The Watchers & The Game

    Oh where to begin...I am Watcher First Class Reginald Barcleft, second adjunct to the Watcher Council and I am the one writing these documents. I am not sure who is reading them...but this is to help you understand the origins of this information. If you are not supposed to be reading this, like say you are a member of what we call the “Child Races”, then stop...you’re not going to are you...oh well the consequences are on you.

    As you probably already read, with the creation of magic humanity found a way to elevate itself to a high form of existence, a process called ascension. The catch was that when we did that, we were not ready. Humans are as they always have been, a petty squabbling bunch of children. The difference now is that those kids have the keys to daddies gun safe and are using them.

    The Watchers Association was created to make sure that humanities new found power did not interfere with the development of the child races. Formed some time after the ascension (time is kind of different in this plane of existence) the Watchers were meant to observe our children and to report on their progress while the rest of humanity explored the vast reaches of the cosmos...yeah that didn’t last.

    Approximately eight hundred years after we ascended they started to return from their sight seeing...and all hell broke loose. Humans were getting bored, there wasn’t a lot to entertain the majority of people and many started to muck about or just get into fights. Some of these entities returned to the physical realm and manipulated the child races.

    This advanced all of the child races greatly with new knowledge about magic. But other less scrupulous people wanted power and glory sparking conflict as they went. This is when “The Game” was established. Yeah...that is what we call it.

    The game was created by some of the best minds of humanity and created a framework for the “proper” way to interfere with the cultures that had been forming for a millennium. The rules were to be enforced by the Watchers so that no one entity could completely muck things up, in theory at least.

    Over the centuries the rules have been refined and new rules have been added to the game. And during all that time the Watcher have been chronicling and refereeing The Game. So...what is The Game?

    The Game is best compared to a different game called a Table Top Role Playing Game. Each Participant in The Game is given a subject of the child races based on a series of questions we ask. Entities that are deemed unfit are not allowed to play.

    Once given a subject, the entity is then allowed to manipulate the “character” as they deem fit with out interfering with their free will. An entity can not personally take over that character and drive them around like a car. Instead they become a voice in the characters head offering choices and helping them to make decisions. So yeah, those people that are talking to them selves may not be just talking to them selves after all.

    As an added part of the Watchers directives, a subset of the watchers will create adventures around events in the world. While we do not outright create events altering the balance of the universe. We do find events that can be entertaining with a subtle push and make sure the players know what way to push to make those events more interesting.

    Unfortunately there are always those that do not follow the rules. These are referred to as the Dark Ones in the terms of The Game. Those that have been rejected for participation in The Game, but manipulate or even blatantly take over some one. Usually we can find them quickly because they want to live out the dark fantasies they have like that of being a Criminal King Pin, Murderer, Rapist, and more.

    But others are harder to find and may even be left alone because their role becomes to deeply ingrained in the events of society to remove. Despotic Leaders tend to fall into that area. Entities that have gathered enough power to be untouchable but also reign havoc on world or even universe just for the fun of it.

    But it works out I guess because these villains make things more interesting. Though if it were up to me I would tear them out of those poor souls and then deal with the mess. Anyway Dark Ones have been responsible for many of the tragedies and conflicts in recent history. You will read about them in time.

    So...I guess that is that. I am a Watcher and my role is to observe the Child Races, discover their history in some cases, document those events and goings on, and to make sure the other entities do not get out of hand while playing The Game. Well I guess I have better get back to it. I have been struggling with the Asterilians report and so I need to get back to that.

Kudu: The Age of Awakening

    For the Kudu, their Age of Awakening starts well before the Golemites. In fact it started during humanity's first steps into the galaxy with the discovery of an Earth like planet approximately four hundred light years from the Sol system along the Orion Spur of the galaxy.

    The system, identified as PSM-485-34c, was the thirty fourth system surveyed by jump probe 485 thirty four years after the BG Drive was invented. A science vessel was dispatched to cluster PSM-485 forty seven years after its charting. From that ship a small research and survey team was deployed to examine the planet for colonization.

    What the team discovered was a planet rich in both flora and fauna. With an atmosphere that closely matched Earths. Further study and research showed no serious threats to colonization and so the planet was given the green light for initial colonization.

    It was not long before three SEED ships moved into orbit of the planet. The ships carried materials, machines, habitats, and various flora and fauna for colonization. What was not planned was that one animal would be the catalyst for the quarantine of the world. That species was the unassuming Squirrel (specifically the California Ground Squirrel).

    The crews of the SEED ships went to work, deploying drop ships and depositing parts, machinery, plants, and animals in a large valley. Over the next three solar cycles the new settlement slowly grew. Waste processing, habitats, factories, and mines were all built. Shortly before the SEED ships left, Pioneer colonists started to arrive beginning the work of getting everything running.

    All looked good for many years except that the scientists left to monitor the effects of human colonization on the biosphere started to see some odd results. From their censuses, the Squirrel population was remaining constant instead of growing. But more worrying was that the Kudoe population (their name for the indigenous squirrel like species) was declining.

    The reason for this, as the scientists discovered, was that the Kudoe preferred to mate with the Squirrels instead of themselves. The cause was traced to a specific pheromone the Squirrels released that caused the Kudoe to enter a euphoric state. More surprising was that the Kudoe could be impregnated by the Squirrels.

    Many of the offspring were stillborn or had terrible mutations and died in hours of birth. But one in every fifty was viable, this new species would be named the Kudu (pronounced Koo - Doo) by the scientists. The Kudu were different, they averaged double the size of Squirrels when mature. They had denser muscles, were faster, their snouts were shorter, and their cranial cavities were larger with the frontal cortex being almost double the size.

    If this was not odd enough, the Kudu started to gather into groups and would breed at almost any time of the year. Their populations started to boom as the Kudoe were now dying out in the valley. With each successive generation of Kudu, their evolution continued. Fifty years after the first colonists arrived, the Kudu were three feet tall when standing on their hind legs. They were changing far faster than anyone could have dreamt and it had a growing number of scientists worried.

    On a cool day leading into fall on the planet now called New Stockholm, an incident came to pass that would change the course of the planet's future. On weekends the many children of the settlement would often migrate from the more populated areas to the fields and grasslands of the rural surroundings. One day two groups did not return to their homes for lunch.

    What follows is an accounting of events from one of the security staff:

    “The office was quiet till about noon, frantic parents were calling the security office reporting that their children could not be found. Officers were immediately tasked to look through recent camera data and to find the kids and track their movements. The last camera to see the large group of children was on the west side of town as they entered the forested area at the edge of the agricultural zone.

    Shortly after the we knew where the children were last seen, Commander Hargrove organized a search composed of parents, Security officers, and members of the science station including Dr. Sandesky, head of the science center.

    Within forty minutes the teams were organized and moving into the western forest. The brush was thick and hard to traverse especially for the civilians. Surprisingly the scientists were at home in it and moved with ease.

    After two hours of searching, my group entered a clearing. To the center of the clearing was something no one expected to see. Sitting in a half circle in front of a large tree were the children. A silver-gray Kudu was moving inside the half circle letting the kids pet it. The Kudu would chitter with each one and the kids would laugh when it did.

    Around the children was a crude pen made of woven vines and sticks. Outside were a number of younger Kudu standing about four feet to four foot six inches tall, each holding crude spears. It was with the outer Kudu guards that one of the parents panicked and tried to run to her child. The Kudu reacted by raising their spears as security grabbed the parent and pulled her back behind them while others raised their weapons.

    The situation was tense with security ready to fire and Kudu ready to attack. Before it could get there though, from the edge of the clearing a voice boomed from the woods “STAND DOWN!!”. The security team's weapons wavered as heads turned to see Dr. Sandesky moving out of the shadow of the forest.

    As the doctor closed he repeated “Stand down and put those weapons on the ground!!” The team of security officers did as he ordered, slowly lowering their rifles and placing them on the ground. When Dr. Sandesky got to the group one of the officers asked “Sir, why?” all the doctor did was point to the forest canopy.

    Behind us in the canopy of the trees were dozens of dark shapes moving around in the shadows. Spears and crude bows could be seen in their hands. The gray Kudu watched all of this, raising his staff, the Kudu waived it and the shadows faded into the green once again.

    Once the situation was diffused, the doctor started to walk to the gray Kudu, the guards still pointing spears at him, he pulled out a small pouch and took something out of it. We later learned that it was a bag of raw Walnuts, holding one in hand he stopped just before the gate and held out the Walnut.

    The elder Kudu motioned to the kids to follow and they did, he then moved to the gate of the enclosure and as he reached it, chittered something. The guard Kudu lowered their weapons and moved away from the enclosure eventually fading into the forest. The Elder, with only two guards remaining, approached Dr. Sandesky. Reaching out with his paw, or may be hand, the Gray Kudu took the nut and inspected it.

    Giving the doctor a nod, Sandesky handed the Kudu the bag. With a smile, the Kudu waived the children on and sat down with Dr. Sandesky following suite. Turning to the group “Two security members, please stay. The rest of you leave before you make more trouble for me.”

    It took three hours to get back through the forest. The doctor returned later with his guard some time after sunset. All personnel were accounted for with no casualties.”

    With the children found, a discussion of the Kudu was started. The civilians believed they should be exterminated like some pest that was eating their crops. While security was more interested in keeping the civilian population from acting on their own. The scientific staff believed an evacuation was in order, something most were not in favor of. Fortunately, no one had a choice in the matter.

    Reports from the security and science staff made their way to the highest levels of the Earth government. An emergency council was convened and it was decided that this was to important a chance to pass up. Humans had found numerous planets to colonize with many more to be terraformed. But a chance to observe and study a new species as it developed at such a rapid pace was to much to ignore. The order came down, the planet was now quarantined and all personal with exception to the scientific personnel and some security forces would remain.

    The Science center was expanded to double the number of personnel it could hold while much of the town was demolished and removed from the planet. All the while the Kudu could be seen watching from the tree lines. Observing the valley intently.

    As time passed, a key to the puzzle of why the Kudu evolved so quickly was found. The interbreeding of the Kudoe and Squirrels was a catalyst for the change. After humans left, the evolution of the Kudu slowed. It was discovered that a virus was taking snippets of human DNA and adding it to the malleable Kudu DNA. Much of the time it would fail leading to cancer and terrible mutations. But in enough occasions the DNA was in the right spot and changed the very nature of the Kudu.

    Without humanity on the planet the virus was of little concern. But as a precaution, the Kudu were inoculated against the virus and in time it was eradicated from the planet. For the remainder of humanities years in the universe the science station was manned. Through the war to the time of magic, the scientists were there watching, learning, and interacting.

    Then, one day, the Kudu went to the science center and no one was there. The scientists returned to Earth, and the Kudu were alone. For a thousand years the Kudu would develop some of the most spectacular magical technologies around. Until they created their greatest achievement, the Venture. A ship that would let the Kudu travel to other stars.

To be Continued: “Asterilians: The Age of Awakening”

Short Update

To those that are paying attention, I have not posted something for a month or more now.  I am working on something.  Real life just got in the way and it has been hard to get back to it with the holidays coming up.  But I will keep plugging and should have something soon.

Golemites: The Age of Awakening

    When the Golemites were first created, there was some question about them. They were made from Human genetic material after all. So while they were genetically altered in many ways, they were still human in the eyes of some.

    As time wore on and the war finally came to a close, the generations that followed slowly started to see Golemites as nothing more than tools. So as tools, they were expendable because another one can always be cloned. This attitude changed some when humanity was starting to ascend.

    A few people started to ask “What about the Golemites?” and as more and more humans left, those voices became louder. One of those voices was the distant relative of the scientist that helped make them, Dr. Malinda K. Fahtoom. She alone was in the unique position to help them as humanity moved on. With the help of her colleagues in the Golemite Management Bureau, a plan as set in motion. Sadly they could only help those Golemites that lived on earth, but if it worked they would be free to create their own civilization.

    Twenty years after the last humans left Earth, a timer ticked to zero. Moments later the Golemites neural inhibitors turned off. At the same time the cloning procedure for the Golemites changed, the implants that kept them docile and infertile would not longer be installed. In time the Golemites would be able to have offspring naturally.

    Unaware they were now free of their bonds, the Golemites kept to their work of maintaining the machines and structures of Humanity. Though slowly their behaviors changed. Instead if going to work then back to their homes, the Golemites started to go to places they had not been before.

    They started to gather and socialize discussing why they had not done this before. Older Golemites that had been active while humanity was still around would converse about how they felt people were missing from these places. But no one knew if it was real or just a dream.

    Golemite society progressed well in the early times, The oldest and most skilled became leaders of a caste system that defined to roles of every Golemite. But unlike many caste systems, theirs was less rigid and did not punish those of lower castes and even allowed migration between castes if the individual could serve a roll of value.

    Religion also spontaneously formed as those that once tended to the libraries and archives of the old world started to marvel at the works of those that came before. Humanity was through by removing almost all data from their existence on their machines. But the Golemites tended to the forgotten archives that were enshrined in tomes long forgotten by much of humanity.

    From these books and lost records rose The Order of Fahtoom. Fragments of knowledge and history were taken out of context, and their distant creator now became a God to those that would believe. Quickly “The Order” would rise to be the top caste of their fledgling civilization. Though there was a new trial for the Golemites to deal with, the machines they used were failing.

    As a stop gap, The Order and caste leaders put in place an initiative. They would keep the machines going as long as possible by salvaging every part they could from machines that had failed all over the planet. The highest priority was to maintain the cloning tubes and to prioritize the cloning of those that maintained them.

    One hundred and four years after their awakening, the last machine of human design stopped working. The last cloning tube ceased to function and in it, the last cloned Golemite before it could know life. With this revelation, many Golemites stopped working at all.

    Much of Golemite civilization hung by a thread as the news spread across the Earth. Attendance of Order services grew sharply while depression and anxiety ran rampant over the population. To combat this some took to the lower sections of the cities where the lowest caste of society resided, the Caste of Flesh.

    In a place known as the Den of the Flesh, one of the prostitutes had been sick for some time. The Madam of the den had started to worry as she young lady was new to work. One of the last to be cloned, she was the first new girl the Madam had seen for ages. To have such a rarity be sick was not something she needed at this time of turmoil.

    A doctor was called and arrived promptly. And shortly after he started to examine the patient. The young Golemite was lethargic, had been vomiting each morning, was running a fever, and early on had broad emotional swings. Test after test were negative until the doctor started imaging her. In her abdomen he found what appeared to be a parasite of some kind growing in an unused organ.

    As the doctor ran more tests and stay with the patient, an assistant was sent to the archives held in the Order compound. Searching through ancient texts with the help of the librarians, the answer was found. The prostitute was not sick, she was pregnant.

    The tests for it were found and she was tested immediately, she tested positive. Much like the news concerning the last cloning tube, the news of this woman’s pregnancy spread quickly. The word “pregnant” had never been part of Golemite society until now and few knew what it meant. But as more learned that it meant to have offspring, numerous women left their caste to join the Caste of Flesh.

    Faced with the rapid influx of new workers things changed rapidly. With this caste now seen as the hope for Golemite society, its leadership chose to change the castes name to the Keepers of Hope. This was not the last change though, the caste was elevated to the top caste in their structure. And while the Order agreed to this, the change has always been a sour spot for them.

    Finally the leadership of the Keepers of Hope called for doctors all over to test the fertility of all their workers, male and female. As well as the fertility of all applicants. Only those that were found fertile and capable of bearing children would be allowed in. Later, this last order would be repealed when the last of the old Golemites passed on.

    The Keepers of Hope took tithes from all other casts to support their efforts. Hiring doctors and giving the women the best care possible. The Order of Fahtoom also collected every text they could find on caring for the pregnant and children and gave them freely to the Keepers. Eight months after the doctor was called, the first Golemite baby was born, it was a girl and she was named Hope.

    Slowly but surely time marched on and the nascent civilization of the Golemites grew. They discovered magic and worked to harness it creating technology vastly different from their creators. As the cities of humanity crumbled to time, the Golemites built new edifices in their place.

    A thousand years would pass before the Golemites had another major change to their society. It was a chance encounter with another child of Humanity that would pave a path into the stars and to war.

To be Continued: “Kudu: The Age of Awakening”

Humanity: The Age of Awakening

    Before the rise of magic, Human society and culture were already on the edge. For hundreds of years overcrowding, poverty, starvation, social abuses, and more took their toll on society. It was only through military force that order was maintained. Magic was the final straw that sent human civilization spiraling out of control for.

    Rampant greed and inequality spurred a desire to have what one percent of the population had. Waves of wishes caused the collapse of economies during the chaotic days of magic. When things were stabilized and rules were in place, the economies settled, but the damage was done. The poor and impoverished realized this new force allowed them to have power.

    Much like firearms, magic made people equal. No longer could the force of arms keep those at the bottom down. They had their own power now, and they used it. One by one planets started to burn with revolt. The poor used magic to strike back at those they saw as keeping them hungry, poor, and sick.

    Earth tried to reign in the violence to no avail. Within a year eighty three percent of the human sphere was embroiled in civil war. The economy failed soon after. Trade between planets stopped, the government was bankrupt, and the military fractured. If this alone was not enough, greater tragedy followed soon after.

    Without trade, the technologies that were used to support the populations of many worlds that had been terraformed started to fail. Civil war after civil war gripped these worlds until the end as those that fought for equality then fought for the last gasps of air on their dying world. After fifty years, only eight worlds remained inhabited by humans out of ninety three. Hundreds of billions died as man made ecosystems collapsed or faded away entirely.

    As the human empire fell, in a secluded area on Earth, an eccentric philosopher and experimental physicist was working on a new spell. Originally she intended to use it as a way to prove theories she had concerning the universe. But as time passed and once inhabited planets were lost, her goals changed.

    In her mind, Humanity needed to be saved, as soon it would be reduced to a single planet species again. So she found a way to move humans to another plane of existence where thought and magic would be more relevant than the frail human form. With this she spent the last years of her life creating and perfecting the Ascension Spell.

    Using her Golemite assistants as sacrifices to give her the mana she needed, she became the very first to use the spell. Through it her body and mind were shifted into another realm of existence. Shortly after she appeared to many people giving them the formula as well, this began the final days of humanities time on this plane of existence.

    Machines were built that could gather the energy needed to activate the complex spell. One by one Humanity became a legend. All that would remain were the ruins of their past and the five child races they had a hand in making.

To be continued in “Golemites: The Age of Awakening”

Editing: Sometimes I just forget

OK this is going to be fast.  For those that do actually come here I would like to apologise for my last post before today.  I messed up and did not give it a good proof pass.  There is no excuse and I have made corrections to be less bone headed.  I will also proof this stuff as best I can in the future.

BUT if there is someone reading this and would like to help...may be someone with better grammatical skills than I, I would appreciate the help.  Just leave a message and I will be in touch.

Humanity: The Age of the Lost

    With the end of the AI threat, many humans lost their optimism about further expansion. The use of Golemites in ever growing numbers and in ever expanding situations took its toll. Those that believed that the Golemites deserved the same rights as human's were at odds with the apathetic and greedy that believed Golemites were property.

    Though this was not the only conflict that was raging. The fear of a return of the AI threat caused mass exodus from the fringe worlds. The rise in populations caused the creation of slums and an increase in crime as the fearful rushed to systems protected by the Bastion stations.

    Social issues, planetary economic collapses, conflicts between the poor looking for work and Golemites, and more started to plague a government that had its own issues. Bogged down with debt from the war, social programs to help the colonies were cut to maintain the military in a time of post war fear and tension.

    Civil strife was quickly dealt with by those ruling from Earth. Reports of these actions slowly leaked out from the government and survivors alike. Sparking even greater unrest in those that believed Earth was not looking at all the options. With in one hundred years the sphere of human space had reduced by seventy percent. And while some worlds flourished outside of human space, most were empty as the rich left and the poor were left to die on a world with out support from Earth.

    So it was for two hundred years. Refugees from the Human Sphere started to look elsewhere and returned to the lost colonies. As they did they buried the bodies and bones of the dead. Others with out means were resigned to the slums as corruption and waste permeated all levels of government. Some thought it would never end, but then there was an event that would change Humanity completely. At least that is what some would think.

    In a small lab on a barren world, a group of scientists, philosophers, and engineers were working on something that they hoped would change how humanity would see the universe. They were working on a kind of robot that could shift out of our physical reality to observer the membrane of the universe itself.

    Their initial experiments were promising, the machine was able to slip through to other dimensions, but there was some trouble breaking though to the membrane. Eventually they found a way to do it, though their first attempt lead to the destruction of the probe. Though all was not lost as the information they received was a marvel, as the probe disintegrated they found the rules outside the membrane no longer applied.

    Outside the membrane of the universe, almost nothing existed. Traces of subatomic reactions were detected in the split second the probe existed, but there was no matter. The dimension that contains the universes membrane appeared to have rules humans could not yet understand.

    The groups second probe was designed to be a little different. This time, instead of looking to escape the universe entirely, their goal was to get as close to the edge as possible. Once built it took several tries to tune the probe but they got there. This probe confirmed many theories about the universe and the data they collected was more than they could handle.

    After years of sifting through the information they discovered that the probe could detect almost every point in the universe at once. The stream of information was literally everything in the universe. What was more fascinating was that it was not only everything in the universe at the time the probe was in the membrane. But it was events in the universe that had happened and were going to happen based on our limited perceptions. The probe could see all of time and space while in the membrane.

    This is where they should have stopped...where they should have done their testing and sifted through the data they had collected. But they took it to far, one scientist wanted to test if being in the membrane would allow them to change reality itself. Some where against this, they wanted nothing to do with something so dangerous. But the majority moved forward with the experiment.

    On that day, as the probe faded out of view slowly merging with the universe, everything would change. In their rush to do the experiment changes to the probes logic had flaws. As the probe made its way to the membrane, it started to develop errors, eventually it stopped responding all together. The developers could send out a signal and the probe would alter the universe, by say turning a pink mug into a blue teacup. But they could not recall the probe.

    What they did not know, because of their seclusion, was that strange things started happening all over human space. Wishes and desires would be granted if the will of those people were strong enough. On ten planets, every one that entered won the lottery. A woman was made to fall in love with three men all at once because all three were chasing her. And there were numerous unexplained deaths as desires born of hate struck out at cheaters and bosses alike.

    Just as the news started reaching the group and they were working to understand what was happening, tragedy struck. A planet known as Gregors Hole, located in the far fringes of space, exploded. The energy wave was detected by a nearby fleet on deep range patrol. When they got to the site of the explosion they saw something no one could believe.

    The planet was gone, in its orbit was a disintegrating mass of carbohydrates, sugars, and carbon dioxide. Looking out over the scene, crew members could only describe what they saw as a white cake doughnut with maple frosting and rainbow sprinkles. The government quickly quarantined the area as unknown forms or radiation were detected in the system. In a months time...the doughnut had broken up.

    Shortly after, the group of scientists came forward admitting that their experiment was likely to blame. The inquiry took months, all the while the laws of man and creation were descending into chaos. Self proclaimed wizards and warlocks roamed the streets using this new phenomena to cast spells. While other less fantasy minded people gave them selves billions of credits throwing the economy into chaos.

    The group of scientists were not idle, they kept working in their efforts to understand what went wrong. Eventually they found out why this was happening and they could do very little about it. The probe was designed to be able to manipulate the energies of the universes membrane. In doing so it manipulated its own energies changing it.

    To the scientists this would be bad. But the changes that happened to the probe were beyond what they could imagine. With access to all of the universe across all of time, the probe became something else. It concluded that it needed to multiply to cope with the information it had access to. By the time the scientists made contact with it, there were billions of probes. Each one a little different from all the others. So a new plan was devised, if the probes are going to alter reality then give them rules to limit what can be altered.

    With the growing chaos and no end in sight the inquiry was ended. It was concluded that the events that had happened could not have been foreseen and that no one was to blame for this chaos. Free of the charges, the group of scientists were tasked with reigning in the chaos. They were given unlimited funding and state of the art facilities in the hopes they could stop or limit the events at hand.

    It took years and thousands of people to achieve. From scientists to game developers, the rules that the probes use were altered and refined. No one is sure when it happened, but it is believed that at some point, with the billions of probes all being different, they developed sentience. At a point they started to balance the rules them selves. AI or god, no one knows, but in the end only one thing can be agreed on, Humanity made magic a reality.

To be continued with “The Age of Awakening”