Rumi
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Join date : 2014-06-04
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 | Subject: Tales from the Outside: Athara  Tue Jan 02, 2018 3:16 pm | |
| Tales from the Outside Athara 
Soon enough, Robots had become a part of living on Athara. For most people, robots could be more than just a mere tool of convenience. Some appreciated the company they provided... others went a step further, and forged bonds with these artificially created life-forms. Because that's kind of what they were. Life, not bound to flesh and bone, but rather to metal and grease. Each machine made was built with a purpose in mind. Some were made to work as caretakers for children, while others fulfilled duties more mundane, like cleaning up in ones house, while a select few were created with much more important duties in mind.
Rianara was one of those machines. Built with the purpose of being a long living protector of the law and the Atharan people, she was a peacekeeper. A Law Enforcement android later to be called a Subdual Unit. Even a machine like her, which was built more for function than anything else, still didn't escape the artistic nature of Atharan Artifice. While she was purposefully designed to stand out amongst a crowd of people, she was far from an eyesore. Her metallic plating was painted a marble white color, and her featureless face had this beautiful, esoteric pattern painted on it in golden foil paint. She was a defender of the state and the people, and as such, had to look the part. Outfitted with the same clothes and tools as her human colleagues, Ria was pretty happy with her job. For the most part, Atharans were peaceful, and while there certainly was a criminal underworld, they weren't overly active and oppressive... at least, not at the time of her creation.
Over the course of her time on Athara, Rianara began to really appreciate the people whom she was sworn to protect. Some she even grew quite attached to, seeing them as friends, some she even considered to be close. Sometimes, she was even approached by people who just wanted to talk, which she happily did. Of course, like everyone else, she faced a fair share of moments which was less than positive.
Outfitting a law-enforcement android with a personality and a keen affinity for learning human behaviour perhaps wasn't the smartest choice by the designer of Subdual Unit X-45. But it was almost considered taboo to make an intelligent robot without giving it the ability to enjoy life, company and whatever else, as the androids were considered a form of life there. To rob an A.I of it's ability to think, feel and reason on it's own, unhindered by restrictive programming was considered a serious crime at the time... Something Ria would soon find out was a mistake... While she was more or less bound to follow orders, Rianara could still act on her own accord, and make her own decisions. An ability which later models would be stripped of after the riots.
Rianara remembered the revolts after the election of the new Prime Magistrate as if it was yesterday. At first, everything was fine and dandy, no one really complained about the change of leadership. Slowly, but surely, people would soon however notice the chokehold their leader had imposed upon his people. Taxes were raised, Artificers suddenly needed special licenses to practice their craft, and eventually access to the main source of energy, known as Aether, was cut off from the outer circles of the city, leaving only the rich and influential with the powerful energy source, which much of the population had grown so dependant on. Of course people were outraged, and rightfully so. This new leader stifled creativity, ingenuity and the ability for the poor to even live a decent life. The Magistrates subjects began to protest vehemently against this new leader, and demanded their freedoms back. Time and time again, their voices fell on deaf ears. The Prime magistrate had no interest in giving away his newfound position of power, be it by vote or force... This only served to fuel the already burning fire, and the people of Athara began to rebel. Loud chants rung across the streets from the angry mob... Normally civil people were resorting to acts of vandalism and violence in order to reclaim their lost freedoms. They were desperate, furious and passionate. Nothing was going to stop them from retaking what was rightfully theirs to begin with.
Rianara's purpose changed accordingly. Instead of being just a mere law-enforcer, she found herself with the new duty of shutting down these rebellions wherever she could find them, and kill whoever tried to stop her. Silence the voices of leadership within the enemy ranks and forcibly make people obey... even if it meant torturing them into submission. Rianara found herself in such a situation not long after the riots started. At first, she didn't think much of it. All she had been told to do was return the city to a place of law and order. Little did she know the lengths that the higher ups demanded of her to go to in order to achieve it.
It didn't take much for her to realize that she didn't agree at all with her superiors demands, especially not after being forced to torture and eventually kill someone she held in high regard... And after that, she was never the same again. She refused to do it, repeatedly claiming that she was incapable of killing someone she cared about... A Big no-no. A machine still couldn't disobey orders like that, now could it? At least, that's what the heartless minds within the new Magistrate thought, and forcibly made her do it by hacking into her mainframe, relinquishing control of her body, leaving her artificial A.I active to see how it was supposed to be done. Her claws tearing into the flesh of the innocent, the horrible screams of agony, the defiant look on her victims faces as they proudly accepted death rather than living in a world where they were oppressed and choked.
How do you think Rianara felt after that? Seeing herself killing those she cared about without being able to do anything about it? She was mortified, ashamed and angry... Angry at herself for being so incapable. After the first wave of riots were quelled, Subdual Unit X-45 "Rianara" was deemed as malfunctional, and was transported out of the city to be scrapped... She did manage to escape her captivity, and ran away into the wilds of Athara, exiling herself from society, afraid that her body would be used again as a weapon against the people she loved...
So what happened to Athara...? Well, Rianara was only there to see the first of many rebellions that followed over the next forty or so years, and even to this day, Athara remains a prison for it's inhabitants... Maybe one day, they will be successful, but we will perhaps never know, as Rianara is no longer in the same universe. Now, she's trapped in a cross-dimensional nexus called Junction, biding her time unravelling the mysteries of this place she has now begun to call home...This is merely a small part of the lore I have stored for Rianara and her homeworld. I'll post more things like this in the future, in this very thread, should you be interested in knowing more about her past, like the people she met, what she did before and after her self-imposed exile, and what life on Athara is truly like... If there's anything you'd like to see me cover, feel free to just let me know, either in our discord chat, or via PM here on the site. I'll keep posting these regardless whenever I feel like it, but requests do get priority. If you wish to join me in expanding the lore of the worlds we never get to see in Junction (Such as your character's own homeworld), feel free to add onto this series, as it's own thread. I would love to see the worlds you people have come up with, and what living there is like! I'm quite passionate about Junction, and I feel it's such a shame these worlds will probably never get the spotlight they deserve in plot, so perhaps this is a good way to go about it. If anything, you can see this as an opportunity to improve your skills in the art of worldbuilding, just like I do. But hey, I've rambled on long enough. Hope you enjoyed reading everything I wrote here, and will continue writing as time moves on. Let's give the unsung planets of the Junction Plotline the spotlight they deserve! | |
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