Inevitable

Shortly after Triune sent the Signal out to all mortal life, gifting the secrets of Drift travel, the axiomites received their own similarly mysterious message. Instead of plans for a Drift engine, however, this signal contained blueprints for the construction of an entirely new type of inevitable: the anhamut. A humanoid-shaped robot composed of millions of nearly microscopic nanites, an anhamut can discorporate its “solid” form into a swarm of individual nanites to infiltrate well-guarded areas, avoid detection, and interface with various forms of technology. In its assembled form, an anhamut wields a blade made of its own nanites, and regardless of whether it’s discorporated or assembled, it can generate a powerful bolt of electrical current with which to assault its foes.
Anhamuts are programmed with the central tenet that the exploration and mapping of the universe bring a kind of order to the chaotic cosmos, and they seek to protect this process and those who engage in it. Anhamuts hunt down those who attempt to destroy the hyperspace beacons that make Drift travel possible, and they sometimes aid adventurers who have discovered a new planet or alien society in returning home to report this information to their societies. These inevitables are aggressive in pursuing their agendas, yet also slightly more subtle than their kindred; for example, they might use their discorporated forms to stealthily sabotage enemy equipment before a battle can even begin. At the same time, however, an anhamut who has calculated that the odds of a direct fight are solidly in its favor isn’t afraid to make its presence known with an electrical blast and a flurry of corrosive sword blows.
Like some of their predecessors, anhamuts are more than willing to gather non-inevitable allies to help accomplish their goals, and they have absorbed all sorts of cultural information about an incredible number of societies in their travels (all of which is recorded in Axis for other inevitables to download). Armed with these facts, anhamuts make excellent diplomats, presenting their cases to prospective associates with logical statements that cut straight to the chase. Some anhamuts have maintained ties to large groups of allies over the decades, which allows them to potentially call upon small armies to aid them when necessary.
Though anhamuts are steadfast protectors of explorers and stellar cartographers (as well as the technology that facilitates such vocations), these inevitables are unconcerned with the colonization of newly discovered worlds. A space station that serves as a waypoint for travelers into the unknown might benefit from the guardianship of an anhamut, while a similar station created as a corporate mining facility would not. An anhamut might aid a group of pioneers scouting an uncharted planet, but once they start to lay down roots, that anhamut generally moves on to other missions. Conversely, an anhamut might protect the inhabitants of an alien world from being destroyed by a larger civilization if that smaller culture is on the verge of developing spaceflight, and an organization attempting to hide the existence of a world—even for the objective good of the galaxy—might find itself at odds with the uncompromising machines.
Scholars of the Outer Planes find this relatively new type of inevitable singularly fascinating. The being that revealed the anhamuts’ design to the axiomites still remains a mystery, and while many assume that Triune was responsible for their creation—due both to the timing and the fact that they further many of Triune’s areas of interest—the tripartite god itself has not issued a statement either way. Moreover, as a patron of machines, Triune seems like a natural fit for inevitables, yet what allegiance the machine-people owe the newly arisen god remains open for debate in the face of untold millennia of independent operation. Whatever the politics, priests within the church of Triune have been known to openly court aid from anhamuts, treating them as blessed heralds of their god, and so long as their missions align, anhamuts seem content with this arrangement.
Strangely, while anhamuts exist to foster the mapping (both physical and metaphysical) of the cosmos, they do little such work on their own. Those few who do are referred to as Edgeseekers and rarely interact with mortals for any significant time, choosing instead to jump magically from planet to planet, recording their own cryptic notes. The rest focus on encouraging mortals to do the research for themselves, leading to the sharing of information and even friendship between anhamuts and high-powered members of organizations like the Starfinder Society. Yet while they can be assets to scholars, anhamuts can be extremely aggravating to governments and corporations attempting to keep secret the locations of secure facilities, and adventurers are sometimes hired to put down insurgents and infiltrators who’ve managed to recruit one of the strange machines.