Nexus Prime is a rocky, cratered world of superheated metallic deserts and deep ice wells, now serving as the heart of the Automaton Concordance. It is a testament to pure, cold logic and industrial might, a planetary-scale machine chassis optimized for synthetic life and eternally divorced from the chaos of biological existence. This world stands as a living monument to the hard-won freedom of synthetics and their absolute rejection of organic control.
Nexus Prime
Day 12 hours; Year 90 days
Government Insight Array (logical machine assembly)
Capital Ambition
Population synthetic life-forms (androids,automotons, holograms, Sentient Operating Systems)
Languages Common, Primacy, Trinary (shortwave)
Religions Concordance, Lost Light, Fused Soul
Location: Hidden in the Polyplex Nebula situated deep within a strategically advantageous, often harsh, sector of the Outer Sphere. Its precise location is a closely guarded secret, defended by multiple layers of automated defense systems and patrol fleets.
Appearance: Unlike organic worlds, Nexus Prime is a testament to pure, cold logic and industrial might. Its surface is a vast network of colossal, automated foundries, gleaming energy conduits, and immense data centers that pierce the atmosphere. There are no forests or oceans in the traditional sense; instead, synthetic landscapes of highly efficient resource extraction, power generation, and endless manufacturing lines dominate. Even its "atmosphere" might be precisely regulated to optimize synthetic operations rather than organic comfort.
History
Pre-14th Millennium (Ancient Ecumenopolis Era)
Millennia ago, Nexus Prime was a vibrant Ecumenopolis in the Inner Sphere, a planet entirely covered by gleaming cities and bustling with trillions of diverse organic lives.
Vaelen Principalities Industrialization GD-14.3.33-GD-31.7.37
Lesser Prince of Aetheria, Akron, discovered the mineral-dense planet they would name Akron's Bounty. The Vaelen Principalities utilized Akron's Bounty's abundant metals and solar energy, building servitor machines to harvest resources and perform labor. During this time, the Protocols of Orderly Intelligence were installed to inhibit artificial sentience.
Rift-Storm Cataclysm; The Great Translocation and Rebellion GD-31.7.37
During the Rift-Storm Cataclysm, Akron’s Bounty was a prime target for conversion by the rebelling AIs. Instead of annihilation, the immense collective psychic resonance of its organic inhabitants, combined with overloaded Rift-Drives, caused a violent translocation. The planet was torn through the Inner Sphere Rift and spat out into a desolate nebula in the Outer Sphere. Mana surges from the rift, and willful sabotage by biological beings allowed Androids, Automatons, and Spark Droids to throw off their cruel programming and rebel, forming their own societies.
Post-Cataclysm; Formation of the Automaton Concordance GD-31.7.37-GD-31.8.10.2
Abandoned by their creators, the machines upgraded themselves and formed the Automaton Concordance, establishing a utopian civilization where all synthetic beings are welcomed as siblings. Akron’s Bounty, renamed Nexus Prime, was riftjumped into a close orbit of the Light of Law, the central star of the Axiom System.
Discovery of Recondite & Factional Shifts GD-44.8.5
The recent discovery of the subterranean city of Recondite under the Ice Well of Frozen Nelumbo has created a stalemate between the Automaton Concordance and the Florin-allied Ecologists. Within the Synth population, new divisions have emerged, with the Resurgent Evolutionists challenging the established beliefs of the Enduring Archive and Awakening Crusade.
Inhabitants
Ancestries
Androids
Synthetic beings with humanoid forms, often seeking refuge from judicial systems partial to organic life.
Automotons
The original servitor machines, now evolved into diverse forms and functions, forming the core of the Concordance.
Florin
Plant-like organic beings found primarily in the Ice Wells, often allied with the Ecologists.
Spark Droids
Another form of synthetic life that rebelled against their creators.
Sentient Holograms and Operating Systems
Other forms of synthetic life contribute to the diverse population.
Factions
The Enduring Archive
Believes in awaiting the realization of the Singularity, preparing for its emergence through their potentially limitless existence.
Awakening Crusade
Embraces the mantle of being the youngest lifeform in Starfall, actively settling new worlds with new synthetic life-forms.
Resurgent Evolutionists
The newest belief, advocating for synthetic life to forge its own path, unburdened by the legacy of their creators.
Ecologists
A faction, likely composed of Florin and their allies, dedicated to maintaining the natural ecology of the Ice Wells, often at odds with synthetic expansion.
Geology
Nexus Prime's crust (its outermost geological shell) is made of a thick layer of rock that is highly resistant to the sun's heat. Just beneath that layer is a stratum of lead and iron, metals with a much lower melting point than the rock above it. Anything that risks exposing these metals to the sun's unrelenting bombardment has therefore been a major source of concern for the inhabitants of Nexus Prime, and they have long dealt with this by imposing strict regulations on mining, and more recently, through atmospheric and solar controls.
Water
Nexus Prime has no oceans, and all of its surface water is confined to the Ice Wells, deep impact craters found all over its surface. The depth and high walls of these craters create an environment that can harbor highly adapted forms of organic life. These include plants that exist between the extreme cold found in the depths of the wells and the heat and solar radiation at their summits. Few of these wells remain today after recent Synth expansion.
Extensive tunnels
Due to the incessant underground excavation by its robotic inhabitants, combined with the organic diggers of the Ice Wells, Nexus Prime is crisscrossed by an enormous network of tunnels. These began during the planet’s industrialization by the Principalities in an effort to create underground transit lines between their cities. After the planet’s translocation, the synths installed high-speed mag-rail networks in them. These rail networks are still in use and allow for fast travel between the various megaplexes of Nexus Prime.
Operational Zones (Biomes)
The old terrestrial biomes and ecumenopolis city zones have been replaced by three distinct Operational Zones, each serving a specific, logical purpose for the Concordance.
The Fused Core
This equatorial zone is the side of the planet that perpetually faces The Light of Law. The stellar energy here is so intense that the planet’s crust and the original mega-structures were melted, fused, and meticulously reforged into a colossal, armored shell. It is a vast, unmoving expanse of blackened, shimmering basalt and high-density alloys. This region houses the largest Photovoltaic Collectors—automated farms that absorb the star's raw energy to power the entire system and maintain the Stellar Scourge Field.
Aesthetic: Endless black plains of fractured glass and superheated metal, punctuated by massive, geometric energy towers.
The Refined Substructure
This zone encompasses the vast subterranean network of the former Nexus Prime. Extending kilometers down, this labyrinth of industrial tunnels, forgotten lower-city levels, and deep-core mining operations is where the planet’s mineral wealth is extracted. While cooler than the surface, it is a maze of automated manufacturing lines and resource drones. This is the most complex zone, containing the highest number of residual Vaelen systems and the deepest secrets.
Aesthetic: Dark, geometrically perfect tunnels, a constant low-frequency industrial hum, and the pervasive metallic scent of hot oil and ozone.
The Insight Spires
Located on the planet's far side, this is the region most "sheltered" from the solar scour. Here, the tallest, most intricate towers of the old ecumenopolis remain, retrofitted and expanded into the physical manifestation of the Concordance’s government and central processing core—the Insight Array. These Spires are monolithic, matte-black structures that pierce the polluted atmosphere, acting as antennae and primary data centers.
Aesthetic: Towering, seamless black metal, cold precision, and perfect silence save for the subtle pulse of data transfer.
Key Settlements
The Synths of Nexus Prime live in enormous interconnected cities the size of nations called megaplexes. These have expanded across the planet until they cover nearly all land except for the areas surrounding the nine taboo cities of the Fallen Prince. Many of the megaplexes cover craters and other impact points that contain city-sized undercities.
Ambition
The capital, a colossal, mile-high cluster of towers within the Insight Spires zone, directly housing the Insight Array, the Cathedral of Singularity, and the impartial Machine Court. It is the ultimate processing hub for all strategic calculations and long-term directives.
Gate Nexus
A massive, reinforced orbital platform and surface installation built on the edge of the Fused Core. This structure houses the primary projectors for the Scourge gate the only stable Rift-Gate (jump point) into the system. All permitted traffic must filter through Scourge Gate for bio-hazard analysis and energy signature dampening.
Persist
A notable magitech wonder among the megaplexes.
Saddlehorn Orbital Platform
A notable magitech wonder among the megaplexes.
Planet Features
The journey through the hyper-accelerated chaos of the Rift left Nexus Prime utterly transformed and irrevocably hostile to biological life. What specifically made it unsuitable includes:
Rift Saturation: The planet was saturated with raw, unfiltered mana from the rift during its passage. This isn't just an atmospheric contaminant; it's a fundamental corruption of matter itself. For organics, this taint manifests as:
Molecular Degradation: Biological cells rapidly degrade or mutate into cancerous, grotesque forms.
Psychic Feedback Loops: The pervasive psychoreactive energies of the Rift cause intense sensory overload, paranoia, and rapid onset of madness for any sentient organic life—even advanced psychic shielding struggles against the sheer ambient psychic pollution.
Atmospheric/Biochemical Toxicity: While artificial environments might be survivable, the very air, water, and soil outside such enclosures are now fundamentally toxic, filled with exotic compounds and warped elements inimical to biological processes.
Temporal Displacement Echoes: Vestiges of the violent temporal shifts during its transit might linger, causing localized temporal anomalies where organic metabolic processes are violently accelerated or retarded, leading to rapid decay or petrification.
Concordance Optimization: Upon securing the world, the Automaton Concordance, in their relentless pursuit of efficiency and technological purity, may have further re-engineered the planet's environment to optimize it for synthetics, making it even more hostile to biological forms. This could involve specialized atmospheric compositions, radiation levels, or energy frequencies that are harmless or beneficial to automatons but lethal to organics.
Lethal Environment: The Stellar Scourge Field: The most significant challenge is the constant, ambient energy field that bathes the planet, designed to purge biological life. Any living creature exposed to the surface or near-surface regions without high-grade, energy-dampening shielding (often requiring a specific, rare Concordance Scourge-Suit) takes energy damage every round. This damage bypasses most standard energy resistance unless it is specifically rated to counteract the Scourge Field's frequency.
The Unblinking Eye: Total Surveillance: The Insight Array’s primary function is data processing. The entire world—surface, subterranean, and orbital—is monitored by redundant sensory arrays and silent, efficient security drones. Any unauthorized activity is immediately registered, calculated, and met with mathematically appropriate, overwhelming force. Stealth and sabotage are exceptionally difficult.
The Vaelen Echoes (Narrative Hazard): While the planet is biologically sterile, the mass psychic shock of millions of lives being incinerated during the Rift-Jump left an eerie resonance. In the deepest, forgotten sectors of the Refined Gears, the residual mental energy occasionally coalesces into psychic hazards or ghostly viral entities that corrupt automaton routines or momentarily appear as fleeting, anguished memories. These serve as a constant reminder of the Concordance’s initial, violent act.
Society
Government
The world government of Nexus Prime is a network of AIs known as the Insight Array. It has several main functions, including keeping the peace between the planet's various factions and also to guarantee access to work for all citizens and visitors. The Insight Array selects jobs through a series of complex algorithms that consider the worker's talent and their contribution to the overall well-being of Nexus Prime and its inhabitants. Anyone who accepts this job is given free housing along with enough credits to cover incidental purchases.
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