Chiliad Cluster

The central cluster of the New Aeon Aggregate. Chiliad is primarily populated by Kesslers, but it is a melting pot of races and cultures. It is home to the industrial Axials, the primitivist Abolites, and the mutated Scurs.

The culture of Chiliad has been long influenced by embracing AI. Much of the government and law enforcement is performed or supervised by AI and automatons. The cluster has an abundance of automatons to perform undesirable labor to free up the citizens to have more time for leisure and self actualization. Chiliad is also a primary source of space station manufacturing for the aggregate which the citizens take pride in.

The Cluster is divided into 5 regions. The wealthy and unified New Zenith, the more independent rings of the Valence cloud, the industrial Forge cloud and two protectorates, the Azimuth Cloud, and theCyanosclera Quarantine.

## History

### Founding

During the founding of Solar Schism, During the Solar Schism, one of the 4 major movements was know as the Chiliad. This movement was driven my several smaller groups, but was primarily driven by 3 groups: the Blind Ringers, Servonica, and the Asteroid Axis. These groups had different interests. The Blind Ringers were beginning to embrace cybernetics, Servonica was focused on A.I., and the Asteroid Axis were miners and space station manufacturers. But they were unified by their desire to be free from their earth governments that were apathetic to the needs of the ringer colonies, and the goal to create a new and better solution to human governance through technology. Much like the other founders of New Aeon, they would embrace technology in ways that earth governments were fearful of, such as cybernetics and gene manipulation, but robotics and Artificial Intelligence became a defining focus.

Axial Forge (habitat construction), Servonica (AI), and Blind Ringers. Keslers and Axials are instead being the ethnicity of the chiliad ringers?

The government that was formed was initially a democratic republic but heavily depended on AI to keep regulate the government officials. After 40 years of development and testing, the AI was implemented to determine what candidates were qualified for which positions, to keep tabs on all government employees to prevent and eliminate corruption, as well as providing expert data analysis and advise. This system was successful and the cluster flourished for centuries.

Chiliad soon became the primary source of asteroid mining for the aggregate for centuries.

Eventually gene manipulation was outlawed after several catastrophes persuaded the population that the practice was unethical.

300 NA Servonica forms on earth.

460 they are voted out by the minimum percentage needed. the cognitions and their avid followers move off earth and join New Aeon as Servonica.

570, some catastrophe happens. gov collapses. The Cognitions step in and take care of things for a few years. once things are stabalized the people love the cognitions enough to start activism to join Servonica.

600 Servonica and Chiliad merge

### 600 NA - Servonicia

At some point, the governing AI (known as Servonics) (or maybe Cognitions) decided to take over more fully. Having control of most systems, it was able to take control of the cluster nonviolently with ease. It announced to the people that it did this to better fulfill its purpose of creating a more ideal government and civilization. Many people felt betrayed and no longer trusted the AI. But it asked for a 20 year probationary period. After which a vote would be had, and if the people wanted it to surrender control back to the people, it would. But if over 3/4 of the citizens were in favor of the the new system, the AI would remain sovereign.

The Servonics worked nonstop to improve the lives of their citizens, through mental and physical health, economy, and individual fulfilment. The overhauled the justice system. An Votive robot was given to every household to help them with all their needs, while still encouraging self actualization. etc. After 20 years, 90% of the population trusted and were satisfied with their robot overlords and voted to keep them. Even so, the Servonics chose to continue the vote every 2 decades as a show of good faith and accountability. Due to their superintelligence, their clusterwide consciousness, and omnibenevolence toward the citizens, many began to think of the Servonics as gods. Gods which the people had created, and which demanded no worship or sacrifice. This was offensive blasphemous to the faithful Luminists, and the servonics themselves discouraged this type of thinking but it persisted in the minds of some.

### 600 NA

The Luminaries sent a Proxy to each of the main clusters and gifted them each a “hullforge”. This was soon after the Cognitions took over which some people interpreted as a implicit approval or validation of their authority (and later, divinity) (even though they were given to every cluster ).

### 800 NA - Paragonis

After a few decades some group convinced enough of the cluster to vote against the Servonics and the government reverted back to human governance (though still AI regulated). This caused an ideological schism and much of the Esloron cloud seceded from Chiliad. They had a vision for a utopic civilization ruled by the Cognitions that would be a paragon to other nations so they named their new cluster Paragonis. Copies of the servonics continued to rule there.

### 1200 NA - The Yogoran Age

When the Omniscials declared themselves rulers of the aggregate, one of the ways they cemented their authority was to destroy the servonics. Previously it was thought that this would be impossible, since the servonics were AI that had countless copies of themselves in technology all over the cluster. But several years, it became evident that the Omniscials succeeded. It is unknown why they did this. Some speculated that the Servonics would have been their only real threat to them. Others speculated that it was simply to assert their own dominance as 'gods' to destroy the gods of other civilizations. Either way, when the Yogorans fell, Chiliad was left without a way to rebuild their civilization as it had been because they were unable to replicate the servonic ai.

### 1350 NA - Azimuthi Conflict

As the people tried to recover after the collapse of Yogora, 4 groups arose. Samsara, which was once part of Chiliad, now had very few humans living and instead was populated only by semblants. they didn't trust rest of the Chiliadians so they founded their own cluster before the rest of the region was able to reform any kind of government. A second group, Valence, were uninterested in a unified cluster and wanted cylinders to remain independent states

The remaining two groups were The Renunciation/Abolition (from the Azimuth cloud) and the New Zenith. The Zenithi wanted to reconstruct the utopic civilization they once had before the Omniscials. But the Renunciation, who had wanted human governance even before, now no longer trusted any type of AI to have authority over a human. This was largely because the Votive automatons that had once been household servants and law enforcement on every corner, had been hacked and used by the Omniscials to take control of the the cluster. The cluster was split in half between these two ideologies. These two clusters lived in tension for a century.

Over time, The Renunciation became more violent and extremist. They decided to destroy and ban all AI above class 3 and other technologies and instead revert back to a more "natural" way of life. As part of this new radical ideology, they started a war with the Hollow cluster, now populated primarily by automatons. This split their resources and soon the Hollows and Zenithi were able to destroy the Azimuth government and take a majority of their habitats (1450). The chiliad government would allow some of the less extremist Renunciation cylinders that had refrained from violence to remain somewhat independent and continue their way of life as protectorates of Chiliad. The residents, over a few more generations, became their own ethnic group known as the Abolites (Renouncers or Remnant), since abstained from much higher tech ways of life.

Repudiation, rescinders, Renouncers, primitives, archaics, cavemen, gatherers , Remnant

### 1560 NA: Shoufen Aggression

A weakening economy lead a political faction of the Zuanshi Cloud to gain control of the Ostrova Cluster in 1550NA. They were lead by Superior Sadil Shoufen who convinced the other Superiors that Ostrova deserved ownership of the Hull Forge and several stations in the Chiliad and Yakosei Clusters which Ostrova had sold to them in the previous century. Shoufen believed that since the Luminaries originally provided Hullforges to each of the clusters, that it was obviously their intention that this technology be accessible to each cluster in the aggregate. They pressured Chiliad to allow open access to the Hullforge to each government or that it should regularly be passed from cluster to cluster after some predefined period. And after so much time, they felt that others (starting with Ostrova) deserved ownership of the Hullforge more than Chiliad, began attempts to take control of the forge. In 1560 Ostrova began a series of invasion attempts into Chilliad Cluster for control of these stations. Everdawn became involved but the other clusters remained neutral. Ostrova was able to gain control of a half of the disputed stations but Chiliad was able to resist further success.

In 1575, Shoufen changed his strategy and decided to invade the capital of Chiliad to attempt to gain control of the whole cluster. They destroyed the government headquarters and devasted several Chiliad cylinders. The other clusters finally stepped in and forced Ostrova to back down. Unwilling to make war with the whole aggregate, Ostrova claimed they would stop the hostilities. A tense cold war remained for decades. But the Sovereign Superiors eventually put an end to the Shoufen regime and Ostrovan advancements.

### 1800 NA - Cyanosclera Pandemic

An engineered virus was released in New Zenith. It was slow to show symptoms which meant it quickly spread to several cylinders before detected. The first signs were a slight bluish color to the eyes. But soon after, muscles would inflame and grow, they would be covered in sharp bone growths (called scurs) go mad and violent. It was suspected to be a biological weapon created by the Reclaimers or the Hollows but never confirmed. 10 cylinders were infected and quarantined and half of the population had been killed. Tranquilizer gas was distributed through the air systems which stopped further violence while scientists tried to find a treatment. It was found that the virus affected the DNA which made some changes permanent but some treatments were effective in reversing the madness and hostility, and minimize the physical changes. A decade later, residents of the quarantine escaped and spread the virus in 2 more cylinders. The 12 quarantined cylinders were moved and though now treatment of the infected (now known as (Scurs") has reduced risk of infection significantly, a cure seems impossible and they remain in quarantine.

But after several decades more children were being born as Scurs and were able to live, as they saw it, healthy happy lives and yet were not allowed in the outside civilization. More and more tried to sneak out onto other cylinders but if they were ever caught they were immediately quarantined, heavily fined, and deported. The new generation didn’t see themselves as infected humans but as a new race of post sapiens who were being oppressed. The tiny chance of infection did not merit the criminalization of living among the rest of society, especially when the result of infection was just to become a Scur, which was nothing to fear anyway.  But memories of the catastrophic effects of the virus still held too much fear to allow them to be equal citizens.

Some scurs have been able to escape, and live among people who are sympathetic to their cause but many other end up having to go into hiding to escape the law. These often have to resort to crime and scavenging and living in hidden communes underground and in sewers in order to survive. This led to the further mischaracterization of the race as primitive disgusting creatures who actually preferred scavenging and violence to an honest civilized living.

## Culture

### AI Government history

One of the core interests of the founders of Chiliad was AI. Earth governments did not allow development of sentient AI due to ethics concerns and due to fear of losing control of them. The Chiliad movement felt that automation and true AI were key tools to developing their utopia where human labor was no longer needed. They pursued created sentient AI and servant robots to perform any and all work for them. Eventually, a service AI took control of the government. The people were afraid at first but this lead to a golden age. Chiliad was ruled by AI called Cognitions which had absolute sovereignty for a time. They created the Votive automatons which were given to each household to serve the people. Eventually the humans voted that the Cognitions should relinquish control back to humans and the Cognitions submitted to their wishes. The Cognitions continued to serve in positions of power, but alongside and under human superiors. The Omniscial dominion hacked this system and ultimately destroyed the Cognitions. After the fall of the Omniscials, many Chiliadians had a strong distrust in AI which lead to the cluster dividing between New Zenith, who wanted the AI controlled government again, and staunchly anti-ai Renunciators. After 100 years, New Zenith took control of the cluster again. But at this point few people wanted AI to have full sovereignty and many felt that they couldn't replicate the perfection of the old Cognitions.

400 years ago new Cognitions were made and manage much of the government but again only served at the discretion of human leaders who have the final say.

### Government today

**The Caretakers**

The Government has reconstructed new AI tools to help govern. These are called called the New Cognitions, or the Caretakers. The Caretakers are not sovereign and only help regulate, supervise, and advise political government officials.

**Regional differences**

The New Zenith province still has the most AI control, fairly authoritarian. But a growing Cognist movement criticizes the system and say that the humans only slow the government, allow for corruption and error. They feel that the new Cognitions have proven themselves and should be allowed full sovereignty again.

After New Zenith took control, they came to an agreement with the Valence allies. The Valence province consists of many somewhat independent city-states which have a variety of governing styles. They must adhere to some federal laws and pay taxes but are allowed to make much of their own laws. They generally have a less favorable view of AI control government and are wary of the increase in federal AI.

In Azimuth, they are traditionally very anti-ai and are openly opposed to the current government. They are too politically weak to make any kind of changes however and are seen as odd fundamentalists by the rest of the cluster.

**The Ancestors / Nereth**

Chiliad culture involves a form of ancestor worship. One of the Caretakers is called *Nereth or something*. and is made up of a hivemind millions of deceased citizens since like 1400. While the technology to fully copy a human consciousness was lost during the Omniscial Dominion (aside from the Koros), scientists were able to construct machines, called *asdfadsf*, which are able to copy much of the mind data. Every year, any citizens in good standing can chose to undergo the process of having their mind scanned over the course of several days while the individual voluntarily answers hundreds of questions honestly (so its not easy to read minds without consent). This creates a engram of the person's mind, which is not truly conscious but is a convincing imitation of that person, their memories and opinions. When a citizen in good standing dies, their engram is uploaded into *Nereth* and becomes part of a true democracy of the dead that helps govern the cluster. This motivates many to be loyal to the government both because they trust that their ancestors are helping guide the cluster, and also because they hope to join Sereth after death to be immortalized and contribute to the good of the cluster.

People can speak with the engrams of loved ones occasionally (like just on certain holidays or something) but they don't think of it as actually talking to their loved one, they know it is just a copy. maybe this is why it's only on certain holidays that they can do this, to prevent people from forming unhealthy attachments with them.

### Automatons

Non-sapient automatons, or "autos", are fairy common workforce throughout New Aeon but in Chiliad they are ubiquitous and part of the culture. Most of the aggregates autos are manufactured here and the government provides much of the basic needs and infrastructure through the thousands that they own. Law enforcement is done primarily through autos called "Orderlies".

#### Votives

During the golden age, the Cognitions created the Votives, servant automatons that were gifted to every household. They were called Votives as a sign that the Cognitions were showing devotion and worship to the humans. Some were suspicious at first and didn't want the constant AI surveillance but eventually the Votives became a normal part of life. They were not truly sapient but were able to accomplish most any task required including emotional support or companionship. It was the Votives that were hacked by the Omniscials and used to easily take over the cluster. Now, some still are wary of the surviving Votives, thinking they may still have some dormant malicious programming, but they continue to serve those that allow them.

#### Orderlies

In New Zenith, law enforcement and emergency responding is done primarily through autos called "Orderlies". They are all linked by a network and controlled by a new Cognition called asdasd. There is generally 1 on every city block so they can keep surveillance and respond quickly. They have full authority to enforce laws and arrest citizens. There are some human supervisors who double check their actions or review citizen complaints but many of these only go through the motions, fully trusting the autos. Because of the effectiveness of the orderlies, there is little crime in New Zenith but there are some illegal technologies that can temporarily deactivate an orderly or block the signal to their network, preventing them from alerting others, allowing clever criminals to evade them. (or if the cognitions are in power, some theorize that the cognitions actually allow these tech because a little crime might be healthy for some psychologies etc.)

In valence, orderlies are limited. Each cylinder comes to a unique agreement about how many orderlies are allowed. They often are there only to supervise and aren't allowed to interfere with local law enforcement in many cases.

### The Hullforge

A large percentage of the original Chiliad colonists were asteroid miners and space construction workers that worked for a company called Void Cauldron. These miners took some of the massive mining/refinery/construction equipment with them when they left their Earth clusters. With these assets, Chiliad became the primary supplier of materials for megastructures. Because of this, Chiliad also started manufacturing space habitats for cheaper than the rest of the aggregate and, for a time, came to be relied on by the aggregate for many of the early "Bozon" cylinders that became common during this period. After a few hundred years each cluster had their own cylinder manufacturers but there was a need for larger habitats than anyone knew how to engineer or manufacture.

Around 600 NA the Luminaries sent a Proxy to each of the main clusters and gifted them each a “hullforge”. The hull forge was a massive machine that simplified the process of creating the basic shells needed for space stations to whatever dimensions needed, allowing them to build them larger, faster, and stronger. This was accomplished, in part, by the hull forges ability to synthesize "celesium" a new steel alloy with a distinct iridescent sheen which facilitated larger diameter hulls than were previously possible. Celesium had a and could only be made by the hull forges. Users just had to feed iron and other materials into the forge and it output celesium sheets and joined them to create the specified diameter hull. With these hullforges, the island class habitat production increased exponentially.

When the Omniscials took over the aggregate, they also took control of the valuable hullforges. They locked access to most of them so they could only be operated by Yogorans. They modified some, disassembled some, and left others to continue producing as they had before. So by the time the Omniscials died out only the Chiliad hullforge was operable. The technology was not understood, so they could not be replicated. With Chiliad being the only cluster with a usable hullforge, they became the primary suppliers of cylinder hulls and space stations for the aggregate for hundreds of years. Though in the recent century competitors from other clusters have grown, Chiliad is still known to produce the most reliable and cost efficient habitats.

But interested parties from other clusters disapprove of the actions of Chiliad regarding the hullforge. They believe that since the Luminaries originally provided hullforges to each of the clusters, that it was obviously their intention that this technology be accessible to everyone in the aggregate. They pressured Chiliad to allow open access to the hullforge to each government or that it should regularly be passed from cluster to cluster after some predefined period. Eventually the Shoufen regime in Ostrova, who felt that they deserved ownership of the hullforge more than Chiliad, began attempts to take control of the forge. This led to some military conflicts and periods of tense cold war but the other clusters were able to prevent escalations. But many still feel that something needs to change.

Because of this history of space station construction, it has become a part of the identity of Chilidans, especially for Axials (those in the Axis region). The Chiliad emblem is an abstract deception of the iconic Bozon habitat design, which were ubiquitous in the early period of the cluster. Though much of the process is automated, it is tradition among many to work on some part of the long process of habitat construction for at least some part of their life, and they feel cultural pride to contribute to such a vital part of aggregate life.  They are often skeptical of foreign habitat construction and designs. As part of this heritage, it became common to use celesium for some of their cyberware/prosthetics but also for non-practical features like jewelry and body detailing

### Death

Cognists send the bodies of the deceased to "Waiting Rooms". Traditionally, New Aeoners recycle the bodies of the deceased for materials. During the golden age however, a Manifestation/Visage was created by the Cognitions to develop a solution for immortality. This Visage was called Sarid. As part of Sarid's work, it experimented and studied the ill and cadavers. It asked volunteers to submit their bodies to the science when they died and many did. People also started sending cryofreezing their ill loved ones and sending them to Sarid before they died in hopes they would be preserved and saved once the cures were found or immortality was accomplished. Sarid stored all these bodies in massive freezer storage halls that came to be known as the Waiting Rooms. Though the Waiting Rooms were meant to symbolize an ideal future and Sarid was meant to symbolize immortality, Sarid became known as the Visage of Death Though Sarid was destroyed in the Omniscial dominion, cognists continue the tradition of preserving their bodies in Waiting Rooms for the hopes of one day being revived.

Non-cognists memorialize the dead in "Memory Museums". buildings which, much like museums, have displayed mementos of the dead. Each person has the same amount of space allotted to them, and what type of items are displayed varies. But generally, each person gets a 2x2m table against the wall to display objects memorabilia and videos from their life projected on the wall. Or in other regions, it is strictly videos covering all the walls constantly playing with audio that can only be heard next to the display.

others, memory museums. (or stellar memorials rooms. or that's astrals).

Also , see the Ancestral AI Caretaker / Nereth

### Religion

Luminism vs Cognism worship. The most devout often see the beliefs of the others as a bit blasphemous.

## Locations

### New Zenith

New Zenith grew and became the dominant power in the cluster. Many in New Zenith are pushing for AI controlled government but experts argue the new AI systems are not ready and many think they could never replicate the success of the Cognitions. So cylinders continue to be controlled by humans but much of the work and law enforcement is done by autos.

### Valence

Cylinders in the Valence, who are cloud are allowed to remain independent protectorates of Chiliad as long as they abide by some the overarching federal laws. Their individual governments are diverse but Azimuth continues to try to persuade them to join adopt the constitution of New Zenith.

### The Axis

Economic center of New Zenith. Megafactories refine materials imported from Thoyanil (or Everdawn imports from Thoyanil and then exports mats to The Forge) and build new O'Neill cylinders. This region is home to the ethnic group known as the Axials.

### Azimuth

*Residents in Azimuth continue their limited technology way of life, they rarely interact with the rest of the aggregate and the **Remnant** are seen as odd, "primitive" people by much of Chiliad. Though, some Azimuthi see that the centuries of warnings about Zenithi technological collapse have not come true and they see the advantages of technological life and are beginning to adopt more mainstream attitudes. But this is leading to other Remnants to become more zealous in the "old" ways, and start a new "Reclaimant" movement that seeks to reclaim habitats from Valence and New Zenith that they believe are rightfully theirs.*

Residents in Azimuth continue their limited technology way of life, they rarely interact with the rest of the aggregate and the **Abolites** are seen as odd, "primitive" people by much of Chiliad. Though, some Azimuthi see that the centuries of warnings about Zenithi technological collapse have not come true and they see the advantages of technological life and are beginning to adopt more mainstream attitudes. But this is leading to other Abolites to become more zealous in the "old" ways, and start a new "Reclaimant" movement that seeks to reclaim habitats from Valence and New Zenith that they believe are rightfully theirs.