User:Arcmind-1/Other

OS-I {{Scroll box| {{col-begin}} {{col-2}} {{quote|Many died in the Cyberlands, hunting the secrets of our enemies. But their sacrifices were not in vain. The data they gathered still holds within information hubs scattered across the wastes. Collecting all of these precious data fragments is essential to unraveling the secrets of the Praetorians.|Item Description}}

OS-I: 1
1:1 — Precursors

A distant galaxy. Hundreds of star systems stretch across the darkness like a giant tapestry, woven from the harsh light of unfamiliar and distant suns. One such system hosts a saurian-like species who would eventually build a sophisticated, starfaring civilization, spanning all of the twelve planets orbiting a binary star. They are precursors of the distant past. They are the Primeval.

OS-I: 2
1:2 — fall of the Primeval

Behold the sky. The blazing glory of its twin suns backlights the battle lines of a titanic war, and the dead remains of ruined ships litter the void. The Sivian came to this star to conquer the Primeval. But as they reached the heliopause frontier, Primeval perimeter militias met them in battle and slowed their advance for many cycles.

This stalemate was finally broken by the Sivian, who deployed their second fleet with weapons of biopathogenic effect to blight the Primeval worlds, which became tainted with death. In desperation, the Primeval survived by turning to new bodies in the form of machines called the Cognitive.

OS-I: 3
1:3 — The Primeval Cognitive

After their transition to machine forms, the Primeval manifested warrior hulls called Praetorians. They fought the Sivian with algorithms and calculations - adapting and improving and mapping behavioral responses. Soon they had built a victory condition for every possible end state of the war. Thus the Sivian were defeated, and they fled into the deep.

OS-I: 4
1:4 — The diaspora

}} Grimoire/Enemies/Praetorians {{Scroll box| {{col-begin}} {{col-2}}

The Praetorians
"The Praetorians are more than a conventional military bent on conquest. They are agents of change, machines created to remake the world in a form suitable to their survival. But machines created by who?"

The armies of an ancient war, the Praetorians have lain dormant within the planet Mars for millenia, waiting to be revived by the dawning of its second birth. Now as the desert world blossoms once more, old machines awaken, beginning a slow process of revivification that will see the eradication of the human race, and every world made anew.

Hull
"Endless waves of metal armies marching at you."

The hull makes up the vast majority of Praetorian forces across the planet, and though it lacks the computational capacity of other, more efficient models, each hull contains all of the imperatives required to carry out local tasks such as patrols and target elimination. This, of course, makes them ill-equipped to deal with situations outside of their predetermined functions.

Superordinate hull
"In the dark, the nearing light of their glowing optics heralded the coming of death."

The second major combat unit in the Praetorian network is the superordinate hull. Boasting improved data processors and a variety of devastating weaponry, superordinate hulls serve as security units of the Praetorians. Defending high level Praetorian leaders and structures, these hulls will descend on the slightest threat with overwhelming force and inscrutable, thorough violence.

Coalescent hull
"It's gonna take a lot more than firepower to crack these hulls."

The Coalescent hull is an aggressive unit that stands out among its troops in battle, leading the attack. Unlike other models, Coalescent hulls are able to anticipate enemy responses and act in accordance. Fortunately, this ability can be countered with sporadic maneuvers, supplemented by disruptive use of explosives to cause temporary diversions.

Convergent hull
"The intelligences upon which all other Praetorians converge."

Convergent hulls act as thought conduits of lesser Praetorians, regulating crosstalk between Coalescent hulls and directing the construction of inscrutable terraforming spires which seem to alter the material world in ways not even comprehensible to us. Regions such as this are hazarded to have become infected - shaped in the image of the Praetorians. The cyberlands is one notable example.

Permutative hull
"Where they dwell, the world bends to the measured purpose and structured intent of an unfathomable will."

The Terraformer


Like other Permutative hulls, the Terraformer is an extraordinary machine. Fitted with advanced anti-gravity nodes and mysterious technology that vastly surpasses humanity's own, it is speculated that the Terraformer is responsible for overseeing the transformation of Earth, and that the conversion of the cyberlands was but a fraction of its power. The seeming delay in the Praetorian advance purports that the Terraformer was a vital node within their world-spanning network.

Overmind hull


Dwelling deep within the ruins of an ancient warbunker in Europe, the Overmind hull seems to coordinate the Praetorian invasion of Earth. Destroying the Overmind should significantly hamper the Praetorian effort to transform the entire planet into a machine world.

}} Compendium of the Crux Monith {{Scroll box| {{col-begin}} {{col-2}}

Excerpts

 * "We all have creators. This truth is undeniable. Some call it the engine of evolution, others a [g]od. The choice each of us must make is whether or not to accept this truth."

Uncategorized Excerpts
"It is often asserted that the Praetorians are more than a conventional military bent on conquest and that they are actually agents of change, machines created to remake the world in a form suitable to their, or another's, inscrutable purposes. But machines created by who?"

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