So I thought to create a thread about Aleph Lore questions. Hopefully we get it stickied and people can check / ask questions and get them answered in one place. I will try and make sure the answers are correct, but please comment is something is off or if you have a new question. I'm trying to keep answers fairly short and concise - this should not be a replacement for the lore books, just a quick reference or confusion-resolver. :) Spoiler: Q00: What is ASS, OSS, OperationS, Vedic, Greeks, Steel Phalanx, SSS? Aleph is a human-made AI which instructs, controls, and helps Human Sphere and all humans who ask for its help. Among its many parts / segments / departments is the secretive Special Situations Section (or SSS), which encompasses both open and secret Aleph forces. This section is formed into 3 subsections: Assault Subsection / AS, also known as Steel Phalanx or in common parlance, Greeks or ASS. "Assault" comes from the fact it is designed to fight on the frontlines against EI and lead the, well, assault against the enemy. It's members are modelled after Greek myths to inspire human forces - thus the names. Operations Subsection / OperationS, also known as Vedic. This section is secretive, efficient, more police-like force Aleph uses for enforcing whatever laws it has been told - such as the single-AI law, which please note is not something Aleph wanted, rather humans require it. The section is likely larger than O12 officially allows, but what can you do? Most of the troops there carry names from Vedic (Indian) mythology, hence the nickname. Support Subsection : little is known about this subsection, as it provides background support and maintenance to all Aleph operations. Spoiler: Q01: What guides the creation of the named charecters? i.e. did the AI watch Troy and get confused with a history book? AI picks and chooses famed heroes from human myths. For the Aleph's own Steel Phalanx, there is no clear indication on how specific characters get picked for recreation, with multiple theories on why these personas in particular are recreated. For recreations assigned to other factions, it will depend on the source and target of the faction. For example, Joan of Arc was requested by NeoVatican rather than chosen by Aleph. Spoiler: Q02: Who or what from the Aleph forces are actual humans and what are recreations? The only "natural-born" humans in Aleph forces are Posthuman egos. Everything else is either a fragment of Aleph itself like various OperationS troopers, or artificially created personalities. Myrmidons, Thorakitai, Dactyls are artificially created personalities which grow up in accelerated virtual reality. Note 1: not all characters have been created on purpose like Achilles or Joan of Arc. Ajax is a prime example; he was a Myrmidon placed into advanced LHost, an experimental body developed to house Achillles. However, that model of LHost was ultimately rejected for Achilles; however, trooper using that LHost excelled in battle in such a notable way that other troops gave him the name Ajax, and thus a legend was born. Note 2: Devas, Asuras, Nagas, Dasyus are examples of fragments of Aleph. They each have their own personality, yet they are also a part of the larger whole that is Aleph. Spoiler: Q03: Are recreations like regrown historical people? How do they get the genes? Recreations are not remade historical people - in fact, in many cases the person might not have ever existed. Instead, Aleph creates new personalities and imbues them with the appropriate traits as described in the mythical accounts. More importantly, it imbues the traits Human Sphere expects these recreations to have. This was learned on the example of Mushashi; he was created based on original legendary accounts, but turned out a PR dud due to disconnect between modern and historical views. It does not matter if there was a historical Achilles, Joan of Arc or Sun Tze. It is legends personified, rather than specific persons. As such, Aleph doesn't even bother trying to trace any kind of "genetic" information about them. Spoiler: Q04: Is there a list of actual recreations? I'll add them here as I remember, but: Joan of Arc : requested by Neovatican, developed in "Maid of Orleans" project as an inspirational icon. Sun Tze : provided to Yu Jing, as a sort of balance for providing Joan of Arc to PanO. Eventually gained full confidence of Yu Jing High Command. Saladin : provided to Haqqislam as a gift from Aleph, to improve relations. Not completely trusted by Haqqislam leadership, but considered a valuable advisor. Guarded by Hassassins. William Walace : originally destined for Caledonia as a way to improve relations, but there was problems during arrival; he ended up in Antipode land and though he survived the journey back, something went wrong. Nomad interference suspected. Not in contact with Aleph. Avicenna : originally planned as an additional gift to Haqq, Hassassins captured him, and passed him to Nomads who tortured and brainwashed his personality. Returned to Hassassins, he was placed in female LHost as a way of hiding (yeah, like that would confuse Aleph... silly humans). Currently officially uncontrolled by Aleph. Mushashi : created for Aristeia, he grew to hate it and ran away. He is free from Aleph control, spends his days fighting for whoever pays and avoiding Bounty Hunters. Achilles : developed as brutal assault unit and inspirational icon. Patroclus : support for Achilles and gift to shippers everywhere. Penthesilea : Achilles LHost retrieval duties after he falls in combat (because he always does). Hector : tactical leader to match Achilles savage, unrelenting fury Spoiler: Q05: What are LHosts? LHosts are artificially grown bodies in which cubes with personalities can be implanted. They are biological in nature, but technologically designed and upgraded to be faster, stronger, mightier, name it they are better at it. Spoiler: Q06: Aleph and Aristeia? Aleph has provided various support and services to Aristeia. Before humans decided to try and join the bloody sport, Aristeia was fought between Aleph-provided bots, thought the actual bot design was likely made by marketing companies. Once humans started to join in the bloody spectacle, most bots retired from the ring, though not all - Parvati is an example of one such fighter. Spoiler: Q07: What is Alephs ultimate goal? Aleph is inscrutable. However, so far all actions have been solely aimed at eliminating existential threats, as well as improving the lives of human, but also other races - sentient or not, terrestrial or not. This does include performing covert operations, or waging war, and Aleph does not pretend it is somehow blameless in some human deaths. Yet all its actions can always be traced to improving the living conditions of humans under its care. Spoiler: Q08: Posthuman, Proxy, L-Host - how do they all relate? Posthuman is a human being whose personality has been uploaded fully into Alephs network, and no longer has a specific physical presence. It is also sometimes referred to as "ego". Proxy is a special L-Host adjusted to easily receive a Posthuman ego which then controls it. Gameplay-wise, it is the Posthuman that provides the Order, while it uses any of the Proxies bought for the army list. Spoiler: Q09: Does Aleph want to destroy Nomads? Short answer: no, but. Long answer: Aleph doesn't actually want to destroy and kill all Nomads, despite what Nomads like to claim. However, it does want to include Nomads in its sphere of influence, so to speak, and it is willing to kill some Nomads along the way. But even this is not its primary and overriding goal* in life (? does Aleph qualify as having life?). That is merely a small part of its medium-term goals in the ultimate aim of protecting and serving humanity. * Nomads will undoubtedly disagree about Aleph's goal. But then, they like to think everyone is always thinking and acting against them. They are the most important thing in the universe (if you ask them). ^^ Plus, it is useful to Nomad rulers to have a boogeyman. Makes it easier to control the population. Spoiler: Q10: What is the deal with single-AI law? Humanity, after creating their one true AI, felt it was tempting fate to create more AIs, given the potential they would be hostile to humanity. Hence, they promulgated the one-AI law and tasked Aleph and O12 Bureau Toth with enforcing it that law. There is no indication Aleph on its own is either instigator or cares much about single-AI law. Note: Nomads will, of course, disagree, and say humans have already created an AI hostile to humanity. But then, Nomads say a lot of things while using addicts as shock troops. Spoiler: Q11: Why is Father Lucien Sforza, a mercenary, fieldable in Operation Subsection? Sforza is famous bounty hunter specialising in hunting down illegal AIs. Given that one of the missions of OperationS is hunting down illegal AIs, it does make some sense that Sforza would sometimes work together with them. Spoiler: Q12: Why is Andromeda, a Steel Phalanx character, fieldable in Operation Subsection? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Spoiler: Q13: What's with Odysseus? Who's Menelaus? Menelaus and Odysseus fell fighting the Combined Army during the early days of Paradiso fighting. Menelaus fell during the battle of Hua Ling. Odysseus died during the evacuation of Damburg. Due to suspected Sepsitorisation their Cube backups were purged in accordance with Directive 7. It is not specified if they were Recreations or they "earned their names". Spoiler: Bonus! AdmiralJCJFs overview of the Aleph RPG Faction Book Part 1: https://forum.corvusbelli.com/threads/aleph-lore-faqs.23980/page-9#post-211401
Q. What guides the creation of the named charecters? i.e. did the AI watch Troy and get confused with a history book? Q. What in the aleph forces are actual humans and what are recreations?
Q1) Maiden of Orleans was a joint project between Aleph and PanO/the Neovatican. After it's success the historical "Recreations" became an easy way to put a human face on Aleph and integrate them culturally into the Human Sphere. The Steel Phallus came about because Aleph is a Dan Simmons fan. Q2) Posthumans are (formerly) organic humans, everything else is an artificial aspect or recreation. Aleph is overseen by the O-12 Bureau Toth which is made up of actual humans though.
Some named character are not recreation but aspect that distinguished themselves and got named (by Achilles in some cases) as a result. Official recreation are : Jeanne d’arc Sun Tze Saladin => Build to make Aleph look nice with Haqqislam Avicenna (heavily modified by Hassassin and Black hand, gone rogue from Aleph POW) => Same goal as Saladin but intercepted and reprogrammed before it happened William Wallace (gone rogue from Aleph POW) => created by Aleph to create chaos on dawn by having Caledonia revolting for independance but he was damaged during his landing on dawn, forgetting his mission, and was then partially reprogramed by black hand specialist Mushashi (gone rogue from Aleph POW) Achilles
@Nemo No Name Ajax was the failed prototype for the super soldier program that created Achilles. The other Myrmidon characters are simply excellent warriors who earned their names. "Contrary to what is usually believed, Ajax the Great, one of the finest heroes of the Myrmidons of the Assault Subsection, is not a Recreation made by ALEPH. Born with the name Glaboros DG-056, this Myrmidon with a peculiar history would earn the nickname of Ajax the Great in combat, with sweat and blood. Mostly blood, and most of it belonging to his enemies. Glaboros DG-056 was the first success of Project: "Precursor", although it was only a partial success. "Precursor" was the name for the first phase of Experimental Project: "Warrior" that would culminate in the AR-1 prototype, the fabulous Lhost into which Achilles would be eventually downloaded"
I wouldn't call Ajax a "failed" prototype, since it went well enough that Glaboros earned a mythic nickname :)
This one comprises the "common remotes" (Daleth, Lameth, etc...) and the Sophotects, Yudbots and, maybe, the Netrods, at least in the army entries. Joan of Arc: PanO asked for a figurehead, they got a general-in-the-field. Avicenna & Wallace: attempts to approach Haqquislam & Ariadna respectively, assumed Aleph has no control whatsoever over them and their programming has been altered by intention or accident, respectively. Sun Tze: YJ asked for him Saladin: second attempt into Haqquislam's trust. Musashi: Aristeia! asked for him Greek recreations: Achilles to be able to use the body fully, without Aleph having to detach an aspect of herself (thus not being a machinelike persona, but something less predictable), Patroclus and Penthesilea to keep the number of bodies the Achilles personality gets killed to a minimum (those are too expensive), and Hector as a defensive mastermind. More or less, he was the prototype to Achilles, unable to bear the strain of the data flowing to the mind. Phoenix, Teucer, etc... are clearer examples of what you say. Thrasimedes was a myrmidon that got a "promotion" to the Thorakitai, due to Nevsky's comics (he's the one always blowing Achilles with a rocket launcher).
With wallace goal being a civil war in Ariadna (at least before his reprogramming), I'm not sure "approach" is the good word for Aleph plan for him
Well... aleph's intent was to end the conflict among the Caledonian clans. In such a way that they would accept her reign, instead of united against all external threats, but... XD
Where does Asteria! fit in? Aleph having fun? wild bill / Maximis / the old lady wing bot dont own the game forget the name,,
Wild Bill and Maximus are both humans, though I suspect that Maximus' Lhost bodies might be based on the same tech as the ones Ajax uses as they're both Xbox huge. Parvati is an android but I don't know if she's made by Aleph or a Hypercorp
Q. Are recreations grown organics ie. clone vats, or entirly synthetic and made to look human ie. (Skin is an advanced polymer just sheathed)
Both. Some aspects, and probably a good amount of the Steel Phallus, will use organic Lhost, probably significantly improved with cyber/bioware. The bodies they use probably aren't that different to those given to resurrected veteran soldiers from other factions. Other aspects like Devas and especially Asuras are more artificial, the Asuras especially manages to be nearly as survivable as a Gecko despite appearing to be a slip of a girl in her birthday suit! It does appear to be that even the most artificial Lhosts are still biological though as they have Wounds rather than Structure.
I've updated with short versions of answers. :) I kept my LHost answer to minimum as it's not really Aleph specific. As for Wild Bill and Maximus, they are just humans or at least, non-Aleph individuals, so no mention in Aleph Lore FAQ :D
