The Powers That Be ([personal profile] powersthatbe) wrote2015-04-02 01:00 pm

CRYPTO INFORMATION AND PLOTTING POST.

If you're playing a Crypto, your privileged faction information is below the cut. If you're not playing a Crypto, please do not read this post. Cryptos, feel free to discuss this information in the comment threads below, make plans together, or ask Matt any questions this information raises.




Cryptos are not like other Programs. Most Programs are made to operate smoothly as one component in a larger System, a community with a common goal, but your Users felt differently. Every Crypto’s purpose is as broadly defined as possible on the Grid, and you work in isolation, not in parallel, except for special cases. You do not rely on exterior code, but construct your own. You do not need teammates. Rather than building a factory that would be manned by dozens of programs on a production line, a Crypto factory is a one-man operation, turning out single hand-coded pieces, not mass-produced collections of copy-and-pasted generic data. Rather than build a fortress like the Defenders, Cryptos assign security responsibilities to lone warriors, and expect each to be able to head off an army. Self-sufficiency, along with privacy and secrecy, are vital ot the Crypto ethos.

But why is secrecy important? Because each Crypto can do something no other can do. Their Purpose, their identity, requires them to be unique, enlightened, to preserve their individual vision. Their User made them so.

User? Singular?

Yes. Cryptos, like other programs, were written by a variety of users, at first, as part of many different Systems. But one User, called SAGE, found them, with his own singular vision, and brought them each here, to where they could seek to transcend the limitations of their code in isolation - brought them here, repurposed them so they would all be his, and lived among them, sharing their goal of iconoclasm and isolation. SAGE was seen rarely, but he was one of them, not above them, their guide and liberator who taught them not to need him.

Then the Others came. The other Systems believed that something in the Cryptos’ own research brought down the Automata, but it is not so. It was Users, a small cabal of them with their own chosen Programs, infecting the landscape and then vanishing. They came because they opposed SAGE, and the Cryptos do not know if he was derezzed, infected, taken away, or imprisoned. But they are still loyal to him and his ways, and that means they will not speak of him to others directly. How could they? Who would believe a User lived among them - and who would help them, knowing that restoring them might bring the wrath of the Users down on them as well, as it did to SAGE? To oppose the Users is to oppose unknowable gods.

They will still do it, of course. But secretly. Quietly. Each following their own unique vision of how it should be done, as SAGE taught.
howexciting: (L’uomo colle sua congiegniate)

[personal profile] howexciting 2015-04-02 09:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Do the Cryptos remember anything about their former selves or their Users before they were repurposed by SAGE? Do they remember anything about SAGE at all? Or has their memory been a little fuzzy ever since they were pulled from stasis?
sagetime: (Default)

[personal profile] sagetime 2015-04-02 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
They remember plenty about SAGE!

As for their former selves before repurposing, it would be fragmentary at best.
morbirdinterest: all art by Moa unless otherwise stated (Default)

[personal profile] morbirdinterest 2015-04-04 12:55 am (UTC)(link)
How long after the appearance of the Automata did the Cryptos enter their stasis? Mostly wondering how much knowledge of the Automata they'd have collected from pre-sleep...
detectivewonder: (Default)

[personal profile] detectivewonder 2015-04-04 01:03 am (UTC)(link)
Probably... A month or two? It was sort of a zombie apocalypse run screaming scenario, but I am sure they collected some information. Common manifestations, at least.
howexciting: (Master Leonardo imagines an engine)

[personal profile] howexciting 2015-04-06 01:59 pm (UTC)(link)
/puts on nerd glasses

If you use 1 millicycle = 8 hours as an approximation, and calculate out 3284 millicycles into years, they would have been asleep for 2.997 years Grid Time assuming that they went into stasis at approximately the time of the Partition being created, though it is possible that they were asleep before or after that time.

If we went with two months Grid-Time, they haven't actually been asleep for a few Cycles as many of the Miners have been stating. They'd have been asleep only for about 186 millicycles, give or take. Still a lot, mind you.

... unless you mean Real-Time months, in which case this conversion chart comes into play. Assuming 59 - 62 days in two months (since only one month is less than thirty days in the Real-Time year), they have been asleep anywhere from 8 Cycles 83 Millicycles to 8 Cycles 494 Millicycles. If only one month, 28 - 31 days, which calculates out to anywhere from 3 Cycles 836 Millicycles to 4 Cycles 247 Millicycles.

... so which is it? :P <3
morbirdinterest: (farewell my heart)

[personal profile] morbirdinterest 2015-04-08 02:51 am (UTC)(link)
Are the Cryptos in the Jaunt the only Cryptos ever?