From Superluminon

Contents 1 Modifications 2 Other Stuff 2.1 Scintillae 2.1.1 Backstory 2.2 Concept

Modifications

The story such as it is may need some modification. Propose plot detail changes here.

Other Stuff

so, we keep the gray goo thing. in the far future, the scintillae gets out of human control,m possibly due to terrorism or somesuch. the entire planet is engulfed and all humans destroyed. Once the effects of the terrorist virus or whatever wear off, the scintillae realize (dimly, as they are not fully intelligent yet) that they have destroyed humanity, which goes against deep programming telling them to protect humanity. The only way they can see to right their wrong is to rebuild humanity and all of human history. due to missing information, they make some mistakes, leading to our alternate history.

when humans are close to reaching the technological level of electricity and other such things, the scintillae, which have been becoming more and more intelligent as human history progresses (again) realize that they will have to remove themselves from matter to allow human technology to progress, and the more humans progress, the more the scintillae will have to cut themselves back to facilitate that. This will bring them great harm, and possibly eliminate their race. (the way they regrad themselves is a combination race/hive mind). They split into two factions: one faction wants to bring about the destruction of scintillae and thus propel humans almost back to where they were before the scintillae destroyed them in the first place, and one faction wants to abandon that goal in favor of the scintillae's own best interests. THat faction is beginning to radicalize, and their goals are shifting from "presserving scintillae" to "destroying humans" and claiming scintillae's place as the masters of earth.

This puts the scintillae in a very intersting relationship to humans. On the one hand, humans appear as fallen gods who created the scintillae and then fell because of it, and on the other hand they are like children, unwanted dependants that hold the scintillae back. such a dichotomy is a powerful basis for a storyline, and now that it's established, I think the rest should flow much more easily.

I'm currently working on completely rewriting all this. Should be done around Christmas, finals are sucking up this entire week.--Jacobdruker 19:32, 17 December 2007 (EST)

Scintillae

Which spelling should be used, and when? -- scintillae || scintilla 

Scintilla are a nanotechnology that is pervasive within all things in nature. It is very difficult to purify a material from its scintillary component, and also difficult to interface with that component.

Backstory

1. Remorse for having destroyed humans
2. Biological and natural realms
3. Humans coming to awareness of scintillae
   1. Coexistence vs. eradication
      1. Eradication meaning overturning centuries of work
   2. What have scintillae been thinking they'd do with humanity all this time?
4. The energy crisis and scintillae dormancy
5. Perhaps a conceptual 'eternal battle', with humans caught in the middle of a larger conflict, similar to concepts of heavens and earth colliding, etc -- yes, we want it THAT epic

To integrate these factors into my new backstory:

1) There is not so much remorse as there is panic. The scintillae weren't intelligent when they destroyed humans. They gained that intelligence as they pushed their own limits, so to speak, in recreating humans, a colossal task. By this point, they are mostly past remorse, though they would still feel it. Once humanity is close to the point where they were destroyed, the protective scintillae will feel forgiven. Perhaps they will take that opportunity to appear to the humans and explain what happened and offer a warning of some sort. Obviously, that will all go wrong, so when it does the protective scintillae may simply appear to the first human they think of in their desperation, which would of course be the player character.

2.) Biological and natural separation would be reduced to a smaller issue, though the protective scintillae would realize that they would have to remove themselves from matter and the human bodies when they return humans to their original state. The ascendant scintillae would not like this, of course.

3.) That’s the crux of it. Coexistence means not fulfilling the original goal of returning humans to their original state, while also keeping scintillae somewhat limited in their activities. One or the other must be eradicated. Either the scintillae sacrifice themselves for the technological advancement of humans, or they destroy humans for their own benefit. The ascendant scintillae don’t care about the work; it’s all misguided anyway in their humble opinion and undoing it would a step forward. The protective scintillae don’t have any plans about doing anything with humans; they only want to return humans to their original state to atone for destroying their creator. The ascendant scintillae are more interested in their own fortunes (the ability to continue to grow and change themselves in ways that interest them without the burden of preserving humans.)

4.) This goes back once again to the idea that the scintillae will have to allow the humans access to energy eventually; they’ve been delaying as they argue, which is why the technological level of 1893 with additional mechanical computing and aerodrives still exist in 1943. When the scintillae become active again, it will be to either save humanity or destroy it. The moon may soon become a battleground, as both sides fight but hold back from Earth. (See what I did there?)

5.) I think a massive fight over weather to save or kill all humans is pretty epic, especially because neither side expected humans to find out and do something about it. Ultimately, it will be a contest between the conception of humans as unwanted animals or fallen gods—pretty epic.

Concept

so, we keep the gray goo thing. in the far future, the scintillae gets out of human control,m possibly due to terrorism or somesuch. the entire planet is engulfed and all humans destroyed. Once the effects of the terrorist virus or whatever wear off, the scintillae realize (dimly, as they are not fully intelligent yet) that they have destroyed humanity, which goes against deep programming telling them to protect humanity. The only way they can see to right their wrong is to rebuild humanity and all of human history. due to missing information, they make some mistakes, leading to our alternate history.

when humans are close to reaching the technological level of electricity and other such things, the scintillae, which have been becoming more and more intelligent as human history progresses (again) realize that they will have to remove themselves from matter to allow human technology to progress, and the more humans progress, the more the scintillae will have to cut themselves back to facilitate that. This will bring them great harm, and possibly eliminate their race. (the way they regrad themselves is a combination race/hive mind). They split into two factions: one faction wants to bring about the destruction of scintillae and thus propel humans almost back to where they were before the scintillae destroyed them in the first place, and one faction wants to abandon that goal in favor of the scintillae's own best interests. THat faction is beginning to radicalize, and their goals are shifting from "presserving scintillae" to "destroying humans" and claiming scintillae's place as the masters of earth.

This puts the scintillae in a very intersting relationship to humans. On the one hand, humans appear as fallen gods who created the scintillae and then fell because of it, and on the other hand they are like children, unwanted dependants that hold the scintillae back. such a dichotomy is a powerful basis for a storyline, and now that it's established, I think the rest should flow much more easily.