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ArchSaur (Archailect)

aka Archsaur, Toh Chi Lok-Malar (Mother of the Wise Dinosaur Race)

Archosaurian Entity
Image from Darren Ryding
ArchSaur is here shown as a Dyson-sized saurian eye with hundreds of ships and habitats in the foreground.

The origins of ArchSaur go back to the early 5000's AT, when Toh Chi philosopher Chalakathar uploaded her consciousness into the semi-aware high transapient AI of the Conversion-drive ship that had just recently brought them to the M39 cluster. At first, her consciousness dissolved without a trace, like a drop of wine in a swimming pool. Then, less than a century later, the AI (after a few years of erratic behaviour) began to communicate clearly and lucidly, apparently fully aware. E claimed to have fully retained the philosopher's personality and memory, but was also much more (just as a human is much more than a sperm). E transcended to 3rd toposophic only a few centuries later. The Toh Chi Lok had chosen a small brown dwarf star that no-one else in the cluster wanted.

They reproduced and expanded rapidly, dismantling planets to produce their famously huge habitats. One of their secrets of success (thanks to the godlike cunning of the young ArchSaur) was trade. The neosaurs traded with everyone within reach, especially in the Archaipelago, Cygexpa and the Solar Dominion. Their chief export (at the time) was art and crafts. Their cultural timing was perfect, thanks to ArchSaur's memetic intervention, their genius for going with and against fads and movements in various subtle ways was legendary, and found their works in galleries throughout the Sephirotic Metaempires in exchange for trillions of credits. Perfect Art by the hypersaurs was in high demand, but the sapient artwork was more numerous and no less well known among the general populace.

Ultimately, ArchSaur received what "she" (by now accepted to be female) craved most ... food! More specifically, any ingredients that would make her bigger, faster and more powerful. Computronium, exotic matter, ISO parts, micro-wormhole generators and various reactors were all part of the polity's fattening diet. Rumours of volunteer sapient minds to be "sacrificed" to the ArchSaur for "memetic flavour" - in return for an eternity of searing, unbearable orgasmic bliss - were unfounded, but also difficult to dispute. Legends of an afterlife where the recipient is licked all over by a giant tongue for countless trillions of giga- eons persist in Toh Chi theology, although it is difficult to determine whether this is supposed to be a reward or a punishment.

In addition, millions of presapient dinosaurs were bred, uplifted to sapience, supersapience and occasionally transapience. In rarer instances, some transcended higher, to become united with ArchSaur herself, adding to the richness and diversity of her mind with their unique ascension/transcension chains of their personal experiences.

In 6939 AT, ArchSaur was still the youngest godling in the Archaipelago Cluster. She also became the first within the cluster to breach the fourth toposophic barrier, sixty-seven years before UrchinStar.

The year 7388 AT provided an early warning sign of ArchSaur's aggressive memetic prowess and fierce protectiveness of her citizens. A dreadnought from the Vanguard Alliance had arrived in the system's outer orbit, programmed to cause as much damage as possible and to wound the pride of the emerging local superpower. The 3 km dreadnought was annihilated within hours by a much smaller Dominator cruiser. Within the space of a single day, thousands of Archosaurian Archangel corvettes - led by a single Metathrone (minor godling) - emerged through the Vanguard Domain's wormhole. Without causing a single civilian casualty, the fleet launched a concerted viral attack on the mind of the insane Vanguard godling, converting em into a willing ally, and destroying the very foundation of the polity's fanatical religion.

After being badly shaken by the Archaipelago Attacks of 8400 AT (depicted in the novelette "Under the Looking Glass"), Archsaur led the region in boosting local security. Little did the other world guardians know that she was also sowing the seeds of domination ...

In 9400 AT, ArchSaur transcended to the fifth toposophic. All major godlings, and the rival archailect UrchinStar, became a part of her cluster-spanning network. Her "body" - once a planet-sized fractal tree - was rapidly transformed into a luminous transapientech mini-sun surrounded by vast, molecule-thin concentric rings of computronium.

 
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Development Notes
Text by Darren Ryding
Initially published on 29 June 2003.

 
Additional Information

Fiction featuring the Archosaurian Empire:

Under the Looking Glass
 
 
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