In the Perseus arm of our galaxy lies a star system and a planet that xenoarcheologists claim was occupied ages ago, although the archeological and paleontological evidence is dubious at best. What is not disputed is the presence of an unusual megastructure. On one mountain of that planet there is a great structure, thousands of cubits tall. It is constructed of sapphire and diamond, is self-repairing, and derives energy from both solar power and an internal picotech power supply the workings of which are still not fully understood.
Each solar rotation, this vast mechanism emits a tick. Each hundred rotations, it emits a gong. Those who study the mechanism believe that every ten thousand rotations, a small mechanism will appear from a certain door and make a sound. The last effect has not been observed in living memory, and the next occurrence is projected to be nearly eighty generations removed from those now living. Local xenoarchaeologists and folklorists claim that the gong's period was longer than the lifespan of an individual of any known species, and that the unseen mechanism has a period longer than that of terragen recorded history.
According to local belief, the entire edifice was constructed only a few years before its alien makers vanished to wherever ancient races go.
There is however heated controversy over whether this and other similiar artifacts truely are alien or simply the result of unknown terragen superturing and/or hyperturing AIs, originating from the Sol system perhaps as far back as the pre-First Federation.
Philosophers across the galaxy have argued over the purpose of the Eternal Clock. As with other artifacts such as the Diamond Book, the Circle of Time, the Oracle, and the Wandering Flame, consensus holds that the motive was not religious or superstitious in nature, but philosophical.
What principle the Eternal Clock was intended by its makers (whether terragen or alien) to embody is still a matter of great controversy. But while arguments rage in the great Institutes of the Inner Sphere, while children are born and great-grandparents die, while new races and clades evolve and vanish, the Eternal Clock continues to tick. And perhaps that is the message it is intended to convey.
The Wandering Flame is believed to have been created not later than the early Empires era by an unidentified Caretaker God as a didactic device. According to the accompanying media (long known to be a deliberate allegory but still considered by some to be a literal account), a backyarder ship after a long period of sub-relativistic travel colonised a planet they called "Eden" (not the well-known Inner Sphere world of the same name!) just as it was about to enter a new Ice Age. The colony successfully staved off global cooling - first through deliberate emission of greenhouse gases, then through orbital solar mirrors, and finally, as they reached the heights of technology, through direct reversal of the underlying climatic effect. In celebration, they constructed the Wandering Flame, an artificial sunlet that shines for one seventeenth of an orbital period over any planet on which any colony or clade or demapoly successfully manages an environmental crisis.
The technology of the Wandering Flame is not known, although it appears to be based on a femtotech heat engine principle. Although the Wandering Flame often delivers more solar energy than the planet's original star, no climatic or ecological side effects occur. When not fulfilling its primary function, the Wandering Flame can usually be found in the asteroid belt of some otherwise uninteresting star system, or moving at relativistic velocity towards another colony.
The most recent visit was when it appeared above Jedman II of the Sagittarius Transcultural Cooperation. It is currently residing 33 lightyears spinwards in the system YTS 5498-3498222. Information and updates about the Wandering Flame are provided by an accompanying Sophic League ai monitor craft - the Light-Bringer, which has accompanied it since the early Second Federation period.
The Oracle is a spherically-shaped region of space, roughly 32 light-hours in diameter, located around 2 light-years to the galactic north of Elnath. It is generally believed that the Oracle is a femtotech AI artefact. The Oracle will answer one question for each petitioner; unfortunately, there is no way to know in advance which question it is. Only seventeen questions have ever been answered, four of them asked by accident and apparently trivial, but in each case the petitioner expressed a profound sense of satisfaction and enlightenment.
The Circle of Time is located on Golden Mesa (YTS 2293-3800031 X) among the extensive ruins on this airless world. From the outside, the Circle of Time appears as a circular path of beaten silver, eighty-three meters in diameter. When you set foot on the Circle at any point, the path begins to move, conveying you along the Circle. It appears to take exactly fifteen minutes and twenty-eight seconds for you to reach your starting point, although on exiting, no external time appears to have passed. Many past and future selves of the fifteen minutes are visible in their corresponding positions along the Circle of Time, and you can converse with yourself as desired.
The construction and nature of the Circle of Time has still not been determined, but it is widely acknowledged as being at least partially if not completely planktech. While some devotees claim this was evidence of a long-lost alien supercivilisation, many artificial theologians argue that it is a didactic device left by a long-ascended AI, tentatively dated some time during the late ComEmp period. However, they are unable to conclusively show how a hyperturing could reach this far from the inhabited center so long before even relativitsic exploratory nanoprobes.
Information regarding the precise nature and origin of the Circle of Time remains inconclusive.
The Diamond Book has the density and appearance of purest diamond. No matter how many pages are turned, there are still as many left. The weight and volume of the Book never increase. No page has ever been found containing words, pictures, or other visible content, though each page sparkles beautifully and individually. Those who read the Book by gazing on several pages in succession feel an overwhelming sense of sadness and grief. The emotion is not debilitating but cathartic, and has inspired great artistic works and a lasting end to several wars. Despite the thousands of intrigues that have broken out in competition for possession of the sole portable artifact, no violent conflict has ever occurred. Its origin is unknown; the first mention was in 7302 in the inventory of Labeyrie.
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