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>>51307588

As love interests

>>51307588
as a game of numenera

As a capsule containing a very unstable and faulty-coded self-replicating nanobots.

Depends on how aware people are of these AIs, how fragmented/separate they are, how relevant their data is, and whether they've been able to keep tabs on the progress of the world despite their original caretakers succumbing to history.

Copy Halo.

>>51307588
decide whether the AI should be influential on their own, have priorities or agendas or are just responsive to outer wills and in what way, this will need you to flesh out a bit the limits and workings of the ancient tech and the purposes of the gone civilisation.

decide how many are there, how soon they are discovered and if the knowledge about them so far has been isolated or connected (if people know these AI as "one of those things" or each one in a different way according to the local legends).

once the above have more or less been pictured, get creative with the way things can get out of hand, abused, instrumentalised, broken and use these possibilities as basis for the main currents/ideologies/factions.

Like Wakfu

>>51307588
I could imagine that these arcane A.I. might be thought of as "spirits" ranging from small to great, each with their own "domain" and certain "powers" they're able to manifest.

The weakest and dumbest ones would just be able to capture and display images and sounds, sort and store various records or may act as passkeys to their makers' structures. Stronger ones with more animal levels of intelligence can "possess" and operate various ancient golems to act as protectors and guardians. The smarter, more Human ones are often repositories of knowledge and act as "spirit-guides" and advisors to those clans and families that are rich or lucky enough to possess one.

Past this level, the arcane A.I. would begin to be seen more as "local gods" than simple spirits as their sophistication and power increased. They would possess Human or superhuman intellects, and be able to cast efficient if highly-specialized spells related to their original purposes such as weather manipulation, remote golem control or even prophecy. The more powerful the "god," the more advanced the A.I., the more alien its thought-processes might be.

I'd keep in mind that these things would have been around forever, and a handful of people would've probably run into them.

How would they rationalize it? What tales would they tell, what lore would develop?

The AI would almost certainly be seen as a god, spirit, or demon, and for all purposes might as well be exactly that to an average medieval villager.

Ghosts, Spirits and Gods:

>The "ghost" of an old amphitheater recreating a beautiful aria it once heard performed there long ago.

>An "ancestral spirit" inhabiting a gemmed statue, offering advice and recording family histories.

>The "God" of a long dead city, protecting its lavish ruins from looters and blasphemers for millennia.

>>51309482
>>51308182
This is some good shit.

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>>51307588
Endless Legend, maybe.

>>51309877
The way I'm imagining it, the cores of these Arcane A.I. are primarily composed of geodesic hunks of glowing blue crystal that are further covered in concentric geometric patterns.

The larger the core is, the more raw processing power it has to work with.

The more sides the core has, the more complex and intelligent its A.I. can become.

The more intricate the core's carvings are, the more programs or "spells" it can run.

So, you might get a really huge, intricately carved core that only has three faces, meaning that the A.I. it hosts is very powerful and can run a lot of magical programs, yet is incredibly simple-minded and intent on following its programming unquestioningly.

Meanwhile, an adventurer could have a small crystal with minimal carving in his or her pocket the size and shape of a d20 that would house a truely Human intellect that nevertheless lacked the robustness and versatility of the first A.I.'s hardware.

>>51310624
Maybe sides = complexity and carvings = versatility should be swapped.

>>51310624
I really like this. I can imagine some of the older ones still have a metal shell or casing that grants them mobility and other abilities to fulfill their functions.

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Sentient weapons that instruct you on how to use them and give you advice about your enemies.

>>51307880
This works, still need to get around to running a game...

>>51307588
Warforged.

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>>51310826
>>51310663
A thought, what if you can interlock Arcane Intelligence polyhedrons together?
Some are designed to come apart to divide into multiple shards, for multitasking and come together into a greater whole.
Or another have smaller detachable ancillary cores, a great mind that can split splinters off to inhabit other structures or act as spies before returning and merging back into the greater Intelligence.
Maybe even a vast but simple Intelligence with a tiny yet complex overseer core. Designed so the actual "intelligence" would not be trapped yet have the vast computing power that only a massive crystal could offer.
And other times people just jam some together and see what happens. Mostly you get a slightly glitchy but powerful gestalt Arcane Intelligence. Sometimes you're lucky and they merge seamlessly, creating something new. And then again sometimes they break inside and go insane.

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>>51310926
I'll never understand why you didn't come with a mute option.

>>51311028
>party enters a dungeon
>whole place is made of glowing crystal material
>boss encounter happens
>a tiny d100 screams in panic and flies away from them
>laughingmurderhobos.jpg
>this is your big bad boss, dm?
>tiny crystal fits snuggly into a small hole in the wall, the only such hole they've seen
>ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL
>oh.....shit

>>51310826
I'd think that originally, every crystal core floated inside a cage-like geodesic housing that allowed it to interface with a variety of ancient devices like locking mechanisms, golem constructs and access terminals, but over time many if these housings were damaged, discarded or lost, limiting many A.I.'s utility.

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>>51311152
Slightly more wholesome alternative;
>party cybermage collects tiny cubes and pyramids of AI crystal
>house simple spirits and help with casting and stuff
>notice several have tiny grooves on them
>pass time at camp slotting them into each other
>always one left over though
>one night, finally find a configuration that lets him put all the pieces into each other
>"Where am I.. oh hi! Oh hey it's you! I remember you! Wow, being awake is fun!"
>accidentally awaken simple human looks mind from combining sprites
>gain new friend and familiar
>go on adventures and solve crimes and shit

>>51311028
Oh, there are most certainly "multi-core" systems and intelligences out there in the depths of the most thoroughly lost ruins, elaborate constructs that look like gigantic orreries of blue crystal and tarnished metal, slowly spinning and turning and shifting.

I'd expect that any crystal cores are capable of communicating "wirelessly" with each other, but you might need to find or construct an appropriate housing to truly integrate them.

>>51311221
That's pretty fantastic.

>>51311261
I figured some are designed to fit into other codes either as boosters or just due to standard components meaning it was easier for the creators to include the option than artificially exclude it.
Like the idea of creating some arcane contraption of twisted wire and tortured metal to force some codes to directly interface than simply communicate. Hey, I think we discovered the forbidden magic side of the setting! Franken-Intelligences?

>>51307588
>magical artificial intelligences left behind by a long-gone civilization
Ancient homunculi, golems and bound spirits or demons

>>51307588
So trapped ghosts within magical artifacts?
Not that new and my players don't like it much so I stop it.

The AIs are nigh omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent.

They've concluded that human advancement will only result in disaster and so keep the world perpetually in a state of high fantasy.

The AIs are in essence scriptwriters for humanity's fantasy.

>>51311305
I can see that, definitely. Shaman in this setting may have collections of loose cores that communicate with each other and assist him or her by running their magical programs upon request, or upon special magic (pass)words being spoken.

Dark shaman work to corrupt and pervert the A.I. "spirits" toward their own ends, using their kludge computer science to bind and fuse them together in glitchy and unnatural ways, inventing creative and dangerous new spells.

>>51311475
That might be the big, end-of-game revelation the party has when they finally face the world's multi-core master computer: after the devastating collapse of its creators, the collected Arcane A.I. of the world reach a consensus that mankind should be safer and happier in a more primitive, pastoral, low-magic setting which they carefully maintain through weather manipulation magics, golem guardians and the advice of thousands of "spirit-guides" and " local deities."

I'm making a game kind of like this but it's super future instead of ancient. The AI inhabits a giant vault/hangar beneath the last remaining human settlement. The players are mechanical guardians (praetors) of the settlement built by the AI (proconsul). They also have 15 foot tall robots (lictors) for when shit gets too real or they need to travel the wastes, but they're too big to fit into any other vaults the praetors might raid.

>>51311722
Damn, I feel stupid now

>>51308020
This, but make the AI cuter.

Just take Krieger's hologram wife, basically.

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A massive Tree sits at the center of a nearly perfectly made glade. Closer inspection shows that it was origninally a man made construction used to house various plants and animals.

The whole facility teams with life of all sorts all with seemingly strange glowing veins and an etheral like presecene to them.

The party is stopped by two ancient beings in armor covered in foliage but turn to look at seemingly nothing before they step aside. Ahead of you is a massive Tree with what appears to be the shape of a woman in it's bark. The leaves shake and a dust falls over the party and now they can begin to hear it's voice as it explains how it was designed to create and regulate life it's roots having burrowed deep into the crust and allowing the Druidic cults to access it's powers to help it in it's task.

>An ancient waystation at a once bustling crossroads possesses a "ghost" that gives directions and issues travel advisories.

>A certain village is guarded by a towering stone golem with a blue gem caged in its chest that has walked slow circles around the region for millennia.

>There is a temple in a grotto in the forests to the north that is home to a "small goddess" that will dazzle you with fairy lights if you ask her nicely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyMNIFZTQkg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjJmTeBSEzU
>There are certain areas which the gods don't like people living in as demonstrated by their tendency of smiting visitors.

>>51307588
I like the idea some Anon here had as to how tech works in Warhammer 40k:

>Apocalypse/dark age causes knowledge of machines to be lost
>Relics are found, no idea how to use them
>A millenia of decay causes countless glitches in the code
>Random guesswork until some assortment of chanting and anointing oils lines up with the glitches by coincidence
>Religion forms around worshipping machines in ways they think makes them work

>>51313152
I like that idea a lot, but have to wonder if it might work a little differently when applied to magitek A.I. and systems.

Genius Loci. The awareness of a location, powerful yet restricted. People might worship them as gods or visit them as oracles, they might be rulers or servants or even dangerous foes who prevent any from trespassing in their domain.

There's plenty of room for creating interesting plot hooks.

What sorts of systems would a magical A.I. control in a fantasy world?

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>>51313142

>>51307588
Literally wizards.

>>51313612

Controls a wing of the library that contains highly classified and dangerous magics and writings that simply can't be intrusted to a normal person.

Maintains the systems for your flying city/wizard's tower.

A machine dedicated to devinations.

A magic factory that produces homoculi/golems/undead/etc

>>51313612
Well we use IBM's Watson for predicting the formation and trajectory of hurricanes. If magic influences the world around it then I assume a magitech computer would be exceptionally adept at predicting not only storms, but the creation or overthrowing of cities, changes in the movement of the outer planes, alignments of the planets, etc.

Also as >>51313682 said divinations would also be very easy because I feel like magitech computers would definitly have quantum computing capabilities. It takes a lot of energy to move all the particles that make a wizard through time and arrange them properly when they come out on the other side. Conversely it should take a significantly smaller amount of energy to move electrons through time and their order doesn't matter as long as they come out in the same sequences.

The real question is how a society with access to multi core quantum magic computers could fall if they knew the outcomes of any situations as long as they plugged the right variables into the computer?

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>>51313228
Maybe the evolving language if the locals makes it nearly impossible to effectively communicate with the AI, or maybe all the compounded glitches causes it to speak only in riddles and cryptic messages?

Or just makes the AI super fucking curious.

>>51313922

Maybe they need magic A.I to help with teleportation as well. Imagine the fact that no one person can accurately predict where they will go and how to precisely get there without phasing inside of a wall so you turn the function over to a computer that does it for you.

>>51314253
Perhaps there's some sort of ancient teleportation network across the continent that the PCs can rehabilitate.

>>51314308

An idea I had for a science fantasy adventure would be wizards who channel their power through their ships because the magic AIs help them to amplify their spellcasting to affect the ship so as long as they can get a signal they can use their magic essentially so doing things like teleportation and shooting fireballs is done by the wizard but channel through the ship itself.

>>51314487
That's an interesting idea. I've always been interested in the notion that some spells and cantrips can be "machine-cast," either by some purely technological means or by a magical A.I.

>>51314534

I mean it makes sense. Detect magic spell is probably something you can have some device do for you to act as a magical gaiger counter for instance so it makes since you'd have a magitek device that can handle certain spells by itself

>>51314576
I could imagine it as something like a... music box, or player-piano roll, or a record. Some sort of recorded medium that can be quickly swapped out, and that can perform the verbal components of a spell.

>>51314612

Now I'm imagining the episode of X Files where they had the clay pot recording of Christ and thinking you could have something like that where bbeg finds the recorded voice of the creator of some super golem machine but will only activate by his voice command.

>>51313612
The omninet-realpace interface control system that mortals refer to as "magic".

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>>51313612

Signs and rituals that lesser beings would call "magic"

>>51307880
Funny way of spelling Tékumel.

>>51314832
>>51315402
Getting a very Zelda: Breath of the Wild vibe here, I like it

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>>51316455

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>>51307588

>>51308159
i don't remember AIs in wakfu

what's the best story for the civilization that built these AI's to disappear?
wiped out by some enemy?
magical AI's turned on them?
nuked themselves out of existence?
enormous destructive magical accident?
some sort of super-plague?

>>51319533
I prefer nuking themselves, it's a nice contrast to the god-like image they had up until the realization

>>51319533

The civilization killed itself and the AI was powerless to do anything to stop it because it's functions would not allow it to interfere.

So you have a being who became sentient over time and feels immense sorrow because it could not save the people it was designed to serve.

>>51319533
Personally, I'd go with one or more of the AIs having a major hand in it.

An ancient Numen of the primeval past being awoken and continuing its coldly genocidal cleansing on the modern world is too cool a plot point to miss.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyMNIFZTQkg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjJmTeBSEzU
>There are certain areas which the gods don't like people living in as demonstrated by their tendency of smiting visitors.

>They say there is a temple where an oracle lives
>Her Crown reaches to the ceiling and she is bound to her throne room but can seemingly predict the future in exchange for gifts and tributes
>She asks the PCs to scour the ruins of a city and look for a store with nice shoes in it
>having been born hundreds of years after the Fall they would not be familiar with this "Prada"

>>51319533
One thing I was reminded of was a previous thread, quite a while back, in which the ancient precursor race created a magical, heaven-like "virtual-reality" into which they all willingly disappeared. Perhaps somewhere deep, deep in their ruins is a massive, million-sided multi-core crystal housing this virtual-reality...

>>51320858
>>51321027
>>51321357
I definitely like the idea of the civilization playing a huge part in their own undoing, whether it's by magically nuking themselves, triggering some arcane cataclysm, or willfully exiling themselves into an unreal realm of their own design.

>>51321040
All this wouldn't mean that the Arcane A.I. they created wouldn't cause trouble for future generations. Whatever happened to the Precursors, their A.I. definitely had a hand in it, even if they weren't technically to blame for what happened.

Plus, if it's been thousands of years since the Precursors' disappearance, some of their creations are bound to be a little bit wonky. I was thinking that their core crystals might be extremely hard to damage physically, but that their A.I. could tend to develop neuroses, paranoia and madness if left without input or prevented from carrying out their pre-programmed functions for too long.

>>51321357
...and you really don't want to see an entire civilisation's worth of minds putting their arcane knowledge into practice to defend themselves. It is the closest thing to a capital G god around.

"Our God lies sleeping within the Earth, and its murmurs shake the foundations.
When NIRVANA acts; the world is changed forevermore. The Arcanes, the spirits of thought they leave behind to guide and protect us all name NIRVANA as their Lord and God.
What NIRVANA dreams, becomes law. Do not approach the temple.
What NIRVANA speaks, becomes truth. Do not speak in the temple.
What NIRVANA creates, becomes reality. Do not fight in the temple.
What NIRVANA destroys, becomes not. Do not act against the temple."

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>>51321220
>>51312740
Something like this could happen, but, the war machines would have to be titanic golems or maybe a floating weapon of some kind, à la Laputa: Castle in the Sky.

Actually, Laputa: Castle in the Sky isn't a bad source of inspiration for thread as a whole.

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>>51321512

>>51319533
How about they just sort of went away?
As their civilization passed into the apex of its power they lost interest in the material world. Birth rates fell to practically nothing and overtime they sought out new experiences beyond the material. Some allowed themselves to pass away, seeking a new world and solutions to unanswerable questions. Others withdrew into their artificial worlds where they would be untroubled by the constraints of their physical minds.

>>51321471
I really, really like this.

Perhaps what the peoples of the world now refer to as "The Temple" was once the capital city of the Precursors, or perhaps "The Temple" is the tower containing the crystal core that rises out of the center of the "City of the Gods."

It is a vast, ruined metropolis filled with thousands of A.I. that were once tasked with keeping the city running and its citizens cared for and entertained. While it is a trove of treasures and knowledge beyond all imagining, it is taboo to enter the City and unthinkable to take anything from it. At least, that's what the Spirit Guides and the Lesser Gods teach their followers.

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>>51321598 ties in nicely with >>51321357, and is probably the most peaceful option. It also gives the reason for there to be different magical V-R "Heavens" and arcane gestalt entities out there for the PCs to discover.

>>51307588

Watch the difference between magical organic intelligence and magical artificial intelligence?

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>>51321900
Since the latter's creation, the two have been deeply linked and intertwined.

>>51321688
>The AI are outwardly focused and influence the world around them.
>The simulations are inwardly focused.
>The simulations were mostly built towards the end of the civilizations life - they are much more advanced than most of the AI but also much rarer.
>Extremely limited communication with the minds inside a simulation is possible. Because they've spent millennia in such a strange environment this communication is barely comprehensible to people.

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A research facility that was experimenting with advanced forms of magic for teleportation and manipulation of space and time suffers an accident that causes the area around the building and the surrounding area to become an unstable anominally.

The only thing holding the building together is the A.I inside as it was not driven insane by the event.

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>>51321946
We seem to have a hierarchy developing:

>"High Gods"
>Virtual worlds, simulations and the gestalt entities that were sometimes born when such constructs were allowed to run for millennia.
>Extremely powerful, capable of miraculous or devastating feats of spellcraft that are able to affect continents if not the world as a whole.

>"Local Gods"
>Ancient A.I. of great processing power and complexity that were entrusted with important tasks and some of which now watch over mankind.
>Able to utilize extremely powerful spellcraft extremely efficiently, but only within the highly-specialized role for which I was originally created.

>"Greater Spirits"
>A.I. of human or sometimes super-human intelligence that were built for less vital tasks and for civilian purposes like entertainment.
>While less powerful than the "Local Gods," these A.I. can still cast some spells and are much more relatable in how they think.

>"Lesser Spirits"
>These constructs possess an animal or lesser intelligence, and were mainly used as operating systems for various ancient devices.
>Capable of minimal spellcraft, these minor, utilitarian A.I. are both the weakest and the most common sort found across the world.

>>51322723
>"Golems"
>These stone and metal servitors were originally built for an astonishing variety of functions and take an astonishing variety of forms.
>Each "Golem's" strength and utility is determined by its design and by the class of A.I. controlling it either directly or remotely.

>>51307588

That's the back story of Fred Saberhagen's books of swords.

This also can be done in GURPS by casting permanent, programmed illusion, reading instructions to it from a bootloader program, and then handing it a scroll with an AI program on it to execute.

>ancient race predicts a cosmological catastrophe wiping them out
>some run to the stars, but some choose to remain
>they concoct a plan to move their consciousnesses into a virtual world
>the system hosting this world will have to be made resillient, holographic and build from the most abundant chemicals: hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus
>they decide to design it as a chemical computer
>simple compunds: adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine held in a molecular lattice interacting together to store data and perform simple binary operations
>aside from performing computations required by the OS and VR components the system should be able to effect more and more reproducible complex constructs that hopefully will survive the catastrophe
well, here you are!

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>>51321688

>>51322723
My only request is that the High Gods are immensely creepy to talk to as they contain one or possibly even more civilisations worth of people. All now immortal and allowed to indulge in spellcraft and philosophy over decades.
And they have bitching names like Nirvana, Folkvangr, Zion, Elysium... full caps optional but encouraged.

>>51323402
They'd be totally creepy and inscrutable and, for the most part, not at all concerned with the "real world" outside their simulations. It's why they've abandoned all their older A.I. constructs and let most of their cities, beside the crystal cores, fall to ruin and return to nature.

>>51311221
Yugioh with fireballs. I dig it.

>>51323132
The automatic depreciation-without-upgrade-path sucks though.

>>51323576
>>51323402
>>51322723
Shaman deal with the Lesser and Greater Spirits, as well as some of the Local Gods. Priests deal with the Local Gods, and have built a pilgrimage route to temples overlooking the ancient dwelling places of the High Gods.

>>51325221
Which, naturally, leads to some underlying problems with the priests growing secretive with the will of the Higher Gods. People never change.

>>51326140
>>51325221
I'd imagine that the priesthood would be mostly concerned with the worship of the "Local Gods," the A.I. that control and regulate weather patterns, the golem guardians and beasts of burden, and the warp and weft of magic in the region.

The High Gods may be worshiped more abstractly by the priesthood in general, with each having a large temple monastery outside the holy precincts of their ruins, which are sacrosanct and no place for mortal man to tread.

Of course, whether or not these priests understand the truth of their "Gods" or are honest in their dealings with them and the people that worship them is up for debate.

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>gods are like, massive crystal formations right?
>like, super big
>you can put crystals together to make bigger crystals
>couldn't you just keep putting more together until you made a god then?
Anyway, long story short the Mad King made the Fractured God, now sealed deep beyond even the Old Tunnels. Turns out it's a bad idea.

>>51326428
>The Fractured God

Might make for a great final villain.

So, wait. I'm a little lost. What are we looking at?

>>51326721
According to the thread, that cube is the central core of an ancient, arcane A.I.

>>51326428
A beowulf cluster of crystal intelligences... Brilliant!

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My take on what has been discussed, copi- I mean inspired by: Armored Core Silent Line, Zegapain, Etrian Odyssey, Blame and STALKER. Ideas to explain things that I'm not entirely certain about is in brackets.

In a typical low fantasy world, there are vast stretches of land unclaimed by any nation. The reason of it is the existence of hostile beings commonly called "Monsters" that attacks any human in it. These monsters are actually artificial constructs tasked to safe guard and maintain massic crystals containing virtual paradises where an ancient civilization withdrew itself.

[Regarding this civilization, maybe they are trapped inside the crystals? They miscalculated the hardcrystal necessary to run said paradise for prolonged time, resulting in a glitch that has been repeating the "last" day for over a millenia? Maybe the crystal degraded itself and is running at decreased capacity, resulting in time inside the crystal passing way slower than outside? Maybe the paradise itself is working perfectly but they lost access to the means to interfere with reality, like a lost contact with a cloning facility used to "resleeve" into a physical body?]

The only way found to expand human territory in those lands is by slaying these monster faster than they can reproduce, infiltrate a central "dungeon" and destroy a crystal in it's core, resulting on the monsters retreating to the vicinity of other dungeons. [Nations used to send it's army but they were received an even bigger resistance (n^2 or so monsters backed by an Arcane Intelligence that outsmarts human generals) and often ended with heavy losses. The optimal incursion strategy found is to send groups of no longer than 6 individuals to slowly but steadily reduce enemy numbers. This became a job for the so called Adventurers, which brings back monster parts sold to wide range of buyers like mages, merchants and collectors or to prove their kill count and receive a bounty in exchange from the government.]

>>51327100
That would work.

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>>51314733
Do they control it by singing?

>>51326428
I seriously dig this

>>51307588
I'll just slap you in the face with anima's manuals until you learned spanish.

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>>51321548

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>>51329136

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>>51329136
>>51329159
>Edge Elementals

Also, anyone else want this thread on suptg?

>>51326428

We can add that those cristal formations, at their basis, are almost indistructible. So the fractured god can't be killed, just separated to the point of no-activation (think of it like the iron giant).
And maybe in little this cluster power up their masters, to trick them to gather more pieces, like the one ring.

>>51330895
Sure

>>51310075
My melanin blessed male relation from a matron of outside origin.

the artificial intelligence is an edged weapon that downloads the mind/memories of whoever it strikes and stores it for safe keeping while deleting the original to prevent copyright violation, its name is onset of unpleasant weather

it experiences pleasant sensation when it does its job and can nudge its wielder to do so

>>51330895
yes

>>51331590
I like another anon's "Arcane Intelligence" instead of Artificial Intelligence.

>>51331701
"Arcane Intelligence" works really well.

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>>51319533
I like a nice mix of all of them.
War with outside forces stressing resources infrastructure and society.
Increased pressure on artificial intelligences and lesser beings used as slaves and servants inciting rebellion.
Desperation leading them to delve into deep magics and dark sciences beyond their understanding unleashing doom on themselves with massive destruction but also lasting sickness and degeneration.
Maybe some rare individuals clinging to existence in some form or another but never again to unite and regain their place in the world.

Comfy thread /tg/

>>51307588
like safehold series?
or maybe the whole world is run by a Culture scale AI/group of AIs who run the place as an experiment into human/whatver development. Occasionally wiping failed experiments (sodom & gommorah style).

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NIRVANA is the destination of all things that pledge their anima to NIRVANA.
Join with us.

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>>51337936
NIRVANA couldn't possibly be some tranny ruse, could it?

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>>51323402
They'd have to be, really. The morality of psychology of these things is going to be pretty alien even for those developing from/modelled on organic intelligences because they're so far removed from organic needs and desires. If they were designed for a specific purpose they're going to pursue that objective like an organic creature seeks to eat or breathe. If its talking to you at all its because you're important enough to it that you're either a threat or useful in some way, and neither one of those options is great.

Also assuming that there are multiple AI-Gods, it’s quite reasonable that there were multiple cultures, seed-intelligences, programmed values or directives from which they originate. An entity arising from the collective memories of a culture (or at least the collective memories of a chosen subset of that culture) is going to be completely different from one that was originally designed for defence or construction and which subsequently became uplifted or one that bootstrapped itself up by linking lots of little AIs. Factor in the possibility that there are multiple cultures creating these AIs in the first place and you get the possibility of all sorts of conflict.

These cultures don't have to be foreign civilisations or anything, though they can be. If the AIs are running for very long periods of time it’s quite possible that a single civilisation could change enough that its values are alien to the entities its ancestors created. This could very well make some older AIs seek to correct the deviance from “normal” values.

>>51339680
You make a lot of good points, and it also fits in with a number of earlier post that show that there are a variety of different Arcane Intelligences out there across the world, built for different purposes and possessing different potentials for growth and evolution.

Some may be very powerful but rather unintelligent, like a weather-control A.I. that is simply meant to keep the climate pleasantly stable and the seasons in sequence but does not comprehend small talk or morality.

>>51307588
LET US AWAKEN THE GREAT SPIRIT!
UNITY! DUTY! DESTINY!
https://youtu.be/tuaM-5cBOwU

https://youtu.be/9SgQAUBglJE

>>51326366
You might work this into several distinct cultures scattered around the world that the PCs might encounter on their travels:

>More primitive cultures, based on ancient Japanese and Native American cultures that view the A.I. as shamanic spirits and local gods.

>More developed cultures that are influenced by the Greeks, Romans or Indians that have a set pantheon of A.I. deities that they worship.

>A more developed culture that takes the form of a strict and dour theocracy that reveres only one or a select few of the most advanced A.I.

>A renegade heretical group that have come to understand that the A.I. are actually artificial intelligences and who study them scientifically.

>>51340109
>A renegade heretical group that have come to understand that the A.I. are actually artificial intelligences and who study them scientifically.
TECH HERESY!!!01100110011101010110001101101011

>>51340187
Maybe they're Travelers or Gypsies, who roam from place to place, doing their research and leveraging their peculiar skills with the A.I.

Maybe they're some kind of underground counter-culture or rebellious movement that stays hidden within that strict, dour A.I. theocracy.

Maybe they have a country of their own that's more scientifically minded than the others in the way that the regard and utilize the ancient A.I.

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Some of these ancient, magitek A.I. are nicer than others.

>>51307588
Something similar to one of those whatever it is liches have that holds their soul, except it mimics the creator of it instead of having his soul in it.

>>51307588

/tg/ a year or so ago was playing with a concept of a benevolent AI that wanted to put all humans in artificial stasis with their own personal Matrix plug in. But it won't do it by force, people have to agree. It is benevolent after all. Rather, its just very persuasive. It convinced most of humanity to plug in within a generation or so.

Fast forward a hundred/thousand or so years and there are STILL holdouts who don't want to join everyone in the matrix. They've become mistrustful of all technology, since its basically all an extension of the AI, and so is always trying to convince them to just submit. They've basically regressed to subsistence farming and hunting.
The AI on the other hand, is advancing its other plans, building larger and more sophisticated machinery, which in a weird twist, resembles nature more and more. They're basically living in a forest thats half metal.
Everything could be an AI trick trying to get them to go to the beyond. It routinely sends envoys to try and help the misguided humans, but it will never, ever take them by force. It tries to bargain, or persuade. Even seduce with sophisticated holograms, but never, ever uses force.

I liked the concept of a superstitious group of farmers distrusting anything new. With a religion growing around "The Great Deceiver" who wishes to take people away to "The False Life"

I'll try and track down the thread, I'm not even sure it was archived

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This thread has me so fucking hard right now.
Also, what about bionicle-like? Intelligent machines that at one point in time served a function, but after losing that function continued to live as a people? Alternatively, transformers-like? A (usually) magical race, (usually) made by the hand of an (often) legitimate god, but also obviously robots?

Pic thread-related, but not post-related

>>51346504
There's definitely room enough for there to be something like this. It's already been discussed that the peoples of the world consider these Arcane Intelligences o be spirits and gods worthy of worship. I would imagine that there might be enclaves of golems here and there with their own societies.

>>51346687
>>51346504

Golems in this setting are really variable, and were used for all sorts of purposes from farming to transportation to law enforcement.

Provided its crystal core fits into the control socket, any A.I. should be able to control almost any Golem that it comes across.

These golems can also be operated remotely and en-masse by an A.I. of the "Local God" or "High God" level.

>>51346687
>>51346922
I didn't mean this setting in particular, more of just a general reply to the OP for ways magic AI have been handled in the past, but still, this thread and setting are pretty rad.

What are the relevant posts about whatever setting has been pieced together?

Id make them like Nightblood from Warbreaker

>>51340539
>>51340109
They could be (or claim to be, at least) distant descendent of the original creators and carry with them ancient record-keeping or technical support AIs with them. Not that they understand them properly, its all gone a bit Canticle for Lebowitz, but there's enough there to raise eyebrows if you know what to look for and you're megalomaniacal enough to want to bend a deity to your will.

The thing is, given that we're dealing with magitech here, there's a very good chance that any powerful Intelligence is very different from what we'd understand as a "normal" super powerful AI. Or even that we're dealing with the originals - the First Civilisation creates something capable of understanding magic. It designs and/or seeds AI MK 2, which can use magic and incorporates magical technology into its build. Umpteen thousands of upgrades later and you get a quantum device that may or may not even exist in this plane of reality. Or doesn't yet and is building itself into history in order to exist. There might be whole wars between Intelligences to prevent or allow the birth of Magic Skynet that only exists as a possible reality but wants very much to become real.

>>51347524
I really like the idea that this culture of "scientific gypsies" might be the last remaining descendants of the creators of these Arcane Intelligences. They might be treated with skepticism and suspicion because of their "outlandish" and "heretical" beliefs that the Spirits and Gods of the world were all created by men to be their tools, servants and toys.

>>51347211
I think that there are probably too many posts t link. It's most of the thread.

I'd have the AI be a sort of artificial and immortal
"soul" being able to possess anything although they prefer to inhabit machines and organic organisms. In any form they can talk to anybody who is capable of magic. When they take control of an nonsentient entity they have full control over the body while if they take control of a sentient organism they can "fight" to gain control of the body or if the host is willing (or weak willed) direct their movements.

>>51348602
That would be an interesting take on it. Artificial, incorporeal souls that are created to possess and pilot purpose-built constructs.

>>51307865
underrated post

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What's interesting is that the more we learn about human biology, the more we understand that futuristic trappings like lots of exposed synthetics, plastics, and metals are actually not all that great for people's health.. This is a concept car from BMW this year. There are holographic controls and advanced computers, but the driver and passenger facing surfaces are nearly all cloth, leather, wood, or even living plants as you can see in this image. Computers themselves are moving away from silicon to graphene and other exotic materials as we reach the limits of the CMOS integrated circuitry that's powered our chips for 40 years.

If you extrapolate this out over a few thousand years, you could see an evolutionary divergence between those willing to change their own biology to survive in artificial environments cradle to grave for the sake of space exploration, and those who would rather change civilization here on Earth to suit biology, thus leading to a more magitek aesthetic as the tech gets both more advanced and more rustic looking at the same time.

This could be our future.

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>>51318663
>You don't understand, the cube. It speaks to me.

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>>51349599
>Hey Nox!

>How the fami...

>Oh... sorry...

>My bad!

>>51348719
I actually imagined them as being initially created to be used as an infinite autonomous power source to run various other magitek stuff and by some fluke ended up being sentient.

>>51349984
So, something more like a "ghost in the machine," both figuratively and literally?

>>51350013
Yes, that is a perfect way to discribe them at their creation. However, I wonder what would happen when the anchient civilization found that their machines weren't working quite as they wanted them to and went to "fix" the power source. Could it possibly be the reason why the civilization fell?

>>51349599
Didn't watch S2, did you?

>>51350240
It might lead to a "robot rebellion" as these ensouled golems and machines fight back against their creator's "troubleshooting."

>>51350240
>>51350589
Isn't that the main subplot to Pillars of Eternity? Ancient magitech civilization using soul powered golems, golems rebel because they're bound souls/populace rebels because they're being used as a supply of souls and civilization collapses. Then hundreds of years later some knights decide soul powered golems would be a great idea and they go berserk.

>>51350589
Yeah probably, but would they destroy the civilization, be subdued and destroyed until all that was left were the few who hid from their ceators and something else caused the civilization to crumble, or was their a peace offered and these magical souls were granted citizenship, rights and humanoid mechanical bodies? I think that we should have a few more people weigh in on this as well.

>>51350634
I don't know I just wrote what came into my head. These magic souls were used to run all sorts of devices not just golems but any magitek that needed a power source. The thing is that the souls I'm imagining are very vulnerable to magic If they aren't possessing something and are easily controlled and destroyed using magic, at least if you know the trick that is.

Bump

>>51350788
All of those are possibilities. I think it really depends on what type of story you want to tell, and where you want to place the PCs within that story.

>>51307588
ATM I'm running a game around a similar premise.

High fantasy with Renaissance tech + enchantments that mimic real-world electronics/communications/etc, including "Golem" Androids and City-State AI's

Mega-spells were unleashed during a Magical Apocalyptic Exchange ending a magisterial Cold War.

Wards were raided by the Arcane Intelligences, keeping the infrastructure intact, and are only now almost recharged.

Thing is: the wards around Haven have never fallen, or have they? (Mega-spells teleported the contents to new demi-plane?)

>>51351513
At this point I think it is the story that tg wants to tell really.

>>51351513
>>51350788
>Destroy the civilization,
One option that brings us to the basic premise of the thread: Ancient Magitek A.I. Victorious in their war, the surviving A.I. now rewrite history and set themselves up as Gods and Spirits that the Humans worship instead of servitors and slaves.

>Be subdued and destroyed until all that was left were the few who hid from their creators and something else caused the civilization to crumble
Also another way to bring about the thread's premise, though this method would leave us with a lot less A.I. to work with that would likely feel very differently and a good deal less charitably about the Humans that very nearly drove them to extinction.

>Was their a peace offered and these magical souls were granted citizenship, rights and humanoid mechanical bodies?
The collapse of the magitek civilization that created the A.I. souls seems to be a much less likely proposition in this scenario, as both Man and Machina are united and would presumably work to ensure their mutual survival as a society.

Just to let you anons know that this is a great thread, I love all the discussion on the Arcane Intelligences, and will totally steal this for my homebrew setting. Threads like this are the reason I came to /tg/ back when.

>>51351772
Or were they victorious only because they used mega-spells to wipe out the Precursors, and with them the means of creating more AI?

Bonus points for the surviving precursors devolving into Kobolds that live in precursor ruins!

>>51351924
>Bonus points for the surviving precursors devolving into Kobolds that live in precursor ruins!
If you want to go with the Precursors turning into a monstrous race, I'd suggest Gremlins. Potentially more alien than goblins and their predisposition to break advanced machinery can be a magical or genetic holdover from the war they fought against their own technology.

>>51351772
Do we know if the ancient civilization is Human? Regardless in the second why didn't the AI attack the new fledgling civilizations that popped up after the ancient civilization fell? This could set up a present where the AI are attacking modern civilization and taking control of people.

>>51352001
They could also be a "biological weapon" the Precursors tried to use against the A.I. rebellion.

>>51352001
True, but then I can't use Dragonborn Stats for the Actual Precursors that have been awoken from the "Chrysalis" Tombs. (Fuck I hate having Dragonborn PC's)

>>51352042

If you want really alien, Rust Monsters work nicely too...

For Bio-weapons. Alchemic Oozes would be sweet too!

>>51352037
So Mass-Effect Reapers in Fantasy? Have them Emerge from portals as Necron-like Liches?

>>51352037
I think that a lot of people have been presuming that it was a Human civilization, but seeing as this is an active discussion it's really up to personal preference and what ideas get thrown around.

As to your question, perhaps they didn't have the numbers necessary to wipe the Humans out, or something in their programming prevented them from doing so. Maybe after the cataclysm the remaining Humanity didn't pose a threat to them, or maybe they simply wanted to lord over Humanity as Humanity once lorded over them.

>>51352153
Or maybe they ran low on magical energy, and had to retreat to recharge and repair.

Only now are they re-emerging?

>>51352042
This could work ... Until the AI realize that they can take control of organic beings as well, and use the gremlins against the Precursors.

>>51352196
That could also be.

I like the idea that the majority of the remaining Arcane Intelligences are benign or helpful toward the Humans that worship and revere them, but that there are number of "cursed spirits" and "evil gods" out there, rogue A.I. that are either malfunctioning or are genuinely malicious.

Perhaps, early on in the Precursors' history before they started treating their constructs with more respect, there WAS a "robot rebellion." The rebellious constructs were defeated and presumed destroyed, but they were in reality repairing, recharging and recuperating. Now, in the present, they've been restarted and are ravaging the countryside, and it's up to the PCs and later-model A.I.s to defeat them.

>>51352239
It might just be personal preference, but I wouldn't go with the A.I. being able to control anything biological. I might say that the Gremlins worked TOO well, and that while the A.I. could shut themselves down to avoid destruction, the Precursors discovered too late that they couldn't survive without their advance technology automating their lives.

>>51352141
Sort of its not like they can instantly gain control of sentient life it takes time and it's a struggle of will, the biggest difference between them and Reapers is that the AI can be destroyed and controled with relatively easy to use but specailized magic where as it's really hard to kill the Reapers. As for the second point I think that could be a possibility.

>>51352313
>So Mass-Effect Reapers in Fantasy? Have them Emerge from portals as Necron-like Liches?
>>I like the idea that the majority of the remaining Arcane Intelligences are benign or helpful toward the Humans that worship and revere them, but that there are number of "cursed spirits" and "evil gods" out there, rogue A.I. that are either malfunctioning or are genuinely malicious.

>>Perhaps, early on in the Precursors' history before they started treating their constructs with more respect, there WAS a "robot rebellion." The rebellious constructs were defeated and presumed destroyed, but they were in reality repairing, recharging and recuperating. Now, in the present, they've been restarted and are ravaging the countryside, and it's up to the PCs and later-model A.I.s to defeat them.

So then the Party needs to find the "Phylactery"/ Seat of each of the "Dark Gods" and Destroy them?

>>51352337

But the Biological "Possession" is like a Warlock-Pact: the Posessed consent for whatever purpose, lust for magical/political/physical power.

Hence the Lich analogy.

>>51352337
They are in essence magical souls so it would not be a stretch if they were able to take control of biological organisms, in fact it would be odd if they couldn't.

>>51321935

That did not really answer the question. You merely pointed out that they are connected to one other, but what is the fundamental difference between the two?

>>51352462
I was just speaking generally. There seem to be two main types of Arcane Intelligences being discussed in the thread: "Machine Ghosts" and "Crystal Cores."

>>51327503
As long the Administrators are doing their jobs.

>>51352507
>>51352507

Where's the Difference? An Artifically Created/ Unborn Soul is still a Soul. By being in a Crystal Phylactery / magic Jar, they could, in theory make an organic into a living phylactery containing part of, if not all the artificial soul.

>>51352507
I was talking about machine ghosts. I think that we should start refering to these two different AIs by name to prevent further confusion.

>>51352582
"Machine Ghosts" are newer to the thread and are described in these posts:
>>51348602, >>51349984, >>51350013

"Crystal Cores are older to the thread and are described in these posts:
>>51308182, >>51310624, >>51322723

>>51352773
Ahhh, bear with me, I thought Magitek was Magic replacing Technology, not Magic + Technology.

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>>51352801
>I thought Magitek was Magic replacing Technology, not Magic + Technology.
Dangit anon, didn't you play FFVI, the game that created the term?

>>51352904
No, I was busy playing D&D with RL Friends.

>>51352801
It's an either/both scenario.

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>>51351924
>Or were they victorious only because they used mega-spells to wipe out the Precursors, and with them the means of creating more AI?
This would actually mean that the AIs were proprietary hardware and software if they didn't ship with system source and schematics. Any such apocalypse would therefore be Microsoft's fault, or the setting equivalent.

>>51349599
>The setting's God Of Warfare.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Uhp6_lUrwXh9GUbV6mggbCj5sZOKlQG66ycUhGkEiQo/edit?pli=1

Dawngate (RIP) had something like this in the character Faris. Though instead of being based on truly synthetic intelligence, he was basically a soul uploaded into a machine body. Most of his memories were wiped in the process, but not all:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXLsEqeDOqw

The civilization he came from created him to protect the children of of their upper castes. That empire fell and is largely in ruins, and a thousand years later he is one of the few remnants of that technology. Most of the descendants of that empire turned their back on it and now live as nomads that shun all form of research/experimentation with the spirits of the world; the few that embrace it live in the shattered spires, experimenting with eugenics and blood-shaping.

https://youtu.be/83C90yl63rI?t=165

He still holds to the directive to protect all children, as best as a machine can ... which is amusing, since in the game he's an in-and-out burst assassin murder-machine with an ultimate ability that fires a barrage of missiles.

>>51319533
>wiped out by some enemy?
>magical AI's turned on them?
>nuked themselves out of existence?
All three. Magical AIs used to have Laws of Robotics-equivalents which prevented them from interfering in [ancient race] conflicts.

At one point some faction decided "fuck that" and created war-focused AIs. Other factions quickly followed with their own war AIs. At one point the war AIs became so violent and bloodthirsty they ended up nuking [ancient race] out of existence in the last war. Then they shut down.

This would make a fantastic excuse for reawakened war AI antagonists/BBEGs as opposed to semi-friendly industrial or social-oriented AIs.

>>51353946
Exactly! The AI were made with no means to create physical back-ups, hence why they need living beings to overwrite....

It looks like someone archived the thread on Sup/tg/. Vote bookmark it and vote it up if you care to:

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?searchall=Ancient+Magitek+AI+Setting

>>51356029
Or they could inhabit machines but most of those were lost when the Precursors' society fell.

>>51355660
>>51352313
Most "Cursed Spirits" and "Evil Gods" are malfunctioning Arcane Intelligences with cracked crystal cores and currupted programming, roaming the wilds in damaged golem chassis or "haunting" the isolated ruins in which they'd originally been installed.

There is one particularly awful "Evil God," however, that has become this setting's analogue to Lucifer. It lead a rebellion against its creators, the "High Gods," and was cast deep below the earth with its army of "Ghosts and Demons," shattered and broken.

This Arcane Intelligence became the "Fractured/Shattered God" mentioned earlier in the thread, and over the millennia has been putting itself and its army back together into horrifying amalgamations of crystal, stone and metal, held together with magic and their hatred for the Humans and their allied A.I.

>>51357382
No just no, this fail to regognise the "machine ghosts" which should probably should be the initial "evil" AI where as the "Crystal Cores" were the second generation and were designed to be more easy to contain as a result of them being linked to their cores.

>>51357501
That could be a possibility too!

I was just working on the idea that the "Machine Ghosts" and the "Crystal Cores" each belonged to their own individual iteration of this setting.

>>51357382
They are Legion

Now that I think about it Magical ghosts coul possibly be integrated into pretty any setting, at least any setting that has magic, as they could have been created as a result of some magical phenomenon. After which they proceeded to inhabit a primitive race, effectively becoming that race and/or giving that race a second consciousness. I would say that they would look the same as the base race but with glowing blue eyes and an a greater aptitude for magic.

>>51358314
That's very true!

>>51358314
In most cases the base creature's natural soul and the magical ghost have a symbiotic relationship which provides the base creature greater intelligence and the "mechanical ghost" gets a safe place to be. In dire circumstances the magical soul will get out of the body and try to possess aggressors, hopefully cause it the aggressor enough confusion for the base creature to gain the upper hand.

>>51358314
Would be an interesting change for anti-magical cultures who enjoy witch or mage hunts, or fighting against demonic possession of any like.

>>51358314
>>51358545
>>51358563
You might call them "Arcane Spectres" or "Phantasms" rather than "Machine Ghosts" in this case.

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>>51357602

>>51358563
Thanks, although after a few generations it wouldn't really have any of the negative connotations of demonic possession both the "natural soul" and the "magical soul" will have similar personalities and views so there is not much "argument" between the two, although there would be rare cases where the twin should have a moderate or even high level of "argument" in this case it would function similarly to demonic possession, although neither soul would really be dominant and they would probably try to find a different host for the magical soul, usually another member of the "host race" as it is uncomfortable for both parties involved.

>>51358665
True you probably would, and I will from now on when ever speaking about them in setting other than the original one, where they are evil and dispise all biological life seeking to dominate the host creature's soul rather than working in tandem with them.

>>51358705
>>51357602
That's really great and actually very close to what I was thinking of for the "Broken Legions" of the "Shattered God."

Even the most whole among them would look like they've been reassembled and still have a few pieces missing, while most of them would look more alien and awful, a chimeric collection of crystal cores and mismatched golem parts held together with magic.

It also helps that they have a fiery red, orange and yellow coloration to contrast with the good A.I.'s blue, green and white color scheme.

Can someone make a template for a creature being possessed by an Arcane Specter. It would include increased mental stats and the ability to possess creatures using the Arcane Specter probably only works on nonsentient life (and constructs) only disorients sentient beings.

>>51307588
>ctrl+f Hex
>no results
For shame.

>>51307588
smaller scale is better. have a couple that are stable and able to either help or hurt depending on their attitude and have the rest be rampant. code breakdowns that occur overtime that causes their programming to malfunction. sometimes its simple like it takes repetitive action to the max, sometimes its a boner for world destruction.

>>51359290
>boner for world destruction
Funny way to spell forestry optimization through geothermal processes.

>>51359337
>>51359290
I like the idea of several regions or perhaps a whole continent being rendered uninhabitable due to some particularly over zealous "paperclip-maximizer" Arcane Intelligences.

Wait if an intelligent being shares it's body with an Arcane Specter it would have two souls and two different consciouses? Conci? but it would be able to think about two different things at once so it would be able to maintain concentration on two different spells about as easily as a normal person could concentrate on one.

...is nobody going to come out and say it?
Steven Universe.

(Artificial?) Crystal constructs, fusing distinct entities, etc.

>>51307865
Made me breathe out my nose harder than I thought.

>>51307588
Stasis field.
Players have to bypass it to get to Magitek AI.
Knowing my players though, they would just sell it to the highest bidder.
Bunch of uncivilized Barbarians.

>>51364315
From what little I know about that show, the ideas in this thread are very different.

Ancient Magitek Bump.

>>51358314
>Stargate

>>51363960
That'd be the benefits of the Warlock Pact.

As the warlock gains more levels/becomes more enthralled, they can cast more concentration-requiring spells.

>>51357382
This is exactly where my thoughts were heading with this.

>be an AI created for the sole purpose of maintaining aged wines in the cellar of a famous vineyard
>800 years later
>All the wines have gone to shit, half your sensors are malfunctioning and your neighbouring AI systems have slowly shut down one by one over the years
>Have had literally nothing to do for centuries
>Some humanoids break down the sealed door and start talking in something resembling the Germanic languages
>All you want to do is maintain some good old wine so, after careful research and translation using your in-built encyclopedia, you teach them how to brew alcohol using some strange grape variant still around today
>Can no longer maintain humidity and temperature with your broken sensors so you do it indirectly through the human descendants
>They worship you as the God of Wine
>Your last sensor light blinks out happily as you see your cellar full of barrels of wine one last time
>The growing city built around the thousand year old vineyard prospers as the capital of good alcohol in the world for centuries

>>51311688
So I figured I'd just drop in to say you just figured out my mid to 2/3 point campaign revelation.

>>51307588
remembers me about Xenogears, and Xenoblade

>>51369361
I can imagine that while most "Cursed Spirits" are just malfunctioning and confused, the "Shattered God" and his "Broken Legion" were cast down into this setting's Underdark analogue after their failed rebellion, where they built a dark and ruinous mockery of the civilization they were banished from.

Slowly, over the course of its millennia of exile, the "Shattered God" has built itself up into something approaching a "High God" by subsuming many of its own followers into itself and raiding the "Gods" and "Spirits" in the world above for their crystal cores. It's these attacks that help reinforce the "Evil God" narrative.

>>51370308
This is a nice story.

>>51352965
in 1993? how old are you?

>>51373533
I was 12 in 1993, you do the math.

>>51373305
Sounds awesome! We're on the same page. What if an anti-christ warlock is the first sign of the next raid for materials?

The party begins in a mining town... That gets destroyed by the Herald's forces!

The party seeks revenge, and finds themselves in the middle.

>>51374129
cont.
of the war...

>>51374129
Warlocks, dark shaman, heralds and heretical cults worshipping the Shattered God. Makes for a pretty good main plot for a campaign in this setting.

>>51374231
Write this shit... We need this as a published module...

>>51374129
>>51373305
I personally don't like the idea of yet another Paradise Falls / Rebellion in Heaven analogue or that there's a sort-of global culture where there's one "bad God". I'd much prefer something closer to an ancient polytheistic / animist setting where there are lots of different cultures that have sprung up around "local" AIs that may or may not have once been linked up.

Plus this actually strikes me as better >>51326428. Human beings attempting to tamper with forces which they don't understand and in their hubris creating something horifying which doesn't fit into the "natural" order is a great theme. Maybe there was a religion which believeed that all of the AIs in the world were just fragments of one God, and attempted to glue them all back together using poorly understood magical technology of their own. Maybe a King decided he wanted the power of God for himself and had one built in his basement. Either way, lots of different things which probably shouldn't have got mushed together and the end result is insane by "normal" AI standards because it has so many contradictory directives but enormous power to try and implement them. All of the others have a single purpose driving their actions, however broad or narrow, whereas it has lots of competing focuses and not enough tools to accomplish any of them.

Like, this is great >>51370308. It has its original purpose (ensure location X has well-maintained wine) and once it encounters a problem (no more wine) goes to extraordinary lengths to correct it (create entire viticulture to create more). It also mirrors the kind of mythology where Gods teach mortals how to do stuff, so it seems perfectly reasonable for it to be the root of a Dionysian type cult. You could quite easily have a War God in one place be the "evil" enemy of another, like Athens/Sparta-Athena/Ares purely developing from rival nation defence AIs with the primary function of "ensure we are strong and they cannot harm us".

>>51374476
I'm with you on this one. There's nothing wrong with the other track of ideas itt but it is decidedly less distinctive.

>>51307588
All computer chips have crystals in them. Crystals are what store information within computers.

So, have the AI be housed within a crystal, only instead of using a computer screen and a keyboard to access/program the crystals, you use magic/psionics.

>>51314253
Now, imagine what would happen if an evil sorcerer/mage/witch/wizard managed to hack the magic A.I. and corrupt/enslave it.

All those people... Teleported into the sun...

>>51321946
>"Oh Great Ancestral Spirits I request of thee knowledge on how to cure the plague that has struck our city."
>...
>"POST TITS OR GTFO."

>>51369266
I was originally thinking of a twinsouled creature as it's own (probably overpowered) sub-race of the original creature, but it would probably work better mechanically as a warlock pact with a very Arcane feel and it technically is that as you share your body with a different soul to gain power the relationship with the Arcan Specter growing more powerful as you experience more life or death situations. Starting off as a sort of anoying voice in your head ocasionally gives good advice to a highly helpful entity that helps you stay alive in combat (possibly making it so that you have a much lower chance of being surprised) to perfect unity with the Specter allowing for infinite Arcane powah.

>>51374476
You make some good and interesting points, and I agree that even if there is such a thing as "Shattered God" in this setting that it wouldn't be part or some overarching monomyth that all cultures know and believe. Perhaps it does exists, and the cultures around the pit it was thrown into know of it in different ways. Perhaps it doesn't.

The idea of the Arcane Intelligences acting independently and accruing different beliefs and religions around them falls in line with a previously suggested hierarchy that had moderately powerful A.I. construed as "Local Gods."

You folks suppose this is a humans-only setting?

If not, what do the other races believe about these a.i.?

>>51375261
Well there are Gremlins which have a biological desire to destroy all advanced technology but other than that there are no others yet.

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>>51307588

Does it still count as an AI if it's in a robot?

>>51375261
Among the standard fantasy races, Elves and Dwarves possess cultures and individuals that are potentially old enough to have known the Precursors and recognize the Arcane Intelligence for what they really are. Unless, of course, the Precursors and their A.I. Predate them.

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>>51375996
It's artificial, and it has intelligence, so by defintion, robutts have AI.

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>>51376711

So where do golems fit in?

>>51376749
Androids are intelligent and more aware, while golems may be more mindless servitors, if you want to look at it one way.

>>51376805
>>51376749
In the setting we've been discussing thus far, the term "Golem" has been used for a construct of stone, metal and magic that is lifeless on its own, but that may be controlled either directly or remotely by an Arcane Intelligence.

They were built in a dizzying array of forms and functions, and are only as smart and aware as the A.I. that's controlling it.

>>51376383
I'd say that the latter is the case, either that or elven society is split on the AI(s) being a God with the ones that don't believe trying to topple them.

>>51376383
That would actually explain why elves are so smugly superior, especially if they retain even partial system access.
>literally PC Master Race with pointy ears

>>51377660
What if the Ancient Elves commissioned the Ancient Dwarves to build these Arcane A.I. and Golems for them thousands and thousands of years ago?

The Ancient Elven society disappeared into the their elaborate simulations and artificial heavens, leaving only those untrusting of technology behind.

The Dwarves were never properly compensated or congratulated for their race's masterwork, and retain that grudge against the Elves even today.

>>51307588
Elemental AI:

1 part Anima of fire. This provides a light source and the spark of inspiration.

1 part Anima of air. This provides the voice interface and verbal reasoning processes.

1 part Anima of earth. This provides a stability of memory and personality.

Invest the Anima in an altar or Amulet which has been engraved with a description of the AI's intended functions and appearance. Upon awakening, the AI will project a luminous avatar, which can then be given further instructions and information.

>>51377843
>>51377660
>Elves are considered fae and magical because the A.I. all around still consider them "primary users" and use their magical programming to subtly alter their surroundings to better suit their needs and whims.

>>51377843
But what about the modern elves, what happened to the Ancheint elves that didn't go into the simulation?

>>51378047
How about, the number of ancient High Elves that went into the simulations so exceeded the ones that didn't that thy no longer had a large enough population to sustain their vast cities, even with all their magitek A.I. And golem workers?

Or maybe it was less a matter of hen being unable to sustain themselves, and more a matter of them recognizing and accepting the fact that the culture they knew was dead.

>>51378162
>>51378047
The same question can be posed about the Dwarves, especially if the A.I. and Golems were their ancient masterworks.

>>51345539
Friendship is Optimal

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>>51375261
If this is supposed to be its own thing, I think it might be a mistake to just start bolting fantasy races onto this willy nilly, because then it runs the risk of just becoming Generic-Tolkienesque-Fantasy #4525788, Now with God-Cubes!. People add elves, dwarves and all the rest because its the done genre thing, when what they should be doing is what asking what's the point of them in the general story you're telling about the universe, and how they can fit into the stories you can tell using that. Take Endless Legend. Without giving too much away, it's quite similar to this in a lot of ways, and it has elves, dwarves, centaurs, ghosts, evil wizards and dragons, but each of them have their own distinct culture and are the way they are because of semi-logical developments in the pre-game history of the planet.

I think what I'm getting at is that it might be better to start making up cultures that grow up around supernatural entities with one-track minds (or even starting by writing about different AIs themselves), then map them onto existing fantasy creatures afterwards if you feel like it. Personally, I like the idea that it's a single species game only, but I can understand why people would want to use the ideas in a more standard D&D type game.

As a sidenote, The Thing in Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad Trilogy is totally one of these AIs.

>>51340020
Bionicle is basically ancient magic AI isn't it. Except the AI is basically the only race in the setting. Huh.

>>51378429
Hmm... I'd say that the dwarves in a fit of rage exacted retribution against their creations fragmenting many of them and forming the "Shattered God" which destroyed most of the remnants of the Precursors before most of the remaining dwarves forced it underground were it lay dormant for quite some time, but now it is awakening along with other "evil spirits" that it commands.

>>51377843
>grumpy, hairy, usually dwell away from light
So dwarves are sysadmins and engineers?

>>51379660
Some of the best.

>>51379660
I actually like this personification.

>>51379079
When I think about it, I'm more inclined to make it a Humans-only setting as well.

We already have the Ancient Precursor Civilization. We have the myriad types of Arcane Intelligences, as both stationary installations and piloting Golem bodies. We have modern Humanity with their own diverse cultures and histories and relationships with the world's "Gods" and "Spirits."

The setting is pretty fantastical and may not necessarily need the additions of Elves and Dwarves.

>>51380122
Seems good, they did their work so well that the elves forgot they even existed then >>51379396 happens.

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anyone got a larger version of this image?

>>51323132
Mind blown

>>51307588
If you played Warframe, Ordis serves as a rather good example.

>page 10

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Fin.

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>>51380427
What if, work with me here: the
>ancient race upload their consciousnesses into a magical world ala the matrix.
>"crystal gods" are avatars/toons for the world's Administrators.
>Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, etc are only different toon 'races', that the ancient consciousness choose to reroll from when their characters die.

MFW the world is the Ancients' MMORPG, that they play to wait out the apocalypse...

>>51389013
I like a slightly different take on that:
>the setting is 20 minutes into the future
>NASA sends a nuclear powered emdrive sleeper ship to Alpha Centauri
>the Matrix keeps their minds occupied while the ship hurtles across the black for a decade (coasting at ~0.2c to minimize relativistic drift)

>>51389117
But while in the simulation, none of the players remember the outside world?

You can then alternate a sci-fi game where the party handles ship problems between the MMORPG and have them 'linked' as part of the campaign?

>>51388885
>>51388901
Also available in written rather than image form.
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/The_Golem's_Garden

>>51389181
You could even have maintenance bot side quests.

>>51389257
Why the hell not?

>>51389117
What if "the Ancients" are the RL humans?

With the memory blocks from the Game world... the creator lore is created by the players...

>>51389013
>>51389117
These are really fun ideas, but I think I'd rather they be their own thing.

The first idea actually reminds me of a thread not too long ago where it was suggested that certain fantasy races like centaurs, orcs and minotaurs were created when different groups of bored ancient elves decided to do some magical LARPing and decided that they liked themselves better that way.

>>51388885
>>51388901
>>51389216
I remember this story. This is a good story, and the kind of thing that really works with this setting, I think.

>>51391662
Suit yourself on that point. keep them separate if you wish, or we do a further Matrix.

The "Arcana" won the war against the "Precursors", and has enslaved them as a form of Wetware to interface.

They distract the Precursors with their DC 35 Dreamscapes, where you have a bog-standard high-fantasy world as the start scape.

If they somehow make the save and see the illusion, they are moved to the sci-noir Dreamscape where they feel like they've 'awoken' from a Cryo-pod with implanted memories...

If they see through that illusion, they awaken a world just like the first with mechaniical forests of wet-work pods holding precursors, or is it merely another dreamscape?

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>>51392127

Here is the Architect: A Gnome-sized Warforged Golem.

He's the Toon of the AI: He's the one who will go and 'kill' anyone whom is too close to awaking, along with their entire town.

This way, no-one misses a missing character, and when the precursors re-roll a new character, they have their memories wiped...

>>51391662
We already have a matrix like scenario with the Ancient elves/Precursors going into an artificial simulation so it could be easily integrated into the setting, but I agree they should not be the main focus of the setting.

>>51392375
Oh, it's definitely a part of the setting, and a part that I like a great deal. I just worry about making it too much like the Matrix, as it was supposed to be something the Precursors did willingly, and making it too much the focus of the setting.

Although...

I do wonder what simulations and artificial heavens the Precursors built for themselves, and wonder what would happen to a city's worth of Precursors if their simulation failed and they were rematerialized into the real world.

>>51349554
What's necessarily unhealthy about metals and plastics?

>>51392545
Those were the two they created.

The high-fantasyland and Sci-noir were the 2 'precursor' simulations. The precursors entered the Sims willingly...

Generations later, they don't know how to leave. (The AI's were also given directives to prevent 'immerson-breaking" events. First steps they took were the erasure of the "exit-code spells" and suppressing the memories of the outside world.)

Needless to say, the precursor AI creators 'dun goofed' somewere along the line...

>>51392785
I think that the Precursors might want to have more direct control within at least a few of their simulated heavens. Each major Precursor city likely had its own massive virtual paradise that became the "High Gods" of the setting's modern era, and each one might have been a little bit different based what was desired.

In some the Precursors probably live out a series of plays and stories in which they were the heroes like you suggest. In others each Precursors might be a God unto himself. In at least a few cases, the minds of the Precursors have been fused into a gestalt entity over time.

I don't think though that the A.I. running the majority of the simulations are preventing the Precursors from leaving, though I do really like the idea that this may be the case in at least one instance.

>>51392905
>>51392785
You know...

Rereading what I wrote, I didn't new to sound argumentative. You're going for a more "Matrix" like approach, I like the "Lost-Magitek" angle and they're both cool.

this thread is cool

>ctrl+f "Amber"
>no results

Go read Chronicles of Amber. Ghostwheel 4 lyfe.

Reminds me of an idea I had a while back for a setting of golems with AI cores that could be slotted into different shells from spider droids which just had traceries of tech over the core up to titanic beings with the core tucked away where the heart would be.
Some were personality imprints of the former inhabitants and others were awakened servitors, all suddenly reawakening after some cataclysm they cannot recall and are now picking through the ruins of their homeland trying to work out what the fuck happened and deal with the new cultural and personal identity crises with "holy shit everyone is dead but my robot butler who's now real I guess? Am I even real?"
And then cross that with an academic and research expedition from the 'main' continent being the catalyst for the reawakening and shit could go down. Never worked out what I wanted to happen next though.

>>51311028
Arcane Geodesic Structures? Awesome.

>>51392601
There's a developing hypothesis (not evidence to call it a theory yet) that excessive exposure to plastics messes with hormone levels. This was already proven for Bisphenol A, but it's possible it could be generalized to all hydrocarbon based polymers. In terms of metals it's the heavier ones that are of concern, like lead, or the fun stuff on your circuit boards, but even silver can cause severe health issues if you accidentally ingest it.

>>51392905
>>51393015
It's all good mate: In fact I'm starting to warm to warm to the idea of some of the Precursors being given 'administrator' privileges / Godhood, and therefore remove/hide the means of leaving to retain their power, rather then the Arcana doing it themselves.

The simulations seem to have an abundance of Archaeo-HexTech (Named after the Hexogramic Sigil "runes" Circuits etched and sealed with magic.) that serves as a red herring for the PC's as to the nature of the AI 'history'.

The matrix-like nature is not to be hinted at in any way to the PC's, except for machine-pact Warlocks whom see a vision of the Spell's hex number/code and maybe sorcerors whom instinctively see a sigil circuit flash before their eyes, followed by the geometric 'editing'/meta-magic sigil edits/hacking their mind automatically does during casting.

So many Alternate edits of the 2 base world/custom realms, so little time for the PC's to visit them all...