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Description

An artificially maintained cycle of death and rebirth that most (though not all) sapient life in Assembly adheres to.

* * *

So, at the base of the Assembly's live cycle, there are these large, bio-mechanical constructions that assemblians utilize as cities (I). Each such city is functionally a colony similar to a coral reef, and can propagate itself via spreading its “pipe roots” or generating “seed capsules”.

Any sufficiently large city will always produce at least one “incubator-shrine” (II). A young shrine will be idle, and only activates after receiving a first package of genetic code – usually from a database of an older shrine from a different city, but sometimes directly from citizens if they are willing to partake. Excluding some rare exceptions, each incubator-shrine can be only tuned for a one specific genome – meaning that each city would usually have only one specific species as a base of its population.

Once activated, the incubator starts to combine genetic and memory data (more on that later) to produce larvae (III), which are then delivered to adult citizens volunteering to act as the parental figures – often with the help of robotic servants . The AI within the shrine will always try to create the most favorable combinations, avoiding the harmful mutations and picking those that would be useful in the respective city’s environment. All of them will be also archived, so they can be later used for future generations or sent to another shrine if needed.

After a varied number of years, each produced larva will mature into an adult member (IV) of its respective species – a rational being capable of fully comprehending wonders of the cosmos, unhindered by the burdens of procreation. However, if necessity arises, they still can propagate by themselves, bypassing the incubator stage. Any assemblian can reproduce asexually (specifically, like starfishes) as a side effect of their regeneration – but many can also do it by… let’s say, a bit more conventional means. The creation of a brand new intelligent life via the artificial means is also a thing that exists, and even is surprisingly common – but since it’s not a part of a “natural” cycle as such, it wouldn’t be touched upon here.

After reaching maturity, assemblians can technically live forever – as they do not age and are notoriously hard to kill . However, since universe is fundamentally a bitch that just wants you dead, many of them will die anyway – leaving only the inert remains (V) behind.

The remains are then collected and sent to Thanatories (VI), where they are processed into data in a process commonly known as “recycling”. While usually associated with scraping residual information from the brain, the data is also gathered from a lot of other sources, including antenatal biological blueprints from the Shrines, past brain scans (if such are available ), information deduced by examining dead bodies and even memories of other, still living beings. The process itself is performed with a help of the wide variety of biomechanical creatures (with three main breeds being Mortician Machines , Grave Seekers and Cadaver Golems ), produced by Thanatories themselves – at least partly from the dead mater that wasn’t consumed during the previous recyclings. Technically, Thanatories are just as alive as cities, and can propagate in a similar fashion – but they rarely do it, preferring to maintain a more or less stable number instead (which is about a hundred). The only time they were known to actively multiply was after the War with Atheus, when more than a half of them were violently destroyed.

The end result of recycling is the mental imprint (VII) of the dead one – a sum of all recoverable information of who they were in life. Since imprints are informational rather than physical, they are contained within the special data storages deep inside the facilities. And it is even said that each Thanatory contains a sophisticated virtual reality, through which its personal can interact with imprints for their own enigmatic reasons…

When the imprints are fully generated, they are sent back to incubator-shrines, where they merge into singular “clusters of consciousness”.

With the help of sophisticated neurointerfaces, these clusters are linked to the growing embryos, allowing thought and memories from them to gradually flow into new bodies.

The processed is far from a true rebirth, and all offspring created is still treated as their own individuals with personalities distinct from those used to make them – but still, the link is there!

To be alive is to change.

To change is to cease, so the new thing could emerge from that thing that was once you.

The “self” may not survive the process of transfiguration – and yet endures through becoming a source for the different selves. And only by transcending it, one can truly reach for eternity!

Everything’s connected.

Description

An artificially maintained cycle of death and rebirth that most (though not all) sapient life in Assembly adheres to.

* * *

So, at the base of the Assembly's live cycle, there are these large, bio-mechanical constructions that assemblians utilize as cities (I). Each such city is functionally a colony similar to a coral reef, and can propagate itself via spreading its “pipe roots” or generating “seed capsules”.

Any sufficiently large city will always produce at least one “incubator-shrine” (II). A young shrine will be idle, and only activates after receiving a first package of genetic code – usually from a database of an older shrine from a different city, but sometimes directly from citizens if they are willing to partake. Excluding some rare exceptions, each incubator-shrine can be only tuned for a one specific genome – meaning that each city would usually have only one specific species as a base of its population.

Once activated, the incubator starts to combine genetic and memory data (more on that later) to produce larvae (III), which are then delivered to adult citizens volunteering to act as the parental figures – often with the help of robotic servants . The AI within the shrine will always try to create the most favorable combinations, avoiding the harmful mutations and picking those that would be useful in the respective city’s environment. All of them will be also archived, so they can be later used for future generations or sent to another shrine if needed.

After a varied number of years, each produced larva will mature into an adult member (IV) of its respective species – a rational being capable of fully comprehending wonders of the cosmos, unhindered by the burdens of procreation. However, if necessity arises, they still can propagate by themselves, bypassing the incubator stage. Any assemblian can reproduce asexually (specifically, like starfishes) as a side effect of their regeneration – but many can also do it by… let’s say, a bit more conventional means. The creation of a brand new intelligent life via the artificial means is also a thing that exists, and even is surprisingly common – but since it’s not a part of a “natural” cycle as such, it wouldn’t be touched upon here.

After reaching maturity, assemblians can technically live forever – as they do not age and are notoriously hard to kill . However, since universe is fundamentally a bitch that just wants you dead, many of them will die anyway – leaving only the inert remains (V) behind.

The remains are then collected and sent to Thanatories (VI), where they are processed into data in a process commonly known as “recycling”. While usually associated with scraping residual information from the brain, the data is also gathered from a lot of other sources, including antenatal biological blueprints from the Shrines, past brain scans (if such are available ), information deduced by examining dead bodies and even memories of other, still living beings. The process itself is performed with a help of the wide variety of biomechanical creatures (with three main breeds being Mortician Machines , Grave Seekers and Cadaver Golems ), produced by Thanatories themselves – at least partly from the dead mater that wasn’t consumed during the previous recyclings. Technically, Thanatories are just as alive as cities, and can propagate in a similar fashion – but they rarely do it, preferring to maintain a more or less stable number instead (which is about a hundred). The only time they were known to actively multiply was after the War with Atheus, when more than a half of them were violently destroyed.

The end result of recycling is the mental imprint (VII) of the dead one – a sum of all recoverable information of who they were in life. Since imprints are informational rather than physical, they are contained within the special data storages deep inside the facilities. And it is even said that each Thanatory contains a sophisticated virtual reality, through which its personal can interact with imprints for their own enigmatic reasons…

When the imprints are fully generated, they are sent back to incubator-shrines, where they merge into singular “clusters of consciousness”.

With the help of sophisticated neurointerfaces, these clusters are linked to the growing embryos, allowing thought and memories from them to gradually flow into new bodies.

The processed is far from a true rebirth, and all offspring created is still treated as their own individuals with personalities distinct from those used to make them – but still, the link is there!

To be alive is to change.

To change is to cease, so the new thing could emerge from that thing that was once you.

The “self” may not survive the process of transfiguration – and yet endures through becoming a source for the different selves. And only by transcending it, one can truly reach for eternity!

Everything’s connected.