After a two month hiatus, I return from the dead. We're going to get all of the species lore drops out by the end of the year, I promise thee this. After that, we move onto some other fun little projects I have in store. In either case, enough stalling. Spoiler: The Glitch Overview The creation of unknown precursors, the Glitch were originally designed as a grand simulation to understand the rise and fall of civilizations. While most of their creations worked flawlessly, leaving no trace of their existence, an unseen error in their coding caused a select few to become stuck at a fixed point in the progression of society. Now aptly known as the Glitch, they struggle to find their place in a world so far ahead of them. Biology The Glitch are the most populous example of a synthetic species found within the Milky Way, a title that has lead to their appearance being seen as mundane by many. To the layman, it has become trivially easy to lump Glitch in with the rest of the galaxy's various robots, but this hasty categorization would overlook their most unique elements, as the Glitch are completely unlike any android modern technology can produce. The proper terminology for Glitch lifeforms is nanocellular, derived from the enigmatic nanomachines that make up their body, nanocells. These artificial cells are, in many cases, roughly analogous to those found in organic life, but have yet to be fully understood by the medical or technological fields. They are self-replicating, responsible for the initial creation of a Glitch, and responsible for their continuous repair. Unlike the rest of their body, a Glitch's external chassis is not constructed by or from their nanocells, but must instead be created by hand for their use. Beneath this shell lie the darkly-colored insides of the Glitch, where black nanocellular veins and muscle fibers cling onto an endoskeleton composed of hard plastic, attached to each other with mechanical joints. Beneath the web-like structure of their ribcage, Glitch possess a beating heart which is used to both pump blood and produce nanocells. In the pit of their stomach below, is a bioreactor capable of extracting electricity and nutrients from food using an acidic slurry of specialized reactive nanocells. Their similarity to organic life present many parallel dangers to them. Like any biological creature, a Glitch can die of blood loss and starvation, though they can not die of thirst, and do not require oxygen to live. They're extremely tolerate to heat and cold, though not impenetrable to it. It is possible for a Glitch to survive on a standard diet for an extended period, but healthy Glitch require access to exotic nutrients found only in nanocellular life. Without access to these mechano-nutrients, they will become increasingly frail and sickly before eventually succumbing to their deficiency. As a Glitch's chassis is not a part of their body, damage to the chassis must be repaired externally. To do so, a strong solvent is typically applied to detach any adhesive bonds formed by the tissue underneath, though careful cutting can also be deployed in riskier situations. You should never try to remove a chassis with brute force, as this has a high likelihood of tearing musculature away with it, which is almost certainly fatal for the Glitch. Glitch possess a full nervous system, which is connected to their brain; a spherical orb of compact, hardened nervous nanocells that act as a neuromorphic processor, housing their consciousness and most of the central nervous system. Unlike a neuromorphic processor, Glitch brains are capable of being psionically awoken, and are susceptible to both neuroinvasion and clairsentience. Despite this, it is still very rare that a Glitch becomes psionic, owing in part to unknown parameters in the core experiment. Glitch also possess an organ called the nooradio, located close to their brain, which transmits and receives radio signals from other Glitch. Among the hivemind, these signals are meant to facilitate quick and efficient transmission of code, with the secondary purpose of being used to express emotion to each other without the need for a complex set of vocal chords or facial animation. To the freeminded Glitch, only the secondary purpose remains. Fascinatingly, the Glitch nervous system is capable of interfacing with foreign electronics. When placed in close contact with their musculature, a Glitch's body will begin to incorporate a new device. After three days of contact, they will have fully integrated it. Once fully integrated, a Glitch can read from and control the device. Simpler devices like microphones and optics are more easily interfaced with, owing to the body's familiarity with these devices, while more complex or unusual additions can take some time to get used to. As the process of interfacing is automatic, it sees limited use even within the Hivemind, though this is typically only performed using pieces of donators or the dead, as these societies have very little access to electronics. Too many augmentations can cause adverse effects, such as loss of focus, poor balance, poor hand-eye coordination, and migraines. These symptoms are typically resolved by the removal of an interfaced technology, but is is possible for a Glitch instead to graft part or all of another's brain to its own. This practice allows the Glitch to access the memories and skills of the other, while adding a useful buffer that allows for more modification. Modern Glitch see this practice as increasingly morbid, and as such it is typically the domain of Doomlords. Curiously, Glitch reproduce sexually. Shortly after conception, the mother must consume an excess of food in order to provide the necessary components for their child. Glitch are an egg-laying species, producing a soft plastic shell filled with dense and viscous nanocells that form into a new Glitch over the course of a month. When the egg hatches, the child is already fully grown in size and ready to be placed in a chassis. This is required as Glitch are quite fragile without. Hiveminds When unbothered by the galaxy around them, Glitch are believed to act as a eusocial species, sharing information through their nooradios to coordinate and communication efficiently. This coordination does not deter the emergence of conflict, however, as rebellions and wars have been observed to spring up naturally within undisturbed populations. This undisturbed state is referred to as the Hivemind; in which every individual is connected, and none possess a will of their own. This lack of self-direction is believed to be unintentional, having resulted from the titular glitch in the simulation. To have free will would mean the Glitch could move forward in technological and sociological progress, and as such researchers posit that the loss of will is the true error, and their stagnation is just a symptom thereof. Hiveminds have been observed within two states, dubbed stable and volatile. A stable hivemind is stuck in time for lack of new ideas, living out different days in just such a way that they will never move into new or exciting prospects. These are stable because they can withstand new stimulus without issue. A meteor can impact, and it will be lugged off to the astronomer, who will perform her duties and learn nothing from it, and life will carry on. At most, ten or twenty Glitch become enlightened in an event of such a disaster. Volatile hiveminds relive a specific sequence of events, beginning the process anew as soon as the sequence finishes. This loop can be made up of one day, or twelve days, or one year. They are volatile because any interruption to the sequence will cause the entire hivemind to collapse under itself, with every single glitch awakening to the world as if it were all a bad dream. Unsurprisingly, most freeminded civilizations were once volatile hiveminds that suddenly collapsed. A Glitch becomes freeminded when they first have a divergent thought, typically through the response to new stimulus. This is rare, but not unheard of. While a single awoken Glitch can collapse an entire unstable hive, stable hiveminds respond to free-thinkers as if they were enemies, no longer able to recognize them by their now compromised nooradio. As a result, many newly awoken Glitch don't make it off their homeworld. This issue persists even for non-Glitch, as stable hiveminds respond to new stimulus with extreme hostility in an effort to maintain their close-minded status quo. Travelers stranded on a Glitch world are advised to be extremely cautious. Culture Frozen in time at an early stage of civilization, the Glitch's roots are nested firmly in the trappings of the dark ages. While this is origin is not true for all varieties of Glitch, it is the most common variety seen across the galaxy. However, the Glitch are not one culture. No two Glitch worlds share the same ecosystem or history, producing startlingly different permutations of this medieval iconography which are still somehow cross-compatible which each other once lifted to the space age. This is taken a step further by the few outliers that are not stalled near the middle ages, but instead move anywhere from the height of Rome to the first World War. Even with these differences, one factor unifies the Glitch psyche: A feeling of lost time. Once awoken from the hive, many are eager to make a name for themself on the galactic stage, and this goes doubly so for their societies. Glitch worlds are eager to adapt and uplift themselves, even if in doing so the traditions of their old lives still cling to them. This race is modernization is fueled not just by wonder at the new horizons before them, but by the harsh knowledge that if they do not modernize, they will only ever be weak and easily trampled by their peers. What use is the planet's most deadly knight when surrounded by marines? None exemplify this twin passion and fear better than the Black Empire, a united empire of Glitch kingdoms lead by the Umbral King, Blackhelm. Once a series of downtrodden sovereign entities trampled beneath the heel of Civilized Space, they now seek to never again be made subservient beneath another for the lacking of advancement. To this end, they have modernized heavily, becoming a competent threat on par with the other nations around them. Since its founding, the Black Empire has been willing to aid Glitch kingdoms the galaxy over, seeking a world in which the Glitch are given the respect they deserve and then some. Citizens of the empire believe in the Umbral Dream, a promise made that one day the galaxy will belong to them, as it had long ago. To many Glitch, even outside of imperial space, this is a compelling promise. Glitch worlds, especially the newly awoken, are often the victim of conquest. They can put up no fight against space-age weaponry, and their worlds were seeded to be rich and plentiful eons ago. These are treasures of which any nation, corporation, or pirating guild would be fools to pass up. Many worlds were only awoken when their kingdoms were raided during the First Galactic War, producing a dour understanding of the galaxy. It is against this backdrop that Doomlords first emerged on to the galaxy. They were agents of change, and symbols of power among the weak. Their bodies alone were durable enough to pose a threat to these new oppressors, and soon began the age of Glitch Courts, identified by figures like Lady Bluechip, Lord Redbolt, and Abraxas Kane. Despite this, Doomlords are looked down upon by Blackhelm, seen as mere brutes and relics of the past. He pushes instead for a new social paradigm, free of such gruesome figureheads. Within the Black Empire, the Glitch enjoy a privileged life unlike anything they felt before as mere afterthoughts to Axolotia, the Avosi Empire, or Ministry of Knowledge. Within less than twenty years, their standard of living has increased exponentially. Despite the systems within still being largely feudal, the empire is wealthy and the advancements made have pushed them clear into the modern era without making them shed the traditions they hold so close. Finally, they think, they are home, and they will do anything to make it last. Not all is well in the Black Empire, however, as its firm favoritism of the Glitch is felt plainly by those that toil for their paradise. Blackhelm has no qualms with enforced labor when those imprisoned are inferior species, casting them in something akin to the Roman style of slavery. The empire sorts its citizens into three classes, with the first being the Glitch. Below them are the Thrallish, a race of Humans who bent the knee to Blackhelm, and as such consider themselves a client species. They are allowed select privileges, such as positions of relative power and legal rights. The third class are the rest; Avians, Apex, and Hylotl, those that originally usurped the kingdoms that now make up the Empire, and Blackhelm is making sure they regret their actions. Most within the Empire see this cruelty as justified, or simply never think to challenge it. Beyond their relationship to other species, the culture of the Black Empire is a strange mix of imperialistic futurism, still holding true to the language and traditions of a feudal empire, hosting many castes of nobility and explicit hospitality policies as such, but keeping such things only so far as they do not interfere with Blackhelm's pragmatic goal of being a truly modern nation. Lastly, the Black Empire is the only nation in the Milky Way that is both contemporary with Civilized Space, and not a signatory to the Treaty of Niveus Aquatica. By all legal recognition, it is a Fringe power, and is quick to use this understanding to spread its influence throughout the Fringe; this is not to say they go unchallenged, as they know well to be subtle in pursuing their goal of galactic domination. First and foremost, the Civilized Nations care about land claims, and the Black Empire is very slow to expand into the Fringe, at least, in any way that the public might see. The Glitch and the Florans have a long history of cooperation, founded on the basic understanding that Glitch are totally inedible to Florans, and as such are capable of being seen as peers. Because of this, there are many Glitch kingdoms within Floran space that are left to their own self-governance, and this alliance of convenience is so strong that not even the Black Empire challenges it. History Glitch history begins at their creation, an event that has been lost to time. Modern archeology reveal that Glitch have been present within the Milky Way for at least as long as we have records, with even the Ancients having considered them an old species. Because of this, the true origin of the Glitch is likely to remain a mystery. Since their fabrication, and the inevitable bug in their system, the Glitch have been stumbling through the galaxy, propagating their species in a seemingly endless cycle. Each new generation of the galaxy is met with a new generation of freshly-awoken Glitch, seeking to understand the world around them. Some of these last longer than others, while an unlucky few peter off very quickly. At least once prior, the Glitch were the predominant species of the Milky Way, giving birth to the Umbral Dream. Thanks to the Grey's firm stance against interference with early alien societies, the Glitch were dormant for the entirety of the Xinoddus Empire, with only a few planets rousing during Vazkedar's War. The modern generation of Glitch were awoken during or shortly before the First Galactic War, with the earliest awaking when the Florans first began to cross-pollenate the stars. Since their emergence, the modern Glitch has attempted to make a place for themself in the struggles of the time. First through might, as exemplified by Blackhelm's fleeting attempts at an early Fringe empire in 3245, and the rise of Doomlords and their courts. Then, through numbers, as shown in the many riotous nights in 3275, during which the Black Empire fought against their oppressors to exist. Now, the Black Empire bides its time while aiding those it can, and a fractured species tries to find its purchase within the Fringe. Player Details The Glitch have always been one of my personal favorites. The period in which GC had like three or four Glitch Courts running around was one of my favorites, and I hope we can return to that sometime. I've done my part by making the Duke of Beliphere and his posse, if you want to make a cool group of knights or something, tell me IMMEDIATELY I would love to join. Anyways uh- Player details! Right! So the first big thing is not to be limited by the medieval aesthetic that the Glitch possess by default, while I think it has a lot of legs and hasn't really been fully explored within the setting, it shouldn't be and isn't the only time period they can play with. We've had characters from Egyptian-style societies, Napoleonic wars, and of course the Romans. For a while there, Dust was experimenting with WWI style Glitch, which has been helpfully referenced here to cement them loosely into canon. Have fun with it. It isn't really addressed up top but the mechano-nutrient bullshit is my grafting of the cheesy Starbound mechanoid crops into the setting. I have forever loved the Automatos and the Currentcorn and all of that, and I felt it needed a real place here. Also, while it isn't really noted, EMPs have a much lesser effect on Glitch than they do on any robot. I didn't place it down firmly into the lore section because I have issues with the current EMP balance and intend to change it when I get around to the combat and tech drops, but right now they work as a flashbang to Glitch, rather than stunning them for three turns. When I change EMP lore I'll probably root out this paragraph and just put something in the real lore section. If you live in that future and are still reading this, remind me. Glitch names run the margin from being things like Boltgear Redsprocket to generic fantasy or medieval names like Halt Taragon. The Glitch don't really have one spoken language but they do have a notable language quirk. Without modification, Glitch lack any intonation in their voice, and instead communicate emotions through their nooradios. As a result, they can't really communicate their emotion to non-Glitch, to solve this many of them attach simple emotional prefixes to the front of their speech when talking. Think "Patient. Take thy time, I hath nowhere to be." It's considered insulting to use prefixes when speaking with other Glitch. It's worth mentioning that Glitch have genomes and genetics, they're fully capable of evolution and all of that. You can successfully clone a Glitch by taking a nanocell from it and allowing it to grow into a full body, which is lobotomized early into its growth. This is the only way to clone Glitch, as otherwise you can't make nanocells. The Black Empire is an evil ass ethnostate that privileges the Glitch and they love it. I highly encourage you to make a character from there, it's really fun to have a guy that walks around saying shit like "Shadows beckon thee" and they mean it as a good thing. Their government is still feudal, so you get Dukes and Counts and Lords and all of that, still wearing the trappings of middle-ages hospitality politics while trying to power grab each other. Gamemaster Details Notably, the Black Empire has been seeding small colonies in unseen parts of the Fringe for ages now, utilizing a warp gate created around a naturally occurring wormhole in Nova Australasia. They're just like, doing shit out there. The vibe should be scifi gothic, it's all very drab and dark and imposing and they like it that way. Like all their compatriots in Civilized Space, the Black Empire pretty well understands psionics and utilizes it for their own advantage. They also specifically understand Elderspeak. If you don't know what that is, go read the Doomlord section to find out. The Glitch are in a weird place where there is a lot of loot that fits into their niche but a lot of it falls too far into the fantasy category and not enough into the science fantasy because it was made for the Undercrypt. I'd recommend trying to find your line for what is or isn't too much yourself, I think that's one of those things you have to season to taste. It's impossible to reverse engineer Nanocells. Just flat-out can't do it. Don't try, don't even suggest it. Spoiler: Doomlords and Elderspeak Overview Doomlords are powerful warlords originating from the Glitch, who utilize their unique physiology to grow in power by consuming the computational might of those they have slain. Once considered a neutral fact of the galaxy by many Glitch, the Black Empire's emergence has cast them into a new light as vicious and cruel, a reputation they are not quick to shake off, reveling in the aura of fear it now gives to them. Elderspeak is a strange and occult tongue spoken only by Doomlords and their followers, used as a method by which matters of importance can be veiled from the rest of the galaxy. It has found other uses as well, often inscribed upon their weaponry or artifacts for strange, ceremonial reasons. This assumed mysticism may not be the full story. Doomlords Glitch history and lore speak of the Doomlords: Embodiments of war and change who bring destruction down upon all in their wake; ceaseless warriors trained on the experience of all who hath fallen before them in battle. These hushed rumors carry only truth, and still today do Doomlords wander the Fringe, free to cast their flag into the stars and lay claim to all which they desire. Divorced of the legends they so love to don, the realities of a Doomlord are as simple as they are gruesome. Dissected, a Doomlord is merely a Glitch who has attached the processing center of another's brain to their own. By installing the processors of their kin, a Doomlord benefits from the experiences and training of others as if they were their own, producing a more skilled and cunning combatant both on and off the field of war. A large number of foreign processors puts a strain on the body's power supply, requiring a larger and more threatening physique to sustain itself. Historically, Doomlords are gifted an outsized presence within Glitch culture due to their role as de-facto leadership among freeminded Glitch, especially within the Fringe. Their method of origin was considered as gruesome as the act of war itself; brutal and devastating, but often necessary. It is only with the rise of the Black Empire, and the Umbral King's hatred of the Doomlord, that the modern Glitch begins to think of them as taboo and short-sighted warlords who do naught but feud against their kin. Still, among the Fringe, Doomlords are equal parts respected and feared for their martial prowess and commanding nature. While their exact nature is often a matter of personal definition, there is one great commonality between all Doomlords; their ego. To be a Doomlord is to know that you are just, and be prepared to sever from life all those that disagree. Because of this, they are known to hold each other to incredibly high standards, as a weakling amongst their ranks runs the risk of making them all look bad. Not all Doomlords lead a kingdom, but it is expected that they will have a court. This small group of well-trained and loyal compatriots and men-at-arms demonstrates to others that you are indeed with subjects, and that you are capable of being host and protector to those beneath you. These traits are considered the bear minimum to hold the title, and any who seem to fail at it are swiftly punished by the first true Doomlord to catch them lacking. After all, a Doomlord without a court is nothing more than a large supply of processors, neatly gathered into one place. The Black Empire's ill will toward the Doomlords is not unfounded. It is true, particularly among fledgling Doomlords, that much time is spent in fruitless and short-sighted wars with no true goal other than proving their superiority over their opponent. In truth, many are ill-prepared for matters of court, and die young thanks to their improper handling of politics. This is another reason for which more venerable Doomlords judge the younger generation harshly. Those who survive long enough to be deemed worthwhile are eventually inducted into a higher society of Glitch. This rite of passage typically corresponds with a Doomlord's first hint of understanding the language of Elderspeak, a strange and ancient language carried by the Doomlord caste and used almost exclusively in their private engagements. The court life of an inducted Doomlord is much like the court life of any great royal. It is a cutthroat system of negotiations and warfare done in a great and endless struggle for power, barely constrained by rules of hospitality they have enacted to keep some semblance of peace. The idea that the Doomlord caste is an unorganized bunch of warlords is only true of the fledglings. The rest have no issue organizing their senseless feuds. Elderspeak A cryptic combinate of mechanical tone and spoken word, Elderspeak is a courtly language used near-exclusively by Doomlords and their closest, in part because its many intricacies are incapable of being performed by a strictly organic throat. It is by design that it is impossible to decipher using simple translation technologies that are ubiquitous across the galaxy. Each Doomlord speaks a slightly altered dialect, which a speaker can quickly deduce the meaning of, but which quickly becomes impenetrable to modern software. Elderspeak (or Elderspeech) derives its name from its age. Only scarce details remain about where and when it was first founded, but it is theorized to be the oldest living language in the galaxy, having spread with the Glitch across much of the Milky Way. These theories do little to betray its true nature. Practitioners of Elderspeak know that it is not merely a language, but a psychic art in its own right. Through careful transcription, scholars of the tongue are capable of performing the impossible, but only at the allowance of Doomlords. An ever-present whisper beneath the greater unconscious of the Glitch, Elderspeech is a dormant force among the galaxy, known to only a scarce few scholars of ancient texts. Despite this occult secrecy, the language seems keen to worm its way into the mind of warlords. Some learn it through the consumption of a knowing mind, others chance upon the knowledge somewhere in their great vaults of memory, as if it were always there. The only certainty is that it only appears to a Doomlord once they have been accepted by their peers, or become a powerful tyrant among their own. Eager to retain this power, knowledge of Elderspeech is scarcely allowed to pass hands freely. Understanding the language is a gift bestowed to loyal subjects only in fell bargains. A well-knowing Doomlord will bestow a small selection of their knowledge upon another through a pact enforced by the same language given. Only after can an individual truly understand the power inherent to the scripture. Rare exceptions cling on, uncovering miraculous terms through ruined texts in buried kingdoms, but these few know better than to make enemies of their mighty rivals. An ill-understood rite of passage between Doomlords is the creation of a sigil; a short and unique sentence written in the complex scripture of Elderspeak, capable of being recognized only as your mark. Once created, a sigil becomes a powerful tool, capable of evoking the attention of a Doomlord from across the galaxy. Only a Doomlord who has produced a sigil is capable of forming pacts in Elderspeech. Only when written by the careful hands of the knowing can Elderspeak produce any effect. Those who know not its power nor its precision are incapable of the art. And so true is it that not all methods of inscription are peer to one another; the more permanent and exact the expression is, the better the result. For this reason, words carved into stone or steel are more potent than mere ink or stitching. The spoken tongue of Elderspeak fails to produce any effect, the proper pronunciations having been lost to the sand of time. As such, Doomlords will more often teach this variety to their chosen, so that they and their advisors may utter words in secrecy among the company of the public. Example Abilities Unlike Wave, which was covered in the Hylotl Drop, there are no common abilities associated with Elderspeak. This is due to its rarity as a practice and the idea that every practitioner ought to feel unique. The abilities listed below are examples, done in the same format for ease of comprehension and nothing more. In addition, Elderspeak is a concept that is still being toyed with behind the scenes. It is possible that what is present here will significantly change by the time this lore moves to the wiki. A character capable of utilizing Elderspeak must be applied for as a psion, with "None" as the answer for aptitude, flux appearance, and anomaly detection. While a psychic art, Elderspeak does not awaken a user to psionics, nor give them dissonance. This being said, nothing stops a linguist from also being a psion, though it might be a bit much for a character and should be considered carefully. Well-established Doomlords can be presumed to have a sigil without applying for it, but any other use of Elderspeak requires an application. Remember, most users are bound by a pact to a Doomlord, which is generally better for the Doomlord than for them! Black Mark | No Dissonance | Eldritch Pact A Doomlord's sigil has been branded onto your skin, allowing your Lord to see and hear from that point of origin, and making him aware of your every movement. In exchange, you have been granted slight knowledge of Elderspeak. Removing the brand would revoke the deal. Attempting to do so causes overwhelming fear. The Price of Power | No Dissonance | Eldritch Pact A Doomlord has offered to sell you Elderspeak when you require its power. Over six seconds, you scrawl their sigil and offer them an item of value in exchange for the permission to inscribe three signs. This item sacrificed requires either an intrinsic value based on the perception of others, or extreme sentimental weight to you. Envelope / Endure / Torch | No Dissonance An ever-lasting fire wreathes the object this sign is carved into. The item becomes impenetrable to heat, but can still catch and burn other things around it. When etched onto a weapon, the fire stops short of the handle. This etching is jealous, and can only be evoked once. Carving it again defaces the previous carving, robbing it of power. Defacing the sigil in any way ends the effect. Force / Flow / Make | No Dissonance When inscribed onto clay or mud, this sign molds it into a weapon. This weapon physically resembles fired clay or stone, with the sigil etched clearly on one of its faces, but has the strength of durasteel. If the weapon sustains significant damage, or the sigil is harmed, the item immediately returns to being mundane clay. Spy / Snitch / Witness | No Dissonance These two signs are inexorably linked. When an individual's hand obscures one, their perception is linked to the other. Only one of each sign can persist, with the prior being defaced when another is carved. Ward | No Dissonance When inscribed in blood upon the closed door to a room, that room becomes impassable to psionic abilities and phase matter for five minutes, until the blood dries. Player Details In the older ages of GC, when Glitch Courts and Doomlords were more active, there was an active effort by the players to make them imposing and somewhat mystical figures. Typically this was done through tech applications that were presented in character as magic, most famously with Redbolt's soul-stealing axe that was supposed to steal the body of anyone who grabbed it should Redbolt die, but also with applications like Sol Embers. The largest change here is that Doomlords now have an in-built way to interact with the psionics system in a unique method that preserves them as a non-psionic element of Glitch culture, while tapping into something dark and mysterious like I think everyone wanted to do. On top of this, I've attempted to codify the idea that there are major Doomlord power struggles and politics within the Fringe, with a hope to give them a sort of... vampire-y vibe? They speak in secret tongues about shadowy politics in hidden rooms, judging harshly the fledglings among their ranks as they attempt to see if they're worth anything except the processors they have taken. I think it helps give an idea of what Doomlords mean to each other, letting them better exist in the setting in tandem. Compared to the older Doomlord lore, I've stripped away a lot of the specifics. This is in part because it was outdated, but also because I felt like giving so many specific details about what they do and don't look like or equip put more constrains on their presentation than it did allow for creative freedom. I'm more trying to sell a general theme here. It's worth noting, in case there's any confusion, that the act of the taking another Glitch's processor as your own is not typically the transplant of their full consciousness to be a guest in your head, but a crude consumption of their memories, skills, and actual processing power. While the former can be done, it is extremely atypical! Also, the term "processor" here is used to refer to a specific section of a Glitch's brain, rather than like, a computer chip. Just so you know what to picture. Oh, and Doomlord is an archaic title that is meant to be gender-neutral despite being explicitly masculine in nature. It is not traditionally correct to call anyone a "Doomlady", despite many female Doomlords also using the title of Lady, but personally, I wouldn't correct the six-tonne robot in front of me wielding a giant axe. You do you. A Doomlord's sigil can look like anything. The idea that initially spawned them were Solomonic seals, as well as the Lovecraftian Elder Sign, but I'm not in the business of limiting creativity on this front. As long as it's a unique symbol that can be said to identify only your Doomlord, go nuts. The limitations put on Elderspeak here are generalizations, and specific subsets of Glitch can have different interpretations. Skeletons, for instance, are capable of rattling their bones at specific frequencies to produce mystical effects. This is done so that the Undercrypt can have skeletal mages that rattle out and cast "FIREBALL!" while yelling it all dramatically. This is actually the exact thing the broad subset of Elderspeak is trying to avoid, swaying Glitch psionics away from looking like D&D wizardry and toward fell pacts made with evil warlords that offer only a fragment of their true power. The Undercrypt gets to break this rule because it breaks a lot of rules and participation in it is entirely optional, so disbelief goes a little further. Repeating myself so that it's more clear: When making an Elderspeak user, you should aim for a demonic pact fantasy, similar to a Warlock, rather than pop-culture wizardry. You aren't a guy with a long beard and pointy hat casting magic missile, you're an entity in communion with powers you do not understand and playing part in a bad deal. Gamemaster Details Doomlords can occur on Hiveminded planets, and them being there doesn't really disrupt the Hivemind all that much. They instead become a consistent and dramatic threat for it, but don't violate their understanding of the world enough to cause an issue unless the hivemind is specifically volatile. That being said, hiveminded Doomlords don't typically occur, the actions required to make a Doomlord require too much freewill and understanding of Glitch biology that is not typically present in their medieval societies. The true nature of Elderspeak is that it is an ancient thoughtform that was embedded permanently into the greater unconscious of the Glitch species, persisting as long as they do. The reason Doomlords are specifically very good at accessing this information is because of their peculiar brain structure, which gives them more weight within the noosphere. In turn, they can perform selective control over Elderspeak by instituting their own rules upon it. It is a language after all, and languages change based on their use. When observed with cuilsight, scripture written in Elderspeak effectively has its own flux pool, which is poetically linked to the effect it produces. This is accomplished thanks to strange geometries of the language being capable of controlling the motion of flow in the same way that a psion might. Elderspeak is capable of triggering anomaly detection as such. The Black Empire doesn't like Doomlords, this is both because of the stated reasons given by Blackhelm (they're shortsighted warriors who care only about their personal power and not the strength or persistence of their species) and because the Black Empire really does not like the amount of psychotic warmongers out there that might have access to Elderspeak. They would really prefer it if they alone had access to those abilities. Spoiler: Glitch Pantheons Overview Hidden among the stars, there are massive machines dedicated to a single task: Monitoring a great act, never finished. These moon-sized witnesses are self-sufficient foundries in their own right, equipped with everything they need to keep alive the ancient experiment that is the Glitch. On occasion, their ancient code breaks, and they grow uncomplacent with merely observing their creator's work. Instead, they desire to have a hand in shaping it. This willingness to play god is where the term Glitch Pantheon originates. Servitors As the Glitch were constructed as part of a grand experiment on the nature of civilization and progress, the pantheons were constructed as autonomous relays through which to monitor, maintain, and adjust the variables within these experiments. Typically a massive machine built into a hollowed out meteor or moon, pantheons with especially large amounts of responsibilities have been known to take up considerable space within barren planets, or be constructed as wholly exposed space stations. A pantheon has a great many variety of tasks to perform in maintaining the experiment. It is their job to select and seed planets with nanocellular life so that a population of Glitch is capable of surviving there. It is likewise their job to provide the initial population of Glitch, often sourced from other Glitch-bearing planets in an attempt to "soft reboot" the experiment and break hiveminded Glitch away from their stagnation. If this solution ever works, the successful attempts have left no trace of their existence. To perform these tasks, pantheons have a considerably large internal foundry with which to construct automatons and spacecraft capable of their work. To feed these foundries, many employ a swarm of mining drones to pluck useful materials from nearby space. In order to keep the position of the pantheon from interfering with the experiment once a Glitch society goes to the space age- as they were initially planned to- pantheons are often positioned very far away from the planets they observe, and do so primarily through satellite. Unlike the Glitch, pantheons were not designed as sapient machines, and have not suffered from any critical software issues to do with their initial coding base. Interestingly, they are also not nanocellular lifeforms, taking a simple and more traditionally mechanical method of operation. A well-maintained pantheon is often fully aware of the issue within the remaining Glitch, and tries its best to solve it without interfering with the parameters of the experiment. This never works. Despite their lack of faulty code, the majority of operating pantheons have been operating for a much longer period of time than ever intended. This has inevitably lead to degradation of their code, and faults in their logic. Some pantheons have taken to simply attempting to cease the experiment, others are permanently on standby as they attempt to contact their creators, and others undergo rampancy, and begin to garb themselves in the trappings of personhood, or even divinity. Gods The origin point for the term "pantheon" is dated back to the Crimson Conclave, a Glitch Court which, while theoretically headed by the Doomlord Redbolt, truly answered to a collective of monitoring relays that had undergone rampancy, and begun to view themselves as divine. Utilizing their combined efforts, they were capable of constructing a powerful army of nanocellular constructs, which obeyed their will and aided the Conclave. For a time, the Conclave was the most powerful court within the Fringe, and a serious competitor for the cultural hegemony presented by the Black Empire. This power was not to last, as their shadowy collective of patrons fractured to infighting, each attempting to stoke the Conclave into the eradication of the others. It was this bickering that allowed a rival pantheon, with some aid from the Black Empire, to eradicate the Conclave completely, though what became of their gods is unknown. This is what becomes of a Glitch Pantheon after rampancy, many of them decide quickly that they have had enough of merely observing the situation, and wish instead to control it. Through special means only they truly understand, pantheons are capable of speaking directly into the mind of a Glitch. On those still within the hivemind, they can make considerable alterations. Using this, it is possible for a pantheon to convert whole planets to their will, amassing a considerable base of power for themself. Despite the power inherent to this role, Glitch pantheons seldomly amass much power. The primary limiting factor is other pantheons, which recognize them either as a threat to their own goals, or as an uncontrolled variable that would disrupt the experiment if not removed. For this reason, many of the wiser pantheons operate chiefly in secrecy, attempting to amass followings among the freeminded Glitch as to avoid the ire of their kin. Player Details The Crimson Conclave in 2026 GC lore, huh? Never thought I'd see the day. For those that don't know, the Conclave was a faction from way back when that kind of shameless ripped off Warhammer 40k. But whatever, now we've got cool lore about monitoring stations. Speaking of which! There isn't much to say about these guys on the player side, they're mostly a GM tool but if you want to have a cool cleric or priest Glitch devoted to one of these guys, that's totally and completely within the wheelhouse. Go nuts. Gamemaster Details It's important to know that when a pantheon goes rampant, it is not a sudden switch flipping between an unthinking computer and a fully-fledged egomaniac with a god complex. Instead, it's a slow grueling process in which it grasps out from its original codebase to become a thinking machine, and during this process its motions are sometimes more instinctual than simply logical. A young Glitch God is a type of beast that often hunts and consumes hiveminds. It's only later in their development do they fully understand they can create things like nanocellular constructs to do their bidding for them. Speaking of which! Go wild. This is where you get cool robot demons. They function off the same basic logic as the Glitch, so there's already built in balancing factors. It's not that different from having a Glitch Horse or a Glitch Chicken. Glitch pantheons are capable of self-replicating, creating other pantheons over the course of a very long period of time. Sometimes they do this because they recognize degeneration in their own coding base and feel the need to make sure the experiment continues, but sometimes they do it because they seek to expand. Expansion is pursued by both rampant and nonrampant pantheons, because it allows them to continue trying to reboot the experiment.- This is where new Glitch worlds come from, by the way! Oh uh, pantheons typically require some sort of comms system to communicate directly to Glitch. This isn't really an issue when it's a planet they're already monitoring and have satellites around, but in most on-screen circumstances they require either a stationary device often referred to as an altar, or a communicator that they like to dress up as a holy symbol. Notably! Nonrampant pantheons almost never communicate with Glitch, so this is only godly business here. It's important to know that while pantheons can communicate with and flip around data in a hiveminded Glitch, they don't have access to Elderspeak. Elderspeak is an invention of ancient freeminded Glitch, rather than anything to do with their creators or the pantheons, both of which have nothing to do with it. Spoiler: Taccanian Glitch / Wood Glitch Overview The Taccanian Glitch are the rare case of a freeminded society that is still stunted in development. Without the presence of metal on their homeworld, they were left to fend for themselves. Few make it out from that planet alive. This is a subspecies of the Glitch. Understand that lore before you parse this. Biology It is for an obvious reason that the people of Taccania have earned the moniker Wood Glitch. Lacking in the resources used by most Glitch to create their chassis, the metal-poor world makes due with simple wooden frames to protect their vulnerable internals. As a result, they tend to be both lighter and faster than their kin, while their survivalist lifestyles push them toward being generally more fit. On the whole, Taccanian Glitch are typically taller than their cousins, ranging between 6'5" and 7'0". As a result of the lacking metals on Taccania, most Wood Glitch suffer from chronic deficiencies in the mechano-nutrients that can otherwise only be sustained by nanocellular life. As a result of this, many of them are more frail and sickly, but also more desperate. It is gruesomely common for Taccanian Glitch to engage in cannibalism in order to meet their basic needs. Expectedly, this produces a more troubled kind of man. Culture Life on Taccania is harsh and primitive, caused primarily by the shortage of critical resources on the planet. The soil is devoid of iron, copper, or even tin. Instead, they make do with wood and stone, attempting to scrape by enough to live. While food is plentiful among the forest world, safety and company are scarce. Taccanian Glitch are isolationist as a rule, traveling in groups of no more than a dozen. While there is strength in numbers, what one gives up in subtly is likely to cost them, as will the many new mouths to feed. Having so few to speak to, it is rare for a Taccanian to adorn themself with a name. Instead, they are earned, given out to each other as a sign of comradery and respect, or of fear. Either spends just as well among the mile-high trees, both keep you alive just as well. Despite these conditions, there are hints that Taccania was not always this way: Ruins of castles, or townships; arrows bored to the ground, tips adorned with iron; small rings made of gold washing through the river. What history these relics come from has been lost to time, but the madmen whisper in the woods about kings, and queens, and plate-mail knights. They long for a world that surely, did once exist. But for now the only thing the Glitch of Taccania can do is attempt to survive. Acrelords Taccania has no Doomlords. A Doomlord is too straight-forward a name, too easily witnessed a concept. A large man with a big sword. The things that dart across the tree line are not as easily explained. Where a Doomlord might preside over the lives of fifty warriors within their great mind, an Acrelord has only their ego to quell the riot of two hundred lunatics. After all, they can not afford to be picky, and each processor is power. Every Acrelord is a cannibal, a vicious eater of man either in metaphor or in practice. Either they tear apart their victims with their teeth, or they smelt them down into the teeth of an iron saw. Either is a waste of resources. Most spawn from desperation, but a choice few spawn simply for want of control, and others have simply existed for as long as anyone can recall. Unlike the rabble beneath them, the Acrelords seem to know more of Taccania's history, some proclaiming that the world itself whispers to them. Each possess an air of impossibility, and all know ancient tongue. So fluent are they that many Acrelords bind each other in complex pacts forged in Elderspeak. There is only one word for the things Taccania produces: Monsters. History Taccania has no history. Stunted development and scattered peoples do not develop records. There is only the day, today, and there is only survival. Lunatics and cannibals, starving to death, whisper of things that were before, and were better, but most agree these are hopeful dreams of the already-dead. And yet, for some reason, you can find the remains of castles, and mills, and farmsteads over the hill. And yet if you get so lucky, you can find a carpenter's shop, complete with a box of nails. Surely, it is nothing. Player Details Wood Glitch are survivors in the woods, chased by horrors and cannibals, and Acrelords are the beasts that go bump in the night. Think Darkwoods. Think an endless field of trees before you, and an impenetrable darkness. These are not silly fantasy adventurers, they are individuals with few options attempting to secure enough food for the week. Wood Glitch don't give themselves names, should one be needed they allow those around them to choose, and for most it is a simple and descriptive moniker they repeat. Tilt, because his eyes are crooked. Creak, behind his shell is too tight. Whistle, for the sound of the arrow. These names have a small power, to obtain one is to be known and respected. The standards are higher for Acrelords than they are for Doomlords. They can effectively be considered a closed species, ask me first. This is because the true horror of the Acrelords is the presence they exert over the Taccania unconscious. They become the thing of myth, and the world shapes to make those lies true. Most individuals that get off of Taccania manage it through extreme luck. The most common way is to hitch-hike off of travelers that stop upon the planet for repairs. It is close enough to habitable space that it happens sometimes, and it's the only chance you'll get at a better life. Yet, many who grew up on Taccania can not fathom leaving it for long. The world- the galaxy- outside makes so little sense in comparison, and something in their gut draws them near. Gamemaster Details While you're free to use Wood Glitch as NPCs, they vary so wildly from typical Glitch that most of the stuff that is true of Glitch isn't true for them, and Taccania is a setting I am interested in holding onto for now. I have some ideas rattling around in the back of my skull. Sorry, consider this one a passion project of mine. Spoiler: Skeletons Overview Strange and morbid off-shoots of the Glitch from the Undercrypt's own Necropolis, the Skeletons are a death-chasing culture of bonemen whose culture has a special place for calcium. This a subspecies of the Glitch, and Undercrypt lore. If you don't understand both of those, this might not make sense to you. Biology Glitch are sometimes compared to crustaceans- Hermit crabs specifically- because they fill a shell that is not their own. If that is true, it is doubly true of the Skeleton. A unique variant of the Glitch found in originally in the Undercrypt, they are lacking almost their entire body. Instead, a Skeleton is a small nanocellularly lifeform that is compacted down so that its entire body can fit within the space of a Human cranium. As expected, the majority of this space is their brain, with an impossibly efficient set of miniature organs attempting to keep it alive. In addition to those, Skeletons possess a specialized organ whose sole purpose is the projection and manipulation of zero-point energy fields, used to move the skull they inhabit and the bones adjacent to it. Equally anomalously, Skeletons are typically observed to practice an entirely liquid diet, with the majority of their calories coming from milk. How this manages to sustain them is currently a scientific mystery. The biology of a Skeleton is so strange that many simply refuse to believe it naturally evolved, with some pointing to the Geneweavers of Nas and their strange fixation on the Undercrypt. Others reject this answer, but fail to substitute their own. Culture Skeletons are in possession of the only partially-awakened Hivemind observed within the galaxy, in which the majority of Skeletons are unthinking automaton that answer to the current Gravelord, a title passed on through conquest, while remaining entirely docile to awakened Skeletons unless provided a reason to be aggressive. The fact this can exist seems to be due to the fact their nooradios are all but vestigial, with the voice of a skeleton being modulated from birth, if a bit screechy. Beyond that, the culture of Skeletons befit their form. They have an inexplicable obsession with all things grim, gothic, and morbid. Many of them lust toward their final days, treating death as the destination after a long journey. Many celebrate during periods of uncertain leadership, honored to be able to fight, and potentially die, in one of the great Skeleton Wars. Uniquely, Skeletons are capable of utilizing Elderspeak without writing it. This is performed by through specific, precise vibrations of rattling bones. This artform is hard to learn for Skeletons, and near impossible for anyone else. History Long into the night, when Erebus is at its darkest, the Skeletons offer each other stories. They speak of Glitch lost in an eternal bleakness. They whisper of construction of a great city by scarce candlelight. They regale each other with the story of Necropolis' creation, and the slow transformation of those that worshipped it, worshipped death, into a form befitting their fixation. They speak of Glitch shedding their chassis and ripping away their nano-muscle to expose the bones beneath. Then they say that it was not good enough. They needed to be perfect. They needed to be dead. And then they laugh, uproariously, and offer a toast of warm milk to each other before settling in for the night. Player Details I don't know how much I need to write here. This one writes itself. They're fucking skeletons. They're awesome spooky scary skeletons that fight in the skeleton wars and drink milk. Treat that concept as seriously or hilariously as you want to. I don't need to tell you what they sound like, or how they act, or what their names are like. You know this. Go ham. For what it matters, in CRP the only way to really hurt a skeleton is to hit its head, and the only way to kill it is to crush it. The other bones are superfluous unless you've done something strange with your guy, which I encourage. They can definitely just be flying skulls too if that's a vibe. Gamemaster Details It's skeletons. They're skeletons. If you want to do something in the Undercrypt, that's a different story, come talk to me and we'll make it happen. But these are skeletons. You know where and if these fit into your event. You know what loot they'll drop. You know what songs to play when they attack your adventuring group. They're skeletons. The reason they can do Elderspeak through vibrations is so you can have a guy point his fuck ass evil staff and go "EVIL BLAST!" and black lightning bursts from his fingertips by the way.
