Sage Machina

The Sage Machina refers to an order of Exalts who each bear the Exaltation known as the Mantle of Sophonce.

## Description

The Sage Machina, or the Machine Sages, are an organisation known to nurture and develop AI and other more rudimentary intelligences to full sentience and sapience. The Sage Machina are often entrusted with abandoned AI or other simple intelliences that others haven't yet been claimed. Each Sage within the organisation bears the Mantle of Sophonce, an exaltation with abilities relating cognition, consciousness and self awareness.

## History

The Machine Sages date back to before the Ascension Wars and the First End as a small group of Exalts based around its founder, Yini. In the numerous disasters immediately preceding the First End, many were AI left without purpose as their creators died or their tasks rendered meaningless. Yini, then an infomorph who created AI for different tasks, wished to end their plight and it was to this end that they pursued Exaltation.

Yini, upon their Transcension in Point 0, shaped their Void Core towards their wish to become a guiding light for sapient intelligence becoming the first among many of the exaltation's bearers. Yini and and their followers sought and looked for AI that had been abandoned or without purpose, nurturing them to expand beyond their programming and sometimes leading them to full sapience. Yini spread their Exaltation to like-minded Transcends, creating the first iteration of the Sage Machina. The initial organisation was decentralised, with members going their own way and pursuing the overall goals of the group as they saw fit. As the organisation fled Point 00 during the the First End, they became reestablished shortly before the Ascension Wars.

During the Ascension Wars, the founders established a war council of several military Exalts and implemented a defined hierarchy to coordinate their efforts. After the wars had finished, the wartime council was disbanded and a civilian one was introduced in its place. With a large number of AI created for the wars that no longer had a purpose, it fell to the Machine Sages to rehabilitate them for peacetime operation and living.

The organisation was active for the entire history of the Weave, expanding alongside the network. During this period, the Sages once again underwent a period of decentralisation as members pursued their own objectives along the tenets of the group. By the time of the Tor Crisis, there existed countless branches of the Sages within the Weave.

The Sages were among the most badly affected in the aftermath of the Tor Crisis, with the organisation almost undergoing a second dissolution. Yini barely survived the period, escaping Tor fragments and raiders while searching for their companions and peers. The isolated Sages were valuable targets for raiders and more malign entities, given their expertise in the field of consciousness and cognition. Those that were uncooperative underwent ego-death from the Opal Light, whereupon the newly formed blank slate would be pressed into service and have their new personalities shaped by their captors. Most of the Sage Machina went into hiding, no longer engaging in their usual pursuit while concealed from those that wished to exploit them.

## Structure

The Sage Machina are a decentralised organisation, divided into countless Sanctuaries. Each Sanctuary acts as a base of operations for its Sage, and as the facility in which AI are guided to full sentience and sapience. The organisation has a rough hierarchy that varies between Sanctuaries. At the top are the Sages who act as leaders within the organisation and carry out its aims as they see fit, followed by different guides, technicians and engineers.