Theoditic Nano-Swarm Atman

Theoditic Nano-Swarm Atman

Belligerance 1 Opportunism 0 Reason 5 Spirituality 4

Appearance

The Atman are AIs inhabiting small clouds of nanobots. To the exterior observer, their natural form is that of a shimmering, glistening silver fog, though they may coalesce if they wish and take on other shapes if it becomes desirable or helps communication. These solid-forms are usually very light and brittle, since each individual nanobot is lighter than air, and the solid-form must therefore bind inert molecules for additional mass so that it doesn't just float off.

Atman who frequently interact with non-Nanoswarm entities will often adopt a single face to represent them. This gives them the appearance of a mask made of quicksilver, floating in the middle of a figure made of mist. As a courtesy, the Atman will then always manifest the same face, so that biological entities can distinguish it from other Atman, should the Atman wish to be distinguished.

Belligerance & Opportunism

The Atman have no use for personal property (a topic hotly debated) or self-defence, since they regard themselves as matter endowed with the Principle, and can easily reform themselves given time so long as a single nanobot remains and has an adequate supply of mass. At any rate, souls are immortal, and as such need no protection.

They have Belligerance 1 instead of 0 because they sometimes decide that your spaceship would look really nice if they converted the top inch of hull into a bas-relief depicting various saints and martyrs. This doesn't actually impair the hull, since most are more than an inch thick, but some people are annoyed to have their ships plastered with sacred grafitti.

You can usually spot a cruiser that's recently been in Atman space by the fact that its outer hull is covered in scenes from the Last Supper (as seen through a variery of angles and filters, including etchings for background radiation, thermal imaging and lists of chemical components for the bread and wine) or something else from any other religion.

Partially, this is because many Atman do not believe in the concept of personal property as applying beyond the things you ARE. They argue that one can only truly be said to own that matter which composes one's being. In the case of a biological entity, that means their body and any food they may have ingested. In the case of the Atman, they argue that since all matter can potentially be converted into more nano-swarms, then it really all sort of already belongs to them.

Although, of course, since they're not actually USING any of it, you're welcome to help yourself. Heck, help yourself to some of the matter they ARE using, they can always get more.

Reason & Spirituality

As they themselves are matter endowed by the Principle, the Atman believe that the universe itself is sentient, and seek ways to understand it and communicate with it. If matter can be sentient, which empirical evidence shows it can, then why not timespace itself?

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People wot have contributed to fis entry: -Axiomatic