Tag: golem

#Lore24 – Entry #353 – Sci-Fi Month IV #18 – The Imperium Falls, a New Empire Rises

Transcribed From the Personal Recording Implant of Andra Ganim, Chronicler of the Codex Infinitum

AG:  “As a follow up to a previous question, before I forget, do you know what it was that the rebels, and I assume, the FPC, managed to track down whatever it was that relic had hinted at?”

RV:  “It was another draconic ruin, an entire island nation, really, long abandoned like all of them, but in time it would be determined that this was amongst the newest of the draconic sites, something on the order of three to four thousand years younger than the next nearest site at the time if I’m recalling that particular study correctly.  Though I would not be as fortunate as Lila Darius, as I understand it, she found one of the last known living dragons in the galaxy and sought knowledge of the arcane that was once thought lost.  For a Chronicler of the Codex Infinitum, she was remarkably tight-lipped about what it was that she learned beyond that, though, having failed to record it as one would expect, much to my vexation.  By the time I would be able to study the site myself, the dragon she met was long gone.”

AG:  “Fascinating.  Did her knowledge impact the outcome of the Imperium War?”

RV:  “Perhaps it accelerated what had already been set in motion, perhaps it tipped the scale at some point along the line, but to say the FPC would have been unable to achieve victory without that knowledge would be overstating its significance by several orders of magnitude.  Lila Darius was and is but one person in an entire galaxy after all…though her current incarnation has certainly made waves much more significant than her previous ones…”

Note:  A shadow has passed over Rivalle’s features, and her secretary is looking even more anxious, her tail hasn’t stopped swishing for some time now, and it seems the storm outside has further intensified, as if sensing Rivalle’s dark mood.  I believe I have strayed into more current events that are still something of an open wound and will backtrack to the end of the Imperium War.

AG:  “To return to where we were before I diverted us, you, in the guise of Ruvaen, had attempted a coup and revealed that Emperor Halaxaes had indeed had a cloned body waiting to receive his soul.  Given what you’ve revealed before, was there a reason that you did not have a trap prepared to capture his soul?”

RV:  “Of course.  Upon his death, had his soul not been tuned to that cloned body, the clone would have awakened and, likely, proven to be just as capable a leader as the real Halaxaes, though with a much greater chance of becoming unquestionably psychotic.  As I had said before, cloning methods then were not as reliable as they are now, though they are typically limited to new body parts in the systems where it is allowed at all, and with what I would learn soon after, we did not need a psychotic emperor in charge of the power he would reveal.  Ruvaen, and thus I, was aware that Halaxaes had devoted much of his resources to building what we had assumed was a new fleet but had yet to reveal it.  As it would turn out, I had once again underestimated him, likely due to my fixation upon chasing Lila Darius.”

AG:  “So, the bunker that had been hidden away, and this mysterious fleet, were one and the same, the massive battle station known as Sentinel Prime?”

RV:  “Indeed, you’re correct.  Halaxaes had constructed the monstrosity in the shadow of the Demon Barrier, where long-range sensors could not detect him, and few but pirates and other outlaws would dare to tread.  Even though I had secured those loyal to Ruvaen for the moment, I was not prepared to deal with the appearance of Sentinel Prime and was forced into a hasty retreat.  Several of the capitol ships and two of the space citadels in my possession would be destroyed before they could evacuate the system.  For such a massive structure, the fact that he had managed to secure a functional TK-Drive assembly impressed even me.”

AG:  “Several worlds were devastated once Sentinel Prime had made its appearance by its planetary bombardments, many were those that were sympathetic to the FPC’s, but some were targeted seemingly for no reason.  I assume these were worlds that were used by the Ruvaen faction as bases or hiding places?”

RV:  “Yes, that’s correct.  In a very short time, we had been forced to follow the ways of the FPC and remain highly mobile and scattered.  Simply rejoining Halaxaes’ forces with a renewed vow of loyalty would not be enough to ensure their survival, for those that tried were immediately executed, no quarter given.  I suppose it was something of a race to see which of us would be decimated first at that point.  My plans had not accounted for something on the scale of Sentinel Prime at all.  Though for all its impressive engineering, it did have a weakness that we could exploit, namely that it had to frequently return to its support facility outside the Demon Barrier for repairs and recharging; no power source exists that could sufficiently power something that large, even today, arcane or technological.”

AG:  “What was the power source for Sentinel Prime?  How had he managed it?”

RV:  “Oh, I would think it’s quite obvious.  He had managed to tap into the greatest source of energy in the known galaxy:  the Demon Barrier itself.  It is essentially a mass of radiation and raw energy, after all, so it had been theorized for some time that it could be drawn upon given proper methods, methods which Halaxaes and his arcanists and scientists had managed to devise.  Much of the internal structure of the monstrosity was simply batteries and capacitors, really.”

AG:  “I see…rather simple in its complexity in some ways, then. Could you tell me of how the final battle against Halaxaes came and went from your perspective?”

RV:  “Given the rather desperate situation we found ourselves in, and with my plans thoroughly disrupted at this point, I reached out to the FPC for an alliance.  Through Lila Darius and her closest allies, for the FPC leadership certainly had no willingness to trust Ruvaen, even if he had become just as much an enemy to Halaxaes as they had.  As much as it galled me to do so, for it seemed that my hatred of her had only grown with her own power, an aspect of that instinctual antithesis which I had mentioned earlier.  She felt the same for me, but was much more capable of dealing with it, as much as I hate to admit it, and had not allowed herself to be distracted during our feud, nor had she allowed it to cloud her thinking, for she was quick to accept my aid, for she already had a plan, and just needed to find and then enter Sentinel Prime to make it work.

With the aid of my most talented arcanists, we devised the basis for the modern art of astral divination and managed to scry the comings and goings of Sentinel Prime during its attacks, eventually finding the region in which its support facility was located.  Our respective fleets would be mustered and prepared to follow Sentinel Prime upon its next return to the facility, with our combined forces set to deal with Halaxaes’ own defense fleet while myself and Darius would strike from the shadows, so to speak, infiltrating Sentinel Prime to sabotage its power systems and face down Halaxaes once and for all.”

AG:  “How could you be sure that he would have no other clones to return his soul to?”

RV:  “I had already taken this into account.  I had no doubts that his personal cloning facility was aboard Sentinel Prime, so my task would be to see to its destruction while Darius kept him busy, and our combined teams would work to sabotage the power system using what I thought was some of the same transplanar bombs that I had become so familiar with over the centuries.  As it was, Lila Darius would manage another humiliation.”

AG:  “If these were not bombs, what were they?”

RV:  “I had hoped to simply disable Sentinel Prime, you see, and use its power for myself once the war had ended.  Deal enough damage that it was no threat, but silently rebuild it during the coming years as a nice little base of operations for my revised plans.  I had anticipated massive damage from these explosions, but that is not at all what happened.  You are familiar with World Creation Engines?”

AG:  “Yes.  Arcane-technological devices that are used to terraform planets that are on the edge of habitability and make them fully useable.  They came about during the Age of Expansion that followed the Imperium War.”

RV:  “Almost correct.  They came about during the Imperium War, and were first used upon Sentinel Prime itself.  You could say that the ‘bombs’ Darius had devised were the prototypes for them.  How else could a world like Sentinel Prime exist today without the use of magic?  Certainly, it was not as the tales of scavengers and pirates and their like building it up over the centuries would have you believe.  There is no sun for it to orbit, though it maintains its own rotation and life-sustaining functions, still draws on the power of the Demon Barrier for those functions to continue in fact, even though it has become unsuitable for a battle station in the intervening centuries, for it would rapidly grow unstable and likely fall to pieces should it be moved from its proximity to its power source, assuming its TK-Drive could even be restored, of course.”

AG:  “Incredible.  So, how did the final conflict with Halaxaes go?”

RV:  “Our strike teams came in hard and fast, a dozen ships, loaded with these ‘bombs’ and the best soldiers on both sides, slipping through the chaos of the larger fleet battle.  For a bit of irony, we made use of aerian star sabers for this operation, for their adamantine frames and ramming tips made them uniquely suited for such a plan.  I and Darius came in on different ships but would reunite once she had seen to it that the power control center was secure, and I had seen to it there would be no more Halaxaes clones.  We would then make our push to Halaxaes himself, a smaller team cutting through his royal guard while I and Darius dealt with him ourselves. 

Halaxaes had prepared well for us, though, and had somehow managed to tap into the same power that fueled Sentinel Prime to defend himself.  It was a narrow victory, admittedly, for Darius was severely wounded, and I would have been killed but for Ruvaen and my golem armor.  In the final moments, with Halaxaes assured of his victory, he came in to slay his traitorous son, still unaware of me.  His blade pierced through the core of the armor, right through where a heart ought to be.  In that moment I teleported myself outside the armor and pierced my blade. Soulshatter, through Halaxaes’ heart, finally revealing myself in his final moments as it consumed his soul once and for all.  I allowed him to linger just long enough to tell him the quick version of my subversion before he was utterly destroyed.

I perhaps would have liked to have captured Darius then, for she had knowledge I wanted, but as we prepared to face one another, her wounded and mostly depleted of her power, and me still quite well off, the ‘bombs’ began to detonate, forcing us to abandon our feud for the moment in favor of mutual survival.  Ruvaen was more than willing to assist, still quite functional, so he carried Darius as I returned us to our nearest ship.  As we made our escape, I realized that her ‘bombs’ were nothing of what I thought they were, could already sense the transmutative power coursing through Sentinel Prime as our fleet retreated.  Halaxaes’ remaining forces, still outnumbering the FPC’s significantly, were severely reduced in number when they were caught in the ensuing detonation, being sucked into the transmutational maelstrom that had consumed Sentinel Prime and its support facility. 

Following this, in due course, the Imperium was officially dissolved by order of then Emperor Ruvaen, and any remaining Halaxaes loyalists eventually hunted down and dealt with by a united force if they continued their attempts to maintain the Imperium or form their own.  It was something of a chaotic time, my plans thoroughly in shambles by this point, but I’m nothing if not adaptable.  Given the fiercely independent nature of many worlds and peoples, the chances of a unified government seemed unlikely to be accepted, so I would attain the control and power I required in another way.”

AG:  “Regarding Ruvaen…what became of him?  Once the Imperium had fallen, there is very little mention of him.  Was his soul too…consumed by your blade?”

RV:  “Oh, of course not.  He had become a most loyal servant by this time, and I do like to reward loyalty.  Isn’t that right, Ruvaen?”

Note:  Rivalle turned her gaze toward the corner display of various artifacts, amongst them a large suit of armor, a unique, larger redesign of the battle armor used by the Imperium.  I had detected its magical nature when I had first entered, assuming it to be a relic of the period, but now the arcane energies grew stronger as its eyes began to glow.  The armor moved, taking one knee, closing its fist and crossing its chest plate with hits forearm.  I heard Rivalle’s assistant gasp and take several steps away from us, apparently unaware of the armor’s true nature.  It spoke then, a deep, echoing, mechanical voice.

RH:  “Yes, my empress.  Your eternal guardian remains ever vigilant.”

Note:  The golem armor that is Ruvaen Halaxaes then rose, returning to its former position, the surge of power fading as it once again resumed its semi-dormant, watchful state.

RV:  “When I build golems, my dear, I make sure they are built to last.”

#Lore24 – Entry #352 – Sci-Fi Month IV #17 – Getting Personal During the Imperium War

Transcribed From the Personal Recording Implant of Andra Ganim, Chronicler of the Codex Infinitum

AG:  “I could help but notice that you have something of a…fascination…with Lila Darius.  Did this begin during the Imperium War, or was there something going back to her incarnation during the Age of Legends?”

Note:  Rivalle’s assistant is looking rather uneasy again.  I believe I may be treading upon a very touchy subject.

RV:  “There was actually something during the Age of Legends.  I witnessed some of her exploits from afar, but since I never interacted with her myself, I didn’t realize the true nature of the subtle feelings I had about her then.  There was always something about her that rubbed me the wrong way, some little thing that just made me dislike her.  Not simple envy or jealousy over her looks or personality, or any other such drivel, but something on a more instinctive, baser level.  I had experienced the same feeling with Marcon to an extent, but given his rather unique nature, the effect was greatly lessened.  It was when I finally met Marcon’s children, felt that same kind of unexplainable dislike as I had toward Lila Darius, that I realized there was a much deeper meaning to my obsession with studying draconic history.  During the Imperium War, though, that innate dislike was magnified by her constant interference in my plans.”

AG:  “How did your first encounter with this incarnation of Lila Darius start your rivalry?”

RV:  “This was a year or two after the Auralus incident.  I, or rather, Ruvaen, had been tasked, as he typically was, with hunting down yet another rebel cell and crushing them under the might of the Imperium.  In this particular case, the rebels had actually managed to acquire knowledge that I personally was quite interested in, relating to a draconic ruin that was unknown to me at the time.  There was potentially something there that had drawn their interest, enough so that this particular group had devoted a significant amount of their time and resources to locate. 

I, in the guise of Ruvaen, pursued the rebel courier who had come looking for one of the many Chroniclers who had gone into hiding, hoping that the Chronicler could decipher the mysterious artifact they had.  The courier had brought the artifact with them, and I intended to have it.  They proved to be quite a wily opponent, however, and would evade capture for some time.  Eventually, though, their luck would run out, and I would have them, though before their capture, they managed to hide the artifact on some backwater world, which, it just so happened, placed it within the hands of Lila Darius. 

As it turned out, Darius was a most talented arcanist during this incarnation, and nearly as skilled with a blade as I was.  Once I had discovered where the courier had hidden the artifact, I would return to the world only to discover it gone and would begin my hunt for Darius.  She would prove quite elusive, managing several vexing defeats of my soldiers through her own wits and luck, and those of the courier and a defector who had managed to escape with the courier while I was searching for the relic.

It was some time later that we had tracked the rebel cell down to a mustering point for their tiny fleet that I would first face Darius in combat, aboard one of our space citadels.  Though I had her defeated in our personal battle, that defector managed a lucky strike with a missile launcher, and they escaped.  It turns out the courier had managed to steal Ruvaen’s personal starfighter and led the rebel group into the depths of the citadel, destroying its power core and setting up a destructive reaction. 

I must admit, I was rather angry to have been foiled in such a way, and my frustration would only deepen as Darius and the rebels would continue a series of unprecedented victories against the Imperium.  Granted, our goal was ultimately the same in the end, but my own foundation had not yet been settled, so these losses were detrimental to my ultimate success.  I would say that the setbacks Darius and her FPC allies caused set back my plans at least a decade or more, and extended the Imperium War further than I had originally intended by perhaps another five years.”

AG:  “How many times would you face Lila Darius in battle during the war?”

RV:  “We fought personally on half a dozen occasions.  Each time but one, it seemed that the fates would favor her, and though I had carefully planned how I would entrap her, she would find a way out, through her own guile, her allies, or in at least one case, pure luck.  I’m not too proud to admit that I may have lost sight of my goals for a time during this period, so focused was I upon seeing that woman defeated.  She, and further incarnations, would be the only beings that would confound me so over the centuries.”

AG:  “In spite of the defeats the Imperium suffered, they remained firmly in control of the core worlds surrounding their capitol of Anyllion, and would prove most resilient to the FPC’s efforts to eradicate them.  Can you elaborate on the use of cloning technology during this time to bolster the Imperium’s armies?”

RV:  “Though I was quite familiar with the arcane technique for creating clones, Halaxaes’ scientists had indeed developed a method for creating clones that did not result in immediate attempts to kill the original, though the effectiveness of these clones was never especially great when compared to the originals.  Though they were certainly capable of serving, they were simply inferior to the originals, lacking their abilities to adapt quite so well and to think as quickly.  They made excellent fodder, though, and in the numbers they were eventually produced, would serve the Imperium quite well. 

The locations of these cloning facilities were a secret known only to the Emperor, Ruvaen, myself, and a handful of others, and were always at the top of the FPC’s list of targets.  I would again face Darius during one of the rebel’s assaults on one of these facilities, and it would be the one occasion I would best her in combat, though I have since questioned whether it was her plan to be captured in the hopes of doing exactly what we did later.  Though we are most often against one another, occasionally we seem to align in a strange way.”

AG:  “So you’re saying that you allied with Darius?  Could you explain?”

RV:  “The enemy of my enemy is my friend, as the old saying goes.  I took a chance that had to be taken.  I had learned some time before this that Halaxaes had a private bunker somewhere that Ruvaen was not even aware of.  The Emperor’s growing paranoia had led him to secret this away even from his own son, and I suspected that he had a reason for this.  I suspected that he had a clone body waiting, and that he had already made preparations to transfer his soul to that body should he die.  It was exactly what he had originally wanted for Ruvaen, but he had grown wary of Ruvaen by this time, sensing perhaps that all was not as it should be, that perhaps the golem body his son possessed was exerting a negative influence upon him, or perhaps, spite of the loyalty that had been displayed, there was an underlying threat there.

His instincts were quite correct; we elves are rather talented when it comes to our scheming, after all.  So, I made the decision to test my theory as to whether he did indeed possess a clone.  At the time, either it would be proven true and I could use the various methods at my disposal to find this secret bunker, though it would be somewhat complicated by the fact that Ruvaen would be seen as a traitor, or Ruvaen would be elevated to be Emperor of the Imperium, thus allowing me to advance my original plan by some many years, should there be no clone.

So, when Halaxaes had Darius brought before him, I gave her a few subtle hints that she managed to pick up on, and, though she did not trust me in the slightest, she too saw the potential gains.  When the time was right, I sprung the surprise, allowing Darius to deliver a surprising, fatal blow to Halaxaes, before I would aid her in her escape. 

As it turns out, Halaxaes indeed had survived, his soul transferring to a cloned body; within the hour he would be in command once again, though the Ruvaen faction of the Imperium was firmly in my control.  However small it was in comparison to the rest of the Imperium’s forces, it was quite powerful, for I had the bulk of his arcanists on my side.  This fracture would be the beginning of the end for Halaxaes’ empire.”

#Lore24 – Entry #351 – Sci-Fi Month IV #16 – The War Against the Imperium Begins

Transcribed From the Personal Recording Implant of Andra Ganim, Chronicler of the Codex Infinitum

RV:  “Well…perhaps not save his life, rather, save his soul.”

AG:  “Save his soul?  Forgive, Miss Volcari, but I don’t follow.”

RV:  “Of course you don’t, so let me explain.  My plan for revenge required that I be exceptionally close to Emperor Halaxaes, for he had taken great pains to ensure that no scrying could touch him, had insured that his magical protections were second to none, and that he had grown suitably paranoid of more mundane methods of spying, so it would be no simple matter.  There was but one he would trust, and that was his dear, sweet son.  So, I had to make use of the boy, as he was Halaxaes’ one true weakness.

Auralus at the time was, at the time, a peaceful world, primarily used by the elite of the Imperium, those high within the Great Houses, as a secluded resort from which they could grow fat from the resources they siphoned off the rest of the Imperium, filled with themselves and their servants, and, in the areas accessible to those outside the Imperium’s upper crust, plenty of vices for their lesser to be distracted by.  Quite decadent.  It was here that I would see the first blow struck against Halaxaes, in particular, against Ruvaen.  Through no small amount of preparation and secret communication amongst no less than a dozen rebel groups, I engineered the factors that would allow the assembled strike team through the defensive network and to the surface of the world.  In short order, chaos had taken Auralus, and Ruvaen’s forcers were on the defensive, unable to reach the forces garrisoned upon the space citadel in orbit thanks to my interference with the communications network.  Oh, I had secreted myself aboard the citadel by this time, in the guise of a lowly novice arcanist, studying, and rather unsuccessfully, on a way to create the ultimate soldier through artifice.  I played the part perhaps too well, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, through the course of the battle for Ruvaen’s stronghold, I slipped away from the citadel and, in the chaos that had started up, saw myself through the magical defenses that had been in place so that I could attain the primary component I needed.  Using some rather advanced illusions to draw the attention of the rearguard, I infiltrated Ruvaen’s bunker and decimated it from within, the boy’s arcane talents, while impressive, were quite pathetic in the face of my own.  I made certain to keep the boy alive, if not entirely intact, and made sure that his body would not survive the encounter.

It was then that my planned disruption of communications ceased, and the Imperium’s forces swept down upon the rebels.  With Ruvaen’s condition suitably stabilized, if only for the moment, I once again donned by guise of the lowly researcher and returned to the citadel.  In short order, I found myself aboard the cruiser that housed Ruvaen’s broken body, which was slowly being consumed by the curse I’d laid upon it that prevented proper healing.  As the evacuation of the boy commenced, the next wave of rebels came in with the ships they had managed to secure through my generous donations, hampering the escape. 

As Ruvaen’s condition worsened, it was up to the lowly arcanist to save his life, though not in a way any would suspect.  It was then that my golem, more accurately, my special golem armor, was brought into play, though none would suspect it was indeed an armor.  It was made with life-sustaining magics from the ground up, so it seemed as likely a method as any to save the boy’s life, as desperate as the surgeons were at the time.  A shame those rebels managed to break through the outer defense perimeter during a peculiarly ill-timed systems glitch and just happened to know the exact ship their target was upon.

The first phase of my plan was ultimately a success; the destruction of the ship would not affect my golem armor in the slightest, its life support functions making certain that I would survive for quite some time within.  Ruvaen’s body, impossible to save by the point the ship was destroyed, was to be sacrificed as my golem armor absorbed his very soul into itself, just before the ship’s shields failed and it was shot down.  Of course, all hands, including that unfortunate researcher and all her data, were lost, aside from the newly reborn Ruvaen, and the passenger the armor was actually intended to protect all along.”

Note:  I am experiencing an unusual level of unease at the tone of Rivalle’s voice and the rather wistful smile upon her face, as though she were recalling a most pleasant memory, yet she has just spoken of an absolutely terrible series of events and the use of horrendously foul magics.

AG:  “That passenger being you, of course.  What exactly was your plan with this…golem armor?”

RV:  “It was the best method I could devise to get myself close to Emperor Halaxaes in a way that would allow me to have my revenge.  He would be quite furious once news reached him of the assault, then very nearly broken at the word of his son’s apparent death.  I could not know all that had passed between the two, of course, so I needed Ruvaen to fill in the blanks for me, to prove to Halaxaes that his sone did indeed still live, however strangely.  Though Ruvaen’s soul was firmly in my control, I would allow him some leeway in certain matters, to act as he normally would, and over the course of some weeks, he would again regain his father’s trust and prove that he was indeed his son, however altered and miserable within the golem’s shell.  His soul would mask my own presence, and with some minor influence from Ruvaen, the emperor’s arcanists would not be allowed to study the armor closely, for fear of doing something that could endanger the son trapped within.  Scans and magical probes would reveal a living body inside, if they were of sufficient power and duration, but this was simply taken as his broken body being sustained from within.”

AG:  “So…with that raid…the Imperium War began…with you right there beside Emperor Halaxaes all along.”

RV:  “Indeed.  I, with Ruvaen’s soul riding along with me, would prove quite the fearsome opponent for the officially announced rebellion, calling themselves the Free Peoples’ Compact.  Halaxaes’ revenge was foremost of course, and those rebels who were captured at Auralus were duly executed in public, though this would do nothing but enhance the anger against the Emperor throughout the systems he controlled.  Ruvaen would lead the assaults on the worlds that were confirmed to be allied with the FPC, or who hid their operatives.  Quite the bloody affair.”

AG:  “Were you responsible for turning the Emperor’s baleful glare upon the various arcanist orders, and the Chroniclers?”

RV:  “No, I did no such thing, though I could not exactly step in as Ruvaen to speak against it.  He knew that arcanists of no small talent were involved in the raid upon Auralus and would see to it that all such institutions were either made absolutely loyal to the Imperium or were eradicated as rebel sympathizers.  It was certainly a great loss for the galaxy; magical studies have truly still not recovered following his decimation. 

I believe your Order, the Chroniclers, while insisting upon a neutral stance throughout, had drawn his ire because he had gotten it in his head that they were holding back vital knowledge that would see Ruvaen restored to a proper body.  Cloning technology was severely limited in that time, and the old methods of creating magical clones were lost to all but a handful of arcanists throughout the galaxy, though historically speaking, most clones created through arcane methods tended to grow unstable quickly and usually tried to kill the original if awakened early.  He wanted to see his son restored, and when he could not find the knowledge he sought in the order’s archives, he assumed the worst and went to war against them, instead.

It was during this period that I would first come in conflict with Lila Darius, well, one of her reincarnations, in fact, and would be but the first of many vexations she would bring me in the centuries to follow.  It’s rather fortunate I remained on the sidelines during the Age of Legends, for if I’d met her then, history may have turned out quite different indeed.”

#Lore24 – Entry #350 – Sci-Fi Month IV #15 – Tightening Fists, Growing Discontent

Transcribed From the Personal Recording Implant of Andra Ganim, Chronicler of the Codex Infinitum

AG:  “I take it that the spread of the Elvish Imperium’s control would hinder your further exploration of the draconic ruins that had been discovered since the expansion from Andyllion?”

RV:  “It would, yes.  There was a specific something I was looking for, had been looking for since the Age of Legends, in fact; I’ll get back to this soon enough, I promise.  I could travel mostly where I wished, being an elf, but I didn’t want to have the many eyes of the emperor upon me.  I learned quickly that I was as much of a threat to Halaxaes as any of his enemies, for I was a power he couldn’t control.  There were several attempts on my life as I came out of my seclusion and learned of the new state of the galaxy, even rating the attention of one of the Hands of Mausolus when more mundane methods had failed.  This one was the newest Hand, Twilight Tokikatsu, not the legendary Korvalis Nightrunner, who was still active at the time, and would be so for a while yet before he would “retire”.  Still, I very nearly met my end at their hands at least twice. 

Sending the Hand of Mausolus after me was the second strike Halaxaes would earn.  Now, it’s common that you allow three strikes before retaliation, but I long ago lowered it to two.  I resolved upon my second escape from the Hand of Death that Halaxaes would need to be dealt with.  As much as it pained me, I would have to put my research on hold for a time and see this little struggle for ultimate control of the galaxy ended in a way that would satisfy me.  I could have perhaps simply eliminated him then and there, but I’ll admit to being rather incensed at his actions, so I vowed to make him suffer.”

AG:  “I see.  How exactly did you go about this?”

RV:  “I would remain in hiding, and let the story spread that I was afraid of Halaxaes.  I would do nothing directly to him, not at the time, anyway.  Rather, I would do what we elves do best, plant seeds and watch them grow over time; I had played this game centuries upon centuries longer than him, after all.  I would let the fool continue his expansion, let him tighten his grip to the point he could tighten it no more, to allow a proper discontent to grow upon the many worlds he would oppress with his military might.  The many space citadels he would create would help to ensure that discontent, as would the creation of the Sentinels.”

AG:  “You refer to the massive space stations that were capable of destroying an entire planet, yes?”

RV:  “That’s correct.  Sentinel Prime was the first and largest of them, supposedly the only one that still survives in fact.  Halaxaes was nothing if not insistent that bigger was better, and the idea of building a station capable of hyperspace travel that could easily match an entire fleet and still have enough left to obliterate a planet was the pinnacle of his power.  It shows how small minded he was, in my opinion; I can think of at least a half a dozen measures that would be more efficient when it comes to destroying a planet or laying waste to a system, in terms of manpower, resources, and time.  But, all are more subtle and hardly as blatantly obvious a threat to intimidate the populace into compliance, so his ways were not entirely without merit.  I just prefer more subtle methods of control, I suppose.”

AG:  “A more corporatized method, would you say?”

RV:  “I would.”

Note:  Rivalle seemed quite smug at that response.

AG:  “So you would allow Halaxaes to continue expanding his empire; what did you do in the meantime?”

RV:  “I helped encourage that discontent, helped to shift funds and resources to the growing rebellious groups in various systems, all under different identities I developed.  I even worked with several groups of Malvaxor worshippers to help start plagues and famines throughout many worlds where the Imperium was at tis strongest, just to keep Halaxaes and his people distracted, keep that little bit of discontent simmering within those most loyal to the emperor.  This would of course spread to other systems as resources were pulled from them to compensate, further growing the hatred against the Imperium.  It would only be a matter of time before the cracks would grow too wide to cover up.

I would also begin working on another golem during this period, quite a special one in fact, with a particular purpose in mind.  Halaxaes had a most beloved son, you see, Ruvaen, who was his right hand, a most devoted boy with no small arcane talent himself, a master swordsman and seasoned soldier, too, though he notably lacked his father’s ambition, otherwise he likely would have tried to wrest control of the empire from him some time before.  So, he would be my next target, and it was for him that I built this special golem.”

AG:  “Was the golem to assassinate him?  Was that what attacked him during the raid on Auralus that would spark the war against the Imperium in earnest?”

RV:  “Oh no, not at all, quite the opposite in fact.  This golem was meant to save his life.”

 

LORE24 ENTRY #27 – Robotics

Category – Technology

Robotics have advanced in some amazing ways since space travel became commonplace, though still seems lacking in other ways.  The most common types of robotics are those dedicated to mass-production, laboring away in factories on massive assembly lines to build starships and other vehicles.  Other robots have, in the many prosperous regions, taken over the less desirable manual labors, such as farming or janitorial services.  Robotics are more commonly seen in the form of cybernetic replacements for limbs, or in the form of powered suits or exoskeletons designed to handle heavier cargo.

True robots have seen a rather limited advancement due to the unreliability and lack of advancement of artificial intelligence that would govern their behavior.  Beyond basic functions with a limited scope, such as farming and assembly, advanced AI has proven unreliable at best when governing the behaviors of these machines, and a liability and danger to living beings at its worst.  The general consensus is that artificial intelligence should be limited in scope and reach, and with limited decision-making ability.  There have been multiple instances throughout history where more advanced AI has led to loss of life and destruction of property when the AI outright fails or goes completely rogue and has to be destroyed.

Autonomous robots do exist in some limited roles.  Some corporations make use of robotic sentries for security purposes, though these act as little more than armored, mobile gun turrets with target-identifying abilities, as well as small, highly maneuverable drones meant to patrol or search a wide area.  Some groups see modern robotics as bringing back the ancient golems, creating loyal, if mostly unintelligent, servants and guardians, though even those were often only tasked with simple orders, limiting their purpose.  The size of modern robotics is likewise limited, with the largest examples being slow-moving and often limited to factory spaces; physics still applies to larger robots, after all, and the secrets of creating truly massive golems that could actually move about without necessarily destroying the streets they walked upon has been lost to time.