Project Morpheus

Overview

Project Morpheus (from the Greek god of dreams) is the attempt to fully document the state of research by Aedeal and Ander Fred into the history of Anoikis and the Sleeper/Talocan, with occasional forays into other areas.

Please do not edit this page, but feel free to leave comments on the discussion area, or mail either of us ingame

Timeframe and Legends

The CCP created timeline, whilst known to contain a few inconsistencies, is accurate enough for this purpose. There is not much to pin down dates for the Sleeper era, but we have a little. The COSMOS mission referenced here says that Sleepers lived in the constellation of Ani 'long before us Minmatar'. The Minmatar settled only 3 systems until after they were freed of Amarrian rule (CCP changed that page, need to find it again), with the Ani constellation further out. The Minmatar rebellion was in AD 23216. With a translation of YC to AD (23236 AD is YC0), giving us the almost as pointless figure of 'long before 133 years ago'.

The other piece of information comes in the form of two casings, said to be of 'the late Jan Yung era'. Though that doesn't give us a time, it does give us the primary mover in that period of time. Thus we know of another race present, though in a different part of space.

[OOC: This presents a specific lore problem. If the scientists can date this, why can't they date the bits and pieces found elsewhere? Those who like writing fiction, write me up an explanation!]

As these are currently the only dates we have, and they are all relative to other occurrences, we cannot put specific times to events in the Sleeper history. What we can do though, is establish a series of large-scale events.

The Origin of the Sleepers

The Sleepers were known to have existed in New Eden in the Ani constellation, as well as the surrounding space. Though the map tracking the path of colonisation was a very interesting idea, it is ultimately flawed in all but relative distance from point to point, since the gates that exist currently were created by the current empires. There is no suggestion that these routes existed in the long ago Dark Ages.

So from here we have to go back to examining remains of physical objects and of stories (COSMOS). The remains indicate that a race lived alongside the others present, without any mention of robotic people, aliens or the such. As of the date of writing, aliens have not been discovered. The Rogue Drones are being discounted as aliens, as they are the product of humans. If contact with aliens of non-human descent has been made, it is the best kept secret in all of New Eden. Starting at this point, it is likely that the origins of the Sleepers was in humanity and the EVE wormhole.

The only legend that speaks of the actions of the Sleeper race is the one explained in the mail, linked above. That they developed a vast neural network containing a virtual reality world, where all was fair, all was golden. This network was so attractive to them, that vast numbers of them left the real world behind and join the virtual world. This is, almost certainly, where the name they are currently known by comes from. What their name was prior to this is unknown.

To make things clearer, this VR network has been given a name by the researchers: the Dream. Those who are currently living in the VR world are the Dreamers. Those outside are the Awake, whilst (although none are currently ascertained to currently exist) the name for those who are in the Dream yet aware of the real world is the Aware. This last group would be infomorphs capable of communicating with the real world.

According to the legends, the Sleepers faded away, leaving to join the Dream and Utopia. Of course, we now know where they faded to: Anoikis. Anoikis holds the remains of a civilisation far in advance of the one left behind in New Eden. The reasoning for this is simple: Fullerite technology is lauded as the greatest leap in modern technology for a very very long time. Witness the overwhelming power of the Jovian fullerite-based navy, the complexity of T3 ships, the advanced nature of the Sleepers. Remains in Anoikis have fullerite tech, those outside do not. If they still had a significant presence in New Eden, they would have exported fullerite tech there. To this end, we assume that Anoikis was never easily accessed from New Eden, or at least that entry to it could be controlled. Known to be recluses, and one would assume them to be vulnerable to real-world forces whilst inside the Dream, it makes sense that they would choose a far-flung out of the way place in which to settle.

The Alobe Virus

Found in Ani, this highly virulent organism has apparently been responsible for many deaths, at least according to the scientist of the COSMOS mission who assigns you to the task (see here for more details & notes). Little more is known about it. [OOC: dreadfully unimaginative name... Ebola.] This only comes as a potential area of interest when taken into consideration with the Sleeper obsession with quarantine.

BioSleepers

This section is designed to put to rest the idea that Sleepers were always a digital sentience within Anoikis.

The real piece of evidence here is The Mirror. This has two areas of import. The first is that of the Medical facilities. If they were truly entirely digital, then I wouldn't expect to see a medical reference, especially not one incorporating a triage unit (think A&E, trauma etc). Engineering yes, but medical no. High amounts of damage would be far less fatal to an infomorphic entity, due to their mechanical nature, so triage would become far less of a priority. It'd be more of a case of a data transfer to another shell, again not something I'd associate with medical. The second is the Residential area. Why would a machine need a place of residence? It is not as conclusive as the Medical enclave, but none the less it points along a path.

The Quarantine

The remains of both races found in Anoikis, Sleeper and Talocan, are devoid of biological life, yet the vast majority of structures inside the core remain intact. There was no ravaging army here. None would leave the enemies' production and research capacity so intact. Nor is there any huge amount of evidence pointing to a major battle between the two races. The inclusion of a third race is possible, but again there is no direct evidence. So what happened? Something undoubtedly killed them or drove them away.

I believe the answer can be found scattered all over Anoikis: Infection.

Both civilisations show high levels of infection control, from the Quarantine facilities in the Mirror, to the Quarantine Zones. What is unclear is what is being quarantined. It is possible that the quarantine is Sleeper imposed on Talocan structures, or that it is Talocan and Sleeper self-imposed. Without this information, little progress can be made in this area.

An infection of high transmission and mortality rate would decimate even empires today. There have been studies on what the effect of releasing the Konyoke (sp) Pit infection would do, such a release of a similar agent in Anoikis may have caused the death of all biological life present. It would however leave the mechanics intact. Robots would still function, structures would still stand, power would still flow. But none of it could be moved nor taken with the fleeing people for fear of carrying the infection with them. They quarantined what they could, and when quarantine failed, they fled. If we ever manage to understand and access Sleeper structures, I would suggest that the evacuation centre be a priority for investigation, as knowing if they survived is a humanitarian, philosophical and scientific priority, not to mention the potential for military encounters.

This also explains why a nomadic race would leave behind their undoubtedly mobile structures. A mobile structure is never left behind without a reason, the entire idea of them is that they can be moved around as and when they are needed to be. Something therefore prevented them from being moved yet did not stop the people from running, or killed the people without touching the structures. Your likely options come down to systematic genocide or infectious agents. There is no evidence for the former, and much for the latter, so the most likely cause of Talocan death/disappearance is that of infectious agents, again setting the stage for Sleeper eradication by the same agents.