Theoditic Nano-Swarm Atman

Theoditic Nano-Swarm Atman

Belligerance 1 Opportunism 0 Reason 5 Spirituality 4

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.

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.

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?

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.

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People wot have contributed to fis entry: -Axiomatic