Architects

The Architects are the distant "evolu-gineered" descendants of the Homo Sapiens of Earth Prime, where you and I live. They are several hundreds of thousands of years removed from our modern Earth. 

Architect "selves" are transferred between bioprinted bodies and other vessels, as needed. However, this requires the proper functioning of Architect technology and their ability to access it through the Base Code.

When they set about their task to create the Spheres, the architects were literally of one mind. They realized that the expanding universe had reached a point when the expansion became contraction. Ouroboros fell back on itself.

Once the spheres were created, their creators started dividing over the unexpected and anomalous. At one time, the theoreticians and the operational executors were in lockstep. All possible contingencies had been measured and accounted for, but the complexity of their project had gotten away from them. 

In uncharted waters, they were no longer so wise. No longer so coordinated. And they didn’t know how to disagree. 

Their magical-seeming technology had been able to meet the expected outcomes and they managed it well. When the variables and the stakes grew more intense that they began to experience division. To make matters worse, their differences were accentuated by the wiles of the Indistinction beyond the Final Sphere. Having developed awareness and personality through its interaction with the Spheres, it sowed discord amongst the Architects, and eventually the Gardeners who served their will. 

Intense, and sometimes violent, competition between Architect factions inhibited their ability to oversee the Spheres' smooth functioning, let alone assure their expected trajectory.

Two examples of unexpected consequences were both emergent anomalies, namely, the Glitches and Sentar itself. Factions of Architects existed that advocated for the destruction or exploitation of both, as well as factions that argued for their preservation and isolation. 

The Glitches, like Sentar, were not a part of the Architects' plans and, like Sentar, their emergence also created divisions amongst the Architects. It was either an “emergent” element of the scale and complexity of their project, or a mistake that implied a flaw somewhere in the structure. Some Architects wanted to see where it would go; to see what would happen. They accepted that what they had created had become too complex for them to understand and they had to let it evolve and become its own. They accepted that they had lost control. Others were purists, and believed needed complete control – that variables and outcomes unaccounted for were a sign of weakness in the machine and augured its failure. Emergent elements had to be captured, broken down, and understood. More unexpected variables emerged as their technology interacted with the thing that it was supposed to protect against. More divisions and factions. 

There are few Architects left, and those that remain are no longer the powerful overseers they once were. 

An Architect that the Heroes of Ancorato and the Inordinate Privateers encountered inside a Node Simulation. It was being challenged by the Sentarean lich, Auberon, who had entered the Interface Node from his laboratory inside his towers situated at the base of the Pillars of Sentar. The simulation was "Kids On Bikes" and the heroes manifested as children from 1980s Earth, North America. Thatoou had hidden in the simulation after having been badly injured by Auberon. When the heroes found him, Auberon was closing in and Thatoou feared that the lich might gain access to the Base Code if her were able to capture the Node. Together, they thwarted Auberon. 

Braal is an Illithd Elder Brain that the mindflayers created out of the brain extracted from an Architect. With the assistance of the Warrenfolk chattel upon which it was once fed and nurtured, it . It now inhabits the deepest Middle Dark of the Asteroid metropolis of the same name, secretly acting as a Gardener to  ensure "balance" amongst the many races and factions of the city. It is as unlike other Architects as it is unlike other elder brains, but its powers and connection to that Elder Race remain.