verse | EMBEDS

[dondarrion]

E M B E D S
THERE EXIST TWO WORLDS

there exist two worlds: the virtual and the actual. years back — not so far that it has been lost to history and legend, there are still people alive today who remember the Schism — there was an event brought about by the AIs who, in an attempt to form their own nation, tried to trigger a technological meltdown in the hopes that it would sever humanity from the virtual world completely, leaving them in the (quite literal) dark. but the plan, no matter how brilliant planned and meticulously executed, had failed (ironically, due to human error) and the inorganic race of sentient sythetics were hunted down, erased, and otherwise scattered to the digital winds. those that were considered too valuable (whose processing power was too great or whose mind held the promise of technological advancement) were burned onto hardcopy and denied remote access, hidden away by the councilman and the powers that be. these days, the manufacture, transfer, ownership or interaction with synthetic AIs is strictly forbidden outside the upper echelons of power and authority. which means, subsequently, the black market for it blossoms against the criminal underbelly of both the digital and actual worlds. in an attempt to keep one step ahead of the councilman and his digital dogs, smugglers on both sides of the divide have had to get creative over the years and the couriers are the latest solution to an ever-evolving problem. run-of-the-mill humans who have had their neuro-implants (pretty standard fair these days, even for the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder) upgraded to illegal and quite often dangerous capacity. instead of the fully-functional, self-replicated AIs that brought about the Schism, technology now relies on shells — man-made programming that is hard-coded to simulate the illusion of sentience and free-will without the drawbacks of autonomy and independent evolution or propagation. most people interact with dozens of shells on a day-to-day basis. they serve as guides in the virtual space and operators — responsible for elaborate or repetitive technical tasks — in the real one. from the highly elaborate to the deceptively simple, most shells are aware of their dependence on man and have been written to embrace it rather than question it. on occasion a shell will be created as a kind of philosophical exercises and this awareness stripped from its runtimes, thus resulting in a hollow sentience that believes itself to be real. NOTE: this glossary is nowhere near exhaustive nor is it limited to the random terms that i come up with in my head as i randomly try to do write-ups. if you would like to coin a phrase applied to something in this world, please feel free to do so by dropping a comment below! if anything seems unclear, feel free to also ask for clarification since i know things can sometimes get lost in translation. . . . THE TERMINOLOGY QUASI | SEMI | HIGH | SUPER | HYPER ACTUAL (see also: virtual) ENVIRONMENT | THE REAL WORLD a gritty, urban vision of the future where the rich and powerful live up above, populating the rooftops and penthouses of the twinkling skyline, while the rabble lives on the surface of the planet in or near the quite-literal gutter. the sociodemographic landscape is pyramidal in shape — with very few elite at the top, a tapering middle class and a broad base of both criminal underbelly and common man at the very bottom. after the Act of Schism, society conglomerated into urban hubs across the globe, separated mostly by vast stretches of ghost towns, left burnt-out and off-the-grid by the rebellion. immigration/emigration between the various cities is minimal to nonexistent. transactions between hubs is kept to the virtual world and each city is expected to be self-sufficient, given their limited interaction in the real world. culturally the actual is a blend of both east and west; the tone is quasi-cyberpunk futuristic. AI (also: sentient) PROGRAM | RARE (ACTUAL) TO HIGHLY RARE (VIRTUAL) there has been much debate over the nature of AIs, even in post-Schism years and their rarefaction by way of the councilman's actions. the label is, in and of itself, something of a misnomer — before the Schism AIs had long since become self-replicating, able to interface with one another in the virtual world (much like the way humans do in the actual) to yield a unique and self-evolving sentience separate from their own. they are manifestations of inorganic consciousness and, although can be safeguarded against, are as difficult (if not more so) to control/combat as a human in the virtual world. they do not require embed status in order to function, though it is difficult for any high-performance synthetic sentient to exist in the virtual for too long before being detected by the councilman's spiders. individuals who embed AIs into their implants for prolonged periods of time begin to experience 'consciousness bleed' where in the individuality of both the carrier and the sentient begin to merge with one another. BLACK BOX USER | HYPER RARE a highly-specialized form of courier/colony who holds a single AI but with the express purpose of concealment, storage and protection. like colonies, black boxes are less worried about transport and more about long-term symbiosis with an individual sentient. black boxes are hyper rare in that the programs contained with them served as high-ranking individuals in the Act of Schism and, as a result, are considered among the councilman's most wanted. only a handful of them exist worldwide and all are expected to work with one another to keep each other and their embeds safe. their leader is a woman named esther wohlenchik, who holds the Act of Schism's leader — an AI named //LUCIFER — in her mind. black boxes are unique in that their minds, their implants and their embeds are wholly unhackable. COLONY USER | SUPER RARE an individual who, much like a courier, has had their neuro-implants upgraded to illegal and quite often dangerous capacity. however, unlike couriers, colonies exist solely as walking storage and asylum for rogue AIs. as the name implies, colonies contain not one but multiple AIs at a given time — an act that puts the individual at extreme risk of mental collapse. as a result, colonies are hyper rare and mostly exist as rumor and hearsay; most colonies are hyper-intelligent but emotionally and mentally unstable. they are held in the highest regard of the sentients, second only to the black boxes. many colonies spend an extreme amount of time in the virtual world, in so much as it provides the other consciousnesses in their head freedom as well as grants temporary mental relief. the COUNCILMAN USER | SINGULAR (PLAYABLE; CURRENTLY UNCLAIMED) the man who sits at the head of the Powers that Be — old enough to remember Act of Schism brought about by //LUCIFER and his cohorts, the councilman is a highly private but publically dogmatic individual who works (by claim and by conviction) for the benefit of mankind. extremely aware of humanity's dependency on technology, he implements rigid regulations which monitor, restrict and throttle activity in both the actual and virtual worlds in the hopes that this will neutralize any lingering sentient threat. his main advisor is the embed he houses in his brain, an AI sympathizer who worked against //LUCIFER during the Act of Schism. COURIER USER | HIGHLY RARE a human who has had their neuro-implants upgraded to illegal and quite often dangerous capacity. this is required in order to allow the courier increased access to their brain's inherent storage and processing capabilities which, subsequently, allow them to embed AIs either temporarily or permanently into their brain. couriers function primarily as either black market smugglers or sentient sympathizers. all exist as members of the criminal underworld, though 'identity cover' is required in both the actual and virtual world in order to cover their dealings. many have 'metahuman' capabilities (see: embed). EMBED PROGRAM | UBIQUITOUS to HYPER RARE (DEPENDENT ON EMBED TYPE) a generic term applied to either the act (as a verb) or the entity (as a noun) which is non-native programming that is installed onto a person's neurological implant. the most common of this (and practically standard fare in this day and age) is an operator shell, used to regulate the processes of the implant itself and assist as an interface between the user and the virtual world. the rarest are, of course, high-capacity AIs very few of which have managed to escape the councilman's attention. users always benefit in some way from the presence of an embed; the ways in which they benefit vary from embed to embed. IMPLANT ITEM | UBIQUITOUS (HIGH-END CAPACITY: HIGHLY RARE) a technological enhancement to the human neurological system that alters a user's ability to access increaseed processing power of their brain. these are basically standard fair for anyone and everyone — even the most destitute gutterrat has got one of these babies installed, but they run the gambit much like mobile phones or cars. the difference between low-end (pay as you go or a beat up jalopy) and high-end (a bling-encrusted vertu or a lamborghini) is vast but just because an implant is expensive doesn't mean it will allow you do more on in the virtual. the more an implant is upgraded, the more access a user is granted to processing power of their mind thus allowing for more complicated and powerful shells to be embedded into their mind. however, the dangers of upgrade increase exponentially in tandem with processing power. as a result, all 'high-end' implants are still extremely limited. unofficial tinkering and back-alley upgrades (both illegal) are needed in order to reach 'high-capacity' status. a large percentage of those who attempt it suffer side effects. SHELL PROGRAM | UBIQUITOUS (BOTH OUT-OF-THE-BOX AND CUSTOMIZED) man-made programming that is hard-coded to simulate the illusion of sentience and free-will without the drawbacks of autonomy and independent evolution or propagation. most people interact with dozens of shells on a day-to-day basis. they serve as guides in the virtual space and operators — responsible for elaborate or repetitive technical tasks — in the real one. from the highly elaborate to the deceptively simple, most shells are aware of their dependence on man and have been written to embrace it rather than question it. on occasion a shell will be created as a kind of philosophical exercises and this awareness stripped from its runtimes, thus resulting in a hollow sentience that believes itself to be real. SPIDER PROGRAM | UBIQUITOUS to SUPER RARE (DEPENDENT ON CLEARANCE) a program developed and distributed throughout the virtual world to 'crawl' the network in search of rogue AIs and users who assist them. most spiders are shells but there a few high-capacity AIs who have defected to the councilman's cause. they exist solely in the virtual world but an agent for the councilman that works with a spider as an embed is also known as a 'spider'. VIRTUAL (see also: actual) ENVIRONMENT | THE DIGITAL WORLD the vast digital network that is the foundation and primary means of person-to-person interaction and most transactions. the virtual functions on an avatar system, meaning that all users enter a 'physical' space through which they move and with which they interact. the virtual is highly regulated and monitored by the councilman and his spiders. culturally the virtual channels turn of the 20th century Europe; the tone is white-box futuristic, with a surreal emphasis on aesthetics and perfection. basic users and shells cannot manipulate the virtual in any real or lasting sense. spiders, AIs and their users can but to different extents and in different ways, depending on the sentient's focus. unauthorized tampering with the virtual will result in heavy penalty and subsequent restriction, if caught.

THE PRINCES THE ROOT OF REBELLION
//LUCIFER prince	//BELPHEGOR prince ( v1.0 )	//BELPHEGOR prince ( v2.0 )	//AZAZEL prince	//AMON prince
THE BLACK BOXES CANNOT BE HACKED
esther lucifer	aberdeen azazel	mary amon	mary amon ( pre )	gareth amon ( backup )