The Artificers

When people in the Foundation talk about aliens, they’re normally either referring to nascent microbial biospheres, or to worlds where life has sprung up that is bizzare, complex and beautiful - but clearly not intelligent. The idea of aliens with advanced minds, who can think and communicate like humans do, is mostly consigned to the realm of fiction.

However, recent events - very recent, within the past decade - have revealed a number of mysterious structures through the Rim, particularly in the most distant and least developed systems. Just about every detail is controversial and hotly debated, and speculation and rumour reign supreme about the stories of millennia-old ruins and mysterious artifacts that have begun to circulate in recent years.

In the past few years, scientific expeditions and treasure-hunters have begun making the long and perilous journey across the Foundation to hunt for these legendary ruins. Some on the Rim are getting nervous about all the attention. The Foundation and its attendant corporations are turning their gaze on systems that have long been left to their own devices; they’re wondering if they might be hiding something that would make those far reaches worth the time and expense of co-opting them.

Because they are known only by the things they made and the works they left behind, these aliens - if they even exist - have been dubbed “Artificers” by the popular media.

Their Fate

No expedition yet has uncovered evidence of the calamity that is assumed to have wiped the Artificers from the face of the universe. No bombed-out cities, no ruined megastructures, no mass graves. In fact, not so much as a skeleton or a fossil has been found of them; some skeptics take this as evidence that they never existed. The “ruins” and “structures” everyone’s clamouring about are surely just quirks of geology and planet formation.

For those who believe, there are many suppositions about exactly how that happened to the Artificers. Whether any of these theories resemble the truth in your version of the Foundation is up to you.

A few of the more popular hypotheses include…

The Terraforming Hypothesis. The sector we call home abounds with alien life of different varieties, some of it surprisingly compatible with human biology. That’s because the Artificers seeded this region with it thousands or even millions of years ago, preparing the way for their own interstellar colonisation. The “ruins” found by explorers are simply the remnants of vast terraforming engines which have lain quiet and unattended for eons, gathering dust and falling apart.

Clearly, the Artificers perished in some civilisation-ending apocalypse before they could reap the harvest they sowed, and the centuries have marched on without them. Will some intrepid explorer one day discover the ancient tomb of the Artificer homeworld, and learn the truth behind their demise?

The Ascension Hypothesis. The Artificers didn’t go anywhere. They have long since transcended the mundane three-dimensional universe that we inhabit, and now dwell in the incomprehensible layer of reality which humans call “otherspace” and use to travel between the stars. They dwell there still, working out inscrutable plans beyond human comprehension.

Perhaps they even intervened on humanity’s behalf, opening the fortuitous wormhole that brought humans here in the first place. Are they waiting to invite us in to join them, or guarding the gates to make sure we never follow?

The Despair Hypothesis. The only way for a galaxy-spanning civilisation to vanish without a trace is a voluntary extinction; any other explanation is simply too far-fetched. The destruction of the Artificers was an act of wilful suicide, following a slow decline into despair that consumed an entire society. After all, look how careful they were to ensure that not even a trace of their works remained. Look how long it took us to even find them!

Perhaps they chose to simply die, or perhaps they committed themselves to an eternal slumber because they could not face the prospect of eternity for a moment longer. Are the silent monuments they left behind a grim warning about our own future, a treasure waiting to be unearthed, or a Pandora’s Box waiting to be opened? Will humanity discover the same despair that claimed the Artificers?

Relics

Along with incredible stories of Artificer ruins on distant planets, there are reports of mysterious relics that have begun to circulate in the black market.

These objects are alien in every sense of the word, and possess bizarre properties and capabilities that seem to defy the known laws of physics. Yet they are also frustratingly opaque; they behave in unpredictable and poorly understood ways, and it tends to be difficult to make them do anything consistently. Many are particularly volatile when exposed to otherspace, which is troublesome for anyone looking to bring them home and sell them to the highest bidder.

Because they are so very rare and precious, the few Artificer artifacts in circulation are shrouded in mystery. They are traded in secret by black-market collectors, kept in the vaults of wealthy oligarchs, or safeguarded carefully by pirate royalty.

Mysteries. Each relic has at least two mysteries that must be pursued in order to unlock its secrets and discover its capabilities. A mystery might be something you must do, some knowledge or intuition that you must seek, or some sacrifice you must make. Some relics will remain dormant until you have solved their mystery entirely; others will grow stronger as you learn more about them.

Powers. Each relic has one or more powers or properties which become apparent once you have unlocked its mysteries. You might be able to activate or invoke the relic’s powers directly, or they might be fundamental properties or effects produced by it. For example, a relic might create a sensor “blind spot” within 5 light-seconds, but only if it’s hooked up to your ship’s reactor.

Caveats. Each relic comes with consequences or conditions, which may not be readily apparent. Some are unstable, and can’t be relied upon to work the same way twice in a row. Others are difficult to wield safely, with consequences that arise when you fail a roll or use them flippantly. Some are limited and exhaustible, while others cannot be used at all without paying some kind of cost.

This system is cribbed from Stonetop by Jeremy Strandberg. Check it out!