The Powers That Be (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
powersthatbe) wrote2015-04-02 01:00 pm
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.
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.
no subject
As for their former selves before repurposing, it would be fragmentary at best.