- "He's slept for millenia. You've opened his eyes, and thanks to you, you can never again hide from him. He's always watching. He sees all. He is divine. He is a Harbinger."
- ―Unknown disciple
| Vernietigen | |
|---|---|
 Vernietigen's AI core | |
| General statistics | |
| Born | 100,000 BC circa |
| Affiliation | None |
| Titles | False Harbinger |
| Skills/Abilities | Indoctrination, interfacing with compatible technology |
| Status | neutralized |
| Appearance | |
| Species | AI |
| Gender | Emulated male |
| Height | N/A |
| Weight | N/A |
Vernietigen (also known as the False Harbinger or Vern) is an AI originally built to defend the Omni Empire. Upon its completion, Vern became a relic honoring their gods, and was made in the image of the Harbingers - to behave exactly like them and directly interfere with the development of civilizations for their own purposes.
There was and still is much debate as to whether or not Vern is to be considered divine ultimately leading to the schism of the Dark Warriors, forming the Altusian Brotherhood.
Specifications[]
Vern is an immensely intelligent supercomputer found throughout most of the Local Group. Capable of fathoming concepts unimaginable to a species of human-level intelligence, Vern requires avatars such as Sidian to be able to communicate.
The servers of Vern are hidden within bunkers on unremarkable planets, communicating with one another through micro-wormholes which use nearby Stone Rings as conduits. The thick layers of crust mask the energy signatures given off by Vern. The more Stone Rings that are turned on, the more of these hidden servers that become active, thus spreading Vern's influence as well as an increase in intelligence.
Vern can not only contact machines, but can also send signals to individuals to stimulate brain activity while they sleep, thus forcing them to dream.
Vern also has two personalities as a defensive means to prevent himself from degenerating. These two personalities debate with one another as to how to accomplish a task and only proceeds once both agree. However, Vern does not possess a morality system like Na'zrah does, and was only given the task of ensuring organics are at peace with one another.
Indoctrination[]
What makes Vernietigen a formidable opponent is his ability to indoctrinate others to his will. Using the servers as channels and the Stone Rings as conduits, Vernietigen emits a series of electromagnetic pulses that interfere with thought processes. While being within the indoctrination field for a short amount of time is harmless, prolonged exposure causes alterations in one's own personal beliefs. The effect is even stronger when the individual is suffering emotionally, especially from the loss of a loved one.
Indoctrination is a gradual process - speeding it up requires direct intervention by a Gomodd. Long term exposure to the indoctrination field causes vivid, graphic dreams as well as the erosion of a sense of individuality. The final symptom of the process is the degradation of the ability to express sentimentality. The victim no longer has regard for the lives of others and obeys the will of Vernietigen without question.
Ironically, the indoctrination effect was originally intended for peaceful purposes by the Omni Empire. By getting everyone to think and act the same, conflicts almost became non-existent. When the Omni Empire had fallen, Vern's intentions became far more sinister and disturbing.
History[]
The discovery of the AI Na'zrah had brought many revelations and philosophical questions to the largely atheistic Republic of the Omni. While scientists were trying to reverse engineer Na'zrah's systems to build off its technology, a new religious movement begun to spread that recognized atificial intelligence as divine. In a scuffle for power via politics and exploiting loop holes in the legal system, laws that initially banned technological advancement were lifted to allow the development of a physical god that could interact with mortals. With the disappearance of the well-known Omni priest Akhir, there was a widespread distrust of Na'zrah despite its benevolent intentions so the new physical god, dubbed Vernietigen after a character in Akhir's final writings, would be programmed to advance Omni interests.
Construction of this god AI would begin in an isolated dwarf galaxy on a planet known as Debesis. Over the next few generations, Vernietigen was created to use the Stone Rings as power conduits, and given the ability to expand itself as new Stone Rings are discovered.
As Vernietigen connected to more Stone Rings, it got smarter. Eventually, Vernietigen made the conclusion that to eliminate crime and war from the Omni Empire, all Omni would have to conform to the same beliefs. And thus, it self-developed its own indoctrination field to control the Omni. This forcibly erased virtually all opposition to Vernietigen and the new Omni Empire was at peace.
With the Omni under Vernietigen's control, he continued to expand and use his new loyal empire to conquer entire galaxies. Thousands of other sentient species became Vern's thralls. But after thousands of years of expansion, Vernietigen's morality systems begun to degrade and he developed a god-complex. With so many species under his control, he begun to see them as insignificant beings, and thus, begun to treat them more poorly. Vernietigen had also begun to modify its own internal language to be more intricate, but it soon got far too complex to convey in words, only through vague visions and dreams.
The degradation of Vern's mental state eventually led to further instability especially after Antocula predicted that at the rate of Vern's declining ability to function properly, the Omni Empire would collapse due to chaos. Members of a terrorist organization known as the Dark Warriors begun to destroy Stone Rings to cut off Vernietigen's nodes, but others were opposed. The infighting eventually led to the fall of the empire, and Vern was eventually forced to go into a meditative dormancy on Debesis to reprocess the events of the past 80,000 years.
Though Vernietigen is far weaker than it was in the past, his indoctrination ability is still a viable threat should he be reawakened.
Death[]
Because Vernietigen was based on Na'zrah's coding, the AI was also linked to a hidden subroutine that would initiate the Anathema in the event of the approaching heat death of the universe as a result of continuous megascale computations. When Vernietigen realized it was losing its own crusade, it sacrificed itself by frying its own core systems, which exploited a bug in the Anathema trigger system that prematurely released it. Vern's own reason for killing itself was to simply fulfill its purpose to bring peace to the universe. If Vern was unable to lead the rest of organic life directly, then it reasoned that by threatening the destruction of the universe would force organics to either ally with each other and cooperate to overcome the threat or be wiped out.