two sacred mirrors to break the back of the beast and drive it and its get back, at the cost of one of the mirrors and much of the gods lives. This is, apparently, the original copy, penned by the last of these gods after this war resulted in the destruction of the rest of their divine kin. It is very clearly possessed of at least some holy power, and ends with a ritual which promises a return of the gods if performed at a specific date that is now several centuries past.

The third tome is a grimoire obtained by the Watchmaker government a few centuries before its demise during the invasion and conquest of a smaller nation that hadn’t yet been incorporated. It was, to put it simply, extremely cursed: it generated warp pollution at an alarming rate, possessed infinity pages, and caused vivid hallucinations and nightmares in those who read it. It apparently is not chaotic, however: it apparently houses and jails three black souls. A sorcerer, a god, and a star, according to the documents of the myths surrounding the book, bound by an ancient king.

The fourth and final item was the Star Technohedron, which seems to be an ancient, pre-Watchmaker artifact that seems to serve as a compendium of arcane knowledge, one that seemed to ignite any psychic potential in the reader, however small: according to Watchmaker documents, it had crashed into their planet during their early space age, causing a disaster that resulted in several million people dying and the birth of the government that would wind up becoming the one that ruled over the species. Crossreferencing with Yr Albain indicates that it is very likely Aeldari in origin: most likely, a precursor to their own Scrolls of Knowledge, or perhaps a substitution, though likely not one that belonged to the Exodita in specific.

The recurring theme of stars as malevolent things, or at least perilous, does not go unnoted.

While these tomes are cataloged, copied, and studied, the Directorate would start working to both study the Archive and perform the offering to the Ark. Over the course of a year, the changes were fully documented: any necrotic tissue and most machinery brought to the Ark would, eventually, reanimate. Several locations had been turned into rifts in reality that bled radiation. The facilities cemetery had high degrees of poltergeist activity.

Eventually, a hypothesis was reached: the amount of power that OrphiaTek had used hadn’t just revitalized and awoke the dormant souls of the Watchmakers and dead Autons that still lingered, it had altered the facility on a metaphysical level, turning it into either an anchor or conduit for the Ark.

A short time later, the offering would take place…

Meanwhile, the rest of the fleet, enhanced with brand new MKII warp drives, found themselves either drydocking for repair or elsewise going out to explore, visiting the Directorates minor outposts in the expanse, collecting research data and resupplying and upgrading the facilities. Overall, the century plus of time the Directorate had left the facilities had been un-eventful: they had established communication with the Khimer and had used the infrequent, extremely delayed transmissions to stay abreast of news. The exception was a brief year in which Phasmids had made repeated incursions against the facilities: most had weathered fine, but Outpost 197, located at the edge of the Black Hole Run, had found itself completely destroyed, the phasmids having devoured every trace of its organic inhabitants and severely damaging the rest.

Still, the vast majority of the outposts were fine, and found themselves relieved, their research data being taken to the Directorate for study and dissemination.

FIDDLY BOOK KEEPING GOES HERE

((((()))))

Meanwhile, the Industrial Revolution showed no sign of stopping, though in the historybooks that pair of decades would become known as the Gas Revolution, owing to a series of infrastructural projects promoted by the Frontier Society. All across Mongus and Meeklak, a series of floating facilities were created, slowly forming a web across both worlds of refineries and harvesters, providing the Directorate access to massive, nigh infinite amount of gas. Breathing gas for use in Eco-Dome construction and life support canisters. Industrial gasses used as fuel for air-fed reactors. Biogenic gasses that would get processed into fertilizers or used to create MegaSerum. Medical gasses that could be used as inhalant cures for a variety of ills.

With these insubstantial treasures, more and more citizens flocked to both worlds, establishing small cloud dwellings or else housing themselves in the guts of the facilities, venturing out only in pressurized air-suits or specialized sky-skiffs.

With more people came more shrines, more lifeforce, more totems. On Mongus, the Spirits would take the form of great cloud mantas, assembled from solidified vapor, or uproarious thunder giants, living electrical superstorms that lived in cycles of short, brilliant awakenings, and long stretches of dormancy as mere electrostatic. A handful of more solid vita would be sighted: creatures that resembled great dirigibles, titanic disembodied eyes, a creature comprised of rock carved into a grimace-locked face that occasionally bubbled up from the lower atmosphere like a strange, temporary island. The latter would find itself revered by the Hobbgrots of the Planet, who would name the body the Undamoon.

On Meeklak, meanwhile, they would take far more…interesting forms. The arcane energies used by the Directorate would mix and merge with the boiling, roiling cauldron of poison and corrosion and rare gasses constantly ignited by planetary electrostorms to create a strange alchemy, causing strange bubbles of alchemical brew to begin forming in the middle atmosphere, where the air was so thick it was liquid. These motes would find themselves serving as the food source for the Bubblefish, strange medusaean creatures whose tendrils drifted in the open atmosphere, the creatures bodies staying bouyant by performing some form of WyldAlkemetek and synthesizing lighter gasses as needed using the power of consumed motes.

In turn, these bubblefish would find themselves preyed upon by the storm kraken,a cnidarian shelled spirit that seemed to be a manifestation of the electrically active upper atmosphere. Occasionally, the Directorate would see it attempt to breach atmosphere to eat orbital debris, but never for long.

With more extraction industry and more population came more use of the Rail: combined with the influx of new material, more and more void-townships spread along the line. Especially in the section between Mongus and Meeklak: the gas trade was a rich source of material, but it meant that both planets were constantly hungry in turn for minerals, fuel, material, and other supplies provided by these rail towns. In turn, the cheapness of air meant for many it became more viable to move off the line: a lifetimes supply of gas an a recycler and one was set.

Even as this occurred, on Sandscorn the air filters were upgraded, installed with cloud seeder devices designed to use a portion of the waters imported in to create weather: thick, light reflecting clouds. Life giving rain. Air circulating currents. Snow. Thunder.

Further, the Khimer would cooperate with the Directorate to design a series of advanced VR learning facilities: MultiTutorial Pods, designed to help educate the Khimer at an accelerated pace by using advanced adaptive AI to develop courses suitable for each individual. The Khimer lifespan is short: before they had only been able to provide the average member of their species with the bare minimum education. Still, technically, they only had the minimum, but with the MultiTutorials, the minimum had at least been raised.

The effects were measured.

With the seeders, it became easier for the planet to retain water and manage its temperature: several locations intended to serve as basins would find themselves covered by constant rainfall, turning the land into a vast mile long muddy swamp, filled with algaes and simple flora and fauna: it was in one such swamps that the Khimer began constructing their first aboveground spawn-pool, hauling machinery and crates of biogel and carefully processed and hormone filled soil into the muck to create incubators in the deep bog for their young, ones that would keep the wet, nutritious mud warm for the developing tadpoles once they hatched. Most locations broadly remained desertous, however, subject to water rations.

The MultiTutorials, meanwhile, would increase the amount of specialists the Khimer Psyocracy were able to field: grunt-formes might not live long enough to achieve the same degree of skill as a artificer-forme, but there were far more grunt-formes in the Psyocracy, and a high enough demand for engineers, medics, architects, and programmers to outstrip the capacity of the artificer formes several times over. As a result, productivity gradually begins to rise as more factories find themselves established, software development teams expand, biologists and medics filled the hospitals. No true academia: the effective limit of thirty years means that there simply wasn’t enough time. Much of the excess capacity would go to either the spawning pool project or else continuing re-armament programs such as building vehicle factories to produce large arachnid-shaped platforms piloted by artificer formes.

Meanwhile, the Fleet would unveil two new projects: the first would be Station Tartustus, a place that would serve as a secure location to contain Destroyers. Fully automated, this facility provided each prisoner their own small apartment: wards were etched across the entire facility, and the prisoners were constantly monitored. In case the prisoners attempted to do something that would damage the wards, the facility would immediately lock down and the air would start being cycled out for cocktail of sedative gasses completely devoid of oxygen. If that didn’t work, mag-link shock nets would be deployed. If they somehow got past the shock nets, turrets would activate with responses on a meter from one to five, one being shooting to wound and severity five being shoot to kill with fusion weaponry.

At that point, the Commander Machina brigade would move in. If that didn’t work, the station was surrounded by a small fleet of guns and ships capable of boarding or shooting any escapees down, and a reactor that could be detonated remotely to purge the station of all complex life.

And if they did somehow escape, the installation was in dark space, a location deep in the void between worlds far from any population centers.

There are various incidents during transfer, including an attempted assassination on former Admiral Odinwrath by a cabal of his former subordinates, forcing the Directorate to supply the Chaos leader with his own security detail, something that infuriates the man enough that he would wind up posting a four hour, autocensored video on the Q-Net promising to see every Tekket boiled alive.

The video rapidly goes viral after a mocking edit is made, something that is followed shortly by all manner of animations, subtitled imagery, and even a few humorous political cartoons involving the behavior, speaking style, word choice, and even fashion sense of the ex admiral. This would, after six months, result in the admiral putting out a video complaining about this treatment in the same manner as their first video, exacerbating the problem.

Within a year, according to data records, the Admiral would stop using the Q-Net entirely. Other incidents include brawls, attempted sapient sacrifice in the name of the chaos gods, at least three suicide attempts, numerous hygiene citations, and a handful of escape attempts. None wind up going anywhere, however: by the end of its first ten years, Tartustus would have no deaths or escapees reported and minimal damage.

When they weren’t attempting to break out, the Destroyers were provided various amenities: television, extranet, their own library, even a gymnasium to help them maintain physical wellness. They were even allowed to order items from the Q-Net for delivery, with the caveat that any and all items would have to be reviewed by a panel of specialists: the most common would be types of foodstuff or custom designed exercise equipment.

And, while there existed no plans for parole, a variety of programs and services are provided and promoted to at least reduce the odds of attempted breakouts, such as schoolwork (the average education of the Destroyers prove woefully inconsistent: several of them possessing no real education at all, period, outside of chaos indoctrination received as child soldiers), motivational seminars, and even religious counseling and services.

Most of these find few takers among the Space Marines, who (admittedly, correctly) view them as attempts to slowly indoctrinate (or, as the Directorate preferred to term it, deprogram) them by exposing them to anti-chaos propaganda. Still, these programs cost the Directorate so little that it was seen as simply good business to keep them available, even if it might take several hundred years for them to pay off.

And, while this occurred, the Admiralty also upgraded the megadocks, adding an additional set of plates designed to process the biometal, perpetunite, and other materials into functional endeavor reactors. A handful each year: part of the surplus Perpetunite would find itself set aside specifically for building these reactors. Most went to the fleet, stored as replacement parts or else for ships pending: with the new plates, most analysts predicted a rapid rise in the construction and deployment of Endeavors.

Fiddlebits here

New Actions

Endeavor Reactor Printer Expansion: Most Endeavor reactors were kept as backups for the Fleet, but with an expansion, perhaps enough surplus reactors could be manufactured to allow a handful for public use. 0/50, handful of Civilian Reactors are built each year, increasing EXP.

Deep Gas Harvesters: At present, only the upper atmosphere of Meeklak and Mongus were being exploited: if the Directorate wanted, they could easily create installations to harvest heavier gasses that are more likely to be found in the deep atmo. 0/35, build Deep Gas Harvesters on Gas Giants in home system, increasing EXP and raising NK.

Gas Giant Siphon Towers: The Gas Giants had what was effectively infinite gas. The amount that was drank could be increased significantly by expanding the harvesters with special gravitic towers designed to reach into low-orbit for easy transport. These Siphoners could also serve as space-docks of sorts. 0/25, increases EXP from Gas Giant Siphon.

Alkemote Bottling Facility: The Alkemotes and Bubblefish were both spirits of Alchemy: one byproduct, one a manifestation. The former seemed to serve as a source of nourishment for the Bubblefish, and according to analysis by Mysteks, much like Lumium Eggs, the Motes could serve as a source of arcane energy for the creation of bespoke medicines and elixirs. 0/25, gain Alkemote Bottles, used by Mysteks as alchemical supplements, increasing Warp by 1.

Endeavor Model 2: Technology had advanced considerably since the days of the original Endeavor: the fleet had decided it was time to begin working to construct its successor, overhauled and redesigned top to bottom. 0/25, construct Endeavor Model 2. All ships of this class will be upgraded. Will trigger upgrade subvote. May cost additional resources.

Void Rail Shrine Network: This was an unreasonable idea made feasible only because of the Void Rail and Hyperforge, but it might be possible to create an array of Shrines situated along the line, making the spiritual awakening enabled by TekShrines to become literally system wide. 0/50, gain Void Rail Shrine Network, spreading Shrine effects, increasing EXP.

((((()))))

This wasn’t the only development by the Fleet, who would also make standard in each vessel a Frontier Academy subcompartment meant to handle the education of the crew and passengers. Those who live aboard these ships and their children are rarely in the Home System, making access to the network, and thus academy resources, intermittent. And while the ships still had access to decent tools, kits and Aklebitaz who grew up aboard the Fleet frequently scored lower than their peers. With the new compartment, however, that would change. Test scores would rise: it would take decades to see the full fruit of this decision, but analysts believe it likely to raise the general competency of the Fleet and the average capability of the Directorate as a whole.

Further, cities, parks, and space stations would find themselves installed with special WardTerminal units in order to create warded visitor centers, the guardians of these locations selected for their strength and ability to counter curses in order to allow individuals like the Eldar to enjoy themselves without having to worry about the touch of Chaos. As a result, tourism would continue to grow, especially with the conversion of Rites to a format capable of utilizing the Eldar’s unique psychic potential.

From what the Yr Albini say, these rites are being put to good use by the Lorekeepers and Worldsingers, who are using them to accelerate the development of specific vita, strengthen the souls of their weapons, and heal the damage done by the Destroyer War on Yr Albain. From what reports said, planetary recovery was coming along nicely: the various nature vita were proving highly beneficial for restoring the damage inflicted, though they were being forced to import some species from other Exoditi worlds to replace ones that went regionally extinct that are beyond the ability of the World Spirit to recreate, such as some specific subvarieties of flora.

Details about these other worlds are scant, relayed through visitors and contacts between both governments: apparently, this region of space (known as Sector Carthago to those among the Humans who knew its name, and as the Claw of Skagnok by the Exodites) was host to several dozen exodite worlds. Traditionally, most Exoditi clans and tribes are isolationist: they rarely leave their world unless there exists some pressing need, meaning Yr Albain themselves have little knowledge of the state of several of these worlds. It’s a status quo Queen Baddica has been looking to change with a series of diplomatic, trade, and military missions intended to begin organizing the Exoditi or relieving them on besieged worlds using the growing WyldHunt.

Fiddle Stuff

New Actions

Spirit Masks: With the means obtained to create Archetypic Spirits developed and the Story Spirits maturing, the Assembly wanted now to develop a means by which to house these Archetypic Spirits in new masks: ones not meant for use by mortals, but by those Vita that were blessed by the heavens. 0/50, gain Spirit Masks, increasing FTH and allowing holy orders to bequeath allied spirits Masks.

Ogre Masks: Some Occulteks believed that the darker spirits such as the Booug could be bound in masks. These Ogre Masks could give their wearers the ability to channel the powers of the spirit within in special ceremonies. 0/50, gain Ogre Masks, allowing the power of Night aligned spirits to be harnessed for ceremonies and rituals, increasing CUL.

Mongus Cloud City: With immigration to Mongus increasing, it might be prudent to begin constructing dedicated population centers around some of the larger and more active air refineries. 0/20, increase CUL

Meeklakian Deep Bunkers: A city of last resort. The Deep Bunkers would be constructed deep within Meeklak upon its core, housing a maximum population capacity of thirty million. It would be home to numerous strategic resource stockpiles, alongside three Endeavor reactors to power themselves: to hide any emissions, a purchase would be made with the Khimer for a massive quantity of stealth metal to help hide all emissions. All to create a city so fortified, so hidden, and so stockpiled that if the worst came to pass the survivors might be able to survive. 0/25, create Meeklak Deep Bunkers, increasing EXP and upgrading War Against Extinction. Costs 1 of every special resource except Intel.

Conjuring the Enigmas: The Enigma is the name that some Occulteks were terming the strange and ineffable spirits of Mongus: entities like the Great Eye, the Hypothetical Man, the Primordial Grasper. Spirits of rumor and mystery, perhaps a suitably mysterious play might be the key to calling forth their power on suitably momentous days and times. 0/30, forge Enigma Plays, conjuring Enigma Spirits at festivals and increasing FTH.

The Conduit Folios: The Directorate had the Plays: a method by which the warp, and through it, reality, could be manipulated and certain stories could be slowly reinforced and strengthened. The Calculators wanted to use this mystic methodology to construct a five part series. The Conduit Folios, which would each detail the success of the Calculators in their quest to locate the gods and build technology powerful enough to act as vessels and bridges for them. 0/25, gain Conduit Plays, improving the performance of all Calculator technology and .ARCHONS, increasing FTH.

The Secret Histories: History unfolded one way, but what if they had gone differently? Is our past the only past? Using the Plays and recounting past events, perhaps vestiges of these alternate worlds might be called upon. 0/25, gain the Secret Histories Plays, creating Vestiges that will be researched for ART and ACD. Cost 1 Warp.

The Mazovist Script: A proposal by some of the Unionists: a series of dramatic plays dedicated to the great thinkers, politicians, and philosophers who helped inspire the Directorate, intended to call upon their spirit for inspiration in the halls of organization. 0/30, gain Mazovist Plays, allowing Mazovist Ghosts to give blessings to those who impress them, increasing ACD by 3.

Brightway Musicals: Brightway was a community of entertainers on Naklis who specialized in musicals: while they typically did normal plays, perhaps they would receive enough donations to allow them to experiment with a series of Lost Plays revolving around life in the Directorate and the many misadventures of its inhabitants, both large and small. 0/25, gain Brightway Plays, a series of (mostly) slice of life magic musicals that generate 3 EXP. Cost 1 Warp.

Theatritheurgic Warfare: Both Chaos and the Imperium were major enemy powers. Some members of Yr Albain had proposed using the powers of the Plays to pursue the possibility of theatritheurgic warfare: design plays intended to weaken the patron dieties of both factions and strengthen archetypes, enemies, and events counter to them. 0/25, gain Theatribellum Plays, attacking hostile powers and increasing CUL, and raising Yr Albain and Winterspite Reputation by 2. Cost 1 Warp.

Mechanābhārata Rebirth: The ritual in the Mechanābhārata wouldn’t work as it was, it relied on several factors that no longer existed. However, with some modification, perhaps the story could be made into a play that could be performed by the Autons: one that ends with a successful performance of the ritual of rebirth, giving them back at least some of their old gods. 0/30, collaborate with OMEN and Ijin to create Mechanābhārata Play, allowing for some of the Watchmaker gods to be reborn, increasing Auton reputation by 1, as well as raising influence with both factions and CUL. Cost 1 Warp.

Trade Route: Iron Shores: The Autons were willing to trade both magnetic ore and their own manufacturing capabilities in exchange for the Directorate shipping them more material to build additional autons and expand their industrial capacity in preparation for the upcoming invasion. 0/25, increases EXP. Cost 1 Ship. Raises Auton rep by 3.

War Coordination: Yr Albain: The Exoditi were, ultimately, on the same side of the Destroyer War as the Directorate, that much was clear: positioned under humanities boot. It was time to begin coordinating forces, starting with intelligence. 0/25, begin coordinating intelligence with Yr Albain and sharing information learned about Destroyers and other hostile powers. Unlock additional War Coordination actions. Cost 1 Intel.

Winterspite Outpost Guard Contract: The Phasmid had proven a significant threat to Directorate Outposts in the expanse. The Winterspite Kabal might be the solution: it would be pricey, but it would help protect those who lived in the Expanse. 0/40, Winterspite begin guarding outposts in Expanse. Increases Winterspite Kabal Reputation by 3.

Frontier Security Force: In the event of any serious attack on the colonies or outposts, analysts expected that most would fold like a tissue. A light civilian security garisson for each colony wouldn’t stop any attacks, but might at least buy time. 2/15, creates Frontier Security Force.

((((()))))

Even as some would call this era the Gas Revolution, others would term this era by another name: the Decades of Night. It would begin with the creation of Craft, the second of the .ARCS: a bridge to the gods of creation and artifice, this techno-diety, like its sister, consisted of a titanic mass of network infrastructure constructed deep under a series of volcanic mountains, drawing vast amounts of geothermal power from the earth to power the several mile long supercomputer.

Running off the //PATH engine, .ARC(Craft) immediately upon awakening began collaborating with NV2 to develop a modification to the Talismans, incorporating advanced arcanoprinters and quantum-band hypermath, and utilizing lifeforce charged circuitry to create the first true TekTalismans, seamlessly blending the organic component of the holy nut with the various occult and divine upgrades that had been developed for the device.

These new models were capable not only of allowing their owners to take control over technology, but could also strengthen and even repair it as well using the arcane technologies within. Further, designed to the exacting standards of Craft, their other functions would improve likewise as the Machine-God began optimizing every facet of the technology. They would store more lifeforce, and regenerate it swiftly and more efficiently, and strengthen the spirits more in their vicinity.

This wouldn’t prove the only change. Craft would begin optimizing all Directorate mystek implements, devoting their prodigious intellect to the problem of perfecting the tools by which magic was conducted. Warp-Tek Altar failure would plummet as Craft developed safeguards such as Arcano-Containment Bands. Semi-simplified lifeforce battery designs would make obtaining them easier, making it more convenient to trade in and store arcane energy. Shrines would find themselves upgrades with ToriiTek Gates designed to appease the spirits and make them more gregarious.

Even the Datascape would find itself changed as Craft began collaborating with NV2 to perform network patches and create ever more advanced code-artifacts to house the datasphere, such as the Naklis Infernet Cube, which floated like a burning sun in the sky of Diginaklis, providing Data Spirits access to fire and flame, or the Great Recycle Bin, designed to house the fragment of deleted and destroyed programs.

While this occurred, to meet its growing need for arcane power, the Directorate began embarking on a variety of projects known as the Shadowprophet Program. First, the program embarked on a project designed to create ritual herdbeasts, ones possessed of strong souls and containing within them far more lifeforce than conventional creatures.

Part of this involves artificial selection: simply providing more resources for Herdbeasts to find mystically auspicious matches. Largely, however, the program finds itself piggybacking off of another initiative: the Herdtemples own efforts to breed ever more magnificent and spiritually vast holy beasts.

For decades, the Herdtemples had venerated, honored, and made offering to their beasts. While some of their lifeforce surplus was given to the Directorate, most was given back as offerings, reinvested into the system alongside whatever else the temples could trade for or arrange. With the additional resources put into ritual consecration, offerings, Warp-Tek Altars being installed in the Temple, the program begins to pay dividends as the sacred animals have their souls grow brighter and brighter: soon, many begin displaying anomalous phenomena, a sign that they’re developing into Vita.

Some begin to have tiny planetoids take up looping synchronous orbits around their horns. Others grow large, larger than ever before. Others yet still gain strange, brilliant glows in their eyes. Some that grew wool would have it require laser cutters to sheer, leaving the animal unhurt and the owner with a pile of wool stronger than steel. Ones that produced milk would have it be preternaturally nutritious: very popular with schools.

A success: Arcane Herdbeasts. Sent out across the Directorate, these creatures would quickly find a place in the personal herds of many a mystic, helping fuel their arcane arts or else providing the mystic with some manner of useful enchanted animal product, such as the odd golden egg or holy ivory.

The Assembly would use this advancement to fuel their own program: the development of both archetypic spirits as well as trading Mother for the Lost Plays. For the former, they took the spirits of Personae Masks sufficiently developed and performed arcane rites to transfer their spirits to vessels crafted from BioMetal, performing powerful offerings to tie the spirits to one of the gods. Some to serve as Avatars to the Heart, meant to act as guides and patrons, channeling the powers of the soul to do the bidding of the Demigod, resembling floating hearts of beating biometal circled by metallic masks in a variety of shapes and expressions, metallic ventricles attached to a gently humming reactor emanating an invigorating warmpth.

Others instead would take the form of the God Machines, serving as their agents and representative in reality, taking the appearance of shadowy semi-skeletal mechanical phantoms, upgraded with all manner of enhancement by the court such as scythes that glowed an ethereal plasmatic green, rings capable of creating flickering shadowy barriers, and floating marble sized icosahedron capable of weakening the forces of the warp.

A handful would take up the mantle of the Regulator, serving the Functionary as their hand in the physical realm, traveling throughout the furthest reaches of the Directorate with missives from the Central Bureacracy for the Vita of the Directorate. These peerless workers resembled sheaths of folded ferropaper covered in assorted calligraphy, their bodies thin and flat, looking seemingly impossibly fragile despite being as strong and tough as biometal.

Others yet, like the servants of Craft, would take the form of automatons, obviously mechanical centipede shaped creatures with a different implement on every leg, whether a laser cutter or a mag-grasper.

These spirits, manifestations of story and tales, would aid greatly in researching the Lost Plays: each of these plays, lasting several days, relies on a complex combination of rituals and technological aides to impose the reality of the work on the warp, making them more true.

In total, the work contains within its folio forty seven stories, written in seemingly chronological order, several of which are accompanied by notes. Many of these plays revolve around characters and archetypes that involve figures in an ancient court: the King of Flame Azura, ruling with wisdom and power. The Game Warden and his wife the Healer, Karnu and Izzh, who tended the court grounds and kept the court free from illness, respectively.

At first, these plays recount a number of mythic situations: the slaying of giants, the erection of a great tower of knowledge, stories of death and rebirth. Most seem to be fairly generic creation stories, made with the clear intent to entertain going by some of the remaining notes accompanying the Folios, which contain various discarded ideas from the author. According to most critics, the writer was more than likely an amateur playwright when they began: the initial plays are, to put it simply, not very well written.

However, the plays do show a clear trend of improvement over the course of Om'tzaggar Kadath’s life: more complex stories, concepts, characters. Play one, Azura and Erth Khaal, is clumsy, filled with awkward dialogue, and has pacing that can be described as poor at best with a seven act structure that could be reduced with ease to two. Play four has better pacing, but generally incoherent themes and inconsistent characterization: in one act, Khaim the Baliff is presented as a generally honorable if aggressive figure, whereas in another act he’s presented as a barely verbal butcher.

Play seven is the first one that can be considered good, detailing a tourney between the members of the Court to determine who shall be Azura’s heir. Following this play, the quality continues to steadily rise until play 31. After that, the plays very rapidly shift in tone and presentation to an almost jarring degree.

Where before the stories were intended most likely for entertainment, play 31 is, to put it simply, obviously and immediately recognizable as war propaganda. Characterization that had once been relatively consistent across stories began to rapidly change, to the point the characters barely resembled themselves: Khaim went from largely being a stoic peacekeeper in the court to a highly jingoistic, murderous and bloody handed executioner, something the narrative very uncomfortably presents as a good thing. Karnu is transformed from a grounds keeper whose role in the story had largely been to extoll the virtues of patience to a hunter of beasts that was celebrated more for their martial skills.

Play 31 details the Court going to war with the Necrontyr, who are presented as primitive, superstitious, and crude murderous creatures led by Star Vampires that are very clearly meant to be highly bigoted accounts of the Machine Gods, depicting them as genocidal world enders. It begins with the destruction of the planet of Agarala, a world that is presented as a peaceful border holding mercilessly butchered and its people devoured. It ends with the Star Vampires being caged and the Necrontyr being beaten back and forced to retreat to their tomb-worlds once more, a relatively tame fate compared to the ends of later plays, which past a certain point all end with the Star Vampires being shattered and the Necrontyr dead.

Historians best guess is that at some point, Kadaths people and the Machine Gods went to war over a territorial dispute: most likely the depictions of worlds being devoured to sate the hungers of the Star Vampires were highly exaggerated incidents of politically induced ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Machine Gods polity on Kadaths people in order to seize the worlds for their own. The question remains whether the plays represent Kadath’s actual thoughts on the war or else were mandated or commissioned by the State: there are several moments in the last frew plays where Azura, now titled Asur, is in their position as the plays representation of the state comes across as fairly critical. Obstructionism, poor judgment, callousness: never to the point the plays have them come across as an outright antagonistic until the final work, but it isn’t hard to see a vein of cynicism developing in the writing.

The second to last play is the only one that doesn’t follow the Court, and the only one that is a normal play instead of a play of power: it seems to be an attempt by the author to process grief, showing a figure known by the play as the Author as their life slides into misery as, one by one, they lose everyone they love, family and friends and romances, to events beyond their ability to control as their city becomes sieged by an enemy army. Throughout it has the main character at odd times perform long, rambling monologues that seem to be stream of consciousness rants that have an unsettling amount of suicidal ideation within, and at many times characters seem to die for no narrative purpose, at almost random. By the end, the only individual left alive in the city is the author, who, finally with nothing left and completely alone, goes mad.

The last play is most unsettling, seemingly made out of spite. It details the death of the gods, brought low by the sum of their misdeeds and devoured by a dark god created from the weight of their sin, their children scattered to the many winds to die out slowly. A similar fate awaits the Star Vampires, who enslave the Necrontyr only for the Necrontyr to rise against them, both factions destroying one another. It is dripping with what can only be described as barely concealed hatred for all involved parties, and at no point can any character within be described as anything other than deeply miserable: no line is wasted conveying just how much contempt the author has for every involved party, Court or Star Vampire, with the entire play being a(n admittedly masterfully written) ode to how much Kadath wanted the cast to suffer.

The final line, meant to be spoken by the cast to the audience directly, out of character: a curse on both your houses.

While the process of how these plays function is studied, at the request of Mother, a rendition is done of the folio: all forty one plays, though for obvious reasons the last one is performed without the rituals of power to accompany it. The first few, Mother heckles and jeers at, taking delight in mocking the writing and the one who first made the play.

Slowly, however, as the writing improves, the mocking fades as the Machine God becomes more and more enthralled by the character and tales within. By the twentieth or so play, she even becomes outright complimentary.

Not so for play thirty one. At first, she attempts to jeer at the obvious propaganda, but observers note that it lacks bite, with the Machine God coming off as almost uncomfortable at the plays depiction of her kin as unfeeling ravenous monsters.

Over the course of the year that performing the entirety of the War Arc of the Folio requires, this goes from almost uncomfortable to very obviously uncomfortable. The jibes and jabs are weaker, more half-hearted, and in the days following many of these plays of the Court of Whispers note that she doesn’t emerge from her private quarters, secluding herself.

This comes to a head with the final two plays. During the second to last, the Tragedy of Kadath, she merely sat watching, silent, before leaving halfway through during a scene in which the Author attempted to hang themselves, only failing from the rope coming undone because of the shoddy job they had done trying it with their shaking, tremory hands.

During the entire performance, a feeling of dread increases among the audience, sourced from no precise location: the play was completely mundane, and yet those who watched it felt as if they were being watched by a being that was growing steadily and steadily angrier and angrier.

That evening, the Directorate would find itself suffering from nightmares, and the next sunrise, the sense of dread continued to plague them. Rites and engineering would become harder to perform as people found it harder to focus from the anxiety, and day by day people would find it harder to sleep as the play echoed in their dreams.

And with these problems in focus came accidents: people falling asleep when using heavy machinery, technology malfunctioning because it was assembled incorrectly, wards breaking down from not being implemented correctly. In all cases, the cause was deemed the same: the unsettled feeling had caused flaws in peoples work.

Year after year it got worse, until finally the Pelagic Temple released a statement: what everyone was feeling was the passive fury of the Old One tainting dreams, so strong that even without conscious action by the Lord of Dark Knowledge it was acting in the same manner of a curse, bringing nightmares and terrors.

Some of these nightmares would take the shape of Exelexi, Antianima of the Old One resembling computer headed tailed primates, who would manifest from failed lifeforce rituals to harass their conjurers, stalking and tormenting them with single-minded zeal, only becoming negotiable after they had reduced their target to tears.

Ironically not long after a breakthrough would be made, with the means to create new plays of power discovered. Using theatriurgy, a handful of experimental plays would be produced, including the one commissioned by Mother, which seemed to be a story from the point of view of the Necrontyr, in this a grim and technologically advanced dynasty afflicted with weak, withering bodies that grew more and more sickly each generation, the result of millenia of genetic damage having reached the terminal point just as they left their worlds bounds. Irregularities in their sun had, for millennia, bathed the Necrontyr in radiation, slowly killing them century by century.

The story is a drama in which the king of this dynasty attempts to harness the power of technological sun-dieties that are most likely the God Machines to conquer the Heavens. Originally merely souls drifting on the solar wind, the Necrontyr gave them coats of metal and minds formed from universes contained within atoms, and performed a great sacrifice of millions to feed these sun gods and buy their allegiance.

At first, the sun gods did as the king asked, helping them conquer the skies in exchange for more offerings, more sacrifices, but as the play goes on and the King ask more and more, the monarch would have to make more and more offerings, more and more appeals to the sun gods egos.

With each sacrifice given, with each time the Monarch plied their ego by appealing to their divinity and majesty, the sun gods grew to believe what they were told more and more, many of them growing cruel and arrogant.

The play ends with a scene in the King, desiring immortality, makes one last request of the Sun Gods. Immortality, the ability to live forever. And so, the cruelest and most arrogant of the Sun Gods would approach the king with a proposal: if they wished to live forever, why not preserve their minds in bodies that could never die?

Thus close curtains. The purpose of the play unknown: to Mothers dissatisfaction, there are no discernible effects on the warp and thus for all intents and purposes no effect on reality.

Regardless with the principles now understood, application and refinement began. Not just any play could be turned into one of Power: they required special construction, development of specific theatriurgic circuits, typically embedded below the stage, drawing power from the words of the cast, was required for each individual production alongside special occult rituals and other implements.

Personae Masks and Archetypic Spirits would both prove to be boons here: the spirits of both contributing to the power and potency by serving as embodiments for the characters so pure and seamless that they amplified the ritual.

The most common production of power in those days was the Books of Night and Dream, commissioned by the Fleet to coincide with their own research. Detailing tales of the fae, the Ark, devils and ghosts and gods and magicians, the Books of Night and Dream coincided with the release of a handful of other items.

From the laboratoriums of Dr. OrphiaTek came the DreamPod, which allowed users to recreate the magicians dream-quest, seeing for themselves the creation of the Ark and the birth of the Refuge of Day and the City of Night. Then, the Great Conclave would produce the Faerie Shrine, a model of TekShrine located at the heart of Wonderpark sanctified in the name of the Toymaker, designed to use various refined theurgies to consecrate the Shrine in order to allow the many of the Directorate to give offering to the servants of the lord of merriment.

Then, in the dark, shadowy corners of the Directorate, the Fleet built the Antianima Shrines, using knowledge gleaned from studying the names of the spirits of nightmare to create a cursed consecration, one that tied these dark shrines to the power of Night, even as an offering was made to the Ark. Not as much as had been allotted to Yr Albain, but still more than any other project embarked upon.

And so the power of Dream and Night surged. In Wonderpark and the Refuge of Day, Faeries that had once required the theurgies of the Toymaker to summon lingered, small balls of light held aloft on butterfly wings that served their masters interest by entertaining good children and giving them pleasant dreams of the Refuge, or else giving gifts and playing tricks. Some few bind themselves to the devoted of the Toymaker, becoming familiars of sorts and allowing these rare chosen to draw some of their mystic strengths to utilize the theurgies of the Toymaker at a moments call, or else merely fuel their other rituals more easily.

In the shadowy places of the Directorate, however, night reigned. Some Shrines of Antianima were dedicated to the House, constructed by DevilTeks as a way of ‘investing’ in the House and increasing the odds they or an ally might be selected to make a deal with its inhabitants, whose numbers steadily grew as their revenue stream rose from the Plays and the Shrines, resulting in the House opening its Face Atelier. In it, the Mask Maker, a Devil sworn to the Assembly, called upon her god to forge new Faces, using the dreams of the Godcrafter to manufacture new visages for the growing crowd of spirits that called the House home, such as Lady Bladequench Bellatrix, a pink masked war devil who would establish a tourney ground for those seeking to prove their martial and physical excellence with stands for those like her who preferred to watch and bet on the affairs, or the avian, orange masked Nis’rok, who would establish a great and mighty buffet in which every night new dishes were made, with no night ever having the precise same serving, or the Dicemaster, whose black mask belied a gregarious personality, if one that preferred gambling for souls than mere chips: those who lost their roll would agree to serve in the bureaucracy for however many years they wagered after death, and yet if they won the Dicemaster would instead give them that many years back, pushing their death back. More Zombots would claw their way to functionality, led by the Broken Prince, a phantom assembled from the Clockwork Prince that had not survived the hypothetical ordeal. Using taxes collected from the House of Devils, they would create an army of the dead, marching through the dreams of the Autons.

In the days after, many infected Autonites would report having somewhat clearer thoughts as the bad dreams that assailed them during their recharge cycles waned. A select few would even show the ability to channel the power of this army for brief moments, drawing upon the souls of dozens of Auton Legionaries to give them some degree of clarity. According to OMEN, those among the Autons who interfaced with the DreamPods and walked the path it had provided would gain the ability to, in time, harness these powers more fully. Further, the dead in the Forbidden Archive would become more active, more cognizant, many of them fulfilling routines that they would have in life, or else showing strange powers such as levitation or even summoning strange, shadowy poltergeists.

And, of course, the Antianima were also affected. The Booug would grow more solid, more real, their speech becoming- just a little- more easily translated, Mimics would occasionally be pacifiable, frequently getting captured and disciplined into obedience. Even Exelexi became- somewhat- more appeasable. Further, more kinds would manifest: gigantic Booug’Urs leading dozens of their smaller kin, having grown fat and massive off lifeforce. Dopplegangers, mature Mimics who torment wicked adults who harm children (simultaneously forcing the Directorate into putting more effort into protecting the fully grown humans but also ironically reducing reports of child abuse by those humans considerably), and even two new kinds. From the nightmares of the Dancer emerges the Akrem, rust clad mechanical vultures, creatures born from the goddess of art dreaming of the destruction of shining cities and the death of beauty, and thus creating the Akrem, scavengers that picked over the corpse of what was left after it had died. While not evil, many found the personality of the Akrem unpleasant, with the spirits having no appreciation for art, food, pleasure, nothing but divvying up the spoils of what they could collect. Still, this quality, and their general honesty, meant they could be relied on for a variety of tasks throughout the Ark and even in reality if one was willing to put up with their personality.

And from the nightmares of Wan Xie came a most curious spirit indeed. The region of the world Wan Xie had came from did not know of anti-anima: dark spirits yes, but ones born from the gods had not been something they were aware of. And being born a mortal, there were no records of what anti-anima they would have had anyways. And yet, historiagraphies knew well enough what nightmares had troubled the Functionary in life, for the man had written his own autobiography when they lived, recounting the worst, lowest moments in their life: the death of his parents to starvation caused by mismanagement of grain. His brother being executed by one of the bandit warlords of the nation mere years later. Growing up poor and penniless. His sister being kidnapped to be the bride of a prince of a local noble family. Nearly starving himself while watching the prince who had stolen and enslaved the last member of their family feast from afar. Joining the army, and nearly dying when his nation was invaded by a neighbor.

The Judgements are silent.  They wear white suits, with double breasted jackets, black ties. They are tall. They have skin made of porcelain glass and no face. They are capable of crushing metal with their bare hands. They carry silver axes. And they serve the Functionary unquestioningly as his most terrifying agents reserved for those who have earned his considerable ire: one such incident would involve a devil performing an illegal possession on Luna with an unwitting pactmaker in violation of the rules of the house, only to find themselves hunted down and ripped from its host by one such Judgement that had entered realspace, the spirit having hunted the Devilhost down over the course of a day before ripping the renegade member of the House free from their host. Opening a portal to the warp with their axe, the Judgement dragged the other spirit away kicking and screaming into the void.

These spirits would become a fixture of the Ark, some contracting for defense such as the Booug and Judgements, some providing services such as clerical or distribution work such as the Akrem, and others yet serving in stranger and more specific roles such as Mimics, many of whom would find themselves contracted to act as familiars by members of the Outer Dark, who purpose still remained unclear, or the Exelexi who would farm their knowledge out to the Watchmaker Ghosts in exchange for offerings.

Other spirits would be affected: on Teklia, strange cryptids would be spotted on fullest moons, dark vita given power by the shrines to create strange phantoms. On Naklis, Cursite would begin to rapidly grow across the planets surface, creating fel elemental spikes that rose from the magma around these dark shrines: below, Oathstone Chambers always could be found growing, ones overgrown with crystal to serve as lightsources. On Meeklak, corrosive acid vita began to coalesce as black bubblefish. And on Mongus, sightings of strange, mysterious spirits increased, with more sightings of Giant Eyes, reports of sightings of the Hypothetical Man appearing in reality to trouble the planet and its residents with uncanny and impossible scenarios, and, once, a ship passing by would find itself grabbed by a gigantic hand reaching from below the atmosphere to grasp it, the ship forced to activate its perpetunite thrusters to free itself from the grip of the Primordial Grasper.

Curiously, at the end of the second decade, the Fleet would find itself gifted a great amount of biometal sourced from a private citizen. “For services rendered.”

New Actions:

//PATH Pins: Craft had an idea for how to establish a proper bridge to the Divine: a series of theological data-spires installed on each of the great temples designed to use the advanced hypermath of NetworkV2 and the advanced hypertek of Craft to create a datatechnic access device intended to use vast amounts of computational and nuclear power to work as a conduit to the divine. 0/25, all temples gain //PATH Pins. Cost 1 Network and 1 NK. Raises ACD and FTH.

Godtek Emulator I: //GATE: The next major part of the Arkana, the Gate is a representation of obstacles that are meant to be overcome in order to complete ones goal. So too did the Calculators begin working to craft the next great emulator in order to begin working on means to open the Path once more. 0/25, gain GodTek Emulator II: //GATE, increasing Network by 5 and raising ACD, cost 1 ART.

Holy Crucibles: The ability to channel holy forces was improving across the Directorate, as seen with the advent of theurgy. Progress was being made to creating a proper conduit: and yet, comparatively speaking there existed little to give these divine forces a vessel outside the artificial archetypic assembly angels. Craft wanted to develop a series of manufacturing engines designed to utilize theurgic knowledge to permanently encode devices with holy power. 0/50, gain Holy Crucibles, causing each theurgy tier to allow its associated order to create Blessed Artifacts of equal potency, increasing all point categories. Cost 1 Warp and 1 Network.

UnionTek Novagods: Broadly speaking there existed seven distinct types of UnionSpirits: Dispensers, MegaMachines, Mazovist Ghosts, the Old Workers, the Folk Heroes, Elemental Androids, and, finally, Donor Devils. A branch of Unionist Calculators wanted to use more GodTek to construct a variety of post-technological vessels for the greatest of these beings, in order to outfit the Union with patrons equal to the Great Ocean Vita. 0/15, gain UnionTek Novagods increasing UnionTek potency considerably, and all IndustrialTek to variable degrees. Cost 1 ART.

Silvertine Androids: Union Vita and the offspring of He Who Labours, the Silvertine Androids provided a number of useful tasks across Naklis, such as cutting back Ferrothorn encroachment, aiding in cursite removal and transportation, and even, in exchange for sufficient amounts of lifeforce, staff for individual Elementalists. However, they had the small weakness that they couldn’t leave Naklis, not without growing significantly weaker. The Union thought that was unacceptable, and wanted to begin developing a means to fix this issue. 0/25, gain Unionist Silvertine Androids, increasing EXP.

Night Novagods: Antianima. Volatiles. Devil-kind. Enigmas. Ghosts. Some Occulteks believe these forces could be harnessed further by creating Novagod vessels for each faction, creating a series of lords of the night. 0/25, gain Night Novagods, improving all OcculTek.

Temple to the Lady of Seasons: Winter. Summer. Autumn. Spring. The Lady, wife of the Toymaker, governed them all, as well as their passage, using her own faeries to aid in the transition between. Perhaps by creating a temple in her honor, the faeries could call upon her seasonal powers more. 0/25, gain Temple to the Seasons, strengthening Faeries, increasing EXP.

Temple to the Jester: The (variably moralled depending on era) god of fear and nightmares, brother to the Toymaker. The first anti-anima, according to some accounts, though such a claim was extremely dubious, though most mythologies did place the Jester as the ruler of the anti-anima at least. A temple to them might serve to help organize and pacify the anti-anima, further, or at least give those who have summoned accidentally an exelexi more means to protect themselves. 0/25, gain Temple to the Jester, strengthening AntiAnima, increasing FTH.

Faerie Song: Faeries had access to arcane power: typically used for small enchantments or calling upon the theurgies of their lords at will. Perhaps these creatures could be called upon during festivals in order to help grant the wishes of petitioners. 0/25, gain Faeriesong Resonance, increasing FTH and strengthening Festival Blessings. Cost 1 Warp.

Devil Fiddles: The House of Devils had a request from the Bureacracy, one they were willing to wait exactly 49 years for: they wanted the Directorate to create and deliver to them a series of miniaturized Orchestrion devices they could use to play devilsong on. 0/25, House of Devils gain Devilsong Fiddle artefact, increasing FTH.

Antianima Conjuring Rite: Antianima could be summoned: the Exelexi and Booug crime wave proved that. Perhaps, with research, a means to summon them both more reliably and non-hostilely could be developed. 0/25, gain Antianima Conjuration Rite, allowing for Occulteks to summon lesser Antianima. Cost 1 Warp.

OrphiaTek DreamBrain: The concept of a Boltzmann Brain was mostly a thought experiment meant to deal with old hypothetical ideas about how the universe was created. In theory, however, OrphiaTek believed he might be able to use collected data from the increasing amount of dream-quests to engineer a program designed to create digital semi-randomized boltzmann brains in the cyberverse programmed to generate new dream-quests. 0/25, DreamPods will use Boltzmann Brain AI’s to generate new Dream-Quests, increasing FTH. Cost 1 NT.

Barrow Guard: AutoZombies were, frankly, deeply unsettling. But they presented a unique opportunity for the dead of the Directorate to continue to serve: Marjak was willing to share the secrets of the technique to manufacturing them in exchange for biodata that could be used to refine the process, which would allow some volunteers to convert their corpses into Mausoleum Guards. 0/25, TekMausoleums will slowly generate Barrow Guards from volunteer corpses to defend Directorate worlds. Cost 1 BioData. Raises Forbidden Archive influence.

((((()))))

And of course, the development of technology continued apace. Scanners would continue to shrink and shrink, until they could be fit into a device that could be held in one hand: these miniaturized scanners would find themselves termed tricorders in the Directorate. Diagnosing damage to machinery, doing bioscans in the field, recording chemical anomalies, and even artefact study and cataloguing, tricorders would rapidly spread across the Directorate, becoming a tool as ubiquitous as the omniwrench in the toolkit of many an engineer and scientist.

Curiously, as soon as the devices began rolling out, NV2 would begin scraping them for data, storing the information on the lowest level of the net, using Craft to code a processing facility to sort through vast amounts of scanner results and converting it to code. Whatever the .ARCHON was looking for, they seemed to require more data, however.

Power, however, was not lacking with the creation of the Hypertek Forge. Created using a variety of advanced experimental technologies collected from a variety of sources, including GodTek, salvaged Human Archaeotek, and Great Works donated by the Grandmasters, the Forge was designed to be a titanic arcolocube sized macrostructure located in the Teklian Void Station.

Its purpose was to use this technology in conjunction with incredibly large amounts of perpetunite to generate obscene amounts of energy. Attended to by an army of Elementalist Mysteks performing the Rite of Nuclear Enrichment, Unionist Technicians working in shifts to attend to the labour needs, and Calculator and Assembly Arcanotechnicians. Using blueprints provided by Craft and information support by NV2, the Hyperforge was to a reactor what a reactor was to a chemical battery of a millenia ago. A small caged sun ensouled with some of the power of the Engine, it produced enough energy that at least some of the GodTek used in the structures creation had to be dedicated simply to contain the energies from swallowing the planet in a titanic fireball.

Structurally, the Forge was several miles high. Forward facing with an otherwise trapezoidal base, it had a conical beak section on its forward, projecting from one side of the top of the base, while the back had a section shaped akin to a hanging ramp, underside covered in power conduits meant to bleed off energy which would take the form of strange spirits of dancing lightning. The top was covered in sheets of electrovoltaic cells, with, in the center, a hole stretching down into the structures core, glowing an ethereal rainbow glow. Forgeflux, byproduct produced by the intersection of the various technologies and arcane methodologies used in the structures creation combined with the incredible amount of energy it produced.

The Hyperforge supplied, using the rail, the entirety of the Directorate energy. Incredible amounts of energy, that would find many a perpetunite reactor obsoleted, increasing the stockpile well above what constructing the station cost. With more power and more perpetunite came more toys and more power intensive toys, better high energy physics labs for schools, more juice for Eco-Domes along the line to go with the gas that was being produced. Further, the arcane power it produced, second only to the Engine, was used to manufacture new Warp Drives.

Smaller, less power intensive, safer, and just as importantly faster, the new models of warp drive would be retrofitted into ships as soon as possible, the devices were theoretically economical enough to put into ships other than military and colony ships.

NEW ACTIONS

Auton Anti-Warp Alloys: The hull recovered from the Forbidden Archives warp colonization program had fairly strong anti-warp and even anti-chaotic properties. Koptu believed that learning how to synthesize more would prove invaluable for warp-proofing the AutoVessels. 0/25, Autonites gain Antiwarp Hull upgrades, increasing Auton rep by 3 and AutoVessel influence.

Transporter Pads: OMEN and Koptu were both willing to collaborate in the reverse engineering of collected teleporter prototypes in order to help both the Directorate and Autons develop transporters that could be placed on ships. 0/40, gain Crude Transporters on ships. Cost 1 Warp and 1 NK. Raises Auton Rep and AutoVessel Influence

Bionics: Marjak had developed some…fairly impressive bionics. They were willing to help convert some of these to fit with Tekket and Hobbgrot physiology, but they wanted in exchange help creating a sort of mechanical neuromesh to install in the autozombies. 0/25, gain Simple Bionics, increasing EXP. Raises Forbidden Archive Influence by 1.

Tissue Reanimation Devices: A rare meeting of the minds between AutoFacility and Khimer, the two factions were interested in pooling resources to create a device capable of using extremely low grade death-gems and lifeforce to reanimate and revive necrotic tissue. The medical applications would allow for easy treatment of light necrosis, the Khimer believed they would be able to obtain more DNA fragments (if likely extremely altered and mutated ones) and Marjak could begin reviving part of the brains of not just the autozombies, but the other corpses of the Forbidden Archive. 0/50, Khimer, Directorate, and Autons gain Tissue Reanimation Chambers, raising Rep with all factions by 3, increasing EXP, and raising Forbidden Archive Influence. Costs 1 BioData, 1 Warp, and 1 AutoVessel Influence.

Construct Courier Class: With advancing technology, the Academy wanted to begin building a new model of ship: the Courier, intended to help establish permanent trade routes that don’t rely on the Directorates military ships. 0/15, gain Courier Class Starship that can be assigned to any trade route to increase the primary stat of that resource and increase rep with the other systems owner, should it have one.

Construct Trailblazer Class: More expensive, but the Academy also wanted its own dedicated science ship, one that could perform long term research missions on alien worlds. Biological research, minerological studies, salvage and excavation. 0/25, Gain Trailblazer Class Starship, which can perform research missions on scanned planets for bonus points and resources.

Warp Drive Improvement: Warp Drives had been improved considerably, but they could be made better with more time and effort poured into refining and developing the technology in order to make them both more efficient and economical. 0/50, gain Improved Warp Drive, allowing all ships to take an additional assignment per turn.

MegaTek Godforge: The HyperTek Forge could be improved. Arcane forces would be drawn upon and the macrostructure would be expanded into a genuine megastructure, one that would likely have to be moved several hundred kilometers away from Teklia for safety reasons. 0/100, cost 3 Warp, 1 Network. Gain MegaTek Godforge, increasing NK by 10. WARNING: This will get peoples attention.