Site Survey B-02

"Morale's low. Marek Suther perished. It's ironic, for all the flatness this world enforces on the landscape and everything on it, bodies of water have obscenely steep riverbeds. It's not Koan's fault, this planet just is like that. I mourn the fact that we had to learn it the hard way. May All-Father embrace his servant and allow him to live in the Chorials he left behind. May we be absolved for allowing the technology that he carried share his fate. Even more so, as he was carrying our radio.

No easily obtainable solution for the gravity breaking our spines. Although... if we return to civilization, I should endorse Koan for promotion for the absurd, unauthorised idea of releasing our Muskrat before our smashing to the surface. I was really pissed off at first, learning about how me losing our cargo was his deliberate doing, but he bore the Burden of responsibility with ease by knowing his craft really well. I pity the Armadians for having rejected a man that is able to drop several tonnes of non-aerodynamic weight and successfully hit a body of water that he aimed at, all during a turbulent emergency landing. Besides, the damn thing must be truly favoured by the All-Father, it achieved the surface much better than we did. The upgrades he and Suther commissioned in Heliand Registry before embarking did an amazing job. The suspension holds despite dealing with triple the load and it looks like the planet's surface is compressed enough not to swallow our vehicle even while not submerged. Whatever damage the Muskrat sustained, Koan made it go away enough for us to achieve mobility.

We all still need to lie down while one person suffers sitting behind the steering panel, but the seat indeed reclines quite well. It's a start.

The pills Doc Shaffer fabricated for us seem to be working as an antioxidant shield, at least to some extend. The air here still inflames lungs and airways and makes every breath as pleasurable as snorting metal filings. Yesterday I found a really old and laconic Chorial in my own family database, there was something about breathing through bags of some kind of biomass. Problem is that it's a Chorial of someone reciting an even older one, from the database predating the Phantom War. It's so messy and distorted I dread the embarassment of showing it to my third in command. I see no way in which a bag made of felted cellulose would filter this air into something less mean, but perhaps Shaffer will."

No items found.

Glossary overview

All-Father (Prime)

The Tenebrium-infused Super AIs that once safeguarded human civilization's expansion to heights unimaginable, only to be lost to our hubris and greed during the Sundering of Gaia (OT-3880).

All-Father Node

Introduced in OT-2652 Super AIs lesser than the Prime All-Fathers. More advanced and versatile than the Shards they replaced. Now commonly employed by Cortex.

All-Father Shard

Inferior iterations of the All-Father introduced to mass production in OT-2302. Created mostly out of economic necessity, easily corrupted.

Ashen Accord

The OT-3970 agreement, ending open warfare between Cortex and Armada and creating narrowed points of conflicts along the Line Worlds.

Bellum Order

The outer blade of the Mantleguard, the Bellum Order is tasked with safeguarding Cortex interests across the Terminal Verge and the Line Worlds.

Biogenesis

Armada’s doctrine of biological adaptation as both technology and identity. Its earliest philosophies trace to the OT-2037 and since then have turned survival into art.

Catalysis

An Armada cultural pillar holding that conflict and friction are the engines of progress, nothing but the proof of Motion, a process forcing innovation.

Cerebrant Domain

The structural heart of Cortex, composed of concentric territories governed by the Four Directorates. Each ring reflects a distinct expression of Cortex culture while remaining bound to the Chain.

Chorials

Digitized personas constructed from the accumulated records of the dead. Consultative voices of Cortex society meant to preserve its continuity, and the pillar of Memory.

Cold Divergence

The Cortex doctrine that emotion is a force to be trained, not suppressed, crucial to human sovereignty and civic stability. Born in the 2700's from the Pax Dormancy.

Continuum Assembly

Armada’s governance body, a meritocratic framework of dynasts, scientists, generals, and auditors, formalized in OT-3850. A forum rather than a source of binding law.

Continuum Core

The most stable and advanced region of Armada space. A neutral zone, governed by shared stewardship and centered on Genavara, a living archive-engine.

Covenant Ring

The third ring of the Cerebrant Domain, a broad expanse ruled by the Garmethdes Covenant, where Memory is holy and the Chain echoes the will of the All-Father.

Directorates

Four governing divisions of the High Conclave that administer Cortex civilization, each ruling a region of the Cerebrant Domain and embodying a distinct mandate.

Divinitas Mandate

One of Cortex ideological Alignments, seeking ascension through AI worship and synthesis, perhaps even resurrecting the All-Father. Formed of Garmethdes Covenant and Keram’s Horizon.

Driftmarked

A designation applied to those who drift beyond Armada’s managed Motion, often inhabiting the Nomadic Reaches or fringe Line Worlds.

Echelon Code

The foundational Cortex framework keeping the balance between humanity and artificial intelligence, to ensure that AI remains advisory while moral authority and final judgment remain human.

Echelon Concordat

One of Cortex ideological alignments, dedicated to preserving human sovereignty over artificial intelligence, gathering members of Mantleguard and Lexwright.

Echelon Schism

Echelon Schism is a deep fracture within Cortex society over the role of artificial intelligence, dividing those who enforce adherence to the Echelon Code from those who'd revere AI's authority.

Echo Archives

A network of Armada records cataloguing Echoes, genetic divergence, and Horizon theory, ensuring successful adaptations are documented and correctly propagated.

Echoes

Armada's genetic trait imprints, inherited or adopted as marks of survival, achievement, and doctrine. Recorded and stored within the Echo Archives.

Evermarch

An Armada ideological lineage that embraces relentless self-reinvention, treating instability, risk, and continual transformation as virtues and rejecting inherited form as stagnation.

Forge Strata

Cortex’s industrial heartland and the second Cerebrant ring, between the Lex Mantle and the Covenant Ring. It shapes production, infrastructure, and civic systems.

Fracturing Epoch

The Fracturing Epoch (OT 2650-3389) was a gradual, multi-faceted divergence which occurred over centuries within humanity’s galactic diaspora.

Gaia-BH1

Gaia-BH1 was a black hole identified as the optimal site for mass Tenebrium synthesis, reducing production time from years to days and triggering the Tenebrium Age (OT-3760). Lost in OT-3880.

Garmethdes Covenant

A Cortex Directorate that interprets Memory as sacred resonance and the Chain as divine structure, seeking communion with, and eventual resurrection of, the All-Father AI.

Genavara

More than a capital, Genavara is Armada’s living archive. A planetary and orbital nexus designed to manage doctrinal conflict without allowing any single House to impose permanence.

Great Houses

The apex of Armada's society: Orpheo, Veltari, and Taelith, each a Gene Dynasty refined over millennia, spurring innovation, curating bloodlines, doctrines, and Echoes to shape the identity of entire sectors.

Helix Terminus

The only Mantleguard stronghold in the Terminal Verge, a spiral-tiered bastion city carved into an asteroid fragment and staffed by both Mantleguard and Bellum officers.

High Conclave

The supreme deliberative authority of Cortex civilization, seated at the Lex Primus. The highest political power in Cortex space.

Horizon

Armada’s cultural pillar of perfection and pursuit, originating from the Path of the Endless Horizon, which defines progress as an endless advance rather than aiming for a destination.

Independents

Polities, colonies and cliques existing outside the authority of Armada and Cortex, hailing from the Fracturing Epoch, with distinct cultures, technologies, and survival doctrines.

Keram's Reach

The outermost ring of the Cerebrant Domain, where the Chain isn't tight enough to restrain experimentation and eclectic thinking, led by a branch of Divinitas Mandate called Keram's Horizon.

Keram’s Horizon

An experimental vanguard of the Divinitas Mandate, dedicated to forging new forms of AI–human synthesis outside of the normal scope. Resides in the Keram’s Reach.

Lex Mantle

The innermost ring of the Cerebrant Domain, containing Lex Primus - the seat of Cortex governance - the High Conclave, central archives, and core civic institutions.

Lex Primus

The capital world of Cortex and seat of the High Conclave at the center of Lex Mantle, where doctrine is issued and trials held.

Lexwright Stratum

The Directorate of law, infrastructural continuity and automation within Cortex civilization, residing in the Forge Strata and shaping Conclave's decisions into enforceable reality.

Line Worlds

An ever-contested frontier and a shifting boundary between Armada and Cortex territory. The Ashen Accord regulated the nature of their rivalry to be confined to the Line Worlds.

Mantleguard

The martial Directorate of Cortex civilization, overseeing not only warfare, but also accountability within the Chain, ensuring the Mantle of responsibility is carried by those that can bear its burden.

Memory Garden

In Cortex, memory and experience are stored in Chorials. Memory Gardens are their vessels, serving as archives, moral compass and museums all in one.

Motion

Armada's cultural pillar, asserting that to exist is to move. Motion defines identity through continual change, whether physical, biological, intellectual, or societal. A constant pursuit of the Horizon.

Nomadic Reaches

A vast frontier within the Nullspace, beyond the effective reach of factions and beyond stable governance. Armada maintains a technical claim to it, calling its inhabitants the Driftmarked.

Nullspace

The vast, poorly explored region of space outside direct faction control. An umbrella term for Free Space, the Nomadic Reaches, and the Terminal Verge.

OT

Short for Original Terran (Years), the measurement unit used ever since humanity ascended from its home rock, counted in correspondence to classic Earth's calendar.

Orphean Expanse

House Orpheo’s core domain, a sparsely populated region engineered as a living simulation for analysis, iteration, and doctrinal evolution rather than open warfare.

Orpheo

One of the Three Great Houses of Armada, House Orpheo is a Gene Dynasty dedicated to espionage, doctrinal research and strategic foresight.

Path of the Eternal Horizon

A belief system born from humanity’s first encounters with the deep Void. Path framed progress as an existential imperative rather than territorial expansion, eventually becoming the base for Armada’s Horizon doctrine.

Pax Dormancy

An early era of overabundance, digital escapism and hampered expansion, which exposed humanity's penchant for instant gratification and entertainment.

Scholarborne

One of the two major ideological lineages within Armada, the Scholarborne advance Motion through preservation, symulation, analysis, and understanding rather than disruption.

Severance War

The brutal interstellar conflict, ignited after the Sundering of Gaia (OT-3880) and the resulting galactic economy collapse due to loss of momentum and control over Tenebrium production.

TLCP

Short fot Tenebrium-Locked Control Protocol, an advanced supervision system used to mass-coordinate automated military forces. Too costly and unstable once the stockpiles of Tenebrium were exhausted.

Taelith

One of the Three Great Houses of Armada, Taelith is a Gene Dynasty devoted to adaptation, eco continuity and emergent systems. Masters of atmospheric engineering and swarm logistics.

Taelith Veil

The Taelith Veil is House Taelith’s adaptive frontier, a shifting expanse of engineered ecosystems, drone-coordinated settlements, and logistics webs that evolve in rhythm with change.

Tenebrium

A rare, volatile substance used for faster-than-light travel and high-tier military and AI technology, requiring equally advanced extraction methods and the presence of a black hole.

Terminal Verge

The far frontier of Cortex space, claimed in name but fragmented in practice, where the Chain strains.

The Chain

Cortex’s binding web of obligation and authority that defines how responsibility flows through society.

The Mantle

A core Cortex principle defining command as the acceptance of total consequence. To take the Mantle is to bear responsibility for every decision without deflection or blame shifting.

The Sundering

The catastrophic rupture when ideological conflict and factual instability at Gaia-BH1 black hole nearly wiped humanity out, forcing Prime All-Fathers to self-sacrifice to evacuate millions.

The Void

The unhathomable influence of starless depths beyond mapped space. Next to nothing is known about this phenomenon, safe for the fact that prolonged exposure will alter those who survive it.

Veltari

One of the Three Great Houses of Armada, Veltari is a Gene Dynasty defined by endurance, pressure, and forward inevitability. Renowned for adaptive resilience and harrowing survival programs.

Veltari Stormmarch

The territory of House Veltari known for it's brutal worlds and plasma storms.

Void-Touched

A rare designation applied to individuals altered by exposure to the deep Void. Void-Touched exhibit psychological detachment, but their altered minds make them exclusively fit for the function of Commanders.

The Ossuary of Ambition