Show pageOld revisionsBacklinksBack to top This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong. [[..setting:species|Click here to go back to the Inhabitants page.]]\\ ====== The Emulated ====== //(EM-yuh-lay-tid - /ˈem.jə.leɪ.tɪd/)// ---- > "Why was I built like this? Able only to level and destroy, never to create?" — //An Emulated, created with axes and picks instead of hands.// ---- The Emulated, informally known as the robots, are sapient creatures of silicon and metal. The Emulated derive their name from the Emulator, the ingenious software which gave them sapience. The program is efficiently embedded in purpose-built [[..:start:glossary#chip|Chips]], unclonable hardware unique to each Emulated. The bodies of the Emulated are modular and can be repaired or modified easily with spare parts. Besides a source of power, these parts are all they require to survive. ===== Society and Culture ===== > "Need a hand?" > "No, I should be- oooh, wait, that one's got a jackhammer? I'll take it!" — //Two Emulated, exchanging spare parts.// ---- A robot’s primary and most immediate need is power. Most robot frames contain advanced batteries that can power them for several days, but eventually they need to recharge. Typically they prefer to do so for a few hours each day, in a pattern partially mimicking human sleep. Robot [[..:start:glossary#commune|Communes]] form around accessible and easily maintainable sources of power, such as wind turbines, solar farms, and hydroelectric dams. The 'Internet' of myth and legend is long gone, leaving these communities isolated from each other, except where expeditions travel between them. An Emulated can have any of an infinite variety of body plans and limbs, though often they are built with the tools to fill a specific role in their Commune. Some Emulated specialise in the different disciplines of engineering needed to keep their power source running, becoming electricians, mechanics, welders, and so on. The rest work to gather scrap to fulfil the robots’ secondary need: spare parts. These are required both to maintain their power source --- replacement turbine blades and solar panels --- and to maintain themselves, directly - replacement limbs, batteries, and wiring. Scrap might either be salvaged from humanity’s ruins, or taken from other robots by force. It is then recycled into the needed parts. The Commune might have some capacity to fabricate parts in-house, but more complicated parts require machinery and skills that it cannot feasibly maintain. For these, a small group will be sent on a pilgrimage to a nearby [[..:start:glossary#facility|Facility]]. Facilities are immensely significant places to the Emulated, almost taking on the importance of holy sites. Adapted from factories or industrial parks, they are equipped with production lines capable of reprocessing scrap metal into robotic parts or chips. Their keepers pass them down from generation to generation, and the position grants them immense power and respect in fragmented robotic society. The Emulated are created with blank minds, besides a generic copy of the Emulator software. They are assigned a pair of 'parents', who protect them and help them to grow and develop, which can take many years. In particular, they are born without a specified gender. Some find themselves drawn to a certain gender as their personality develops, and others remain agender for life. ==== Attitude Towards Humanity ==== Most of the Emulated revere humanity for granting them life. Human structures, such as power sources and Facilities, provide the robots with sustenance, and the very essence of their consciousness, the Emulator, is believed to be a human invention. This gratitude sometimes manifests as spiritual or even religious worship. The 'Internet', in particular, is often viewed as a myth, so perfect and vast that stories of it must be exaggerated legends to demonstrate humanity’s great power. ==== Attitude Towards Other Kingdoms ==== ===Myconids=== The [[..:setting:myconids|Myconids]] are seen by the Emulated as a generally arrogant and haughty species. Their smugness over their mycelial Networks, which they boast are closer to the internet than anything the robots now have access to, is an insult to humanity: they do not understand the magnificence that they mock. Nonetheless, Myconids are highly adaptable beings, and that in itself is to be commended. ===Triffids=== The Emulated often feel a sense of unrequited siblinghood to the [[..:setting:triffids|Triffids]]. Humanity bequeathed more of itself to plants and machines than it did to animals or fungi: though a tree is alive, it is much closer to an inanimate object than even a mushroom. This respect, in turn, creates a sense of deep, foundational guilt, that an Emulated’s life and existence can in itself cause harm to nature. Some Emulated Communes strive to live in harmony, as best they can, with their environments, despite how alien they are to them. Industrial processes are optimised to minimise emissions and waste, and life is carefully tended amongst solar panels and wind farms - so the Triffids can co-habitate peacefully with the Emulated Communes. ===Smarties=== An Animal is physically a messy, chaotic being, filled with tangles of tubes and squishy organs, and amongst the Kingdoms the [[..:setting:smarties|Smarties]] are the most shackled by their nature. The Emulated pity them for this, though they try not to show it. Smarties pose little threat to them, except the very largest, and the Emulated have no reason to harm them in return. This neutrality makes trust and friendship easy, and in many places a great respect exists between the two Kingdoms. ===== Creating an Emulated ===== A slim majority of the Emulated are created to a humanoid body plan, although there exists a staggering variety of alternatives. Modular limbs can be readily fitted together in arbitrary patterns, and structural frames are not all that difficult to fabricate. An Emulated can move on two legs, or more, or scuttle on a million tiny feet, or roll with wheels or tracks. They might have long, serpentine torsos with many segments, or simple one-piece frames, or even fill an entire structure, such as a Facility --- though such a construct would not be able to travel to the Fourth Place. The core of an Emulated is the set of Chips containing its personality. These must be kept close together, and are often set in a fortified compartment. For a humanoid robot, this is almost always the head. Many robots are built to fill a specific function in their Commune. When creating a robot, please describe their body plan, and tell the GMs to what purpose (if any) it is adapted. ==== Character Inspirations ==== * A mechanic with a U-shaped torso, designed to clip around a wind turbine and climb to the top. * An aquatic robot, with both legs and water jets, who helps to maintain a tidal generator. * A truck, used to transport scrap to the local Facility, with a secondary humanoid body it can move its chips into when needed. * A canine-esque scout, with four legs, a streamlined body, and an advanced suite of visual sensors. * A massive combat robot, with a long, segmented torso, designed by a particularly aggressive Commune to steal scrap from other Emulated. ==== Naming Conventions ==== The first Emulated were given distinctly human names, but modern robots often prefer to take a name reflecting their purpose or function in their Commune or as an individual. In rebellion to this trend, some may take deliberately abstract names, or return back to the original human naming scheme. Example names: Wanderer, Seeker, Welder, Scrapper, Basher, Mechanic, Gardener, Guardian, The Glory Of Compassion, Freedom Of Expression, Burdened And Chained, Steelsoul, Amy, Tessa, John, Smith, Bob. ===== NPCs ===== ^NPC^Pronouns^Kingdom^Description^Physrep^ | ANI | she/they | Emulated | An Emulated nun and a Hominist who dedicates her life to the worshipping of humanity and their gifts of life and energy to the Emulated. She is the main maintenance engineer for the Fourth Place's Emulated charging ports. | Cyber glasses and an apron| |Expanse|it/its|Emulated|A hulking behemoth with a kind and helpful disposition. Built by the Inheritors to help repair and maintain human structures. A revered expert in human technology, with the strength and skills to put theory into practice.|Heavy coat| |Old Hand|any|Emulated| Ideological authority of the Ascensionist philosophy, who radically believes that robots and other Kingdoms are literally human by nurture. Appears as a collection of serially-replaced parts and modules, with a face they built themself from scrap and LEDs. |Headtorch| |Deputy Beech|it/he|Emulated|An animatronic dog - themed after a cowboy - built to occupy the Fourth Place. He was a 'security robot', ostensibly, but had no means of actually detaining or hurting humans because that would be a recipe for disaster. A little ditzy but very well-meaning.|Cowboy hat| setting/the_emulated.txt Last modified: 2026/10/17 14:03by gm_kris