Communications and Compute

The foundational principles upon which the mechanics long-distance communications and computation occurs in the Switchboard, as well as the harnessing of those principles to make the latter possible.

Scope

The outline of this document and what it tackles are as follows;

1. The DevitNet

• The Anarhiza
• The Dendro-Vitric Root Network
• Packet Chalk
• Interlace Command
• Netfrastructure
• The microlNet and Gated Networks

2. Switchboard Computation

• Compute Core Architecture
• Harnessing the Mindspun and APS Quotients
• Slates and Switchboard Computation
• Spool Storage and Dynamics
• Weftloaders
• Software

3. Net-Compute Intersectionality

• Research, Management Relevant and Authorities
• pNarrat: Two Sides of a Doctrinal Coin
• The Breach Protocol
• Vaults and Kache-Krashing
• pNarrat: The Glazwyre
• pNarrat: Artificial Thinkers

The DevitNet

The First Offensive is recommended reading for this section.

The resultant of many, many processions of study, a collaboration between old minds and new, and the innovation born from the weight of possible annihilation, the DevitNet has arisen and serves as the means of long-distance communication in the Switchboard.

The Anarhiza

Many concepts in the Samsara canon stem from a narrative design vision of the Switchboard to contain a litany of wholly natural features that are creatively used by its denizens to their own ends. Much like installing a waterwheel on a river flowing powerfully down a mountain, the Third Kin are envisioned as constantly seeking ways to use their surroundings to their advantage, which plays perfectly in the particularly-strider mantra of exploration; the necessity of finding new ‘surroundings’ to make use of.

A realization of this is the Anarhiza. Much like the various other horticultural components employed by Striders in their rituals and elsewhere (Switchboard Flora), the tree that is the Anarhiza - more properly known as the Verrphagic Anarhiza (glass-eating upside-down root) - is unique in it’s ability to exist in both the Switchboard and the Vitric Shelf. The tree seemingly originates from the Shelf, as it most peculiarly grows upside down; it’s roots stretching skywards into semi-tangible shimmer where it crosses the boundary between the Shelf and the Switchboard - before phasing out of sight and reality totally - while its branches and leaves grow downwards into the Switchboard, soaking up chalk like sunlight. The roots of the anarhiza are said to occupy an intangible ‘boundary plane’ between the Vitric Shelf and the Dancirah, much like the Challenger Horizon that cordons off the Deep from the Sky.

Even more curiously, no individual Anarhiza exists, studies on it concluding that every single ‘individual’ Anarhiza is merely another branch of a far greater progenitor tree to which all Anarhiza are linked through their roots. That, supposedly, every new tree planted grows its roots into the Shelf and meets a collection of roots already present, which it fuses with, becoming another node on that ancient, endless network, seemingly spanning the entire Switchboard.

The Anarhiza, additionally, by some - as of now, with regards to you reading this document - facilitates the transfer of chalkweave from endpoint to endpoint across long - even interstellar - distances.

How does it do this?

That is due to the fact the Anarhiza is in fact, thinking weave. More specifically, its an amalgamation of First Thinker Minds operating under a prime directive; the facilitation of communication. The Anarhiza is the final resting place of one of the many factions that the First Thinkers were split into before the First Praxis War against the Vermeil; they are known as the Interlace Communicative. This they achieved by subjecting themselves to the Triptych Crucible to become a singular amalgam of minds that served as a seed, which would later grow in to the Anarhiza, and serve as the communication lattice for the entire Dancirah.

Before the Eradication Imperative could ever possibly wage a Switchboard-spanning war, they would need two key things; an analogue for infantry, and a means of Dancirah-spanning communication. The Interlace Communicative arose to solve both of these problems, by first and foremost undergoing an amalgamation into a singular, cohesive mind, that was then situated in the Vitric Shelf upon a throne within a hollow, excavated via the manipulation of glass - something the First Thinkers were growing increasingly proficient at doing. From this, the Interlace Minds began to form more of themselves, multiplying like microorganisms, and gradually growing, spreading roots into the Vitric Shelf. Growth was slow, but exponential, and in time the roots had spread to occupy much of the known Switchboard and even further beyond, creating an extensive thinking lattice sandwiched between the Sky and the Shelf. Under their prime directive, a word spoken to them captioned with where it must go, was a request always honored and answered, and the Eradication Imperative now had a means to communicate the various intricacies of war across the expanse of the Dancirah.

The second problem was solved by the interlace Minds investigating, reverse-engineering, and coming to understand the workings of the Second Thinker’s computers. Elaborated upon later, they realized the Vermeil had harnessed the elementary calcic intelligences that arose as a byproduct of various Astrolabic Mechanics - the mindspun - to serve as brains for thinking machines. Doing the same, the Interlace Minds engineered the chromelings; machine entities outfitted alongside hundreds of parameters such as offense, defense, construction, extraction and communication to serve as the foot soldiers of the Eradication Imperative’s conflict against the Second Thinkers.

Being thinking weave, it was thus conferred with the Five Straits, and it was via the straits that the Anarhiza was able to function in the manner that it does;

• The most pivotal to the Anarhiza’s function is its robust interface strait. Being perhaps the largest singular thinking entity in the Switchboard, its interface strait is proportionately sized, being the ‘roots’ of the Anarhiza ‘tree’, spanning vast space of the Switchboard. Sending chalk via the Anarhiza requires interfacing with these roots in some manner.

• The memory strait in the Anarhiza is a means of storing chalk effectively in the Vitric Shelf. This serves the purpose of making it terribly inaccessible, and thus it is splendid means of keeping sensitive weft away from unauthorized eyes. It can be thought of as a universe-spanning cloud storage solution, and via isolNets elaborated upon further, it’s possible to privatize bits of network as one sees fit.

• The computational strait exists to handle Anarhiza-side (read, server-side) computation with regards to chalk being sent over the root network. Particularly this is for parsing locational weft that comes bundled with weft being transferred, which tells the Anarhiza where to send weave. In some cases, to protect information mid-transit, obfuscation methods (akin to encryption) are employed to make information unreadable should it be tapped as it travels - something far more plausible than immediately imagined.

• The interpreter strait works with the computational to handle the various informative clauses encoded in packets of weft sent over the Anarhiza, particular the esoteric language of Interlace Command, which is used to command and control the Interlace Minds of the Anarhiza.

• The potential strait, as it is in other thinking weave, is a reservoir of unwoven chalk used for the Anarhiza’s functions. Chalk is siphoned up from the Dancirah via the roots, and used to sequence more Interlace Minds, spreading the Anarhiza further across the Switchboard.

One would imagine that having a complex calcic structure such as this in the Vitric Shelf would be asking for annihilation, but the Interlace Minds coupled with their chromeling forces have grasped uncanny command of manipulating masses of glass in the shelf to form hollows, and the Anarhiza itself is possessed of immensely powerful reverse unravelling, born from multitudinous numbers of First Thinker minds collapsing into elementary Teks that greatly augment calcic regeneration, allowing it to stave off the perfecting influence of glass.

The Dendro-Vitric Network

The Dendro-Vitric Network, or DevitNet, refers to singular, colossal, Dancirah-spanning megastructure built upon the existing natural infrastructure that is the Anarhiza, making use of the extensive mass and lengths of the roots as well as the autonomous, controllable operation of the Interlace Minds. With every given point on the root network connected to every other network by means of nigh endless branching paths, chalk can be passed from one endpoint to another, thereby facilitating the transfer of chalk - and therefore communication - at high speeds throughout the Switchboard.

The two critical components of the the DevitNet are the rhiza conduitss, which describes the various sizes of anarhiza root that facilitate the movement of chalk, and the nexuses, which can be imagined as junctions or hubs for multiple lengths of rhiza conduitss to terminate and resume, often to undergo rhiza-side computation where necessary. Interlace Minds are found in these nexuses, coordinating the entire affair of moving chalk around the Switchboard.

For a device to interface with the DevitNet, its physical structure and manufacturing must have a cutting of the anarhiza integrated into it. These branch cuttings contain densely-packed Interlace Minds that lie dormant, and under the right circumstances, the potent reverse unravelling the anarhiza possesses can kick in and cause the cutting to ‘grow’, breaching the barrier between the Sky and the Shelf and connecting to the rest of the root network. The right conditions for this are often while the device in question is not moving, as this gives the opportunity for the anarhiza cutting within the device to grow thick, something that’s generally recommended as the throughput of a rhiza conduits is subject to constraints of the physical diameter of anarhiza root. Better put, you can access the DevitNet while moving, but the rhiza conduits formed will be constantly breaking and regenerating, which slows down your ability to transfer information packets. By standing still, not only does a uniform link get formed, and it can grow thicker too, and this thicker rhiza conduits - thicker interface strait - allows for moving information even faster.

When the Third Kin came to learn about the Anarhiza, the Weave Divisive Minds - who had once aided the Vermeil, though to ultimately little effect - came to aid the Third Kin as well. In particular, they taught the Third Kin the Interlace Command, a sort of esoteric language formed from sending configurations of folded chalk, which was used by the Eradication Imperative to instruct the Interlace Communicative Minds to act in certain manners. Stealing this language for themselves as well as other necessary bits for interfacing with the anarhiza allowed the Third Kin to gain access to the extensive root network and all the utility that it brought, and their gift with weaving chalk coupled with the fervency of their inquiry and subsequent innovation resulted in their developing all new ways of interfacing with the anarhiza and the Minds that controlled, to the extent that they began actively seizing control of it, pushing the Eradication Imperative Minds out. The Slate was particularly pivotal to this endeavor, and even while the Third Kin fought one campaign in the Dancirah, they fought another slightly above it, one to seize control of the power to project chalk across the Switchboard.

It is worth discussing some of the implications of the DevitNet being built upon the natural structure of the anarhiza’s roots.

While the Anarhiza does allow communication across the Switchboard, it is more correct to say that it allows communication anywhere the roots of the tree are present. Though the tree occurs naturally - and grows too, expanding to locales where it wasn’t previously present - occasionally Striders must go to far-flung areas of the Switchboard to plant new ones to link new settlements or establish relay stations, as well as maintain old trees to avoid parts of the network collapsing.

The Switchboard’s functionally internet-analogue is considerably similar to ours, but for the nontrivial difference that, for the most part, the entirety of the DevitNet is conducted on what can be described as hardline cable. This hardline cable being the anarhiza also means that the entirety of the DevitNet’s digital space is a mirror of the Dancirah’s astro-geographical structure, meaning that a square meter on the DevitNet has a corresponding square meter in the Dancirah, something that proves to immensely useful in ways detailed further on.

One of the consequences of this though is that occasionally, breaks in the root network can form and compound, causing vast sections of the Switchboard to be isolated from the rest of the root network. While the anarhiza’s own reverse unravelling actually prevents much of these breaks and repairs the ones that do occur, factors may align perfectly to result in a break that requires physical intervention to repair. Even rare occurrences per square meter multiplied by the entire area of the Switchboard results in many, many instances of this manner, and as such, maintenance of the DevitNet is a necessary, but tireless, unending task, undertaken by coalition forces, primarily Sil’khan and Lancasters. The problem is particularly exacerbated by those who deliberately sabotage DevitNet infrastructure; this being a common tactic of Vault Minds and unscrupulous parties.

Packet Chalk

Borrowing a term from our universe’s discipline of networking, chalk that’s being sent down an anarhiza conduit needs to organized into a packet. A packet is a means of organizing chalkweave to better enable it to be sent down conduit and handled by Interlace Minds, and it does so by adopting a unique structure to satisfy the operating quirks of the DevitNet.

One such quirks is the throughput of conduit. Subject to the constraints of physical dimensions - diameter - larger rhiza conduits are thus more able to move large volumes of calcic material - information. While - for reasons elaborated upon later - it is a fairly difficult feat to ‘widen’ conduit, the alternative approach of ‘shrinking’ what needs to be sent down conduits thus allows for more information to travel down a given dimension of conduit at any given instance. For this reason, it was thus essential to theorize, design and perfect a means of packing chalk such that it can facilitate maximalization of a conduit’s dimensions and the throughput it yields. Thus was the packet invented.

Many ideas were postulated, tried and dismissed in the making of the packet, but the final idea that stuck is rather remarkable. Gleaned from studying - rather curiously- the backbone weaves of the Switchboard’s Great Families, studies of the field realized that the backbone weaves that could be identified in individual members of each family contained information common to all of them, but also information that was incredibly simple in composition, often simply having what could be described as numerical quantities assigned to simple descriptive traits.

It was theorized that packets could be constructed similarly; an amount of chalk ribbon wound around a central backbone, and this backbone would contain immensely common, general information, while the ribbon around it would contain specificity, and components on both ends of the conduit’s endpoints - sender and receiver - would sort and bisect information in this manner when sending, and stitch it back together when being received.

This came to be called the dictionary brace, a bit of weft that contained generalist information used throughout chalkweave being sent down a conduit. The dictionary brace works something like this; suppose you were sending a measure of text - such as an excerpt of a book - down a conduit. You could send it in its raw form, but this would occupy a measure of the throughput available in the conduit. However, you could also construct a dictionary brace by encoding common bits of information in that book excerpt - structural words like ‘if’, ‘and’, ‘the’, ‘or’ and ‘but’ which serve grammatical functions such as connecting words, indicating tense and specifying literary relationships, for example - into the brace, replacing those encoded terms in the bulk of the excerpt with a proxy (such as a number) and further including instructions on how to decode this - replacing the proxy terms with what they represent - once the packet reaches the final endpoint.

This final packet occupies less throughput when travelling down conduit, thus allowing for even more like it to move through the DevitNet at any given time, leading to an overall ‘hastening’ of the operation of the Net. The usage of these dictionary braces is additionally useful in that the Interlace Minds that occupy nexuses and perform rhiza-side computation would rather deal with this ‘compressed’ form of information rather than the raw writ.

As such, two of the three major components of a packet are the information bulk, which is what is actually being sent, and the dictionary brace, which makes the sending less taxing on the entirety of the Net. But there is still the question of how does a packet know where to go, to reach one endpoint to another. Or rather, how do the Interlace Communicative minds that both manage and constitute the entire affair - both in practice and physical structure - know where to send it.

The third and final component is a unique piece of weft that caps off the packet, called the interlace header. This header-weft contains information that is mission critical for sending weave throughout the Dancirah, as it contains instructions written in Interlace Command, which conveys to the Interlace Minds what to do with the packet, such as where to send it.

When a packet is sent down a conduit, its first destination under ideal conditions is a nexus, presided over by an Interlace Mind, This Mind reads the interlace header on the packet - and if it doesn’t have one, simply destroys the packet and sends another back in the direction of its origin, containing information that effectively amounts to an error code) - and then begins the process of Devit routing. Perhaps the most important bit of information on any packet’s interlace header is its final destination, this being a set of three-dimensional coordinates down to the square meter, and by reading this information, the Interlace Mind then deduces an optimal path through the entire DevitNet to send the packet through, writes this writ to the interlace header, and then routes the packet through another conduit down to the next nexus on the journey.

This process is repeated nexus after nexus until it reaches the final nexus in the routing path, where it is then directed to the final endpoint; the receiver of the packet. This is made possibly by the fact the Dancirah’s astro-geography corresponds nearly 1-to-1 with the DevitNet’s own architecture, which locations and addresses of sorts on the DevitNet directly translating to locations in space. The Vitric Shelf and the space between it and the Dancirah - much like the Void - occupy the fourth spatial dimension, and as such, roots of the anarhiza can be imagined as coming from an ‘up’ above every device that is on the root network.

The fact that packets are just chalkweave with an address on them does mean that there are really very few limits on what can be sent down a rhiza conduits. Anything that can be unfolded can be sent down a conduit, so long as the interlace header contains the equation necessary for folding it back together. This does mean that immensely complex weft for which an equation to unfold it is not known cannot be sent down a conduit (by virtue of the sender not being capable of packing it into a packet) but most conventional forms of information - text, numbers, images, audio, video and more - as well as more exotic forms such as ritual schema and equations, can be assembled into packets and sent down a conduit, done via interfacing with the interface strait in the conduit using another interface strait.

As a flavor note, packets are more officially called ‘Baranx packets’, named after the Arcad in the time who devised their final design.

Interlace Command

Communication on the DevitNet happens ludicrously fast. All things being equal, chalk can be moved at roughly the speed of the Strider Protocol, meaning that even large volumes of information being sent across interstellar distances can arrive within the seconds or minutes. This is however, with all things being equal. There are number of bottlenecks that can slow the speed of information transfer, and chief amongst them is the fact weft being sent down the conduits needs to be ‘analyzed’ by the Interlace Minds to know where to direct it for it to reach its final endpoint. This process is described above.

How this process is made so quick, however, is via the language of Interlace Command. IC can be viewed as an immensely structured, and streamlined language, designed for giving complex and lengthy commands as quickly and concisely as possible. As the Interlace Minds can be contending with piles upon piles of routing requests every second, dealing in only IC greatly expedites the process.

But IC is far more than that, as IC is used to command the Anarhiza itself. The more esoteric instructions that can be fed to the Interlace Command gives top-level control of the Anarhiza and the DevitNet at large, such as compelling the closing off of certain conduits and the physical establishment and thus opening of others, the deployment of preliminary or proto-nexus structures for later expansion, and even the outright prohibition of access by certain devices based on various criteria. The First Thinkers - specifically the Eradication Imperative and other more ambivalent factions - only had a minor grasp of these higher level functions, but the Weave Divisive working alongside the Third Kin performed the deep inquiry necessary to develop the existing toolkit of IC writ.

These commands being weft, however, does open an interesting interaction, in which a denizen of the Switchboard themselves can directly interface with the Anarhiza, rather than using a computational device as an intermediary. While the weft of ICs is complex, they aren’t unknowable, and many have dedicated themselves to learning the language of the DevitNet to better move through it, both from outside… and within.

The sheer power of the ICs then, begs the question of who exactly is allowed to use them. After all, if anyone with the writ could command the DevitNet as they saw fit, the entire structure would collapse into chaos. As such, while the base level IC commands are available to functionally all to use, the higher-level, macro-manipulation commands are solely the domain of those who’s doctrines aligns with the Interlace Minds. It is - more succinctly put - a privilege afforded to those deemed suitable by the praximechanics. Those who’s doctrine aligns with the prime directive of the Interlace Communicative - that of communication - then the anarhiza and the DevitNet will respond to their invocation of the IC language. Those gifted in this manner are outlined further on.

Netfrastructure

The infrastructure of the DevitNet is a matter of subdivisions. Colossal things serve a number of large things, which serve a number of medium-sized things, which serve a number of small things, which yet serve a number of yet smaller things. In this manner, the DevitNet is very hierarchical, both reflected and created by its infrastructure.

Perhaps the single largest element of DevitNet netfrastructure - though not in the manner one initially assumes - are the various Vaults that dot the Switchboard, the domains of the Interdiction Minds that survived the Second Praxis conflicts and the Mind Hunts that followed, many, many processions ago. Having been the ones who built the original net, and thus were far more in-tune with its workings long before the Third Kin had even arisen, they made extensive use of isolated networks within these Vaults for the coordination of the Vault’s active and passive defenses. Their operation on these isolated networks - and what these isolated networks are to begin with - is elaborated upon further later.

Following the Vaults are the more ‘proper’ components of the DevitNet’s netfrastructure. At the very top level are - as mentioned above - the nexuses. Necessary for their operation, these nexuses contain Interlace Minds for rhiza-side computing, as well as serve as the origin and termination points for absolutely colossal conduits, these nexuses serving as infrastructure built for immensely high throughput of travelling weft. From these nexuses, the largest class of rhiza conduit forks outwards towards smaller nexuses. These nexuses are often as large as starships, and are marked as major points of interest in starmaps and wedge ledgers. Most are entire operating platforms built deep in the Starwylds, doubling as outposts for nomads and positions for various organizations and coalitions to establish a presence. When particularly large information transfers need to be made, it is generally encouraged to do so at nexuses, to take maximal advantage of their colossal calcic packet throughput.

Following nexuses are the unceremoniously named sub-nexuses, and following them, cradle nexuses, which usually serve an individual cradle in a sector of the Sky, this being any number of planets, wellsprings, free-standing sky installments and many other less permanent installations such as passing jumpships and starships. Orbital Net Relays usually orbit a planet, and feed rhiza conduit from cradle nexuses down to the planet’s various settlements below. These ground-based net relays are an umbrella term for a vast collection of centralized netfrastructure that shrink further as they finally reach the end user and netizen in the Dancirah. Those who can afford to establish them usually have personal ground-stations for linking into the DevitNet, though these are generally to be found in planet-side cities and arcologies and in use by large organizations such as the Spyndl Academy’s many branches and outposts.

Connecting the various divisions of nexuses are differing classes of rhiza conduit, varying by size/diameter and thus, information throughput. One of the major constraints of the DevitNet is that - outside of LC writ - it is immensely difficult to ‘widen’ existing rhiza conduit to increase throughput. While the anarhiza does grow with time, making old roots larger as it grows and spreads new ones, it operates on an entirely different timescale and locational basis than the Third Kin, and thus, it is entirely possible that viable locales for building settlements are terrible places for wiring them up. Planting entirely new anarhiza is subsequently necessary to increase the net throughput to a locale of the Switchboard, this being achieved via the usage of root cuttings from the tree itself, which are then allowed to feed voraciously on chalk to grow.

Some smaller sub-netfrastructure exists, this being an umbrella term for various Net-enabled components such as Net Buoys that exist. In particular, there is the microlNet.

The microlNet and Isolated Networks

It is possible to set up secondary and isolated networks - isolNets - under the main anarhiza root network, to serve various functions. This is a particularly involved process, as a major point in the existing DevitNet’s favor is exactly that - the fact it already exists. Setting up gated networks requires either;

• Planting large amounts of anarhiza over huge swathes of interplanetary space to build a network separate from the existing DevitNet - something that can only really be achieved on small scale for private usage, or on relatively large scale by very coordinated, very large organizations and coalitions.

• Isolating a section of the existing DevitNet through the usage of the macro-manipulation functions granted by those privileged to speak the IC language and have the Interlace Minds respond.

Neither of these are particularly simple things to do, as the anarhiza by virtue of the Interlace Communicative’s prime directive are compelled to connect and facilitate communication, and the isolNets are effectively a defiance of their principles and thus praxis. This hasn’t stopped many interested parties from building and establishing them all the same, as the advantages of a private, purpose-built, ultra-high-speed means of communication between certain privileged parties has many advantages that cannot be understated.

Perhaps the most successful example of the development and deployment of a secondary, isolated network is the microlNet, a high-speed, low throughput network that operates under immensely stiff regulation, presided over by net authorities and the Spyndl Academy. It runs alongside most of the major starship and striding routes in the Switchboard, and serves primarily the purposes of critical information relay, and being an isolated purpose-built network for handling emergencies. Downed starships, Striders who have fallen into the Void, the sudden appearance of an Interdictory Mind’s swarm of chromelings, a flux storm or stellar procession beginning out of season, and a large list of many other esoteric yet plausible occurrences - the microlNet exists to ensure critical communications are never obstructed by having to take the main paths on the DevitNet. For this reason, its infrastructure is both incredibly hidden and immensely well-guarded, ensuring that none can sabotage it.

Interdictory Minds also operate their own isolNets, used primarily for issuing commands to their chromeling armies within and outside the Vaults, and communicating with other Interdictory Minds, to share information such as profiles on active Kache-Krashing teams - elaborated upon further. Breaching these nets is a common practice of Striders, in operations described further down. Emergent Vault Minds aren’t particularly well-versed in the affairs of the Vaults, and as such usually lack isolated nets and chromeling defense mechanisms, usually having other quirks of their own to make up for it.

The physical substrate-space in the Vitric Boundary that separates isolNets has come to be called the Glasswall, and this term has been used to describe the act of isolating networks or things and concepts in general. ‘Breaching the Glasswall’ and uniting isolated nets with other nets and even the main DevitNet, is something explored further down.

Many major organizations operate their own isolated nets, for internal sharing of information within the physical structure of an organization, and straitNets - isolNets/gated networks that link two points, or a small number of them - that link outpost to outpost. Later on it’s elaborated the various entities and organizations that interact with and/or control the DevitNet to varying extents.

Switchboard Computation

In which we delve into understanding the various devices in the Switchboard that link up to and across the various nets, these being the Switchboard’s computers. They are similar to traditional, existing computers in macroscopic function, but their microscopic fundamentals differ considerably, in that Switchboard computers harness the collective intelligence of lower beings to both compute, and perform functions that allow them to interface with local, calcic reality.

And a foreword; the original design of Switchboard compute suffered from being a draft and not knowing it. The macroscopic derivative mechanics were defined (Slates, the Breach Protocol) but the microscopic foundations from which they were defined were never properly built themselves. It has happened before, and stems primarily from not doing sufficient enough inquiry into fundamentals in that regard. With this proposal, it’s being rectified.

In addition to that is how Switchboard compute actually works. With the elimination of such useful things as the atom and electromagnetism, it became fairly indefensible to have computation built off of these things. As such, it became necessary to devise novel foundations to build compute off of. To do this, I went one rung up the ladder from the absolute, baseline fundamental, and chose to harness existing Switchboard phenomena in creative and in-canon-acceptable ways, giving us the new ‘grand theorem of compute’, and how it functions in the Switchboard.

Computational Core Architecture

On the heart of all compute in the Switchboard.

Origins

Critical to all computers in the Switchboard is the calcic computational core, colloquially known as the ‘cube’ (3C). However, it is not a Third Kin invention, and was rather discovered by the Third Kin during their conflicts with the First Thinkers. Destruction of the Mind-manufactured chromelings yielded the curious technology within them, and when the Third Thinkers began plundering the vaults of their contents - this being the Vermeil civilization - the conclusion was made that this technology had existed for a while, either created by the First Thinkers, or taken and perfected by the Second. Either way, the usefulness of this technology could not be scoffed at, once the Third Kin understood what it did and how it functioned.

To pursue the ends of understanding computation and these devices, the Vermeilion Compute Society, was formed under the already existing Vermeilion Interdiction Research Foundation, a division of the Spyndl Academy.

Relevant reading: The Dawn of the Dancirah.

The computational cores used by the chromelings and manufactured by the First Thinkers were, in fact, powered by the First Thinkers. By encasing a lesser First Thinker in the elaborate physical control structure created by the Minds, it was possible to use their non-trivial thinking capacity as secondary to one’s own, by means of subjugating the will of the Mind within the control box. The crucibles and the mechanics of spontaneous calcic evolution continually created fairly weak calcic fauna resembling the First Thinkers, and harnessing them in large quantities allowed for the creation of calcic brains that could be instructed to solve problems or act in certain manners; a rather curious form of ‘living’ artificial intelligence.

The Third Kin, however, didn’t have the ability to simply create First Thinker Minds. While they could and did plunder the technology of the chromelings and use it to create the first generation of Kin-built computational apparatus, it suffered from various flaws, chief amongst them being their lack of understanding of it, and thus an inability to modify it, repair it or upgrade it.

That changed, however, when researchers at the time discovered the mindspun. Believed to have emerged alongside the Third Kin at their own grand astrolabic resolution, they resembled the First Thinker Minds in form and - to a lesser extent - function, but suffered from a greatly impaired will. The mindspun simply ambled through the Dancirah, demonstrating intelligence yes, but more so exhibiting a barely contained, radiant wrath at seemingly everything. They posed something of a threat to the Third Kin due to their ability to ‘take over’ calcic objects, granting them elementary sentience, and their ability to emerge from seemingly nothing (as the mechanics of emergent minds were unknown at the time).

Their final interesting quality, what differed them from the First Thinkers, what made them particularly a threat to the Third Kin, and what allowed for developing a new generation of Switchboard compute, was their ability to interact with and even emulate - to an extent - the Five Straits.

When combined with the fact the Mindspun - lacking in wills of their own - can thus have their will bent by greater calcic intelligences, it was theorized that it was possible to create a device that packed mindspun into a space, fed them with external will and instruction, and thus compelled them to act in certain manners. The creation of the first prototype for what would later become all cubes - the compute foundation one, brought this theory to physical fruition.

Mechanics

Compute cubes consist of two primary devices; a containment chamber for mindspun, and a device known as the instruction set. The instruction set is a device created by the Vermeilion Compute Society (VCS) that contains a ledger of basic instructions understandable by mindspun, coupled with a bit of calcic ritualism that channels the praxis of the entire VCS, as an organization that subjugates the mindspun, and thus allows for bending their function to the VCS’ will, and by proxy, the will of all Third Kin. This instruction set is the baseline for nearly all compute devices in the Switchboard, and the VCS has dubbed their constantly iterated-upon bit of ware the Subsystems Command Matrix. The VCS-SCM - as it has come to be called - is discussed further later on.

The mindspun’s desire for a vessel makes the containment chamber particularly effective for containing them, and by packing more and more of them in a space, it is possible to compel them to cooperate and thus vastly increase the computational capacity of a given cube. However, when mindspun are used in this manner, individual differences otherwise imperceptible bubble to the service, and it led to a science on the so-called ‘speciation of mindspun’, creating a body of knowledge on what kind of mindspun are useful for computational ends, and the application of this in creating compute cubes for different types of device.

Harnessing the Mindspun and APS Quotients

The usage of mindspun in compute cubes harnesses the mindspun’s ability to both think and cooperate, even at an elementary level. As more and more mindspun are set towards a goal, they become exponentially more capable at working towards it. When the mindspun are used in this manner however, individual differences emerge to the fore, which have tangible effects on the usefulness of certain mindspun in collections of mindspun, and the usefulness of collections of mindspun in different kinds of compute cores and towards different ends.

This body of knowledge came to be called the Speciation of the Mindspun, and was among the first considerable inquiries into the nature of the mindspun, and it was no coincidence that the military atmosphere of the time drove it. The realization of the speciation of the mindspun came in the form of the work on APS Quotients.

APS Scores and Quotients

APS refers to a three-fold numerical measure and expression of a mindspun’s individual nature, and thus how suitable it would be for usage in a compute cube, as well as how suited it would be to usage in certain ends. The APS Score of a mindspun is determined by a number of alpha and beta level factors that act as base values and modifiers of those base values. Through a series of tests and analyses of a mindspun’s Five Straits, it is possible to obtain numerical values for the following quantities that make up the APS designation;

• Accuracy: Refers to the mindspun’s ability to perform complex tasks and yield accurate results.
• Potency: Refers to the mindspun’s ability to perform actions in-line with the calcic, and is essential for determining which compute devices are capable of mockweaving.
• Speed: Refers to the mindspun’s ability to perform long tasks and yield fast results.

The APS Quotient is a representation of how much better an individual mindspun is versus the average of all measured APS values of mindspun that have passed through the labs of the Vermeilion Compute Society. This allows for the creation of a dynamic grading system for the quality of individual mindspun, as well as allow for monitoring the quality of mindspun in the wild and produced in ideal environments, significant changes in this possibly being indicative of inquiry-worthy changes in the wider Dancirah.

Determining the A, P and S values of a mindspun is a product of their beta-level baseline values, and their alpha-level overall modifiers. The result of this is placing numerical quantifiers on mindspun’s individual capabilities, and thus how well they’d fit into different applications of compute cubes.

Thus, we can look at the components of the APS Quotients, roughly divided into a number of categories. As the various qualities that modify the APS scores of a mindspun are a product of differences in a mindspun’s straits, qualities are accordingly called ‘sub-’ followed by the strait they are reliant on.

Alpha-Level Sub-Strait Overall Modifiers

A number of top-level modifiers that serve as overall modifiers to the mindspun’s final score.

A - Accuracy - Score Modifiers

• Accuracy Sub-Compute Strait A global modifier for the ‘A’ value, accuracy; a product of the computational strait that subjects chalk to transformative equations. It refers to the computational strait’s frequency of yielding results within acceptable margin of error.

• Accuracy Sub-Interpreter Strait A global modifier for the ‘A’ value, accuracy; a product of the interpreter strait that takes in chalk and separates woven chalk from plain, fresh chalk. It refers to the interpreter strait’s ability to maximally remove woven chalk from the calcic intake, which would otherwise cause disruption and introduce external inaccuracies to the mindspun’s compute.

P - Potency - Score Modifiers

• Potency Sub-Interface Strait A global modifier for the ‘P’ value, potency; a product of the interface strait that communicates with the other straits and the local environment. It refers to how well the mindspun can dump the results of complex calcic computation into the local environment, necessary for mockweaving.

S - Speed - Score Modifiers

• Speed Sub-Compute Strait A global modifier for the ‘S’ value, speed; a product of the computational strait that subjects chalk to transformative equations. It refers to the computational strait’s speed of operation and yielding results.

• Speed Sub-Interface Strait A global modifier for the ‘S’ value, speed; a product of the interface straits that communicates with the other straits and the local environment. It refers to the overall throughput of the interface strait, how quickly it can communicate with the other straits and with other mindspun.

• Speed Sub-Potential Strait A global modifier for the ‘S’ value, speed; a product of the potential strait that stores unharnessed chalk for use. It refers to a mindspun’s ability to store chalk for ready use, in a manner similar to cache in real-world computation.

• Speed Sub-Interpreter Strait A global modifier for the ‘S’ value, speed; a product of the interpreter strait that takes in chalk and separates woven chalk from plain, fresh chalk. It refers to the speed at which the interpreter strait performs this function.

Wildcards - Esoteric Modifiers

• Coefficient of Collaboration A wildcard modifier that determines the base value of a mindspun’s ability to collaborate effectively with other mindspun within a compute cube. This is in reality two values, as mindspun stack their collaborative benefits both partially additively (more common) and partially multiplicatively (more rare).

• Adversity Compute Proficiency Value A separate modifier that determines how proficient a mindspun is at computing calcic equations in Teks and ritualism, especially towards combative ends. This is a very necessary value for compute cubes that will work in mockweaving applications.

• Interference Resistance A measure of the mindspun’s ability to resist external calcic interference that bypasses shielding, and the ability to self-correct for inaccuracies, speed deficits and potency reductions introduced as a result of this interference. This value is very important for compute cores that will be operating in extreme calcic environments.

• Coefficient of Growth A measure of the mindspun’s ability to grow, which manifests as gradual inclines in its various other measures and overall APS quotient. Mindspun gradually grow as they perform computation and are subjected to various environments.

Beta-Level Computational Strait Baseline Values

These individual qualities listed below differ from mindspun to mindspun, but all modify the functionality and thus capabilities of the computational strait, thus determining - at an elementary level - their base viability in a compute cube. Additionally, they determine the unmodified APS score of a mindspun, which is further, finally modified by the alpha level modifiers.

• Multivariate A, S A measure of the mindspun’s ability to compute multivariate data and perform computations using complex equations. This empowers mindspun to calculate data from contexts such as economics and marketing, healthcare, the environment and climate, social science research, and complex calcic ritualism.

• Biscuit A, S A measure of the mindspun’s ability to work with large volumes of data.

• Crumb A, S A measure of the mindspun’s ability to work with small volumes of data.

• Numeracy and Literacy A, S A measure of a mindspun’s grasp of numbers themselves and language. This is particularly important, as some mindspun readily grab some Danciran languages over others, while some struggle with more complex numerical forms and manipulations, such as negative numbers, imaginary numbers, decimals, computing square roots, vectors, the like.

• Iteration A If a mindspun yields a result that it isn’t within the acceptable margin of error, it can perform the computation again by iterating upon it to get closer to a more accurate answer. This determines how effective the iteration process is; how much close it gets to a more accurate answer with each cycle. The iterative process compromises speed, however.

• Breach A, P, S The proficiency of a mindspun at executing offensive calcic compute measures, such as the repertoire of tools that make up the Breach Protocol. This metric is essential for compute cores that will be used in devices built for Kache-Krashing operations.

• Extrapolation S When provided with, under some considerations, insufficient data for making decisions, mindspun are able to estimate and extrapolate instead of waiting for additional data to reach more solid conclusions. It is possible for mindspun to use only part of an information stream of chalk to begin computation, granting a speed boost in exchange for accuracy.

• Expedition S Mindspun, when instructed, can drop points of accuracy in a given data value to compute faster. Dropping decimal places can allow for less accurate values, but faster compute times in moments where this is needed.

• Pattern A, P, S The measure of the mindspun’s ability to compute patterns, especially the patterns that are transmitted via packets over rhiza conduit. Minimizing losses in calcic integrity when stripping and replacing the backbone and interacting with storage spool is essential for even generalist computing.

• Packaging A, S A measure of the ability for mindspun to prepare IC-compatible packets by compressing weave and simplifying it in line with the dictionary brace used by packets. Mindspun need to be able to analyze data and know what to place in the dictionary brace to even make transfer along the conduit possible, much less doing so quickly and maintaining the integrity of the data.

• 4D-Spatial A, S The mindspun’s ability to compute the fourth-dimensional spatial values that are typical of the Void. Computation that deals with logistics involving the Void require mindspun capable of computing the additional mathematics created by this context.

• Praxis A, P, S Some mindspun are ‘touched’ - perhaps - with the ability to compute the esoteric mechanics of the Praxis Protocol and the mechanics of the Astrolabe’s ledgers. Should the rare occurrence when computing the mechanics of praxis arise, mindspun specifically gifted in this regard are required, and none else.

Compute Cube Fabrication

Mind Engineering is recommended reading for this section.

A demand for compute devices translates into a demand for compute cubes, which in turn produces a demand for mindspun. While mindspun do occur in the wild, and there are even tangible advantages to using wild-formed mindspun over those produced in artificial conditions, it doesn’t change the fact that much of the mindspun used in mass-produced compute cores are a result of synthesis.

Fortunately, the mechanics and nature of the Astrolabe sees to it that things, even intelligences, are always spawning into being, even more so in crafted, ideal conditions. Being emergent minds, they tend to arise wherever minds are already present - intelligence spawns intelligence - and as such simply having Kin present in an environment is enough to begin production of mindspun.

What is far more commonly done is that First Thinker Minds are either acquired or synthesized, and then subjected to calcic tinkering that rapidly accelerates their thinking faculties, at the expense of their calcic stability and general longevity. Giving an ‘overclocked’ Mind a vast array of date to compute burns it out relatively quickly, but spawns and leaves behind plentiful mindspun in its wake - spun from the mind, as it were.

Slates and Switchboard Computation

The mechanics and general canon established above allows us to delve into the actualization of theorem; the utilization of principles to realize physical form. Many different kinds of computers are built and exist in the Switchboard, differing in form, function and even in underlying mechanics, but no single computational device in all of the Switchboard’s canon has earned the repute that the Slate has.

Being a tool crafted by a Skydancer themselves, it began its days in the Dancirah as a tool wielded by a divine entity. From there, it descended into the hands of the Danseers and then all Third Kin, becoming the sidekick of many who stride the vast stars of the Dancirah.

The Slate

This one I have cherished.

The Slate is a creation of the Third Kin, designed to find existing paths and forge new ones. With its power of grand computation and interfacing with local calcic reality, it serves as an interpreter between a wielder and the wider world. It solidified itself as a sidekick of all Kin alike, in functioning in the depths of the Switchboard. It facilitates the speaking of the calcic tongue in new ways, and serves - ultimately- to grant even greater power to the Third Kin, covering for their weaknesses and expanding upon their strengths. It is a digital multitool, engineered to be an unparalleled sidearm for living, surviving and thriving within the Switchboard.

Scope

• Origins and History of Slates (Dancirah’s Dawn)
• Construction (Const. parts)
• Functionality
• (Allusion to) the Breach Protocol

Origins

As such, there needed to be something created - a tool - that would give the wielder ultimate command of the projection of their will in and through the root network, a device capable of interfacing with more of itself, the the root network, machines and devices, and local calcic reality. The drafting of this device yielded a schematic that seemed impossible to realize, but this did not stop Onuris a skilled Strider, Weaver and artisan from the Arcad to try. Iteration after iteration of the schematic yielded results closer and closer to what they sought, until the final model sprung from his presses. It was dubbed the Slate. It reeked of fine-tuned calcic power. It was a weapon without equal. Onuris’ talent and skill was likewise, and he was made the sixth Skydancer, titled the ‘Forgewarden’.

Link to original

The first Slates were created as a matter of experimentation tinged by necessity. The discovery of the anarhiza root network and the presence of the First Thinker Minds on them told the Third Kin of the time that they too needed a means to invade, fight and seize control of this utterly unknown and unprecedented frontier. The piles of research and knowledge accumulated from studying the Minds, the mindspun, the anarhiza and the network it created, the long-distance communication the Minds were capable off because of it, and the reverse-engineering of chromeling’s internal workings and technology served as the foundation for all that would later become the theorems of communication and compute, all this spearheaded by the Vermeilion Compute Society, a subdivision of the Vermeilion Interdiction Research Foundation.

From these bodies of knowledge, the first Kin-built computers emerged, and when it was thought to integrate them more closely with calcic subject matter, the Slate emerged, realized into physicality by Skydancer Onuris, the Hammer.

Because of the context in which Slates emerged - the ongoing Praxis Conflicts with the First Thinker Minds - the Slate was primarily a weapon. With them, they could tap into the isolated networks (isolNets) that the Minds used to communicate across the vast Dancirah, gaining an edge over them in information warfare. In particular, Slates facilitated breach operations, which allowed the Third Kin to gain unauthorized access into the Mind’s Vaults by piercing the Glasswall, the Mind-engineered insulating layer in the Vitric Boundary that shields the Mind’s command and control networks from the larger ‘proto’ DevitNet that existed at the time. Breaching this wall allowed the Third Kin to disable the Vault’s shields, curtail their defenses, and secure entry, in grand operations known as Kache Krashing. Slates further aided in contending with the Minds themselves, and the defenses of the Vaults once inside.

These breach operations were made possible by what later came to be known as the Breach Protocol, though this is discussed later.

With the conclusion of the more overt of the praxis conflicts and the eventual demilitarization of the Third Kin, Slates moved from being primarily a weapon to a tool, still outfitted with a litany of capabilities that granted it offensive prowess, but also found its way into the hands of those who could generally benefit from powerful and portable computing, in applications such as navigation, industry and calcic ritualism. They gained civilian applications as well, serving as entertainment devices, or as tools in industries.

Construction - Physical Design

A Slate is made up of a number of constituent parts. These are necessary for a baseline Slate, with ample avenues existing for the installation of periphery, that modify its function in various ways. For the baseline, we have;

• A slab of crystalline chalk
• A VCS doctrine-assembled computational core (cube)
• A high-capacity blank ribbon spool
• A cutting from the verrphagic anarhiza

The Baseplate All Slates begin first as a hewn slab of crystalline chalk. To interface with local calcic reality, this large slab of chalk acts as a singular large potential strait for the entire Slate assembly. All other components will be inset into this chalk backboard, in slots cut for them by precise machine tooling. Beyond a mere baseplate, however, the constituent chalk of the slab itself can have subtle or even overt effects on the final Slate it creates, ranging from a general boost in its computational capabilities to granting wholly new powers.

The culture around Slates has led to many nomads of the Dancirah and denizens in general seek out and source the backplate of their Slates for themselves. The most common source of Slate baseplates are wellsprings, with Slate builders hewing and shaping crystalline chalk with simple hand tools. The general floor for Slates that will see use across the Dancirah for computational, calcic weft and combative function typically possess baseplates built from chalk hewn from deep inside a wellspring, the chalk within having been a party to more of the Switchboard’s existence, and has thus matured and grown stronger with time.

Some Slates don’t use chalk, however, but rather crystalline alloys of other materials. Crystal amaranthite baseplates Slates are some of the only Slates capable of maintaining optimal operating status upon crossing the Challenger Horizon, enabling functionality in the Challenger Dark. Slates built from hexic kacherock are granted them enhanced capabilities in breach-related functions, elaborated upon later.

The Compute Cube With slots cut out for the following components, we can then proceed to the brains of the entire assembly, the compute cube. Manufactured primarily by various parties using VCS-developed or based schematics, the cube houses the mindspun and the VCS’s doctrinal instruction set, the Subsystems Command Matrix. Additionally, many parties choose to overlay the VCS’s SCM with their own in-house bespoke instruction sets or command matrices, built to draw function - on a praxis level - from a relevant doctrine, as well as bestow additional functions written in by the party in question.

The functions of Slates also demand certain kinds of mindspun, regarding their overall APS scores as well as proficiencies in certain spheres. Slates that will be used for navigation, for example, benefit considerably from cubes with high A scores. Slates that will be used to operate Weftloaders and perform breach functions benefit from high P scores, as these functions depend particularly on raw calcic output. Slates that are integrated into the local lattice of a wielder benefit from high S - speed - scores, especially if these Slates control frequently updating mechanisms such as chromegrafts.

Slates that will be used in the Void, in addition to almost certainly needing a crystalline amaranthite backboard, also benefit from cubes possessing mindspun with high scores in 4D-Spatial compute. Cubes used in Slates built for breach functions additionally benefit from this quality in mindspun; a predisposition to breach methodologies. High Expedition score cores are useful for controlling chromegrafts, as they have the passive benefit of built in human-like clumsiness (which is surprisingly desired by many) while also gaining buffs to computation speed of the operations for controlling those chromegrafts.

The alpha-level modifiers - especially the wildcards - vastly shape cube functionality, with the Coefficient of Growth allowing Slates to grow better as they are used, and the Adversity Compute Proficiency measure being essential for cubes that will be used in Weftloaders and in calcic combat. High Interference Resistance doubles in usefulness in both combat and extreme environments, such as near armillary stars, in certain biomes on planets, or in the depths of the Void.

Combinations of mindspun yield cores with various proficiencies, which in turn results in Slates built for varying functions. As a note, there is a relatively large scene of individual-built compute cores, manufactured by those who need cubes shaped with laser-focused purposes in mind. Many particularly skilled nomads of the Dancirah eventually build their own compute cores for their Slates, optimized for the way they use them.

The Ribbon Spool A blank spool serves as the memory strait of the Slate. Inset into the chalk baseplate and then shielded by a chamber of glass, it is shielded from external calcic interference that could compromise the integrity of the information within. Calcic storage is incredibly dense per unit of space, which encourages information hoarding, but also increases the catastrophe that is instances of information corruption.

Information is stored in packet form, making it readable by mindspun within the compute cube, and transferrable over rhiza conduit. This form of storage also allows for the unfolding of larger weave - such as large objects - unfolding them into ribbon, storing them in the Slate, and refolding them elsewhere when needed, serving as a fairly effective way of moving things around the Switchboard. However, storing things in this manner occupies considerable space on the spool, and contributes to the overall information mass of the Slate, which is of major concern to Striders. Additionally, the equation for refolding must be known to the mindspun within the Slate or the wielder to enable refolding the ribbon of the unfolded object.

The Anarhiza Integrating a cutting of the verrphagic anarhiza, the esoteric plant native to both the Dancirah and the Vitric Shelf, acts as a form of interface strait for the Slate assembly, and allows the Slate to make use of various forms of rhiza conduit infrastructure, allowing communication over the DevitNet, microlNet, and various isolNets and straitNets as is applicable. It is also essential for staging breach operations, as breach methods are deployed via interfacing with conduits, thus mandating a Slate capable of interfacing with it.

Typically it sits in a cylindrical recess cut into the baseplate for it, and linked to the compute core by chalk straits. Information to be sent over rhiza conduit is packaged into packets by the compute cube and sent to the branch cutting, which sends it down its stalk that straddles the Vitric Boundary just out of sight and reach. There, it makes use of the various DevitNet apparatus to traverse the root network and reach its destination.

There is a small quirk of communications with anarhiza cuttings in the Switchboard, however; greater information throughput is available to devices that are currently stationary. When an anarhiza cutting is moved, it is momentarily, partially severed from the rest of the network, leaving the branch cutting connected to the root by a stalk-like thread. When stationary, the anarhiza is rapidly fed chalk that grows and widens the stalk, and thus its ability to physically accommodate larger information packets. For this reason, Slates moving at high speeds - such as in the pack of a Strider - can really only interface with immensely low-throughput conduit such as the microlNet, and to do any larger scale data transfer, movement must be slowed or paused to allow the anarhiza cutting to make a solid connection to the rest of the root network.

Construction - Philosophy

Slates are the perfected manifestation of the cassette-futurism design philosophy embodied by the Switchboard’s technology. They are built with portability and durability in mind, taking on an industrial, almost militaristic silhouette. Ease of repair, tactility, modularity - these things are essentials of a Slate’s design. As such, Slates appear somewhat dated, seemingly a generation or so behind the touchscreen, ultra-slim, voice-activated design paradigms of today. Thick glass, hard plastic, polymers and metals, big, repairable parts; Slates are designed with the knowledge that they’ll take a beating and the intention that they survive it.

Beginning with it’s chalk-slab backing, in size it can reach that of a decently-sized cutting board, close to an inch thick in its thinnest sections, though this is somewhat skewed by the Slate’s intended use case and the whims of the wielder, assuming they are also its builder. Much of the internal workings, due to having been inset in the chalk baseplate, are thus hidden from view.

Much of the variation in shape and appearance of a Slate comes in the peripherals installed to complete its construction and make able to be used. Most - at minimum - are outfitted with a keyboard, display, and tracker controller such as a nib, small ball or full-sized touchpad. Ports take high priority as means to interface with other devices and chalk constructs, often done by running chalk ribbon between it and the subject. These connectivity ribbons enable communication between the compute cube within the Slate and other devices or phenomena in the Switchboard, and thus grants the Slate amount of versatility in what it can interface with. It’s very common - for example - for Striders to fly their personal jumpships by hooking up their Slates to them, which serves as the ship’s computer.

Additional components are varied and up to individual Striders. Many Striders outfit theirs with a full suite of navigational tools (those listed under wayfinding apparatus) and have the whole process of calculating Stride routes handled by the Slate. Chalk ritualists outfit theirs for deeper ritual analysis. Combat-oriented wielders simulate the powers of their relics and Teks and use those simulations to determine the damage done to a lattice, and how better to maximize it, often installing hard-light projectors on their Slate to project human-sized targets to practice on. The portable and modular design philosophy intrinsic to Slates facilitates all this and more, and further leans into the the Slate’s intended purpose as an unrivalled multitool, sidearm, and problem-solver.

As a brief tangent regarding the portability of Slates, it’s also worth noting how Slates are carried. Being portable by design, they are almost always worn on the person, facilitated by belts that allow it to be slung over the shoulder, or kept in a holster at the back or side of the body, or mounted in a quick-release system - such as held in place by a magnetic analogue.

Depthstriders with their power from the Void typically store their Slates in a pocket void and retrieved whenever needed. Chalkstriders are not so lucky; attempting to do similar would require unfolding a Slate down to ribbon chalk, but the sheer complexity of a Slate means that the equation for folding a Slate back together is so complex as to effectively require the computational power of another slate - or even multiple.

Some radically alter the design and form factor of their Slate to better suit their purposes. Many who use their Slates for combat typically split it into separate modules; relocating the display modules into somewhere more practical, such as a wrist display mounted by straps or a holster, or a HUD display mounted in eye-ware over one or both eyes. The core compute components are similarly distributed, the anarhiza meant for communications mounted into a helmet, and the baseplate kept at the back, along with the compute cube and other periphery.

And perhaps in a display of one of the many philosophies - the lattice as a canvas, in particular - of the Switchboard, some choose to have the components of the Slate mounted directly on to their local lattice, their entire calcic form becoming the Slate’s chalk baseplate. Mounting the components sub-dermally and linking them directly to the wielder’s straits grants - in a sense - a second set of Five Straits, that results in the wielder gaining entirely new dimensions of performance. The wielders own computational straits further aided by the compute cube grants for much faster, much more accurate thinking, and the connectivity speeds granted by nearly eliminating the physical distance between components allows for supreme conduction of the will. This level of chromegrafting yields Kin that have gone beyond traditional measure, and while the payoff is considerable, there are consequences - as with everything - in the form of new weaknesses, new complexities, and the very unexplored sphere that is having other minds that close to one’s own.

Visual Resources

To more adequately visualize the Slate, I have collected a compendium of real-life analogues, stored in Visual Media Documents: The Slate.

Function

Discussing the Slate’s function is best taken from the angle of its most extreme users; the Dancirah’s most prolific nomads, the Strider. The Slate serves as a Strider’s sidearm on their jaunts across the Switchboard. A Strider will typically carry a relic-weapon, wield a Tek, know rituals and posses some additional powers granted by knowledge or other implements on their person. The Slate seeks to complete this - rounding out the Strider’s kit - by functioning as a tool with unmatched utility.

At its most mundane, a Slate is a computer and computers solve problems. Communication, information storage, retrieval and processing, productivity tasks and even entertainment, it helps to think of the Slate as occupying the intersection of a smartphone, laptop, supercomputer and purpose-built computers (such as the guidance computer for a smart missile system). Serving an array of purposes, the Slate is designed to be a digital Swiss-army knife; a tackler of tasks of immense shape and size.

The Slate’s true power stems from the intersecting functions of the mindspun-based computational core, and the calcic baseplate. The Slate gains the power to reach out into local calcic reality with a sort of ‘pseudo’ Five Straits, allowing it to interface with other compute devices and wholly calcic phenomena.

At its most elementary, for example, it can analyze a set of figures given by wayfinding measuring equipment and from it, produce a viable Striding path from any two given locations in the Switchboard. Taken further, it is capable of ‘deep-weave analysis’, allowing it to scan and produce information about nearly anything in the Switchboard - planets, relics, Teks, rituals, ongoing structural and ledgerial casts and equations, other Striders - anything. It serves as an artificial upgrade to a user’s Weavesight. It can run the complex calculations a Strider may need in their chalk-weaving, and simulate fold operations to anticipate the result. It can interface with chalk rituals, serving as the interpreter for ongoing loop rituals as well as provide insight on modification and development of countermeasures, working alongside databases of information on the subject.

The power of the Slate lies in bridging the user and the wider world. It can create certainty where it was previously thought impossible. It can wrench patterns from arcane engines and charts from amorphous clouds of principles. It pulls hard numbers and gives exact information, plumbed from the murky depths of chalk complexities. While plenty of its functions can be handled by a Strider working mentally, the Slate is capable of doing that mental heavy-lifting so a Strider is free to do other things. It reduces the ‘grunt-work’ of appeasing chalk’s more strenuous demands for more complex use, allowing the Strider to focus on how to use the power that this appeasement grants.

Spool Storage and Dynamics

Information taking physical form in the Switchboard necessitated a way to store it. This information being primarily ribbon made the means of storing it fairly obvious; physical spools around which immense lengths of ribbon are wound. As the information needs to be read, a bit of it is fed through smaller spools that pass ribbon over reader apparatus linked to compute cores - this particular functionality being explained fairly later.

These spools of ribbon being chalk themselves, however, makes them somewhat vulnerable to various phenomena. A chalkweaver activating their active draw in an environment full of spools can absorb their calcic matter and thus utterly destroy a large data hoard. Other chalk-consuming phenomena make little discrimination between ambient chalk and chalk in spools, and thus it is vary possible for an active ritual - for example - to unwind the contents of a spool and consume it as raw chalk.

For this reason, spools are usually physically insulated, with larger mass-storage spools being stored and their contents fed like a belt over rollers to where they are needed to be read. Spools meant for usage in devices such as slates, or spools that are generally more mobile are instead incased in glass chambers, which insulate them from the outside calcic world, maintaining the integrity of the data within.

Software

Software in the Switchboard functions much like our own software, in that it is meant to direct the function of hardware and execute specific tasks. With regards to Slates and other computational devices that exist in the Switchboard, software functions via directing the processes of the mindspun thinking-weave that make up compute cubes. Software interfaces with the instruction set in the compute cubes to convert complex instructions into a series of simpler ones that the mindspun can grasp, and then obtain the result of their computation and transform it to a higher-level form that can be grasped by the Third Kin.

All software ‘written’ for technology in the Switchboard must be built to be compatible with the Vermeilion Compute Society’s SCM - Subsystems Command Matrix. The vast majority of compute devices in the Switchboard making use of the VCS-SCM means that software is intrinsically highly portable. That being said, it is often the case that compute cubes created by certain bodies use ‘forked’ SCMs that add, modify or remove certain qualities or functionality to better tailor them to their needs.

Perhaps the first major bit of software concocted for the earliest compute devices - the Slates in the time of the Second Praxis War - was the FRONTIER-SCM. It served as the software backbone of the Slate’s computational core, designed, maintained and improved upon by the Academy. It is the spearhead of the Slate’s ability to bridge Chalk and the computational. Originally, it was a software meant solely for navigation and cartography; coordinating apparatus and running calculations with variables obtained from measuring instruments - but it expanded to become a formidable software multitool capable of innumerable calcic, communications and compute functions, particularly so when the utility of Slates in the fight against the Minds became apparent.

The name is, in fact, an acronym of its many original functions;

F - Fieldwork R - Recording O - Observation N - Navigation T - Triangulation I - Intelligence E - Establishment R - Referencing

Net-Compute Intersectionality

The anarhiza root network presented an all-new frontier upon which battles will be fought, not with blade and bullet, but with information, compute, and the means of conducting will and giving it form. New battles take place on the Net, and new tools and tactics must be employed to fight and win. Presiding over these frontiers, the battles fought upon them and the tools used to wage them, are various bodies of Third Kin, concerned with the affairs of the DevitNet or computation, and often both. Each has their own contributions, just as each has their own - occasionally shadowed - ends.

Research, Management and Other Relevant Authorities

The Third Kin have concerned themselves with the affairs of the net and compute to varying degrees, for varying reasons - and for a very long time - leading to the formation of a very many number of bodies that overseer and contribute to these spheres of knowledge. It helps to divide these bodies according to the timeframe in which they arose, relative to the rise of the DevitNet; the pre-DevitNet bodies, and the post-DevitNet ones.

Pre-DevitNet

The Pan-Danciran Net Research Coalition The PDNRC or the ‘Net Research Coalition’ was formed during the build up to the second Praxis War that would scorch the stars of the Dancirah. Reverse-engineering of the chromeling forces employed by the First Thinkers yielded a glimpse into the technology wielded by the Vermeil - the Second Thinkers - at the time, something the Vermeilion Interdiction Research Foundation were just about getting around conceiving the scale of. Understanding the workings of the mindspun allowed the Third Kin to discover the anarhiza, and later how to use it to their own ends.

Much of the research and development done by the NRC would be pivotal in the development of the DevitNet after the conclusion of the praxis conflicts and the demilitarization of various Third Kin war apparatus. In particular they created and enforced standards for conduit information throughput and netfrastructure built off of it, done under ‘Kao’ designation, named after the NRC researcher who studied the subject matter.

The Vermeilion Compute Society The VCS formed roughly alongside the PDNRC, their subject matter - what was derived from the study of the chromelings - being gleaned at virtually the same time. The VCS, formed as a subsidiary of the larger Vermeilion Interdiction Research Foundation, their core focus being the discovery and inquiry of the compute devices engineered by the First Thinkers from stolen Vermeil technologies.

Much of their research was employed towards building out a new generation of compute devices that could be built and used by the Third Kin, developing the first computers that the Third Kin would use in their war efforts, and later used in civilian applications following the post-conflict demilitarization. Notable figures in their ranks would create the devices and concepts that would make this possible, such as the Arcad Fedriko Larksel, creator of the Larksel cube, and Arcad Fenyr Baranx, the first to explore the possibility of simple-complex chalk constructs, later creating the dictionary brace that would serve as the core of the baranx packet that would make moving information down rhiza conduit possible.

Now, the VCS is primarily concerned with advancements in Larksel cube tech, by proxy, greater inquiry in means of using the mindspun to meet the growing computational means of the Third Kin.

The Spyndl Academy Famous and infamous for far more than just the matters of communications and compute, they nonetheless played a major role in the realization of both. Being at the forefront of the conflicts with the First Thinkers, they were thus the first to give major field trials to the many fruitions of the VCS and NRC. The exacting context of the Danciran battlefields ensured that only the strongest designs survived, a fact that would greatly aid the deployment of the civilian-focused DevitNet much later.

Spyndl additionally founded and deployed the microlNet, the low-throughput, highly-monitored emergency communications network built on Kao-0 class rhiza conduit to ensure swift connections by all anarhiza-enabled devices, this network still in extensive use by Spyndl themselves and many other bodies that gain their approval.

ArcolNet Oversight Authorities

The ArcolNet

Communications and Compute and compute is recommended reading for this section.

Presided over by the Second Arcology at Sanscrii, the ArcolNet is a series of large-scale straitNet that’s semi-isolated from the rest of the DevitNet. This lattice is presided over by the Fel of the Sanscrii Arcology, and built and maintained by the various arcologies that exist in the Dancirah. The ArcolNet exists primarily to link all Fel-Arcad arcologies to every other arcology, allowing for the free-flow of communication between Fel-Arcad habitation centers.

It started small in the pre-DevitNet era, as the Arcad of the time were not so spread out, and thus only needed straitNets that connected arcologies directly to each other, the arcologies themselves acting as both endpoints and relays for information. This changed with the hit of the Refrain and the later rise of the Fel-Arcad, who renovated their old architecture and expanded it far into the Dancirah as the Fel-Arcad spread.

Link to original

Established by Kaomori Chrys, Bantay Vera and Miya Endel, they are some of the many Arcad that have their names immortalized in the Fey Curlicue, as Arcad and Fel-Arcad who worked for the betterment for their kind at little recompense.

Now, the ANOA works with Soleri in the arcology building and maintenance processes, operating under the Sanscrii Arcology, their primary goal being - rather simply - to connect all Fel-Arcad with their homes. The ArcolNet is perhaps the largest netfrastructure entity after the DevitNet itself, speaking to the success of their endeavor. Its proliferation has allowed the Fel-Arcad to share all manners of Fel-Arcad and arcology subject matter, from advancements in arts to the goings-on of trials.

The Eaters of Ryjik

Essential Reading; The Teeth of Ryjick

Each Skydancer has something of a cult that follows them, in the time of the Danseers and perhaps more so among the Sil’khan. The apostolics of a Skydancer pledge loyalty and aim to further the aims of that Skydancer using whatever means possible. The Sabai began with the Danseers and later incarnated again after the Refrain among the Sil’khan, nomad-zealots that sought to live as the Skydancers they followed as an act of worship.

The Eaters of Ryjik were formed by Eater Mesopt, and began a sect of the Sabai dedicated to The Eater. Their aim is - by their own claim - utter conquest of the Vitric Shelf and glass. Continuing the work they believe Ryjik began in facilitating the successful attack on the Trinary Complex, the Eaters work to oppose the remainder of the First Thinker Minds by upholding the doctrine of the Infinite Offensive; waging war against the Minds wherever they appear, leading to them becoming perhaps the most prolific anti-Vault group in the Switchboard, even rivalling the Spyndl Academy. Spyndl raids the Vaults merely for knowledge and the treasures and powers within, but for the Eaters, it is holy war.

In this waging of war, the Eaters have obtained uncanny command of the tools of communication and compute, wielding Slates and wrangling glass and conduit in a manner that is described as truly divine. The Writ of the Eater is stated by some to be their holy text, and none rival the Eaters in their command over glass and scintillate, as well as its interactions with chalk. They maintain perhaps the most comprehensive texts on the raiding and subjugation of Mind isolNets and Vaults of all kinds, and are widely believed to be the only ones in the Switchboard in possession of either Teeth weaponry, or the means to make them. Of all Sabai factions, they are perhaps the most war-focused, second only to the apostolics of Zahir.

It is additionally believed that they are the ones who taught the Netmasters how to truly traverse the Glazwyre, but the truth of this remains shrouded in the mist of time and rumor.

pNarrat: The Rise of the DevitNet

This is a section that will be further elaborated upon in DT.SpyndlNoon, as it is very relevant to the canon that makes up the post-Dawn Switchboard.

Following the conclusion of the more overt bits of the praxis conflict, the stage was given - unknowingly perhaps - to the forward thinkers of the era, who envisioned an ‘Era of the Third Kin’, an era where they would be free to proliferate throughout the Dancirah unhindered, and within the grasp of the far reaches of space, find paths for themselves.

One of the many backbones of this would be an anarhiza root network that spawned farther than any others before it, an open network built on standardized infrastructure that would facilitate broad communication for all.

The ones who seeded the initiative to build the DevitNet were four; Syversal Hex, a member of the VCS and NRC, Eater Hartwyl, a Sabai and Eater of Ryjik, Zel Endel, a descendant of Miya Endel and the Endel family who had come to weave themselves into much of the history behind conduit and networks, and Ju Okafor, a Sil’khan and notable figure in the Spyndl Academy, who had worked on the development and deployment of the microlNet.

Realizing the DevitNet’s creation, however, was no simple task, as there were powers and entities within and without that challenged the dreams of these four, and all of Third Kin.

Post-DevitNet

The Endel Wyrewatch Founded by a descendant of the Endel family, Iyké Endel and the many Fel-Arcad of the time grew concerned about the usage of the DevitNet. While plenty of legitimate exchanges went on in the newly-founded DevitNet, plenty of less-than-savory parties had taken to using the DevitNet for unscrupulous communication, particularly the Rosenthalists who had taken to using encrypted communications to discuss and recruit openly.

In perhaps one of the more widely-unpopular moves that color the history of the DevitNet, Iyké and the Endels worked to establish the Endel Wyrewatch, a self-appointed watchdog organization that sought to police the DevitNet and its users. Through a variety of methods the Wyrewatch set about reshaping the DevitNet, tracing unscrupulous actors down to their domiciles, spying on communications made, often by capturing and inspecting packets, placing and enforcing restrictions on the kinds of encryption usable by certain parties, issuing licenses for usage of different Kao-classes of conduit, and generally working as - according to their own words - ‘a force for good in the anarhiza-space’.

Their actions were inevitably faced with a fair bit of ill sentiment, ranging from verbal fuming about them, to open, tangible hostility such as attacks on Wyrewatch infrastructure. The freeNet Netmasters in particular sought to wholly annihilate them, much of this poor disposition extending past the faces of the Wyrewatch to the Endels themselves. The conflict between the Wyrewatch and the freeNet Netmasters is perhaps the most prolific of the wars fought on the modern DevitNet.

The freeNet Netmasters They begin, first, as merely skilled wranglers of conduit, whose expertise was needed in so many parts of the DevitNet that their physical proximity to these individual locations was voted as necessary. They acted as a form of technical support, coordinating maintenance and repair efforts of the DevitNet, and having little else to do with its actual goings-on beyond keeping the lights on. In time, they came to be called the ‘Netmasters’.

When the Endel Wyrewatch formed however, many found themselves opposed to its existence and actions as a matter of philosophy, and organized among themselves to fight the Wyrewatch in pursuit of a free net. The ‘free-netters’ among the Netmasters quickly rose to become formidable local powers, bolstered by the support of many others who despised the Wyrewatch, as well as their willingness to go much farther than the Wyrewatch was to see their aims realized.

Most prolific among the free-netters were Syversal and Rhelain Hex, the former of which having been there in the formation of the DevitNet and his brother. Both Hexs, a family that would gain a fair bit of notoriety in time, they worked to coordinate their fellow Netmasters and oppose the Wyrewatch, with tactics ranging from turf-wars fought on the net, to active sabotage of Wyrewatch infrastructure topside.

Their inquiry into the Glazwyre has led to considerable worry among the Wyrewatch, as they envision the Netmasters, willing to abandon everything as demonstrated time and time again, would forsake even what it meant to be kin in order to find a means to impose their vision of the DevitNet upon all. It did not help matters to learn that the Netmasters - in opposing the Wyrewatch - thus uphold a doctrine of communication, aligned with the Interlace Communicative’s own prime directive of the same manner, and thus conferring upon the Netmasters power under the praximechanics to shape the DevitNet as they saw fit.

Ivory Tower Wire & Net Solutions A subsidiary of Lancaster Innovations, founded by Biola Lancaster. They work to provide - as the name clearly states - wire and net solutions to various parties in the Dancirah. They are the foremost builder of nets in the Dancirah, of all sizes and for all purposes, and they make it a point of pride to maintain utmost secrecy around the contracts their clients give them. For this reason, they come under frequent fire by the Wyrewatch, who work endlessly to find and utilize any leverage they can find against the Ivory Tower to extract information on various goings-on within the net.

Many suspect the only truly complete maps of the anarhiza root network - DevitNet, ArcolNet, microlNet, all the isolNets, everything - exist solely in the hands of the Ivory Tower, as they - quite literally - built it all.

Nefelworks Corporation Established by Traum Swefn, a Lancaster of some repute, Nefelworks takes their name from the Skydancer Nefelé, the Dreamer and the Skydancer with the domain of chalk itself. It is the former motif, that of dreams, that Nefelworks aims to channel in all it does, devising technology that occupies the realm of dreams. They rose swiftly to become the most prolific manufacturer of Slates and compute devices in the Switchboard.

When the first drafts of artificial chalkweaving devices reached public consciousness, Nefelworks set about developing and later dominating the field of mockweaving and weftloaders, devising the Needles V-1, the baseline by which all weftloader devices would be judged.

Many suspect that the Lancaster’s fascination with weftloaders and the proliferation of the technology among them stems from - put simply - a fear of the asymmetry of power between those who could wield chalk and those who could not - a much greater fear of what could spawn, grow and arise from the void that is this asymmetry of power.

pNarrat: Two Sides of a Doctrinal Coin

The Endel Wyrewatch and the freeNet Netmasters are two diametrically opposed factions who’s open hostility towards each other colors much of the DevitNet’s long history. The Wyrewatch exist and fight as a force of regulation and the maintenance of order in the DevitNet, but do so in a manner that the Netmasters believe defies and opposes the fundamental principles upon which the DevitNet is built.

Their prominence is further elevated by the fact both factions have immense power under the praximechanics, and are thus both capable of using the Interlace Command language to macro-manipulate the anarhiza and the DevitNet’s infrastructure. No other factions in the Dancirah are capable of waging conflicts across the net in the same manner that they are, but it does prompt the question of how they can be diametrically opposed to each other, while still evidently holding the same doctrine - a doctrine of communication - if they can both use the IC language.

This stems from how one choose to interpret the meaning of a ‘doctrine of communication’. Does it mean facilitating the practice of communication? Then the Wyrewatch - in maintaining and upholding the infrastructure the holds up the net, and the Netmasters - in opposing restrictions and blockers upon communication, fundamentally uphold the same thing. It is from this that much of their conflict stems; even though they fundamentally fight for the same thing, it is not without caveats within which they fit their own ideology.

The Breach Protocol

In the time of the Praxis Conflicts, the Third Kin needed to discover the location of the Vitric Trinary Minds, Minds that were capable of weaponizing the negentropic, weave-eating glass of the Vitric Shelf against the Third Kin. To do so, they needed a means to breach the various strongholds of the First Thinker Minds at the time; the Mind Nexuses where multiple Minds could be domiciled and stage various offensive operations, and the far more prolific Vaults. These Vaults were created and presided over by the Interdictory Minds of the Interdiction Collective. These colossal megastructures served as large caches of both information and objects, particularly the ruins of the long-annihilated Vermeil civilization. They were in turn guarded by powerful praxis-reliant shields, channeling the Mind’s doctrine of protection, and the Mind’s partially autonomous swarm of defensive machine-spawn known as the chromelings.

To enter a Vault or a nexus, then, was no mean feat.

But a path emerged for the Third Kin. The discovery of the anarhiza root network from reverse-engineering the Mind’s chromeling swarms further revealed that the Minds operated on this network using constructs that would later come to be known as isolNets or isolated networks. These isolNets served as the command and control networks for a Vault’s internal and external defenses, controlling their defensive swarms, weapon installations and the praxis shield. It was theorized that if the Third Kin could develop a means to ‘invade’ these isolNets, they could seize control and thus shut down the defenses of the Vault.

However, the Minds were crafty, and the reason why their isolated networks were called such is due to their physical insulation on the Vitric Boundary, made possible by the Mind-deployed installation of the Glasswall, a physical sheathing of the anarhiza roots used by the Mind’s networks with the chalk-scorning glass of the Shelf above. It proved terribly effective at preventing roots of the anarhiza from growing and connecting to the isolated network, linking it to the larger anarhiza root network and allowing unauthorized access by the Third Kin, for example. Without a means to access the Mind’s networks, the Third Kin were unable to tap into their information relays and contend with the Vaults.

And then the Third Kin engineered the Slates.

Study into glass, conduit, the anarhiza and its root networks began yielding considerable fruit, the Pan-Danciran Net Research coalition and the Vermeilion Compute Society working together to devise a means to - against all known logic at the time - deploy something of a ‘chalkweave pickaxe’ over the root network, that would be capable of breaching the walls of the anarhiza root it travelled within, ‘drilling’ through the chalk-glass complex matter of the Vitric Boundary, reaching the Glasswall of an isolated network, somehow breaking through this glass, and then establishing a link between the isolNet and the wider anarhiza root network, ending its isolated status and allowing access.

So how then, is it done?

Breaching the Glasswall

Executing a breach has a number of unavoidable hurdles that arise at every stage of the operation, and all must be overcome before the breach can be successful, these are;

• Before the Breach
  • Locating/Detecting the target isolNet.
  • Identifying a viable intrusion point.
  • Reconnaissance of the present defenses.
• The Breach
  • Breaching the Glasswall.
• After the Breach
  • Cleanup operations.

It is worth considering the context within which a breach is attempted. Under most considerations, a breach is a directly offensive action carried out against an asset, and thus its asset-holders, and as such, those breaching approach the act with the mindset that they are carrying out an act that is questionable and punishable at absolute baseline. Attempting to breach a Vault’s isolNet for example, will attract lethal attention in the overwhelming majority of cases, and one must both accept these risks and be ready to respond to them. This rule isn’t much different for isolNets run by various Third Kin factions, such as the Spyndl Academy. The response will always be proportional to whatever prompted the installation of an isolNet to begin with. The more important the contents of an isolNet, the more ready its owners are to kill to protect it.

Locating the isolNet that one aims to breach is the first part of the operation. That the DevitNet corresponds astro-geographically with the Dancirah means that a square meter in the DevitNet has its twin in the Great Sky. To stage an attack on a locale in one realm, you must find its mirror in another. This part can be fairly simple or quite difficult based on circumstances. The isolNets for a Vault are generally always within a certain radius of the Vault ‘wrapping around’ it in the fourth spatial plane. Should a lone chromeling be captured and subdued, it alone can be used as an attack vector on the rest of the isolNet.

Where it gets complex is in attacking isolNets who’s geographical positions are unknown. In ideal circumstances, an attacking team would have acquired intelligence on the placement of the net, such as through infiltrating the body that manages it, or surveillance efforts taken beforehand, or by acquiring leaked schematics. In the cases of isols owned and managed by Third Kin, these and other methods in the same vein are the only easy means to acquire the position of a Net. Where it gets complex and cumbersome is if the location is not known, and thus the exercise of probing must begin. Probing - like with just about everything related to breaching nets - is performed via a Slate, and it entails inciting the inbuilt anarhiza root cutting in the Slate’s assembly to grow a tiny projection into the Vitric Boundary, and seeing if it encounters any conduit. If it does, the attackers are in luck, and they can thus begin preparation for the next stage of attempting a breach. If not, they will have to sever the connection and try again elsewhere. Considering that they are working along four spatial dimensions, this task can be very, very cumbersome, and it is down to primarily luck to find anything at all.

After finding a conduit in the isolNet, it must then be ascertained if it would be viable as an intrusion point. This part is tricky as well, as what counts as an ‘optimal’ point is a question that can only be answered by someone with total knowledge of the structure of the isolNet. As such, while an attacking team does have more solid tools at their disposal, much of the process of determining a viable intrusion point is the product of experience, extrapolation, and luck. Many isols have the Interlace Minds overseeing them instructed to be on the lookout for intrusions, this being done by monitoring any structural changes to the conduits or the throughput moving through them. Some have physical, reprogrammed chromelings watching over the net in the Vitric Shelf, a fairly common practice among those with enough command over the IC language to command the minds to ‘air-gap’ the net, by excavating a hollow around it in the Shelf. And a number of more esoteric defense measures exist as well, such as isolNet-specific interlace headers on all transmitted packets, so that Interlace Minds in isolated nexuses can discern between friendly and foreign packets.

But the primary determinant of a viable intrusion point is a product of detectability and throughput. Attempting to intrude into a large conduit artery can allow for rapid deployment of breach measures, but also a swift detection by the Interlace Minds and their countermeasures. A small intrusion point flies under their radar for longer, but constrains attacking strategies to more simple ones, and the process is stretched over a longer timescale. Depending on aim and approach, one must find balance, and it speaks to the adaptability that a breaching team must have to succeed.

Reconnaissance on the isolNet’s defenses is the next major stage before beginning a breach. This is done by sending up two split conduits from the Slate, a set of surveyor wires that allow for gleaning information from the isolNet. These wires are tipped with one of the pivotal tools of breach operations; a form of stable chalk-glass crystalline alloy/hybrid known as scintillate. This scintillate harnesses the negentropic properties of glass, while the imperfections introduced by the presence of chalk allows for it to interface more readily with the calcic in manners that aren’t viewable as, and functionally, destructive. This scintillate is necessary to overcome pierce the physical Glasswall insulation that surrounds rhiza conduit, as well as responsible for breaching the walls of the conduit itself. An impediment to this task is the anarhiza’s own robust reverse unravelling technique, which - tailored primarily to reverse the damage inflicted by glass - is somewhat less vulnerable to a more physical attack. The calcic and vitric ritualism are employed in this process as well, piercing the conduit and allowing the Slate’s surveyor wires to take root.

From here, analysis can begin. By siphoning away stray packets from the isolNet conduit into the Slate, the Slate’s own computational power can study the interlace header on packets and deduce further information on the nature of the isolNet they’re dealing with. Much of the defenses employed by isolNets are done via ensuring the integrity of the packet load moving through the network, and interlace headers are how the Minds presiding over the network can track and modify these packets accordingly. ‘Spoofing’ - making something appear as what it is not - is fairly common practice in breach operations, and thus stealing the syntax of legitimate packets’ interlace headers allow for generating one’s own malicious packets to attack the net. The two-wire surveyor assembly allows for analyzed packets to return to the conduit, so as to not spring any alarms or cause disruptions in the network that might alert human observers.

Different kinds of recon methods are employed, via different configurations of invading packets. One of the most common is a ‘tracer’ packet, that contains an interlace header designed to compel the Interlace Minds to route the packet through as many nexuses as possible, effectively taking the longest path through the network. Much like boarding a bus and taking record of every stop, upon the packet’s return - as it is often instructed to return to the closest network from where it was deployed - weft on the packet would have recorded the spatial coordinates of all nexuses and other apparatus on the network, charting and thus mapping a rough outline of the network’s architecture. This information is often used for determining more viable intrusion locations for the proper breach, or obtaining corresponding Dancirah-side coordinates for non-nexus devices on the net.

Further writ on this section to come.

When all preparation is believed to be completed, the actual breaching can begin.

The aims of a breach are numerous; financial gain, espionage, waging war, making a statement, sometimes even petty curiosity or revenge. The aim thus influences how the breach is conducted. Physically, breaches begin once the breach conduit is connected to the target conduit, this being grown and deployed by the Slate being used to conduct the attack. The Slate thus becomes part of the network, and the Interlace Minds within the network must now compute with the various strategies and tactics employed by the attacking team. It’s very rare that the addition of a new net device goes unnoticed, and as such, the attacking team must act fast.

We will look at two case studies; attacking a Third Kin net establishment, and attacking the isolNet of an Interdiction Mind Vault.

Scenario 1 - Breaching an Organization isolNet Supposing the aim is to retrieve information stored on a Slate within the network, the attacking team must first locate the Slate in the network (assuming they haven’t done so during the reconnaissance step) and then deploy packets that will instruct the Slate to either dump the entirety of its spool storage, or give the attackers more refined access to find exactly what they are looking for. Naturally, the Interlace Minds within the network - under the command of the network’s management - need to prevent this from occurring, and employ a wide variety of countermeasures familiar to us; firewalls that screen suspicious packets, anti-packet systems that unravel packets as they are flagged while passing through nexuses, obfuscation to protect storage on attached devices, further isolation methods to prevent the spread of attacking packets, list continues.

Opposing these measures is a core component of a successful breach. Attacker strategies generally involve gaining control of some of Interlace Minds within the net, done often by overriding their initial operating parameters with new ones using the IC language. Doing this causes directive schisms in the network, and the subsequent chaos is enough to allow attacking packets to reach devices on the network, and feed them malicious instructions. Editing permissions, removing passwords, locking out legitimate users, opening up physical insulations by instructing Shelf-side hardware, breaching is a series of wagering toolboxes against toolboxes, and the superior force - be it by tools or method or just plain luck - is inclined towards victory.

Scenario 2 - Breaching a Vault Kache-Krash operations begin with securing physical entrance within a Vault. The obstacles preventing this are primarily;

• Breaching the Glasswall.
• The physical praximechanical barrier that protects the Vault.
• Its defensive swarm of chromeling minions.
• Stationary Vault-mounted or freestanding weapon installations.
• The physical entry and exit paths of the Vault.

Once the Glasswall is breached, and access to the isolNet secured, the task at hand is to locate the Vault devices that control the emittance of the barrier, and the command and control devices for the chromeling swarm and stationary weaponry. Being the first line of defense in the event of a Krash operation, Vault Minds thus build robust isolNets to shield and obscure them as much as possible. Should access to these devices be secured all the same, the attacking team can send over kill packets, which disable the barrier and send shut-down orders to the chromeling swarm and weapon systems. Following this is finding what device controls the functioning of one of a Vault’s many entrances, allowing the attacking team to gain access to the physical Vault itself.

Kache Krash operations are particularly difficult as much of the work is performed while under the fire of the exact things they are trying to disable, and as such they are thus elaborate efforts featuring considerable manpower and asset expenditure. These operations often pay for themselves however, as the many boons in a Vault - secret things old and new - are nothing to scoff at.

Once a breach is concluded, the isolNet is mostly at the mercy of the attacking team, and while many are thoroughly satisfied with simply withdrawing all hardware, leaving the anarhiza’s natural reverse unravelling to heal the intrusion points, and disappearing into the dark of the Great Sky, many are more inclined to render the network unusable or outrightly destroying it, sending kill orders to all attached network devices and nexuses and the Interlace Minds themselves. Those who are particularly skilled can deploy instances of calcic ritualism over the network - conduits and the anarhiza at large being the Five Straits, after all - and causing the conduits to physically shatter in the Vitric Boundary, utterly collapsing the entire network establishment. Repairing such damage is incredibly costly in both resources and time, and for many attacking teams, it’s outrightly necessary to prevent forensic study of the attack discovering anything that might lead to the attack being traced back to them.

Failing to breach a net the first time - being foiled by the net’s defenses - often ruins the opportunity for follow-up attacks in the same instance, as all - both the Interlace Minds and the net’s owners - will be on high alert. Often, the best strategy is to withdraw, and strike again at a later date.

Breach Praximechanics

To the chagrin of many, the act of breaching took on a praximechanical component, thus elevating the very act and all the intricacies of it to the level of an astrolabic protocol. With the Astrolabe itself facilitating breach operations, they took on an elevated prominence, becoming a major concern for many in the Dancirah, particularly the Vault Minds, who have come to face a world where a praxis of protection must face a praxis of intrusion. Breach combatants with elevated command of the doctrine upon which the Breach Protocol is built have thus become storied, infamous figures in the Switchboard, and many breach operations can be traced to certain individuals and their teams of cohorts and disciples.

Vaults and Kache Krashing

This sections discusses the primarily means by which the Breach Protocol has been used; opposing both the Interdictory and Emergent Vaults that exist in the Dancirah.

The Vaults

The Vaults are an interesting oddity in the Great Sky, the Dancirah. Created by the Eradication Imperative and watched over by the Interdiction Collective, the Vaults served as a means to contain the wreckage and ruins of the Second Thinkers’ civilization; the Vermeil. When the Third Thinkers waged their various successful campaigns against the Minds, they fled and took refuge in the Vaults to avoid extermination. The Slates and the Breach Protocol wielded by Striders, however, proved formidable weapons against the Vaults, and Striders in endeavors known as ‘Kache Krashing’ would breach a Vault’s security and gain access to the ancient, wondrous things contained within.

Preamble

It is worth pointing out that there are two major kinds of Vaults when classified according to time period; these are the Interdictory Vaults and the Emergent Vaults.

Interdictory Vaults served and still do serve as the dumping ground of the remains of the Vermeil civilization, and the Minds and contents within are immensely old, the chalk matured having existed and soaked up the natures of the Switchboard for many processions. These Vaults are particularly treacherous to krash, as the Minds within have been fighting Striders for longer than most. They also contain the most valued rewards; bits from the Vermeil civilization, ancient Teks and secrets, valuable hexic kacherock and more.

The Emergent Vaults began to manifest sometime after the dawn of the Chalkstrider Era.

The Emergent Intelligences

Conditions in the Switchboard may induce the creation of Emergent Minds, elementary calcic intelligences that arise through the folding of chalk under rigorous self-correction mechanism and selection. They cannot live very long without vessels however. Coincidentally, what often causes these Emergent Minds to emerge is the presence of objects and oddities with specific kinds of very dense pattern, the kind that forms primarily in objects that are very old and/or have seen use in the hands of Striders and Weavers. These objects are usually denoted as Relics. Emergent intelligences that arise around them usually emerge with singular prime directive, a doctrine; protect what it is that brought them to be. This is accomplished by the construction of a Vault, which serves as both protection for what caused the intelligence to arise, as well as a body for the intelligence itself. Often, the first few ‘building blocks’ of the Vault spontaneously evolve as well, granting the emerging intelligence a baseplate upon which to build. This is further elaborated upon in SB_Astromechanics.

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The Emergent Vault Minds

A most peculiar behavior was observed exhibited in the Switchboard, by the mechanics of spontaneous equations described in The Hands as Chalk, certain oddities in the Switchboard would induce the evolution of elementary calcic intelligences in their vicinity - called Emergent Minds - resembling the First Thinkers. Occasionally, oddities in the Switchboard would find their way into Vaults as well, either swept up in chalk currents into them, or captured by the Vault Minds for study. In the case of newly-evolved Emergent Minds, they arise with a singular prime directive in the form of a doctrine; preservation of whatever it is that induced their inception. Thus, these ‘new’ First Thinkers think almost identically to the initial First Thinkers, and in particular the Interdiction Collective, and begin constructing Vaults to protect the object that brought them into existence. This thus results in two kinds of Vaults; old Vaults created by the Interdiction Collective, and younger vaults created by spontaneously-evolved Emergent Vault Minds.

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The Emergent Vaults and Vault Minds thus containing objects of interest in much more recent memory; a legendary Strider is buried with their equipment, the planet they are on decays and shatters, and all their relics are scattered across the Dancirah. As they float through interplanetary space, elementary intelligence forms from it, and it is charged to protect it at all costs. Around it, a mega construct emerges; a Vault designed to protect both it and the emergent Vault Mind.

While these Vaults don’t frequently yield rewards made powerful by their age and source, they are still worth plundering, as a way of recovering the lost powers of a couple generations prior.

While Interdictory and Emergent Vaults share key differences, the Minds presiding over each are collectively known as ‘Vault Minds’, with distinctions only being made when trying to deduce the potential threat and rewards of a prospective kache krash.

Anatomy of a Vault

Vaults are physical, three-dimensional constructs existing in interplanetary space. Though they very immensely in shape and size, they typically take the shape of an irregular three-dimensional solid (such as a tetrahedron but skewed). Almost always are Vaults shielded, and entry is only possible by disabling the shield. Entry into the Vault itself is done through purpose-built entrances or structural imperfections such as cracks in boundary walls.

Where Vaults vary immensely is upon entry. Vaults at their very elementary are labyrinthine, consisting of three-dimensional mazes of rooms and corridors and very many dead-ends. Employment of the y-axis in Vaults (verticality) results in these labyrinths presenting an immense spatial challenge to all entrants, with navigation ultimately being an immense ordeal. As though the labyrinths were not challenge enough, traversal through them is not unimpeded, as prospective vault-raiders will find themselves contending almost immediately with the Vault Mind.

Encountering the Vault Mind

Be it First Thinker or newly emerged, all Vault Minds are calcic intelligences, given rise to by the various mechanics of the Switchboard. The Vault Minds differentiate themselves from other calcic intelligences primarily through doctrine; all Vault Minds emerge with a prime directive - that of protection. Protection of ‘something’, often what caused them to arise in the first place. This manifests as the creation of massive constructs that occupy the Great Sky - known as Vaults - the Vault Mind within tasked with protecting the Vault and preserving what lies in it. This it does with a litany of mundane and esoteric weaponry and countermeasures, ranging from its army of autonomous robots known as Chromelings, elementary projectile weapons, all the way up to caedometric weapons designed to lacerate lattices and doctrinal weapons that wage war with a Strider’s very core.

The core conflict between Striders and Vault Minds is waged at the doctrinal level. Vault Minds seek to protect and preserve, while Striders seek to breach and plunder. With nothing to protect, the Vault Mind fails to uphold its doctrine, and ceases to exist as a result. As such, just as Striders will use everything in their arsenal to break into Vaults, the Vault Minds within will employ every tactic they possess to frustrate their efforts.

Vault Minds fight for their own kind of survival, and they do so by taking all manners of measures - including communicating with other Vault Minds and direct attacks on Strider interests - to ensure that continued survival.

‘Kache-Krashing’

Opposing a Vault Mind is done using the Slates and the Breach Protocol. The elementary sequence of breaching any Vault is three-fold; breaching the Glasswall, disabling its shield, and destroying its external defenses.

Once these are performed, physical entry into the Vault can be secured. Once a team has entered the Vault, it is then a race between the team’s Glassbreakers and the Vault Mind. Slates are used to blunt and counter the Vault’s many defenses, divine paths through the labyrinth, and secure additional edge for the team of kache-krashers along the way.

The final reward of a Vault is defended by the Vault’s strongest defenses and the avatar of the Vault Mind, heavily armored against all manners of offense and bristling with weapons. Most dangerous however, is how Vault Minds maintain the final chamber - where the object of the Vault’s security is kept - locked and inaccessible; using a structural cast that serves as a sort of elaborate combination lock. This ‘lock’ must be ‘picked’ by the krashing team weaving themselves into the ritual and defusing it by exploiting vulnerabilities or using any other methods at their disposal. However, it must be done without triggering a ‘fail state’ (similar to how actual Vaults can detect their internals being tampered with and set off alarms).

Failing to defeat a Vault Mind and defusing the structural cast under the terms set by both triggers the equivalent of a phenomena in MMO games commonly described as a ‘wipe’. The cast resolves itself along parameters established by the Vault Mind, and the vault krashers are unraveled at the lattice level - before they are then purged from the Vault into interplanetary space outside. The resolution of the cast reactivates the Vault’s shields and various defenses - ‘resetting’ it, almost.

Particularly tenacious Striders may feel inclined to attempt breaching the Vault again, and there is even an argument for doing so as knowledge of the Vault gleaned from the first run is invaluable for a hypothetical second go. However, Vault Minds obey similar logic, and will be prepared for a repeat raid by the same team. Particularly powerful Vault Minds may passively ‘scan’ and simulate the lattice of a krashing team, and use it to concoct a target-specific unravelling weapon, capable of obliterating a Strider in mere seconds upon entry. Of note is that a Vault Mind would also have learned of the various tools employed by the Breach Protocol to gain entry, and will thus devise defenses against them to frustrate future raiding efforts.

As such, when a Krash Operation (or KrashOp) is failed, the same team typically admits the defeat, marks the Vault as ‘hot’ for other potential teams, provides or sells information to interested parties, and ultimately moves on.

Vaults as Ledgerial Spaces

An addendum following the development of The Astrolabe.

The many powers possessed by a Vault Mind and the oddities and quirks inherent to it are, in fact, a product of the Vault being immersed in a ledgerial space. The shield that a vault possesses serves to cordon off the vault from the rest of the Switchboard, and declaring the space within the shield a boundary. Within this boundary, the Vault Mind imposes the ledgers it has written, made possible by being a creation identical to the earliest calcic intelligences, and being a creature of instinct powered by raw doctrine.

Within the ledgerial space of the vault, attacking kache krash teams must contend with the many offensive and defensive measures employed by the Vault Mind, including its ability to warp space itself, further complicating the task of traversing a vault.

Failing to default a Vault Mind triggers ledgerial writ that purges the attacking force from the limits of the boundary. But chief among the powers granted to a vault by virtue of it being a ledgerial space is the target-specific unravelling weapon. As a being - such as a member of an attacking team - dwells within the confines of a vault, the nature and construction of its lattice is gradually written to a ledger. Should the subject attempt to infiltrate the vault again, the ledger is weaponized and used to concoct a weapon, which targets the subject and destroys their lattice utterly - a near-guaranteed instant-kill maneuver.

Plunder

What are the rewards for successfully defeating a Vault Mind, defusing the cast in place, and accessing the final chamber?

Without even reaching the final chamber, dwelling in a Vault and drinking of its ancient chalk and the secrets it holds seeks to ‘mature’ the the lattice of a Strider, empowering all calcic powers they are capable of. Studying the architecture and murals of the Vault provides information about the early Switchboard and Chalkstriders, other oddities in the Switchboard etc. Destroying the Vault’s defenses yields useful technology that can be reverse-engineered for a Strider’s purposes.

The actual treasures of the Vaults as contained in the final chamber are far greater and more tangible than these however; ancient knowledge and technology utilized by the Vermeil, slightly less ancient teks and relics wielded by old Chalkstriders, powerful ritual schema, maps to lost frontiers, tomes of knowledge and secrecy, and far more. Vault rewards almost always justify the ordeal of securing them, and infamous Striders are often skilled and practiced Kache Krashers.

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pNarrat: The Glazwyre

The mechanics of praxis have facilitated the existence of many concepts in the Switchboard, granting power and meaning to the mundane, causing them to arise, become transcendent, and achieve a physicality to their form that makes them yet another tangible oddity in the ledgers of the Dancirah. It is suspected by some that similar happened to the anarhiza root network, and the DevitNet when it later arose; that this interconnectedness across vast space seeded a praxis of connectedness itself, and thus spawned a pseudo-realm of which connection and communication were a core doctrine.

If the anarhiza is a tree, what is its crown?

The anarhiza - this amalgamation of minds - is a colossal thinking weave entity, and this confers upon it the Five Straits. This includes the memory strait, and while the function of the DevitNet is primarily to relay, it can store as well. The question becomes what it stores; what has the anarhiza decided to remember? Or does its memory function the way it functions in other thinking weave?

The first to notice it were the Netmasters.

The many bodies that contributed to the study, founding, development and implementation of the various spheres of communications and compute in the Dancirah would inevitably attract and spawn odder folks in their ranks, who were cursed - perhaps - with opinionated dispositions matching only their undeniable genius. Asymmetry in philosophy caused the many earliest builders of the DevitNet and related subject matter to scorn the once hallowed offices where this building took place. They went out into the Dancirah and sought to shape the DevitNet in their own images, along their own philosophies. Becoming territorial warlords of astro-geographical-mirrored Net-space, they became the Netmasters; self-appointed arbiters of information flow itself. Their power, in turn, took on a praximechanical edge.

The running of their Net empires required a relationship - a connection - with the anarhiza network that could not be achieved through the crude - comparatively - methodology of a mindspun-powered compute cube socketed into a clunky sarcophagus of ribbon cable and dull periphery. No, the conduction of the will needed to be expedited. It was not enough to simply speak - even when speaking the Interlace Command - the Netmasters sought to be felt, to exist not merely as users of the DevitNet and the wider nets, but to become phenomena within it. Not so much gods, as they would come to be accused of, but as laws, that the will of a Netmaster would passively shape the DevitNet territory under domain.

Achieving the supreme conduction of the will required a willingness to go where others had not gone, and do what others only whispered of in the hushed footnotes of ethically-burdened institutions. The ‘going where others had not gone’ was very, very literal, and it was theorized that the full realization of the praximechanical power yielded from the doctrine and prime directive of communication could only be attained via the elimination of the one, inescapable constraint upon communication itself; distance. It was theorized that, were it possible to answer the question of how might one mind interact in totality with another mind, sharing the ontological qualities and contents of each, then a sort of ‘perfect communication’ would be attained.

And so the Netmasters went into the DevitNet. Into the anarhiza.

It was made possible via an invention of theirs; a modification of the conduit used by the anarhiza to connect the entirety of the Switchboard, a modification that saw glass be integrated into conduit, to form the glasswire. This glasswire, via the simplifying, perfecting power of glass, was able to ablate all excess from the lattice of a Netmaster - paring them down to the rawest state of their ontology - and enabling them to become as weft packets, inscribed with the writ of the Interlace Command, and facilitating traversal across the DevitNet.

As well as dwelling within it.

The roots of the anarhiza straddles the boundary between Sky and Shelf. The trunk of the tree grows upwards, into the Vitric Shelf proper. And the crown - the leaves, branches, and fruit hanging from them - are the memory strait. Within these structures, ablated Third Kin, trimmed of all excess and consolidated down to straits and doctrine, are allowed to dwell in a state of zero cognitive distance, where all minds and principles and all other minds and principles are granted perfect communication - and the praximechanical power that comes with having perfected their doctrine.

This zero-distance cognitive space has come to be called the Glazwyre.

Within the Glazwyre, answers to its questions are scare - scarcer still outside of it, but this hallowed domain being the plane upon which the DevitNet’s and Dancirah’s Netmasters operate has made them its de-facto highest authorities. Their power is not limitless, but appears this is more a product of there having been no one who forged this path before, and taught those behind them how to walk it.

The final concern, of course, is what the Netmasters truly are - perhaps what they’ve become - and above all, what are their ends. Many espouse a vision of a ‘freeNet’, one without oversight of any kind, allowed to grow and thrive, the only doctrine being endless proliferation. But skeptics remain so, believing that the Netmasters, shrouded in shadow as they are, have aims not dissimilar from many others in the Switchboard; grand chisel-blows in the slate-ledgers of the Current, actions that will ensure their names transcend death itself.

pNarrat: Artificial Thinkers

This section should ideally be read following the headings on Mind Engineering and Mental Machining. They are critical for understanding some of what is discussed towards the tail end of this section.

The Old Thinkers

A deliberate overarching theme of the Switchboard is intelligence arising from places it couldn’t possibly. Weft exists, but weft is inert; dead, and has never lived. But folded the right way, it takes on qualities that call into question the true depths of understanding. By what means is it really that the Five Straits - particularly the computational - function as they do? It is an unknown. The number of conclusions scales inversely with theories. But even without total understanding of this black box, enough understanding has been obtained to harness it to certain ends.

The First Thinkers were simple. This would have been a problem were they not also numerous. Alone, they were merely emotive curtains, being strung along on celestial currents and subject to the whims of an unfeeling higher calculus. But together, in amalgam, they obtained a novel manner of being born from the earliest instances of cooperation between elementary sentients. The name for the first of the First Thinkers that arose and served the Astrolabe was rather aptly the Overseer Collective. They had a task, and it was achieved only through harnessing what emerged when they gathered in mass.

The nexuses were cultivated. They were rather simple things; free-standing deep space constructs built of materials blasted from the earliest proto-planets, with First Thinkers nestled in their nooks. Sleeping perhaps, or rather some approximation of it, approximation enough that it allowed for dreaming. And the First Thinkers shared these dreams and grew as a result. They began to posit limits; they already knew what they could do, but what truly could be done? What were the absolute limits of a thinking being in the Switchboard? As the Switchboard was now, was it perfect? Was there a way to better it?

Scholars of the subject at this point begin to differ on what happened to cause the First Thinkers to begin these patterns of thought. Prime directives are somewhat understood as some conceptual ancestor to doctrines, and they were defined by immense simplicity of nature. For the Overseer Collective, it was in their name; oversee. Their task from the very beginning was simply to watch and to tell. Scholars, however suspect that prime directives could either evolve, or that the First Thinkers could escape governance by their prime directive. Either way something of a consensus was reached; whatever it was that guided them was skewed by whatever it was that skewed it, and the First Thinkers moved from merely overseeing, to desiring more things to oversee.

This new compulsion awakened within them roused them to action, and they began the experimentation that would soon confer them with the knowledge necessary to indirectly tamper with the calculus of the Astrolabe - quite literally alter the operating code of their canon - and begin a reshaping the Switchboard towards the current shape it would take in the modern era. The rise of the Vermeil was somewhat expected by the First Thinkers, but the effect they would come to have on them couldn’t have possibly been known. They simply hadn’t dreamed that far. Or they remembered their original directive and were compelled to obey it once again, a last-ditch attempt to salvage the Switchboard which they believed had begun some form of decline. Or perhaps this was an early instance of projection; ascribing the realizations they had obtained about themselves by studying the Vermeil to the Switchboard at large.

Once faced the reality of having to think like the Vermeil, the First Thinkers reacted in the manners that led to the First Praxis War. They won, but not without fragmenting and changing themselves, so much so that when the Third Kin arose without their interference, and the Second Praxis War began, they began acting in a manner nigh indistinguishable from the Third Kin themselves.

There was something learned from this.

In Our Own Image

Necessity indeed births invention. Having need for things orients us towards procuring them. Even if the means are not explicit, the capabilities of our minds are such that lines can be drawn between even seemingly unrelated things to deduce a means by which they can form a coherent whole, this invention working towards satisfying some end. Much of why we built machines is that they work faster, more accurately and without tiring, needing no food or thanks. Computers are particularly emblematic of this; we could already do mathematics, some of us were even quite good at it. But the ordeal of building civilization derived from first principles is solving many, many equations quickly and accurately. This costs energy and time, and human energy and human time are expensive. It is almost always preferable to outsource this grunt work to something else unable to feel how we feel about it.

Much of this sentiment drives the proliferation of artificial intelligence. After creating things too dumb to complain, we inevitably realized that our demands could no longer be met by ‘dumb’ things. The tasks we wanted to complete became increasingly more demanding of human cognition to tackle, while also never decreasing - quite the opposite - in sheer scale. The charge, then, was simple; we needed machines that could think like us, cognition once thought exclusively our domain now realized wholly in plate and wire, which benefit from being apparatus capable of simple, but robust expansion.

I don’t imagine it was very much different in the Switchboard. There are few desires more human than wanting to both eat cake and still have it. The chromelings used by the Vault Minds provided a decidedly viable path to pursue; there was indeed a means to grant capacity for complex function emblematic of living things to things that are far from living. The brains of this was the computer, and the brains of that were the Larksel cubes. By harnessing elementary intelligences - the mindspun - and subjecting them to the will of higher intelligences interpreted by instruction sets, it was thus possible to replicate what the First Thinkers had done so long ago that would eventually lead to their fall; compel the emergence of higher cognition through amalgamation and guidance. Quite literally brute-forcing the evolutionary process to coerce greater thinking weave out of lesser thinking weave, continuing a process that began with weft that couldn’t think at all.

The Fel-Arcad were first to practice something like this in a bid to devise a wholly-autonomous management authority for the numerous systems that make up an arcology. This they did by creating greenhouse conditions for the emergence of mindspun, then using their crucibles to meld minds together to form a cognitive entity akin to a First Thinker. Calcic ritualism is used to issue this entity a prime directive, and further apparatus used to give it command over whatever network of systems it will be defined by for the rest of its tenure. These ‘Purposed Minds’ however, differ from the ones discussed above. The ones above are more generalized intelligences capable of much more varied function. Only they are faster, and more accurate. Built like us to do what we are not inclined to.

In a sense, they are the Switchboard universe’s best approximation of artificial general intelligence, non-Kin entities to function at above-Kin proficiency in supposedly exclusively-Kin tasks. While being designed to be directed in function by their Third Kin creators, robust instruction sets baked into their cognitive cores makes them capable of unilateral function.

This of course raises the questions one might expect with regards to ethics and morality, and the all important question of whether they can come to hate the Kin, and conclude their elimination is essential for achieving some end. The shortest answer is that these are conundrums better explored in the manner they most frequently are; in narrative. The slightly less short answer - of course - is that the greatest thinkers in this field have anticipated these problems and more as a matter of course, and have theorized means of rectifying most, while implementing means to rectify some. The question of how they might adequately - and later completely - simulate the Third Kin’s small grass patch of morality relative to the entire moral landscape is a particularly prominent one, and it is of little surprise that Fel-Arcad researchers and Fel-built and oriented models dominate the space.

For want of a name, they were called the ‘Nuthi’ - ‘new thinkers’.

Really, In Our Own Image

In very familiar fashion, the Kin too are driven to give faces and recognizable shapes to the intelligences they’ve built. For many, the likeness is purely virtual; a name and crafted face projected onto space by tricks of light, features that emote to convince the mind of the likeness to oneself that is the entity speaking.

It isn’t very much beyond conception however, that some would go considerably greater lengths to give these minds a presence in reality. Though a complex, demanding task, the Fel-Arcad with their sembleworks are more than capable of spinning an entire bodily lattice of weft and chrome for a mind to pilot, allowing them to exist in the Switchboard much like the Kin that created them. Much like animated dolls or androids, they can live in fashion almost wholly identical to us.

Bestowing them with shapes in this manner is not without controversy however, begging questions - again - of morality and ethics. For their creators, it is merely a means to interact most familiarly with their creations. For dissenters, it is a litany of things, ranging from the seed of disruption to social orders, to the perceived heresy of conferring a higher privilege upon a lesser existence.

On Narrative

pNarrat: CommsCompute Nomenclature

A number of things discussed in this document have in-canon named discoverers and creators, who have named these things accordingly. In narrative, to bestow some elements of individuality upon them, the choice might be made to refer to them by these names rather than their more general ones.

• Rhiza conduit information throughput classes utilize the Kao classification. Numbered from Kao-0 to Kao-5, they denote escalating physical diameter of conduit, and thus total data throughput.
  • Kao-0 is exclusively used for microlNet communications, and isn’t generally used outside of that due its immensely low throughput by design.
  • Netfrastructure progresses as such; nexuses, sub-nexuses, cradle nexuses, planet-orbital net relays, ground relays, final nodes. Between each of these is a Kao-class conduit, starting at Kao-5 between nexuses and sub-nexuses, and Kao-1 between ground relays and the final nodes on a network.
• The mindspun computational cube was developed primarily by Fredriko Larksel, thus leading to its alternate name of the Larksel cube.
• Similarly, Fenyr Baranx was the foremost researcher on the means to push information down conduit, which led to his development of the packet and the dictionary brace calcic apparatus that facilitated it. They thus bear the alternate names of Baranx packets and the Baranx brace.

pNarrat: Architecture Informs Architecture

It is worth observing how the differences in architecture between the DevitNet and internet also informs the nature of both of their virtual landscapes.

The DevitNet is built and structured differently from our conventional internet in a number of ways. For one, the DevitNet has a singular centralized computer structure in the form of the Anarhiza itself, which itself provides a number of freely-available compute and communicative resources. Its core function however, is administration over the packaging, repacking, routing and rerouting of information. While our own internet is a mix of dominantly client-server and P2P infrastructure, the DevitNet is nearly entirely client-server, but with the server doing more of moving information rather than processing it. Truly P2P infrastructure requires establishment of parallel mirror infrastructure, which tends to be costly to both build and maintain.

The core architectural difference between the DevitNet and internet however, is the physics of space at the fundamentals. Calcic material moves much more slowly in the natural pipe structures of the Anarhiza than electrons and radio waves move in their own media, and calcic material far more swiftly and tangibly runs into the problem of ‘bandwidth’. Essentially, the DevitNet is constrained by the rate at which units of information ‘mass’ can move through units of Anarhiza ‘distance’. You can communicate the relative speed of the DevitNet by sampling how long it takes an amount of calcic mass to move through the Anarhiza. This expectedly means that much larger Anarhiza structure can move much larger amounts of calcic information due to the literal wood of the tree being wider.

If one begins to think of the DevitNet this way, it helps to start imagining the DevitNet as a challenge of arranging shapes in a cylinder. Continuing this physical intricacy, different kinds of information moved through the DevitNet - strings, numerals, images, audio and video - both occupy different amounts and shapes of space, with strings of text and numerals taking up the least space, followed by images and audio trading spaces on a case-by-case basis, and video being the weightiest by all metrics. Moving video down the pipe requires putting a large and odd-angled three-dimensional polygon in a cylinder, which occupies a lot of space as-is, but also compromises the utility of space it only partially occupies, but prevents anything else from fully occupying.

For this reason, the DevitNet is a very string and image-focused environment; much of it is heavily prose-focused, with monochrome images as color lends weight to images as well. Audio is rare and found only at specific outlets - which often correspond to physical locales in real space - and video an almost cryptid oddity. All this gives the DevitNet a far more simplistic look compared to our internet, as it was prior to when the rise of home internet speeds made moving high-resolution multimedia a possibility, and later a commonality.

While net resources - such as a website - can have images and video on it where it is hosted, it is often the case that the request for that site’s information will have the images decolorized and video stripped in transit, replaced with alternate text definitions of what was removed. Moving images and video across the Switchboard is done at a premium, using either dedicated net pipelines or ferried by hand via a Strider. This streamlining process is performed by the Anarhiza itself - it is a living, intelligent thing after all - which employs a number of algorithms to determine how best to lighten an information load to preserve the stability of the entire DevitNet, while retaining as much of the information’s integrity as possible.

Were our own internet working in much the same manner, the problem would be greatly reduced by the fact the entire system would still rest on a bedrock of atoms and radio waves, which are themselves components of systems that work at orders of magnitude faster than the DevitNet. The DevitNet however, is more like a system of hydraulics; slow, steady, and carrying behind it a considerable load of accumulated force that must be balanced under carefully-engineered conditions or risk catastrophe. Moving images and video across the DevitNet is done at the expense of both every other user down a stream, and the stability of the system itself. Moving images and video across the Switchboard is as such, done at a premium, using either dedicated net pipelines established by firms providing higher-speed exclusive conduits, or ferried by hand via a Strider.

The exception to this rule are incredibly robust isolNets built by various parties who need massive throughput for one reason or another. Expectedly and as was explicitly stated, these isolNets are closed off to mass usage, and often really only see usage within physically-proximal devices such as within a structure or complex.

Speaking on the experience of using the DevitNet itself, its virtual landscape is simple, monochrome, and terribly wordy, interspaced by the occasional image or bit of audio, with a video being akin to finding flecks of gold in the debris panned from a flowing river. Much of the DevitNet is forums, chatrooms, libraries and repositories, with the relatively high latency of communicating input and output making interactive, responsive applications relatively impossible outside of specifically-engineered contexts. Multiplayer games in the Switchboard are a rarity, often constrained to only the simplest games that transmit little data and aren’t time conscious, or playable only in dedicated nexuses allotted for this purpose, such as Fel arcologies.

This isn’t to say that heavier forms of information are entirely absent, but rather that they are actively restricted by the Anarhiza’s own non-kin administrators; the Interlace Communicative thinker-minds that comprise the Anarhiza’s physical structure. Operating under the prime directive of facilitating communication, they maintain optimal functioning of the DevitNet via fine monitoring of every single data conduit within it. Under certain circumstances, a line will have so little occurring on it that a request to pipe image and video down it will be honored. In most cases however, the line is already quite close to maximum throughput due to whatever is already moving through it, and thus even if images and video were coming down the pipe, it will be stripped and destroyed at the immediate nexus, only allowing text strings to come through. This is often accompanied with something of an apology from the Minds, as though upholding their prime directive does mean keeping data flowing, it does also factor in that video and images are communication as well, and text may be insufficient in such cases. The Minds do employ a number of optimizations to aid in retaining information integrity; such as employing the aggressive caching functions - aggressive for this very reason - of Slates to pull previously requested data from memory instead of from the DevitNet if a quick back-forth on a dedicated wire proves nothing has changed, and even pulling missing assets from other users ‘close’ to you in corresponding real space; such as the image from a social media post your neighbor viewed earlier, which you’re viewing now.

Without this compromise however, the DevitNet can grind to a halt - as has happened before. A blockage in one locale can compound and cascade and cripple an entire network, shutting down all communication entirely. While the Minds that oversee the net are more than capable of resolving such on their own, additional nuances to the matter can complicate such crashes, sometimes to the extent that the kin-staffed net authorities might need to physically breach the boundary between Sky and Shelf, and perform maintenance on Anarhiza root lengths to clear the blockage manually.

To aid the movement of abrasive chalkweave through the conduits of the Anarhiza, the tree synthesizes and secretes a lubricating fluid in its vascular tissue, a fluid that tends to come gushing out when the tissue is breached. It is no surprise then, that the Switchboard’s net maintainers are often likened too - or explicitly called - ‘plumbers’.