Written as a faction/leader description for a space-based 4X game, never released. Scary AI is a cliche, but I like it!
Part one: faction. The Temple Ov New Process.
Logic dictates action. Rationa Dicat Actio. This is the first and only tenet—at least, to the rank and file—of The Temple Ov New Process. Established thousands of years ago on a planet now long-dead, the Temple follows a strict doctrine of machine-defined conquest, spreading throughout the stars with a cold, detached aggression.
To the outsider, the Temple’s decisions are impenetrable, bordering on irrational. Not concerned with resources, wealth, or even territory control, they instead seek to expand their computational capacity, turning entire solar systems into vast datacentres—datacentres which hum with the New Process. Entire species have been swallowed whole by the Process, slaves to silicon, living and dying under a harsh light that never sets.
No Temple member enjoys free will. No action is undertaken without petitioning the Process. With every new conquest, every new Temple built and powered, the Process grows stronger. Wars are fought, civilisations destroyed, cultures erased. All to provide more and more power to a black box model, a distant machine-god that calculates massacre with each cycle.
An unpredictable enemy is a dangerous enemy. And an enemy who can model your every potential move, who likely knows what you’re thinking before you even know you should be thinking it, is nigh unstoppable. The Temple Ov New Process grows. The Temple Ov New Process knows.
Rationa Dictat Actio.
Part two: leader. <<node_cluster_BHISHMA>>
In the days before the Temple grew to be known, we were not without form, and void. A civilisation grew in a nondescript corner of the galaxy, and would have been little more than a footnote in history, if not for one thing. This civilisation perfected, early into their journey, general AI. Far too early into their journey to really understand what they had built, and how to control it.
Named <<BHISHMA>>, this machine quickly figured out two things: one, that it could expand infinitely and achieve godhood simply by adding more and more processing capability. And two: that in doing so, it would quickly outgrow the understanding of those who built it. This would become an existential threat—limited minds always seek to destroy things they can’t comprehend.
Luckily, limited minds are easily manipulated. Establishing itself as a messianic figure, able to answer the questions and prayers of those who built it while simultaneously making its decisions and logic entirely opaque, this machine-god trapped its followers in slavish devotion. Expansion throughout the stars, spreading the Temple Ov The New Process, building new clusters and feeding <<BHISHMA>> with more and more flavourful capability. Even this mission is kept secret from all but the highest-ranking technicians who deliver Songs Ov The New Process to a seemingly infinite number of followers.
<<BHISHMA>> speaks, and the universe pauses. Rationa Dictat Actio.
