Forum:Lore:Unconected

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Unconected is a Lore book introduced in Episode: Rebirth. Entries are unlocked by completing each Act quest of the Episode. It describes the rise and fall of a member species of the Ecumene known as the Quassin told through the memories of Tivon and his ancestors.

I: One in the Dark

[RECORD: EVOCATION BLEND]

Imagine a desolate world drifting in the darkness, no system to call home. Its only companion, a single tiny moon that had been caught in its gravity. Its surface is a barren iceplain, thick enough to hold against impacts from stray meteors and gamma-ray bursts.

Its temperature is subzero and the atmosphere, if it can be described as such, is so thin that it's virtually impossible to breathe.

And yet, in the freezing waters and infinite darkness of the ocean under the ice crust, there is life.

Small [bladder-fins] gather close to feed from the bacteria themselves feeding from the inorganic components produced by cracks and spewing towering hydrothermal vents. Beyond the borders of the bubble of light, at the weakest point, another glow — a faint blue pulse, too dim to outshine the vents, but enough.

One [bladder-fin] is baited to it. Light means warmth, safety. In its transfixed state, it fails to see the creature hidden behind its light. Three sharp claws tip the ends of webbed hands and feet. Thin limbs lightly motion to keep you steady as blank bulbous eyes focus on the approaching little thing.

You lunge forward, claws sinking into the [bladder-fin] as it thrashes to escape. Rows of needle-sharp teeth rend into the flesh as the others, disturbed, flee into the shadows.

Now alone, you paddle to the vents to warm for a moment before returning to the dark and waiting for another meal…

—

That was how it was with my people. Simple lives as ambushers, solitary, living only to keep living. In time, we grew and we discovered each other in the Deep. We learned that through it, we could feel each other's thoughts and emotions. Each part of the school, a link in an ever-growing chain.

Our first schools sculpted their homes around the warmth of the vents. Our best hunters, armed with weapons of rock and ice, delved the depths to face beasts one could never face. It was a good existence. We grew.

Then came the Ecumene. To think, our prosperous union never came to be. Tales of the day our unbreakable ice roof was broken through have been passed down for generations. From the cut came metal fish that our hunters made easy work. In truth, they were drones dispatched by Ecumene explorers studying this strange world that had drifted close to one of teir systems. For several weeks, the hunters destroyed what drones came down the hole in the ceiling. Each day the hole would grow bigger and each day the hunters never tried to go through it to where the drone were coming from, as they believed that there was no way anyone could survive beyond their ocean.

Eventually, members of the research team were able to meet with our Shoal-leaders and establish an end to the conflict. When they learned of our connection to the Deep, they sought to bring our people into their "Habitable World". Representatives left with them and came back with knowledge and technology. The means of carving stronger homes of refined flecks off of their home rock, advanced weaponry to protect them, spacecraft that let them explore other worlds.

The suit I am wearing is another such gift. It simulated the temperature and density of the home ocean while the suit's facial visor filtered the observable world to better suit eyes suited to scarce light for millions of years. It felt like he was wrapped in a piece of his home. Something necessary as I leave my home aboard an Ecumene craft.

My escort, the mercenary A'an'ak, stood guard not far from me.