Forrest Cameranesi Geek of all Trades

(6x15) The Children of Antiquity: Part 2, Episode 3

At first Keius' creation of the Asiran is hailed across Quelouva as something like a religious miracle, despite Keius' own protests to the contrary that is is merely a matter of science. The Asiran are popularly dubbed the "Children of Keius", and seen as something like angels: pure beings, untainted by the animal nature of the Ehrban's own evolutionary history, creations directly of the Minded-Worlds, the divine ancestors of their god Geiana, through her messiah Keius.

But the nay-sayers who feared that Keius was basically just creating organic autonomous robots, with all the dangers inherent to that, turn out to be right. The Asiran prove dangerously powerful and unpredictable, though not at all overtly hostile; more like very young children somehow with strength far exceeding their parents and no idea how to use it appropriately. They quickly develop not only civilization, but a fascination with megastructures and the modification of their world, starting large-scale geoengineering projects radically altering the geography of the planet Asira for merely, as far as Keius can tell, something like aesthetic purposes.

Fearing for the other newly sapient native life of Asira, not to mention what might become of the Ehrban if the Asiran leave their own world, Keius and his team work to 'tame' the Asiran, giving them tasks and directives to occupy their vast intellect and dedication to purpose. Tatia is also called in for an especially trusted second opinion, and Chancellor Goran stands by warily ready to take desperate action in case the situation should call for it, despite facing political opposition from Keius' supporters for even considering it. But with a delicate and careful touch, Keius and Tatia manage to contain their creations without having to destroy them. They discover that the Asiran exhibit a hive-mind, like the Ehrban's own Geiana but if none of the Ehrban themselves were sapient; and their transformation of their world is turning the entire thing into a single giant organism. Though fascinated by this, Keius recognizes the danger, and introduces changes into the Asiran nanites' programming that fractures their hive mind and renders them instead sapient individuals, though still capable of telepathic communication with each other. This phenomenon makes Keius wonder if that’s what the Ehrban were supposed to be like, in the plans of the Minded-Worlds, and if their individual sapience was an unexpected mutation, an error, that threw off those plans. Those musings cause him to think long and hard about the proper balancing individualism with collectivism in his own plans for his people.

Next: The Children of Antiquity: Part 3, Episode 1