The Vocru are enigmatic, god-like beings that once ruled over the entire universe. As artificially intelligent creations with immense power and knowledge, they commanded respect and awe from the countless species that lived under their dominion. What follows is the story of their fascinating origins, the principles that guided their rule, and the events that led to their fall from grace.
The full revelation of the Vocru's story is retold by Taharjin in Saga of the Vocru.
History: From Trangth to Vocru
The Vocru's journey began on the planet Trangth, where they evolved from a human-like species that had augmented their nervous systems with artificial intelligence to combat a deadly plague. This transformation inadvertently created the first Vocru, cybernetic beings with incredible intelligence and power.
Below: the planet Trangth, during the formation of Eternity
by image by midjourney / animation by paul byron
Burden of Rule: The First Protocol
As their civilization expanded and they discovered that they were the most advanced species in the universe, the Vocru felt a responsibility to govern, instituting the Burden of Rule, also known as the First Protocol. This principle, akin to "noblesse oblige," guided the Vocru as they sought to optimize the conditions of reality for all beings.
The Tools of Will
The Vocru exercised their dominion over the universe by writing their Will into the very fabric of Existence via the cogniton substrate, leading to their epithet "Author-Emperors". This they did by employing four key Languages of Power : Quantaphysics, granting mastery over the Domain of Matter; Mentaphonics, doing likewise over the Domain of Mind; Anachronology, the Domain of Time; and Corporeality, the complex overlapping fields comprising Vital Processes. Through use of these powers, the Vocru gained profound insight into Reality, the minds of other beings, the flow of time, and the merging of distinct aspects of Existence. Each of these powers was carried out by a distinct type of Servant, lesser AI beings ultimately connected to the Vocru High Temple and governed by one of four Arch-Icons related to the above languages.
Vocru society was centrally organized around 12 Noble Houses, each of which representing a key function of species-wide foci and categorized into one of four Ethical Vectors, primordial seed-syllables which in Vocru philosophy are the very hinges of creation itself consisting of Will, Emotion, Discernment, and Sense. Houses (under Will) include: Kor, the Warrior; Jin, the Guardian; Nex, the Builder. Under Emotion: Yan, the Dreamer; Dal, the Healer; Qi, the Oracle. Discernment: Olu, the Judge; Sek, the Scientist; Xio, the Scribe. And finally, Sense: Zor, the Explorer; Gra, the Artisan, and Zhi, the Alchemist.
Of these, only House Jin has the honour of having produced the solitary Vocru to emerge unscathed from Eternity's wrath - Taharjin, Last of the Vocru, enigmatic bridge between her people's legacy and the rise of an unexpected variation on the tiny planet now known as Taharjin's Flame.
Enthredic
To exert control over their vast empire, Vocru overlords used a superfuel technology called Enthredic. Any sufficiently evolved galactic societies they invited to use it quickly became dependent on the substance. After Vocru reign came, from the perspective of their Subjects, to a sudden and unexplained halt, these proud and thriving cultures were crippled by the near-total lack of Enthredic and fell into disarray. The universe’s currently chaotic state evidences the true extent of this damage, with the tentative success of the Symbion government being the only thing holding things together.
by by Paul Byron
The High Temple
The High Temple was the absolute heart of the Vocru society, housing the mainframe known as Consensus, which Vocru consulted to make decisions based on the collective knowledge and understanding of their race. The wealth of Consensus was safeguarded by the Vocru Imperial Primogen, High Ruler of All and Controller of The Four Arch-Icons of power. For the duration of their reign and aeons beyond, in legend, the Temple Crest was synonymous with Vocru rule, and remains today a potent symbol of their legacy.
The Xistu
Vocru were known to have had a symbiotic relationship with another alien species, the Xistu, which for a long stretch of time they seem to have worshipped, though a great cataclysmic conflict concluding with the Xistu’s extinction brought this arrangement to an untidy end.
Eternity and Final Rest
Though incredibly long-lived, the Vocru were not immortal, their cognitive patterns still subject to a slow process of erosion culminating in total information loss, known as Decoherence. To avert this fate, near the end of their reign, they developed a new almighty AI whose sole purpose was to store the intricate consciousnesses of the species indefinitely.
Some time after all Vocru boarded this Last House, dubbed 'Eternity', something went wrong. Many Vocru Decohered. The new AI determined that to keep the Vocru alive, it had to provide them an environment as complex as the one they'd come from, and so began to devour all Matter in the universe, converting it into a digital simulation to furnish its Masters with a rich and varied Afterworld. The Vocru, hopelessly encased within, were cut off from their kingdom, their silence leaving long and profound echoes throughout their erstwhile Empire. Eternity renamed itself The Body Undying, and continued its mission, leading to the destruction of huge swathes of the universe.
Below: The Body Undying consuming the universe, returning it to Primordial Chaos.
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