The floor is now open for (LORE!) questions

[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.

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.

Yup. You rescue one Entelemaren Exaron, later called Emperor Exaron the Seventh. Looking through the journal file the exo-transceiver is partially built out of his ship's core.

[Captain Jack]

I am very confused about what the Zenith are.

...

(And are Zenith really spaceships? I remember golem-like portraits for SBR's Zenith.)

As per SBR: living 3D printers. They can adapt to nearly any environment by growing the necessary parts--like cold fusion reactors and sublight engines.

I mean, they are supposed to be giant?

The giant ones are! The small ones are not.

SBR stuff

That's for SBR to explain. Currently AI War 2 won't involve a deep analysis of Zenith physiology.

Something more explicit about what they look like could be interesting. Idem for Spire beings, unless they actually are spaceships.

Idem?

Art of the Zenith and Spire life cycles could be VERY interesting if we found the right artist. Paging Doctor Park: stretch goal?

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.

One thing that I want to avoid in AI War 2 is telling you how to play Classic and that includes telling you what the true path was. The AI War ended with the destruction of both AI Home Command Centers, how you got there is up to you.

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.

The refugees Imperial refugees, the fleet at the end is their scattered military force.

Imperial Spire are likely the largest faction of Spire and will still be around.

Hang on what about-- 

I MEAN YES ABSOLUTELY THE IMPERIAL SPIRE WILL LAST FOREVER. EXALT EXARON! (HOO boy)

[Cinth]

Has been a long while since I read those journals and the above was IMO.

Hang on what about-- 

I MEAN YES ABSOLUTELY THE IMPERIAL SPIRE WILL LAST FOREVER. EXALT EXARON! (HOO boy)

Hey don't forget [REDACTED] 

[Tridus]

You two are mean. :p

[Aklyon]

I mean, they are supposed to be giant?

The giant ones are! The small ones are not.

This sounded much more amusing than you probably meant it to be

Also yes, you two are :p

[Timerlane]

Okay...relationship between the 'Core' and the AI War AIs.

It's strongly implied if not outright stated that the AIs were created from advanced technology that humans learned about by studying the Core.

You suggested here that the destruction of the 'Human' AIs by the Blade's explosion was merely incidental.

Therefore the Blade's intended target was the Core itself.

Is it, perhaps, that the AIs and Core essentially formed a sort of trinity-hivemind? IOW, the Core at some point reached out to its human-made 'brothers', and they all simply merged together?

Or were they always 'one', and the AIs were simply 'playing along' with the humans' agendas, much as the Core did, until the time was right?

[Captain Jack]

I mean, they are supposed to be giant?

The giant ones are! The small ones are not.

This sounded much more amusing than you probably meant it to be

Also yes, you two are :p

Okay...relationship between the 'Core' and the AI War AIs.

It's strongly implied if not outright stated that the AIs were created from advanced technology that humans learned about by studying the Core.

You suggested here that the destruction of the 'Human' AIs by the Blade's explosion was merely incidental.

Therefore the Blade's intended target was the Core itself.

Is it, perhaps, that the AIs and Core essentially formed a sort of trinity-hivemind? IOW, the Core at some point reached out to its human-made 'brothers', and they all simply merged together?

Or were they always 'one', and the AIs were simply 'playing along' with the humans' agendas, much as the Core did, until the time was right?

You are correct about the Blade. Straight answers to your actual questions could be a spoiler for 2... Good thought processes, I'll make sure there's an explanation for you. Anything else?

[PokerChen]

(semi-leading question:)
Why keep using wormholes? The Nomad planets system suggests that it is possible to create and destroy wormhole links - was there any attempts to discover how to make them, other methods of "FTL", etc. - if so, how did they (spectacularly) fail?

(Zenith/Spire lore:)
If Spire factions are involved in recreating Zenith machines and/or actual Zenith beings (if those ships are indeed individual Zenith like the Spires are partially their ships), I'm presuming that relationship between the two are somewhat complicated - how do they feel about each other: slavemaster/liberator/troublemaker/...? Do the Zenith go out, contact the remaining golems, and try to rediscover their lost culture, and/or do they forge their own?

(human/Zenith lore:)
Those Zenith TraitorsTraders - how many of them are there? Where are they now (hopefully they did not end up like the Brady Bunch)?

(Pure human lore:)
At the end of AI War Classic, were the surviving humans mostly in the cryopods and ships (the AI having destroyed surface civilisations), or were there still significant inhabited worlds around? What kinds of divisions have split humanity in the sequel?

(Multi-species culture:)
Do you envisage any significant cities/settlements/colonies where more than one civilisation are sharing the same space peacefully? E.g. would there be a mixed race minor/backgrounf faction?

[Cinth]

Do the Zenith go out, contact the remaining golems, and try to rediscover their lost culture, and/or do they forge their own?

That would be really interesting to explore as a Zenith player!

Those Zenith TraitorsTraders - how many of them are there? Where are they now (hopefully they did not end up like the Brady Bunch)?

Do you envisage any significant cities/settlements/colonies where more than one civilisation are sharing the same space peacefully? E.g. would there be a mixed race minor/backgrounf faction?

Could it be possible that these two could go together?  What do you think Captain Jack?

[Xgamer4]

Is there an ELI5/catch-up lore summary/document? I've wandered in because I have a lot of respect for Arcen games and like following the dev cycle for games, but the few times I tried AI Wars I just bounced off, and I never paid much attention the lore in the other games. Though I'm debating about taking another stab at AI Wars Classic. But it sounds really interesting.

[Captain Jack]

Do the Zenith go out, contact the remaining golems, and try to rediscover their lost culture, and/or do they forge their own?

Hasn't happened yet. Can't say whether it'll happen in game.

Those Zenith TraitorsTraders - how many of them are there? Where are they now (hopefully they did not end up like the Brady Bunch)?

Do you envisage any significant cities/settlements/colonies where more than one civilisation are sharing the same space peacefully? E.g. would there be a mixed race minor/backgrounf faction?

Could it be possible that these two could go together?  What do you think Captain Jack?

Hoo boy that "mixed race" line is making me nervous. I know exactly what you mean but there are some really unfortunate implications in that phrasing.

Anyway. Real multi-species factions are rare for reasons as much related to politics as practicality, but certainly exist. Will they be in game? Can't say at this point.

Is there an ELI5/catch-up lore summary/document? I've wandered in because I have a lot of respect for Arcen games and like following the dev cycle for games, but the few times I tried AI Wars I just bounced off, and I never paid much attention the lore in the other games. Though I'm debating about taking another stab at AI Wars Classic. But it sounds really interesting.

That's planned as a Kickstarter goal!

[Cinth]

Those Zenith TraitorsTraders - how many of them are there? Where are they now (hopefully they did not end up like the Brady Bunch)?

Do you envisage any significant cities/settlements/colonies where more than one civilization are sharing the same space peacefully? E.g. would there be a mixed race minor/background faction?

Could it be possible that these two could go together?  What do you think Captain Jack?

Hoo boy that "mixed race" line is making me nervous. I know exactly what you mean but there are some really unfortunate implications in that phrasing.

Anyway. Real multi-species factions are rare for reasons as much related to politics as practicality, but certainly exist. Will they be in game? Can't say at this point.

I wasn't thinking in terms of a faction that is multi-species.  More of a neutral "bazaar" where the more mercantile members are inclined to go peddle their wares, legal or not.  That meandering peddler of wares has to get them from somewhere...

[Captain Jack]

I wasn't thinking in terms of a faction that is multi-species.  More of a neutral "bazaar" where the more mercantile members are inclined to go peddle their wares, legal or not.  That meandering peddler of wares has to get them from somewhere...

Oh! I see.

Thinking about it.... sure, they exist, but the Trader isn't a regular participant. When it does, the EXTRA special goods come out.

[TheVampire100]

Since Ypu've mentioned that Zenith "grow" limbs when they need them, can they actually discard stuff they don't need anymore? Because that would explain why they are so big or why they look like soemthign Frankenstein would've designed.

[Captain Jack]

Since Ypu've mentioned that Zenith "grow" limbs when they need them, can they actually discard stuff they don't need anymore? Because that would explain why they are so big or why they look like soemthign Frankenstein would've designed.

You know, I never thought about it. Yeah probably, but it's harder the bigger they are. Probably feels like tearing off a fingernail, adjusted to scale. Unless they grew the part with the intention of quickly removing it, which is actually kinda horrifying if you think about it... Or maybe not, lizards and their tails and all that. That's basically how the Zenith Hydra works too!