The Infinite Palace

## The Mind of a Machine

Currently, the Infinite Palace resides under the lifeless landscape of Atlan with the full extent of the network unknown. Controversial to belief, the Infinite Palace does not actually encompass any physical place but is instead the 'realm' of Rasputin. From here it foresees nigh but all futures and within it studies and learns all things. It is also the sight of much envy from those who have heard the rumours, for it is said the archives and possibilities when wielding such a weapon are immense. With the wishes of acquiring it, men have schemed to re-write all of history but none yet have pierced the veil that hides this synthetic reality.

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### The Palace of Endless Realities

> *"*"*He has forged an infinity of possible worlds, so perfectly simulated as to be indistinguishable from the experiences I once called 'reality.' I can touch them, taste them, pass lifetimes in them! They expand within this machine like corridors to a house — no, rooms to a palace, its fractal expansion nigh unmeasurable. What an awful, destructive machine this is. I must know everything about it."* - Simulated [CRAS/6742103/ Macharius]
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#### Structure

The initial entrance of the Infinite Palace, located in the interior of Core [1/445-EYE], contains four tower-like structures holding access ports for virtual access, three of which lead to different time periods within different simulations, and one that leads directly to Simulation [CRAS/1/RASPUTIN], the first simulation. The sleek, futuristic tower to the left of the entrance leads to the distant pasts of countless simulated worlds and events, notably where Atlan is a lush utopia; the tower directly across the entrance, which is comprised of conventional RASPUTIN-style architecture, leads to iterations of the present universe; and the crumbling, darkened tower to the right of the entrance leads to the far future, where the Sun is long dead, along with all life and all foreseen omens have spread everywhere. As these chosen guests move toward the main towers, they encounter simulated echoes of the past, future and present, and must defeat the ever-changing champions of Rasputin to generate new pathways and advance, these pathways change randomly every time one enters the Palace, it is the challenge of Rasputin and is often used to reveal lessons to those who seek power or knowledge. Time moves differently between inside the Infinite Palace and outside, when exiting the Palace is when you just entered. The one trial that is never faced by those who enter are the unseen parts of the past.

Within the actual simulations of the past, present, and future, the chosen guests will continue to encounter simulated threats from across all Rasputin's data banks. For example, in one of the infinite variations of reality being analyzed, the far future where Rasputin have triumphed over everything may also contain human survivors. The Palace can even simulate realities where the Infinite Palace, and Rasputin, do not even exist.

Though the Palace is infinite in so many ways, they also pertain to victims trapped there for infinite eternities as well. Also, the data of the Palace's architecture subtle shifts with reality trying to decide what version it wants, and time is constantly in flux as well. And depending on who has an understanding of AI tech, you can enter or leave the Infinite Palace with physical ports not constrained to the towers.

## History

#### The Age of Atlan

The construction of the Infinite Palace engine began during the early Golden Age of Atlan, while Atlan was still a Gaia world and Rasputin had only recently exhibited artificial intelligence. The algorithm used to generate the Palace was housed within the Progenitor's Spire, overseen by Kerrigor At'kaan, Supreme Progenitor. His descendants were tasked with managing and interpreting the Infinite Palace's simulations matrix to inform the blooming Rasputin of how to operate it at a later date.

#### Apocalypse

Following his destruction of Atlan, Rasputin was disconnected from the Infinite Palace and it would take him a further two decades to reconnect to it after a seventy-year hiatus in self-imposed shut-down. After he awoke and was manually reintroduced to his operating systems, he was both horrified and pleased to find the machine had continued its prime directive still functioning. Furthermore, he was forced to battle with the programming as a horde within the Palace threatened to overpower his systems, and was eventually beaten by his superior programming. This took close to a decade and he then used the data collected to the Palace on his strategies to find flaws within himself and the data of ninety years worth of powerful data.

#### True reawakening

After Rasputin reawoke yet again, this time after Lord Marshal Macharius shut him down, the AI released a pulse that reactivated all of his systems yet again. After fifteen years he had discovered many horrors and many revelations to the universe, the Infinite Palace required to be fixed physically. Having demanded Yennir and multiple other minds from within the Hegemony connect, they all separately were forced to begin exploring the forest in some part of its near-infinite realities for a way to help them grasp the coming threat. Vosiorth notably found a dark future where the Exem win and all life in the universe ceased to exist.

In another future Yennir encountered Exem which threatened to kill him truly, so Rasputin sent him out of the Palace with a prophesy where he would think on the new information. Yennir would return after the Battle of Terra with his Supreme Progenitor Kal Jatarn and would travel directly into the Infinite Palace to figure out what to do next. They realized that they could not get in unless they allowed copies of themselves to suffer eternal torture within the realm, a fate they would agree to and with this deed done they gained access to the Palace.

When inside, the two encountered copies of Rasputin and fought their way through Atlan's past, seeing how Rasputin was corrupted, and to the dark future that Vosiorth saw. They then realized that they had to defeat the Exem in order to forestall the future from happening.

#### *A Mad AI*

While the Imperium celebrated its formation in the year after the Sol War, the Infinite Palace began exhibiting strange behavior, taking on a new iteration of the Palace where strange gods prey on the death of others, with the primary simulation area within Atlan's core becoming darkened and inhabited by simulated entities known as "Avatars". This proved quite a problem for Rasputin as years of data was spoiled by the autonomous Palace going haywire after receiving data on subject [COLD PSI]. Later, Rasputin would begin purposefully allowing this data to consume most of the Palace simulations, driving Rasputin insane as his focus shifted on eliminating subject [COLD PSI] over anything else. It was at this time he became silent to mankind once more.

## Notable Members

This is a list of all the currently seen members of the Infinite Palace.:

* [CRAS/2781/ Kliridotó] - One of the current incomplete simulations of Kliridotó that has broken free of his simulation and now roams the different simulations trying to gather an undead hoard to escape the realm. He remains unaware of his simulated form.
* [CRAS/42156/ Macharius] - A simulated version of Macharius from the Terran era. He held onto one of the simulation navigation devices until his deaths at the hands of [CRAS/87213214/ Macharius]. He remains unaware of his simulated form.
* [CRAS/6742103/ Macharius] - The seeming creator of the navigation devices, this version of Macharius hails from an unknown era and travels between the simulations to try and find a way to end 'the rampancy' once and for all. He seems to question his own existence and is believed to have been traversing the Palace for a very very long time.
* [CRAS/87213214/ Macharius] - Yet another simulated version of Macharius from the Imperium era. He kills [CRAS/42156/ Macharius] and steals the simulation navigation device. He confronts a simulation of Kerrigor, the original creator of the AI Rasputin and eventually flees the coming the 1st Simulation Denizens. He remains unaware of his simulated form.
* Medusa, the Restorative Mind - Restorative Minds like Medusa are deployed when a significant node of the Palace's network is altered; in Medusa's case, its purpose is to re-write and hunt down rogue simulations.

## Trivia

* The current largest simulation seen is *Simulation [CRAS/2414521017853/OSOWIEC] and the smallest is Simulation [CRAS/1/RASPUTIN]. At* 2.414521017853 × 1012 *, that's a lotta simulations!*
* With roughly a second of a single simulation taking up countless exaFLOPS, or a billion billion (i.e. a quintillion) calculations per second, the number of exaFLOPS required to the current number expressed is... a lot. Quite a lot.
* The fact above me is probably incorrect, sadly the writer is not qualified in that field and nor am I, our ignorance is blissful.
* Don't listen to him! I know all about this kind of stuff, just gimme five minutes on Quora and copy and paste.