Torus

Name: Mrkus Albenrad

Aliases: Research Professor Marcus Faraday (Scientific/Human Community) / The Promethean (Ancients) / The Quantum Mechanic (SuperHuman Community of Earth as well as various worlds) / The Buddha's Black Pearl (Japan Shinto Era) / The Demiurge (Medieval Scotland) / The Steel Spirit (China) / The Abstract (various worlds) / The Inheritor (Self)

Profession: Futurist / Research Professor / Investigator for Department 17 / Inventor / Scientist / StarGuard Reservist (generally only in a scientific capacity or issues of temporal importance)

Base of Operations: Tartarus Dorsa, Pluto / McLaughlin, AFB / StarGuard Gamma

Archetype: Support/Defense/Logistical

Appearance
Often

Background
Mrkus Albenrad is a time traveler who grew bored with the 28th Century. He was not like many of his brethren, the Engineers of a great society grown past the need of money or true possessions. Looking back across the long line of recorded history, Mrkus Albenrad discovered a minor footnote about a time-lost 'WingMaker' who fought alongside the heroes of the Barbaric Times. Among themselves they referred to the first generation of Engineers as the 'WingMakers.' There was one, held above all others who was lost to time. Mrkus Albenrad formulated a plan- he would travel back to meet this lost 'WingMaker' and so too find fun & excitement in ancient tales of ages past.

Mrkus Albenrad assembled the fragments of tales noting our hero, and did his best to emulate the materials needed. There were only 2 things that would prove difficult to get- an Synthetic Sentient Crystal (a rare and powerful device. A portable & Personal is Oracle Crystal- The Engineers' greatest achievement which sits at the heart of every city/state in the 29th Century) & 122lbs of programmable Destreum their most prized construction material. Equal to Questionite in every way, except lighter & less magnetically conductive. Then constructing the necessary working frameworks & machine colonies out of another type of destreum. Together this made the destreum programmable- able to become any shape desired. It took him ages to acquire all of these things without his fellow Engineers catching wind, but he had much experience in the assembly of such objects. He is a master technologist and has created numerous inventions and weapons.

The last thing he'd need is a Transgate crystal to fuse with the Oracle Stone. He'd use this to travel back in time. If anyone discovered what he was doing it would afford him maybe 6 jumps under its own power before the other Engineers lock him out of the Temporal Nexus. He'd have to get as close to the Lost One as he can before he's locked out or else he could be trapped in the wrong time.

His goal was 7 caches found in the Barbaric Era of this lost WingMaker. He jumped to each before their unearthing in various points in time. He shifted through their contents and let his Oracle Stone put the pieces together. Eventually he landed here in the mid-21st century. He seeks another like him anywhere, but as of yet has found no one. His Oracle Stone has found no trace of this Lost One. In fact across all time and space it is alone- besides the original City/State Crystals that came before it. With his quest ended, and his TransGate Crystal locked out of 4th Dimensional Travel he had nothing left to do but wait. Unfortunately for him- he is the Lost One. He is the one who will have built the caches that he finds, only place them for himself much later on.

Once settled in the present, he made a base deep within the Tartarus Dorsa, Pluto. It contained a vault of all his acquisitions, and also served as a storage facility for his primary tool- the programmable destreum. When given the proper materials, the machine colonies could mate and create copies of themselves and pure refined destreum from the atomic components therein. As advances were brought to the Demiurge's attention, acquisition or created- the colonies were capable of mating in order to give birth to smaller and better machinery as the Torus 'evolved' over the past 50 years.

Often the infinitesimally small grains of sand making up the Torus continually shaped and reshaped themselves into ever-changing geometric forms. Perfect spheres, cubes and other, seemingly random shapes would form out of the sand, but the order and placement of them never repeated (and never will for all eternity).

These days, he shares his true nature with few. Pretending to be a probe or by blending in with the background. What The Torus does not say- or rarely even thinks about anymore is that he came here to fight by the side of this being- The First WingMaker because he was 'bored with paradise.' That he carried a great lust for battle until being broken a thousand times over by the endless reaches of the foam. Now he is motivated purely to expand his knowledge & edify a 'critical mass' of the population to advance humanity away from stagnation & the ecological disasters to come.

It is noted, the will behind the Torus is a pacifist & will take the route of non-violence in any situation.

28th Century Civilization
After Post-Human technology fell out of favor (think silicon based tech and basic biotech & all with human/computer interfaces) & GenCoded Edenist (incredibly advanced biotech) technology became passe, the Post-TransHuman age began. Technology surpassed all that came before it in complexity, and through it the world was almost written anew- or so they said. Really Post-Human experimentation had come at a terrible expense to the biosphere. So these new Men and Women began the arduous process of rebuilding the world their forefathers destroyed. Looking back, to their origins in hopes of finding the answers needed to restore their world.

Beyond the 'baseline' or 'old-style' human model, 7 others sprung up. Over the generations specialties became the norm- and the Post-TransHuman Coming of Age tale always ended in a choice of what they would become & while work was truly a thing of the past- passion remained deep in the heart of man and its fledgling castes. These became the 8races of Man. The Creators, The Engineers, The Curators, The Caretakers, Alephs, Abyssi & the Builders. Man of course had many 'children' through the ages & many of those AIs and VIs (virtual intelligences) still exist. Some even working alongside Humankind's inheritors. Others have taken to the stars chasing after 'The Assembly Colony' a collective of various AIs come together from various worlds across the cosmos.


 * The Creators were the teachers of children and keepers of Art & Song. They were the guardians of culture and guided tradition & mankind's evolution as a whole.


 * The Engineers, who maintained and invented new technologies. They were the keepers of the City/State Crystals that maintained order and peace on their world. They also were the first to be able to contain the full 'Ancient Assembly Code' (A language that only the most intelligent or ancient of species can understand or decode.)


 * The Curators were the keepers of history & of the various creations of all mankind. They maintained the vast libraries and databases in each city. They also served as evaluators & assistance to both Creators and Engineers. If their work needed to be curved or restructured they make suggestions and provide another POV trained in a multitude of disciplines instead of just one.


 * Alephs served as Generals & Military commanders. Mostly only used in off-world disputes. War has not found its way into the hearts of man for many generations by the time of Mrkus' birth. They command the great war-machines of mankind. All of them are pointed away from Earth & are only ever called to battle in the greatest of threats or to protect those colonies who maintain Official Reservation Status of 'Humankind'


 * The Caretakers serve as trained medical & mental caretakers. Sworn 'to serve & to keep man- in all its forms- healthy and free of disease.' They also travel down to the Earth and assist the Gardeners with various animal related duties. They could design life forms on demand for any task, but rarely did out of a deep respect for all life. They would not call anything to life to live in servitude. The first Caretaker designed the original SSCs with the First Line of Engineers.


 * The Gardeners were a super-specialized off-shoot of the Caretakers charged with maintaining what was left of the Earth's biospheres, as well as restoring the damaged expanses.Beyond the 'Old-Styles' reservations & the floating cities- they were the only ones who actually lived on Earth.


 * The Builders did just that- they designed and built great wonders on Earth and beyond. They specialized in the terraforming systems as well overseeing monumental construction. The Builders worked hand in hand with The Engineers on many projects.


 * The Abyssi - Post-transhumans who have specialized in Zero-G living as well other specializations to help deal with living in space full-time. Serves as exploratory force & off-world science officers.


 * 'Old-Styles' - The closest to baseline humans. But with many (genetic) enhancements & additions. Modern humans merely look (and mostly think) like contemporary humans. Telepathy is common, and has quelled much of the violent edge of man. This adaptation allowed use of Sentient Crystal technology. There are still meta-humans among this small group, some that occur naturally. Other Human castes' 'specializations' would warrant meta-human status.

Earth had been burned asunder after a large particle collider incident in the upper reaches of Earth's orbit. Post-Human colonies were lost in the destruction and many fell to Earth. Their various experiments and synthetic creations laid waste to natures bounty which was largely restored from the age of coal & petroleum. Huge swaths of the world turned to grey dust-claimed wastes. What few biologically sound ecosystems remain are fiercely protected and maintained (and in a few cases expanded) by the Gardeners, Caretakers & 'Old-Style' Reservations. Food production was moved to automated space-stations sitting at Lagrange points around the Earth & other outposts (usually based inside of asteroids moved into and hollowed out in Earth's orbit).

Destreum and its Properties
This is a wonder metal- equal to questionite in nearly every way & then some. Certain allotropes of the metal carry different properties. Though there are 'allotropes' this terminology is not entirely correct. Destreum could not be an element as it is not radioactive (all elements with high atomic weights are radioactive). All allotropes maintain the durability of the 'base' metal with the exception of Destreum Seven. This version is quite brittle & almost crystalline in structure. This version also has the ability of greatly amplifying mystical energies unlike Destreum Two which greatly hampers these energies. Though when used to amplify mystical energies it is highly unstable.
 * Destreum One: Base Non-radioactive element which by it self shows impressive durability to abrasion & fracture.
 * Destreum Two: This allotrope has the strange property of nullifying, diminishing, or disrupting magical energy. Few have the metallurgic skills to produce this metal.
 * Destreum 3-4: Certain isotopes introduce a mutagenic quality to the metal. This can activate latent meta-genes.
 * Destreum 5: Has anti-gravitic properties. Also contains the 'mutagenic property' that activates latent meta-genes. Both properties arise only when brought to a super-conductive state & then having a high current applied.
 * Destreum 6: 'Non-Vibrational Strata' - A specific form of the metal so far only found in deep space. The electrons of this allotrope do not move. This means the molecules constantly behave as if they were at a temperature of 0 degrees Kelvin (absolute zero). This lack of motion on the molecular scale means that Destreum 6 is physically incapable of transferring force, making it the most durable substances & best used for defensive purposes. This gives the metal the unique property of absorbing vibratory waves such as sound as well kinetic energy by somehow storing this energy within it's molecular bonds. The more energy it absorbs, the stronger the molecular bonds become until the destreum is extremely difficult to damage or destroy. Unfortunately deposits of this are incredibly rare as the actual processes that go into creating this version are not understood- even in the 29th Century.
 * Although this metal is extremely difficult to destroy; it is not impossible. There is an upper limit to the amount of energy Destreum-6 can safely absorb, however this has yet to be determined. Doing so is incredibly dangerous as once the molecular bonds are shattered, it causes all of the energy stored within those molecular bonds to be released at once which tends to result in an incredibly large and powerful explosion. 98% of all known collected Destreum 6 houses the personal sized Synthetic Sentient Crystal that hands the computational needs of the Torus.
 * Destreum 7: 'Starlight Ore' - An irradiated state that can either emit or absorb large if not unlimited quantities of energy. Also can be used in Zero-Point Energy Generators as containment for energy storage.

Base of Operations
Location: Tartarus Dorsa, Pluto (5mi beneath surface) Size: 400x800m cavern with various structures, ships and other things contained. There are few lights as the Torus/Demiurge are functionally blind.

Notible contents of vast storehouse in the Plutonian Mountains:
 * SlipShip Model: A9 Quantex / Designation: 'The Benevolence'
 * Ships capable of travel not through space- but between parallel universes and higher dimensions. Warp drive moves space around it for traversing space inside dimensions.
 * Explorer Class (Swift scientific probes designed to recover data. What they lack in offensive capabilities, Explorers make up for with state-of-the-art empathic navigation, self-aware chameleon camouflage and * faster-than-thought engines)
 * Zero Point Power Core from Space Station referred to as 'The Hightower' which was capable of watching over the whole multiverse. Currently powering Tartarus Base
 * Primary Computer from 'The Hightower' which supposedly was the unit capable of calculating probabilities to such a degree in any universe selected based on 4th and 5th dimensional matrices created by a 6th dimensional scientist. Currently: Non-functional
 * Fission Waste Processor - Backup Power system that uses waste for full fission power generation. This was originally the Tartarus Bases' primary power source until the SlipShip was discovered and scavenged for parts.