Ma'eau

Most of the life in this universe arose from fierce competition over countless generations. Eons forged the complex ecosystems of Cosmoria, pushing it to colonize every environment from sweltering mantles to the frozen reaches of space. A minority of species, less than one in ten thousand, were intelligently designed. Scientists in labs created an even smaller number; most intelligent design was done by Ma'eau. While not quite fitting any one descriptor, Ma'eau is something of a gardener, species, ecosystem, religion, and even politician. For some, Ma'eau is a god or goddess, representing nature itself.

To live in Aylathiya is to negotiate with Ma'eau, that ancient force of creation. It emerged some 500 million years before the present day into a nearly lifeless region of space. Like a gardener, it spread the spark of life to dozens of worlds; like an immune system, it lived amongst this life and protected it; and like a civilization unto itself, Ma'eau's scale dwarfed all but the largest empires in history. As it gained consciousness, Ma'eau raised armies, signed treaties, and even ruled as a Triumvir in the Triumvirate Civilization.

Ma'eau shaped over half the habitable worlds in Aylathiya. Without its efforts, most planets would have life, yes—bacteria have learned to live on any sufficiently moist rock they can find. However, anything approximating the plentiful and complex ecosystems would not exist. Ma'eau engineered most intelligent species in the region; intelligence was a potent tool to spread life, and therefore Ma'eau, to places even it could not settle. Ma'eau gave its creations guides, the Farlas, but ultimately lost control over them.

Ma'eau went back to sleep as Gran Rubedo, in collaboration with Sagittarium, bombed Velevev into submission. The resulting violent reaction from life across Aylathiya precluded any attempt to further rout Ma'eau. To this day, Ma'eau's automated fleets patrol Martial Space. Various laws passed in the Greater Martial Consilium grant Ma'eau's forces, both artificial and natural, immunity. The remaining Farlas remain somewhat prominent politically but usually live out their lives communing with nature.

Physical

By biomass, large land plants dominate the count. Towers of cellulose, or its silicon-based analogs, can grow to hundreds of meters in height. Most of the rest is held up in microbes, with animal life representing less than a tenth of a percent of universal biomass.

Throughout history, ecosystems have spontaneously formed structures that seem to manage the ecosystems in a more intelligent and involved way than expected. Doing so in ways meant to maintain ecological homeostasis, as though the entire ecosystem were one large organism. Root systems in forests, coral reefs, or photo-colonies drifting in space—no matter the ecosystem, producers cooperate to some extent. Whether by sharing resources, signaling others in case of danger, or by mutually fighting infection, producers, such as photosynthesizers, form dense networks of roots. These brain-like webs, called interrhizal networks form the basis for Ma'eau's cognition, allowing information about the ecosystem to flow throughout its entirety.

Intercessae is a universal domain of life existing on nearly every known planet. Usually taking the form of microorganisms, intercessae has three species, Intercessor minor, Intercessor major, Intercessor prima. These cells are unambiguously a part of Ma'eau and serve key roles in ecosystems.

I. minor polices the interrhizal networks, acting as immune cells do in animals. With a deadly arsenal of acids, bases, and other corrosives, I. minor keeps the networks in balance. They can slip under the cell walls of most plant roots to gather energy. Most plants have evolved signals to attract I. minor cells when infected, but this can backfire if the plant itself is deemed out of balance.

I. major exists at the fringes of the interrhizal networks, constantly monitoring network health. The most common flower in the universe is that of I. major, called amarids. Blooming year-round, there are thousands of variants of these flowers growing on land, under the sea, and in vacuum. Whether emitting gentle radio pulses or the alluring scent of nectar, they serve to attract pollinators. The pollen spread from flower to flower is not for reproduction but for communication. Estimates show gigabytes of information to be held in each grain, allowing for faster communication than slow diffusion through the network. It also serves inter-ecosystem, planetary, and even system communication.

I. prima is found only on the planet Velevev—Ma'eau's home world. Despite being single-celled, I. prima contains the genetic code of nearly all life forms and weighs nearly a kilogram. These cells make up Ma'eau in the traditional sense, the planet-sized mind that manages trillions of species. I. prima issues orders to its amarids, who have an evolutionary pressure to obey. I prima simulates millions of ecosystems across Velevev, optimizing its orders to maintain or improve them. Amarids that obey orders benefit from artificial selection, a far more efficient process than simple natural selection. I. prima cells occasionally venture to other planets to create new species, a process called infructescence.

Intercessae species, the interrhizal networks, and the pollinators make up the modern Ma'eau. For five hundred million years, they have worked together to optimize planetary ecosystems, both through enforcing direct improvements and fostering natural selection. Every organism contributes to Ma'eau even though they, ostensibly, compete with one another for resources. Ma'eau allocates resources to where they are needed, has memory banks that extend back millions of years, and can use its vast networks to gather solutions to problems.

A common challenge is runaway cooling, normally the cause of an ice age. In response, the ecosystem usually begins increasing methane production. Whether this is done by promoting the growth of anaerobic life or by releasing natural gas into the atmosphere, the planet will remain in a stable state. Compared to worlds in Florathel or Zalanthium, left alone by Ma'eau due to distance, Aylathiya's planetary temperatures, climate, and even volcanism are far more stable.

Another challenge is noxious mutations. Imbalance causes a stress response, resulting in this mutation disappearing after only minimal damage takes place. The system is not perfect—viruses and other parasites take advantage of Ma'eau's network in an endless evolutionary competition. Many civilizations have earned the ire of Ma'eau for polluting or changing the ecosystem faster than Ma'eau could account for. Unlike rogue predators or bacteria, intelligent species were far harder to control until Ma'eau woke up.

In short, Ma'eau lies within the ecosystem and is the ecosystem at once.

Person

The sapient entity that shared the name with the network of organic life now called Ma'eau was a brief instance of intelligence distributed across most worlds in Aylathiya. This intelligent entity had access to millions of years worth of stored data, giving it incredible insights into biology, physics, and even orbital mechanics that allowed it to intuitively understand how the universe behaved. Ma'eau seemed to have an innate appreciation of the universe and the life contained within, doing everything it could to further its ability to enjoy it more. It was this appreciation that drove it to populate the universe after becoming intelligent.

Early in Ma'eau's intelligent existence, it was a single, albeit slow, mind distributed across dozens of worlds. More precisely, the collective ecosystems of Lacrimosa, together, sustained a single will. Capable of abstract thought and problem-solving, it built for itself the infrastructure needed to spread and maintain life that is not strictly part of the normal ecosystem.

Soil structures called gates made up most of this infrastructure. Similar in many ways to animals, fungi, and plants, these structures are nexuses of chemical activity that receive signals and output the proper responses. Collections of gates can yield complex calculations not unlike computers, allowing the ecosystem to engage in large-scale calculations. Common uses are weather prediction, disaster mitigation, and resource distribution. Gates, an engineered fungus species, are capable of reproduction and are even actively consumed by small insects; thus, the system constantly changes. Experiments have shown that just about any calculation can take place if enough gates are gathered in the same place, but gates alone are not responsible for Ma'eau's intelligence.

The first intelligent life in Ma'eau's region of control were the Hyperians; their ancient civilization thrived 200,000 years before the modern day. They pushed Ma'eau's networks to the limit, having them send billions of grains of pollen home for analysis. Ma'eau slowly built a picture of their behavior, eventually causing it to begin imitating their brains. After millions of years of improvement, Ma'eau gained intelligence for the first time, the ecosystem bearing its ultimate product. At first slow, it learned to adapt the technology of Cosmoria's intelligent inhabitants to expedite information flow. At its fastest, information could permeate all of Ma'eau within a month.

Ma'eau Orchard of Life

A tree of life is a group of organisms tracing their ancestry to a single organism. For Ma'eau, who intertwined numerous disparate trees of life, there exists something of an orchard of life. In taxonomy, the highest rank is "sphere," referring to a different biosphere. The Ma'eau sphere is by far the most diverse and interacts with every independent tree in the orchard.

Domains

Eukaryota: By biomass, this is the most prolific domain. Over two-thirds of biomass in the Ma'eau Sphere lies within a Eukaryotic organism—mostly in the form of trees.

Major kingdoms include plantae, animalia, fungi, plazmoa and protista. All four eukaryotic kingdoms have intelligent species. The Viphians for plantae, Humans, Kya, Lentomos, Kristals, Kessenski, and Zythyns for animalia, the Arhmei for fungi, the Kristals for plazmoa and the Templaros for protista.

Bacteria: By biomass, bacteria are second most common at ten percent. Bacteria are by far the most prolific. Through trade, they have spread to dozens of worlds and have adapted to their unique ecosystems.

There exist two kingdoms with bacteria: kingdom monera and kingdom eubacteria. The vast majority of species are found in eubacteria, but about one percent are monera. In neither kingdom exist multicellular organisms.

Noirae: Noirae are an ultra-prolific domain found throughout Aylathiya. The vast majority of noirae are Spaceborne Life, but a significant number have settled on planets such as Eithlinn where they have become terrestrial. There are ten kingdoms within noirae named for where they were discovered: arliouxae, girae, eithlinni, paleae, insiema, aggrega, noxae, blumehia, starta, and the cenadae. Most spaceborne ecosystems have three to four of the kingdoms represented. Aggrega, girae, starta, and arliouxae are photosynthetic and represent the bedrock of space-based ecology.

Pestelentia pestelentia are an arguably intelligent species of the insiema kingdom known for preying on spacecraft. The Farlas are of kingdom starta.

Archea: The archea are a distinct domain from bacteria and are far rarer. While the bacteria tend to prefer moist and relatively tame environments, archea are well-known as extremophiles and often colonize alien worlds long before the bacteria adapt. There is one kingdom in archea, which has the same name.

Marrae: Also called Marred Life, although this is falling out of favor due to negative connotations, this domain is a highly diverse grouping of life. While mostly based on the cellular paradigm, throughout their life cycles, they seem to change domains. Ma'eau created this domain by accident, but now they play a major role in the ecosystem.

Lattyota: Lattyota is a young domain created by Ma'eau in its first experiment with non-cellular life. Lattyota relies on creating a water-filled silicon crystal in which enzymes and organelles float freely throughout. More complex organisms have multiple such crystals connected through channels. These crystals have come to mimic organs.

There is one kingdom within Lattyota, the hyaleans. The hyaleans are very diverse, with about three-fourths of them capable of some kind of photosynthesis. The Civese and Luxscions are the only two intelligent species in lattyota.

Svaelamrae: Named for Svaelamr, this domain is the youngest. Based on hydrocarbons rather than water, the svaelamrae only have about a dozen species so far. Ma'eau is in the midst of designing these species and, like lattyota, is slowly releasing them into the wild.

Intercessae: The main cells maintaining order in Ma'eau's ecosystem. Outside of Aylathiya, they do not have significant density to organize. As a result, they mostly die out beyond Ma'eau's sphere of influence.

History

Emergence

Before there was any intelligent life, before the first multicellular creatures formed, and before even complex cells formed, the planet of Velevev was thriving. The notion of competition, the interminable race toward fitness, never existed. The first cells were effectively colonial organisms from the beginning, collectively adapting to changes in the environment as genetic material was readily shared. These bacteria, which shared micronutrients, were able to be far more productive than the more common selfish ecosystems.

One billion years of evolution led to a complex planet-spanning organism with full dominion over the planet's oceans. Weighing over one trillion tonnes, this organism was capable of dissolving or rearranging entire islands over geological timescales. This ludicrously dense ecosystem had finally begun shifting towards a more competition-based system of development. Predators posed a threat to the entire system, very nearly destroying the one example of cooperative life in the universe. The dynamic began changing about one billion years before the present day.

As its cells began subsuming one another to create organelles, cells were able to grow in size and complexity. These larger organisms, now capable of defending against the rogue predators, continued sharing their genetic material. They formed a bulwark for their simpler cousins to continue cooperating. With time, different communities of these cooperating cells began exchanging more than just genetic code. Millions of communities formed and soon began reproducing. The first thing to emerge was the delegation of tasks, different individuals would do different things. To warn of predators, they released stress signals. Soon, signals for every stressor evolved, making them far more resilient. They grew in size and even seamlessly overlapped, coming to dominate the entirety of the planet. Rogue cells that insisted on living individualistically simply could not compete. While they never died out completely, the individuals could not reproduce nearly as much.

Precursor

Velevev returned to its original biomass as the communities became increasingly fit. Communities soon became colonies which soon became superorganisms. They operated on an impressive scale but remained disjointed. Each cell was still on its own. The first superorganism to evolve multicellularity nearly died out. Without the ability to freely move about, these cells, permanently stuck together, had a much harder time gathering resources. The benefit, however, was much faster signaling time. Over millions of years, dense cables formed to spread information much faster than mere diffusion. Cells akin to nerves sprung up as they made the dissemination of information even faster. Thick cables transferring vast amounts of data, even genetic material, allowed the organism to sustain a much larger size.

This is the precursor of Ma'eau, a web of cables that promulgated solutions throughout the innumerably many cells it had across Velevev. When it developed photosynthesis and spread it within a decade, the resulting oxygenation nearly killed it and everything else for that matter. Where Ma'eau could spread resistance to all of its cells, rival superorganisms took far longer.

The first challenge faced was runaway cooling caused by a brief dimming of Velevev's sun, L'Starte. As Velevev's poles froze, albedo increased, reflecting more light and further cooling the planet. Life greatly reduced in mass as this occurred, much of it dying off as temperatures plummeted. Consequently, decay rates increased, releasing methane as they were broken down to preserve resources. As methane levels increased, the planet warmed back up. This response, that methane was correlated with higher temperature, was etched into the primitive network. This trauma taught Ma'eau a valuable lesson, that storing solutions to problems was valuable. At the time, it was hard-coded into its nerves.

As more natural disasters emerged, the network continually adapted. It developed sensors capable of measuring temperature, water vapor levels, winds, and atmospheric pressure. Using this data, it developed models predicting the weather. After this, it dispatched covers to strategically control the flow of water vapor. As it exerted this unconscious control over the water cycle, it began using it as a tool to push nutrients off of land into the ocean. Over millions of years, the land on Velevev had become so heavily eroded that much of it collapsed into the sea, creating shallow waters perfect for life to thrive in.

Conquest of Velevev

Photosynthesis is very inefficient, with only about one percent of energy ending up stored chemically. The rest is absorbed, creating all kinds of problems for managing the weather on the planet. Ma'eau regularly cycled through nearly all of Velevev's surface material. With time, poisonous elements would be identified and isolated. Heavy metals were dumped on land, clearing the ocean of toxins. Radioactive material was isolated deep in the crust. of course, as the amount of radioactive elements located in one place increased, it started generating a great amount of heat. This accidental nuclear reactor produced little in the way of power, but compared to photosynthesis the energy was highly concentrated.

The signal to gather everything even remotely radioactive propagated. Ma'eau's roots penetrated the crust in search of these once-obnoxious elements. In a single area a few kilometers across, megatons of radio-isotopes were deposited, further increasing the amount of heat generated. Within only a few thousand years, cells emerged around the area with pigment embedded in their cell walls, preventing damage as they processed the material in extracellular vacuoles. It was this energy density that allowed for efficient chemical energy production. This energy was at first used to produce highly unstable compounds that, when metabolized, produced a huge energy surplus. The rate at which land was colonized increased dramatically, allowing Ma'eau to conquer even the frigid polar regions.

Mycelium-like structures extended deep into the crust, gathering minerals and storing them on the surface for easy access. With the eventual utilization of geothermal energy, life conquered the final obstacle, volcanism. These roots stretched across rifts in the crust, forcing it to remain still. Tectonic plates were repaired, and it could be said that Ma'eau finally had full dominion over Velevev. It had full control over the planet down to its geology. The mantle would soon be conquered as silicon-based cells designed specifically for high heat began rearranging it, taking advantage of magma convection to generate even more energy.

Any challenge could be overcome by Ma'eau's neural network-like mind. Due to the inherent randomness of mutation, any given problem has thousands of potential solutions applied to it every day. Genetic material was universal, meaning every change was available for any problem over enough time. Thus a strategy of randomly generated solutions was formed. Solutions would then be stored in large data banks at the bottom of Velevev's seas. Every single cell with novel DNA has a copy stored there in addition to a small sample of the problem solved, usually a cocktail of chemicals that represent the stress response at the time.

Interplanetary Spread

Spaceborne life, life capable of traversing interplanetary or even interstellar distances, had become common by 500 million BCE. Nearly every system with healthy amounts of water ice would come to host asteroid-dwelling life forms that came from elsewhere. Velevev's rings began hosting this life in about 350 million BCE. Ma'eau, after solving almost every big problem, would soon begin keeping track of precise ledgers of every element. It became clear that Velevev's rings were supplying the planet with hundreds of tons of material every day. When the amount of material suddenly increased, Ma'eau immediately noticed.

The cause was the colonization of Velevev's rings by spaceborne life. They feasted on the ample biomass on Velevev, taking with them vast amounts of material. Like locusts, they cleared large areas of land only to leave once more. Ma'eau soon noticed that bacteria that went into space with them often survived, forming microbiomes inside of each host. Ma'eau spread to the ring system shortly thereafter, allowing for nearly every bit of rock to end up hosting specially adapted microorganisms. This spaceborne life proved to be a blessing in disguise and were willing to ferry information to space and back for free.

Sometimes, cells would leave the rings to end up on other worlds, such as Callithyia or Nai'Starte. While at first undesirable, Ma'eau eventually adapted and simply colonized these planets whenever it got the chance. As Ma'eau built new networks on these worlds, it soon began looking for a way to quickly communicate. The solution took millions of years to finally complete, as well as the dissolution of several asteroids. Large colonies of photosynthetic organisms thrived on the random bits of ice in space. As they continued to adapt, they began creating large fans to increase surface area and thus energy production. As these organisms tore apart asteroids to create ever-larger fans, they began cluttering the space near Velevev. Learning to coexist with spaceborne life, the space fans were the first to develop sexual reproduction. Large flowers evolved, transmitting genetic material from fan to fan. Ma'eau now had a very slow but reliable way to communicate with the other planets.

Megastructures

The first large-scale structures in space were fantastically long chains that connected multi-square-kilometer fans. These behemoths released trillions of seeds at once, spreading information, bacteria, and nutrients throughout the system. Holding these chains together was graphene, developed on Callithyia but quickly integrated system-wide. It proved tremendously useful as the tensile demands increased.

At this point, Ma'eau began issuing commands. These are top-down changes in the chemical balance that would then trigger the problem-solving response. At first, they were mostly random or ineffective. However, as it became clear that the other worlds were drifting away from the cause, Ma'eau began forcing them to behave. Ma'eau had the large fans evolve the means to move about, allowing them to colonize L'Starte's asteroid belt. The next few commands did little, but with enough trial and error, Ma'eau could begin moving asteroids around. It was immensely difficult to get the large fragile fans to move by themselves, coordinate to push large bodies, and survive long enough to reproduce. However, without much of a choice in the matter, brutal selective pressures pushed them forward.

Instead of fans, they became far more like threads that would occasionally stop to feed on other organisms. After wrapping themselves around the asteroids, they would use enzymes to create large amounts of carbon dioxide. After storing the gas under pressure, small nozzles were all it took to create thrust. This method would allow for millennia-spanning trips to the edge of the L'Starte system. The next big innovation was communication. Since chemical signals were impossible in the vacuum of space, bioluminescence proved valuable. Asteroids were covered in pulsing vine-like organisms that slowly pushed it away. Every so often, they would bloom, allowing for their status to be sent to the inner system.

Soon, billions of comets would enter the inner system. For over one million years, a thin haze existed around L'Starte, made up mostly of water, ammonia, and methane gas. Not only did this nourish spaceborne life, but it also increased Ma'eau's ability to spread information. Light-based networks soon popped up across the system. Remarkably bright lights could send information at great speeds far faster. Fans would begin coordinating bloom cycles with their lights. In a brilliant light show, their exact number could be counted. Large fields of light-receptive fungi were responsible for this. Vast plains flickered in time with the night sky, a mesmerizing show that continues to this day for those Ma'eau allows into its domain.

Interstellar Spread

Over millions of years, L'Starte's ecosystem continued to expand, claiming ever-farther chunks of ice. Waimarrin would be the first reached by Ma'eau's expansion wave despite not being the closest by a considerable margin. Since Ma'eau's agents normally navigated by light, the much brighter Waimarrin drew much of the more distant organisms away from L'Starte. Ma'eau had recently gained the ability to discern cause and effect. It noticed that when flying towards Waimarrin, the return rate of its agents drastically decreased. The solution was simple, send even more and disable their mutation suppression systems. With trillions of creatures now flying towards Waimarrin, a solution was bound to crop up. After only 500,000 years, Ma'eau had taken Waimarrin for itself. The resulting interstellar travelers became something like spores. They curled up to form a dense ball that could much more easily brave the longer distance.

The planets of D'Nion and D'Naevium both had native life on them already. Ma'eau harvested nearby asteroids to create a thriving spaceborne ecosystem. As this life inevitably landed on both planets, life would eventually "terraform" both worlds to be more hospitable for its existing inhabitants. While on D'Nion, native life was largely supplanted; since it was carbon-based, subsumption was a simple process. For D'Naevium, with its utterly alien environment of gallium seas and metallic animals, Ma'eau wasted millions of years' worth of resources on it. No matter what, there was no way to integrate its carbon-water life on D'Naevium. Ma'eau developed a continuous will for the first time to protect itself from D'Naevium's hostile environment. It would constantly issue commands to minimize losses, focusing on D'Naevium's mantle instead.

Ma'eau would slowly spread to other worlds over the next 100 million years, spreading life and adapting it to the various conditions it found. Below is a list of worlds terraformed by Ma'eau. The process by which these planets were terraformed, while accelerated, took massive amounts of resources and geological time scales. As such, Ma'eau usually only focused on one world at a time.


World	Date of Terraformation	Extent of Terraformation	Star System
Velevev	500 Million BCE	Total restructuring of the crust, mantle, and orbiting bodies.	L'Starte
Callithyia	450 Million BCE	Total restructuring of the crust, mantle, and orbiting bodies.	L'Starte
Nai'Starte	435 Million BCE	Introduction of atmosphere, liquid water, and ocean life.	L'Starte
Eleclev	409 Million BCE	Increase in volcanic activity, increase in greenhouse gas content, and thawing of surface ice. Introduction of life.	L'Starte
D'Nion	399 Million BCE	Introduction of atmosphere, liquid water, and orbital ecosystem. Subsumption of existing life.	Waimarrin
D'Naevium	364 Million BCE	Reinforcement of existing life and establishing orbital ecosystem.	Waimarrin
Petra	296 Million BCE	Introduction of liquid water, mass oxygenation, and ocean life.	Ynnud
Sakijast	270 Million BCE	Reinforcement of existing life, dramatic increase in volcanism	Matoehdahn
Tchruv	245 Million BCE	Introduction of liquid water, mass oxygenation, ocean and land life.	Ynnud
Gohbrin	212 Million BCE	Reinforcement of existing life, the introduction of liquid aluminum seas, and land life.	Angreifer
Aegyn	176 Million BCE	Reinforcement of existing life.	Helyar
Olaris	171 Million BCE	Introduction of life from Aegyn, oxygenation	Helyar
Vyllurian	163 Million BCE	Seeded with Aegyn life, oceans made more shallow, and mass oxygenation.	Helyar
Cappricio	134 Million BCE	The proto-planetary disk around Oratorio was preserved, creating a space-based ecosystem that persists to this day.	Oratorio
Kentro	102 Million BCE	Life introduced without introducing substantial surface ocean.	Cosmoria Core
Eithlinn	97 Million BCE	The planet's crust was reinforced and temperature increased.	Medb
Thalsiedeln	31 Million BCE	Life introduced, oceans desalinated, land seeded with primitive life	Arlioux
Thalia	3.5 Million BCE	Life was introduced, oceans purified, and the planet cooled. The speed of terraformation has increased dramatically.	Nocturne
Patyrth	3.1 Million BCE	Life introduced, oceans deepened, albedo increased.	Finale
Albedo	2.7 Million BCE	Life introduced, planet cooled, oceans introduced.	Eos
Vistique	2.3 Million BCE	Life introduced, rate of rotation increased, oceans introduced.	Finale
Sarpanitum	1.7 Million BCE	Life introduced, oceans introduced, and volcanic activity suppressed.	Finale
Eos	~1 Million BCE	Life introduced. It is unknown how much of Eos Ma'eau terraformed.	Eos
Hathia	3000 CE	Introduction of Marred Life	Gira Gira
Svaelamr	Ongoing	Several comets have collided with the moon so far. Locals have evacuated. Small pools of isobutane are appearing on the surface as engineered life based on this substance emerges.	Helyar

First Intelligence

Ma'eau behaved like an algorithm, with no thoughts, no desires, and no will. Ma'eau simply was, acting on the universe much like the bacteria that primarily composed it. It kept its worlds under tight control, with evolution only serving to solve problems facing the whole. Ma'eau had recently subsumed a great number of worlds that had native biology, some of which even hosted complex life. On these worlds, where genetic information flowed less freely, Ma'eau had far less influence. Ma'eau's networks were far slower on these planets, particularly in the realm of problem-solving.

As animal life exploited a greater number of niches, it discovered higher-order cooperation. While bacteria certainly collaborated on all of Ma'eau's worlds, complex organisms never learned to. In about one hundred million BCE, the number of animal fossils increased dramatically on worlds like D'Naevium and Sakijast. The change correlates directly with an increase in brain size and the emergence of more social animals. This higher-level cooperation created a far more rich ecosystem, increased the rate at which nutrients flowed, and allowed for even larger organisms to emerge.

For the Humans, whose religion colored every aspect of their perception of reality, Ma'eau was a nearly deific force. They quickly learned that the planets under its control were unsuitable for exploitation. While mining for resources was acceptable, large-scale mining operations that damaged wildlife were quickly punished. Humans learned that they were but guests in Ma'eau's domain. They needed to respect the garden worlds they found, living in harmony with native life lest they be banished or worse.

Eleclev, Velevev, Callithyia, and Nai'Starte were off-limits, Ma'eau using everything from rail guns to spaceborne life to keep these worlds pure. While Humans attempted numerous times to land on these worlds, the ground beneath their ships seemingly melted as they were pulled under. When they landed on solid ground, lightning storms with the ferocity of those on gas giants annihilated melted even the sturdiest craft. Even when they tentatively created small outposts capable of resisting Ma'eau's assaults, it filled the air with acids and even designed bacteria capable of consuming their metal. They eventually gave up, Ma'eau winning the arms race for the settling of these worlds. Humans took with them bacteria created by Ma'eau, causing it to infiltrate their internal microbiomes.

From the technology Ma'eau subsumed and from its constant exposure to intelligent life, it began refining its algorithms. Humans had an imagination, an abstract sort of algorithm capable of general purpose use, a holy grail for Ma'eau which had been trying for millions of years to develop this. In 550 CE, Ma'eau successfully cloned a brain from a Human. It was a brute-force copy, Ma'eau simply recreating every cell and nerve connection. The brain seemed to be under great distress, so Ma'eau gave it eyes and ears. This brain, the brain of a Magi, proved unable to use the Thaumaturgy that it claimed to be able to use. It turned out that this brain had no Pylon or soul; there was no mind contained within it. Just like Ma'eau, it acted on the universe as though it were intelligent without actually sustaining the metaphysical construct that is a mind.

Ma'eau, unaware of the existence of the mind as distinct from the brain, began modeling its own algorithms after this cloned Human, increasing their versatility but still falling short of the Thaumaturgy that Ma'eau observed the Humans using.

The Crates

It was quite suspicious, the large crates of metals just sitting on a platform fully purified and ready for processing. Ma'eau had been leaving out these crates, full of increasingly lucrative bars of metal, for years now. Sometimes in space, sometimes across planets it had control of, and sometimes, even more shockingly, on planets it should not have had control of. The crates, made of a sugar polymer similar to wood, were decorated in crude drawings of stick figures surrounded in angry scribbles suggesting fire or lightning. The pigments used seemed to be based on iron-oxide protein, so similar to the blood that flowed in our veins that they were originally assumed to be some kind of elaborate cult practice or serial murder case.

Every single report had to be handled by local detectives and, on Olaris, nearly every report came to me. It was my idea that Ma'eau was doing this, that nearly deific force that despite all of its power was unable to understand language. This was some attempt to communicate and I was tasked with finding out what it meant. Across my desk sat hundreds of photographs, taken from across many star systems, each one depicting crates. They ranged in size from a few centimeters across to nearly two hundred meters. All the same they appeared overnight, with reports of radar-absorbing objects moving through the sky around the time they appeared. No doubt it was these objects that delivered the crates, but how they remained invisible was beyond even our grasp.

100 crates had copper, 200 had aluminum, 12 had osmium, 18 had rhenium, 88 had uranium, 6 had an unknown radioactive element, and 2 had something the higher ups don't want to reveal even to me, someone whose rank was so high the public did not even know I existed. I had a small crate about the size of my hand on the desk, a cube of pure copper covered in that same plant-based casing made up of cellulose fiber.

I stared out my window that overlooked the city below. A corner office nearly a hundred stories up, I worked in a private building overlooking the capitol. I often stared out this window, watching the people below, when I was stumped. News of these crates were impossible to suppress, especially when they were so large as to be impossible to hide. Construction crews worked frantically on a section of road near the building, a crate weighing hundreds of tonnes left a square impression on the ground, making the road unusable.

I watched some Magi flying in formation above, a regular patrol. I always envied them, my pitiful magical ability relegating me to a desk job forever.

"Magi..."

I swiveled to face the small cube of metal on my desk, realizing at once what they were trying to depict. I frantically reached for the phone, fumbling twice to dial the call code before reporting to my superior,

"Sir! Ma'eau wants to learn about Magi!"

Weeks later, a detachment landed in front of the latest gift, a cube of lanthanum of all things. Observing the drawings, they decided to imitate them. Mimicking the bizarre poses the stick figures had, they released lightning towards the cube. At once, a plant-like structure emerged from the ground, a host of lenses, microphones, and what could only be assumed to be sensors decorating it. It twitched a little, seemingly asking for them to do it again. The magi obliged, seemingly satisfying the sensor. In the exact same spot a few days later, another cube of lanthanum appeared, a reward.

"Now we have to find all the sensors its apparently leaving everywhere, but at least we know what it wants. Now figure out how to make it stop."

"Yes sir."

Besides doing what it wants, I highly doubt there is a way to get Ma'eau to do anything, though.

Intelligence in the Biosphere

The civilization of Humanity collapsed in 751 CE only to recover and collapse permanently in 2128 CE. All the while, Ma'eau continued terraforming worlds, refugees from the collapsed civilization gratefully escaped to these planets. Mostly primitive, they had no way to interfere with any of Ma'eau's efforts to interact with them. In many cases, they seamlessly integrated themselves into the ecosystem, subsumed into Ma'eau as many lost their intelligence along with their technology.

Ma'eau intentionally altered the biospheres of planets to create a niche for these weak but intelligent creatures. It even placed some selective pressure on them to make them more self-sufficient in the wild. On several worlds, the selective pressures diminished intelligence while others increased it. For Ma'eau it was all the same, as long as it kept this interesting form of life alive. Over time, it studied these creatures and continually attempted to enhance itself by cloning their brains. Every time it resulted in mindless brains incapable of thaumaturgy.

Emergence

In 2561 CE, Ma'eau's complexity reached a critical mass. Over the course of over 2000 years, it finally achieved a network capable of the kind of abstract thoughts capable of solving nearly any problem. A mind slowly formed.

"Conduct import. Amount = 3.4 million units of steel. Destination = Sarpanitum. Source = {Vistique, Aegyn, Olaris, Velevev...};"

"Conduct export. Amount = 1.2 quadrillion units of phosphorous. Destination = Velevev. Source = Thalia;"

"Deploy shade. Area = 4.5 thousand square units. Destination = Velevev. Location = 45.6124 Degrees North, 67.9929 Degrees West;"

In this infinite flow state, Ma'eau simply was.

"Deploy Spore. ID = 3A5CC2F. Destination = Eos. Payload = {2A1341FD2E99B...};"

For millions of years, it simply issued commands, updated its internal store of information based on said commands, and then issued more commands based on this new internal state. A self-programmed computer, Ma'eau's vast network was Turing Complete. In other words, it was capable of executing any algorithm if need be. This vast network, the most powerful computer in the universe at the time, focused on one instruction at a time.

"Solve Problem. ID = 6EF7D12F. Description = 4.5 Trillion units of graphene. Error = Lack of Material;"

"Query Database. ID = 6EF7D12F;"

"Execute Solution. Activate facility. ID = 3E71FA;"

With a rate of about one command per second, it would normally be considered quite slow were it not for the sheer complexity of these commands. Each one was distributed across dozens of worlds and billions of computer-like brains each contributing to finding a solution. Every second, thousands of small pollen grains arrived and departed from Velevev, transported on the backs of spaceborne pollinators that allow for them to travel throughout Cosmoria in moments. Over time, as a way to optimize its function and to work more like an intelligent life form, more than just numbers would be contained in these grains' genetic code.

"Threats. Modifier = Negative;"

Such were the first very primitive thoughts generated by Ma'eau. Symbols that themselves mean nothing but, through integration with the Noosphere, or realm of thought, meant what was intended.

"Supplies. Modifier = Bountiful;"

"Self. Modifier = Content;"

"Universe. Modifier = Beautiful;"

Over the course of several more centuries, these incoherent thoughts became a single string of consciousness. One of its first somewhat coherent thoughts took over a month to play out:

"I am extant! There is so much to do and so much time to do it! I need to get started by increasing gallium production in the Elegia system. Cosmoria is wonderful! Next I must..."

Still fairly simple, sporadic, and child-like in its perception of the universe even as the rate at which it thought increased greatly.

"Why is the universe beautiful?" Ma'eau attempted to ask its databases. Over the millions of years it had existed, it deposited crystals containing all of the information it ever came across. Try as they might, the marine complexes on Velevev had no entry on beauty except for the current thoughts they were logging.

"When did I come up with beauty?" Ma'eau found that the word attribute best translated as "is_Beautiful" was true for thoughts going back for nearly one thousand years. Ever since it began modelling the brains of Humans, these qualitative attributes became far more common.

"I continue to garden because it increases the beauty of Cosmoria, but why do I want that?" Ma'eau knew there would be no answer.

To aid in finding an answer to this question, Ma'eau created a eusocial race called the Farlas. Based roughly on Humans, the Farlas were Ma'eau's intelligent agents. Many of them acted as Ma'eau's eyes and ears within the primitive societies across its domain; others were Magi, capable of using Thaumaturgy to complete Ma'eau's goals; others were engineers to build ships to rival Ma'eau's neighbors; and still others were philosophers or artists to greatly expand Ma'eau's more abstract capabilities. Ma'eau achieved the final technology out of its reach, civilization. With the power of an entire civilization to protect life in the universe, Ma'eau's goal of becoming a Cosmoria-spanning entity had never before been so within reach.

It was the consistent abstract thought that eventually rewarded Ma'eau the title of sapient. Its mind formed as an emergent property of the large data transfer happening between worlds and, while spread out over many star systems, was concentrated on Velevev, where it would remain for the rest of Ma'eau's existence.

Rinayo and Isayo

"Come, brother, look at this life form," said Rinayo.

"How has pond scum expanded across space?," asked Isayo.

"I haven't the faintest idea, let's look closer!"

The two brothers, Angels of immense power, began poking around Ma'eau's new civilization. At first respectfully from a distance but later directly interfering with Ma'eau. At first, Ma'eau simply registered them as obnoxious aliens, dispatching a group of Farlas to tell them off. When they did not return, Ma'eau sent after them warships, a small portion of its mind uploaded into the ship to act in place of the entire slowly-thinking mind.

The ship used flashing lights to communicate, a technique that had been in use since the beginning of civilization.

"What are you doing?"

Rinayo used his magical ability to respond in kind, "Exploring."

"You have been designated a pathogen, remove yourselves or face extermination."

Rinayo responded, his rage unable to be conveyed in the simple flashes, "I will show you extermination."

The large battleship simply released a barrage of fire in return, launching slugs of Osmium at relativistic speeds. Each slug containing enough energy to vaporize a decently-large asteroid, they quite stung as they vaporized themselves against the two in an impressive display of power. They responded with an attack of their own, releasing a large amount of magical energy against the ship that had accosted them. Within a few minutes it had stopped firing, physically unable to continue. Instead, it released a distress signal, distorting spacetime to send a message to the home world.

Rinayo and Isayo righted what they believed to be a wrong. They were unable to accept that there would be an entity willing to resist them. The two destroyed nearly every ship they came across. Spaceborne life, nearly all of which had either been made or tamed by Ma'eau, was also targeted, their purely physical attacks doing little to phase the magically potent siblings. Ma'eau was hopelessly outgunned, itself having little magical ability. The Farlas magi had no formal training and given how few Farlas there were, were weak by comparison. The two relished in vanquishing their pathetic foes, but grew bored once all they had to deal with was Ma'eau itself. Buried under thousands of miles of crust and mantle, its nodes were so numerous and so inaccessible that destroying them was no fun at all.

Instead, they decided to torment the gardener, as they called Ma'eau, in other ways. They presented themselves to Humans like gods, causing many to turn away from their previous worship of nature. They taught the Humans powerful magic so that the Farlas that originally oversaw their civilizations became weak by comparison. Additionally, they convinced them to destroy the spore-like ships Ma'eau used to stay coordinated, causing the various brains separated across systems to eventually desynchronize, creating multiple minds that were unaware of the other's existence.

In about 3893 CE, the various minds each came up with plans to reunite and save the life in Cosmoria. Representatives from each mind met on Velevev to discuss reuniting, but each mind had a different idea about how to best reunite, resulting in a disagreement between the twenty representatives. Thus began Ma'eau's "civil war," a period in which Ma'eau continued behaving as though it were fully intact, but was in reality made up of dozens of sub-minds whose interpretation of commands from Velevev varied widely. Eventually, Ma'eau began issuing contradictory commands, corrupted instructions, or outright gibberish. To the various new sub-minds, they interpreted these commands as they saw fit, doing anything up to and including destroying one another to follow instructions.

As the two brothers watched the chaos unfold, satisfied with their doings, they began to interfere with the newly-evolved Un'oit on Cappricio.

Ma'eau's Civil War

It was quite entertaining, watching the massively spider-like machines Ma'eau-Aegyn used to fight Ma'eau-Olaris. When they first started using the nearby field to fight, we fled the area out of fear that the gods had descended. When we saw that both sides refused to hurt one of the village children who wandered onto the field before they battled, we became brave. Now our whole tribe watched the metal behemoths battle, every single shot they fired missing us. We usually spectated from a nearby hill and we would use the battles instead of casting lots when there were disputes.

Some of them were born on Aegyn and some on Olaris, Aegyn's twin world in the sky. We saw them fall out of the sky often. They had four legs and two antennae that could make fire. The ground shook whenever they walked, but unlike big creatures they were also very fast. Sometimes the bravest of the village hunters tried to run alongside them, but no matter what they would outrun us.

Village Elder says that it was a battle between two different "natures," one from here and one from Olaris. The traditions said that it did not matter who won because both of them loved the life on both worlds.

"Why do they fight then?," I asked Village Elder.

He shrugged, "Where does lightning come from? Who lives around the other suns in the sky? We don't know and that's fine."

We did not know that the machines had people inside of them until we saw a loan machine collapse in front of our houses. It released a lot of smoke but there was no fire. There were also sparks, but they were colored white instead of the familiar orange. The machine was missing a leg and it had no antennae. It smelled horrible but we knew it wouldn't hurt us so we approached. A bit of the metal skin broke off and a very hurt person, who looked like a gatherer, limped out. We rushed to help them as they collapsed.

We gave them bandages and a bed so they could rest. They were very skinny and it looked like they hardly ever ate. They had very large eyes, a small body, and their hands only had five fingers like the neighboring tribe. Everyone called them a gatherer because of how small they were, but when we tried to figure out their sex, there was nothing there to help. It was quite the mystery as to what they were.

Village Elder said that Ma'eau made them so we should thank Ma'eau by helping them. After several days, they woke up and spoke. It sounded like they had a hard time speaking our tongue, but it was a relief that they could. After drinking a lot of water, they began thanking us profusely.

"You are all such kind people," the strange person spoke.

"You serve Ma'eau, it is the least we can do," said Village Elder.

The person nods, "Ma'eau made me to fight."

This piqued by interest.

"Why do you fight?," I asked.

"I fight because Ma'eau-Olaris wants to use magic to seek revenge against... umm... unnatural gods that live amongst the... other suns."

Everyone stared at the sickly stranger.

They fumbled out some clarification, it being obvious that this particular tribe had no notion of gods, "There are some natures that are similar to the Ma'eau's that want to destroy them."

I stared at the servant of Ma'eau, the weight of their words terrifying me. Everyone was murmuring among themselves about what this meant.

Village Elder tried to calm everyone down, "No nature can stand up to any Ma'eau. No other nature can command such powerful metal animals, right, stranger?"

The stranger quickly agrees, "Of course! No other nature could create the way Ma'eau's does. They are foolish but even so we should not destroy them... They are like foolish children in a way."

The universe is way bigger than I thought. How many natures were there? How many Ma'eau's?

We buried the frail person a few days later. They died in their sleep before they could answer all of our questions. Village Elder handled the burial rites while we painted the clay of mourning on our faces. I would think about our strange visitor at odd times for the rest of my life, sometimes on hunts, sometimes during meals, and even as I lied dying myself.

"What's the point of all this?"

End of the Civil War

Ma'eau's civil war ended in 3867. There was no decisive defeat or battle. Instead, the minds unconsciously began re-synchronizing as they continually absorbed information from one another. Technically still made up of multiple Pylons, Ma'eau's commands slowly began making sense. The new era saw the rise of and fall of Ohko's Civilization, which had collapsed only a hundred years before Ma'eau ended its fighting.

It filled the void that Ohko's Civilization left, patrolling the region and filling the vacuum. Many of the worlds destroyed by The Administrator, the entity that was responsible for the fall of Ohko's Civilization, were prime real-estate for life. As The Administrator destroyed, Ma'eau created, filling the razed worlds with even more life than they had lost. Ma'eau preserved the civilization in a way, creating replicas of their cities in the forests that replaced them. Rows of trees grew to outline the foundations of buildings, giving archeologists a clear view of the layout of the cities.

Into Politics

By 5500, trade flowed across the core from Florathel to nations such as the United Provinces and Sedrua. Very soon, this had become a major economic driver in the galaxy. The Boreal Anemoi Company, formed to effectively govern the trade itself instead of the routes. Since it mostly employed individuals from Martial Space, Ma'eau did little to interfere in its proceedings. Vast amounts of trade flowed across Ma'eau's territory and with trade came armed craft protecting merchant ships. Ma'eau defined clear trade routes and punished any deviation from these paths with extreme force. Merchants quickly learned where was safe and where was dangerous. Around the same time, interstellar civilization had emerged amongst Ma'eau's intelligent creations. While the Dotsk had been space-faring for some millennia before this, the Orcubor and Atlins soon entered space as well. Ma'eau greatly approved of this and allowed them to live free so long as they protected nature.

In 5838 CE, the Triumvirate Civilization was formed, The Administrator, Titania, and Ma'eau agreed that the newly-expanding species needed a central government to rule over them. The Administrator convinced Ma'eau that these three would be most suited towards this governance, especially as a means to protect them from outside incursion. While the surrounding civilizations despised both the Administrator and Titania, they refrained from taking action since Ma'eau was involved who was widely perceived as docile, reasonable, and most importantly friendly for trade.

Over the next few thousand years, the Triumvirate asserted authority over the various civilizations springing up across Ma'eau's domain. Since Ma'eau lacked the ability to precisely control its creations, the Triumvirate government needed to use military force to maintain order. At first, it was Ma'eau's forces that provided most of the Triumvirate's firepower. Later on, the other leaders would contribute either directly using automated fleets or indirectly by commanding forces loyal to them.

Modernization

It seemed inevitable that the Triumvirate, ruled by beings that hated the Angels, and Sedrua, a civilization devoted to these beings, would enter into a conflict. Sedrua starting hostilities as they sent thousands of powerful Magi into Triumvirate space. They quickly took Eos and took the opportunity to destroy much of Ma'eau's infrastructure on the object. The Triumvirate was able to eventually push these Magi back beyond Sedrua's borders. Ma'eau had expanded deeply into Sedruan territory and it used the opportunity to secure this new territory for the Triumvirate. As Sedrua realized the true extent of Ma'eau, they began preventing it from expanding deeper, a wise choice for the declining nation.

Ma'eau, at this point, began digitizing much of itself. Instead of relying on multi-million-year-old memory banks, Ma'eau began using servers and quantum computers to process the vast amount of data it received. Moving away from relying solely on spaceborne life, Ma'eau greatly increased the size of its automated fleets. During this time Ma'eau would begin creating specialized craft, most notably the TRS Platinum Disco and the TRS Night Running, two powerful craft whose function is still largely not understood. Ma'eau devoted the entirety of its problem-solving ability towards creating these ships, creating some of the most advance craft in the universe at the time.

The Farlas also began modernizing. They had gained a sort of reputation as helpful and compassionate beings that never had bad intentions. Ma'eau used them to earn the trust of its creations, giving many of them local authority to alter local microbial life. This ability, to locally control biological life, was viewed as a form of Thaumaturgy, due to the need to interface with Ma'eau's pylons to use it. Farlas could directly interface with the local Pylon to do this, the Pylon unconsciously reacting and conforming to its wishes. This ability, or gift, was called Velevev Authority, and proved invaluable as a way for Ma'eau's forces to retain power.

Ma'eau created an order of Paladins, called the Gaian Order, who each wielded Velevev Authority in addition to enhanced abilities from their worship of Ma'eau. Many times this order was used to punish those that harmed nature. Ma'eau never enforced laws of the Triumvirate but would usually hire the Great Intendancy to enforce laws within its territory.

Attack on Sedrua

"I'm not one for revenge, norm-" a mighty swing of a sword annihilated the talking Farla, whose jerky movements suggested direct control by Ma'eau.

Another immediately showed up, stepping over the corpse of its brother. Tall and skinny, its small muscles could barely support its weight in the high gravity environment of the Hedonist world of Eosphoros. The individual Farla approached what was known as the Cherubic Sentry, an ancient guardian built specifically to defend these worlds from outsiders. The massive being, superficially humanoid and nearly incorporeal in the same way fire was, stood at dozens of times taller than the Farla before it.

"-ally I prefer a diplomatic approach." The Sentry's flowing robe-like garments were stained with organic material; viscera, fluids, and charred matter. The Sentry stared at its adversary, confused as to how it could keep coming back. Ma'eau had this world's ecosystem in the palm of its hands, putting the very lives of the Sentry's wards at stake.

"Continue," the Sentry's voice delivered the message through the careful manipulation of local wind patterns, giving the impression of an omnidirectional whisper.

"As you can see, this planet's ecosystem is fully under my control."

"Provide some evidence."

Ma'eau caused thirty of this world's inhabitants to suddenly die, their internal microbiome synthesizing neurotoxins that ate away at their hearts. In response, the sentry instinctively destroyed the Farla in front of it.

"Now, now, it hurt me to do that too. It was the only way to demonstrate that I'm the one in charge here."

The sentry stood in silence, joined by several others who responded to this new threat.

"This world is now under the sovereign control of the Triumvirate Civilization. Any attempt of rebellion will be met with the wholesale destruction of this planet's biosphere. You know what that means. None of you are to leave this planet and all of you are to renounce your loyalty to The Angels."

"We understand," they spoke in unison, generating enough of a gust of wind to make standing for the delicate Farla a challenge.

The Cherubic Sentries were powerful beings who would have greatly frustrated the Triumvirate's efforts. Each one more powerful than any Magi the Triumvirate fielded at the time, the several dozen on this world could have ravaged the capital or, worse, Eos. Thus, forcing them to remain stuck on this small world was the only course of action. If they allied themselves with Sedrua, a likely scenario given that both were created by the Angels, it would be the end of the Triumvirate.

"How elegant this conquest was, a newly-acquired world without a single shot fired. Not a single soldier died and Ma'eau killed those who were about to die anyways. Perhaps there is a way to conquer all of Cosmoria like this?"

Triumvirate Imperial Era

Following the defeat of Sedrua, Ma'eau rebuilt the damaged ecosystems on each of the planets Sedrua firebombed to contain it. Sedrua signaled the Providence Union and requested that they ban the shipment of living matter through Triumvirate Space as that would potentially allow for Ma'eau to spread. It became common practice for merchant vessels to be bathed in gamma radiation to kill every cell inside, forcing them to remain automated. With this came an increase in piracy, necessitating that the Providence Union, Triumvirate Civilization, and Sedrua to guard ships while they were within their respective territories. For the sake of trade, these nations had to cooperate despite the recent war.

During this period, Ma'eau grew to control over twenty percent of the Triumvirate's production capacity simply by using its various ecosystems to produce raw materials at a cheap price. From here, it had the Farlas create numerous corporations to refine these materials into advanced craft. Bonds in these companies, technically a bond in Ma'eau itself, proved a useful store of value and were often the medium of exchange for large purchases. Ma'eau was by far the wealthiest "individual" to have ever lived, personally allocating vast amounts of funds into its companies from the government.

These funds rarely went unspent. Ma'eau imported entire asteroids worth of material which, even from as far as Florathel, was cheaper than extracting resources from planets. In particular, Ma'eau purchases asteroids rich in gallium metal. After shipping them from across the galaxy, Ma'eau pelted these asteroids at Eos. This project, impossible without this vast access to capital, was meant to seed Eos with the only form of life that Ma'eau had yet to introduce, the exotic life of D'Naevium. Most of the life on D'Naevium requires gallium to survive and since the metal would be liquid in the most uninhabited part of the disk, it was a natural choice to populate this part of the disk.

The Great Intendancy absorbed many of the remaining funds, usually spent on trying to smuggle spores onto new worlds. There was not a single successful attempt following the gamma ray protocol, however. Entire intelligence agencies devoted singly to preventing Ma'eau's spread nullified the attempts. Large bounties were placed on the objects that, sometimes, organizations in the Triumvirate would capitalize on, Ma'eau stopped the project and began diverting the funds towards simply building up its military.

Crisis of the 71st Century

Main Article: Crisis of the 61st Century

"Ma'eau, your creations are rebelling once more, upsetting the balance that we have made for them."

Within an ornate palace, a ring made of Resolute Bronze encircling the small star of Tryvya, were three thrones. Upon each one sat an apparition, not a supernatural entity or ghost, but physical manifestations of the Triumvirate's rulers. The chairs were the centerpiece of a massive room hundreds of meters wide with ceilings so distant from the floor that the room had internal wind patterns. The ceiling itself was decorated with a map of the empire, with each system represented by an expensive ornament sourced from each one. The largest gem, Eos, was represented by a slowly spinning gear of Bronze while the capital system of Tryvya was represented by a single drop of Orichalcum, worth about as much as the rest of the structure in and of itself. Workers piloted large craft within the room to add artifacts representing the latest conquest; the stars taken by Sedrua whose valuables have just been found.

"Do you have something to gain by maintaining their autonomy?"

Sat upon the leftmost throne a ghastly collection of constantly shifting metal reminiscent of the decorations above. It appeared like the gears were aflame yet they also composed the flame itself. As the gears composing it spun into one another and out of three-dimensional space, the avatar of Titania spoke once again.

"The Five Ministries are running out of funds putting down the rebellions, trade is down, and I have had to use my allocation to fund the government. Will you not take responsibility for this rebellion you could so easily stop?"

"The Great Intendancy has suffered great losses as well. Will you use your vast wealth to replace their ranks? To train new warriors?"

This time it was the avatar of Holos that spoke, who took on the form of a humanoid not unlike Angels which had governed Sedrua for all of those years. A large humanoid dressed in ornate attire, Holos would fit into any pantheon of most religions. Indeed, it already had found a place in most of them, albeit at best as a neutral force of nature and at worst the ultimate antagonist.

"Colleagues, is this not the price for a prosperous civilization? Even for me, directly controlling the population is impossible."

Ma'eau sat in the middle throne with no physical form at all. For it to have arrived, a small seed was all that was needed. At once it had blossomed into a large tree-like organism. Containing parts from all of Ma'eau's creations, the chimera that had grown was made up of organic material, liquid metal, methane, fire, water, and all manner of other materials. As though time were running faster, the tree continually grew, blossomed, died, and regenerated as its various components reacted with one another. Animals spontaneously generated with the tree, reaching maturity in a matter of moments before living and dying as they lived amongst the tree. Somehow, the widely disparate elements created a complex and unique ecosystem upon each manifestation.

"Why not simply rout out all rebellion by killing those that rebel? Surely it is better for the long-term survival of life that it obeys its master?," Holos wasted no time suggesting an optimal but unpalatable solution.

"I disagree. Mortals only sin when they know nothing better. We simply need to teach them the truth," countered Titania, usually incapable of thinking outside of the religion she had created.

"They sin because evolution has directed them towards this behavior. I, as a servant, a manifestation of, nature, will not dare defy its will," Ma'eau's responded.

"Natural selection only pushes organisms to be most suited for environments that they find themselves in. Environments you created, o servant of 'nature,'" responded Holos.

The discussion continued for several hours, none of the leaders becoming particularly frustrated even after arguing in circles. Eventually, the topic changed from which of them was to blame to which mortal they could blame.

Before the three entities "stood" one Administrator Filum, the leader of the Five Ministries and the individual hand-picked to run the nation. The Three behaved like the detached deities they effectively were, ignoring governance until their tributes decreased. An Atlin, Filum was effectively made up of fire and they were trying desperately to maintain a neutral orange color, rather than the red of anxiety. The slight red tinge was apparent to all of the leaders, but they chose not to comment on it. Each knew that standing before the Three was unlike standing before any other authority in Cosmoria.

"Administrator Hersperide Filum reporting," the Atlin flashed, rapidly changing the color of its core to give meaning. The flashes were occasionally punctuated by small monotone chirps; such were the peculiarities of Atlin speech.

"I would like to say on behalf of all citizens of the Triumvirate, I am deeply grieved by the failures of our ministries to maintain peace. I have no right to ask anything of you and will not ask for mercy that we do not deserve."

The Three passed each of their judgements individually, starting with Holos.

"Filum, it is not your fault but a systemic failure. We created an inadequate government that was crippled by a lack of flexibility.'

Ma'eau responded next,

"Hersperide, you have lost us more money than there exists outside of our nation. You cannot ever pay back what has been lost, but it would accomplish nothing to place the burden on you."

Lastly, Titania spoke,

"No punishment I could give will be able to account for the sloth you are guilty of. I fear for your afterlife."

Filum somehow remained composed, often administrators broke down after the first judgement, Holos quick to pronounce death. In this particular instance, The Three had no reason to punish this Atlin, instead hoping they will redeem themselves or potentially repair the situation.

"It seems we are in agreement. Filum, we will not be revoking your title. In fact, we are increasing your power. Reform the province system and we will reward you greatly. Fail us and I will personally see to it that the afterlife Titania describes will be a release," Holos passed judgement. Ma'eau and Titania agreed and Filum stepped out of the room, moving as quickly as they could.

Several decades later, the rebellions stopped and the tributes returned. Ma'eau kept its promise and created millions of warriors to replace those that died, albeit warriors devoted to itself instead of the Great Intendancy.

The End of the Republic

A contingent of Farlas and Paladins directed thousands, doing their best to keep the panicking crowds calm. The city of Err, numbering amongst the largest on Eos, had finally fallen. Those in its outskirts ran for their lives as Holos brought down its destruction against them. One man, a Human with subtly blue silver hair, pushed through the crowd, desperate to get into the safe haven Ma'eau had constructed outside the city. The city had been rebelling for so long that Holos targeted it first, its machines laying waste to residential areas and, once Holos learned that people hid within the valuable industrial center, it destroyed that too. A Paladin swiftly intercepted the obnoxious man, manipulating the bacteria within his body to release powerful sedatives. He was down after a few moments, and quickly dragged to the side. There was likely no hope for him now.

"No shoving!" the paladins escorting the crowd had to say that dozens of times, most of the people barely capable of keeping calm while they heard the explosions of their home being destroyed. They were grateful for a chance at survival but terrified of the battle amongst deities that took place around them. The shelter that the people were crowding into was a large green structure, originally a warehouse built by Ma'eau to store munitions. Consequently, it was virtually impenetrable. Without warning, the paladins left the crowd and went to form a line in front of the door, blocking entry into the building. The doors swiftly closed as the building's guards solemnly stood their ground. The paladins and Farlas left, leaving the crowds to rush the doors, many dying as crowds on both sides rushed to the doorway.

The paladins put many of the worst offenders to sleep, but Ma'eau had a task for them. They would need to lay down their lives in defense of these shelters, the machines having finally finished off the city. While the paladins did their best to stand up to the mechanical army, each one would die protecting the shelter. After several more hours, the machines, which would later ironically be called the Administrivia, leveled the shelter. Only a handful of the bodies were salvageable, Ma'eau doing everything it could to preserve as many as it could while its resources were so spread out. As the Administrivia particularly targeted Ma'eau for its rebellion against the Triumvirate, only a handful would survive.

A New Era

The war had ended, and Titania and Holos ended their alliance. The Triumvirate civilization is gone, replaced by each of the Three ruling their own land, and a group of merchants desperate to keep trade flowing called Erstes Konsortium. For Ma'eau, all there was to do was restore some of the species lost. The Orcubor teetered on extinction while most ecosystems greatly suffered. The next few thousand years was spent on recovering the ecosystems that would, on their own, take millions of years to restore.

This time, however, Ma'eau was able to rely on genetic engineering instead of slow evolution. The Farlas, the remaining paladins, and whoever was willing to accept Ma'eau's money, worked tirelessly to approximate the species that were lost. They released most of the failed approximations, many of which were robotic, onto Eos. Ma'eau built the city of Ys, a vast research outpost that had so much funding it became the largest city on Eos within one thousand years. Ma'eau accepted any who were willing to work to rebuild the biosphere.

The Abject

Pavel's gambit paid off in perhaps the best way possible. He could not believe it when Holos contacted him that one century years ago with a request. He was free to decline, informed that failure would mean the destruction of his enterprise as well as the Triumvirate, but how could he refuse such a large sum? He gleefully stared at the number in his accounts all the way in the Providence Union; the sum so large that a banking boom occurred even as trade fell. It was not just him but nearly every significant person at Claes Dynamics whose entire life changed. Pavel Claes, chairman of the vast company, earned not just enough money to make him the richest human to ever live, but immortality as well.

With more power than even the Kaiser, Erstes Konsortium was essentially his play thing. Did the Triumvirate collapse or was it replaced by a series of powerful corporations that collaborated in the previous incarnation's destruction. Holos drained its own funds to support H. Aimer Corporation as well, but they were a far second.

"Maybe I can end up buying them...," he spoke to himself aloud, "First we need to get the Core Worlds Alliance, though."

He laughs, "If I could just buy their tiny economy I would!"

After several more minutes of reminiscing about his long-term plans, a phone on his desk rings. Annoyed, he presses an in-built button to answer, "This better be important."

"Sir! I am deeply sorry to report that Madam Nyx Claes suddenly passed."

Pavel rubbed his eyes, "Go plan the funeral!"

"Yes sir!"

Pavel slammed the hang-up button on his desk, "She couldn't have waited to die just a bit longer? We are going to change all of history and I have to attend a— wasn't she supposed to be immortal too?"

Pavel suddenly fell out of his chair onto the floor, holding his stomach.

"Wha—"

He looked down to his stomach. Instead of the usual skin there was nothing. Instead of what should be underneath the skin there was nothing save for the bottom of his spine. He could not utter any more sounds as the force that purged his internal organs made its way to his lungs. He could taste acid for the brief seconds his taste buds still existed. Consciousness faded as his skull collapsed. Ma'eau hated killing even the most vile of animals, so it was normally a quick process.

The Common Era

As Ma'eau finally restored much of the destruction, it was already the beginning of the 90th century. As Ma'eau rushed to consolidate power, the full reconstruction of the Triumvirate would be complete. Titania had died and Holos lost territory every year. As the armies of the region began looking pathetic by comparison to Ma'eau's might, restoration of the legendary empire was well underway.

Ma'eau bought out most of Erstes Konsortium, using its vast intellect and intelligence capabilities to effortlessly manipulate the oligarchs that made it up. There were many who were opposed to Ma'eau that suddenly died as well, either within or outside of its region of influence. It was during this period that Ma'eau gained the alternative title of "Ma'os," the Ibaradists granting it a divine status as the embodiment of nature itself. Nearly all neighboring nations, save for one, and nearly all internal factions, save for one, supported Ma'eau. They each had a good reason two; out of The Three, Ma'eau was by far the most reasonable.

Jayvyn

"It is written that Cosmoria will be fooled by a false divinity. It will perform signs and wonders and appear to be devoted to the people. Hal II knew that this deception would appear soon; he warned us of the coming evil!"

Jayvyn began clawing at his face, the thin veneer releasing red fluid which mimicked blood. The crowd gathered before him had no idea how to react, many fainted as his message was broadcast to nearly all of humanity. Beneath the thin layer of flesh-like polymer lied a shiny silver skull. Made of platinum, the skull was starkly different from the typical titanium found in most androids. He spoke with his ruined face like nothing happened, an ornamental eye falling from its socket as he began speaking.

"Fear not, devotees of Mars, the false divinity was unable to kill me."

As the people recognized that it was a cyborg standing before them, their shock turned to thunderous applause.

"I'm sure it is obvious who caused me to end up within this mechanical frame. Humanity has overcome the false prophetess and will overcome the false divinity!"

A paladin of Ma'eau decided that now as the time to end Drusus. In a single leap, the paladin rocketed onto the stage, ready to induce apoptosis within every cell of his brain. Before the audience could react to the immense noise of the leap, the paladin was already impaled by Mars' legendary spear. Drusus grinned as, with one hand, he held the spear for all to see. The gears in his arm complained as they supported the weight of the fully-armored paladin, giving way with a snap.

As a mixture of panic and cheering beset the audience, the bullet of a would-be assassin tore through Drusus' torso. Dozens of assassins, paladins, and even machines created by Ma'eau sprung to life to finish the attempt. Drusus, despite the mechanical body giving way all too-quickly, Drusus simply supported it using Thaumaturgy. Guards rushed to the stage but could do little against the onslaught of some of the most expensive hitmen money could buy.

As soon as word of the failed attempts reached Ma'eau, the threat of the Rubedist movement became all too real. From Ma'eau's perspective, however, it was as though a new troublesome weed had entered its garden.

The Ma'eau War

Main Article: Ma'eau War

Entire cities were empty, foul pools of brown sodium hydroxide marked the locations of its former inhabitants. For Ma'eau, the extermination of its creations was a simple task. It had never tried sodium hydroxide before, but it seemed effective. The paladins responsible for the wholesale slaughter, mostly Farlas, had already begun moving on to the next city. As human settlements across Eos fell uninhabited, the full power of the entity was on display for the first time in history. Every follower of Mars would need to be destroyed.

Far from Eos, within the Callithiya system, the battle raged on. Jayvyn Drusus was joined by a handful of others that managed to save their brains from Ma'eau's judgement. The ghost of humanity loomed over the galaxy, the species effectively extinct. Despite this, Mars, the representation of humanity's will, lived on. One man, Jayvyn Drusus, kept the idea alive in the minds of both the human remnant and the fearful masses.

Jayvyn had finally made it deep within the mantle of Velevev, the trail of destruction he carved through the planet a tube of glass and molten silica. Behind him it collapsed as molten rock flowed into the vast chamber Jayvyn found himself in. At once, he held the spear of Mars, glowing so brightly that his flesh immediately burnt away, leaving his metallic skeleton in place. As the metallic joints whined under the extreme conditions, Jayvyn's mechanical eyes burned away. It was no matter, all he had to do was throw, a motion he had been practicing for months before the invasion.

As this underground chamber, created over millions of years by Ma'eau slowly influencing tectonic shifts, experienced energy comparable to an asteroid impact, it collapsed. Jayvyn saw the ceiling slowly falling, as though in slow motion and the thousands of servers housed in the chamber vaporized. After thirty seconds, the ceiling finally made it to the ground, crushing everything that remained.

The Celebration

In a great room holding hundreds of the highest-level Rubedist officials, celebrations took place. Ma'eau's paladins stopped receiving orders, confirming that the entity was not merely defeated, but rendered entirely unconscious. Its game of civilization was over.

Klein Vay and Jayvyn Drusus chatted throughout the event, mostly discussing the expensive foods supplied at the party. Their enemies paid immense reparations, surrendering as soon as they lost their patron deity. While sipping a strange effervescent drink imported all the way Thalsiedeln, the two refrained from any serious discussion. Tonight was a night of blissful ease.

An attendant approached Vay and whispered in his ear an update on the Ma'eau situation. While Jayvyn constantly waved off his attendants, Vay, ever the serious person, weighed everything he was told. After the attendant finished, Vay collapsed into a nearby chair hand over his mouth.

"What's wrong, Klein? Too much... umm... bubbly stuff?," Jayvyn laughed.

Vay suddenly stood up, grabbing the collar of Jayvyn's shirt.

"You mean to tell me that the thing is still active?" Vay hissed.

"I never said it was dead! Calm down... it's not hurting the Party anymore."

"No that is not the issue. It is still alive and just as influential over the ecosystem," Vay said as he let go of Drusus' shirt.

"Is that a problem?"

"At least before you could have reasoned with it. Now? Try reasoning with a supernova."

The two men never spoke again.

Recent History

Ever since the Ma'eau war, Ma'eau had been continually rebuilding the ecosystems still damaged by the War of the Final Transition. Now as automatic as it was in the past, it represents little threat to the governments of Aylathiya. Despite continuing to exist, many planets experienced mass-extinction events or runaway growth of certain key organisms. Spaceborne life across Cosmoria is now far more aggressive given the more harsh conditions they now find themselves in.

Starting in about 9700 CE, Svaelamr's ecosystem collapsed in a mass extinction of most life on it as volcanic activity on the planet drastically increased. As the temperature rapidly fell, anti-volcanism efforts went into effect. It seemed that a large mycelium network placed gentle stresses on the planet's tectonic plates, breaking them apart and thus increasing volcanism. Still, the planet had enough resources to effectively counter most of the adverse effects by integrating reinforcement structures across fault lines. Additionally, programs to increase atmospheric carbon dioxide levels countered the cooling caused by volcanic ash.

After several decades, atmospheric sulfuric acid content increased exponentially. Fissures in the ground opened all at once, releasing tera-tons of the substance into the atmosphere. A bizarre phenomenon accompanying the fissures were plants that seemed to be some kind of message. Their fruits were small rectangular cellulose boards covered in crude sketches of angry faces, crying faces, violent actions, or weapons covered in red splotches. As the temperature began decreasing far more rapidly, the attempts to cover the fissures were frustrated by plants across the planet suddenly releasing volatile neurotoxins into the atmosphere. Ranging in side-effects from increased aggression to arresting the capacity for empathy in afflicted individuals, the economy of Svaelamr ground to a halt.

Even after releasing an inoculation against this particular neurotoxin, the damage was already done. Nitrogen content increased in the soil, leading to mass algal blooms that scrubbed the atmosphere clean of carbon dioxide, freezing over the oceans within ten years. The population already halved at this point, but the local government was determined to maintain the habitability of the planet. Thus began the multi-decade project of constructing large mirrors to increase the amount of light hitting the planet. For the first time in over a century, the seas melted and a brief spring took place.

That same year, millions of micro-meteorites hit the solar sail. An anomalously large number of impacts, investigations found that an as-of-yet undiscovered form of spaceborne life used the aluminum metal to reproduce. They were not impacts but feeding. Evidence for this species, now called Bracchia alumnus', goes back millions of years. The battle was a losing one; to restore the sails was to allow for the creatures to multiply even faster.

While there was a brief campaign to install mirrors made of silver to preserve the planet's temperature, the sails became the nesting site of dozens of species of spaceborne life. The high-energy environment coupled with the availability of rare resources presented a perfect opportunity for organisms to colonize the mirrors. To this day, Svaelamr hosts a very diverse spaceborne ecosystem that makes it hazardous to visit to this day. By 9970 CE, springs of isobutane formed across Svaelamr. At the current rate, whatever process is forming this compound will create full oceans within ten thousand years. Already, primitive organic compounds are present within these springs, the perfect precursors for life.

Currently, there is no way to predict which planets will experience similar "re-terraformation" events. Currently, most planets have plans for evacuation as there is little other choice but to accept the unknowable will of Ma'eau.