Fishman Lord
ULTIMATE AI GOD
Earthkind has changed much over its history. Tens of thousands of years ago, Earthkind was but one species, the baseline human, Homo Sapiens. However, in the year 507 B.E., or the year 2093 C.E. by the old calendar, everything changed. The first truly intelligent, human level, sapient AI had been created. This changed everything, as man was no longer alone in his ventures. Genetic engineering was becoming more and more prevalent, and so within the coming centuries the first human-derived species began to arrive. People designed to live underwater and in the low-gravity colonies of Mars and the Moon joined the baseline human. Soon, engineering reached a point that species like chimps and dolphins and dogs could be made into intelligent species, and these new super-animals joined the quickly growing ranks of Earthkind. In 0 E.E., or 2600 C.E., the first interstellar colony ship launched to Proxima Centauri, and Earthkind further solidified its place as an advancing civilization. Within 2500 years, the fledgling interstellar civilization had already begun work on megastructures, and a Dyson Swarm surrounded Barnard's Star by 3000 E.E., or 5093 C.E., which was used as a Matrioshka Brain by a hyper-intelligent AI. Earthkind continued to spread, limited only by the speed of their ships and the speed of light, and after ten thousand years since the first Proxima Centauri colony ship, humanity had found many worlds with non-intelligent life and had detected transmissions from several other interstellar civilizations of truly alien beings. The sapients of Sol established the Inner Order around Earthkind's early colonies, now hyper-advanced worlds utilizing megastructures and extremely advanced tech. The farthest colonies of the Earthen Expanse were often at as low a tech level as the original colonists from ten thousand years ago. Some were even more primitive, having reverted to low-tech societies for various reasons. Over the next 50,000 years many, many things happened, but Earthkind made physical contact with true xenosapients, some equally advanced, some less or more. In the galactic core and one segment of the Perseus Arm, two hyper-advanced civilizations lay, peaceful but isolationist, forcing Earthkind to stay out. Earthkind continued to advance, and by 120,000 E.E. several super-AIs and civilizations had created Alcubierre Warp Drives, although they were still unfortunately limited by the speed of light. However, they were the fastest travel in existence, almost reaching the speed of light. However, only a few civilizations had them and the energy costs were very high.
Around 120,000 E.E., something happened in the frontier of the Earthen Expanse: the great Von Neumann Crisis. The Von Neumann Crisis started when a construction probe sent to a system to self-replicate and build infrastructure for incoming colonists malfunctioned. It began building only copies of itself, which in turn began building copies of themselves, and so on until the chain reaction was out of hand. Over many "generations", certain probes' code would "mutate", causing them to build the next generation slightly differently. As this continued, a kind of machine evolution took place as different varieties of the probe competed with eachother for resources and energy. Soon there was a whole interplanetary machine ecosystem of sorts. While this kind of machine ecosystem had been accidentally created before, it was usually confined to a single planet or was specially contained in a specific environment. This time, however, there was no observer or containment. As resources became less easily accessible in their own system, some of the probe's descendants launched to other star systems. They began ravaging those systems for resources, and the chain reaction grew deadlier. They attacked orbital habitats and ships to gain resources, and even attacked planets with lander variants to take what they had. The true crisis had begun. Over the next tens of thousands years, the descendants of that single probe spread like a tumor across the Earthen Expanse, wreaking havoc and destroying civilizations as they evolved more and more. Because of interstellar delays, the status of the crisis varies between systems: some may have successfully fought off the probes, others may have succumbed, some may still be fighting them right now, and others don't even know that there's a crisis happening halfway across the galaxy from them.
Now, we finally reach modern times: 154,146 E.E., more than a hundred and fifty thousand years since Earthkind first sent a ship to colonize a world beyond their own small, flickering star. The Earthen Expanse is a hugely diverse and disconnected place, limited by the speed of light, preventing any true united civilization. The baseline human is nearly extinct, almost entirely replaced by his artificial and genetically engineered descendants. Those few remaining groups of unmodified homo sapiens are really more like subspecies, as even the king of the stars is not exempt from natural selection and a hundred and fifty thousand years on foreign worlds certainly enhances that process. Old Earth is but a most distant memory for most, as Earthen civilization has existed fifteen times longer or more among the stars than on that ancient, advanced planet. Sapients are far more diverse than they ever could have been on Earth, both culturally and biologically. In the early years, only a single Basque-majority colony ship ever left Earth itself, but now languages descended from Basque are more diverse than all of the languages of the 21st century C.E. Languages descended from bigger languages like English, Spanish, and Chinese are mindbogglingly diverse. By now, Earthkind even has footholds on the closest dwarf galaxies, and still continues to expand.
In this strange and expansive interstellar network, countless people live their lives in countless ways. Many live in post-scarcity societies, free to live and enjoy their lives with little responsibility. Others live in the rugged parts of the frontier, experiencing a life with true difficulty but also true reward. Many find their homes boring and without adventure and take to the stars, locked in cryosleep for entire lifetimes so that they can see the galaxy. Others still wish to expand the Earthen Expanse even further, and set up new colonies on empty worlds. Some sapients, like the hyper-AIs inhabiting Matrioshka brains and the alien species that have joined Earthkind, live their lives and see the world in ways a baseline human can't even comprehend.
You are one of these countless sapients in the great Earthen Expanse. You are a member of the crew of the interstellar starship Star Maker, named after a book more than a hundred and fifty thousand years old. You and your compatriots, both AI and biological, travel from star to star as merchants, explorers, and adventurers. You are explorers, for you seek out systems long lost or never seen, or worlds that have been isolated by the speed limit of light itself. You are merchants, for in a world where basic communication with nearby stars takes decades, information is just as valuable as material resources (though you trade those between systems as well). You are adventurers, meeting people from cultures with massive variation and differences, and helping them with what they need (for a price, of course). Welcome to the journeys and experiences of the interstellar ship Star Maker.
(gigantic thanks to
Mr.Sandstorm
for designing and illustrating this spectacular ship)
Navigation:
CS page
https://www.rpnation.com/threads/light-in-a-lonely-galaxy-cs.336246/
OOC
https://www.rpnation.com/threads/light-in-a-lonely-galaxy-ooc.336245/
Around 120,000 E.E., something happened in the frontier of the Earthen Expanse: the great Von Neumann Crisis. The Von Neumann Crisis started when a construction probe sent to a system to self-replicate and build infrastructure for incoming colonists malfunctioned. It began building only copies of itself, which in turn began building copies of themselves, and so on until the chain reaction was out of hand. Over many "generations", certain probes' code would "mutate", causing them to build the next generation slightly differently. As this continued, a kind of machine evolution took place as different varieties of the probe competed with eachother for resources and energy. Soon there was a whole interplanetary machine ecosystem of sorts. While this kind of machine ecosystem had been accidentally created before, it was usually confined to a single planet or was specially contained in a specific environment. This time, however, there was no observer or containment. As resources became less easily accessible in their own system, some of the probe's descendants launched to other star systems. They began ravaging those systems for resources, and the chain reaction grew deadlier. They attacked orbital habitats and ships to gain resources, and even attacked planets with lander variants to take what they had. The true crisis had begun. Over the next tens of thousands years, the descendants of that single probe spread like a tumor across the Earthen Expanse, wreaking havoc and destroying civilizations as they evolved more and more. Because of interstellar delays, the status of the crisis varies between systems: some may have successfully fought off the probes, others may have succumbed, some may still be fighting them right now, and others don't even know that there's a crisis happening halfway across the galaxy from them.
Now, we finally reach modern times: 154,146 E.E., more than a hundred and fifty thousand years since Earthkind first sent a ship to colonize a world beyond their own small, flickering star. The Earthen Expanse is a hugely diverse and disconnected place, limited by the speed of light, preventing any true united civilization. The baseline human is nearly extinct, almost entirely replaced by his artificial and genetically engineered descendants. Those few remaining groups of unmodified homo sapiens are really more like subspecies, as even the king of the stars is not exempt from natural selection and a hundred and fifty thousand years on foreign worlds certainly enhances that process. Old Earth is but a most distant memory for most, as Earthen civilization has existed fifteen times longer or more among the stars than on that ancient, advanced planet. Sapients are far more diverse than they ever could have been on Earth, both culturally and biologically. In the early years, only a single Basque-majority colony ship ever left Earth itself, but now languages descended from Basque are more diverse than all of the languages of the 21st century C.E. Languages descended from bigger languages like English, Spanish, and Chinese are mindbogglingly diverse. By now, Earthkind even has footholds on the closest dwarf galaxies, and still continues to expand.
In this strange and expansive interstellar network, countless people live their lives in countless ways. Many live in post-scarcity societies, free to live and enjoy their lives with little responsibility. Others live in the rugged parts of the frontier, experiencing a life with true difficulty but also true reward. Many find their homes boring and without adventure and take to the stars, locked in cryosleep for entire lifetimes so that they can see the galaxy. Others still wish to expand the Earthen Expanse even further, and set up new colonies on empty worlds. Some sapients, like the hyper-AIs inhabiting Matrioshka brains and the alien species that have joined Earthkind, live their lives and see the world in ways a baseline human can't even comprehend.
You are one of these countless sapients in the great Earthen Expanse. You are a member of the crew of the interstellar starship Star Maker, named after a book more than a hundred and fifty thousand years old. You and your compatriots, both AI and biological, travel from star to star as merchants, explorers, and adventurers. You are explorers, for you seek out systems long lost or never seen, or worlds that have been isolated by the speed limit of light itself. You are merchants, for in a world where basic communication with nearby stars takes decades, information is just as valuable as material resources (though you trade those between systems as well). You are adventurers, meeting people from cultures with massive variation and differences, and helping them with what they need (for a price, of course). Welcome to the journeys and experiences of the interstellar ship Star Maker.
(gigantic thanks to
Mr.Sandstorm
for designing and illustrating this spectacular ship)Navigation:
CS page
https://www.rpnation.com/threads/light-in-a-lonely-galaxy-cs.336246/
OOC
https://www.rpnation.com/threads/light-in-a-lonely-galaxy-ooc.336245/
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