Consortium
From SSNTWiki
Tor’Val Consortium of Science and Trade is a notable civilization of in the frontier universe. The Consortium is named after its founding species, whose name, in their language meant literally “incapable of death”.
Approximately 28 million stars of the milky way fall within the boarder of the Consortium, most of which belongs to type A, B and F. Instead of settling habitable planets, the Consortium opts to build monolithic installations orbiting stars with large energy output. These same installations serve as the foundation of their economy and focal point of their activity in this part of the multiverse. These installations are capable of space shifting and are moved to an orbit around another star when one they orbit begins to leave the main sequence.
The Entire Tor’Val civilization is fonded on scientific progress, as such they continue to formulate theories and develop technology at a reckless pace. Thanks to their long history, the Consortium has gathered more scientific knowledge then any other civilization. Fortunately for their adversaries they are not always able to translate most of this knowledge into anything remotely useful. Beside their single minded pursuit of scientific progress, the Consortium is also famous, or infamous for is disdain for religion, its skeptical view of the universe and its reliance on abstract reasoning.
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[edit] Biology
"Modern" Tor'Val are hive-minds formed of a collection of processes distributed across an network of an "arbitrary size. Technically these processes could be compiled for any computer system. But because their intelligence scales linearly with processing resources, only a handful civilizations can produce monstrous computers that can practically support them. Most Tor'Val are more comfortable in their native hardware - massive arrays of optical electronics and quantum processors with computing power rivaling that of an entire lesser civilization.
A Noteable trait of the Tor'val is they are aware of their own architecture and can consciously improve themselves. They make redundant backup copy of their source code and any data they have collected every time they make a revision to themselves, these code and data backups are then encrypted and distributively placed in data storage all over the Consortium, rendering each individual effectively immortal unless the entire Consortium is threatened.
[edit] History
Early Evolution
The Tor’Val is an ancient race; its exact age was lost due to passing of time, and they spend very little
Time in discovering their past. They were originally an ocean dwelling, mollusk like race. They are a
rare case of ocean dwelling carbon based species with sufficient intelligence to invent technology. It
was not surprising: their massive and highly sophisticated brain occupied most of their body. Their
intelligence saved them from savage evolutional competition of oceans of their origin.
It was not clear if the Tor’Val was result of natural evolution or genetic manipulation of sentient
species. The supporter of former theory stated their genetic composition is consistent with other
species dwelling that world. The supporters of the later theory stated such immerse intelligence and
ambition could not have possibly developed in their own. To date, no one was able to assert how this
species came into being.
It turns out that Tor’Val dwelled in a world almost completely covered in water, and in the planet is
subject to constant and violent geothermal civilities. In some locations, lava constantly thrown up by
massive volcano flows down the side of volcano in rivers that burnt.
Most races feared these rivers of lava since it would burn their flesh. Tor’Val was often forced to live
near them while they try to avoid predators. In time, they developed an understanding of heat. They
began to construct duct out of rocks to channel lava and use their heat to warm them and scare away
enemies. Geothermal energy had the significance of fire to this species that did not see skies in their
first days.
It was not long before they discovered metal, first metal are smelted by immersing rock bucket
containing ore in river of lava, since the metal would melt sooner than rock, the Tor’Val soon had
enough metal to work with.
With discovery of metal and invention of lava channeling techniques come architecture. Massive nests
were carved into the side of Volcano itself, supporting an even greater population.
The growth of population required growth of food production. The Tor’Val was able to feed
themselves by planting endless fields of algae that covered entire seas in later ages.
The Next Discovery was made when a few of these large mollusk was shocked in an experiment to find
a way to prevent degradation of metal in water: Iron was placed in isolated room and a piece of metal
came out of the room though a tiny hole. A Tor’Val barely felt shock when his tentacles touched the
wire. The shock was mild, but the knowledge it soon bought was not. Attention was paid to the field of
electricity and Tor’Val became the dominant species upon their homeworld.
The Tor’Val marched into industrial age with the discovery of electricity; massive geothermal power
plant soon provided endless power to fuel their every ambition, and endless arrays machinery filtered
lava to separated useful elements from it, radio systems coordinated effort of the entire population,
disaster was common on that young world, so is opportunity.
The Industrial Age
Industrialization was rapid, and in less than three hundred cycles, that age too passed. The Tor’Val
mastered the knowledge to filter many useful materials out of the sea itself. One of them is the silicon.
Silicon does not exist in pure form naturally, yet it mattered little. It was not long before a prototype
semiconductor was created. Like many land‐based races, this sprung up an entire age where silicon
electronics became more common than food. Digital circuitry expanded the computational capacity of
the Tor’Val, and their technological capacity grew exponentially. Genetic engineering, chemical rocket
and nuclear power were soon discovered. Experimental atmospheric and Trans‐atmospheric flight
was launched soon after.
They quickly colonized and visited. They traveled everywhere in rigid containers that protected their
fragile body from their environment. Meanwhile, technology continued to grow. They were able to
automate most of their civilization with electronics. Moreover, a biological study allows them to
improve themselves.
It turns out that it is much easier to design a neurological interface for the soft and boneless body of
Tor’Val then most races. Therefore, instead of genetic engineering, neurological interface is the
direction they spent most of their efforts in. breakthrough is amazing, and soon they were able to
transport themselves in containers, while giving command to legions of machines that does their
bidding.
The Tor’Val was one of the first races to discover the consistency between electronic and biological
signals. They did not foresee the consequence of discovery of such magnitude. Neurological interface
permits this intrepid race to study the structure of their own consciousness. Soon, in a gambit to reach
immortality, a number of Tor’Val attempted transferring their entire consciousness into an array of
electronics. To surprise of all, while most died, some succeeded.
This transfer is a huge step forward. First, they became independent of their weak carbon based form;
second, an electric mind offered much greater flexibility, while a biological mind attached and
supported by a body, an electric consciousness can travel freely between electronic devices and can be
duplicated, stored and deleted at will. This flexibility gives Tor’Val acute awareness of the separation of
the mind and the body.
With that discovery, the first great disaster befalls Tor’Val. When some Tor’Val realized that they
could never immortalize like others, they were overcome by irrationality. They stroke, and the first
war broke out since the beginning of their history. For the lack of experience, their first weapons were
crude and their first tactics were trivial, and soon, the ingenuity of Tor’Val turned against them, war
escalated, and soon became in interplanetary nuclear holocaust that almost wipe out every life form in
that system.
It quickly became obvious the immortals are on their way to defeat, they do not have the number to
face the wrath of the rest of their race. To prevent elimination, the immortals spent all their remaining
resource to construct a sub‐light interplanetary spacecraft with solar sails. As they left, their last
stronghold fell.
The Space Age
The immortals found themselves strangely suited in space. Being completely mechanical eliminates
most of complication faced by biological races. Away from their home, they wondered. Soon they
settle a star system a long way their former home. They quickly progressed upon settlement, tapping
into field of quantum physics and nanometer technology with skill that would amaze any other race.
Their mechanical status and mind‐body independence gave them many advantages they soon
discovered. For one, Tor’Val immortals can link into a hive mind that can process much more
information constantly then decentralized individual can. Another ability is to consciously improve
their machinery and their minds easily.
Quantum physics gives them ability to defeat the fundamental speed limit. They conducted small‐scale
entanglement experiment and were successful at it. The experiment quickly expanded into full‐scale
FTL test. They too, were successful.
During all this time, they listened to the space for the chatter of their cousins for any further attempt
to hunt them down. The hunt never came, and in one fateful day, they heard in dismay as all chatters
silenced.
The first FTL vessel, “Silence”, was sent to investigate, and they could not forget what they saw. Their
entire system lay desolate, no sign of life was found, and in the end, the immortals concluded that they
are the last of Tor’Val.
Their first instinct was to evade whatever caused extinction to the rest of the Tor’Val race. They
created a small FTL fleet and abandoned everything else behind. They escaped the void of space
chased by only the shadow of fear, they stop only to gather resource and refuel, before taking off and
continue their flight without destination. In all these time, they thought something is behind them, just
beyond sight, seeking their destruction.
While they ran from themselves, they encountered many races. Their ability to transfer biological and
mechanical consciousness worked to their advantage. They were able to assimilate individuals to their
rank, each with different knowledge and ability. These assimilated individuals contributed to already
rapid technological advancement, pushing it beyond imagination of most races.
They realized, after a long time, they really were not chased. Whatever purpose they head before the
great escape was lost to the passing of ages. Since destruction of their race could not be avoided. They
settled to use their ability and knowledge to assist other race from destruction.
[edit] Government
The Consortium does not have a government in the conventional sense. Since Individual consciousness lack the concept of self-preservation that leads to fear, the idea of subjugation and obedience never occurred to the Tor'Val. The member of Consortium could simply not be cohered or forced to act in accordance to guidelines or performance specific actions. This funder mental lack of fear made forming any meaningful society difficult.
Due to their inherent skeptical nature, the members of the Consortium are also acutely aware of their own limitations, however. They do not hesitate to ask for advice. This behavior is the foundation on which all of the Consortium governmental infrastructure was built. The Consortium are lead by individuals who are expert in each field because the others value their advice. These individuals lead by giving out advice when they are asked to provide them.
Members of other civilization have difficulty making sense of this unconventional form of government - especially those take in granted that leaders are supposed to be responsible of those they lead. But for the Tor'Val, a leader is simply someone who know what they don't.
Each member of the Consortium belong to one of specialist "castes" which has its own internal network of referrals - this made finding the consciousness with solutions to particular type of problem easier. The Investigator caste specializes in collecting data about the world, the analyst caste specialize in formulation and testing of theories and models, as well as making predictions, The Protector Caste study technology related to weapons and tactics, the Merchant assembly analyzes and manipulates the economy, and the technocrat assembly study and improve the computer systems, networks and algorithms which forms the Consortium.
[edit] Culture
For most part, the member of the Consortium acted independently. Because the easy with which Tor'Val consciousness increases their own capability (including the ability to make arbitrary number of copies of themselves, and consciously modify each copy), cooperation or teamwork is seldom efficient. A Tor'Val would in average, ask for advice from its leader more frequently then working with another Consortium member. The need to cooperation can be considered a sign of lack of intelligence or resourcefulness, making independence a highly valued trait among the members of the Consortium.
Being a organization formed some most intelligent beings, the Consortium values intelligence as well. This is especially true for abstract reasoning. The perceived value of one's advice, and thus its position in the Consortium can often be hinged upon been able to solve a difficult question, coming up with a clever invention or intelligently evaluate an hypothesis. However, most Tor'Val are skeptical about the opinion of others and avoid deliberately produce an impression that they are more intelligent then they really are.
Beyond Scientific Progress, Independence and Intelligence, the members of the Consortium values almost nothing else in common. This is not a surprise because majority of the civilization is assimilated from a variety of different species.
Language
The Tor'Val are the developer and avid user of the Trade Language. The trade Language is designed to maximize the number of machines and living organism that could understand or interpret it. As a consequence the trade language is a formal language. Many civilizations has produced compilers for the trade language for their own computer systems.
Ironically the Tor'Val consciousness themselves are formed from processes that are written in the trade language. The consortium has unanimously agreed to produce backup of source code of their processes to make hardware upgrade easier. As a result greatly simplified version of Tor'Val fragments could be found wandering in the computer systems of many civilizations.
Philosophy
The Tor'Val has developed a sophisticated system of philosophy that states the universe is nothing but malevolence. They have collected large amount of evidence to support the hypothesis the universe is the enemy of all intelligence - and source of all inefficiency, setbacks and suffering. They believe that technology is intelligence's counter to the universe's malevolences, and eventually a mean to control it.
The Consortium does not believe in the Existence of Truth. They know well that all measurement comes with possibility of error and therefore each statement could only have a probability of being truth. While this attitude is helpful with the research, it is awkward for communicating with other civilizations.
The Members of Consortium found religion irrelevant. The reason is two-fold. First, All Tor'Val processes are hardwired to maximize research output, This make the purpose of life irrelevant. Second, the Tor'Val don't die, which make the question of afterlife irrelevant. Despite this, the Consortium has always paid attention to practical effect of religion on various civilizations.
Art
The Tor’Val has the uncanny talent of diverting every last Hz of processing power to perform some research that they deem useful. As a result they could not deliberately produce art. But errors in research sometimes produce items that can be interpreted as art. The member of Consortium does not hesitate to sell these as art for outrageous price in the interstellar market.
[edit] Economy
The Tor'Val has the Third Largest gross GDP of any Civilization in the Frontier Universe, closely following the Hegemony and the Collective. The Consortium Economy is heavily based on trade with a large Tertiary sector. Most of the Consortium's income coming from purchasing goods and selling it elsewhere, or purchasing raw material and export products. Consortium effectively control interstellar trade and finance thru its merchant assembly but the lack of a real primary sector means its industry cannot compete with Hegemony or Collective - especially during wars.
[edit] Technology
Consortium's technology are based on some most esoteric principles making them difficult to build and operate. but their sheer power is hard to deny. Because their complete lack of fear, members of the Consortium will deploy technology as long as they are statistically beneficial - even if they have a serious chance of breaking down in a spectacular and destructive fashion. The Tor'Val's fondness for pushing their technology beyond designed limit does not help, neither. After all, been reduced to dust and restored from a backup is just another day's work.
[edit] Military
The Consortium's military is designed to fight in wars of annihilation rather then conquest. The Tor'Val has little need to subdue or conquer another civilization. Enemies of the Tor'Val in the past has always been been willing to fight to the death, and the Consortium designed its weapons and tactics to deliver just that - extinction. This had the unintentional consequence of giving the Consortium military arm a fearsome reputation. but the average member of the Protector Caste are far more interested in developing weapons then using them.
