BY LETTER
Went, The
History > 7800 to 9999 AT: Outer Volumes Era > 7800 to 9999 AT: Age of Expansionist New Empires
Galactography > Other Major Polities, Empires, and Meta-Empires > Hiders
Galactography > Other Major Polities, Empires, and Meta-Empires > Solipsist Panvirtuality
Galactography > Other Major Polities, Empires, and Meta-Empires > Hiders
Galactography > Other Major Polities, Empires, and Meta-Empires > Solipsist Panvirtuality
A hider clade at the centre of a major diplomatic event between the Panvirtuality and the Version Tree | |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| A Went Hive at the edge of a Prime megastructure of the Solipsist Panvirtuality | |
The Went were a hider clade that resided on the outside of approximately a dozen megastructures of the Prime empire, part of the Solipsist Panvirtuality. The hiders were all uploads, living in dense computronium that was powered by excess heat from the megastructures. Each of the isolated computronium clusters, called a hive, contained between one and three thousand modosophont entities, and as could be expected from hiders they were very isolationist, doing their best to avoid discovery.
The Went were unusual for a hider clade, however. Every once in a while the members of a hive would merge into a group mind, which could be designated as a first toposophic power with spikes into higher toposophics. This mind would then delve into the local godweb and do some data mining, carefully concealing its trail, and divide back into its individual sophonts.
However, in 8733 one of the data mining group minds was discovered and traced back to its hive. After this incident the local transapients searched the local megastructures carefully for more hives, and found at least two hundred. This was a large surprise, as it should have been impossible for even one hive to conceal its presence for any length of time from the higher toposophic AIs of the structures. The Prime empire contained the hives and launched a careful investigation into the matter.
The year after, in 8734, the Prime empire, backed by two other Solipsist empires, approached the Version Tree with accusations that the hives had been planted by the Version Tree for the purpose of gathering intelligence on the Solipsist Panvirtuality. To the great surprise of everyone, the accusations were also released onto the Known Net, in a version easily understandable to modosophonts. Though the actual evidence itself wasn't understandable by modosophonts, the approval rating of the Version Tree fell drastically in several hundred independent systems close to the affected Solipsist systems. However, following that first information release, both the Version Tree and the Prime empire stonewalled any further questions about the matter, and though the Version Tree never officially denied the claim, and the Prime empire never released any retraction of the claim, the story began to disappear into the background after a few decades.
Though the case has been forgotten by most, certain parties are still researching extensively into the Went, including modosophont rights groups that wish to learn the final fate of the Went, and some Hider clades that wish to learn how the Went managed to hide on the very surface of a transapient installation.
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Development Notes
Text by Thorbørn Steen
Initially published on 13 March 2008.
Initially published on 13 March 2008.
