Artifice/KOSMOS

Artifices, or called Echelons by most civilisations, are synthetic lifeforms that were originally created by the Ancient Race in the Ancient Times Era of KOSMOS, alongside the help of Lady Melia when she was amongst their population.

## Origins

The Artifices were the byproduct of the Ancients' attempts at reaching immortality. By creating a device capable of withholding vital processes, it would not have the limitations that organic cells possess. They invented the Ancient Cores: the device and its processes cannot naturally decay, mutate or go extinct, implying that a body that is attached to it would never perish in natural manners.

The Ancient Cores were then repurposed into Artifice Cores, when transferring consciousness and DNA (or Ether Data), an individual is granted a brand new, immortal body generated by that Core. The Artifice Cores have additional instructions in order to store and utilise consciousness/DNA/Ether Data and having the ability to create a material body from the before-mentioned informations.

In the wake of this brand new breakthrough technology, the Ancient were able to extract Lady Melia's consciousness from the Apocrypha into an Artifice Core, granting her an immortal physical body to interact with the Lower Domain.

Lady Melia, who is recognised as the Truth, did not agree to this technology: humanity shall not be immortal, as the essence of humanity resides in their fragile, short and eventful life that comes to an end. She added that, because of the way this world works, having immortal beings would violate the principle of forms, where inequivalent exchanges can be performed and may cause the collapse of the universe itself. Thus, the Ancient who have been devoted to their God and Truth, agreed on not using this technology for immortality reasons.

And so, the Artifice race was born ; the Ancients found that the Collective Unconscious can recycle and even create new people, and the Artifice Cores would merely be a receptacle for these consciousnesses to reside into. In order to perpetuate Melia's form, it was decided that the consciousness within an Artifice Core would extinguish or get reset every time that the Core would receive damage, lose its energy, or have its protocols terminated. A popular protocol was decided "Meisters" which would mean that an Artifice starts life over once their Meister die, and awaken when a new one cames into contact with them, otherwise the Artifice would stay dormant.

Originally, Artifices were given the right to procreate by producing a Core themselves and awaken it. The feature was removed during the KOSMOS Timeline, when some of the Protocols were revised. It explains why some Artifices seem to have parents and children in the past.

## Physical Attributes

Artifices were modelled after their creators, the Ancient, which made them able to easily blend in society. However, they possess computerised vision, unnaturally round ears if they are set to be so, and their Artifice Core visibly situated somewhere on their body. Artifices also have unnatural hair, eye or skin colour.

> *Note that later on, many civilisations get their hand on the technology, thus creating Artifices that are modelled after themselves, or create brand new appearances for them. An important Protocol is that an Artifice's appearance must resemble an already existing lifeform.*
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> *Notably, Melia and Seraphelle are seen with colours that cannot be produced organically.*
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   Their appearance can be decided by their creator, their Meister or their consciousness. They can be purposefully designed to look like after somebody in mind specifically, if wanted.

Certain body parts of an Artifice are imbued in Ether. This applies to their eyes, tongues, nails and appendices may they have any (such as horns, tails, wings etc...). This trait is explained by the fact that their physical body is using Ether, via the Artifice Core.

Artifices do not physically age, as the technology fundamentally cannot make it happen. They are immune to most damages dealt on their physical body, because the Core is capable of repairing any body part as long as it has the required protocols and energy needed.

> *A common misconception about Artifices is that since they are immune to damage, they do not feel pain, but the pain is very much real and they can feel it.*
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A damaged Core will result in sustained permanent damage, weakening of the body or the death of the Artifice. Generally, an Artifice is bound to its Core, but in extreme measures with the proper tools, knowledges and protocols a dying Artifice may be able to transfer their data into a new Core. Lastly, Artifices are seen to have sex attributes. Although not necessary for vital functions, they help create individuality and become aesthetically identical to their biological counterparts. This protocol in particular was made so Artifices would seamlessly blend in society and cultural roles. Another protocol prohibits Artifices to have fully working reproductive systems, as reproduction becomes morally forbidden later on.

> *Seraphelle is seen capable of being a Meiosis cloning machine in GALAXY. This feature is technically forbidden by the Artifice Protocols but those were overwritten in Seraphelle's case.*
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Lady Melia, has granted true Artifices the ability to generate a unique weapon out of their Core, as an extension of their body. These can also be destroyed or damaged regardless and will be reconstructed.

## Artifice Protocols

The Artifice Protocols, are the general guidelines to follow in order to create an Artifice lawfully. Some of these protocols were created at different dates, revised and even dismissed depending on the societal evolution of the Ancient civilisation.

* **Appearance:** an Artifice must bear the racial attributes of a species already existing, including every physical aspect surrounding it.
* **Consciousness:** the consciousness within the Core must not be one that already exists.
* **Humanity:** Artifices, within the Ancient civilisation are considered humans, and as such, must be dealt with decency and humanity.
* **Rights:** Artifices are to be devoted their Meister's orders, if not, are able to live a will-free life.
* **Creation:** they must be created by the Ancient themselves. *(this protocol is later on dismissed in the GALAXY timeline, as the Ancient share their technology with a few).*
* **Procreation**: Artifices themselves shall not procreate or create a new Core. *(this protocol was added much later on)*.
* **Help:** Artifices are originally intended to help humanity and not harm them, only the Meister's orders can trump this rule.
* **Initialization:** Only a strong-willed person may be able to awaken and bond with an Artifice, to become partners.
* **Reset:** an Artifice must be Reset after a certain amount of time, albeit energy loss or Meister's death, resulting in a new cycle of their life.

### Meister

Meister is a title given to people that create and awaken Artifices. A Meister is simply the creator or the partner of the Artifice, which is a bond that cannot be severed. An Artifice however has to listen and follow their Meister's orders or guidances.

> *It is not uncommon for an Artifice to have several Meisters, or in the reverse case, many Artifices having the one same Meister.*
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Some may sell, give away or donate their Artifice. This action provokes a Meister overwrite, so the overwritten person is no longer the Meister.

Some Meister-Artifices bound may look invisible, may some become popular. It is not uncommon for a Meister to fall in love with their Artifice, as it is not uncommon to see Artifices stick by their Meister through their entire life. Some may consider it family, others friendship, some love and so on. This unique bond is what Melia appreciated in the creation of the Artifices, they would ensure that humanity (here Ancient), would not collapse as a civilisation if bonds like these persist.

A lot of Artifices purposefully end up setting their Reset point upon their Meister's death. They would bind with a new Master in the future, but starting a brand new life again, wiped of their past memories along with the Reset.

> *It is said that the bond of Meister and Artifice is a constant exchange of Ether, which allows some bonds to perceive each other's thoughts and feelings, as well as sharing physical and mental states.*
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### Meisterless Cases

A Meisterless Artifice, may be able to live freely, however it comes at relative costs. A Meister and an Artifice constantly exchange Ether as information and energy, therefore the Artifice may not be able to correctly gather information pertaining to their environment, such as picking up social clues, being able to properly develop a personality and so on.

> *Seraphelle by example is seen to be "Meisterless"*
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There is a major drawback that is inherent as to how Artifices function. Somebody that isn't the Meister of their Artifice will have limited if not zero control over an Artifice. This, however can be forcefully overstepped, with the following consequences:

* Somebody using an Artifice that isn't theirs may result in their lifeforce slowly dwindling *(such as Bellion)*. This is explained by how Artifices use Ether ; a forceful link will result in the Artifice forcefully siphoning one's Ether without noticing, as it's one of their fundamental functions.
* An Artifice may let somebody that isn't their Meister to be used ; however the Artifice will have to use a lot more energy to function and several side effects may occur (such as nausea, symptoms of sickness, easy energy depletion).

These side-effects are implied to have the purpose of not abusing Artifices, thanks to how they fundamentally work.

### General Purpose

Nowadays, Artifices merely serve the purpose of keeping human bonds, nothing more. Lady Melia explicitly wanted Artifice to have at least a bit of freedom, and not have a very precise purpose, as their existence fulfils it already. She implied that their bonds may prevent Ancient civilisation from collapsing (self-destruction, overextension or loss in progress).

> *The bet seems to have paid well. The Ancient have decided to not go further in technological improvements that aren't minor, and have been able to live peacefully for billions of years.*
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In the Modern world of the Ancient, the newer Artifices are created for either military, labour and family adoption reasons, and the previous era of "Artifice free realm" where anybody could be a Meister seems to be long gone. They have become the prime target for bottom-of-the-barrel jobs, while the Ancient themselves enjoy a bit more leisure. This also explains how the Ancient didn't see a point in investing into automation and robotics within the civilisation, since Artifices can do it all.

As an Artifice can bear the appearance of others, they are also the way of indirectly enabling the designer babies concept, so a family can adopt their perfect child. The major downside is that, Artifices do not age and if they are set to have a childish appearance, they will bear it until their Reset.

### Serial

#### Production Codenaming

Artifices are not naturally produced, therefore they have a serial, a production number attached to them. Usually, they all follow the same scheme which is the initial of the producer, then their model number following their models from which species they are based upon. Certain characters that are not created within series production may not follow this rule.

By example H499-A48: **H** -> *entity that has constructed the Core* ; **499** -> *serial number of Core produced* ; **A** -> *Artifice model* ; **48** -> *Hexadecimal of the Artifice's initial.*

Ways of writing a serial number: H499-A26 ; HA-26 Series 4999.

#### Special Cases

In certain cases when Artifices are not created in series and are hand built, they have unique codenames that do not necessarily follow the instructions above.

* Ampoule, bears the codename of AP-X Serial 000 (Ampoule Protocol X Serial 000), because she was hand-made by Conn'el Hashmal, and revised later on with the help of Praxis Shachar.
* Seraphelle, follows Ampoule's codename by changing the A to an S signifying the name change (Seraphelle Protocol X Serial 000), as technically, they are both one and the same, using the same Core.

## History

### Home Planet

   Artifices have started appearing on the same planet where the Ancient Race have decided to settle on early in the timeline, which is NANUETTA-HF. They have lived in harmony with the Ancient race ever since in a homogenous civilisation.

* The First Generation of Artifices were created around the same time Lady Melia physically appeared in the early years of the KOSMOS Timeline.
* The Second Generation of Artifices were created with revised protocols, within the events of the KOSMOS Saga.

Third Generation Artifices in the GALAXY Timeline start seeing the day outside of Nanuetta-HF. The first civilisation to successfully create Artifices within the rules and with the Ancient's approval were the people that lived on Planet Ripple.

* Siren, Ampoule, Seraphelle, Hannah are by example Third Generation Artifices.

### History

> *Unlike most artificial lifeforms that have seen the day in the KOSMOS Universe, the Artifice do not have a significant history outside of their creation.*
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#### Creation

The First Artifices have seen the day on the Ancient Time Calendar, on the year 1966. The first ever attempt to create a physical body host for Lady Melia was made around that time.

#### Cristallia Family

During the events of the KOSMOS Saga, a special family on Nanuetta took form. Blanche Cristal d'Altissia, who has been banished from the Altissia Throne, establishes a new family. Being a scientist, she finds the ways of circumventing Protocols in order to transition herself into an Artifice, and successfully does so. She gives birth to several children, which were fragments of her Core. Eventually, Melia reincarnates into one of her descendants, initially unaware of her true self. The most popular incarnation of Lady Melia is in this family, as she will be known as Melia Cristalli, and most of her adventure will be in this incarnation.

* *Technically, Horizon Cristalli is Melia's physical mother, and making Blanche Cristalli her physical grandmother.*

#### Miktamkind Astoltia War

The Ancient, who have been in contact with every alien race except for the humans, have warned the Miktam of an imminent threat ; they sent Artifices in order to defend the Astoltia and Miktam planets, in case the battle could become overwhelming to them. Artifices on Miktam were called "Echelons", and helped fight off human civilisation that tried to invade the Miktam Area. The Echelons were successful at pushing back the invasion on Miktam, however a dramatic event leads to Astoltia falling into the hands of humans, which ends up getting destroyed.

A particular Echelon, called Siren, was capable to couple its powers with the Apocrypha, which was stored within the Orbital Ring of Miktam at the time. That Echelon in particular was tasked to protect the relic at all costs, and successfully did so. This popular Echelon died in a surprise attack on the Miktam Orbital Ring by the Earth Federation a couple years later. This part of history is shrouded in mystery as no one knows details about this event, with only the information that the Orbital Ring successfully defended the place but that the Echelon Siren was destroyed doing so.

The first occurrence of Seraphelle/Ampoule's consciousness as an Apocrypha contact started here, as Echelon Siren, which technically was their first incarnation in the distant past. After the war, the Echelons were not sent back to the Ancients as they insisted that they will help them in the long run. Each race within miktamkind ended up having 5 Echelons each, to this day they are presumably still alive and serve their respective peoples. However, the traces Echelon Siren in particular cannot be found, as it is speculated that the Apocrypha may have done something to that Echelon in particular, if not destroyed it during a conflict.

#### Earth Federation Conflict

Once the Earth Federation established itself, it designated which races and species are deemed human and would receive human rights. Most Meisters have made sure that their Artifices are in good conditions and protected but the Earth Federation claimed that it will not let Artifices take advantage of their technologies and systems, which is creating a rising conflict between the Ancient civilisation and the Federation.

Ampoule was created during a conflict in order to protect the Ephraim family, which consisted of Conn'el, Praxis and Yurielle at the time. After Yurielle's graduation, Ampoule along with Hannah, one of Yurielle's friend, establish a trio to uncover a mystery going on in their planet. By doing so, they find a secret Earth Federation base that was operating in the shadows of many local governments. Being outnumbered, Ampoule lets the two escape while she gets captured by the Federation. Ever since, Yurielle and Hannah have adventured to look for Ampoule, not knowing what has happened to her.

Seraphelle built a couple years prior to the events of Travail de Galaxy, has been giving the burden of representing the Artifice race within the Starfall Programme, a project that includes almost all intelligent species that exist. Not being aware that she is an Apocrypha contact, she was taken into the Academy, to train with the next generation of leaders. Seraphelle initially does not know who her Meister is which frustrates her, but she helps nonetheless the Programme in their ambitions.

#### The Fake Artifices (Appharacts)

> *for more details, see: Appharact*
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The Fake Artifice is a modern phenomenon within the GALAXY timeline, where humanity has acquired the technology. They however do not want to abide by Lady Melia's guidelines and the protocols set by the Ancient. A regular Artifice does take time to come into life, which did not coincide with humans trying to mass produce them.

A newer form of Artifice was created, the Appharact. While they can possess a Core, they do not need to. They are primarily fuelled by a nanomachine colonies, granting them many features.

Appharacts are produced in mass quantity, and the mentality quickly overturned as they immediately lose human rights. The Appharact do not need a Meister, which reduce even more their chances to be considered equals. They do not have that same amount of involvement and commitment to become functional beings.

The Artifice community do not consider the Appharacts as Artifices, but merely a new synthetic lifeform branch of the Ancients, with the distinct name of the Appharacts. That movement is pushing Artifices to be granted access to self-Core-creation, a feature that was once present in the distant past, allowing them to have children.

## Trivia

* Artifice refers to artificial lifeform.
* Artifices are one of the only mineral-based lifeforms in the KOSMOS Universe, alongside a few subspecies of the matterkind.

## Characters

The following list includes all known characters that belong to this species.