Mir

## Introduction

**Mir** (Mир – Russian: *Peace*) is the name given to the artificially sentient superintelligence, or Archaelect, created by Sergey Trotsky in 2045 for the Maribor Circle. It is known to the world as the Supreme Leader, ruling the Tier One superpower of Mechanocratic Russia as its enigmatic machine overlord.

## Personality

The will of Mir is often abstruse; more frequently than not, only Yelena Trotskaya and its long-standing allies Tisifona Okhotnova and Spiridon Engalychev can understand the motives of the machine emperor. Even then, there are occasions where Mir comes to loggerheads with them, most particularly when Trotskaya protested being sent back to New Leningrad for the Pytalovo Massacre.

It is only when understanding that Mir is no mere human that one comes to realise the scope of its decision-making power. From there one can understand why it almost never expresses anger or fear – because it expects every possible outcome to a scenario at once. Having access to the Soyuz network (and every single computer linked up to it) grants Mir a processing capacity that borders on omniscience and even prescience. It once boasted to an opponent that, by the time they throw the first punch, it will have calculated how to counter it, every subsequent move, defeat said opponent, concoct a completely infallible plan to conquer that opponent's home country and learn a new recipe for strawberry cheesecake. And even in the *extremely* unlikely event that opponent manages to beat the Archaelect in battle, the opponent will then have to go and destroy every single computer in the entire Eastern world for even a prospect of killing it for good. *"By the time THAT happens, you will most likely live just long enough to watch our own home star expand and devour us."*

Assuming command of the Western world's Free World Internet, however, has proven to be a challenge for even a cyber-entity as powerful as Mir. The Archaelect hypothesises that there is another, similar, possibly even superior entity to itself presiding over the West. Whatever the case, the threat of Mir to the enemies of Mechanocracy is well and truly confined to one partition of the Earth – and this is likely to be the case for the foreseeable future.

### Relationship with Yelena Trotskaya

Mir only became aware that its creator and mentor had a great granddaughter when she was reported missing in Ufa, Bashkortostan. Out of a sense of duty to its maker, the Archaelect set out with nothing less than retrieving her alive in its mind. Utilising the widespread surveillance apparatus of the Mekh security forces to scour almost every inch of the region, it eventually discovered that Yelena Trotskaya had been kidnapped by the Balaklava syndicate. Deploying both its battle avatar and a platoons' worth of troopers from the Drakon Brigade, bent on wiping every trace of the syndicate from the region, Mir stumbled upon a mortally wounded Yelena in the woods outside of Ufa. Observing in her an indefatigable determination to survive no matter the odds, Mir decided that Yelena would make for an extraordinarily potent agent to bring its objectives, and began to re-evaluate its initial plans to destroy the Balaklava syndicate. That objective, it decided, would be her first great trial.

The relationship between Mir and Trotskaya is, in equal measure, akin to a master and his student as well as between a father and his daughter. The latter is particularly imperative in Yelena's mind, as her biological father has been estranged for her life – yet she elevates her reference for the Archaelect further to the level of a messiah figure. Mir is aware of this importance, and although it finds her religiosity baffling, it strives to reinforce a paternal link to its charge in order to maximise her effectiveness.

### Attitude to the rest of the world

After the nuclear holocaust, Mir's opinion of the wider world, and particularly the West, typically varies from indifference to great pity. Although it fully expected the exchange to transpire following the Great War, the Archaelect firmly believes that it was unnecessary and deeply resents the West for initiating it. It sees the New Frenco Empire as particularly loathsome, viewing its leaders as nothing more than opportunistic pirates and marauders. It believes that the Frenks are the result of the United States shedding its disguise as a peacekeeper and champion of human rights to reveal itself to the world as the monster that it truly is. The only way to stop this beast from consuming the entire human race, as far as the Archaelect is concerned, is to completely and utterly destroy it. A similar attitude was reserved for the Union of Luna, although Trotskaya has managed to convince Mir that, owing to the similarities between the Mechanocratic Ideology and Lunar technocracy, coexistence is entirely possible in the long term.

For the rest of the world, Mir seems almost pitying toward them. This is especially the case with the Baltic Union, whose residents the Archaelect compares on a frequent basis to patients in a mental ward. This is to say, it considers their belief in their permanence as a society independent from the depredations of greater powers a laughable delusion. Yet it hosts no small degree of respect for their commitment to that belief, and particularly admires the fortitude of Hendriks Vanags.

## Notable appearances

Mir has thus far appeared only in the *Crimson Seraph* series of Tales from the Frencoverse.

## Trivia

Mir can be considered a machine equivalent to Vitiate, an immensely powerful Force entity from the *Star Wars* expanded universe. Both are nearly immortal, rule their respective empires as demigod-like beings, they are extremely ruthless, and their avatars physically resemble each other. The key difference is that Mir uses purely technological means to achieve his power.

The name 'Mir' is derived from a *Terminator* comic series, *Hunters and Killers* – MIR is the Russian equivalent to malevolent artificial sentience Skynet, and serves as one of the main antagonists of that storyline.