>>17302885

Of course, there were costs. Necromancy and factory-farmed pixies were not, to be glib, wholly compatible with the doctrines of most churches. The worship of the traditional gods--of life and sun and fertility--waned, and their temples were abandoned. Their priests and prophets and holy orders fled to other lands, other countries. But this was not so great a cost; there are many other gods. Gods of suffering, of sacrifice, of pain and torture; gods called vile by those who worship life and sun and fertility; gods called demons and devils and blasphemous evils by the ignorant. The cults of these gods occupied the abandoned temples, and taught the people to worship in new ways. These new churches flourished.

And with these new churches came their mystery rites. Among these new rites was the next leap in the development of the graveborn computers.

>>17302888

Brutal gods demand brutal rituals, and brutal rituals grant gifts of brutality. One of the cults taught a rite of shared pain: binding two--even unwilling!--participants together, that each would feel every agony the other endured. It was worship, yes, but some realized that it was also *information*. Living creatures subjected to the ritual and incorporated into the computers could allow those machines to instantaneously exchange information across great distances. Surely, there were enough pixies in the farms for this purpose! As a sacrament, shared pain was as effective as any other might be; as technology, it was an unprecedented advance.

And so the civilization grew in power. Even the lowliest government official could be kept in contact with the capital for instruction. Every officer could keep in contact with the generals and admirals. Towers were constructed, with necromantic computers coordinating multiple "pain-radio" pairs, and so a communications network was established. These tower-computers were, over time, elaborated into massive processing stations. Legions of undead troops could now be commanded by a single officer via pain-radio, with the assistance of tactical calculations from the processing towers. No force of martial or wizardly prowess could resist these forces for long. Wars were declared. Victories were easily won. An empire was built.

>>17302897

But even with these advantages, the empire could not spread as quickly as the people believed it should. Churches of the archaic, traditional gods--the short-sighted worshipers of life and sun and fertility--opposed the empire whenever it spread toward them. The priests and saint-soldiers of these churches wielded powers anathema to the necromantic technologies vital to the empire's war efforts. They stalled imperial growth, and, at times, charged into imperial lands, destroying vital computers and communications towers. Even replacing some of the towers with underground installations was only a stopgap. The empire's greatest minds dedicated years to the search for a solution.

>>17302901
The imperials knew that they had to lessen their reliance on necromancy, if they were to push through this traditionalist opposition. But they knew also that the empire could not abandon the advantages in communication and information-processing that their computers granted. Alternatives were suggested: wipe the minds of slaves, and use their living bodies as elements for new computers; they could even act as pain-radios themselves, instead of requiring the use of pixies. But, no: even using pixie slaves, requiring whole, living bodies instead of small, necromantically-animated bones and organs as components would result in impossibly large computers, if the empire were to retain its current processing capacity. And what's more, any enemy skilled in the arts of dispelling enchantment would be as ruinous to these computers as the traditionalist saints were to the corpse-engine processors. No, some other solution would be needed. Study and debate were augmented by prayer and sacrifice to the torturous gods the people still worshiped.

Some would later claim that it was during this worship that the empire's solution was found. They would say that after a fruitless day of contemplation, one of the empire's great thinkers sought respite by attending the ritual vivisection of prisoners from some recent battle. As the captured enemies were disassembled, the thinker marveled prayerfully at the intricacy of the living body--how every nerve and sinew, every muscle and organ interconnected. The thinker, the claims would say, was thus struck with the idea that would again revolutionize the empire's technology.

>>17302907

Whether the claims were true or the product of some fanciful national myth, the revolution did occur. New imperial computers would be created, of living instead of dead matter. But these computers would not rely on ongoing magics; instead, sorcery would be used to engineer new forms of life--life that would then be able to exist and breed naturally.

>>17302914

It took decades, during which the empire continued to wrestle the forces faithful to the gods of life and sun and fertility. But there could be no rush: every portion of the new technology had to be perfect. This had to be the definitive answer to all threats against the empire. The new computer system would rely on a single central processing organism. Though such a creature would be an obvious target, its creators did all that they could to eliminate risk. Resistant to all forms of injury, able to regenerate fully and quickly from even the smallest piece, fierce enough to slaughter any attackers: this computer-beast would be almost impossible to truly destroy. Its whole body was an information-processing and -relay system. With the aid of the cults of the torturous gods, pain-radios incorporated into it on the most subtle level of the creature's biology. But the pain would never overwhelm and disable the creature; it would, at worst, aggravate the hardy beast.

>>17302933

Not content to rely solely on the pain-radios, a secondary information-exchange system was deployed. It would function as a back-up in the case that, as some had suggested possible, some clever foe ever rendered the creature insensible to pain, by means of an anesthetic spell or chemical. This system relied as well on engineered organisms: various fungi and plants able to send chemical and vibrational messages through the earth itself. The main processing beast would be able to receive and even limitedly transmit messages in this fashion. Tunnels were excavated at various locations around the empire's holdings, with various organisms (again, purpose-engineered) tasked to expand them. To facilitate communication between disconnected tunnel systems, psychically-aware creatures were deployed within them, able to "read" the chemical codes, translate them into mental signals, and transmit them to counterparts in other tunnels for re-translation as chemical or vibrational code. Though it would take time, the imperial thinkers expected that this back-up system would expand itself admirably.

But pain remained the primary transmission medium for the new network, and allowed it some compatability with the necromantic system during the expected period of transition. The first and most important change was the replacement of undead resources at the front lines of the empire's wars.

>>17302942

Undead infantry would remain useful for quite some time, as even the churches of life and sun and fertility were not immune to seemingly-endless waves of cheaply-produced corpse-soldiers. But to augment them, new kinds of life were engineered. Taking lessons from both the main processing beast and the fungal systems, these new creatures were durable, but moreover capable of astounding recovery. Some reports from the front would even claim that not only would these creatures regrow severed limbs, but also that sometimes a severed limb would itself grow into duplicate of the creature--well larger than a human being--from which it was cleaved. While not as nearly-invulnerable as the central processor-creature, these front-line organisms were terrors to those who faced them.

Moreover, as yet another hedge against the destruction of the primary organism, these creatures were given an emergency function. Each of them was tied, of course, into the pain-network, exchanging information with the primary processing beast. The main organism was, even when regenerating from apparent death, able to communicate through the network. If the main processor was ever so thoroughly destroyed that these hulking frontliners lost contact with it, they possessed the ability to gather into clusters, which would then bond such that each cluster was a single, incorporated organism. These cluster-organisms would slowly grow, converting eventually into a new iteration of the original main processor creature. When a new main processor was finally established, the partially-completed clusters would either break back into individual creatures, or exist as some strange, unique mid-form.

>>17302954

Though potent combatants, these creatures acted also as interfaces into the information network. Recognized imperial citizens could address questions to or send messages via the system by interacting with these creatures, though use of necromantic computers would persist for some time. In contrast to their treatment of non-imperials, the monstrous things would not attack a loyal citizen of the empire--indeed, they would docilely perform complex calculations for them, on demand.

But this was not even the full and final extent of the new direction of the empire.

>>17302967

The development of these new biologic techniques led not only to the creation of new creatures; it also allowed the officials of government and commanders of the military to receive improvements in their own bodies. Though not as magificently powerful as even the front-line creatures, let alone the main processing beast, these leaders were able to link themselves to the pain-network--and were of course improved to endure significantly greater amounts of pain. Their physical abilities were augmented in various ways: some had greater strength or speed, many had claws or large, rending teeth, some were even able to regenerate in a manner similar to but more limited than that of that of the living computers.

These bodily changes were not superficial, but alterations of the fundamental essence of those so improved. They bred true, especially if both parents were altered (or, in later generations, of altered lineages). Dynasties of these superior imperial citizens would be established; throughout the empire, the bestial face of the augmented was recognized as the face of nobility and authority.

And so the empire experienced its last major technologic revolution, with necromantic infrastructure eventually ceding dominance to engineered life.

>>17302980

With these advances, imperial expansion surged outward, crushing opposition. Of course pockets of resistance remained, and new ones developed; but they were no real threat to the empire and its living, deadly computers. And so every land the empire could reach became itself an imperial territory. The empire lasted for ages, unchallanged within or without. But as with all empires, this one, too, eventually fell. It was not outside enemy or internal threat that crumbled the empire; it was, in a way, the perfection of its own tools. The central processor brought an end to the empire that it had built.

The processor was a massive, powerful beast--as it was designed to be. Its massive bulk was constantly active, even when the creature appeared at rest; every part of its body engaged tirelessly in biologic processing of information. To sustain its activity, the processor required near-constant feeding. If necessary, it could retreat into an almost endless hibernational slumber; but it would not do so unless it lacked alternative. During the empire's expansion, sating the creature's hunger was a simple matter: the dead, the prisoners, at times the citizens of the conquered lands could all be fed into the processor's hungry mouth.

>>17302985

The fulfillment of manifest destiny brought unforeseen difficulties. Yes, slaves could be taken from within the empire to be fed to the beast, and so they were. New farming techniques could as well be deployed to increase yields, and so they were. Even the old techniques of pixie-breeding could be revived, and applied to any number of species, to supply meat for the processor's appetite, and so they were. But the empire was ever a few long winters away from being unable to feed the creature--the central component of their empire's success. As was inevitable, a few long winters eventually came.

When its hunger grew unbearable, the creature did as it was designed to do: it rampaged, seeking to remain fed--to keep the empire's information infrastructure operational--at all costs. It did not itself cross the whole of the empire, as it desperately sought after food; nor did it need to. It desolated important cities, it devoured huge tracts of cropland, and so the empire began to fall apart. Worse, its devouring madness wrought havoc on the information network of which it was the central hub. The nobles and officers were unable to effectively coordinate any counter to the beast's rampage; the living computers were plagued with confused malfunction. And so, the empire was doomed.

This was all long ago. The legacy of the broken empire is still visible in the world, if one looks carefully for it.

>>17302990

IF LOOKING FOR ACTUAL CAMPAIGN IDEAS, START HERE.

This is worse than generic as nerd-fiction goes, I admit; it's meant to provide for a good setting instead of for good reading in itself. The rise and fall of the empire has left traces across the campaign world, for the players to find and adventure with. A few of the ideas I had:

* First and most obviously, the tarrasque is the main processing computer that rampaged. The regenerating bio-computers are trolls. The descendants of the augmented bureaucrats and officers are shifters. The players might be able to get trolls, or at least some trolls (or, later in the game, the tarrasque) to consider them imperial citizens instead of enemies. Shifter PCs could have an advantage there, since the shifter lineages are all from the old imperial upper class.

* The tunnel system that was begun as a back-up relay network continued to grow, into what is now the Underdark. Various inhabitants of it are the descendants of the engineered creatures that were placed there intentionally. Maybe the PCs can figure out how to use it to send and receive messages again, or even to try to track down the tarrasque/a lost city/some mutant troll-clusters.

* Other player-species could be the result of imperial action, either directly or from unintended consequences since the fall of the empire. Are orcs and half-orcs the result of early bio-engineering experiments? Are thri-kreen or the giths some kind of evolution out of the Underdark? Could warforged (or even shardminds) be creations of the "traditionalist" enemies of the empire, to combat the undead and trolls? Are tieflings the priesthood of the torture-gods? Are changelings some sort of late-imperial soulless war-creatures gone rampant? Are the undead/shadow races (revenant, shade, shadar-kai, vryloka...) somehow related to the undead era of the empire? In your game, go fucking nuts with this kind of thing.

>>17302995

* In certain areas, the undead server-towers or their underground counterparts could still exist, functional in whole, part, or not at all. They not only work as adventuring dungeons, but also can provide some interesting traps/challenges/set-piece encounters, or clues for players to put together the history of the world.

* Not only that, but maybe the players encounter a ship staffed by undead soldiers (maybe commanded by some intelligent undead!), a still-going relic of the early days of the empire. Maybe they meet a lich who was once a great general or philosopher of the pre-imperial days.

* Weird troll-cluster creatures could exist, either because the tarrasque has at one point been dead, or because they had some malfunction over the years and acted as though the tarrasque was dead. They could be anything from interesting monsters to Star Trek-style city-governing totalitarian supercomputers.

* Temples of the suffering-gods! Their cults, surviving in secret to this day! Every setting needs hateful cults. Maybe the imperials even summoned some of the darker objects of their worship--demons and devils and vengeful elementals and such--into the world, and the PCs have to hunt them down.

* Pixies are probably hardcore as fuck in this world.

>>17303014

* Relics of this history that could make for good magic items: radiant/holy weapons and wards, from those who resisted the undead empire; actual undead tools, like the zombie-head cell phones discussed in the thread that inspired this one; evidence of the age of bio-magic, including early, incidental, or dead-end attempts like rings of regeneration, or living armor; helms, robes, and such that interact with the old pain-network in unusual ways, now providing limited telepathy or psychic attacks, or acting to prevent pain because time has bred malfunction; artifacts of the various dark cults, like bloodthirsty weapons or flaming swords that work by means of some enslaved hellfire-wielding imp bound into the blade; and so on.

>>17303022

* I've totally ignored dragons in the above history, whooooops. What could they be, in-game? Some technology trying to compete with or duplicate the tarrasque, abandoned and out of control? A genuine ancient race of beings that may remember the days of the empire's glory? Space aliens? Creatures from some far-off continent that the empire never contacted? Gods of the imperial cults? of the traditionalists? of the modern day, after having helped restore some pockets of civilization? Do some other player-races exist because of the dragons?

* (I kind of like the idea that they're space [or astral or elemental plane] beings who arrived, along with the dragonborn, in the world recently, and have established some new cities and pockets of civilization around themselves. Give them a sufficiently awesome reason for being interested in the world in the first place, and you have another set of campaign hooks.)

>>17303027

And that's all I've got. So, good anons, what can you do with this?

Why am I getting an Aztec feel for the design philosophy of this dead empire?

>>17303074
Because Aztecs are awesome. I get an Aztec + Babylonian + Conan the Barbarian vibe.

Archived for the amazing writing.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/17302885/

>>17302995
>explains origin of the drow and their society, but that would mean imperials would have to be descended in part from drow or perhaps a general elven lineage as well as shifters (and changelings?) being descended from elves

>>17302942

Instead of a backup system for the radios, the fungus could be a hard drive system. Myconids are like the heads that seek and move data on a platter-drive, and the underdark expanded because there was ever-more data to store.

>>17303297

Myconids are data packets being moved around. Spiders and shit are the drive heads.

>>17303329
>>17303233
Oh dear god, the chichwednia aren't a curse, they're hardware created from heretics
>recall that clerics can gain divine ability from serving an ideal, not just a god
Lolth isn't a deity, just the mystic sorting algorithm for this Empire, selecting individuals to become components, and the Elven pantheon is just a mythic retelling of the Empire's birth and death.
>there are no gods, just collections of ideals

>>17303233
How about this:

Drow are the original inhabitants of a limited underground civilization. They were basically cave people. The creation of the Underdark tunnels exposed them to the larger world. Some of the drow left for the surface, and remained essentially primitive. (Though, a certain rustic beauty they possess has led some humans to interbreed with them, over the centuries.)

Those who remained underground adapted their lives around the emerging Underdark-computer systems. They rose up into a sort of civilization, albeit one that venerates torture on a scale that even the old empire would have found off-putting. I guess long-term exposure to the guts of a system that runs on pain will warp the development of a people.

>>17303420
Hmm, I suppose... it makes the chichwednia a bit less gruesome, though... if the Empire was originally elves...

>>17303420
>>17303400

Sweet double-Jesus. Driders are...cavemen assimilated by the Borg?

>>17303518
The empire was human. Elves are cavemen. Drow are cavemen who were "uplifted" by being near the computer.

I think.

Wait, what are kenku? Every setting needs kenku. This is science. (Kenkuology.)