Higher (deep) background (POSL):
See Deep Background
The situation at the start of Seneca:
The Sunstorm is in orbit - infrequently visited, but with a skeleton crew. Some, if not all, of the Seneca AI is located aboard. Seneca is running and maintaining a small colony (c. 100,000? perhaps less?). The project is on a knife-edge - they know that failure is hovering at all times, that engineering failure is the most likely end, but their secret weapon is Seneca, the governing intelligence that makes it possible.
A tipping point has been reached - Seneca predicts that the number of altered personalities that is needed to push the colony into stable self-sufficiency is increasing, pockets of instability growing. This is driven by the face that above, the Sunstorm offers a means of escape.
The colony must face the realisation that there is a gamble here - send the Sunstorm back to Earth, remove it beyond use, or expand the personality edits. At the intersection of those two alternatives are people, their lives, and even who and what they are. There is conflict.
NOTE: This draws on... but CANNOT explicitly be about, the pain of an identity whose time has passed. How do you acculturate when what you are is no longer wanted, no longer fits and those in 'authority' have the power to edit you into what you should be?
Detailed Backgrounds - factions:
Command Crew of the Sunstorm:
Three main Physical locations (each to have own Pinterest board):
Colony (virtual) Interchange - varied settings depending on individual taste, but a central 'shared location' reflects the architecture of the real colony.
Colony (real). Heavy, industrial, utilitarian, hard-wearing, grey.
Station 19. Agricultural setting.
A ruined first attempt at a colony that triggered a tightening of the algorithms.
Plus the Sunstorm?
- Pilot
- Engineer
- Navigator
- Architect (Seneca, standing in for Hal)
Three humans carrying the wetware and an AI. The humans necessarily stand apart - they are an untouchable, God-like aristocracy. They have no fears, no doubts, no clouding of their judgement. They are fully edited and they have chosen to be so. As individuals they play no role in the story - they are part of the architecture of what is happening. There role has been to stand aside as guardians of the Sunstorm's operational integrity, and this they have done.
SENCA is a predictive engine, it is NOT sentiant. It's job is to run the colony and is based on the surface. It is a collection of algorithms that shape daily life.
Colony Leadership:
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