The Hopforge

## History

### Creation

**Hop** was told by his father **Sop** to create the **Hopforge** to restore faith in Hoppism after the **Hop Civil War** created mistrust of the hops as the conflict continued. During **The** **Second Great Hop Expansion**, Hop ordered his scientists to design a new supermachine that could work beside the **Electric Eyes** toward the growth of renewed Hoppism. It would create bodies that could be inhabited by engineered to host a consciousness of a hoppist remotely, or permanently.

Initially constructed due east (roughly 2,000 lightyears, years on Karrots) of the **Hoalmims Galaxy**, then moved far into corners of the universe, near **The Infinite Graveyard of Giants**, it was meant to be a long-term project that ensured hops could be in all places in the universe so they could serve and protect others for all time. It was deactivated by Hop following the end of The Second Great Hop Expansion.

## Hoppist Symbolism

Hop has deemed this to be a symbol of Hoppism, as Hop has done away with inferior representations of Hoppism in favor of an object that fully represents Hoppists. The Hopforge also represents what hops can achieve when they strive for Hoppism.

## Purpose

### Initial Motive

The Hops made the forge to create more Hops in case they were to go extinct or be defeated. Although a Hop has never been destroyed, this was a precaution for such an event. Sop felt that in the wake of his ascension and the end of the Civil War, Hop needed to restore the Universe's faith in the hops, making their presence a sign of peace and safety, as well as progress. Numerous working unions on Karrots were enlisted to volunteer to design and build the construct, with several Knights of Sop being studied and measured to be ideal specimens for replication. They were to be the standard design of a stronger hop, created by perfect machine rather than loose nature.

### Design

A long port in the front to draw in starlight from stars similar to ones chosen when hoppists are baptized. This energy would grant the power to assist matter alterations needed to create a hop's body, but their mind would have to be pre-fabricated or cloned from another hop. The central dock would function as the are where materials identical in elemental composition would be aligned in the shape of a hop. Once created, they would be stuffed and sewn together before being baptized and cleaned. Most early bodies were easily destroyed by the power of the stars, even when the forge's condenser scaled down the exposure considerably.

### Failure

Several failures to properly capture a hop's mind and consciousness failed. The closest success is AI-like, such as the dummies and drones used for soldier training. This however could not inhabit a hop's dormant body if created, nor be injected into the artificial bodies. For unknown reasons the scientists could not produce a natural hop body, but they could produce other non-fluff race bodies. It was used to send clones of races to their planets to assist them in their development.

The machine's learning algorithm was intended to mimic a mind by observing hops in real time, as well as viewing recordings on the Hoppist Network, but it could not accurately create a model citizen's personality. Even if it could, the understanding of a consciousness was not clear, and even organic beings could not be observed with or without it, regardless if living or dead. The forge and its computers failed to replicate a mind inside-out time after time. Transferring it into the bodies was a larger issue, as even a rudimentary mind could be trained and educate, were it able to populate the new body. Fluff beings like hops are simply beyond technology's understanding at the time of its creation. Drones and robotic look-a-likes would serve to assist hops in labor tasks and military roles instead, due to a difference in cost and resources.

### Decommissioning

Hop shut it down remotely upon exiting charted universe with Vibri. If clones could not be made due to an absence or abundance of hops, the machine only served to benefit other races which no longer existed nor had the ability to create drones with the false bodies. The data compiled by the forge's computers was destroyed by Hop in an attempt to prevent it from being used against the Universe, and its body-making facilities were shut down. Further, Hop disconnected it from the Hoppist Network, and coordinated the ship to drift into The Endless Graveyard of Giants as its resting place.