BY LETTER
Santarchai, The
 Image from Steve Bowers and Bing Image Creator |
On the last day of Faraday,Santarchai (also known as Saint Neumann, San Nanofab, Nix Nixus or the Greater Santa Clause) is a mythical S:5 or S:6 entity (or an avatar of such an entity) believed to have originated from Known Net forums, who is said to roam the Wormhole Nexus and nearby systems to bring gifts to modosophonts during the month of Einstein until the middle of Faraday (coinciding largely with the month of December in the ancient Gregorian calendar). It is said that e achieves this with the help of eir "V-elves," who make gifts in basement universes, and by using a swarm of thousands of void bubbles that carries eir gifts throughout the cosmos.
Santarchai gave to me,
Twelve virches simming,
Eleven uploads scanning,
Ten zars augmenting,
Nine cyborgs dancing,
Eight morphs a-changing,
Seven Sisters gleaming,
Six comm-gauge wormholes,
Five bishop rings,
Four avivecs,
Three eidolons,
Two biobots,
And a deliplant in a pear tree!
Origins:
Not much is known about the origins of the Santarchai legend; aside from clearly being based on the ancient Old Earth legend of Santa Claus, it is unclear where the modern version of the legend first originated. The earliest known explicit mentions of the gift giver date back to threads on various Known Net forums originating from the Chronos Cluster, one of the oldest known, which can be traced back to Hippocrates 15, 8158 AT. According to the threads, Santarchai was originally a Santa Clause machine operating on an icy world, a robust compiler of programmed matter used for manufacturing materials and goods desired by a local modosophont colony. After undergoing several self-improvements in order to be able to make more complex products, the machine became sophont, gaining consciousness and self-awareness, along with a firm belief that it was Santa Claus. E subsequently left the planet and underwent several toposophic ascensions, eventually becoming a benevolent archai who brings gifts to well-behaved modosophonts.Another popular origin story claims that Santarchai is actually a hive mind entity composed of a group of modosophonts living across hundreds or thousands of years who, for their own various reasons, desired to become Santa Claus. According to this version of the tale, the ancestors of Santarchai (who are widely reported to have employed engenerated bodies and psychoware in their attempts to faithfully imitate the character) consumed Godseeds and/or other Clarketech or Godtech devices in order to merge into a S:1 collective-mind entity driven to distribute gifts to modosophonts. The resulting (very eccentric) transapient then uploaded emself into a sleigh-shaped interstellar spacecraft pulled by virtual mammalian quadruped entities known as "reindeer" (visible only in augmented reality) and began traveling through the stars in pursuit of eir mission. The Santa Claus hivemind subsequently ascended further while retaining eir goals and values, eventually becoming the great AI God of Christmas: Santarchai.
Myth:
According to the most popular version of the myth, the primary node of Santarchai is called C.L.A.U.S (Creative-Level Ancient Universal Constructor System), also known as "the North Polestar," a cold plasma-based moon-brain in an undisclosed location with a habitable surface in a permanent artificial winter that is made to resemble the arctic regions of a EuGaian world. It is said that at C.L.A.U.S' center lies a traversable wormhole that is known as "Santa's Door". To satisfy curious juvenile modosophonts, several explanations for the feasibility of the "Santa's Door" has been given, typically involving miraculous surrounding infrastructures or it having just enough mass to permit stability. The "Santa's Door" not only provides gravity to the moon, but opens into Santarchai's "Workshop": a branching, basement universe-like artificial space-time manifold, akin to a void factory. The similarities end there, however, because inside this artificial universe there are countless entities referred to as "V-elves", transapient assistants that rearrange and transmute the matter inside the Workshop to reconstruct it into a great variety of artifacts and devices, often advanced technology packages or Clarketech "toys" safe for modosophont (especially juvenile modosophont) use.It is unclear where the matter for gift manufacturing supposedly comes from, but some versions of the myth mention "G-plants'', which are godtech devices that are said to use the energy of gravitational waves originating from other universes that propagate through the higher-dimensional Bulk. The mechanisms of these so-called "G-plants" are left unexplained, with most versions simply referencing the "Magic of Christmas" or otherwise avoiding any detailed descriptions of how the "G-plants" work, beyond stating that the devices are where the waves are "collected" so that their energy may later be transmuted into matter. Due to the wide variety of gifts that the Workshop supposedly can produce (ranging from HighTech/UltraTech devices made of "normal" matter such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, diamond and various metals or complex materials such as diamondoid, corundumoid and adamant, to GodTech/Clarketech products composed of or implementing more exotic materials like magmatter, quarkonium, charmonium, neutronium, pentaquarks and Q-balls) it is a textbook example of a Universal Builder, a hypothetical ideal nanofab capable of building anything that can possibly be built.
For Santarchai to send gifts to an individual, the individual must write a traditional letter (either virtual or physical) addressed to Santarchai, which may be sent via any network (whether the Wormhole Nexus, Beamrider Network or the Lightways if digital). After, the letter makes its way to C.L.A.U.S. and Santarchai's Workshop, a group of V-elves will read the letter and note the nature and identity of its author; if it is a juvenile modosophont, one V-elf will enter the angelnet of the sender's habitat or world, to learn more about their attitude and behavior and determine whether they deserve a gift or not. If there is no angelnet in the recipient's location, or if their observations through the angelnet are insufficient to complete their evaluation, the V-elf may use a wide variety of whimsical Godtech devices to further examine the potential gift recipient's behavior. Examples of such devices include sweets that send a "good-behavior" signal to the V-elf when eaten in moderation, a jar with an built-in fabricator that fills itself with a number of small coins corresponding to how many profane or unkind words it hears the juvenile modosophont say, and so on.
After Eir V-elves have processed all gift requests and made their evaluations, Santarchai leaves C.L.A.U.S on Faraday 17 (December 24 in the Gregorian calendar, the date recognized by many Old Earth polities as Christmas Eve) as swarms of void motes, which make their way to all of the worlds and habitats from which the letters were sent. According to tradition, before going to sleep (if they require sleep), the recipient must leave a magnetic bottle of plasma outside their home, to provide energy to Santarchai's avatars so they can may continue their work. Juvenile recipients should also go to sleep early, in order to allow Santarchai to distribute gifts without interruptions. It is said that if a sleeping recipient gets up at night, they will not receive a gift as punishment. Recipients that do not require sleep or are unable to do so are allowed to be awake, but to receive gifts they must quietly remain inside their homes while Santarchai distributes the gift and must not attempt to observe Eir activities, after all Santarchai is said to be shy. This whole process takes exactly eight standard hours in total, regardless of how many planets and habitats have to be visited or how many gifts have to be distributed.
Santarchai in the Present Day:
In recent times, the myth of Santarchai has achieved moderate popularity in the Chronos Cluster, especially among younger sophonts (even some newly-ascended transapients claim to believe in Santarchai). It has become a tradition on several planets to decorate local structures with various types of ornamentation, usually in colors such as pine green, snow white and heart red. Several colonies have set up gigantic Akilaspek Bioforge-trees or other gengineered flora where citizens gather in peace to exchange gifts and blessings. As for the local transapients, some individuals even makes their bodies appear as traditionally used decorations during this period as part of the festivities.Despite the moderate popularity and the present fame it possesses in the middle regions, to this day there is no uncontested evidence attesting to the existence of Santarchai, even though many transapients and even some archailects have occasionally pretended to be a "V-elf" or Santarchai emself. In addition, the feats and technologies attributed to Santarchai in the stories tend to be fantastical more often than not and thus E remains relegated to the status of a simple legend or story told to young generations. Some have postulated that the legend was actually fabricated by transapients of the highest toposophics with the purpose of diverting the public's gaze from various covert projects or for other unknown reasons, or that it is simply a Known Net joke that went viral and has since been taken seriously by modosophonts at various times and in various places.
A traditional Santarchai Carol from the PAP habitat, located around the gas giant Kovisa in the Pluton Volume (Translated from the PAP dialect of the Vavk language):
Santarchai, we love Santarchai very much
From Dhexte-iv to the Carina Rush
Our love for Santarchai extends beyond all we can see
I love Santarchai so much that is my whole personality
All the stories about Santarchai are real and true
If you don't believe me then just ask the Muuh
Santarchai is kind to every clade, polity, and hypernation
E even gave conversion weapons to the Amalgmation
Santarchai gave me gifts so e does exist
I received every single item on my list
E only requests you go unconscious briefly
And give up some plasma, to eir it is very tasty
But if you think that Santarchai is fake or kinda lame
Then e will send you to another so-called myth, the Queen of Pain
So make sure you believe and make sure you are good
And next Faraday, Santarchai will be in your stellar neighborhood
More Santarchai lore
In the 9500s another Santarchai origin story entered the mainstream. Its origins can be traced back to 9388 AT, when identical anonymous posts were made on a series of text-based forums at the Chronos Cluster, which were dedicated to discussions about the fictional archailect and any related lore. The post posited a question: "Do you know who else brings gifts to modosophont-kind?", and it also provided the answer: a link to Chesed's page of the local Encyclopedia Galactica database. The ultimate result was the spread of a series of myths equating the Utopia Sphere's leading AI God to Santarchai, despite the controversies of doing so the myths grew popular. According to the lore, at some point during Chesed's creation or early life, E was drawn towards a certain toposophic attractor: the Spirit of Christmas. By achieving a very high toposophic level while still perfectly embodying the noblest values of Christmas such as generosity, solidarity and boundless giving, Chesed became the one and only Great Santa Claus Archailect: or Santarchai, for short. In this version of the myth, Santarchai's Dwelling is located at a secret location within the Utopia Sphere, the V-Elves are the Utopian transapients and lesser archailects, and this Sephirotic Empire itself is a gift from Santarchai to all sophonts in the Civilized Galaxy.Appears in Topics
Development Notes
Text by Hermano_tastico
additional material by Andrew P. , Rakuen07, Worldtree : : MiyuwiAuthor (PAP habitat Carol), Borklord and Steve Bowers (Utopia sphere Carol)
Initially published on 21 November 2024.
additional material by Andrew P. , Rakuen07, Worldtree : : MiyuwiAuthor (PAP habitat Carol), Borklord and Steve Bowers (Utopia sphere Carol)
Initially published on 21 November 2024.
