#lotg lore discuss

[lightontainted-ask]

What were the name inspirations behind TC, MLOC, and HOS? Either in-universe or as a character.

sooooo. this is actually something I have a really good answer for!

Thirteen Catastrophes is based off my old objectsona, Tar13 (tarie). That's where the design and the "Thirteen" part comes from. The Catastrophes part is from my alternate username I use sometimes, "BubbleCatastrophe", which is from Calamity. The in-universe explanation is that Thirteen Catastrophes was intended to be an imposing and important name. It was to command power and respect, which the benefactors felt the group seriously needed.

Missing Link of Chain used to be Chain of Missing Links, named after a song of the same name by The Books. Her personality was intended to be similar to the speaker in it, but I ended up branching away from it. I re-arranged her name because COML was too similar to COM and made coding hellish. The in universe explanation for her is that she's supposed to be filling in the gaps, those "missing links" through her archives.

Horizon of Sulfur's name is based off wildfires. Specifically the ones that happened in California a few years back. The smoke blew over my state and the sky turned orange and black. It was... foeboding to say the least. I chose the element sulfur specifically instead of "smoke" or "char" because I needed a periodic table reference in there. Sadly there's not really an in-universe explanation... but his name inspiration and how it references wildfires is reflected in his personality and design in a way and I think that's enough.

[lightontainted-ask]

(OOC) been working on a lotg map and what I have so far has been pretty barebones. doesn't really include much outside of a heightmap and location of the iterators + the area of their facilities. But the site I used didn't really have the tools I needed

ToDo

Regions

Railline connections between and around iterators

Location of other groups relative

[lightontainted-ask]

TSAC: Greetings! My name is Three Stars Above Clouds. I am Director of the Zenith Stellar Observatory Consortium and Lead Archivist of the Zenith Data Archives.

I have a question for Missing Link of Chain. It is to my understanding that you have curated quite an impressive collection of historical records, and I was curious to learn more about your archival methods.

I maintain a large archive of my own, primarily used to store observational and scientific data. My own archives are primarily data pearl-based; this storage method allows large data payloads from my telescopes to be moved relatively quickly, and also facilitates fast data read/write speeds. However this method of data archival has its limits- for instance it is quite inefficient in the storage of high-resolution qualia, which tends to rapidly exceed normal data pearl memory limits.

I am eager to learn about your own data storage techniques, given the contrast between our respective duties. What kind of information do you maintain in your own archives, and how is it stored? Do you have any particular preferences when it comes to data organization? Are you aided by scholars in the curation of your archives? Do you have any records on hand that you are willing to share?

Please excuse my bevy of questions; I am simply curious about your work. I hope this message finds you well and I wish you good luck in your endeavors. (@threestarsaboveclouds) (ooc: I hope this gives you some worldbuilding stuff to chew on lol. Enjoy)

Hello TSAC! I'd be very happy to answer all your questions, from one archival iterator to another.

About my archival methods- I think you'll find it apparent I don't use many pearls. They fade over time if not cared for properly, and I store far too much data to be stored in a pearl network. Besides, they're particularly easy for me to lose...

Rather, I've taken a long-term storage method that uses purposed organisms to store massive amounts of data in the form of qualia, text, images, audio, and so on. You may even recognize similar organisms around many citadels, storing the memories of those who've ascended. These neural amalgams are stored and grown in large biometal and glass buildings atop my can, towering about as tall as any city, and sprawling even wider. It can be either horrifying or beautiful depending on your tastes. Or neither, if you're me.

This, of course has upsides and downsides. The upside is that this storage method lasts for a very, very long time. However, retrieving the data again is not as optimized. This is not a problem for me, as much of what I store is... rather useless anyways.

Which is what my main job is. Anybody can store data in some neural meat. But that data is scrambled and unorganized, I make sure that everything is properly formatted and easy to find again through a system of complex tags and IDs identified to every segment of data and- actually I'll save that explanation for another time.

My time is more spent organizing rather than going out to find documents myself. Over 99% of the data stored in my archives have been donated to me by scholars, volunteers, companies, and other iterators!

Normally, this would be an easy task. Even easier for me, as I've been designed with a larger processing strata and memory conflux in order to run more parallel processes, but even still, I estimate I'd collapse before I fulled tagged, ID'd, and sorted everything.

Luckily there's a priority system for donated data so I'd get through all the actually useful documents first.

I hope this may satisfy some of your curiosities.

(-ooc, I was going to draw the structures mentioned, but I really don't want to anymore. Here's a wip! Yes I know it shows nothing. Just imagined Memory Crypts but very very tall. And a little less shaded.)

[lightontainted-ask]

Addressed to Cage Of Membrane

What are your thoughts on the culture of ascension and the cycle? Do you feel anything regarding the fact you create entities just for them to become bound by the thing many of your creators lamented?

i... vaguely remember. when i i was first-t constructed, many argued-d about the ethic-c-s and philosophical implic-cations

it would be t-too simple t-to say our creators ever-r agreed on one t-thing.

one s-side said life it-t-self was suffering-g. the other believed that-t life had value, and that the cycle was at-t fault, not-t existence. a a whole other side argued-d that we w-w-would find the solution someday, and that none of this would mat-t-ter when that-t time comes

as for-r m-my own thought-ts on your q-question: i stand-d somewhere in that-t latter part-ty. life will end up in the cycle w-whether or not we want-t it-t to. what dent-t in that could i i possibly make at-t this point...

[lightontainted-ask]

Non-OC ask related

How do you think the steps in an iterators construction work? Obviously they have to do the foundations first, but what about the insides? And does it vary on the company constructing the structure in question?

(OOC) Generally how it goes:

Creating the foundational structures (legs)

The organic metal framework, both inside and outside

Pipage/conduits/whatever is constructed and connected to water supply

Organic matter and organisms are "seeded" through the framework to slowly grow into it. This includes the puppet

Kickstart the metabolism of the iterator, making sure it can at least keep itself alive

Memory and neurons are filled to the brim with qualia from the ancients, creatures, and other iterators(if applicable)

When the time is right, wake the iterator up. At this point the iterator needs to adjust and calibrate the internal systems by itself, and supervisors are typically forbidden from heavy interaction. This period lasts 1-3 iterator cycles, but can be longer if there are issues.

[lightontainted-ask]

Yeah here

(OOC) been working on a lotg map and what I have so far has been pretty barebones. doesn't really include much outside of a heightmap and location of the iterators + the area of their facilities. But the site I used didn't really have the tools I needed

ToDo

Regions

Railline connections between and around iterators

Location of other groups relative