Turn 32: Ecological Boogaloo (Patreon)

[X] Plan: Ecological Ascension

- [X] Fleet Actions

-- [X] TKK Spirit of Toxel

--- [X] Drydock

--- [X] Warp Route R-22

-- [X] TKK Discovery

--- [X] Exploring Galactic East (1)

--- [X] Exploring Galactic East (2)

-- [X] TKK Accomplishment

--- [X] Exploring Galactic East (3)

--- [X] Iron Crown Xenotheology Outpost

-- [X] TKK Endeavor-B

--- [X] Emerald Line Agri-Outposts

--- [X] Vaul-Mire Expeditions -- +1d4+1 FTH

-- [X] TKK Delivery

--- [X] Yr Albain Artefact Hunting -- +1 Artifact?, +1d4 FTH, +Yr Albain Reputation?

--- [X] Yr Albain Scanning -- +1 Intel?, +1d4 ACD, +Yr Albain Reputation?

-- [X] TKK Emissary

--- [X] Warp Route R-19

--- [X] Observation of Volcanus 9

-- [X] TKK Resistance

--- [X] Hunting the Phasmid

-- [X] TKK Valiant

--- [X] Drydock (also)

- [X] EXP 153/153

-- [X] Fairy Fire Bottles 0/15 --> 15/15 -- -1 Biodata, +EXP, +shrines

-- [X] The Seed 0/25 --> 25/25 -- -1 Warp, +2 Warp, ???

-- [X] Naklis Elemental Gardens 0/20 --> 20/20 -- +EXP

-- [X] Erichtheo Totem Network 0/10 --> 10/10 -- +FTH

-- [X] Trovian Totem Network Expansion 0/10 --> 10/10

-- [X] Biocity Biogarden 0/15 --> 15/15 -- +1 Biodata, +ACD, +Khimer Reputation?

-- [X] Tacchis Totem Network 0/10 --> 10/10 -- +EXP

-- [X] Eye of Isha 0/15 --> 15/15 -- +Yr Albain Reputation?

-- [X] Gleam Manufacturing District 0/15 --> 15/15 -- +EXP

-- [X] Glacier Mining 0/10 --> 3/10

-- [X] Spra'ang Embassies 0/15 --> 15/15 -- +CUL

- [X] CUL 130/130

-- [X] Mobile Shrines 0/20 --> 20/20 -- +EXP, +FTH

-- [X] Pyrefly Domes 0/25 --> 25/25 -- +FTH

-- [X] GeoTotems 0/25 --> 25/25 -- -1 Warp, +1 Nuclear Material, +EXP, +FTH, totem network extends underground

-- [X] Naturae Muses 0/10 --> 10/10 -- -1 Warp, +FTH

-- [X] Archaeology! 0/15 --> 15/15 -- +1 Biodata, +CUL

-- [X] Oceanic Magmacourt 4/15 --> 15/15 -- +FTH

-- [X] Construct MothaShip Class 0/15 --> 15/15

-- [X] Emerald Line Agri-Outposts 0/5 --> 5/5

-- [X] Sandscorn Water Park 0/25 --> 4/25

- [X] FTH 126/126

-- [X] Lunar MegaShrine 0/20 --> 20/20 -- +EXP, +FTH, reduces quartzbug aggression

-- [X] Rite of Nature's Awakening 0/25 --> 25/25 -- +CUL, creates Anima-class Wyld spirits

-- [X] World Tree 0/15 --> 15/15 -- -1 Warp, +FTH, +WyldTek

-- [X] Dream Engines of Chuldarr'Kadath 0/25 --> 25/25 -- reduces cost of shrine upgrades by 1 Warp, +shrines

-- [X] Coralhearts 0/15 --> 15/15 -- -1 Artifact, +1 Biodata, +CUL

-- [X] Lifegiver Effigies 0/15 --> 15/15 -- -1 Artifact, +3 Warp, +EXP

-- [X] Holywick Lantern Candles 4/15 --> 5/15

-- [X] Iron Crown Xenotheology Outpost 0/5 --> 5/5

-- [X] Offering to Fundamental Life 0/25 --> 5/25

- [X] ACD 119/119

-- [X] Magma-Zone GeneLab 0/10 --> 10/10 -- +1 BioData, +ACD

-- [X] Mountain Blood 0/25 --> 25/25 -- +1 Warp

-- [X] The Symbiotic Arcology 0/45 --> 45/45 -- -9 Biodata, +EXP, +CUL, +ACD

-- [X] Glacier GeneLab 0/10 --> 10/10 -- +1 Biodata, +ACD

-- [X] Glo-Coral GeneLab 0/10 --> 10/10 -- +1 Biodata, +ACD

-- [X] Abyssal Zone GeneLab 0/10 --> 10/10 -- +1 Biodata, +ACD

-- [X] WyldRanger Zoological Research Rovers 0/15 --> 6/15

-- [X] Temple Expedition 6/15 --> 9(+6)/15

- [X] Resource Management

-- [X] Artifacts: 4 --> 2

-- [X] Biodata: 4 --> 1

-- [X] Intel: 0

-- [X] Living Metal: 3

-- [X] Network: 4

-- [X] Nuclear Material: 1 --> 2

-- [X] Warp: 1 --> 3

+WonderPark Space Docks

((((()))))

Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.

(((((()))))

FLEET ASSIGNMENTS

“Preparing to drop out of Warp,” Came the voice of the ships navigator. “Performing translation in 3…2…1…” They intoned, and a moment the ship shifted, and its Captain, Rykkyr, felt the boil in his stomach go away. Warp Jumps were never wholly pleasant, but the past few decades of the Timefold had made them even more unpleasant due to the sensation of temporal synchronizing.

The good news was, this was supposedly a cake run. Just had to explore R-22, a garden world: according to the Khimer they had done a few preliminary scans of the planet before, but never had the chance to colonize it before their civilization was destroyed by the Devourer. Hopefully it was still extant in some form: the lack of protection would have made it a prime target.

“We are now in system,” Came the navigation officers voice, only for the human to pause, a confused look on their face as they read the system readouts. “Uh, Captain? We’re scanning something odd: almost looks like…” They trailed off even as the science officer, a Hobbgrot, went ramrod straight.

“Kaptain, our skanna is picking up large masses of devourer tissue!”

“On screen,” Rykkyr commented, and a moment later he was met not with the sight of a pristine garden-world, but instead a planet enveloped in flesh. Covered in massive tendrils that reached into the sky, helixical appendages that attached themselves to vast organs and bone-like lattices, nets of strange tissue-flaps hanging between them on the sunward side, pulsating, receding and expanding. Here and there on the planet, he could see masses of what looked like neural tissue, which judging from the fact he could see them from space without excess magnifications indicated that at a minimum those structures were at least the size of a Teklian MegaHub.

Could this be the end-point of a devourer attack, Rykker wondered: first they devour, then they infect, infest, converting entire worlds into biomass in order to construct biological planetoids. Or was it an aberration? Some product of XCOM or the Khimer’s meddling with devourer biogenetics that somehow managed to overtake an entire planet?

“Observe for now, try to see if we can hail them,” He commanded. “Use Khimer Logolanguage just in case these are offshoots. Be VERY prepared to gun it if they attack,” He cautioned.

“...No response, but we are seeing movement,” The helmsman, a muse, commented, and indeed, Rykkyr could see something emerge from the orbital osteostructure. Several somethings. At first, he thought it was additional BioShips, living versions of the corpse in the Ruinate: they were the right size. But as he studied them closer, he quickly noted that if these were the same species, it had a great deal of variation. The chitinous armor of the bioship had been replaced, the outside of the ships looking almost gelatinously soft instead, with numerous veins pumping some unknown glowing material through the creature, whose mouth was un-mandibled, instead replaced with a ring of tentacles, stout and thick ones that, to Rykkyrs discomfort, looked ALARMINGLY phallic. On its sides were wings, large skeletal structures with the same sort of flaps as the osteostructure that stood mostly still, barely shifting directions.

“Continue hailing them, but prepare to enter warp again if necessary,” the Captain commanded as he carefully looked the things over, attempting to commit the images to memory. A moment later, he felt the sensation of Warp Translation beginning. With a sigh, Rykkyr consigned himself to the knowledge that the Khimer probably weren’t going to like this.

Discovered Echidna, a former garden world covered in Devourer tissue (unknown whether modified).

(((((()))))

Stardate 4333.0304, Captains Log of Stephen Greasen of the Starship Emissary

Another encounter with XCOM. The ship has taken significant damage, but we managed to scrape through it alive, at least, and we have information. Our little trip down R-19 was supposed to be a cake run: imagine my surprise when we found another visitor to the system. From what we can gather at least their ship was just as surprised to see us.

We managed to scrape through, barely, though it wasn’t easy considering we were fighting a vessel with a tonnage equivalent to a Resistance. It took me threatening to bomb both them and the planet with perpetunite to get them to stand down, a bluff they thankfully accepted.

Curiously, there were only a few of their cyborg ships present. Most likely the reason we survived: managing a single vessel is one thing, but an entire fleet would have been our doom. The vessel in question was odd as well: our scans indicate that it utilizes far less organic tissue than their other ships, and we detected a great deal of what we believe are internal industrial works and aquaponic hatcheries.

My personal theory at the moment is that the vessel, despite its status as a warship, also serves as a major civilian population center for XCOM, which combined with the fact the world we discovered lacks any signs of long term habitation indicates a more generally nomadic lifestyle by the rogue Khimer. According to the science department, they think the organization was attempting to perform a quick harvest of resources and dump waste, as we’ve found large traces of greywater in various locales around the planet.

My attempts at diplomacy sadly gave me little more to work with: XCOM seemed wholly uninterested in negotiating with us. What little I could convince them to reveal is less than promising: apparently, they think we’re agents of corruption that are tinkering with the forces of infestation carelessly if not maliciously, better than the Devourers only because we don’t leave dead husks in our wake. Their opinion of the Psyocracy meanwhile seems to be SIGNIFICANTLY worse: merely mentioning the War-Brain seemed to make the captain EXTREMELY agitated. I suspect there is still a bit of bad blood there.

Discovered Dustpit, an uninhabited desert world.

Encountered XCOM, sustaining significant damage to the ship. Thanks to good diplomacy rolls however the organization has retreated.

XCOM reputation: -25 (The Friend of our Enemy)

((((()))))

CONTENT WARNING: Imperium.

Stardate 4334.1214, Captains Log of Stephen Greasen of the Starship Emissary

We have for the past several months been performing a remote observation of the Volcanus system, and in those months I have had to send literally every officer on the Bridge to mandatory counseling sessions.

The planet of Volcanus 9 (which for some reason isn’t the ninth planet in the system) lacks every and any form of agriculture, and what industry exists is limited to the various Forge Temples scattered around the nine hives. Food it receives from the other worlds or, more importantly, through semi-yearly shipments from the vessel known as The Hand of Agrippa, which carries a variety of processed grains and starches from local agri-worlds in the sector.

Despite this, according to what information we could gather, the planet is subject to a constant low-level famine as the Underhives lacks the support to produce their own food and receive approximately 2% of the Hands rationcargo despite hosting generously 70% of the population: instead, they’re forced to rely on what little can be recycled, grown, or hunted, which is barely enough to support the population.

To maintain control, the Upperhives utilize a combination of religious indoctrination, heavily armed state forces, and regular culls of the Underhive and assassination of prominent figures that arise therin as a means to both reduce the population back closer to capacity as well as destroy any parallel political structures that might form that could result in the Underhive organizing itself, justifying the action as a form of ritual cleansing meant to purge the Underhive of its large mutant population and to destroy various cults and subversive organizations. The existence of which are probably both the result of the planets waste storage being so incredibly poorly design that industrial run-off and urban waste consistently flows to the bottom of the hive structures. It is VERY likely numerous levels are outright entirely flooded, and from what we can gather, flat out unmapped by whatever maintenance services exist.

Politically, the system seems to be governed by a parliamentary system consisting of three bodies: the Convocation of Blood, an assembly of nobles and others possessing titles that serve as the Judiciary and highest court of appeals. The House of the People, a semi-democratic legislative assembly of elected officials from the Upper Hive, with each Hive possessing a handful of representatives, the number of which I haven’t uncovered the significance of yet. And lastly, the Prime Minister, currently occupied by the currently deceased God Has Given The Son His Right Hand St. Gingritch XXIII, a figure selected by the House of the People from among the planets Ecclesiarchy with approval from the Convocation whose position seemed to consist of the primary spiritual leader of the planet as well as the leader of its state forces.

I’m going to reserve comment as to whether this system functions and draw attention to the fact its current spiritual leader is a literal taxidermied corpse.

I have unfortunately ran out of things to comment on, meaning I can no longer procrastinate describing the primary industry of the planet. According to all our information, the planets primary reason for existing is to produce stock for what can only be described as one of the most wretchedly, gut churningly horrific forms of slavery I have seen, a process that strips away not only social autonomy, but physical and even mental through subjecting the victim to a variety of incredibly invasive augments, a number of which seem to outright serve no discernable purpose, until the unfortunate human is little more than a prisoner of their own body, helpless but to watch and feel it destroy itself through labour and additional augmentation.

The worst part is, frankly, the fact that this was merely ONE of the things we saw. I’m omitting most of them from this record: the witch burnings we saw, the mass public executions performed at public holidays, the many, many instances of parents destroying their children because of some minor physical disability, benign cosmetic mutation, or having the ill-luck to be born notably neuroatypical…Frankly, once we return to Directorate space, I’m most likely going to cash in that shore leave I’ve earned: I think I need to spend a month dealing with this myself.

Volcanus 9 observed! Primary Industry: Agriculture. Primary Export: Humans.

((((()))))

Stardate 4331.0303, Captains Log of MGTRN of the Starship Discovery

I have once more found myself assigned to a new ship. Blast: perhaps the Fleet is aware of my attempts to form a political blok around myself to help me achieve my quest for admiral-dom. No matter: I have time.

My new ships latest assignment has consisted of performing exploration in Horizon. So far, I have explored a scant handful of systems. A trio of clustered systems a short jump away from each other that seem to contain a large amount of what appears to be space stations consisting of libraries storing massive amounts of written literature, poetry and fiction penned by an unknown alien race. And, crossing the very edges of the Horizon, an anomalous warp route that passes through the five points of the Ekibirus Constellation, forming a ring of sorts.

Both interesting, but of marginal value outside themselves.

Located the following: the Ekibirus Constellation, a ring of five systems crossing the Horizon, as well as the Triple Librarium, a cluster of stars located south-east of Iron Shores with a massive library of xeno-literature.

((((()))))

REPORT VM-YA-19

SUMMARY: A collection of operations taken to assist Yr Albain, loaning them ships to accomplish various major observation projects and expeditions. Ships involved include Endeavor-B and Emissary Classes. No notable deviations or alterations in equipment or design made. Locations include Vaul-Ket, unknown location in sub-space, and unknown real-space system held by as of yet unidentified ork empire. Yr Albain provided fifteen Lorekeepers and security forces for task.

Result: Progress in Vaul-Ket expedition. Base-camp established, ward-terminals erected, water levels lowered somewhat. Numerous minor artefacts discovered, typically minor pieces of chaos paraphernalia or fragments of what appear to be items made of corroded wraithbone. Extremely large quantities of toxic bacteria in water: entirely non-potable, no means to safely filter, forcing water to be shipped from offworld. Also high numbers of corrosive pollutants that, enhanced by whatever lingering chaotic influence is present, has proven remarkably damaging to most metals. Deeper levels show that influence enables water to outright infect inorganic machinery as if it is biological organism.

Sub-space expedition successful: location seems to consist of temple associated with minor pre-fall religion dedicated to a minor regional aeldari folk diety known Nilim-Ra. Chaotic corruption was present, but manageable: recovered handful of items termed Soul Stones that seem to possess a high value for existing Eldar as well as various examples of minor technology such as Eye of Khaine, a form of psychic amplifier that allows trained divination specialists the ability to perform crude combat precognition. Also recovered was the personal wargear of Nilim-Ra and their (unfortunately deeply corrupted) personal soul-stone: both have been given to Yr Albain as agreed.

[Spoiler=Complete manifest of recovered items from subspace]

5 Eyes of Khaine

2 Psychically Resonant grimoires (untranslated).

1 highly corrupted Technohedron currently possessed by unknown chaotic entity. Has made numerous overtures to attain freedom: currently imprisoned at Tartustus Secure Vaults pending study.

27 Soulstones (Empty)

3 Soulstones (Occupied)

245 items confirmed by Lorekeepers as psychic sex toys

5 intact skeletons of unknown organisms discovered in unidentified sub-space storage device

Multiple inactive pieces of what appear to be wraithbone statues.

49 Witch Staffs

10 Witch Staffs of extremely high quality

Several thousand guns, bows, cannons both classical and modern, as well a as of yet undocumented assortment of diverse melee weapons found inside sub-space storage device.

1 Unidentified sub-space storage device found to be housing a large amount of weapons and collection of large skeletons

4 re-animated eldar corpses containing various chaotic entities: currently en-route to Tartustus.

1 re-animated Nihim-Ra, containing a spirit identified as minor daemon of Slaanesh. Currently in possession of Yr Albain to be tried as enemy of the Eldar. Asylum request pending but unlikely to be approved.

Corrupted soul stone belonging to Nihim-Ra

Assorted pieces of personal weaponry and armor found on re-animated corpse of Nihim-Ra.

[/spoiler]

Further, observation of orkoid empire has proven enlightening. Technology is currently crude but robust. Core territory consists of three different worlds that have been completely orkified, while the enemy fleet seems to consist of four large vessels assembled from the scrapped remains of multiple other ships alongside a variety of retrofitted asteroids, alongside five ships of various sizes and shapes that likely were built by non-orkoids. Directorate intelligence gathering was sufficient enough to permit Yr Albain diplomats to successfully purchase temporary mercenary services of the Empires leader, Warboz Skulchukka, pre-empting an invasion of a maiden world by the Imperials and, according to Yr Albain intelligence, buy time before Skulchukka invades an exodite world Queen Baddica believes can be convinced to join growing alliance.

ADDENDUM: Due to nature of timefold phenomena, these operations are occurring concurrently with other attempts at Yr-Albaini co-operation both in prior folds and in future folds. Highly likely this will produce outsized effects, but also highly likely these events occurring simultaneously will increase heat from Imperial forces towards Exodites and likely Directorate as result.

+6 FTH!

+4 ACD!

+2 Yr Albain Rep!

(((())))

Stardate 4332.0713, Captains Log of Whamdinger of the Starship Resistance

Alright, so, good news is, th’phasmid is dead. The bad news is, its not permanent. From what th’ Eldar can tell me, the things closer t’ a daemon than anything else: the physical body is just an avatar for the soul.

Found th’ sucker tryin’ t’ eat one of our outposts: thing was rough, but th’ fusion weapons ‘elped tear it a new one something fierce. Weirdly, th’ wards didn’t really do anything: I think towards the end it was even startin’ to feed on em, because our lifeforce reserves are a lot lower than they should be.

Still, we managed t’ capture a few of the smaller gitz, and there’s definitely no mistaken’ it, these blighters are definitely the same sorta critter the exorcists on the Biocity have been finding. I guess the shrines on th’ structure ‘ave turned it into a sort of insect spirit nexus, drawin’ in these blighters like a magnet. Still don’t know what they are, sadly, but we do know they’re omnivores: buggers’ll eat anything. Wood, meat, water, some forms o’ dirt, electricity, lifeforce: a few of the scientists tried feeding em cursite, an experiment that will not be repeated on this ship. Zog, there were so many bodies…

Where was I? Ah, right. Anyhow, I don’t fink we’ll be seein’ em around this neck of the woods for a bit: unless there are more phasmids runnin’ around it should be awhile until this one reforms, probably after th’ timefold ends.

Phasmid (temporarily) destroyed! The Phasmid seems to be the ghost of some unknown entity whose physical form is a mere emanation of its true self, located in the warp. It is resistant to all forms of damage except for energy weaponry, which seems to be its weakness so long as a minimum lumens is achieved. Both it and its smaller manifestations seem to be the same entity: in all cases it is an omnivore that can consume most forms of matter and energy, with a preference towards biological and lifeforce.

((((()))))

And, rounding off this fold, the Accomplishment and it’s captain would return, limping, their ship falling apart as they made an emergency jump home. What they had found had nearly destroyed them: they had just barely managed to escape.

In the far edges of the Horizon, they had found a system full of thousands of vessels, a fleet of drone-ships in the middle of deconstructing a furiously resisting human industrial planet, its legions of cybernetically augmented defenders being DELETED en mass by an army of spindle-legged metal spiders whose very touch seemed to completely erase in-organic matter. It had taken moments for this fleet to notice the Accomplishment and attack it, their many trilobyte shaped vessels shifting like a swarm of krill, splitting off into a crowd of a few hundred and attacking the unfortunate vessel.

At first, the Directorate had assumed they were firing laser weaponry, as the cold blue energy pulses would impact and dissipate against the shield. The moment one landed a hit against the hull, however, it all went to hell as the impacted section of the hull found itself transformed into spiders, who proceeded to attempt to deconstruct the ship, in the process opening more holes in the shield and allowing more hits, producing more spiders.

Roughly half the hull had been destroyed by the time a warp jump was made, with several decks breached by spiders, who when destroyed would rapidly re-assemble themselves through unknown means. It was at this point the spiders began attempting to parasitize the ship by forcibly merging with it. The infected parts of the ship would promptly produce more spiders.

In the end it would take what was left of the ships Parliments collaborating with the Mysteks to destroy the creatures via perform a Darktide curse on the ship once it was close enough to Teklia for the Living College to intervene, the psychic gestalt grabbing the ship from the warp using the curse as a beacon, summoning it to the orbit of Erichtheo before blasting the ship with technopathic power to fry every last spider aboard.

Finally with the spiders clear of their ship, the survivors breathed a sigh of relief. In the coming days the autopsies would reveal a great deal, all of it alarming. The first would regard the nature of the spiders: despite their semi-biological appearance, they were actually entirely synthetic, incredibly advanced automata. These machines used some sort of quantum manipulating morphogenic field to both erase and transform matter as well as themselves, allowing them to merge with technology both to likely improve themselves as well as to produce additional spiders.

Further, each individual spiders neural architecture bears strong resemblance to that of the Organocide Engine, indicating they are in some way involved with its creator, though whether directly as a creation or indirectly as another victim of the organocide engine is unknown.

And, most concerningly, based on the sophistication of the quantum technology found within, it is very likely this swarm now knows where Teklia is.

Discovered the Deconstructing Spiders in the far horizon, a swarm of highly advanced (though of unknown intelligence) synthetic drones equipped with matter manipulating technology with unknown connections to the Man of Flint. However, you have lost the Accomplishment in the process, and they likely know where you live.

Reputation: Unknown.

NEW ASSIGNMENTS

Spidercide: The Spiders needed to be taken care of while they were still vulnerable, some argued: the next fold should be spent ambushing them while they were still unaware, before the folds ended and they attacked the Directorate. Automatically includes last turns vessels if done during the timefold.

Horizon Librarius Outposts: A proposal by the AutoFacilities: they wanted to begin constructing an outpost in the Triple Librarius, ones meant to help repair, maintain, and translate the contents of the vast stores. 0/5 CUL, gain Horizon Librarius Outposts, which generates harvestable 1 CUL per turn for a max of 5 turns.

Horizon Constellations: Perhaps the Conclave could benefit spiritually by constructing a series of Temples in the Ekibirus Constellation, meant to study their movements and perform astromantic ceremonies to please the gods. 0/5 FTH, gain Horizon Constellation Temple Outpost, generating a harvestable 1 FTH per turn.

Echidna Observation: More observation was needed to tell if this was a true devourerspawn and thus something the Directorate should be afraid of or an escaped lab experiment by the Khimer that could be treated with kid gloves.

((((()))))

Meanwhile, as additional threats were discovered, the Directorate would enjoy, fueled by the timefold, a period of advancements as many citizens took the opportunity to migrate to the many outposts formed throughout the Directorate. Northward, in the Voidmarches, these outposts would be created on the bones of the Iron Crown ruins, xenotheology research facilities equipped with the most advanced archaeology tools available manned with dozens of priests, occulteks, and other mysteks to help plumb its depths.

There, they would put together a rough history of what happened: it is very likely the previous inhabitants had prior worshipped their own pantheon prior to suffering a devastating war, where they had proceeded to syncretize their deities with chaos as a result.

Despite this, archaeological evidence indicates that as a civilization they had been fairly prosperous and advanced theologically until they had unwittingly attracted the attention of an unknown group of Chaos Space Marines, who they had reached out to as fellow followers of the Ruinous Powers, thinking that their shared faith would protect them from the xenophobic politics of their peers.

The fact that they were seemingly sacrificed en mass to the point of extinction is a fair enough assessment of how well that idea held up.

And, in the south, the various Eco-Domes located along the Emerald Line would be retrofitted and repaired, used to construct large agri-facilities that grew thousands of tons of produce and plant products each.

On Trove, numerous manufacturing facilities would be constructed throughout Gleam, an entire industrial district to help expand the growing CityBlok, the increasing prominence of Trove resulting in it slowly forming into a proper Arcolocube. With native manufacturing, the planet would see numerous smaller settlements pop up, largely mining and fishing towns.

On the edges of the Outback, meanwhile, Stizlak would oversee the construction of a new ship: the MothaShip. A civilian colonization vessel, it consisted of a small BattleZone Outlet, a mass of chemical synthesis facilities, AutoConstructor technology supplied by the Autons in exchange for giving them permission to create a handful of labs, numerous civilian berths and facilities such to make the whole thing a moving CityBlok of its own right, all built around a central shrine to the Mojo, all built resembling a giant Hobbgrot head.

Unlike the more conventional Pioneer, the MothaShip was designed to be re-useable: meant to help build up the various minor colonies of a region quickly than establish a single self-sufficient one. Combined with a courier to keep them supplied, it would hopefully accelerate the growth of the Directorate.

Minor in comparison to other developments, perhaps, but no great avalanche starts at a great thunder: time would tell if this momentum was retained or the Directorate slowed its expansion.

EXPansion Points (EXP Points): 168

Nuclear Material: 2

The Cage: The Dark Seed needed to be contained until it could be purified. As it was it was leaking massive amounts of dark magic up and down the timeline: while it was unlikely to significantly affect Teklia’s past overly much, as time continued forward it WOULD begin significantly worsening future buildups. Yaldaboaths proposal involved constructing a series of pillars from GodTek designed to siphon this cursed energy and dump it outside time, where it would be unable to harm anyone. If it could be kept cleansed long enough, it should be purifiable. 0/25, construct the Cage, limiting damage from Dark Seed. Cost 1 ART.

Greater Fire Fairy Bottling: Fire Fairies were a potent source of elemental energy: however, they were fairly difficult to acquire, as the Bottling facility only has the capacity to produce so many. If these facilities were expanded, this relative scarcity could be eliminated. 0/25, Naklis gains Greater Fire Fairy Bottling facilities, increasing FTH and Warp.

Mojotronic Pyrocore: A proposed upgrade to Hobbgrot ships was a massive fire-fairy bottle designed to house thousands of the burny lil gitz and use them to turbo-charge the mojo on the MothaShips with pyropower. 0/25, gain Mojotronic Pyrocore, increasing the Hobbgrot Propagation granted by MothaShips and Elemental Volatility granted by UncleWaves. Cost 1 BioData.

MothaShip Aqua-Tanks: Water was always needed. A proposed way to solve water needs: install on the MothaShip massive tanks designed to contain tekliaforming amounts of water with aquacores installed to automatically fill them and produce a steady stream of excess, which would apparently be drooled out. 0/25, MothaShips and Endeavors gain Aqua-Tanks, increasing bonus to building EXP and CUL outposts by +1 and slowly increasing regional hydration, as well as acting as a terraforming tool.

MothaShip Volcanic Algae Terraforming Torpedos: Volcanic planets could be terraformed in a variety of ways, but the simplest would be stuffing a torpedo full of extremophilic if not pyrophilic algaes and firing it. After that, it was just a matter of letting nature do its work and being willing to be veeeeeerry patient. 0/15, MothaShips and Endeavors gain Algae Torpedos that act as cheap long term terraforming tools.

Greater Elemental Gardens: The Elemental Garden produced a variety of elementally significant herbs and spiritfoods. The amount they produced could be increased with a variety of expansions to the facility. 0/40, gain Greater Elemental Garden, increasing EXP.

Flames of Naklis: The Eye provided a great deal of power, but it wasn’t enough but for brief excursions, limiting how the vessel can be used. A theoretical way to help correct this issue: installing the ship with a greater pyro-shrine tended to by their Worldsingers that could be used to help kindle the vessels heart awake. 0/25, Eye of Isha gains Flames of Naklis component. Yr Albain learns to manufacture additional Flames of Naklis. Cost 1 BioData.

((((()))))

Meanwhile, the followers of the Toymaker would continue to lurch towards divinity. Firstly, the Wonderpark Docks would be constructed, located at the rim of the cuboid: a place where MegaHaulers would deposit massive amounts of material. This cargo would then be distributed across the park, used to fuel its expansion and improvement.

This material would be used to construct such oddities as the Wonderpark Museum of Natural History, or else used to build the fourcorner temple, a place designed to simulate all seasons at once: built to honor the Toymakers wife, it contained a Garden of Spring, an artificial wetland stuck in perpetual spring, the Wintertide Library carved in halls of ice, the summerlands which grew all manner of crop for harvest while the Autumntide Workshop served as place where the priesthood of both Lady and Toymaker could collaborate. All of it built around a central temple containing at its heart a fairy-shrine.

Meanwhile, even as much of its resources found their way to the Druids, the Great Conclave would still invest towards developing the mysticisms of the Toymaker by both by developing a form of Toymaker aligned resonance designed to strengthen his servants as well as spending some of the accumulated resources of the organization performing a great offering to them, an arcane tithe of treats, toys, and various energies presented at the Fairy Shrine that would be repeated every handful of decades.

The result was another spiritual acceleration. The Fairy Song, played at each and every festival, would cause the servants of the Toymaker to dance and bless the proceedings with their own magics, the entities swarming and dancing as theurgies performed on Godsdays achieved their zeniths, as the Moonbugs of Luna rested and dreamt, lulled to sleep by the Lunar Festivals held upon each world, and as the elementals of naklis sang as the fire fairies burned a jig across the skies on the Elemental Festivities. However, on particular days, or on three particular places, the song was even more powerful: the Temples belonging to the masters of faeriekind and their children, the Toymakers Workshop, the Temple of the Hermit in the Frozen North, and the Fourcornered Temple of the Season, especially when done on the Godsdays allocated to these figures.

In the cold north, these fairies would serve as strange tutalary willowisps, blessing magicians who studied the works of the Hermit with bouts of incredible arcane knowledge, resulting in the Temple of the Hermit rising in prominence. As a result many Demiurgists and Abyssal Monks using it as neutral ground to meet and argue, and many aspiring magicians would make pilgrimage once a year to partake of the Hermits festival, the Warding of Wain, in which they would watch recreations, tales of the events that resulted in the Hermit eventually turning her back on the world so that the mistakes of the tyrants of Yore wouldn’t be repeated. Those who managed to partake would find sorcery off all stripes coming to them with ease, less taxing than usual on their vital energies and other forms of arcane power.

At the four corner temple, meanwhile, these fairies would begin exhibiting different forms, different variations. Those that lived in the Wintertide Libraries resembled almost the servants of the Hermit, but possessed of more icy abilities, helping maintain and even expand the structure by sculpting additional ice with their magic, while those of summer possessed a more fiery demeanor, being so very near in nature to fire fairies, such that when introduced it was found that the two were cross-compatible: their primary differences were that the Summertide Court burned colder, possessed of the ability to manipulate their temperatures, and further more, unlike Fire Fairies, their Summertide Counterparts were instead possessed of a mischievous maliciousness, possessed of a fondness of alarming visitors by starting small fires, committing acts of petty arson, and stealing small trinkets from visitors to either torch or line the mechanisms of their nests.

Those that lived within the spring wetlands would however prove to be a genuine problem, proving remarkably unfriendly and territorial by dumping gouts of water on those who left the sacred paths, throwing caustic plants on those who irritated their play or didn’t treat them with sufficient difference, and even outright attacking those who act disrespectful with either small tornadoes or physically, the watery wisps of light proving remarkably strong despite their small size, something that nearly results in a diplomatic incident when a high ranking member of Winterspite winds up in traction because they sneered at a Springtide Fairie, causing the Kabalite to be swarmed by thirty very angry fairies: after some negotiations, the Priestesses of the Lady of Seasons agree to let the Kabal TRY to discipline the culprits so long as the Kabal agrees to not hold the Directorate, the Fairies, or any other involved party but the Kabal responsible for the result.

The result is multiple kabalites dead after being mesmerized into swimming into the depths of the temple and their souls, including that of several fairly well positioned members, unrecoverable. The ones that drowned appear to be the lucky ones: several were tore apart and eaten alive by wetland predators, forced to turn their weapons against themselves, or worse: several of the recovered corpses show signs that major organs were transmuted either into water or small carnivorous organisms. Archon Banefrost would as a result reluctantly agree to sign a contract with the Temple recognizing that any of its subordinates that venture to the temple are responsible for their own fates.

+2 Wintertide Reputation

The Autumntide meanwhile are far more gregarious, being more akin to the servants of the Toymaker: though they grant no wishes and enchant no dreams, they would however heal the sick, ease the pain of the dying, and coax what life they could from the plants of the eternal autumnal forest in preparation for an eternally faraway winter.

With each piece of mysticism, more and more Toymakers would develop the means to perform the miracles of their god, and across the Directorate children would begin to dream of a vast workshop in the woods, in it a gigantic tekket, an elderly craftsman lean of body but dexterous of hand: no doubt existed as to who this jolly figure was. At the height of their power and in its heart, on the autumnal Giftsday or at the Toymakers Workshop, fairies would occasionally call upon his power to conjure forth toys and treats to give to special visitors and children, especially powerful sacred toys and pastries that doubled as talismans.

The Toymaker’s tide was rising, and though it was not the quickest thing arising that fold, many among the NeoPagans would theorize that but a single catalyzing push was but it would take to achieve the means to call forth the Toymaker, much the same way the Dancer had required their own.

Culture Points (CUL Points): 138

BioData: 1

Cabal Alchemical Animation Batteries: The Cabal wanted to upgrade their mobile shrines (and the rest of the Shrines of the Directorate) with the ability to utilize specially modified mountain blood fuel cells in order to provide a burst of animatory energy during emergencies. 0/25, gain Alchemical Animation Batteries, increasing Shrine Defense. Cost 1 Warp.

Orbital Pioneer Shrine Ship: The Lunar Salvage Cabal in collaboration with the Frontier Society would like to present: a mobile shrine-ship that can be used by the many void-townships as an equivalent to a major community shrine. 0/25, Void-Townships upgraded with Shrines, increasing FTH.

Naturae Muse BioCore: Lifegiver Effigies and Naturae Muses were both powerful agents of the Wyld, but perhaps the Directorate might develop the means to help these spirits become more than the sum of their parts. 0/25, Naturae Muses upgraded with Lifegiver Effigy technology, increasing CUL.

Naturae Muse Fairy Tuner: The servants of the Toymaker generally only had marginal connection to the Wyld, but those that were subordinate to his wife had powerful control over nature: perhaps some enterprising Naturae Muses would develop the means to modify their HeartSong units to better appeal to these beings… 0/25, Naturae Muses gain Fairy Tuner technology, increasing FTH.

Wyld-Muses: Many Wyld Muses already worshiped the Great Tree to some form or another: perhaps the particularly devout would discover a means to draw upon it more thoroughly to transform their soul, becoming true spirits of nature incarnate. 0/25, gain Wyld-Muses capable of channeling the power of your nature spirits to work as guardians of the Wyld, increasing CUL by 3.

The Archaeosaurs of Cetaceous Valley: The Academy had, in collaboration with Wonderpark, located a valley extremely high in rare fossils. They wished to sponsor an ongoing archeological expedition to help dig up the remains of these creatures for study. 0/25, sponsor Cetaceous Valley Archeological Dig, gaining +1 BioData

The Tomb of the Old NekroTeks: Several of these locations had been discovered in the remains of the isle of Quarth, and many Occulteks wished to finally begin sponsoring expeditions to begin opening, exploring, and documenting whatever artefacts and remnants of the Old NekroTeks remained. 0/25, sponsor Quarth Tombs Archaelogical Dig, gaining +1 ART

The Server Labyrinth of the Mechanicum: A location underneath the jungles of the continent of Vra’tek, this complex seemed to be a vast cogitator bank filled with mechanicum corpses and sigils that align roughly with known chaos iconography. The Nova Mechanicum wanted to perform an expedition to exorcise and salvage the facility to construct an additional temple. 0/25, sponsor Vra’tek Server Labyrinth Archaeological Dig, gaining +1 NET

The Depths of the Pelagic Temple: Once a rival religion to that of the Old One, this temple, located in the UrzaKet sea, was supposedly haunted by the remnants of some dead diety that had been slain in a terrible battle. The Abyssal Monks wanted to perform an archaelogical expedition to retrieve any remnant of this deity. 0/25, sponsor UrzaKet Temple Archaelogical Dig, gaining +1 Warp.

The Munition Dumping Grounds of the Destroyer Wars: A handful of locations located at the heart of the scrap-preserves used by the governments of the past to dispose of munitions, nuclear waste, undetonated bombs they could no longer afford to maintain, weapons that were disposed of. The Fleet wanted to conduct its own archaeological dig in order to collect whatever salvageable material remained. 0/25, sponsor ScrapPreserve Dumping Ground Archaeological Dig, increasing NK by 1.

Intergalaktik Bookmobile Kompartment: Look, so long as gitz had to go t’ GrotTek to get their degree, people in th’ colonies would have less options when it came t’ education. To solve this, Stizlak had proposed an improvement to Outback ships: turn em into public libraries. 0/25, Hobbgrot ships gain Bookmobile Kompartment, increasing bonus to building ACD and FTH outposts by 1 for MothaShipz and the ACD bonus of outposts in regions with UncleWavez to increase by 1.

Rare Gubbinz Flea Market Kompartment: Trade an’ barter would always exist in some format so long as one git had what another git wanted an’ vice versa, so why not feed th’ vice by installin’ a kompartment where Gitz what ‘ad collected some nice flash or rare gubbinz could trade both among themselves an’ visitors. 0/25, Hobbgrot ships gain Flea Market Kompartment, increasing potential max progress generated to D5 by MothaShips and allowing UnkaWaves to increase the primary stat granted by trade routes to a region by 1

Naklis Magmacorals: It would be trivially easy to modify Erichthean magma-coral and other volcanic floras in order to survive on Naklis, providing yet another major component of a Naklean ecosystem. 0/25, gain Naklis Magmacoral, increasing CUL.

Construct Cruiser Class: With more and more systems explored came more places the average civilian would never see in their lifetime. Wonderparks solution: construct the first fully automated intergalactic cruise ship! The bonus, of course, would be that the Directorate would be able to use the ship to conduct more civilian in nature assignments. 0/25, gain Cruiser Class, a diplomacy vessel that raises colonization level and gains a small bonus to reputation rewards from civilian assignments

Construct Frontier Class: The Frontier Society always stood ready to help expand the horizon: specifically, in this case, by creating the Frontier Class, an experimental exploratory vessel meant to rapidly chart out planets and discover new ones with advanced scanner and navigational technology. 0/40, gain Frontier Class, a civilian exploration vessel that possesses a slight bonus to exploration rolls. Cost 1 NT.

Create Volcanus 9 Spy-Ring: More information was needed about Volcanus before any serious interactions could happen. It would be difficult planting personnel, but if successful creating a spy ring on V-9 should provide a bevy of information about its internal politics. 0/25, gain Volcanus 9 Spy Ring, providing by turn updates on the status of the world. Opens more options for gaining Imperial Intel. Requires a ship.

((((()))))

Meanwhile, the Directorate, just as it had before with the Hobbgrots, turned its gaze towards ecology, putting vast amounts of resources towards developing various mystic and scientific tools and pieces of infrastructure.

The most generally minor was deployment both of fire fairy bottles and pyrefly courts across the Directorate. Spurned on by the recently built elemental gardens, the Pyromonks would develop using data collected from there as well as the magmazone genelabs to engineer new strains of extremophilic algaes: while generally still unsuited to survive on most of Naklis, this flora would instead be used to craft the Bottles, tiny devices intended to help sustain fire fairies while siphoning off the excess heat and elemental energies. Quickly finding their way to every shrine across the Directorate alongside the various herbs and incenses grown at the Gardens, these bottles would prove valuable sources of spiritual energy to sustain the various spirits of each shrine so long as the algae was cared for. Alongside them, a series of domes would be deployed, self-contained pyrefly courts on all the planets, as well as specialized aquatic versions in the Erichthean magmazone: underwater plazas that contained small air hollows and large gravitic bubbles for the fire-fairies to play in.

As a result, while fires would increase in both severity and common-ness, Pyromancy surged through the Directorate as more and more flame vita began being created, such as burning ivy, poisonous vines that cause exothermic spontaneously combusting rashes, or the Pyroanglers, fish possessed of bright flaming lures to help lure in prey. Motive Spirits would also benefit, as many Engines began to run hotter and brighter, the elemental energies within them sparking outward.

Larger but more singular was the development of Spra’ang Embassies, collections of arcane plazas with Dark Portals at their heart where a variety of night spirits would congregate, especially Ambassadors of the Outer Dark, the mysterious spirits drawing many an Occultek to Spra’ang to either study or court these beings in order to earn their favor. With these boons Occulteks would find their magiks stronger, ideas flowing more freely, and in some cases marked with strange arcane sigils that allowed them to draw power from the Ambassador who had given it.

The next largest impact came from Lunar development. The Cabal would use this fold wisely, investing first in studying and develop the means to harness Mountain Blood, erecting a bottling facility at the edge of the lake to help produce useable amounts of the processed substance for use in animancy. A useful liquid alternative to lifeforce when it came to arcane power, it permitted the Cabal to fund the creation of both the Lunar MegaShrine as well as a series of more mobile shrine-rovers.

The effect all together saw a degree of swelling in lunar animancy. Quartzbugs would grow less hostile in general to the Tekket, instead reacting to the newest inhabitants of the planet, a variety of scrap-vita animated by Mountain Blood exposure and Shrines, such as the Titanic Juggernogs, remains of archaeotech titans animated into lumbering walkers, or Scrapfiends, cousins of Pyrofiends that have merged themselves with metal to create a crude simian body that produces near lethal amounts of heat, and Coil-worms, animated power-cables that burrow their way through the sea devouring electricity to grow.

A few would actually prove generally beneficial both to the Quartzbugs and Salvage Cabal, like the SolarTroughs, scrap-flora created by reanimated solar panels merging with the remains of various chemical synthesizers to create devices that almost resemble trees, absorbing sunlight to produce a sticky sort of synthetic machine fuel that gets used by the Mobile Shrines for power and by Quartzbugs as food.

Further, the Cabal would find more and more intact technological samples, eventually allowing them to via trade afford to conduct a major archaeological expedition alongside Wonderpark and the Academy. The Lunar Temple.

Descending into its bowels, it was only due to advanced quantum technology that communication could be maintained: using the Rite of Natures harmony to keep from being attacked by the Quartzbugs, the team would successfully reach the first major chamber, a collection of sarcophagi in a room with vast hieroglyphs. There, they would find a series of murals depicting what appear to be some form of curse, the humanoid figures etched on the stone clutching their throats, clawing for air even as a misbalanced scale hung above them. All throughout the chamber are humans who, autopsies show, died from suffocation.

Within the chamber several pieces of highly advanced archaeotechnology are discovered. However, further exploration would be stymied by one of the Sarcophagi, constructed from some unknown material, being foolishly opened by a greedy Cabaler.

They had likely hoped to find rare technology. Instead what they found was the still living and unfortunately immortal head of a very angry sorcerer. The dark occultek, calling himself the Terror of Modern Man, proceeded to use their powers to brutally murder most members of the expedition before using their corpses as daemonic vessels: the resulting rampage lasted exactly 48 hours and would require sustained orbital bombardment, with the figure brutally murdering several thousand people before finally being destroyed.

From what little remains are left, the age of the sorcerer is estimated to be roughly twelve thousand years old, give or take a few millenia. Once retrieved, the other sarcophagi are also found to possess within them lifesigns minute enough that it is very likely they possess additional sorcerer heads or, more concerningly, the rest of the sorcerers body.

They are very promptly shipped to Tartustus for study and containment.

The largest push towards ascension comes in the form of Project Yggdrastill, named from the mythological tree of human lore. At its most basic, the project consisted of study into using Assembly techniques to create an Avatar of the Wyld akin to the Great Ocean Vita combined with an increased rollout of Totems throughout the planets to include both more totems and the newly designed GeoTotems.

However, this was not the only thing which the Project pursued. The Ocean Mages of Erichtheo would develop new advanced technologies such as the arcanodivine Coral Hearts, special motive engines hosted in the formerly dark and lifeless abysses of the ocean that would serve to help sustain and feed titanic artificial reefs, as well as Lifegiver Effigies, special statues designed to contain BioCores housing the spirits of life that could be deployed to generate large amounts of lifeforce to sustain the Shrine Network. The Great Gallery would enjoy a surge in naturalist art, leading to them contributing by donating wyld-themed Great Works to help Druidic PygmaliTeks manufacture new muse chassises intended to help them tend to and nurture the wyld.

Both the Demiurgists and the Abyssal Monks would also assist, the former by assisting their god in crafting the Seed, a construct built within the core of Teklia consisting of the bones of extremophile beasts of arcane importance fed on blood: YALDABOATH would manipulate this construct, placing unknown items within it and using their abilities over the material to catalyze it in order to turn it into a steady source of infinite chrono-energy. The latter meanwhile would manage to reconstruct their Dream Engines, the artefacts being installed in the hearts of the greatest Shrines of the Directorate to harvest the powers of paradox and dreams.

However, the pairs efforts, while counter to each other and done independently, would result in disaster when the Seed winds up accidentally absorbing a paradox created from dark magic.

The resulting disaster results in the Seed quarantined under numerous wards, though doing so unfortunately only prevents the Seed of the Present from flooding the Present with dark magic: there exist no known method to ward the timestream, meaning the present winds up being flooded with cursed and dark energies from the past and future. Further, chronologists expect that both the future and past are experiencing the same effect: in the case of the past, it is very likely much of the Withernacht and other negative supernatural events throughout Teklian history was the result of the creation of the Seed, and the future is likely dealing with an even worse leak.

Meanwhile, the Shrine-Keeper organization would develop an advanced variation of the Rite of Anima, the Rite of Natures Awakening: utilizing experimental NeuroChoir cognitive stimulators in the place of the programs used to accelerate mental development in Machine Spirits, carefully concocted stimulants and minor ritual mutagens for physical development, and advanced applications of both lifeforce and alchemical concoctions for spiritual development, its purpose was to help accelerate the growth of Wyld Spirits rapidly.

All of these factors would coalesce with the creation of the World Tree, the Avatar of Nature. Over the course of a decade the tree would be cultivated, selected from the greatest arbor guardians of the Directorate, those already near awakening: through the Rites of Nature and the work of the Naturae Muses it would be fed massive amounts of arcane energies, making the tree, a large and vast baobab rapidly stretch into the sky even as a ring of Lifegiver Effigies were erected in a ring around the structure and fire fairy bottles hung in its branches: in the center, in a hollow specially cultivated for it the trees shrine was located, attached to a pair of Dream-Engines containing caged paradoxes. Its portal was green, surrounded by a ring of thorns, and upon it rested a variety of holy nut talismans made as offerings, the portal occasionally hoovering up the gifts.

Each year it grew, OcculTeks and Druids would note a general increase both in the performance and efficiency as well as a strengthening of the spirits of Wyld: Naturae Muses would display the ability to manipulate and accelerate the growth of plant-life aided by their new chassises, while mages would note a spike in the appearance of powerful beasts of the Wyld. Even visiting Worldsingers would note their powers strengthening, their psychic techniques synergistic with the power of Yggdrastil.

At first this effect was subtle, but it would become more and more evident that as the World Tree grew, so did the power of the Wyld on Teklia. The war between Formics and Nekrowasp would continue to escalate in severity, the former calling upon unformed flame vita to assault the great cacti where the wasps would nest, arm their greatest warrior-drones with wooden plate armor to turn them into flying tanks, and even utilize varios bio-acids, though the latter would prove far more successful, the dark energy of the Seed allowing them to conjure forth and control parasitic necroids to craft titanic corpse-colossae, imbue their crude tools with dark magics to help blight their foes, and even cajole the spirits of fungus and pestilence to assault their foe, though the latter action would wind up backfiring by killing the nest of the wasp that conjured it as well as the nearby ant-mound.

While this went on, the inhabitants of the desert continued to adapt to ignore them: the Juggernaught Armonide, the titanic armored rodent frequently crawling into the nests of Nekrowasps to pillage them or eating formics that wander away from their troop, or the Greater Scorpek which uses its WyldSorcery both for its mating dance as well as to conjure lightning to fry stray necroids. Some would outright develop hostile adaptations to the two, such as the Irradiating Scourbug whose gemlike carapace allows them to lethally irradiate nekrowasp nests and formic burrows to drive the creatures out, or the eliminator mimicblooms which prime themselves upon sensing either to release clouds of toxins that, while harmless to everything else, prove a slow, painful, yet horrifically effective chemical weapon against both parties.

In the plains the Megagargantua would continue to grow, their vast plainlands expanded by the power of the Dream Engines to impossible sizes in turn allowing the titanic beasts sufficient range. A handful would reach the point where they could no longer be called mere Megagargantua, termed Gigagargantua by Druids: their backs studded not with individual mountains and lakes, but entire ranges dotted with all manner of reservoirs in the valleys of their back, lush greenery and deep lakes used to keep the beast nourished hosting vast amounts of smaller animals and even villages erected around special wyld-shrines designed incorporating cabaltek. Their tusks, while still large enough to contain small forests and jungles, would frequently begin to snap half-way, too heavy and too big to remain structural. As their size grew, so would their wyldsorcery, with many young bulls calling upon the power of weather to buffet rivals during mating season, while older ones use the strange rhythmic rituals for a purpose that can only be called ceremonial, creating great rainstorms as the rest of their herds watched on certain days or when one of their number died, an incredibly rare event.

Their graveyards however despite this were massive enough to see from space: miles long masses of discarded osseous remains, each individual skeletons size ensuring these titanic cairnes large enough to host their own cavernous ecosystem, one consisting largely of osteovores like Bone-eating Werebats, who would roost in the hundreds in the discarded skulls, or False Grolls, apes superficially resembling hairy Grolls whose natural bioacids allow them to both easily digest the hardest bones as well as hock corrosive loogies, or, most reverently, Greater Sporebugs, titanic insects who would implant their spawn in the bones of living Gigagargantua with the expectation of eventually hatching once their hosts died.

In the caverns of Teklia, aided by the Totemnet roll-out installing GeoTotems throughout the crust, life would grow larger, stranger. Litheowyrms would come in a variety of additional forms such as the Tartustian Basilisk, a predatory mineralophage who would use their gaze to petrify prey, turning them into stone and another meal, while entire underground veins would bloom with glowing greencaps, creating strange mojo-tastic hollows from which emerged various mushroom vita such as the Unsquig, a reptilian mass of fungus that served as a common source of prey in the biome. These places Hobbgrots would refer to Shroomholez, viewing the odd spaces as holy despite their lack of connection to the Orkoids own fungus, or perhaps because of that. Meanwhile in the larger subterranes, the ceilings would find themselves host to great many polyps, the mutated manikin barnacles growing below sites such as Pyrefly Courts, mutating to feed on the energies to produce light, unwittingly illuminating the spaces, allowing for great underground tangles to grow, ones whose connection to space was untethered, infinite foliage to crawl into with no real borders should one lack flight, filled with all manner of strange and incomprehensible creatures such as chattery intelligent diminutive featureless imps, or trees assembled from strings of numbers instead of matter, multifractal time prisms that cause visitors to meet their past selves, and portals to other parts of the planet and even the subterranes of other worlds, with several unfortunate spelunkers accidentally winding up on Naklis and promptly being incinerated.

The effect of the Tree gradually declined as one left Teklia. Erichtheo, the next closest, would enjoy the largest benefit: untainted by the Seed, the power of the tree was more broadly beneficial, resulting in the fire fairies, after sufficient generations of commingling with the various magmatic creatures of the depths, taking on a more aquatic form, that of a being of molten matter than of more ephemeral fireflame. Though still possessed of little love for the water, they would weather it with greater and greater ease, especially around the Skul’Dakkothian Tangle, the fairies having a strange affinity for the mass of plant matter, feeding on it and in turn picking it free of parasites, a relationship they would share with the kelp-balls, who would nurture the algaes the fairies would eat while the fairies would boil away various pests that troubled the life-vita. The Living College would successfully manage to get its Necroid problem under control, the power of the Tree accelerating their Shoal-Net Terminals and allowing them to abjure the parasites and other dark creatures that plagued the reefs, restoring a modicum of balance as the remaining Necroids were once more, albeit begrudgingly on their part, reincorporated into the Schools.

Anthrozoathoth would continue to grow larger and larger as they found themselves installed with Coralhearts: the mystic engines would permit the titanic spirit to craft more reefs. Otherwise little changed about the Great Vita, who was simply happy to be thought of. The same would be said for Urzala, who would harness the power of the tree to, for brief periods, visit the oceans of other worlds in order to spread her own influence, cultivating useful associations with the Ferrymen of the Mangroves and their leader, Papa Knucklefruit, and the current spirits of Trove, who took the form of glittering aquamarine prisms that grew in the shallows.

Trove, meanwhile, was far enough away that most of its acceleration came from the things designed to aid the Tree rather than the Arbor God themselves. Thanks to the work of its druids and muses the world would see its sapphire blues gain ruby red and citrine oranges as adaptation began to go into overdrive, producing all manner of alternative crystalline structures in its ecology. Its trees would grow tall and hard, small compared to Teklian flora, but larger than it once had been, the autumnal seasons causing their leaves to turn into brilliant, light refracting within their capillaries until they were set into a blazing glow, causing massive wildfires that would be rapidly replaced by newgrowth. With the totem expansion, more strange vita would occur, such as the ectogems, cursed emeralds tethered to spectral phantasms whose occupants would emerge once their owners had gone to sleep to devour the contents of their pantries in full, or the Golemoids, masses of rough hewn stone that would populate the mega-gem mountains, which would occasionally emit a brilliant aurora as lifeforce mingled with stored light.

The Outback, in the middle, would have a more middling acceleration: more and more Grolls would emerge from the soil, the enrichment of the soil helping to catalyze their growth as the continent found itself more and more overgrown, its ecosystems more complex through the introduction of various non-orkoid lifeforms, like the Nemean Nemetite which would serve as a perfect apex predator to the evolving ecosystem, the leonine beast finding the Squogs generally easy prey.

And across the entirety of the Directorate, the Lifegiver Effigies would spark with power, the closer to the tree the stronger, pouring life into the surrounding through great titanic pulses of life, independent of the Shrine Network but contributing to it: the closer a spirit was to the epicenter, the greater the effect, creating bubbles of accelerated evolution and highly anomalous micro-biomes around them. During these moments, TekPyramids would flood with power, enough to perform celestial nature awakening rituals, used by druids to create powerful wyld-guardians.

Even the Directorates allies would feel the effects, with Yr Albain reporting that their Worldsingers found their abilities easier to call upon, and, alongside the Eyes of Isha, a titanic solar array resembling a spherical matrix of girders and solar charger panels, they would even successfully charge the Wings of Kurnous long enough for the vessel to briefly sortie, the Triple Clan Alliance using it to destroy a handful of Imperial shipping vessels as a test run.

Not all would necessarily be well, however: just as Teklia was affected, so was Luna, with several spills of Mountain Blood causing a handful of minor landmarks containing shrines, geototems, and engines to wind up animating just as Mt. Wander did. While smaller, more sluggish, and less developed, these creatures would frequently rampage for numerous hours before going back to sleep, their bodies having burned off the excess energies caused my their sudden mutations. In the aftermath they leave a wake of broken scrap, angry quartzbugs, and assorted mountain slime.

Unfortunately, this would not be the only oddity of the new age: shortly after the Rampage of the Living Landmarks, a strange conflux of events would lead to Directorate scientists creating a strange hybrid horror: a genetic aberration that would menace the Biocity.

Faith Points (FTH Points): 138

ART: 2

Warp (WP): 4

Fairy Circles: Once said to be places sacred to the Lady of Seasons, the Fourcorner Monks wanted to develop a means to use these fungi to conjur forth the fairies of seasons using special theurgies. 0/50, gain Fairy Circles, upgrading Toymaker Theurgies with the power of Seasons, increasing EXP. Cost 1 BioData.

The Fifth Season: Once it was said that there existed a fifth season, placed between winter and spring, a time of magic and dreams, a time of paradox and wonder, a time of faeries. When this world was disconnected from the dreamlands so long ago this season went with it, the faeries taking it with them to craft their part of the Dreamlands. But with the power of Theatritheurgy, perhaps this Fifth Season could be brought back, or at least an echo of it. 0/50, gain the Fifth Season Folios, a collection of plays dedicated to the Lady of Seasons that invoke the lost Witching Season, increasing FTH. Cost 1 Warp.

Yggdrastillian Villages: Normally Tekket preferred to live in Arcolocubes, but Yggsdrastil was large enough to serve as a form of arcolocube itself if one was willing to live a somewhat simpler life. Many druids wished to construct villages in the boughs to start with. 0/25, Yggsdrastil gains Druid Villages, increasing CUL.

Seeds of the World Tree: Each were contained with vast sums of arcane power: through certain rituals, these fruits could be planted on other worlds to help germinate them with the power of the world tree, flooding their wilds with celestial energies. 0/25, Yggsdrastil begins producing Sacred Baobob Seeds, increasing CUL. Cost 1 Warp.

Coral Gate: Anthrozoathoth could in theory spin reefs in Erichtheo for centuries. And yet, eventually there would be little purpose for additional construction. The Ocean Priests wished to craft a special gate in the ice the Vita could use to go above, one that used coral and gravity to create a tunnel Anthrozoathoth could use to crawl to the stars when they wished to gift the vacuum of space with coral. 0/25, gain Coral Gate, allowing Anthrozoathoth to deposit excess corals, increasing CUL. Cost 1 BioData.

Wraithcorals: The Directorate could, in theory, convince the Worldsingers of Yr Albain to part with the secrets of singing wraithbone…if it was just to Anthrozoathoth, and if the Directorate built up enough credit. 0/25, Anthrozoathoth learns to create psycho-resonant wraithcoral, increasing EXP. Cost 1 Warp. Requires Yr Albain rep at 50. Every eldar faction with reputation not at 50 will have reputation subtracted by 5.

Secondary LunaShrines: Well, they had one Lunar Shrine: why not make more? A handful of major shrine complexes should contribute nicely to lunar development. 0/35, gain Secondary Lunar Shrines, increasing FTH.

P-Tek Shrine Skulls: A form of technology that, like much of Imperial technology, operated using tiny amounts of wetware harvested from (typically donated these days) human neural tissue and skulls as chassis, ServoSkulls were a form of Drone used for a variety of menial tasks by Nova Adepts. Most consisted of modified versions of modern Imperial designs, but a number of Adepts wanted to standardize machine-shrines across the Directorate with more advanced paleotech derived designs that could be used to streamline and automate some offerings and help the caretakers and spiritual residents with a variety of other tasks. 0/25, Lunar Forges begin producing P-Tek ShrineSkulls, increasing FTH. Cost 1 ART.

Alchemical Archaeotech Awakening: The Nova Adepts were very interested in the alchemical properties of Mountain Blood: correctly utilized, it increased the activity of machine spirits considerably. They wished to study this property and develop a series of alchemical procedures that could be used to fully animate sufficiently venerable pieces of archaeotech. 0/30, Nova Mechanicus gain Archaeotech Awakening Potion, a formulae that greatly invigorates ancient machine spirits, increasing EXP. Increases reputation with all Mechanicus and Dark Mechanicus factions by 2. Cost 1 Warp.

Archaeotech Shrine Automata: The Old Mechanicum once had great and mighty legions of automata they fought besides, and before then the golden age of mankind had utilized even more advanced robotics. What could be replicated by the Nova Mechanicus was but a mere shadow. However, there existed many examples of this technology that, once repaired through various means, could serve as incredibly powerful defenders. 0/25, Nova Mechanicus produce Archaeotech Shrine Automata, defensive infrastructure for major shrines in the Directorate. Cost 1 ART.

Altar of Life: BioCores contained powerful life spirits. While typically they were installed in Lifegiver Effigies, they could alternatively be installed in Mag-Tek Altars to allow the spirits of life to aid experienced ocean mages conduct restorative and regenerative rituals. 0/25, gain Altar of Life, increasing the power of life-related rites and raising FTH and Warp.

Warded Effigies: The Lifegiver Effigies were useful for spiritual development, but they could likely assist in spiritual protection as well: by installing WardNexus Terminals, the life-spirits could be given the tools to create regenerating wards around their domain. 0/25, Lifegiver Effigies upgraded with Regenerating Wards.

Great Wyld Vita of Teklia: With the World Tree as a basis, perhaps it was time to experiment with something more advanced: selecting seven sacred Vita to elevate to the nigh diefic position of major nature Avatars and encharging them with serving the tree. 0/30, gain Seven Great Wyld Vita, increasing CUL. Cost 1 Warp.

Rite of Paleovita Power:  The rites of anima and awakening were integral parts of Directorate animism: an alternate way to strengthen them was to call upon the power of the paleovita, those ancient spirits of the long extinct beasts and most primal of tools to inundate the chosen spirits with prehistoric power. 0/30, upgrade all Anima rites and variations with Paleovita Power, increasing EXP. Cost 1 Warp OR Art.

Prehistoric Reliquaries: The paleovita could provide power another way: fossils of sufficient power could be stored in special tek-reliquaries within the Shrines, enshrining their spirit and allowing for it to be invoked and in turn allowing for it to receive offerings. 0/35, Shrines upgraded with Prehistoric Reliquaries, increasing CUL. Cost 1 BioData.

Ambergeisten Amulets: The spirits of creatures trapped in amber and other forms of preservative were odd: they were no longer alive, having merged with their prisons. But neither were they truely dead either: instead, they were stuck in a strange limbo. Some paleooculteks wanted to use these Ambergeisten to craft amulets, protective amulets that could ward against malefic threats. 0/25, OcculTeks gain Ambergeisten Amulets, increasing FTH.

Da House of Mojo Phobo: The Devils ‘ad a house. Mojo Phobo wanted a house. To make it, he wanted the Directorate to pay da devilz. Pay em in what? Pay em in mojo! 0/20, pay Mojo to the House of Devils. House of Devils build Mojo Phobo House. Mojo Phobo pay back next tuesday, along with interest in the form of CUL. Cost 1 Warp.

Shroomholez: These locations were considered semi-sacred by the Hobbgrots: nexuses of fungal spirits sympathetic to the Mojo, but not of the mojo. The Shroomboyz wanted to consecrate these locations and erect shrines to the fungus where future members of their order could be trained. 0/25, Shroomholez become Hobbgrot sacred sites.

Cracking Open a Coffin: The recovered coffins from the Moon were currently under heavy lock and key. The chaos sorcerer found within the first has well taught the survivors not to go opening strange sarcophagi. The Fleet wanted to research these structures and hopefully develop a means to safely remove their occupants for study. 0/25, gain way to safely open Lunar Coffins, increasing Warp.

((((()))))

And rounding off the fold would be a rousing disaster courtesy of experimental genetics as well as a revolution in urban living also courtesy of experimental genetics. The series of events began on three separate worlds: Erichtheo, where dozens of major gene-labs were erected across the planet to study the unique biology of the ocean world, from the MagmaZone Extremophile Research Center, a large boxy construct hanging over a volcanic chasm to the Abyssal Deep Labs, small ball like structures designed so that the leviathans could batter them around without having to worry about damage, as well as additional facilities both in the ice crust and in the Glo-Coral Reefs.

In the Ruinate, the next domino to set itself up was the BioDomes of the BioCity. Experimental zoos ran by the Khimer, their contents consisted of Devourerformes cloned or bred from the internal life found on the bioship: created far from the planet, in special auto-quarantine facilities, they would be used to study the hyper advanced biology of the feral organic machines, develop novel biological technologies, and test weapons. Chemicals, viral, sonic, psychic.

And rounding things out, Wonderpark Archaeology Department, who would unwittingly supplied the last piece of the puzzle with the fossilized remains of the B’hargan and gene sequence KGH-18. Located at the bottom of a mineral bog, this petrified item was the latest in a series of archaeological discoveries. The others, while interesting, had been more mystically significant than not: it turned out that millenia if not millions of years of basking in dark magics and, more recently, other forms of celestial power had resulted in many of them gaining a significant charge. This resulted in many requiring exorcisms, though the remainder would have remarkably vast power granted by the sheer impossibility of their age. Arrowheads with the sorcerous and protective properties of Talismans, Ancient dolls possessed by the spirits of entire villages, carved effigies of forgotten stone gods that acted as jars housing myriad curses, Ambergeisten formed from the ghosts of insects trapped in sap that protected against evil spirits, fossils containing the ancient spirits of terrible beasts and monsters.

Occasionally, darker things: remnants of ancient sorcery wrought by the Old NekroTeks. Strange chaos artefacts and sigils, never numerous, but unmistakable in their origin. Corrupted remnants of humanities dark age and the Old Imperium. Such devices were either destroyed or immediately put into quarantine.

The B’hargans bones were found in one such tomb, that belonging to an ancient NekroTek, a sorcerer-king of Quarth who had attempted to use dark alkemetek and the mystic essence trapped in the bones to create a haemonculic abomination to conquer the world. Their work had been undone, however: the kings bones having a single arrowhead emerging from their skull to tell who laid them low, the remains resting in their atelier.

The bones of this creature were discovered upon study to contain intact biological material.

From the genetic structure of the creature, both horrors and wonder would be born. With assistance by the Khimer, the biological structure of the creature would be studied in order to advance the Symbiotic Arcology project, a joint venture between the Khimer and Directorate to use the vast amounts of genedata to create a series of organic machines that could be used in urban planning. The B’hargan was the key: it its quadruple heliktical structure, which had been steadily mutated by arcane energies over the beasts evolution and not unlikely after their death as well, contained a unique genomic sequence known as KGH-18, a unique metabolic governing sequence that was unique for how singularly easy it was to splice into simple organisms, a product of its unique feature. The genomic sequence would rapidly cause the immediate genetic chain surrounding to begin self-mutating, in turn allowing the host organism a much higher degree of metabolic malleability.

At first, the Khimer had assumed they had discovered the motherlode: not only could KGH be useful in the Symbiotic Arcology project, it could be used for so much more! Adaptive bioaugments, evolving biobeasts, SmartPlagues! With it, they and the Directorate could become true masters of biomancy!

This hubris would backfire when a group of scientists, Khimer and Directorate, would foolishly attempt to clone an intact B’hargan to use for experimental Devourer derived tissue experiments, hoping the creatures unique biological abilities might enable it to incorporate the tissue into its metabolism, giving them an insight to both the process as well as how Devourer genetics could be harnessed. It was at this point that the theory of post-mortem genetic mutation was confirmed as from it was born the mutated Khimeric Nekrobeast, a star-headed mandible mouthed, reptilioinsectoid creature with digitigrade legs and multiple long, loping, thick arms ending in jagged claw-scythes, its face a mess of compound, fly-like eyes that dripped corrosive yellow mucus. This creature would use their abilities, the capacity to reanimate both dead and unfortunately PETRIFIED tissue as well as brute force mental coersion, the ability to alter their coloration to blend with surroundings, and raw physical strength, alongside a very advanced if somewhat animalistic intellect, to break containment and rampage across the BioCity for several hours.

This rampage would end with them disappearing without a trace once reaching the BioCity space docks and successfully breaching quarantine. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

The experiments would, however, still prove generally successful, though future ones would be limited to simple organism and tissue tests. The result was that the Symbiotic Arcology project was complete, rolled out across the entirety of the Directorate.

Air purifiers would be replaced with algae-tanks, building sized structures erected across the Directorate to take what little pollution Directorate technology produced and filter it biologically, processing harsh gasses into more benign harvestable chemical compounds. CityBlok tranquility ponds would process sewage, the artificial wetlands filled with plants and animals capable of rapidly breaking down and metabolizing unsightly waste into clean, safe water for drinking, bathing, swimming, all while providing a place for fisherket to gather and collect food or swimmers to relax. Cafes, restaurants, and other social locales would supplement their artificial bulbs with bioluminescent mood-lighting courtesy of Glo-Corals, while the many street lights of the Arcolocubes would be joined by drifting domesticated solar jellies and Pyrefly Lanterns.

Networks of capillary like roots would supplement conventional piping, transporting water and other fluids across Arcolocubes, growing and expanding as the city did, the vast maze of woody tendrils shifting alongside the city, while genegeneered manikin polyps would be utilized as a form of regenerative biosystem to the synthetic living metal skeleton of the structure, the ferobarnacles growing on and gently merging with damaged Bloks to accelerate their repair. Places of learning and education such as the Academy would host great mycellic growths, cultivating various library funguses designed to bioprint living booklets and tomes as well as producing Scholar-Caps full of caffeine and nutrients to help serve as a late night snack for study groups.

As a result of these and dozens of other advancements, Tekket living spaces would become living spaces unto themselves, cyborg cities that melded Blok and Biology in equal measure, capable of much of the same functions as an organic body. Their heart, the CityShrines which helped circulate arcane power through the city. Their stomach, the reactors that digested nuclear power to turn it into electricity to help fuel the greater whole. Their brain, the urban DataHubs and network infrastructure. Their bones the Biometal that provided the structure required to exist. All existing in tandem with organic life, an incredible urban symbiosis.

Ecological ascension triggered. All projects that cost BioData have their cost reduced by 5 points and 1 BioData (minimum of 15 points/0 BioData).

Academy Points (ACD Points): 121+4 Bonus

Living Metal: 3

Network: 4

Morphogenic Fields: The Directorate would likely never replicate this technology, not for centuries. However, it could still be studied in order to develop countermeasures so that the next time the Spiders are encountered Directorate ships won’t be as vulnerable. 0/100, gain Extremely Crude Morphogenic Countermeasures. Cost 1 ART.

Heart of Erichtheo: The power of Ocean used to hearten a biological vessel was a novel idea. Perhaps by commingling the mystic knowledge of Yr Albain, Khimer Biotechnology, and Directorate animism the problem with powering the Wings might be solved. 0/35, Yr Albain and other allies gain Heart of Erichtheo, a ship augment combining Coralhearts and Lifegiver technology to create a spiritual reactor for living ships. Cost 1 ART.

Solar Trough Restoration: While manufacturing these archaeotech scrap-flora wasn’t quite within the Directorates ability yet, by studying working examples, perhaps more troughs could be brought online and existing ones improved in efficiency, allowing the fuel they produced to be harvested both by the Cabal and the burgeoning ecosystem. 0/25, Cabal gains Solar Trough Network, increasing EXP and NK.

Cabal Chargemetal: A unique property of Biometal: its ability to absorb massive amounts of lifeforce and, curiously, mountain blood. Blades treated this way show traits equivalent to imperial power-technology. The Cabal wanted to experiment, find other uses for treating the substance with mountain blood. 0/25, Lunar Cabal begins using Mountain Blood to create Chargemetal, increasing EXP and Warp. Cost 1 LM.

Erichthean Marine Institute: The amount of scientific data collected by the Erichthean Genelabs was incredible. It would likely occupy scientists for centuries. However, if these facilities were expanded, not only could they branch out from study to education, they could also collate research. 0/25, gain ACD and Biodata.

Nàdair Spáslong: While the exodites had the Wings and subspace both, there were a variety of situations where having even small void-capable craft would be useful. Should they and the Directorate collaborate, they should be able to research means to create small semi-biological ships. 0/25, Yr Albain Worldsingers develop means to grow small WyldVessels. Cost 1 BioData.

M-Boost Formula: A number of Alkemeteks wanted to experiment with Mountain Blood, develop methodologies by which it could be used to improve MegaGrowth Serums. 0/25, Aleketeks develop M-Boost Formula, increasing EXP.

((()))

Finally done! If I forgot something, which I probably did, lemme know.