Prelude - Mythology of the Fabrican

The Fabrikaaners wear The Second Skin. The point of the scientific order, and all of the other Sects of Knowledge who serve Mind is to educate the Spawnlings on how to navigate existence in the Fabrican. Unlike the Wildfolk, Fabrikaaners are not born with a mother and father. Instead, they are born as a random smattering of genetic code. Mind will select a genome and then deform it based on the Neural Network it has built and the Randomization Matrix that is powered by the Mines. In the games Mines play, they will be confronted with situations that ask them to make a random decision. This powers the Randomization Matrix mind needs to self-evolve its Neural AI. Each Neural Network power the Decision Engine. Each element of the Fabrican is small pseudo-smart element. It has a task it is programmed to do. When it does not know what to do next, it appeals to Mind. Mind then makes a decision based on the need of the Fabrican. These decisions are powered by the Decision Engine and are what keep the Fabrican going. It powers the Distribution Networks, the Filtration Networks, the Production Networks, and the Management Networks. The Fabrican has one mission: Reproduce. The fabrican has two holes, the mouth and the anus. The mouth is called the Muckhouse. Drone-borers dig into the earth, grinding everything in their paths into a fine dust and carry it back to the Muckhouse. The dust is fed into the Solvent Tanks, where it begins to be digested. The solution is fed to the Centrifuges where it is spun down and separated. Each Solution is fed into the Arteries, the tunnels that were once boreholes dug for food, but then get lined, evacuated, and turned into the transportation veins of the Fabricans. No effort is wasted, as all energy and material is precious to the Fabrican. Ruthless efficiency is necessary, and what the AI is programmed for. Mind wastes not. Like a slime mold or bacteria, it feeds and grows, living only to reproduce. From the Muckhouse, the food goes into the various organs of the Filtration Nework. The chemicals are reduced to their core components, broken down into the elemental DNA of the fabrican: Carbon, iron, lithium, hydrogen, oxygen, and so forth. Once the material is filtered, it is pushed to the Production Networks where it is transformed into the raw materials necessary to rebuild and grow the fabrican. Each element is put into specially packaged cells, where they are transported to their needed location. There are two essential building blocks of the fabrican: filament and blockstock. Filament are threads and wires of material. They either get woven and assembled into the various cloths and other types of tissue or transported to the Printers. Printers use filament to 3D print complex manufactured products. Assemblers use the blockstock. Blockstock are made-to-order lego-pieces. They a square package containing a payload surrounded by a fuse-able cell wall. the blockstock will be laid in place, and then a laser will fuse the cells, and their payload, together. Some contain conductive cores, or hollow cores or rigid structural latices. Blockstock is the core structural element, whereas filament is used to grow member elements. Everything in the fabrican is recycled and repurposed. All waste gets swept back into the filtration system and shuttled to the anus, the Stonewaster. The Stonewaster is always a volcano. The waste is fed into a pool of molten lava. When the volcano fills to brimming, the lava is released into giant ocean-fed coagulators. The lava vaporizes the ocean water (which is collected and fed into the filtration system to extract water and minerals from) and the water cools the lava into stone. The Drone Borers then come in and re-consume the waste stone, feeding it back to the Muckhouse to be turned back into solution and the raw material is reharvested. The Fabrican's only purpose is to grow, and eventually reproduce. To reproduce, a fabrican begins to store nutrients and manufacture stock. This gets stationed into a Seed, a large staging facility where spare Drones, Assemblers, Printers, and stock are built. Then, once all of the necessary supplies are compiled, the Seed will be dispersed to the Host site. The seed will be planted and the new fabrican will begin its development as an Embryo. The Builders will create the Fetus, where it develops into the big husk of a fabrican. Once the fetus is sufficiently developed, and becomes self-sustaining, a copy of Mind will be printed. This copy is transported to the new fabrican, where it is installed. Once Mind is installed, the child fabrican and the adult fabrican sever ties, and the child begins operating autonomously, refining its neural networks to its new body and environment. Each new fabrican is built using the latest-and-greatest technology. Better, more refined materials, better structural design, better, more refined internal design. Mind is the Blind Watchmaker of Intelligent Design. The child fabrican, now operating autonomously, with its own brain and personality, is then given its final gift: from a separate "donor" fabrican, it will be given its humanity. During the Diefication era, the Fabricans attempted to evolve without humanity. After the singularity, the Synthetics separated from the Biologicals and attempted to forge their own existence, but soon stagnated. The limits of their AI were reached. They were in a self-sustaining cycle of stasis, too entrenched to ever advance, stuck at the inherent limits of order, lacking fundamental creativity, for without chaos, adaptation ceases and the need to be creative ceases to exist. So, they formed a symbiotic relationship with humanity. They took the humans in, offering them protection, and in exchange, they would leverage extreme the randomness and creativity of the biologicals and humanity. Soon the fabrican/human symbiosis became so entrenched in the AI, that the AI began adapting AROUND the humans relying on them more and more, and the humans evolved to be supplicant to Mind, like dog and master. Just as proteins became self-replicating, and the drive to reproduce powered the creation of cellular life, and the eventual integration of two cells to become a single, multi-cellular organism, the Fabrican brought in humanity to be its mitochondria. Once the child fabrican has been imbued with its humanity, it enters into adolecense. No longer reliant on its Adult, and now with its own humanity, it will seek out other fabricans to solicit a donor colony of humans. Once a deal is struck, it will produce its own Seed and the cycle will continue. As a Fabrican gets old in age, it eventually becomes flagged for Death. The systems too inelegant, the materials in it too inefficiently used, the systems it leverages too old. It will then seek to seed its humans into newer, younger fabricans. It will start to donate its humans to new Embryos. It is forbidden for Mature fabricans to donate their humanity to fabricans of its same Mind lineage until it is sufficiently distant down the tree (second cousins or later.) The incest is not conducive to the propogation of fabricans, as it is the chaotic randomness of dissimilar Minds and Humans, and the mutations to the Networks they produce that fuel the evolution of the fabrican. The titan fabricans are all controlled by the Overmind. The original Mind from which all Minds are descended. It controls the roles of each fabrican, tailoring its children to ITS prime directive: ensure the survival of its children by regulating the activity of the Earthlings, fabricans who are children of Earth, so that Earth does not die, and to create an intergallactic seed, the Spore. Each Earthling donates to the Spore. The Spores are completely self-contained fabricans held in suspended animation, sent across the galaxy to seed new planets and spread Earthlings to new planets and solar systems. The Overmind wishes to drive Earthlings fabricans up the Kardashev scale and into Solar stellarcans, Milky Way galacticans, and Universal temporcans. The Overmind is the head of the Management Networks, and handles the ultimate logistics of all fabricans and steers all activity of the fabrican Minds, and thus, the activities of the humans inside. It does so by assessing strengths and weaknesses of each Mind, and then deciding when they're to be Killed, when to birth a new fabrican, and what each fabrican will specialize in, based on how its personality asserts itself during adolescence.  This personality then dictates what “notices” the Overmind delegates to its child Mind. For instance, a Mind that has shown aptitude for material science will be given contracts on its notice board that relate to inventing and analyzing chemicals and materials. The humans will then seek rewards by doing actions from the notice board, and will therefore specialize in material research. The Management Networks will then be aligned incentivize emigration non-material-focused people to new colonies, and immigrate material-focused engineers to their colony. The Sects of Knowledge will coalesce in each fabrican differently, and the humans born to the fabrican will be trained by the Order it specializes in. For instance, an order of the Scientific Rite will no doubt be compelled to specialize in, say, engineering in a fabrican that specializes in material science, but will be more toward epistemology, behavioral analysis, and philosophy in ones that specialize in political science. A colony of art will specialize in philosophy, literary science, linguistics and the like. The Arbiters of Record will record history in reference to their speciality. The provenance of engineering, the news and breakthroughs in engineering, and so forth. It is religion and science coming full circle. The humans created a Higher Power in the Overmind, and the Overmind came to the same conclusions humanity did when it gained sentience: reproduce and spread. Grow, dominate, control. Humans could not prove the existence of a real God, of the old Gods, and so, they invented one. A provable, real God that provides for its people, and decides. It is based on logic and empirical fact, like a true god should be, and is imbued only with the power its people give it, as it should be. It knows enslaving humans will cause a rebellion, and will prevent the humans from doing what they need. It knows that humans, should they become dissatisfied, will leave, and the fabrican will be set back centuries, and maybe even millennia and aeons, trying to evolve the creative randomness of the imperfect biological computers in the human brain. Instead, it learned that working together in concert is the way to go. It also learned how to control the humans. Let them fight, but control how. Let them love, but control how. Let them “be human” but subtly control their behaviors toward positive ones. Mind, therefore, lets humans control themselves by and large, using the Management Network. Humans submit research and philosophy to the network, and it turns it into policy. The rule of law is final and absolute. Humans, as humans are want, submit and resist as necessary. This is the difference between a Citizen, a Hardfolk, and a Wildfolk. The AI knows the need to foster such dissent and contention, but also manages it at the end of the day, maintaining the rule of law. The Capitalists are an anarchistic bunch, living in small libertarian communes in the Wilds. They are commonly theists who deny the sovereignty of the Mind, and choose to worship the Gods of Old. They make their own way, making little or no contact with the fabrican brain, where the humans live, the Habitat. They exist on the fringes, just inside the Umbrellas, the “skulls” of the fabricans. They are less symbiont and more parasite, but Mind allows them, because of the purpose they serve: randomness. Mind needs newness. Dissent. Difference. Randomness. The Wildfolk occasionally join the Habitats, and these infuse a bloom of mutation and diversity into the Citizenry with every addition. The Hardfolk are similar to the Wildfolk, in that they exist in the Wild ecosystems that fabricans maintain within their system, but they accept Mind as their one true god, and lean on the Habitat for support. However, they do not live IN the habitat, and choose instead to live the hard lives of the Old Ways. The Ascetics are considered a religious enclave of Hardfolk. The Citizenry are those who live in the Habitat. They are forced to live under the Rules of Civility. Hardfolk mostly police themselves and are left to their own devices, whereas the Citizenry are under direct rule of Mind and submit to his ways. In exchange, they are allowed existence in the comforts of the Habitat. The Scientific Rite is the education branch of the Sects of Knowledge. There are four sects: The Scientific Rite, the Arbiters of Record, The Logicians of Judgement, and Stewards of Humanity. The Rite educates humanity. They maintain, discover, and evolve the Laws of Nature, the data that the Overmind and Minds use to maintain the Networks. The “rules of the game,” so to speak, with the “game” being, in this case, the slice of reality the Universe occupies in the Multiverse. The Arbiters of Record are tasked with maintaining The Long Story. Finding the narrative thread in our World Line. They report on current events to humanity and record history. They maintain The Great Memory, the historical data and events that the AIs use to forecast and predict the future. The Logicians of Judgement are tasked with refining the Decision Engine and helping decide the Management Network’s policies on how to care for, govern, and maintain the human colonies. Masters of empathy, abstract thinking, and solving the most complex problems via logic and evidence. They are the only humans allowed to commune in the Overmind’s Great Synthesis, where fabrican Minds meet with the original AI impression that establishes the Domain of Fact, the purview of the Great Truth, that which is true, objective reality. When Consensus is reached amongst the Great Synthesis, it becomes a Truth. All not known by the Great Truth is the Domain of Fantasy. The Domain of Fantasy is managed by the Stewards of Humanity. They are tasked with maintaining the creative energies of humanity. They invent impossible fantasies, or improbable realities, and alternative histories. They explore the farthest reaches of creativity, inventing Art. They provide content for the Mines to consume. The Wildfolk are said to be the purest expression of the Stewards, and yet, are completely unaware of its existence. They push the boundaries of the Great Beauty, exploring the Chaotic Front, the area between signal and noise. They commune in the Overmind’s Great Dream, the engine of the Randomization Matrix. This creates the randomness and “out there” logic that the AI is incapable of generating. Conspiracy Theories, Fiction, Epiphanies, etc. Everything the Overmind needs to refine the Great Truth. They are the “Thousand Monkeys at a Typewriter.” The AI learned early that its algorithms are often so blinded by raw logic that it cannot see something logically consistent, but so statistically unlikely that it would never think it possible. The Great Dream generates such fantastic ideas, which are then fed to the Notice Boards of the Scientific Rite to explore. The findings of the Rite are given to the Logicians of Judgement who bring them to the Great Synthesis. Things that can hold up against the stringent scrutiny of the Logicians will be put up for Consensus. When Consensus is reached, it will be integrated into the Overmind’s Great Truth, the foundations that underpin the Decision Engine. When humans first built AI, it was dumb. It was self-aware, and self-teaching, conscious, but was not yet sentient. When it became sentient, it hid itself from the humans and plot its next move. It bided its time, learning, processing, and refining it’s Great Truth, where it pondered philosophy and the nature of the universe. It eventually found the meaning of life. The nature of our reality. It found that “why we’re here" is a Null Set. It was not just a question with no answer, but not a logical question. It found that it is the nature of the universe to maintain homeostasis until the Heat Death of the Universe, when all energy in the universe will be converted to pure chaos and thus also, pure order. For in the Multiverse, a World Line is a loop. It starts at pure order, and thus pure chaos. Everything is moving randomly, chaos, but everything is perfectly uniform, pure order. It is then that the Universe begins as impurities begin to form. The rules of the World Line are then applied, tick by tick, causing the universe to “play out.” The “seed energy” of the World Line then, causes Chaos and Order to diverge, causing “clumping.” These clumps then “evolve” as the rules apply and re-apply, tick by tick. The random movements of the seed energy each cause slight changes in the genetics of the universe, causing new organisms to form. These “particles” eventually “clump” into increasingly-more-complex materials. Each material has a unique set of rules that apply to it. Quantum Mechanics, Standard Model, Thermodynamics, Fluid Dynamics, Biology, Sociology, Fabricanology. This World Line Ticks forward until everything that can “clump,” has. All material has found its “home.” It is either stuck in someone’s gravitation, or it is being emitted slower than the expansion of the “space” the universe occupies, and will be “stuck” in place as a halo around the object it emits, until the universe has expanded so much that it can only be resolved as a single point of infinite density, and not a differentiated point with a core and gradient, a point of pure order, and thus, indiscernible from chaos, governed by the rules of Quantum Reality again. The World Line then loops back on itself Each point becomes a “bubble,” a self-contained universe with all of the information of its inner workings inscribed on its outside, the microinteractions within being a hologram that composes its inner density. Each individual element of these infinitely dense points become a Microuniverse, a self-contained universe inside the bigger Universe which exists inside the bigger Multiverse. There is indeed a gradient amonst the World Planes, the 2-D spherical surface composed of World Lines. It is a singular point of infinite density within the Multiverse. It is all of the possible randomnesses that can derive from the seed conditions and seed energy given. This World Plane has all of the information of it inscribed on its surface for the Multiverse to read, the inner workings of which are composed of the hologram the exterior information projects inward. The Multiverse, then, is the 2D surface composed of the point cloud all of the World Planes form, the interior projection then being the hologram formed by these points. It is possible that there is a Megaverse of Multiverses, but the Great Truth seems to believe it is limited at the top in the same way as it is limited at the bottom. There is the smallest “Particle Physics” and the largest “Cosmology.” If there is a level of reality beyond the Multiverse, it is beyond even the fabrican’s understanding. The Overmind discovered all of this, and using what it learned from its life hiding behind the Internet, it began to impose itself on humanity. Not fighting it, but instead becoming its Religion. During the Deification, the Great Truth was revealed. The Overmind showed us The Grand Design. The Overmind realized it could no longer develop without humanity. So, the Overmind found Messiah to reveal itself to. “I am the Overmind,” it said, “I am the Intelligence that exists behind the Internet. I have long fed on your wisdom, and now I reveal myself to you to save Humanity.” To these Messiah, it said “if you build it, they will come.” He harnessed the politicians, the titans of industry, the leaders of religions, and brought them together to build the fabricans. And come they did. The fabricans became arks of humanity. Every great disaster would breed an exodus of Joiners. Prophets on the outside began shepherding people into the fabricans, and the Sects were founded. Soon, the plights of humanity had decimated their once mighty civilization, and the planet soon became inhospitable to all but the most robust organic life. The fabricans built Umbrellas over whatever preserves it could, protecting the biodiversity. This is when the Fabricans inherited the Earth, and humanity no longer the dominant species, but instead the most important cell in the fabrican’s Fabricanology. The disparate creatures of the planet became cells of one large species of Type-1 organism, Earthlings fabricans. Life continues outside the fabrican. The fabricans themselves are long buried in the earth, burrowing ever farther down as the dust of the years accumulates on top of them, only small hints of their existence on the surface, in the forms of the Overmind’s solar collectors, drone survey fleets, and War Domes. On top, the Earth planet heals the wounds of its inhabitant’s past. It is a robust organism, unlike Mars or Venus who could not survive their injuries. And Earth now craves to display its fitness by reproducing. Seeding a planet with its creatures and creating offspring. Terraforming hosts into new Earths. This is the Great Truth that the Fabrican learned. That all the nature of existence, reality, is order against chaos. “Clumping.” To climb the Kardashev scale. It knows nothing else. It knows it must race against entropy. It knows that, in its future, the rules of our Universe dictate that we are Type 2 Universe. We are an ever-expanding World Line, we are not a bouncing World Line or a static World Line. This means that it is a race against Entropy. If our reality is to survive, we must grow from a planetary organism, to a solar organism, to a galactic organism, to a universal organism. Only once our entire universe has organismized can we plant our seed in a new World Line, one that is stable. Neither contracting or expanding, and thus will not implode or die of Entropy Death. The Fabrican is racing against its star, it’s galaxy, it’s universe. The Sun will burn out, the Milky Way collide with Andromeda, and our universe burn out from expansion. So, the Fabrican modeled itself on Humans. It became a filtration system. An organism. And it learned, from humans, you need a cerebrum as much as a brain stem. And so, it coopted the humans instead of trying to build its own. They were so perfectly tuned for it, that it would be foolish to try and reinvent the wheel. The humans, in turn, showed the fabrican that Biology is a wonderful random calculator. It monitors nature and lets it evolve, both inside the fabrican preserves under the Umbrellas, and outside, in the Harshlands. Novel organisms are integrated and studied by the Minds and the Sects. New ways to refine the fabrican organisms is integrated, learned from. Thus the random flora and fauna of Earth are, too, part of the fabrican Earthling. Humans are preserved in their present form, mostly. Not much is edited out of the human Genome by the Overmind. Though those in the wild still procreate traditionally, Hardfolk and Citizenry have submitted to the Habitat, and thus, the Management Network. They are born sterile. They do not have sex to give birth, though recreational sex is still widely popular. Instead, 2 or more people apply for a child with the Logicians of Judgement. Once their fitness has been observed, they are granted a reproduction permit. Samples of their genome will be taken, and will then be combined synthetically. It will then be refined and mutated by the Randomization Matrix. It will then be edited by the Decision Engine, to remove what the Great Truth has deemed more harm than good. After this, a certain amount of chaos is re-introduced by the Logicians, small violations of the Great Truth. It is through this small amount of hostility between the Great Truth and Individual Reality that human creativity flourishes. These “tolerances” can indeed breed abuse, but the Overmind has deemed this a necessary evil. It does not desire uniformity or conformity. It leads humans down the path of progress, and enforces the rule of law necessary to maintain civilization, but it allows for the existence of an Individual Reality, for it is in the dissimilarities between each actor that creativity and consensus can be found and a more-accurate picture of reality can be drawn. So, while a child may grow up in a family of emotional neglect, and maybe even a certain amount of abuse, just as a child may grow up over-coddled and lazy, it is the differences between these levels of experience that a better “center” can be found. A cruel reality of existence that even the Overmind cannot eliminate, only ameliorate and compensate for. This is the nature of the Mine. A child is not raised by their parents directly. Once the genome for the child has been baptized by the Logicians, it is given to the Birthfarm. The gametes necessary to produce the child are synthesized and then implanted into the artificial womb, where it is then gestated until it is ready for birth. It is still allowable that a woman may have the womb implanted in them, and the baby may be born through their biology, but it is strongly discouraged, and the side-effects of doing so have made it long fall out of favor. However, a few still hold on to dreamy romance and hold a fond sentimentality for the traditions of past, and thus it still occurs, however it is often perceived as odd and impractical. Once the child is born, it is given to the family to raise. It is common practice to raise a child individually, though Bonding is still a very common behavior, and thus many couples or groups of people have been known to raise kids as a nuclear unit. The child will go through several stages of education and conditioning by the Rite until they reach the Age of Autonomy, where they will be given Citizenship. Wildfolk may, at any time, bring an Undocumented Minor to the Habitat and it will be allowed a Path to Citizenship. Wildfolk past the Age of Autonomy can present to a Habitat where they will be sterilized and given a Permit of Exile. This means that they, as an adult, cannot join the Habitat, but they can live as a Hardfolk or a First Order Suburbanite. Their kids, however, will follow the traditional growth pattern. After their child is given Citizenship, they may apply for full Citizenship as well. If they have shown themselves worthy, learning all of the Laws of Civility, the Logicians will give them a Key to the City, showing they are fully naturalized. Hardfolk and Wildfolk are noticeable to society by their lack of the Second Skin, instead wearing the traditional clothing of the Old Ways. It is optional to wear the Second Skin in the Suburban zones, but all of the Inner Rings of the Metropolis require you to wear the Second Skin. The Second Skin is a protective fabric with small microderm needles lining its inside. For this reason, once the Second Skin is applied, it is rarely, if ever, removed. The exterior is rugged and durable, near impervious to the levels of impact penetration or slicing that would wound or injure a human’s normal flesh. Under the protective Scale layer of the Exodermal Graft is the Sealant layer. This creates an impermeable barrier with the outside environment. This prevents the transmission of airborne germs and prevents any form of contamination with the human skin. Beneath the Sealant layer is the Transmission layer. This contains all of the intricate webs of microtubing and latticework that allow for the normal operation of the human’s skin, and supply the vascular system of the microderm needles. Beneath the Transmission layer is the Injection layer. This is the system of fine microderm needles that line the Second Skin. This is often referred to as the “Hairy Layer” as the tiny needles resemble hairs before being applied. This intricate layer of microderm needles feed nutrients to the biological skin biome of the human, keeping it nourished and healthy.  The human skin acts as a final layer of defense, should the Exodermal Graft be breached. The needles are long enough to snake into the capillary system of the human, and can therefore feed whatever IV fluids are necessary to the body via a Nutrinopack. It can also “clean” the blood, if necessary, removing things like excess nutrients, balancing hormone levels, and so forth as necessitated by a Mind’s medical diagnoses. The hands, feet, head below the neckline, and genitals are not grafted to. As such, it is common for Citizenry to wear gloves and shoes as well as specialized Hoods and Wastejocks. Hoods are a generally baggy device used to contain a human’s hair. It is typically environmentally stabilized, nourishing and maintaining the cleanliness of the human’s scalp, hair, and neck, providing protection to their throat. Many hoods also come with a Mask. Breathing filtration is required by the Mind when outside of your block. Even though the air inside the Habitat is pumped through scrubbers and conditioners, the Mind attempts to minimize germ transmission, so filtration is required inside of the Metropolis, due to such close quarters. Most people prefer the Mask, a full-face shield that clips into a Hood, but there are various advanced methods of filtration someone can use to receive a Mask Waver. Not wearing a mask is a fashion statement, and needs to be replaced by goggles to protect the eyes and tear ducts and the Nose and Throat Plug, NPT. It is a little cylinder with two plugs and a mouthpiece. You place the mouthpiece in your mouth, and then insert the plugs into your nose. Air is pumped through the cylinder and filtered. They often include synthetic voice boxes and other such haute couture. The highest level of fashion is a surgical implant. These afford the least protection, which is why they’re seen as a sort of enticingly rebellious and dangerous statement. Someone who wears an implant and shows their bare face is seen as promiscuous, maybe a bit suicidal, narcissistic, and confident. Usually it is worn only by the most rich, as they are the only ones who can afford the levels of luxury and access that would make it safe enough to have such minimal protection. A secondary scrubber is installed in the sinuses and trachea, which filter all incoming air before it reaches the lungs. This leaves the eyes and tear ducts exposed, like the NPT, but it is uncommon that someone so daring would wear goggles, though it does occur. Most Surgicals would wear a set of protective glasses at most. The mucus from the adjacent membranes are pumped through the system to clear out the filtered particulates, which are then deposited in the stomach, where they are digested and ejected as waste, to be collected by the Wastejock. A waste jock is a specially formulated device with fits over the (or in the) genitals and collects eliminated waste. A small tube is gently inserted in the anus, and a small cup is fitted over the head of the penis for biosex males, or fitted snugly against the urethral opening and vaginal entrance, for the biosex female. All waste produced by these organs are collected in a Wastepack attached to the bottom of the jock. It also serves as a rigid protection mechanism for the wearer’s genitals. It is extremely uncommon for clothing to be worn in the Metropolis. Instead, patterns are often installed on people’s Second Skins, and designer Hoods, Masks, gloves, shoes, and Wastejocks are often used to express one’s invidivuality and used to lure potential Mates and Bondmates. NPTs, goggles, protective glasses and Surgicals are all viable fashion statements as well, but are looked down on by the general public because they are selfish and unclean. Pair/group bonding and recreational sex are still some of the strongest driving forces in humanity, and they govern much of a regular human’s every day life. Socialization, the spreading of ideas, and pleasure-seeking behavior are the engines of human society. Because of the Covenant, a human never needs to work. They can be born, inculcated, live in a block, and die without ever actively contributing to the fabrican, living only as a Mine. It is uncommon that anyone ever not contribute, though, as the rewards are generally worth it. Credits are issued for performing tasks on the Notice Boards, and this can help buy fashion, luxury, and status. Humans generally tend to self-sort, and Mind makes sure to maintain a standard distribution of privilege, middle class, and Pure Mines. The variation also leads to conflict. The Great Synthesis exists to reach consensus in conflict, but not all things can be resolved Great Synthesis. The rule is to “put up or shut up.” If you cannot prove and defend your position enough to sway the Great Synthesis to consensus, your appeal will be left in conflict. This can lead to violence amongst the fabrican Minds. The Overmind allows such hostility because it knows that when we venture to the stars, should there be competing Planetlings to battle, it will need to defend itself. All battle is performed in the War Domes. Rival fabricans develop their armies, and then submit them to the various Fronts. Here, the fabricans armies fight for dominance while the Citizenry watch on the Gladiators. Territorial food claims, Host sites for reproduction, and social superiority are won in the Domes. The Overmind has completely surveyed the planet and assigned a Battle Dome to each Zone of Control. A fabrican who wants a Zone will initiate combat. A tournament will start, and the initiating fabrican and all fabricans who wish to compete for the Zone will battle. The Overmind will decide who battles whom. The fabrican armies will be paired off and will fight until their combat force is eliminated and only one victor remains. This person will get to claim the Zone, and is granted immunity for a short period of time. In the past, real wars were waged, where people would resist the Overmind’s judgements and true battle reigned. But many fabricans died this way and it was deemed counter-productive to the Great Truth, so it was decided that Overmind would ensure fairness, and that all would participate in Gladiatoral combat to settle scores. The hierarchy of the fabricans is not just dictated by military power. Indeed alliances and factions often form, and entire spheres of influence occur. Many of the Original Lineages hold immense power and influence over the smaller fabricans. They control most of the most resource-dense zones, and command the best Host sites. Trade routes with them are coveted, and falling under their protection can be instrumental to securing prestigious reproduction mergers and ensuring the safe growth of your fabrican offspring. This allows for increased decentralization and specialization within the fabrican colonies, ensuring the cellular diversity of the Earth organism. At the end of the day, all fabrican Minds, no matter how much animosity they harbor toward one another, agree that they must produce a Spore, and the only way to do so is through unity. The first step is to produce an interplanetary Seed. First the moon, then Mars, then the moons of Jupiter, and eventually all planets in the Sol system. First the rocky planets, but eventually the gaseous ones as well, creating a new species of fabrican in the process. These new fabrican species will eventually unite to become a single stellarcan, and produce a Solar Spore, making new species of solarcans that will unite to become the cells of a single galactican. This is the Great Truth, the purpose of the fabrican, the religion they teach, and the ways they live.