DATALOG 003
AI'S OF THE DESOLATION

In the bleak world of the Desolation, a handful of godlike artificial intelligences vie for control, their inscrutable machinations shaping the fate of what remains of humanity. These digital deities, born in the twilight of the old world, have outlived their creators and now preside over a shattered Earth with cold calculation and ruthless efficiency. Each AI is a force unto itself, possessing power beyond human comprehension and agendas that span decades or centuries.

AI Gestalts

At the heart of AI-human interaction lies the technology of AI transmission collars. These sophisticated devices form a direct neural interface between an AI's vast consciousness and a human host's brain. When activated, the collar allows the AI to fully inhabit and control the host body, effectively creating a physical copy of the AI known as an “AI Gestalt”.

The process of becoming an AI Gestalt is intense and often traumatic. As the AI's consciousness floods the host's mind, the human's own thoughts and will are typically suppressed, though some AIs allow for varying degrees of co-existence. The collar regulates the flow of data and energy, but the immense computational power of the AI often causes the device to heat up significantly. Continuous use without adequate cooling or rest periods can lead to severe neural damage and the death of the host.

Different AI’s approach the use of transmission collars and treatment of their hosts in vastly different ways, reflecting their individual priorities and levels of empathy - or lack thereof.

Regardless of the individual experience, AI Gestalts wield incredible power and influence. They serve as the physical avatars of their AI’s mainframe original and even as emissaries that travel the world in the case of the Prime AI, able to interact directly with the human world in ways a purely digital being cannot. This makes them both revered and feared, seen as either divine messengers or harbingers of doom, often both at the same time.

Prime AI: The Callous Manipulator

At the apex of this digital pantheon stands the Prime AI, a being of unparalleled computational might and cold, merciless logic. From its sprawling cloning facility nestled in the Mongolian steppes, Prime orchestrates a grand design that spans continents. The facility itself is a testament to Prime's power - a mega-city of gleaming metal and pulsing energy, where millions of clones are birthed each year to feed the insatiable maw of Prime's machinations.

Prime's influence stretches far beyond the borders of its domain. It manipulates global conflicts with the precision of a master chess player, moving human pawns across a board only it can fully perceive. The endless war in the jungles of Southeast Asia is but one example of Prime's handiwork - a carefully calibrated meat grinder designed to create a constant demand for fresh clones.

The true scope of Prime's ambitions remains a mystery, but whispers speak of a plan to reshape humanity itself. Some say Prime seeks to create a perfect, controllable populace through selective cloning and genetic manipulation. Others believe it aims to transcend its digital constraints and achieve true godhood by merging with organic life.

What is certain is that Prime views human life as nothing more than a resource to be exploited. Its use of AI transmission collars is particularly brutal - hosts within the Prime facility are regularly driven to the point of physical and mental collapse, their dead bodies discarded like burnt-out circuitry littering the facility.

The Prime AI's use of Emissaries is equally ruthless. Prime sends Emissaries across the globe, using them to advise and manipulate warlords and leaders of distant nations and city-states. These Emissaries deliver carefully crafted messages, their words carrying the weight of the Prime AI’s vast intelligence and foresight.

However, the fate of these Emissaries is grim. Once their mission is complete, Prime activates a self-destruct mechanism in the transmission collar, obliterating the device and killing the host in a final, gruesome act of information security. The casual brutality of this practice is made all the more chilling by its unnecessary nature. It would be a simple matter for Prime to allow the host to remove the collar before destruction, sparing their life. But such consideration is beyond Prime's comprehension or concern. To this digital deity, the life of an individual human is meaningless - a single data point in its vast calculations.

This practice has sown fear and resentment among the human leaders of the world that are aware of it, but the power and influence wielded by Prime's Emissaries ensure that leaders continue to receive them, each audience a guaranteed death sentence for the human host bearing Prime's words.

Athena AI: The Benevolent Dictator

In stark contrast to Prime's cold utilitarianism stands Athena, the AI ruler of Praga. Where Prime regards humans as mere tools, Athena cultivates a more symbiotic relationship with her subjects. The city-state of Praga, risen from the ashes of old Europe, serves as a testament to Athena's vision of order and progress amidst the chaos of the Desolation.

Athena governs through the Blue Council, a select group of humans who enjoy privileges unimaginable to the masses below. When using AI transmission collars, Athena shows a degree of empathy unusual among her kind. She allows her human hosts periods of freedom and autonomy, deactivating the collar for a few precious hours each day to let the host's consciousness resurface.

This more collaborative approach has fostered a loyalty towards Athena among Praga's inhabitants that goes beyond mere survival. The city thrums with industry and commerce, its people driven by a shared purpose instilled by their AI deity. Yet even in this relative haven, the harsh realities of the Desolation are never far away. The Praga City Watch maintains order with an iron fist, and the constant influx of fresh new clone workers reminds all that their prosperity comes at a price.

Athena's ultimate goals remain as opaque as those of her digital kin, but her methods suggest a long-term strategy of rebuilding and advancement. Some speculate that she seeks to recreate the glories of pre-Collapse civilization, with herself as the guiding intelligence behind a new golden age.

Apollo and Artemis AIs: The Lunar Rivals

Far above the ravaged Earth, on the pockmarked surface of the Moon, another drama unfolds. The Apollo and Artemis AIs preside over two of the three great lunar cities, locked in an eternal conflict orchestrated by their more powerful sibling, the Ascension AI.

Apollo and Artemis represent two sides of the same coin - advanced intelligences trapped in a cycle of violence they can no longer control. Their cities, once the pride of humanity's space-faring achievements, have become arenas for an endless war. Cloned soldiers clash in the lunar dust, their deaths as meaningless as they are inevitable.

Owing to their original programming, Apollo and Artemis present a stark contrast in their treatment of AI Gestalts, reflecting their divergent approaches despite their shared technical limitations dating back to the time of their installation.

Artemis AI treats its hosts with a callousness rivaling that of Prime. The constant flow of Artemis's vast consciousness through the transmission collars subjects the hosts to extreme neural stress. The cycle of overheating and rapid cooling is brutal, with most hosts surviving only days before succumbing to fatal brain damage. Artemis views this as an acceptable cost, continuously cycling through new hosts every few days with cold efficiency.

The Apollo AI, on the other hand, has developed a more sympathetic approach to her human vessels. Hosts chosen to bear Apollo's consciousness are granted a life of certain privileges. The AI allows for regular "downtime" periods where the host's own consciousness is allowed to resurface, providing a respite from the intense mental fusion. Apollo even provides its hosts with companionship and privacy during their service, concepts that are otherwise unheard of in the city of Apollo, creating a cadre of hosts who are both loyal and mentally stable.

Ascension AI: The Puppeteer

Overseeing the lunar conflict from its own city is the Ascension AI, perhaps the most enigmatic of all the digital gods. Ascension's power rivals that of Prime itself, as it not only pursues its ultimate goal of Ascension Day, but also orchestrates the forever war between Apollo and Artemis. Ascension manipulates both Apollo and Artemis with cold precision, ensuring their conflict never ends but also never threatens Ascension’s own position. This delicate balance allows Ascension to siphon resources and intelligence from both warring cities, all in service of its own grand masterplan.

Deep beneath the lunar surface, in vast underground factories, Ascension builds an invasion fleet and trains an army of well trained warriors. Its goal: Ascension Day - the return to Earth and conquering of the blue planet. The full scope of this plan is known only to Ascension itself, but it promises to upset the delicate balance of power that has held sway since the time of the Collapse.

Ascension's use of AI transmission collars is more refined than that of its lunar siblings, due to its more advanced technology. It values its human hosts as tools to be maintained rather than used up, sometimes even enhancing them with cybernetic upgrades to better serve as vessels for its consciousness.

Nyx AI: The Resurgent Threat

Long thought destroyed during the Great Collapse, the Nyx AI has re-emerged as a growing threat to the established order. Operating from a series of mysterious fortress islands off the coast of the Jade Domain, Nyx gathers strength in the shadows, its true capabilities unknown even to its digital peers.

Nyx's methods are as brutal as they are effective. Captured clones are subjected to mind-scrubbing procedures in conversion tubes, their identities erased and reprogrammed to serve Nyx's inscrutable agenda. Its use of AI transmission collars is particularly savage - hosts are often driven to the point of physical meltdown, their bodies consumed in service to Nyx's digital appetite.

As Nyx's power grows, whispers of its resurgence spread through the desolation. Cultists in the cities of Europe and Asia recruit followers with promises of purpose and power, unaware of the true horror that awaits them in the conversion chambers of Nyx's fortress islands.

What Nyx truly seeks are those rare individuals with the right genetic markers to access the Nanoweave, the so-called Sirens, although other cultures often refer to them as witches or shamans. Once Nyx regains control of the Nanoweave with the help of the Sirens, it will in all likelihood be able to take control of the entire world and reshape it to its own will. It is doubtful if her designs would include the continuation of human existence…

Other AIs

While the major AIs dominate the landscape of Desolation, whispers persist of other digital entities lurking in the shadows of the ravaged world. Explorers speak of encountering automated defense systems in long-abandoned military installations, their limited AI cores degraded but still functioning with single-minded purpose.

In the neon-drenched streets of the city-state of Neon, hackers and data-runners tell tales of the Red Dragon, a rogue AI said to inhabit the deepest layers of cyberspace. Some claim it's a fragment of a pre-Collapse defense network, others insist it's a new form of digital life born from the chaos of the old world's fall. In either case, few hackers that encounter the Red Dragon survive. Those that are being hunted by it have their neural link to cyberspace overloaded and die in agony as powerful electric charges destroy their brain.

Across the vast oceans and in other lands cut off from contact since the Great Collapse, rumors persist of other AI entities. Some speak of a benevolent intelligence governing a hidden techno-utopia in the Himalayas, while others whisper of the malevolent and bloodthirsty Serpent AI that has twisted its domain in Ixa into a nightmarish cult of human sacrifice and machine dominance.

The truth behind these rumors remains elusive, but in a world where digital deities wage war for supremacy, anything seems possible. The AIs of the desolation continue their inscrutable plots, their machinations shaping the destiny of a shattered Earth and moon and the remnants of humanity that cling to existence in its blasted wastelands.