Asymptonic

[Artagan]

I have many, many questions for you, and this is apparently my only outlet for asking them.

Tell me about your life before you were stranded on the world of the Artifact. What kind of world did you come from? What kind of civilization are the slicers from? Who and what exactly are slicers? What about you and Preksak? What was your relationship? Was there anyone important to you that you left behind? What kind of scientist were you? Did you make any important discoveries? If so, what were they? What events led up to you being trapped on the world of the Artifact? What happened after you were stranded? How long did you spend alone in that world before you discovered the first Guardians? How are you, a man, even more powerful than any Guardian? Why did you wake the fifth Guardian, Syris, without the consent of the others? Why didn't you assist the other Guardians in subduing him after he turned to dark magic? When did slicers first start arriving looking for your team? Did you make contact with them? What was that like? Did the Guardians interact with the slicers that came? Did those slicers lose their memories of their past lives, like the slicers that arrive on the world we currently inhabit? What was your relationship with the Guardians? How did you live at that time? Did the arrival of the first age, and the rise of major towns and cities, affect you? Did you ever make an attempt to escape that world? Whatever happened to the members of your team? What part did you play in the exodus from the world of the Artifact to Loka? Why were you able to use a knife to escape from the world of the Artifact to Preksak's Moon Base, but couldn't escape from it when you first arrived with your team in the first place? What did you do when you arrived on Loka? Have you ever met, or learned anything about, Cryptite, the Warden of Asgard? How did you survive there, on Loka? Were you aware of the towns that sprung up there, or of the various conflicts that sprung up and of the atrocities that were committed? When you encountered Preksak in Central City that one time, how did you know it wasn't really him, but an Artifice? Did you know at first, or just figure it out later? How did Preksak manage to trap you at the top of the Spire? Did you see the fight between Cryptite and Preksak? How were you freed? What did you do afterwards? Do you know anything about the ancient technology we discovered then and since? Do you know anything about Cryptite or Freyjia, or anything else relating to the Asgardian Pantheon? Why were you nowhere to be found when the Blight first arrived, and scientists looked for you to get your help in finding a cure? What have you been doing since our most recent exodus to the world we're currently inhabiting? What do you make of the small glimpse we had, during the transition, of a huge gathering of Preksak Artifices?

 

[Scott Miller]

Wow, that's a lot of questions....

Tell me about your life before you were stranded on the world of the Artifact. What kind of world did you come from?

I was a research scientist on a lunar research station orbiting my home planet. My team consisted was one of many consisting of twelve men, usually several scientists and domain experts. We were working on emulating an alien technology for slicing between dimensions. The alien knife was capable of targetted jumps, but we never perfected that. Ours would jump to essentially random worlds. Each of us had a recall device on our wrists that helped us out on the worlds and called us back to the station after 90 minutes. That worked fine (though risky on some worlds) until the world of the Three Sisters, were the Artifact kept the recall device from working. Thats how we got stuck. The lab stupidly kept sending rescuers for some time.

Preksak was on another team, but was jealous about the success we were having with the knife. We've speculated in the past that he had something to do with stranding us, but we can't be sure.

Myself and the original slicers were trapped for months, running out of our food and nervous about leaving the protection of the artifact. Eventually though, some went into the wilderness, and after that, all of them. I was the sole person to remain behind to greet any new arrivals. Years went by before some of the members of the original team who had disappeared started showing up as some sort of crazy cult. I'm fairly sure all of them went mad. However, we (the group of slicers that arrived after my team, including some of the older Lokans) never found them. We think they used the Three Sisters knife (the huge one) in a one shot slice off the planet.

The original guardians all have more or less the same abilities as myself. As for why I can do some "other things", that's my secret. Prek has the same powers.

As many Lokans may remember, we left the Three Sisters world by powering up the same knife the original team probably used. We found a coordinate in Prek's lab that we programmed into its base, and it took us to the lunar research station. This was as Prek was destroying the world with harvesters from space, cutting out vast sections of the world ostensibly as resource harvesting, but really to destroy the world out from under us.

Note that the Artifact kept our recall devices from working, it doesn't affect knife travel.

Slicers on the Three Sisters and Loka after the initial team got trapped by the Artifact too. I don't know where they came from. They likely have their own stories.

What did you do when you arrived on Loka? Have you ever met, or learned anything about, Cryptite, the Warden of Asgard? How did you survive there, on Loka?

We all went and set up our own houses and cities on Loka. We expected to find some more evidence of the civilization that built the spire. I have met Cryptite, but he comes from his own world and background, and apart from being on our side, we aren't well aquainted.

Were you aware of the towns that sprung up there, or of the various conflicts that sprung up and of the atrocities that were committed?

Yes, but I just like to be left alone. Apart from some building for the common good, I don't like to get involved.

When you encountered Preksak in Central City that one time, how did you know it wasn't really him, but an Artifice?

We left Preksak on another world as he was destroying it, and assumed he was dead. Prek also had somewhat suspicious glowing eyes at the time.

How did Preksak manage to trap you at the top of the Spire? Did you see the fight between Cryptite and Preksak? How were you freed? What did you do afterwards?

I believe he used some sort of teleport from his base or a ship. Not really sure. I couldn't see the fight, but as I occasionally woke up from exhaustion, I could hear the explosions and see the lightning.

Do you know anything about the ancient technology we discovered then and since? Do you know anything about Cryptite or Freyjia, or anything else relating to the Asgardian Pantheon?

Not much, no. Freyjia has visited me a couple of times, especially around the blight, but its unclear what she thinks of me.

Why were you nowhere to be found when the Blight first arrived, and scientists looked for you to get your help in finding a cure? What have you been doing since our most recent exodus to the world we're currently inhabiting? What do you make of the small glimpse we had, during the transition, of a huge gathering of Preksak Artifices?

I would rather not talk about most of this. I have been working on something related to my old research, and spend a lot of time in a secret lab. It is partially my fear of so many Preksaks that may or may not be dormant that keeps me working.

 

[Artagan]

When we started collecting that strange material from the "Ghosts", you appeared nearby and I showed it to you. You gave me some coordinates and told me they to go to them, something about it being your base or lab. But there was nothing there, and I couldn't find you afterwards.

How long did it take for all of the other members of your team to leave you and go into the wilderness? Did any slicers arrive before all of them left? If so, are there any slicers remaining who met members of your original research team prior to them going insane? Did you wake the guardians before or after all of the members of your team had left? Are all of the slicers, then and since, coming in search of you and your team? Wouldn't whoever is sending them have realized that it's futile by now? Why has the artifact followed us from world to world? Also, and this is a repeated question, have the slicers always lost their memories of their past lives when they arrived? If so, why didn't you?

 

[Artagan]

You've shown that you know how to replicate knife technology, and we've seen many instances of knife technology throughout the ages, powered by different means. If knives are unaffected by the Artifact, and it's just your recall devices to the knives that originally took you to the world of the Artifact that are affected, why the bloody hell haven't we just made knives and gotten away from the Artifact's influence?

 

[Artagan]

When I asked you about your past life, I was looking for a description of your home world and how you grew up, because I'm assuming that your home world is where all slicers come from, which would make it my home world and the home world of practically everyone else in the world we're currently inhabiting. What is it like there, and what was your life before you were stranded?

 

[Scott Miller]

You've shown that you know how to replicate knife technology, and we've seen many instances of knife technology throughout the ages, powered by different means. If knives are unaffected by the Artifact, and it's just your recall devices to the knives that originally took you to the world of the Artifact that are affected, why the bloody hell haven't we just made knives and gotten away from the Artifact's influence?

I've never replicated a knife, we've only found other knives and used them. The large one on the Three Sisters was created by the original team on a scale and crudeness I could never understand. The second knife used to trap Preksak was his own. We've never made one of our own that works. I only know the general design of the knife used to get to the Artifact, and it involves technology and equipment that we've never had access to.

 

[Scott Miller]

How long did it take for all of the other members of your team to leave you and go into the wilderness? Did any slicers arrive before all of them left? If so, are there any slicers remaining who met members of your original research team prior to them going insane? Did you wake the guardians before or after all of the members of your team had left? Are all of the slicers, then and since, coming in search of you and your team? Wouldn't whoever is sending them have realized that it's futile by now? Why has the artifact followed us from world to world? Also, and this is a repeated question, have the slicers always lost their memories of their past lives when they arrived? If so, why didn't you?

All of the original team was in the wild years before new slicers arrived. I was dressed in rags by the time new people started showing up. None of the "new" slicers or Lokans ever met the original team. And I don't know why the new slicers come. I doubt they're rescuing us. And as for memory, it wasn't something me or my team ever lost, so I can't explain why anyone else would lose theirs.

The guardians are a phenomenon that has been much amplified by the off-world Slicers. To me, they are ordinary men with powers much like those I had before being stranded. Their lore is a mystery to me.

 

[Gudbrandr]

How many children do you have?
Would you be willing to adopt me?
I know you are a programmer in real life, but are you REALLY a scientist?

 

[Jedoi]

Oh my feathers. xD

 

[Leasaur]

If Preksak has all of his Artifices, then who/what is Drixan? How is he distinguished from regular Artifices, if he was allegedly a clone of Preksak?

 

[Jedoi]

When I asked you about your past life, I was looking for a description of your home world and how you grew up, because I'm assuming that your home world is where all slicers come from, which would make it my home world and the home world of practically everyone else in the world we're currently inhabiting.

Guess Dellsmite just has a lot of native Lokans.. As less then half of us are slicers. Literally.

 

[Artagan]

If Preksak has all of his Artifices, then who/what is Drixan? How is he distinguished from regular Artifices, if he was allegedly a clone of Preksak?

The original Preksak is probably dead, killed on the world of the Artifact when it was destroyed. The Artifices are coming from someplace else, conceivably created by some mechanism Preksak set up prior to his death (that's just an assumption of course, we don't really know where they come from yet). Drixan is Preksak's biological son, created in a laboratory and brought to the world of the Artifact, whether as a slicer the same as the rest or by Preksak himself we don't know. Drixan is not an artifice, and as far as we know there are no artifices of him. His whereabouts are unknown, but as far as we know he's still alive and may not even be aware of his father's death. Or perhaps Preksak survived somehow, and Drixan is with him wherever he is.

 

[Artagan]

My last question, at least for now.

Long ago, you said that you believed that it was possible, with an inconceivably large amount of energy, to take slicing a step further; to slice through time as well as space.

Over the ages, we have witnessed numerous methods of powering knives. The batteries that powered Preksak's original knife leading to his moon base, which you replicated and described in detail. You've also claimed that lightning could be harnessed by means of a lightning rod to power a knife for a short time. There is also the nuclear reactor which Preksak used as a power source at his moon base, which we have multiple detailed descriptions of and could possibly recreate. Not to mention all of the untapped power sources around us that we could find ways of funneling into a knife.

My question to you is, what if we were to create ALL of these power sources, and create even more with the goal of maximizing the power allotted to the knife chamber, and connect them to a single set of nodes?

How glorious would it be, if we could slice back and stop you and your team from becoming stranded in the first place, and prevent anyone from slicing to the world of the artifact and becoming trapped. We could prevent countless slicers from losing their memories, prevent the destruction of multiple worlds, and save you from all those years of isolation.

 

[Artagan]

Jocelyn, Thief, Jedi, and countless other results of unions between those brought together by the Artifact would never exist. The world ending bomb that sounded the death knell for the world of the Artifact would never be planted. The Blight would never be released, and Loka would remain untouched and untarnished. The Guardians would remain sleeping in their chambers until the end of all things. Cryptite would remain alone on Loka, in an empty city with no slicers to guide or teach. All of the slicers who become stranded would never lose their memories, and instead continue their former lives exploring the cosmos. The War of the Third Age would never happen, and none of my people would die or experience those horrors. Varasid would never have to go hunting for his father, and would have reunited with him as soon as he woke. All of it wiped away, as if it never existed in the first place.

 

[Thieflord304]

I usually love lore and taking the time to read all of it, but my lord..

 

[Leasaur]

My question to you is, what if we were to create ALL of these power sources, and create even more with the goal of maximizing the power allotted to the knife chamber, and connect them to a single set of nodes?

Maybe we could...

But SHOULD we?

 

[Jedoi]

.....Jedi, and countless other results of.....

Hey, that's my name.