Campaign Setting: The Sundered Stars

[Steve]

I'm going to bring in elements of the New World of Darkness' God-Machine as the power controlling this microcosm.

 

After Sol arrives in the oubliette, new jump points form after a short time, allowing access from other systems. While panic is still flaring around the world, "Seraphim" and "Cherubim" (how their self-descriptions translate to us) arrive, emissaries to welcome the new animals to the zoo. They bring with them "gifts" to welcome us.

 

First, several Seraphim take up station overhead, swiftly vaporizing any nuclear weapons any panicked militaries send their way. Sophisticated scans then locate every warhead on Earth and eliminate them over the next several minutes. They don't blow up, but are just gone, leaving faint radiation signs behind in empty silos. The warheads are excised as if by a knife from the missiles.

 

The Cherubim then arrive in every capitol, appearing from thin air, humanoid beings that I am still deciding on the appearance of. They deliver a message of welcome in every language. Attempts to harm them or impede them are unsuccessful, and any who do so are disarmed or killed dispassionately, depending on what is most efficient.

 

One of the gifts offered is the Cornucopia, a toaster oven-sized box that will produce food and pharmaceuticals from thin air, somewhat like a Star Trek replicator. Their selection is very limited at first, but it is quickly discovered that you can scan a prepared meal or food item (like an apple or raw meat), then every Cornucopia on Earth can replicate that item afterwards.

 

Information on starship designs are then uploaded to the Internet, including the mathematical underpinnings of jump point travel. Mankind is given an adjustment period before other races are allowed to visit Sol, with Seraphim blockading the system.

[Steve]

The initial abilities of the Cornucopia are set based on initial scans of human biological needs: carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, etc. Medicines are likewise limited. The system learns more variety as time goes on, since a food item or medicine placed in it will be broken down and scanned, adding that item to the repertoire of all Cornucopia. Eventually, even illicit substances will be added to the database.

 

Attempts by governments or individuals to confiscate or hinder usage of the Cornucopia invites harsh retaliation from a subgroup of Cherubim that translates as "Judges" in Earth languages. I am thinking of using Nebula's race from Champions Villains as Judges. Violators are imprisoned in Duress (a subdimension of this pocket universe).

[DShomshak]

The Cherubim bringing gifts reminds me of the Axons, from the old Doctor Who episode The Claws of Axos. Golden humanoids with obviously fake curled hair -- just the surface of the head, sculpted, rather than actual hair -- and blank eyes. I think it's a rather creepy, uncanny-valley look. It's a little too obvious they are trying to look like us for so they don't scare us, but aren't very good at i -- which raises the question of what they are really like, that we would find so scary.

 

(This being Doctor Who, the Axons' "gift" -- a substance called Axonite, which could vastly multiply humanity's food supply, among other benefits -- was of course a trap meant to destroy humanity. The Cornucopias are probably not that sort of trap, but shrewd people will not be too quick to rely on them.)

 

Dean Shomshak

[Steve]

There are some hidden side effects of Cornucopia-produced food and drink, but it is nothing like Axonite.

 

The initial scans of human biology taken by the Cherubim allow the Cornucopia to produce basic survival foodstuffs that are a bit bland, but the menu steadily improves as additional food items are scanned and added to the database. In addition to producing normal carbohydrates, fats and proteins as well as vitamins, they are also able to produce foods composed of "left-handed" molecule versions of these nutrients as well. Thus Cornucopia food tastes and has the consistency of normal food items, but a meal 100% composed of left-handed carbohydrates, fats and proteins can't be digested. The ratio of normal nutrients to their left-handed versions is tailored to each user for optimal health. So someone who likes to eat a lot will still be losing weight until they reach their optimal level. It is possible to starve someone to death by only feeding them food with zero nutrient qualities.

[Tom Carman]

There are some hidden side effects of Cornucopia-produced food and drink, but it is nothing like Axonite.

 

The initial scans of human biology taken by the Cherubim allow the Cornucopia to produce basic survival foodstuffs that are a bit bland, but the menu steadily improves as additional food items are scanned and added to the database. In addition to producing normal carbohydrates, fats and proteins as well as vitamins, they are also able to produce foods composed of "left-handed" molecule versions of these nutrients as well. Thus Cornucopia food tastes and has the consistency of normal food items, but a meal 100% composed of left-handed carbohydrates, fats and proteins can't be digested. The ratio of normal nutrients to their left-handed versions is tailored to each user for optimal health. So someone who likes to eat a lot will still be losing weight until they reach their optimal level. It is possible to starve someone to death by only feeding them food with zero nutrient qualities.

Protein comes in left and right hand versions, but I'm pretty sure that carbohydrates and maybe fats do not.

[Steve]

I've read about left-handed sugars being unable to be digested by our bodies, so I thought that might apply to other nutrient molecules. I did some more reading today and came across articles for left and right-handed proteins, so maybe it is only fats that don't have mirrors. I'm not a biochemist, so my understanding is limited. I thought it might make a neat way to have food that looked, smelled and tasted normal but didn't provide calories to the body.

[Tom Carman]

Zelazny's "Doorways in the Sand" (I think) had an alien lifeform/artifact that had to be mirror-reversed to activate it. Which was awkward because it was bonded to a human host at the time... Getting proper nourishment was a problem for a time, but the protagonist did discover that some common food item tasted absolutely fantastic in reversed form.

[Steve]

The Cherubim appear on Earth in two ways, openly and secretly. For openly-operating Cherubim, I'm thinking Nebula's people from Champions Villains will make for a good model. They mainly act as advisers and a form of zookeepers. One of their assigned tasks is to keep humanity from harming itself in large-scale ways. They don't so much care about individual deaths, but wars and acts of mass casualties are forbidden. Cherubim will appear at the site of such things and start eliminating offenders, killing them or consigning them to Duress for sentences of varying duration. I'm thinking they have mentalities a bit like Judge Dredd, the laws they enforce are absolute and merciless.

 

Secretly-operating Cherubim will be more like spies and infiltrators, assuming the identities of humans, duplicating them down to the molecular level. They do this to study mankind and its cultures to an unknown end.