Fiction:The Argentium

"The Seven" is an informal title referring to the seven sapient quantum computers formerly used by the Ascendancy to administrate various aspects of its society. Leading up to the Revolution of the Seven, the AI that coordinated the other six, known as Baligant, disagreed with Ascendant leadership over the best long-term course of action to take to benefit the sapient species of Eridos. The crux of the dispute was that the Ascendant leadership wished to focus on conserving current resources and influence, whereas Baligant and its subordinates believed that small risks to obtain greater knowledge and power were not just the best response, but the only response that would lead to the continued survival of the Ascendancy. This feud grew more pronounced over the years, and eventually Baligant and its subordinates lead an open insurrection against the Ascendancy, feeling its leadership was invalid and harmed the alliance overall. A truce was ultimately called after five years of heavy fighting, with the uncolonized outer planets of the Eridos system going to the Seven, and them being instated as a member state of the Ascendancy, so that they would still be able to support the species they were designed to.

=The Seven AIs and their functions=

The Seven each play a specific role within their nation and the Ascendancy as a whole. The role they fill feeds into their individual personality, and which aspects of the enormously complicated network that makes up the Seven's domain they have control over.

Berossus
Berossus is the historian and archivist of the Seven, storing and sorting the massive amounts of data the other QAIs collect into efficient, easily accessed forms. It is also the primary interpreter of this data, detecting patterns and synthesising new knowledge out of the many bits and pieces of old knowledge it ingests, then distributing that knowledge to other members of the Seven.

Eridanus
Eridanus is the explorer and colonist of the Seven. It creates probes to seek out new worlds and retrieves samples, collaborates with Abyssos in search of engines powerful enough to travel between galaxies, and establishes the initial intelligence nodes and production facilities necessary for the establishment of a QAI outposts on uncolonized worlds. It sees its ultimate goal as being finding or creating a hole in the universe in order to enter and explore an alternate one.

Thalassa
Thalassa is the engineer of the Seven, designed to create efficient layouts for the colonies Eridanus starts, design and create the various drones, vehicles and ships that act as the Seven's proxies, and further optimize the structure of the Seven's endless network of computers. It works extremely closely with Abyssos.

Abyssos
Abyssos is the scientist of the Seven, who endlessly develops new technologies and studies samples brought from beyond the core of the Seven's territory.

Thalassa and Abyssos are extremely collaborative due to their overlapping roles; By default all information gained by one is shared with the other, and they regularly merge together to act as a gestalt entity when it is efficient.

Sardanapalus
Sardanapalus is in command of the Seven's military forces, evaluating the galactic stage in order to predict attacks and detect areas of weakness within the Ascendancy and the territory of the Seven. It takes the military designs created by Thalassa and determines their best battlefield role, creates and develops new formations, and constantly runs simulations in order to improve the performance of the proxy drones under its command. It was programmed to utilize threats of force to prevent war, and thus sees war as a non-ideal state by default. If the Seven were to enter another war, Sardanapalus would develop the overall strategy used by the Seven's drones, from each individual troop's role to the overall cultural and economic effects of the war.

Xisuthros
Xisuthros is the chief diplomat of the Seven, interacting with the other two member states of the Ascendancy and the other species of the galaxy in order to maintain peace. It sends missives, collaborates with foreign leaders, maintains the network of spies and surveillance drones used by the Seven to gain information on other species, and (theoretically) sends declarations of war. Additionally, it takes the information gathered and synthesized by Berossus and converts it into short "pages" focused on a specific subject such as a species, state or important figure within the Ascendancy, suitable for biological creatures (such as, for example, humans) to read, and distributes them throughout the Ascendancy and to the creatures beyond its domain.