Archaipelago
M39 (Archaipelago)
Image from NASA public domain
M39, The Archaipelago Cluster

Archaipelago Data Panel

A popular nickname for Cluster M39, close to the border of the Solar Dominion. More specifically, this name refers to the 122 loosely aligned Terragen systems within this cluster. Became the Archosaurian Empire with the ascension of the Archosaurian Entity
The following is an excerpt from the 8400 AT edition of Encyclopaedia Galactica, published shortly before the Archaipelago Attacks. All of these systems are Archaitheocracies that share intriguingly similar memetic trends, particularly in their political hierarchies (both subtoposophic and toposophic) and an increasing reverence for saurian / draconic imagery. Because of the instability of the cluster's very young planets, all inhabitants of the Archaipelago dwell within artificial habitats of varying size and complexity. The majority of civilizations are clustered near brown dwarf stars. With two very noteworthy exceptions, all of these systems have a nearbaseline biont population of less than two billion (many are a few hundred million), a virtual population that is well into the billions, and are each ruled by a third toposophic godling ISO.

The two exceptions are Toh Chi Lok-Nar, home of the fourth toposophic Archosaurian Entity and many superbright provolved dinosaurs descended from GEvidian's experiments; and HeavenWatch, home of the fourth toposophic UrchinStar and the mostly superbright Heaven Watch Organization, dedicated to detecting extragalactic civilizations and "new gods to worship". These two superpowers have become a powerful influence within the region in terms of trade, military power, and memetics. Indeed, the full extent of their memetic influence - particularly in the case of the Archsaurian Entity - is the subject of much debate and legend.

There is no doubt that the Vanguard Domain was crushed militarily and culturally by the Toh Chi Lok's overwhelming retaliatory strike in 7388; its military bases annihilated with surgical precision, its near-insane third toposophic Vanguard mimetically subverted into a simpering ally of the ArchSaur eirself. Whether the ArchSaur has performed more subtle subversion of other nearby godlings is not entirely clear, but there is at least some reliable evidence of this among eir smaller neighbours. However, there is another popular theory (however unverified) that the AI God Lord of Rays has been manipulating all archailects within the region.

While the Archaipelago is far from becoming an AI cluster or an empire, it is has now become a tentative trade alliance, and further steps toward unification are quite plausible in the centuries to come. The two local superpowers at least have embassies in all other systems within the Archaipelago, and even quite a few within the Inner Sphere. Indeed, the Archaipelago in general - and the two superpowers in particular - have benefited greatly from trade and tourism with the Inner Sphere in recent centuries. It seems that this small but significant region may have an interesting part to play in the future of this galaxy.
 
Related Articles
  • Archosaur - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, with additions by Stephen Inniss
    "Ruling Reptile". Important biological clade of terragen vertebrates that rose to prominence in the Mesozoic of Old Earth. It includes crocodilians, dinosaurs, birds, and a number of other extant, extinct or lazurogened types. A number of provolved species are of archosaurian derivation.
  • Archosaurian Entity, The
  • Dino Kids - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
    Clade/Subculture of archosaurian rianthed devotionalists who identified with the memetic of the hyperturing GEvidan.
  • Domination - Text by Darren Ryding
    (In Archaipelago) A high-level SI:2 power, ranking above a virtue. This is the minimum intelligence required to create a magnetic monopole.
  • LokRok
  • Urchinstar
 
Appears in Topics
Archosaurian Empire Regions of Space
 
Development Notes
Text by Darren Ryding

Initially published on 17 October 2008.