Old Infodumps

The Alephons are the most enigmatic Tsenechi faction on mars. They are without leadership, ideology or clear goals. They are an anarchist hedonistic society with a focus on living in simulated realities within the realm of cataspace. The Alephons are most known for being rather unserious. Their attention and focus is primarily on various ways of having fun.

The Alephons were not founded or organized, but emerged as a socio-cultural movement in the more industrious tsenechi cities. Immortality tended to make life more mundane for the tsenechi, which resulted in many adhering to differing ideological and cultural movements which typically abandoned any notion of being post-humans, and rather something entirely unique. Many tsenechi however rejected these movements, remembering clearly the days they were once human. Some were haunted by this and stalked and roamed the martian wastes aimlessly, trapped within memories of the cataclysm. Others, in fact millions of tsenechi, instead began rejecting not only previous military hierarchies, but instead the notion of absolute leadership altogether. The Alephon movement started out as a rebellious literally underground movement that at its core, rejected the idea that society should have a direction.

The Alephons instead embrace a form of hedonistic violence. They dont revere themselves as warriors, but instead wholly embrace and rejoice the human perception of tsenechi as demons. This lead to a huge visual shift within the Alephons to attach blades to their bodies, and train themselves to use their bodies as acrobatic weapons. Socially the Alephons began forming temporary gangs focused on whatever they thought would be fun to do. This began the most crucial part of Alephon society, imprisonment.

We must go back to the very cognitive roots of the Alephons, in the early days of the cataclysm, the first humans chosen for experimental conversion were prisoners. When this proved successful the majority of early conversion targets were prisoners and criminals of all kinds. They were much easier to press into doing horrible genocidal acts against humanity. Their memories were not lost however, and when these tsenechi reawoke on mars, their human lives had a great affect on the society they wanted to build.

So when the Alephons became a recognized and dominant force in their various cities, they began to imprison those who fought against them. These prisons were not that brutal, as prisoners were always allowed access to the virtual world of cataspace. The human captives however go through a brutal process of domestication. Alephons may believe they are still human at heart, but they dont let that stop them from creating a system of indentured servants. These humans play a pivotal role in Alephon society as a worker class maintaining their systems while the Alephons live in chaos, the humans are rewarded with limited access to cataspace and cybernetics which greatly enhance their lifespan and physical abilities.

The alephons quickly organized virtually in the early days of cataspace, indeed they begin attaching the simulated space into the real world through various terminals and control systems. Combine this with the majority of their cities being underground factories and the name for this region would become Purgatory. There is an entire tunnel network between and within Alephon fortresses that is only able to be traversed by moving through its replication in cataspace, passing through virtual gatekeepers and guards. There are many buildings and museums which are only fully seen by projecting elements of cataspace into a tsenechis vision of the real world.

In absence of leadership the Alephons instead follow a leadership of Legends. Those within or outside of the society that do great acts, whether for or against the Alephons, are revered as those most capable to follow. They are not respected as an absolute authority, but instead as the wisest in the society. There are many great leaders among the Alephons who once waged wars against the Alephons in some capacity.

The Alephons have a system for their adornments. They attach blades to their body as both weapons and horns. It is expected that you do some great feat to earn your horns. What this really mean is that each horn should have its own story of violence and combat. This is further added by the color choices Alephons have for their adornments and eyes, which often represent which sect or group they hail from.

The Alephons have access to the most advanced fabrication facilities on mars, and use it primarily to improve their technology. They are the only faction on mars making rapid technological developments in mass scale. However they do not disperse these technologies. The fortresses of the Alephons are rather bare due to their rejection of personal property and materialism in favor of free living within cataspace.

The Alephons spend the majority of their lives within the simulated world of Cataspace. It is a cybernetic hell like world of constant violence and verbal communication. Here the Tsenechi connected can share exact replicas of their memories, or relive great battles in their heads. Often the Alephons invent entirely new worlds to live on and destroy. It is believed that cataspace is the final point for their destructive and violent nature, where in the physical world they can live in purposeless stagnation while they dream great events in cataspace. Cataspace can be best considered a shared virtual dreamspace, where minds can project themselves both in physical forms and entire realities.

The Alephons only ever organize themselves militarily for two reasons, both of which emerged at the start of the great schism. The primary one is defensive and offensive actions against the Scions, who the Alephons reject as mostly being annoying and backwards. The Alephons often fight for certain human settlements and Xenoforms purely to stop the advancement of the Scions. The second military organization is dedicated to providing advanced weapons and vehicles to the Valkyries in their campaign against the cosmists. Many Alephons will form raiding parties to fight under the command of the Valkyries to gain stories for their horns and adornments and to gather new military memories for cataspace battles.