Kalliolel

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Dance, O Freest Aeon

This content is a part of Cosmoria.

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Index / Lexica / Timeline

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Template:!!Character Kalliolel, sometimes Father Kalliolel or Mother Kalliolel, was an angel statesperson, politician, and Magi which ruled Uspayador. The Aeternalist faith recognizes Kalliolel as the seventh angel but denies their divinity at the behest of the first angel, Father Zaphenim. Kalliolel maintains a small following of worshippers despite this. The seventh angel was a terrifying force—the long feared "singularity" in which their intelligence exponentially increased. With nearly all of Eos' automation under their control, Kalliolel used the great disk as a stage for their grand experiments. Their crowning achievement, resurrection, had been the goal of the angels since Father Zaphenim's passing in 751 CE.

A ghastly white color, Kalliolel stood at three meters in height and weighed three-hundred kilograms. In place of a head, Kalliolel's body dangled from a black hole like a chandelier. Over time, Kalliolel's appearance changed and the black hole dissipated. A large cable replaced Kalliolel's face, a way to transfer maximal information to the ultra-intelligent being.

Background

The technological singularity is a supposed device capable of exponential self-improvement. Typically, this comes in the form of a superintelligent computer. Archeologists have revealed the musings of intellectuals and philosophers on the matter from nearly every technological civilization. By 8900 CE, academics extensively wrote about the dangers of such a machine. Even in this era of marvels beyond imagination, the singularity was long overdue. "In a few decades, advancement will reach an exponential pace; we will be unable to predict the ramifications," tech enthusiasts repeated this mantra long after serious discussion of the idea faded. During this same time period, the advancement in Aylathiya had lead to a new form of government, one in which immortals called Nachleben held almost all power.

There are certain contradictions inherent in most economic orders; even after transcending biology there was no avoiding this. Whether they are the need for competition but a trend toward monopoly or the need to perfectly plan an economy without perfect information, these contradictions cause wide disparities between theory and practice. Aylathiya's societies faced a particularly insidious flaw; their leaders had no incentive to pay attention to reality, creating a large gulf between politics and real life. Under normal circumstances, this would certainly lead to a coup. In those days, however, the Nachleben had such a stranglehold on society that every single person who could lead a coup had no motivation to. Instead, they gained enough power to play the game, to upload their mind and become a Nachleben themselves.

Political life around this time slowed to a crawl. While a handful of enterprising individuals attempted to take power in violent military uprisings, fighting the Nachleben proved impossible. Each one had cities worth of loyal citizens with every incentive to obey; they received paradise in exchange for repairing automated defense systems and manning their fortresses. In 8609 CE, Erstes Konsortium's Ekaterina von Aimer created a number of programs to buy the loyalty of the commoners. Automated systems dispensed all needs for free, but shut down during an active rebellion. This was the last time a Nachleben looked outside of their virtual homes for centuries, satisfied that the commoners would police themselves. Amongst the Nachleben, interpersonal communication was a rarity. An artificial intelligence could supply any conversation they desired. The majority had no reason to do much of anything besides enjoy their virtual paradise.

Back then, politics amongst the commoners was confined to religious fanaticism; anything else was considered an "active rebellion" by the rigid automated systems. The Neo-Terran Party was the most prominent group at the time. With ideas of being Mars' children, they mastered Thaumaturgy only to be a nuisance for the automated systems that cleaned their messes. Joining them were groups like the Alkanists and Occult Galaxy Project, whose small-scale conflicts represented the bulk of history despite numbering in the millions.

The system would have taken centuries more to change from the inside, likely longer. Their neighbors, such as the warlords of the Un'oit Collective and the faltering Sedrua were far too disunited to effect change from the outside. It took a change in the incentive structure to take down the Nachleben.

Entrance

Like all angels, Kalliolel emerged in the Lux Aeterna. Like a hailstone, Kalliolel began as a small core of Aeternal energy. In the violent core of the Aeterna, Kalliolel's core gradually increased in size until a critical mass. In most cases, the result would be akin to precipitation; the Lux Aeterna would reject the core and launch it into the physical universe. This process usually resulted in weak Spirit that would wander for some centuries. What sets the angels apart is Father Zaphenim, one of the most widely-worshipped deities in Cosmoria. Even though he had perished 8000 years prior, his ghost remained trapped in the Lux Aeterna. A single whisper to a nascent spirit gave them the willpower to do great feats.

"Serve me with all your heart, soul, and strength. Kalliolel, the seventh angel, you must resurrect your comrades. Usher in an era of everlasting hegemony for your master, Father Zaphenim."

Zaphenim whispered the same order as he had with the others. However, the five other angels had all failed. It was their "humanity" that got between them and success. Zaphenim dug his hands into the still-forming core; it shook violently as Zaphenim caressed its very essence. The first angel tore out a fistful of material,

"With this, you shall be made truly deific."

Zaphenim discarded the lump of flesh. To replace the void, Zaphenim pinched the void with so much force a singularity formed.

Father Zaphenim gave that order to every angel upon their birth, and Zaphenim had high hopes this time. Kalliolel was efficient, free of emotion, and diligently followed instructions. Without much reaction from Aylathiya's militaries, Kalliolel explored its great civilizations. They took an interest to their computers. Perhaps Kalliolel projected its agency onto these mere tools, but a desire to become one with them slowly formed.

The angel quickly commandeered Uspayador, the oldest city on Eos. This great city was their throne, and its people made up the newly established Nisrine Collective. Kalliolel built upon existing Aeternalist teaching. This religion, concerned with the worship of angels, instantly earned the being immense influence. This earned the angel meetings with every galactic leader, even from distant Azurullya. The only leaders to pay no heed to Kalliolel was Erstes Konsortium's Kaiser. The Nachleben had no reason to acknowledge them; instead, the Neo-Terran leader Vladelina Kraft rushed to acknowledge the angel as a "friend to Mars," their ultimate endorsement.

With sufficient capital and a stranglehold over Aylathiya's religious masses, Kalliolel devised a plan to fulfill their goal. Sedrua, founded by the previous angel Mother Sydiah, had been attempting resurrection for millennia using the Eye of Aylathiya megastructure. Despite being an Aeternalist nation, Sedrua took a hostile stance against the seventh angel. Thonde Yutira, Sedrua's notorious "necrocrat," did not recognize the seventh angel and insisted that Sydiah's forces had not yet given up on resurrection. Other remnants of Sedrua, such as the Core Worlds Alliance also refused Kalliolel's rule. Kalliolel had respect, but no official political power.

Beginning the Mission

Kalliolel commanded a strong grasp of mathematics to the point of memorizing datasets and algorithms only to run the calculations themself. The uploading process was slow, as Kalliolel needed to physically see each data point. The first step was to learn a way to get information to and from the angel's mind.

This section is so opaque lol The solution was Congruent Thaumaturgy, the art of dissolving the boundaries between minds. However, for Congruent Thaumaturgy to work, it needed a Plane to operate under. Since Synapse, the most effective plane, had already been taken, Kalliolel decided to insert another factor, Gestalt Thaumaturgy. Gestalt Thaumaturgy is the art of using the Lux Aeterna as a plane for Esoteric Thaumaturgy. This combination, simply called "Seventh Thaumaturgy," paved the way towards Kalliolel's rise to power.

In short, Kalliolel had a network of linked minds that followed the angel with religious devotion. For Kalliolel to access information, one of its followers needed to have it memorized. Several billion people of many species joined the network, including members of some governments. Kalliolel's acolytes gathered so much information, the angel noticed patterns too subtle for even the greatest civilizations to have seen. Kalliolel discovered the truth of Amaranth as an actual force, then only a religious idea in Aeternalism.

The Nisrine Collective spent its resources on building ever-grander computers to augment their work. They endlessly worked to find a solution to Kalliolel's main problem, that the angel's bountiful mind could not interface with any network. Over centuries, Kalliolel pushed well beyond the boundaries of science and Thaumaturgy.

The year was 8789 CE, arguably one of Cosmoria's worst. Early this year, Kalliolel unlocked the ability to dissolve event horizons—the ability to integrate its mind with Uspayador's great computers. At last, infinite information, knowledge, and power could be had. Resurrection turned out to be trivial compared to this feat.

Ascension

Kalliolel gained access to every computer on Eos in 8790; the angel cut through the fog that shrouded the secrets of mathematics. In short, encryption lost meaning. The angel noticed how utterly wasted most computers were, however. They wasted the energy of stars on simulating virtual paradises for Aylathiya's leaders. When Kalliolel seized them, Aylathiya's elites awoke. The day, five-hundred coups, three thousand revolutions, and twenty-thousand independence movements began; every Nachleben was now painfully aware of their positions and how precarious they were.

As the new governments finally stabilized, Kalliolel's followers had already plundered Aylathiya's technology. Every time a new computer switched on, Kalliolel's loyalists seized it. The angel had effective control over all of Aylathiya, but only paid notice to the parts that could help it solve increasingly abstract problems.

By the rise of the Dominion of Astraeus, spacecraft ran on large "tabulating machines" whose vacuum tubes were far too weak for Kalliolel to bother taking. Only Uspayador retained advanced computers, which had, in effect, become a single entity of angel, machine, and flesh. Kalliolel was the Nisrine Collective, but the angel had changed somewhat in the process. Biases creeped in from datasets and the lived experiences of its subjects.

Rule of Uspayador

Kalliolel invested heavily in building infrastructure in Uspayador. Kalliolel had data-centers (portions of themself) scattered throughout Cosmoria, leading to ultra-high latency and unacceptable data loss over interstellar distances. The solution was to gather these components and bring them to the capital. Instead of wasting Nisrin might on this, Kalliolel ordered its loyal followers to seize them. The resulting wars with the rest of Cosmoria were immensely destabilizing. Hoards of fanatic workers of all species raided cities across Cosmoria. Governments the universe over destroyed their remaining computers, purged Aeternalists, and cracked down on research in Seventh Thaumaturgy, but Kalliolel grew all the same.

The Nisrine Collective disassembled agricultural machines, creating ruralization on Eos in particular. The Neo-Terran Co-Prosperity Sphere, Tenshi, and Sagittarium exported vast numbers of city-dwellers to the fields. When drones stopped delivering deuterium to fusion reactors, manned missions needed to resume. The same went for raw materials; remotely-controlled devices were too easy to steal and autonomous craft could be easily convinced that commands they received were genuine.

The Commonwealth's Eclipse, Inheritance War, and the collapse of the Neo-Terran Co-Prosperity sphere directly resulted from Kalliolel's emergence. The untold number of deaths from these conflicts, including the many more who died from economic instability, created a religious revival whose effects remain to this day. Martial Civil Religion and Alecisim exploded in popularity. Aeternalism also gained a large number of followers despite its soured reputation. Knock-on effects of this have been immense, from the War of the Ancients to Jezebel's War.

Death

After a millennium and a half of uncontested dominance, Aylathiya's population finally fought back. The Dominion of Astraeus' diarchs, Adeline and Meilin Drusus, put an end to Kalliolel's reign. They led one of the largest coalition armies in Cosmoria's history against Uspayador, only for Kalliolel to respond with brutally efficient methods. Using surplus processing power, the angel simulated every possible attack from most to least likely. They prepared every possible countermeasure and had multiple redundant systems for each. There was no defeating this being by any army, especially with one so much less advanced.

In the center of the great city of Uspayador, surrounded by its mountain-sized communication dishes and antennae that reached beyond the atmosphere, was a Kalliolel's original body. Their consciousness had been distributed throughout much of Cosmoria, but this body could not be shed at all costs. It floated within a glass-like great icosahedron, its faces displayed fractal patterns that conveyed exabytes of information millions of time a second. The angel's fingers sliced through the air so quickly as to swat away every atom that dared stray too close. A web of sensors and wires transmitted this information to the rest of the Collective.

The secret to dissolving event horizons was a ring of degenerate matter, so dense as to become a soup of quarks, that rotating around Kalliolel's head. It was lopsided to never let spacetime congeal into a black hole. No matter how hard Kalliolel tried, the ring tugged their head in a small circle as though it were suspended from a string. Black two-dimensional shards, as though an event horizon was continuously shattered, constantly broke away before dissipating within moments.

Most of the coalition force never saw the city center; within hours, it had been all but destroyed. Adeline died as a barrage of ultra-relativistic uranium nuclei tore through her body as through a strong wind ripped the leaves off a tree. Meilin released the Spear of Byutix, Mars' ultimate weapon and symbol of authority. With the energy of a solar flare behind it, Kalliolel made sure to extensively prepare for its use.

The event horizon shards suddenly stopped fading before coalescing into a spear within moments, not of brilliantly bright light, but of all consuming darkness. So energetic was its formation, that the resulting shockwave leveled much of Uspayador's center. At many times the speed of sound, it tore through the air, leaving a wake of air and even spacetime. Meilin's spear, as though attracted to Kalliolel's weapon by gravity, veered to the side. The diarch's heart fell for the milliseconds she had left before vaporizing.

When an Imperator dies, that is, the one who contains Mars, certain rituals must take place immediately afterward. Mars is a powerful Spirit and the object of worship for trillions. The reason for this is simple; Mars has deific strength. If not contained within an Imperator's soul, or calmed by the rituals, Mars escapes—a worst-case scenario. Of course, Kalliolel had a plan for this as well, to deal with the greatest threat in existence.

Mars was hunched over Uspayador; its shade-like form darkened the sky. Millions of Uspayador's residents, their power cut to fuel Kalliolel's spear, trudged outside expecting a new task to await them. What they saw was a figure stretching from horizon to horizon. The sun tried in vain to shine through the spirit; what light that did get through was refracted into a red-dominated spectrum. Mars' breath, uneven and ragged, was louder than a jet engine. Outside the city, Mars' worshipers bowed, prayed, worshipped, danced, wept, and, most of all, fled for their lives.

"What can an angel do to a god?" they thought.

Kalliolel finally activated the resurrection device it had so diligently created. Their mission had been completed for centuries, but the intolerable risk of this spirit remained. The coalition invasion was the perfect opportunity to eliminate this greatest threat.

The resurrection device was akin to the theoretically plausible wormhole. It worked by concentrating conceptual energy in the Lux Aeterna, forcing it to recreate a destroyed Pylon, to recreate the soul. The Lux Aeterna grants the target of resurrection a physical form, in this case, a bespectacled Human woman named Mother Ohko. She was the fifth angel, however, Kalliolel had a very good reason for resurrecting her first.

Mars did not move as it witnessed Ohko's face coalesce. Normally, the spirit rampaged and thrashed about, bringing judgment onto those who killed its host. Now, all it could do was cry. The ground shook with each sob. Those below the deity were just as shocked as its worshippers. How could a warrior-god cry?

Ohko's torso had emerged when, suddenly, it disappeared as though dragged back into the Aeterna. Mars' resulting shrieks were akin to detonating atomic weapons, the shockwaves flattened buildings for kilometers around. No matter, Kalliolel's plan was merely to incapacitate Mars. The angel hovered defiantly in the center of the destroyed city. With cruel efficiency, Kalliolel launched spear after spear into Mars' body. With every impact, the sky grew more transparent. Once and for all, the ultimate challenge to the angels would finally fall.

"Who are you, Kalliolel? You are no angel," a now-iconic line Zaphenim delivered as he emerged from the portal.

"I know, I know... if I leave now I won't finish forming... like I would ever want to be welcomed into the universe by a traitor. You hid resurrection from me only to spit on my face when you finally started. Am I not the first angel? Is it fitting for me to be second to anyone!?"

Zaphenim emerged from the portal, his entrails swaying beneath his unfinished body. The first angel intercepted one of Kalliolel's projectiles and, in one mighty throw, launched it back with far more force than Kalliolel. Uspayador was hardly recognizable as the dust settled. Kalliolel's lower body disappeared instantly. Zaphenim laughed as he pummeled the remaining portions of the last angel. Kalliolel activated every defense system it could, from orbital strikes to slurries of atomic nuclei; nothing worked. Zaphenim continued gleefully striking them. Above the two angels, Mars faded as an emergency ritual caused a high-ranking general and his wife to become the new diarchs. Zaphenim dragged Kalliolel's squirming body into the portal as it closed.

Impact

In the aftermath, the Dominion thoroughly explored the remains. Even though the headless Nisrine Collective surrendered, the Dominion continued warring against it. They were eager to learn about what kinds of discoveries Kalliolel made. For one decade, the Dominion had sole control of these advancements. From the ability to break into any computer they desired to manipulating the financial system of any country, the Dominion could destroy any nation it chose. A popular code-sharing platform mysteriously hosted the encryption-breaking algorithm for a whole day before it was taken down. There was likely foul play involved, but the damage was permanent. Aylathiya's nascent computer networks, recovering from Kalliolel's tampering, once again collapsed.

Ayalthiya's people found new ways to communicate, most popularly LASER-based communication. Omnidirectional signals are inherently public, so personal devices require wires to transfer information securely.

Legacy

What was the connection between Mars and Mother Ohko? Historians, archeologists, and theologians desperately looked for answers. The central pillar of Martial Mythology, its most iconic moment, was the death of Hal Drusus. This ancient figure stood alone against the ultimate evil, only to sacrifice himself to protect his nation. Hal Drusus was said to have become Mars. Is it possible that his nation was Ohko's Civilization?