Tekton

> *On Tekton, you must learn the four Analects of Co-Fusion and attempt to make contact with the Variable.*
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> - Zendo's Advice
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Tekton is a planet full of droids striving to perform optimally. The game is played within Prime Pyramid, where the autocrat of Tekton, Prime Assembler, resides along with many other droids. There is a maze hidden within the pyramid called The Variable.

## Tekton

### Key Items

Polysensory unit, Helicon engine upgrade, jet belt.

### History

Tekton was once full of humans called the Tektonese. There was a robotics engineer named Co-Fusion who developed ground breaking technology that could put human brains into robotic bodies. Instead of aging and dying, worn parts would simply be replaced. He was the first to pioneer the technology as well as become a droid by adding bionics to his organic parts.

The Tektonese were terrified of the advancements and a war to stop the droids started. It ended when the droids released a deadly burst of alpha rays across the planet, killing all organic life except for the plankton in the ocean, which the droids use for power. The event is called "The Big Bang", and the droids view it as a good thing.

### The Droids

There are over 200,000 droids on Tekton, all working under the same program of striving towards optimality (there is a strong emphasis on being not just functional, but *optimal*.) The droids find themselves superior to living beings ("organics"), in that they can replace parts when they wear out and are not subjected to physical desires and motions. They are not traditional robots, however, and so have some sentience since there are human pieces within them. They grow human parts in cloning banks, therefore they can create more droids without having to breed people, a process they find messy and wasteful.

### Future Plans

The droids are not content with simply living on Tekton and following their program; they have decided that organic beings are making a mess of a void and the droids need to clean it up to make things more efficient. Prime Assembler needs 1 million droids and some spaceships to start expanding into the void. While droid production is going well (they have "expansion droids" that intentionally look human), they aren't able to expand properly because Argos has banned the sale of fleeton to Tekton.

## Prominent Characters

#### Prime Assembler

Once Co-Fusion, Prime Assembler is the leader of Tekton. He provides solutions to several important quests once his initial headache is resolved. Not only will he help warrior upgrade his ship to fly to Hive, but he will also help provide a polysensory unit for Lysistrata. Many of the droids consider Prime Assembler as an enlightened being worthy of worship-like admiration. For some reason, he talks like John Wayne.

#### Dee-Fusion

Co-Fusion's brother who survived the Big Bang by wearing an Auroran Shield, thus being the only survivor of the Tektonese. He is trapped within the maze of the Variable, waiting for a way out.

#### Mon-kee

Also called the Play Droid, Mon-kee has more brain in him than most of the other droids (save for Prime AssembleR). He remembers his previous way of life as a monkey living on Woo, before the droids found him and turned him into a droid. He laments his old way of life and does not enjoy being around other droids. Prime Assembler says the problem with putting too much brain in a droid is that they get bored. Despite this, Mon-kee's "play" aspects have proven useful in droid sentiency and thereby efficiency, so now all droids are required to have some "play time" (which Mon-kee hates).

### Analects of Co-Fusion

The virtue of Tekton is a series of operating guides, in a parody of Confucius sayings.

Co-Fusion says, the functional unit can be content only if it strives towards optimal production.

Co-Fusion says, the functional droid seeks improved efficiency in others. The optimal droid seeks improved efficiency in itself.

To simply run according to program is to be merely function. The optimal unit innovates creatively.

Optimal units regard everything as the program, and by incorporating everything into the program improve the program's efficiency.