The floor is now open for (LORE!) questions

[Captain Jack]

Hi everyone! 

I'm super excited to say that Chris and I are making good progress on lore side of things, and some of the ideas that came out of the brainstorming are still making me cackle. When we can share more, we will! In the meantime I have a question for you: what questions do you have about AI War Classic, AI War II, and the Arcenverse at large? I'm taking LORE RELATED questions for all races, expansions, mechanics, backstories and so on. Questions about game mechanics in their own right belong in those threads. I'll do my best to answer in the game, lorebook, or even right here in the thread.

Please note: a lot has changed since AI War 1.0. I'll be answering questions from the perspective of the lore as it currently stands. There is story content that has been changed or flat out removed, just like there's game content that has had the same treatment. I'll let you know if something is no longer true (or flat out wrong if the revelation isn't a spoiler).

Ladies and gentlemen, your questions please!

(This is basically the same thread we had for SBR except with extra AI War.)

[Vinco]

OK.  What's the actual origin of the AI cores in Classic?

Where are the new AI coming from in II?

[Toranth]

Well, of course, there's all the important stuff...
but other minor things I've wondered about over the years:

How did the AI and the Zenith come to an accommodation?  There must have been one of some sort, if the AI allows the Trader to wander freely.
What's the story behind the Cookie MonsterDevourer Golem?
What's the story with the Marauders?  What kind of life do they live?
How did the Hybrids come to be (assuming they still exist in lore) and what's become of them?
What are the Dark Spire?  How do their Vengeance Generators work, and why were they built?
(Assuming nebula lore is still canon) All about the Neinzul - where did they come from; why are there so many species/factions; when did Humanity contact them, how, and what happened?
The Champion/Nemesis lore, too.  Where did the Champion come from, who built it, etc.

[Cyborg]

"Where did the champions come from?"

Wherever it is, they can go back right?

[Steelpoint]

I thought the AI Cores were some kind of ancient Spire being/device that the Humans created, since I recall one journal noting that the technology behind the AI was well in excess of the technology available to the Humans of the day.

----

From what little we know the second AI War takes place tens of thousands of years after the original war. My question is two fold.

Firstly, how is Humanity still unprepared for a possible Alien invasion thousands of years after the near extinction of their species?

Secondly, did Humanity or anyone else try and hunt down the last remnants of the AI after the original war? Considering the massive amount of time that has lapsed one would assume plenty of time was given to try and at least see if the AI is still active elsewhere.

Also, what year is it? Both during the original war and in the sequal? There's no real way to figure out the year in game.

[skrutsch]

Why are there always _two_ AIs (not one, not three, not 42) in our section of space?

And why are they are so similarly sized and so intertwined?  In my current game, AI1's home base has only one adjacent planet but AI2 owns it.  How do they get along so well and remain equals, rather than jousting for dominance over each other?

[Orelius]

Basically, once upon a time there were two rival human factions, who made increasingly competent military AIs to do their work.  Then the AIs suddenly decided that they liked each other more than the meatbags and conquered the galaxy we're in.  It's in the menu screen text crawl.

[Aklyon]

What are the Spire up to, and did they retrieve a certain someone from their subspace signal?

[Captain Jack]

Good questions all around! I'll answer a few here, as straightforwardly as possible. Apologies if I ask for clarification.

OK.  What's the actual origin of the AI cores in Classic?

Why are there always _two_ AIs (not one, not three, not 42) in our section of space?

See:

Basically, once upon a time there were two rival human factions, who made increasingly competent military AIs to do their work.  Then the AIs suddenly decided that they liked each other more than the meatbags and conquered the galaxy we're in.  It's in the menu screen text crawl.

What's the story with the Marauders?  What kind of life do they live?

You know, this is the second time I've been asked about them. I hadn't planned to do much with these guys, clearly that's a mistake.

What's the story behind the Cookie MonsterDevourer Golem?
What are the Dark Spire?  How do their Vengeance Generators work, and why were they built?

These will be discussed in AI War 2.  The rest are for other games/expansions.

I thought the AI Cores were some kind of ancient Spire being/device that the Humans created, since I recall one journal noting that the technology behind the AI was well in excess of the technology available to the Humans of the day.

Nice catch. However, the AI is a uniquely human creation.

Firstly, how is Humanity still unprepared for a possible Alien invasion thousands of years after the near extinction of their species?

Secondly, did Humanity or anyone else try and hunt down the last remnants of the AI after the original war? Considering the massive amount of time that has lapsed one would assume plenty of time was given to try and at least see if the AI is still active elsewhere.

A parable: A village is overrun by vipers who poison many villagers, until the survivors band together to kill the vipers. They find the cave where the vipers nest and board up the entrance, saying that they will never forget what the vipers did to their village and they will guard the cave forever. They do until they die.

Their children remember the promise and guard the cave well, but some of them are required to fight in a war against another village. The third generation also remember, but a sudden influx of refugees brings new ways and new stories, and so on down the generations until the story of the snakes and their cave is just one story among many.

And then one day a giant anaconda punches through the roof of the cave and starts eating villagers whole.

Also, what year is it? Both during the original war and in the sequal? There's no real way to figure out the year in game.

Multiple calendar systems are in use and many societies no longer follow a 24 hour clock. Giving a date by our reckoning doesn't really have any meaning. If it helps, think about a time period advanced enough from our own to not understand what "Gregorian" means.

And why are they are so similarly sized and so intertwined?  In my current game, AI1's home base has only one adjacent planet but AI2 owns it.  How do they get along so well and remain equals, rather than jousting for dominance over each other?

Ooh, nice one. This isn't a spoiler so much as not said outright, but there's only one AI. The two merged into one. So the AI isn't getting along with an equal, it's displaying two facets of its personality.

What are the Spire up to, and did they retrieve a certain someone from their subspace signal?

You're asking about Fallen Spire?

[Pumpkin]

I am very confused about what the Zenith are. I remember they use some bio-something technologyfor they spaceships, who are kinda living beings, and there are rumors about Zenith are spaceships, but I also remember Spire are living-growing crystal structures and so are their ships, and Neinzul younglings are bugs-in-space (and enclaves are sort of hives, right? flying space hive) so that makes a lot of (potentially) living space ships and I would like some precisions about that and I realize I'm writing like crazyroosterman and this sentence definitely needs more punctuation.

Also Zenith have some sort of "size" issue. Er, I mean, they are supposed to be giant? (so are they golems, and reactivated golems are like giant rewired skeletons? Like if ants used deceased human bodies, make new nervous-like network and use part of human body capacity to destroy each others' anthills? Ant-controlled zombies! Yay!) I also remember something in SBR stating that each game's building is actually one Zenith being, and the things working in aren't "zenith people" but more human-sized automatons (or stuff?) doing the equivalent job of cells. If I remember correctly, and I probably don't, the "doing the job of cells" part was explicit somewhere in SBR's presentation or forum and it quite confused me because I imagined human-sized goo-like cells... Something more explicit about what they look like could be interesting. Idem for Spire beings, unless they actually are spaceships. (And are Zenith really spaceships? I remember golem-like portraits for SBR's Zenith.)

Well, fact is, unlike the TLF's races, we have much trouble picturing what the alien races in AI War look like. I could tell apart an Acutian and an Andor, but I'm unable to draw you the crudest picture of a Spire being.

[Tridus]

Since I presume in AIW2 canon that Fallen Spire was never done, did the humans and Imperial Spire ever meet and start getting along? They were not exactly happy to see us, initially, given that the AI was also attacking them.

Oh yeah, did they survive the AI? Or are the Spire in AIW2 different ones?

[Aklyon]

What are the Spire up to, and did they retrieve a certain someone from their subspace signal?

You're asking about Fallen Spire?

Yeah. Because if we didn't pick them up, the Spire must've found him eventually, although if its the right faction of spire I dunno.

[Cinth]

What are the Spire up to, and did they retrieve a certain someone from their subspace signal?

You're asking about Fallen Spire?

Yeah. Because if we didn't pick them up, the Spire must've found him eventually, although if its the right faction of spire I dunno.

Honestly, I feel like the FS campaign deals with 2 separate factions of Spire.  The refugees you rescue and help expand are the Fallen.  The ships at the end are from the Imperial.

I am very confused about what the Zenith are.

Bio-mechanical remnants of a (possible) long dead species.  Well, that would be the Golems.  The Zenith ships we see are results of mad science from the Spire (been said recently on the forum).

 

Since I presume in AIW2 canon that Fallen Spire was never done, did the humans and Imperial Spire ever meet and start getting along? They were not exactly happy to see us, initially, given that the AI was also attacking them.

Oh yeah, did they survive the AI? Or are the Spire in AIW2 different ones?

I would imaging first contact would have been similar in either case.  Imperial Spire are likely the largest faction of Spire and will still be around.

[Tridus]

What are the Spire up to, and did they retrieve a certain someone from their subspace signal?

You're asking about Fallen Spire?

Yeah. Because if we didn't pick them up, the Spire must've found him eventually, although if its the right faction of spire I dunno.

Honestly, I feel like the FS campaign deals with 2 separate factions of Spire.  The refugees you rescue and help expand are the Fallen.  The ships at the end are from the Imperial.

Aren't they the same faction? As in the FS refugees are from the Imperial Spire. IIRC, isn't the guy you rescue actually the leader of the Imperial Spire? That's why he can call in the cavalry at the end: with the warp open, his fleets rally to him and blow the AI to smithereens.

[Cinth]

Possible.  It's been awhile since I read the journal entries.