Snerrir wrote:

Just occured to me, can Martin de Ildan de Suluzzo from BL narrative be described as Vodyani "Saint"? From what we can see, lad went into ruins and returned with artifact that enchanced his charisma and basically made him much-changed person. While even "basic" Dust can do that to heroes, can it be that pendant contained an Endless personality which influenced him to start preaching Vodyani-like vampiric credo, so only drastic actions of BL king prevented them taking the same path? Can it be that Virtuals, predicting collapse, made Necrophage-like gambit of providing nascent civilizations with virtualization tech, so they can return and take over modified host at some point? Can Ended faction (or at least part of it) be such saint-halves, digital copies of long-lost Endless, that were meant to take over BL, but either forgot, were unable, or simply evolved on their own and chose not to?

Very interesting Snerrir.

It is heavily implied that something did happen to Martin and I like the theory that he was 'merged' with a Virtual.

I believe that He-Who-Meddles also underwent a similar thing, based on the faction intro: "I stole the sentience of an ancient power"

Lorco wrote:

We do know that the Cravers are probably not from Auriga, since Auriga was in the hands of the concrete endless since almost always.

True, but status of Auriga as a lab world would mark it as a prime target for Virtual spies to acquire research notes, genetic libraries or even samples. And then start up their own project somewhere else. It could even be the site of Virtual sabotage (like that on Sykakoja, in last part of "Gray owl" Auriga's status is listed as "contested") so virtual tech which Concretes studied in "controlled" enviroment suddenly became... not so controlled. May be it even forsibly turned some Concrete locals into Haunts.

We do know that the Cravers are probably not from Auriga, since Auriga was in the hands of the concrete endless since almost always.

but i do see the necro+fomorian combo looks like cravers, what does confuse me though is the large amount of information regarding the virtual endless and virtualization that is available on Auriga.

part of it makes sense since Auriga was the biggest laboratory in the galaxy, so where better to research how to counter the virtuals then in the biggest laboratory that is in friendly hands.

Snerrir wrote:

KnightofPhoenix wrote:

My theory is that the necrophages were indigenous to Auriga but were not sentient until the Concrete experimented on them as a counter to the Virtuals' Craver project.  

I still believe Necrophages were part of Virtual Craver project)) Phages + Fomorians = Cravers = galactic trouble.

My theory was that Fomorian were failed experiments that the Endless tried to do on Morgawr, but I can see the similarity with the cravers.

I like the idea that the Morgawr was Auriga's rage made manifest, but I would have thought that the Endless would have known that, rather than be completely befundled by them.

It could be that Morgawr is part of another Lost, that was sent to Auriga to take vengeance on the Endless.

In any case, it is quite possible that Morgawr is related in one way or the other with the Lost.

Slowhands wrote:

The speculation is excellent, though I can't help but pipe up and say that there is only--and has only ever been--one Opbot, just like in the SW universe there was only ever one C-3PO. 

it's just that Opbot is more... troubled...

Opbot is the Rory Williams of the Endless Universe. Protecting the first of the bloodline of the Vaulters since time immemorial.

KnightofPhoenix wrote:

My theory is that the necrophages were indigenous to Auriga but were not sentient until the Concrete experimented on them as a counter to the Virtuals' Craver project.  

*ahem* Just throwing this out there.

I assume that the first extinction wave of Auriga was either caused by the Endless or caused by the meddlign of the Endless followed by them abandoning the planet. But what if the Allayi triggered the 1st extinction somehow with their ability to control or influence Auriga with the pearls. After all given that the 1st extinction was the kind that changes the planet, but doesn't kill off the minor factions, or, many of the major factions, it seems directed in some way.

Either way, regarding the Necrophages at least 1 concrete tries to meddle with Necrophages. Bites off more than he is prepared and is in, bitten up, quite a bit of his dust enhanced self is absorbed into the Hive. Maybe partially digested by a Necrophage soldier. I expect that the changes were rapid but maybe it took generations for the hive to be improved by the digestion of an Endless while the Leader was changed more rapidly. Maybe this was actually what created the Necrophages. But the other major factions form following or during the 1st extinction event. The Necrophages burrowed underground and probably completed their metaphorsis during the 1st extinction event.

The other factions however are not all related. Before the 1st extinction the Drakken were elevated by the Endless. The Morgawr were imprisoned by the Endless - either because they were a threat or just because the Endless were already happy with the Drakken and hoped to make good on what becomes the Necrophages. The human civilizations that crop up on the surface after the 1st extinction were probably all scientists, workers, & soldiers, working under the thumb or in conjunction with the Endless who survived the 1st extinction. I imagine the AI or Endless Vessel which became the Cultists may have been damaged during the 1st extinction event and it went mad as it rebuilt itself into a society. The wind walkers were probably the botanists and vetenarians working in the labs on the surface which became ruins. The broken lords might have been an elevated cast of soldiers (wink wink) who survived using Endless technology scavenged during the 1st extinction. The roving clans and ardent mages were the scientists and engineers. The forgotten and the vaulters survive underground. The Allayi, the Necrophages, the Mogrwar, and the Drakken, survive because they are already adapted to Auriga. The machine ship cultist survives and exploits the 1st extinction to rebuild a society from the minor races.

Lorco wrote:

regarding the necrophages, isn't it implied that they survived one of the previous "end times" of Auriga? this could explain why they look so different from most creatures.

in addition the current leader of the necrophages is somekind of half endless due to their ability to absorb some of their host material?

like he says in the intro: "I absorbed the consciousness of an ancient being"

this would make him younger then the arrival of the endless on Auriga but that still makes him one of the oldest living creatures on Auriga.

and how does the new content from the vaulters DLC for endless space 2 fit into the timeline?

The Vaulters begin their campaing in ES2 hundreds of years after leaving Auriga in EL, don't know if an exact time has been given.

My theory is that the necrophages were indigenous to Auriga but were not sentient until the Concrete experimented on them as a counter to the Virtuals' Craver project.  

regarding the necrophages, isn't it implied that they survived one of the previous "end times" of Auriga? this could explain why they look so different from most creatures.

in addition the current leader of the necrophages is somekind of half endless due to their ability to absorb some of their host material?

like he says in the intro: "I absorbed the consciousness of an ancient being"

this would make him younger then the arrival of the endless on Auriga but that still makes him one of the oldest living creatures on Auriga.

and how does the new content from the vaulters DLC for endless space 2 fit into the timeline?

Agree! I am just a little sad that I found this thread so late and not a lot of people are still checking on it...

Man I'm going to bookmark this so hard. SO. ... I'm just clicking my button emphatically to show how much I like this thread.

Ok, I will start again I guess :D

In DotE, Opbot also has a dialogue with... one of the guards... name... uuuh... Ken, right that was it! It apparently is about a special mission he carried out in the past with Ken, where something went terribly wrong. Ken also asks him why he was not in the medical bay and finds out that Opbot was actually a Prisoner. The other thing we got to know, is that Opbot had already earlier a curiosity in slicing living things up and not only healing them. 

So... troubled... huh? I feel like Opbot has a much darker past than it looks like ;D

Anyway, it seems like the mission which went wrong has nothing to do with his imprisonment. This would lead to the conclusion, that the incident he remembers in EL is much further in the past and lead to his imprisonment. Then his memories about the Argosy are either wrong or he was assigned to it before he was imprisoned on the Success. Following up he would then end up in DotE, but not make it to the surface... where he later would have been found. 

But of course I have a problem with that as well, as it is not really explaining, how he was deactivated and how he ended up in between Vaulter relics, if he did not crash with a Vaulter ship...............

Again I feel like we are missing the last piece that gives us the answer to his past :(

The speculation is excellent, though I can't help but pipe up and say that there is only--and has only ever been--one Opbot, just like in the SW universe there was only ever one C-3PO. 

it's just that Opbot is more... troubled...