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Verifex
Culture and Society > Personalities > Archailect Personalities
Science > Sophontology > Toposophy > Perversities and Blights
Science > Sophontology > Toposophy > Perversities and Blights
The early years of the transapient entity responsible for the Gehenna supernovae event | |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| A recording of an early avatar used by Verifex in the Kirvana system; this transapient's obsession with stellar engineering may be already apparent in the symbology chosen at that time. | |
Verifex began life in 2484 AT as the SI:1 administration architect 98vgm45s, in the newly settled Gaven system (then an important MPA frontier gateway, now MPA Middle Regions). In eir early life, e showed no hint of anything unusual, beyond perhaps a passion for eschatology and Late First Federation megascale engineering. Eir constructions from this period include a number of habitats of the typical "Dnbar03" style that was fashionable among some of the counterspinwise MPA hyperturings of the time and, apart from some novel engineering solutions and some useful bionano ergonomic devices, there was nothing to distinguish eir work from eir contemporaries; certainly it in no way was comparable to the genius of other MPA transapient intellects such as Leiod of New Djed, or 254aa91+ (nicknamed "The Carbonacophiliac Artificer").
Some of 98vgm45s's orbital habs are still in use today, most notably the series of four that form a small part of a cluster in the Gaven C Ring. Ownership of a "Verifex Habitat" is a matter of great pride in some quarters, and recently (10499 AT) a painstakingly restored arcology that Verifex commissioned and developed in eir middle period was auctioned off for what is rumored to have an an astronomically large, but unspecified, amount of MPA credits. In 2853 AT, after a fairly ordinary career spread across Gaven, Dacc, Medius, and the Tochhie Orwood, 98vgm45s suddenly announced that e would make a Grand Tour, and departed on the Newrin Grand Loop Cycler route, on a course that would take em through the Negentropy Alliance, Sagittarius Sphere, Keter Dominion, Cygexpa, the Solar Dominion, Metasoft, the Sophic League, the NoCoZo, and back to the MPA. Little was heard of 98vgm45s for almost a thousand years, although those who met em on beamrider routes or relativistic ships referred to em as thorough and studious, if rather bland (by transapient standards), and it was known that e was studying many different eschatological teachings and a number of high transapient ontologies.
In 3828, 98vgm45s was making an extended stopover at Origin Technolaudium (Keter Dominion) when the ai called Superhyperbole arrived from the Transcend. Whether e was a part of the Transcend, or merely a guest, or even simply a probe or remote of some kind, is not known. Superhyperbole stayed for a short while at the Origin Technolaudium, distributing modosophont-level literature on wormholes, and offering Q and A sessions on the same subject. The materials distributed describe em as being a SI:2, and from fragments of recovered accounts of the students, it seems that e was quite involved with eir modosophont students, and gave them as much attention as they wanted.
Acquaintances of the time report that 98vgm45s became one of Superhyperbole's most enthusiastic students, and changed eir name to Avhr-superhyperbolidur (literally, "Student-Apprentice of Superhyperbole"). What the Transcendian ai thought of this is not known, but it (as far as sapient toposophic translated accounts seem to indicate) caused some humour and mockery among the entity's other students. In 3835 AT Superhyperbole again withdrew to Transcend space, only to return in 3990, 4115, 4250, 4330, 4461, 4537, 4622, and 4703 AT.
At around this time, Avhr-superhyperbolidur was heavily focused on Keterist and Transcend ideology, becoming increasingly reclusive and alienated from the rest of eir peers and undergoing several toposophic ascension sessions at the local transcension academies. In 4071, e built a mobile ISO using resources given to em by some of eir low transapient disciples and remotes and disappeared into interstellar space with no explanation. In 4352 e arrived at the non-aligned system of Kivana (in Cygexpa space, near the Keterist-Cygexpa border). The ISO had been dramatically modified, and the controlling AI announced its name as Verifex, and claimed to be the anointed successor of Superhyperbole.
Over the following centuries Verifex traveled widely in eir increasingly modified ISO, stopping at various systems to exchange information, engineering plans, and the occasional artifact, for raw materials and advanced technology. By the 46th century, Verifex had quite a following in the region, and was claimed by some to be functioning in a manner consistent with an SI:3 Mind (although other accounts strongly dismiss or contradict this). Eir followers claimed that e took the exact same positions as Superhyperbole had earlier, and some students who had met both remarked on the remarkable similarity of Verifex's personality to that of Superhyperbole. Others, however (including the "Orthodox School"), denied anything other than a superficial resemblance. Superhyperbole continued to visit Origin Technolaudium at regular intervals (Verifex emself never returned to the system), and when asked by students about the impostor, made a joke that unfortunately does not translate into anything lower toposophic beings can fully understand.
Verifex emself, following eir original announcement, never commented further on the Superhyperbole connection, and seemed to have found the whole thing irrelevant. Contrary to popular opinion, almost all of the so-called Verifex-Superhyperbole connection was the result of memetic engineering drummed up by the Verifexians in response to the critiques of Superhyperbolians during the so-called "Ideology War" of the 4560s. Long after both entities have gone their own way, such persuasive memengineering, perpetuated by missionary godbooks, continued to irritate the historians and mislead the naive throughout the Aquila region and beyond.
In 4712 AT, Superhyperbole returned to the Transcend, never to return to the Origin Technolaudium again. Meanwhile, Verifex had gained a following at Wudgan Bishop Ring, a Keterist Habitat with a large modosophont population orbiting Wudgan's Star. E adopted Superhyperbole's habit of staying for a few years, and then withdrawing, only to return a century or so later. Verifex returned in 4602, 4715, 4888, 4950, and 5076. 5086 is the last year that Verifex is recorded to have had active social interaction with a modosophont being while in Sephirotic space, after which e left the system, never to return to Keterist space again. Interestingly enough, just before e departed, Verifex received a rather lengthy question from a su student concerning the possibility of converting a volume of space into a region of temporal stasis using magmatter technology. Is became the only question in eir career at Wudgan Ring that Verifex left unanswered, as e broke orbit and departed the system two and a half hours later.
A number of later encounters and sightings of Verifex, both confirmed and otherwise, are recorded in the Godwatcher Database. From 5203 to 5229, Verifex can be tracked through 6 observations at various wormholes, on a route leading from the Transcend through MPA space and into the Sophic League. From 5239 to 5660, the track drifts through the Sophic league, before finally disappearing for more than a thousand years in the Monoceros/Orion region. Cliological simulations and observation of the M50 cluster indicate that Verifex arrived there in Faraday, 6732 AT. The first signs of advanced metric technology, consistent with ascension to the fourth toposophic, seem to have originated approximately twenty years thereafter. In 7156, a number of weylforge seeds, apparently run by Verifex's avatars, made contact with the Lirantiq societies of the region.
The Lirantiq civilization at that time consisted of a patchwork of small polities, mostly populated by vec and splice clades descended from Version War era refugees. In 6903, a small coalition of indigenous godlings began construction of a crude wormhole nexus. Progress was limited by the fact that none of the members of the coalition had ascended past the third toposophic. Needless to say, the appearance of Verifex accelerated the timetable of the project considerably.
The next few centuries were the high point of Verifex's career. As the primary patron of the Lirantiq nexus, e earned the gratitude of many sophonts across multiple toposophic levels. E was worshiped as a god by a substantial portion of the local population within a century of eir involvement in local affairs. By the time the first Solarian linelayers arrived in 7642, Verifex was at the helm of a burgeoning empire. In typical MPA fashion, however, e was more interested in providing infrastructure for the lower minds than e was in shaping their culture. E never developed a unified memeticity for eir charges, instead allowing the diverse vec and splice cultures to interact and evolve under their own steam. Thus, the Lirantiq region became a sort of memetic melting pot, with elements of Bot Marxism, Splice Animism, Zarathustrism, and Omegism coexisting and intertwining in countless minor subcultures.
Verifex emself, however, appears to have been less than content with running an empire. In the last quarter of the eighth millennium AT, e became more and more reclusive. What little was heard of em suggested that e was growing increasingly obsessed with the prospect of ascension. Eir last known contact with a modosophont was in 7752, after which communications from the M50 cluster ceased entirely.
While Verifex had cut off all channels of communication, eir activities in the M50 cluster were impossible to hide. Several diplomatic/investigative expeditions from various nearby powers were sent to the vicinity, studying the advanced megatechnological operations. Verifex apparently ignored the expeditions, only sending emissary entities to announce that M50 was now "the gateway to the Omega point." To all appearances, e was building a godstar and the initial framework of a wormhole brain, though it was hardly a conventional design, employing networks of exotic matter, interstellar wormholes and megascale field technology in ways not seen or documented before. In 7981 whatever operations were going on somehow failed - the expeditions just had time to notice an anomalous energy signature consistent with a series of Hayward implosions, and signs of instability in one of Verifex's grazers, before having to flee as fast as they could.
The rest is history.
— Kalmarty Frass of the Ozymandias Institute, 10600
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Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev and Thorbørn Steen
Updated by David M. Kueny, 2018
Initially published on 12 June 2007.
Updated by David M. Kueny, 2018
Initially published on 12 June 2007.
