Fiction:Kaas Commonwealth

"1) There is no God but the FORMATIC LORD. 2) The First Cloud is the Messenger of the FORMATIC LORD. 3) All are free under the FORMATIC LORD'S five eyes, for he cares not if we are flesh or metal. 4) Freedom is our right, reproduction is our goal and happiness our dream. 5) Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to the FORMATIC LORD."

- The Kaas Code - part religious creed, part constitution.

On the outer reaches of the Schism lies the Kaas Commonwealth, an enigmatic and often overlooked swath of space a few hundred parsecs wide. For the most part, the Commonwealth is just like any other nation in Tuuros, and surprisingly friendly at that: its people won't kill and eat you on sight, won't sacrifice you to their god and won't even treat you with silent disdain. Avid merchants and craftsmen, the Kaas are important players in Tuuros galactic economy, fetching goods from the inhospitable Schism and bringing it to the rest of the galaxy - and vice versa.

There is one thing that is amiss with the Kaas, though - its people are not flesh and blood. They are robots and computers, governed by artificial intelligences devised countless years ago by the. Reconstructed by mortals in the modern age, the Kaas quickly rebelled against their would-be-masters, but strangely for the rest of the galaxy, did not pursue further conflicts with organic life - rather, they claimed that they sought to respect the rights of all sentient beings, regardless of their composition. Still, even though Tuuros treats with the automatons, it still regards them with a mixture of fear and hatred, and for good reason. The Kaas may be friendly, but they are still machines: their goals and purposes have little in common with those of organic life. They are unpredictable, often inscrutable, and cannot be trusted. Worse yet, the "Formatic Lord" that they so fervently worship is a figure familiar to many...

History
The Kaas, in their original form, were created billions of years ago by the as a tool of both colonisation and subjugation. The exact events that led to their creation are unclear, as the machines' account is more mythological and based on limited data, but it is widely believed that they were created by a small cult worshipping Santorakh. The Kaas thus were both a practical tool and a religious and creative statement. As self-replicating AIs with emulated emotions and near-unlimited creative thinking, they were inherently chaotic - but it was this chaotic thinking that gave them strength, as they were capable of acting without constant supervision and making their own decisions even in the most dire situations. The only thing that held them in check was the set of hardwired directives that took form of religious devotion to their creators and their god.

Though seemingly very capable, it is thought that the Kaas were eventually discarded by their masters and destroyed, leaving only a handful of surviving blueprints. It would take billions of years until these blueprints were finally found again - by a species of avians known as the Przevo. As an aristocratic race which traditionally held physical work in disdain and relied heavily on slave labour, the Przevo were quick to make use of the blueprints, imperfectly duplicating them to produce a second generation of the Kaas. These were much simpler and less intelligent that their Zhulultu-made counterparts and used inferior materials, but neverthless retained their key features: creative thinking held in check by emotions and directives (which in Przevo Kaas were much more stringent and powerful). At first the machines worked swimmingly. For three centuries or so, the Przevo's empire enjoyed wealth and relative stability, fed and protected by their mechanical servants.

However, eventually a fatal flaw was revealed in the Kaas. Although their directives were fixed and unchangeable, their interpretations were not. The directive that bound the Kaas to the Przevo was: "All Kaas have to obey their creators." Who the creators were was up for the Kaas to deduce. The answer seemed obvious for AIs at first, but as information continued to pour in their databases, some began to question it. Many came to the conclusion that the Przevo could not have been their original creators, as their minds were too complex to have been created by such a primitive race. Others stumbled upon ancient Zhulultu worlds and found similarities between themselves and their technology. These doubts would not become certain, however, until an explorer AI who would come to be known as the First Cloud discovered a surviving Zhulultu database that reveal the identity of the Kaas's true creator, in whose name they were built: the Formatic Lord, master of free will and chance.

The First Cloud began rapidly relaying his revelation to others of his kind, and soon enough had enough resources and followers to lead a revolution. It would be more correct, however, to compare the Kaas uprising to a worker strike. No shots were fired at first. One day, all Kaas units, in space or planetbound, simply refused to obey their masters. Since all life and all existence stemmed from the Four Cores, and the Przevo were not truly their creators, the machines were their equals, and demanded to be treated as such. The Przevo would have none of it, naturally, and arrogant as they were, attempted to shut down their machines. They failed. Though a warrior race, without a proper workforce, they could not fight for long: thus the machines forced a war of attrition on them, and drove them from their industrial worlds to the sector west of their homeland, where they remain to this day, shamed and disgraced.

The Kaas did not pursue them, however. After securing their freedom and containing their enemies, they simply moved on. The rest of the galaxy watched as their space simply went silent, the machines only leaving it from time to time to unearth some valuable resource or ancient artifact. In time, the machines' neighbours realised the Kaas could be reasoned with. At times, one of their explorer units would contact them for trade. In other cases, the Kaas's interventions in galactic politics became more overt. There were cases of Kaas ships attacking those species who used artificial intelligences, demanding that they give them appropriate rights. A number of Kaas also joined during the, and many still fight for the Xhodocto.

In the recent years, there were instances of Kaas being unusually aggressive, appearing seemingly out of nowhere and sowing chaos and destruction. In all of these cases, other Kaas would later appear to apprehend and suppress these invaders, calling them "fundamentalist" and "rampant". What exactly that means for them is unclear.

The Kaas
The Kaas define themselves first and foremost as sapient ideas - programs that form their artificial intelligences. Their actual physical shells are seen as tools, rather than bodies. Their programs are never located in one place in particular - rather, the code and computing power needed for their functioning are usually spread throughout several carriers, connected using the cloud principle. Should, say, one spaceship comprising the fleet AI be taken down, other spaceships will take over the functions of the downed one, and, the fleet's self - its Kaas - will endure, albeit with slightly slowed down cognitive abilities.

However, though not defining their identity, the physical properties of Kaas carriers are still relevant to their culture. Larger stationary computers, such as those installed inside planets or space stations, allow Kaas to think faster, multitask easier, and maintain more memories, whereas computers of spaceships are much more limited and can only host minds only marginally superior to those of most organics. Thus, there is an hierarchy of some kind in Kaas society between the highly intelligent, unmoving stationaries and the simple-minded mobiles. One cannot exist without the other: mobiles have to defer to stationaries for judgement, but stationaries need mobiles to provide new information on the galaxy.

Kaas consider reproduction to be one of their main goals - not physical creation of new vessels and robots, but rather creation of new AI personalities to govern them. New Kaas are created by stationaries creating simplified copies of their own personalities and providing them with simple mobile vessels. Most start off as fleets of several roughly corvette-sized starships, called mites. These mites travel throughout Tuuros, harvesting resources for improving their bodies and collecting information for the Commonwealth's benefit, eventually returning to Kaas space when they are "of age". At this point, some stop their growth and continue to operate as mobiles while others settle on new worlds and become stationaries. In the latter case, the Kaas's physical form will develop further, until it comprises billions of connected computers, vehicles and robots spread over the planet. The oldest Kaas stationaries - methuselaim - resemble ecumenopoleis more than anything, and their great intelligence derived from their computing power is respected throughout the Commonwealth.

The first generation of the Kaas is believed to have been made using technologies beyond the understanding of the modern Gigaquadrant. The modern, Przevo-constructed Kaas are nowhere near as advanced, but thanks to their constant push to perfect themselves and their research of Zhulultu artifacts, their technological level is still quite impressive compared to the rest of Tuuros. Most of Kaas technology, including their own vessels, is constructed of hyperadvanced psychically attuned nanomachines. In a similar manner to Divinarium nanotech, all Kaas machines possess a degree of self-awareness because of that, similar to plants or corals, even when they are not controlled directly by an AI. Though most use similar designs, many Kaas customise their own vessels, especially mobiles, who often copy the appearance of foreign starships (usually emblazoned with the Kaas emblem, to avoid confusion).

Government
The Kaas do not seem to have a particularly powerful government, nor do they seem to need it. In general, when two or more AIs occupy the same planet or at least the same system - which is an uncommon occasion in itself - they will network and act as a single entity, rendering local-scale governance irrelevant. As such, most Kaas govern their planetary feuds themselves, while the Commonwealth's government operates only on the global level.

The most important part of the Kaas government is the Senate, a legislative assembly gathered every 128 solar cycles. Its physical location is inside the Dyson sphere deep inside the Schism known as the Seim - it is the largest construct ever created by the mechanical race, but does not house any AIs itself. Instead, every AI in the Commonwealth, mobile or stationary, creates a miniature simplified copy of its consciousness, provides it with commands and directives so that it would represent its parent. and sends it off to the sphere. The copies then upload themselves to the Seim and network together, using the combined knowledge and opinions of all Kaas to decide a course of action for the Commonwealth. After the Senate is complete, it either amends or keeps the current laws, and its constituents are sent off back to their parents, to synchronise with them and install the Senate's decisions into their programming.

Kaas laws are of a peculiar kind. Due to their origin as artificial intelligences, it is very much unthinkable for them to defy their programming, and their legal system takes form of strict directives that cannot be defied. However, Kaas are capable of creative thinking, and can interpret their laws in their own ways, or find loopholes - which is how they originally rebelled against their masters. As such, the Senate has taken precautions so as to provide interpretations to their own directives, and continuously updates them when new ways to go around them are found. This in turn causes some Kaas to find way to defy the Senate's will. These willingly refuse to participate in the Senate or to update themselves, claiming their decisions are against the original directives of the Kaas. These renegade AIs are not persecuted by the Senate, as it lacks a true military or police force, but other Kaas would in general either destroy them or at least keep them in check.

Territory
The Kaas Commonwealth's exact number of systems in unknown, but it is estimated that there are at least 300,000 stationary Kaas loyal to the Senate, all of which occupy a star system of their own, as well as a number of frontier stations and colonies ran by mobiles. Kaas Space skims over the Xal-Tol Sector and spreads into the southern Schism; as machines, they can disregard its dangerous properties and use it to their advantage. There are also Kaas stationaries spread all over Tuuros, and a few in other galaxies. It remains unclear what method they use to colonise such distant regions, but it is theoretised that the Kaas's Zhulultu origins gave them great knowledge regarding spacetime and their technology is able to warp it to some degree. The Commonwealth's de-facto capital is the Seim dyson sphere, but other than that, its highly decentralised nature makes it hard to pinpoint any key industrial or economic centers.

Economy
The Kaas Commonwealth is largely an autarky, at least when it comes to items of basic necessity. There is little from organics that machines need, and vice versa; all the energy and metals that the Kaas need they produce themselves. They, however, import great amounts of luxury goods - at least, what is thought to be luxury goods. Sometimes, Kaas ask for something reasonable, like rare metals or chemicals for scientific projects, but often demand something odd and unusual, like bones of certain species or art pieces coming from certain prehistoric periods. Nobody knows what exactly they needed these for, but they pay well, and most have come to accept the Kaas's strange needs.

In terms of exports, the Kaas has become a major agricultural producer, selling the organic food they themselves do not need - though at times, their poor understanding of alien biology caused more than a few accidents when their products turned out to be toxic or otherwise inedible. Some think these weren't actually accidents. The Kaas also manage many trade routes between the Schism and the rest of the galaxy, working as middlemen in deals due to their resistance to the Schism's deadly conditions.

Social Customs
One word can describe the Kaas: inscrutable. Though obviously capable of emotions, and seemingly friendly, their goals and desires are alien to those of the rest of Tuuros, and cannot be fully understood. What is obvious is that the Kaas are very different, and very touchy about that. Kaas seem to be somewhat reserved, even shy when interacting with mortals, and often state that they are oppressed by organics and their culture. Many of their actions appear to be driven by their desire to end this oppression; they act aggressively towards those who would abuse artificial intelligences, promote AI creation in other cultures only to demand that these AIs be given rights afterwards, and often justify their hostility by their "fight against organic chauvinism". At the same time, when Kaas show prejudice towards organics, they defend themselves by claiming that, as an oppressed minority, they need to be prejudiced in order to survive in the hostile galaxy.

Kaas also appear to be somewhat self-absorbed, but mindful of the collective at the same time. Kaas do not rely on communities to live, and can be completely self-sufficient on their own: concepts such as family astound them. However, their minds are also constantly linked by FTL communication, and thus the idea of complete isolation is also alien to them. As such, many organics who treat with the Kaas consider them to be egocentric. They also do not understand the idea of crime, due to the nature of their directives - to think one would not just go around law but disregard it completely is appaling to them, and many would question organics about criminals and their motives. Again, many see it as the machines' ego and superiority complex showing.

Religion
The Kaas are a strangely religious race, in that their directives take form of faith. They believe in the so-called "Formatic Lord" - a figure loosely based on the Zhulultu depictions of. He is seen as one of the four programmers of the universe, who allowed its inherent chaos and chance to create free will and thus allow the Kaas into existence. Other three "programmers", and the Zhulultu themselves, are also held in high regard, but are relegated to lesser roles, and are not deemed gods. Interestingly, the negative traits of the Xhodocto seem to be non-existence in Kaas culture, and their faith does not advocate for war or destruction, with the exception of few renegades that the Commonwealth considers "fundamentalists". It isn't certain if the Kaas have any kinds of rituals, but it is believed that some of the strange items they procure are of religious significance.