GRIGORI

> *“The whole thing was created to act as an analyzable reckoner on a quantum scale. It predicted meteorology, computing the structures and properties of chemical compounds, and simulation exercises. Mind you, this has been in fruition since before the dawn of the Twenty-First Century — someone has been piling this out long before the ES Republic and Order were even a thought. Imagine what would happen when you give a processor like that one-hundred-fifty years to collect data and just grow.”*
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> *“Then what went wrong? Whatever it was, it screwed us over. You see it all the time on the wallscreens — the whole system has gone down the poop chute, and our lives right along with it. Hell, this country’s power and influence over the world plummeted since the Battle-Braves...”*
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> *“You’re right. And those weapons have resulted in at least two major catastrophes against the Western Order the last two decades. But there’s something that not even the creators of the quantum processor had considered. The purpose of the quantum processor was to calculate the best possible outcome. Now, I’m not going to try and act like I knew what was going on in the programmers’ heads when they created this thing, but I can hazard a guess. Just because it’s the best outcome doesn’t mean that the odds are always meant to work in our favor.”*
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> -- **Tejinder Wakeman, *describing the GRIGORI Program***
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The GRIGORI Program was created by a series of researchers and software engineers known as Project G, which had been formed in 1979.

This program is a quantum board that has infected both the government's database and the global satellite network. The GRIGORI Program is actually a legion of artificial intelligence that was created by local and foreign nations before the threat of the Long Winter Wars.

It is a force set of ones and zeros with no collective thought and yet a singular mind at the same time -- both self-aware and possessing no thought at all, save for what is perceived to be the most logical course of action. The GRIGORI Program is a concept but also corporeal. What was once humankind's greatest ally became its most terrible enemy, having subtle presence that has swayed the world into its present day.

Chancellor Gregory Tremond of the Western Order is in truth at war with the quantum processor, and has been for quite some time. He had utilized Project Seraphim's own subject as his personal weapon in combating the program's influence over the world.

Out of all of the programmers that worked with the program, only three have been fundamental contributors to the propagation of Project G: A Russian named Algernon Boryenka, a German-American named Alyssa Wolfgang, and Lucas Coffey.

In addition to its presence within the global satellite network, this program now has four major backup terminals located around the world. Each of them are kind of tributes to each of its creators -- which is considered odd since the GRIGORI seemingly behave in manners only which it seems logical, and hiding their most fundamental backup in locations so blatantly obvious almost seems uncharacteristic. But, perhaps that's what makes it even more characteristic of its intelligence.

The backup terminals power the GRIGORI Program's ability to connect with the synthetics. Once their terminals have been destroyed, they lose more functionality to interact with the synthetics. The liberated Pieces who call themselves the synths worship the GRIGORI Program as their god and savior.

Like all of the backups, the GRIGORI terminals are found in mansion-sized rooms, full of wires with constantly flowing information running through them. The rooms themselves are perpetually humming and nausea-inducing for any normal person. The sheer size of the quantum board can extend from hundreds of acres to miles around the areas they resided in. This makes the backup terminal locations more difficult to disable, given the size of the quantum board and its ability to manipulate synthetics. As such, the areas are usually riddled with death traps.

## Project G's Locations

**The Wolfgang Estate; Louisiana *(Alyssa Wolfgang);***

* There is a shack on the outskirts of the estate, which leads into an underground bureau dating back to the Civil War era. It is full of highly expensive and intricate technology.
* After it is discovered by Margot Earle and Straye Banquo, they close off and camouflage the entrance. Not even the estate owners who inherited the property long after Alyssa Wolfgang had passed away were fully aware of the hidden bureau underneath their home.
* When it's been discovered by Rey Schmidt in 2124, she disables the terminal successfully without dying. Quite the handy one, that damned elusive Schmidt!
* First backup terminal to be destroyed.

**A safe house on the outskirts of Hartlone Hollow, Ireland *(Leland Cleary);***

* Built in the modern era of the old village where Leland Cleary was born. The safe house previously was inhabited by Margot Earle and Straye Banquo, and served as the primary hub for the backup of the GRIGORI Program. It was discovered by Margot Earle, a foreign agent sent to research the network activity going on in Hartlone Hollow.
* In 2116, Rey Sheridan attempts to infiltrate the safe house with Jacob Reinhardt and a small fireteam, but are unsuccessful due to a plague.
* Twelve years later in 2128, Rey Schmidt is deployed there on a solo mission because she is not affected by the plague over the land. The safe house was heavily secured unlike the Wolfgang Estate, and exploded as soon as Schmidt disabled the terminals. The safe house exploded with Schmidt inside.
* Second backup terminal to be destroyed.

**Grigoryevich Underground Command Center; Russia *(Algernon Boryenka);***

* Formerly a Soviet bunker, located near the Boryenka estate.
* When Algernon had become the last remaining beneficiary of the Boryenka family line, some End of the World cultists broke into the bunker and murdered him.
* Straye Banquo picked up the remains several decades later when he was 8-years-old. The GRIGORI Program was then discovered by Margot Earle and Straye Banquo.
* The bunker was actually the most fortified of all the locations, having killed two of Rey's previous vessels.
* In 2110, Rey Stone was sent to destroy the backup terminal in the Grigoryevich Underground Command Center. Due to all the death traps, she is the sole survivor of the team of soldiers sent in with her, and is killed herself shortly after becoming self-aware that she isn't human.
* She returned in 2142 as Rey Safronov. After disabling the terminal, she is attacked by one of Algernon's old failsafes, which results in her memories to become scrambled.
* Third backup terminal to be destroyed.

**Somewhere in Sector Urd in Ashwater, Washington *(Lucas Coffey);***

* The last terminal, located in the caverns of Ashwater Underground City which had once been the home-front of Project Seraphim.
* The reason for the fourth terminal is that, in the GRIGORI's eyes, Lucas Coffey and Leland Clearly are separate -- both one and the same and yet different people. This further complicates Lucas' identity issues, as he has trouble coming to terms with all the horrible things he had done, despite it all being against his own intentions. So, in a way, this one was more of the GRIGORI scoffing at Lucas than anything else, as well as thwarting Gregory Tremond because this is a terminal that neither Lucas nor Gregory had any idea exists.
* Backup terminal is currently offline and in disuse due to Helena and her team's meddling with the facility. This makes Niflheim super important to the Prizrak, and must be protected at all cost.

## Awakening

Eventually, the GRIGORI Program was revived from hibernation mode in 2012. Margot Earle and Straye Banquo had been killed in their endeavors to salvage what Project G had scrapped, initially thinking they could profit off the quantum board. They had been tracking down these locations ever since they discovered Algernon Boryenka's bunker back in the year 2000.

2014, Banquo and the synthetic named IV settled on an island in the pacific, off the coast of Russia. The land was so icy and remote that it is uninhabitable by human life. IV ordered the liberated Pieces to build what will be their city - Concordia. Banquo, however, died from exposure to the arctic wilds. IV offered a proper burial, and continued to build their new home with the few synths that followed her from PROJECT SERAPHIM.

In 2057, the HEIMDALL satellites were launched with the GRIGORI Program hijacked onto their mainframe. Since then, the quantum board had had full access to the global surveillance network, and infected several Piece prototypes created by PROJECT SERAPHIM. Eventually, all Pieces became cognizant and recognize the GRIGORI as their "god".

PROJECT SERAPHIM began disposing of various Piece prototypes a year later. IV was able to call those Pieces to Concordia, and they all started on what was considered a pilgrimage to their "promised city". Concordia became the Pieces' idea of perfect refuge, where they were no longer mere synthetics but a collective whole. There, they all became synths.

Over several years, the synths have waged war with humans without the humans even knowing. They have orchestrated conflicts between nations and even stirred drama with old allies. Some of them using their abilities to replicate human appearances, they used psychological warfare to supposedly "bring back" fallen comrades to kill their enemies.

The opposing field of concord is discord, and by the synthetics' philosophy they hate discord more than anything. Humans represent nothing more than total discord.

However, in the year 2142 Rey finally destroyed the last backup terminal as Safronov. The GRIGORI Program goes silent, its connection with the synths severed. Safronov's memories also became infected, causing Rey to have trouble accessing them several years later.

IV serves as the GRIGORI Program's apostle, acting out in what she assumes is the quantum board's will, but never knowing for certain. She decides the only way is to find a vessel for the program, but due to the nature of its being it can only be hosted by hardware originally designed by one of its own creators.

The Mnemotechnic Serial Bridge, which is now in the possession of the Western Order's former Archiver, Tejinder Wakeman.