Artifice

Artifices, or called Echelons by the Miktamkind Species, are synthetic lifeforms that were originally created by the Ancient Race in the Ancient Times Era, alongside the help of Lady Melia when she was amongst their population.

Origins
The Artifice lifeform was originally intended to become the Ancients' way of reaching immortality. By creating a device capable of withholding vital processes of what would be organs, it does not have the limitations that organic cells possess: the device and its processes cannot naturally decay, mutate or die. It implies that a body that is effectively attached to this device, would never perish in a natural manner.

The Ancients used what are called "Ancient Cores" to store that technology. By transferring consciousness and DNA/Ether data, an individual is granted a brand new, immortal body generated from the Ancient Core. This way, they were able to transfer Lady Melia's consciousness from the Apocrypha to an Artifice body.

Lady Melia, however did not agree upon this technology initially: she argues that humanity (ie, intelligent lifeforms) must not obtain immortality and face the hurdles of life as it comes to them. Thankfully, the Ancients being devoted to their goddess, agreed upon to not use the technology for immortality and ethics reasons.

The technology was repurposed to create a unique lifeform, that will help humanity in the long run, learn from them and also teach them from outside the box. Lady Melia has had a major implication in the design decisions of the Artifice race. According to her, real Artifices must have a Core as their "vital organ".

Originally, Artifices were able to procreate by creating a Core themselves and awaken it, however that feature was later removed during the KOSMOS Timeline, once the Artifice Protocols were revised. It explains why some Artifices seem to have parents in the past.

Physical Attributes
Artifices look very close to humans in almost every aspects, for them to be able to blend in society. They however possess computerized vision, unnaturally round ears and a Core situated somewhere on their body. They also have the unique feature to be able to have unnatural hair colours and formations. Notably, Lady Melia and Seraphelle are seen with colours that cannot be reproduced organically.As part of the Artifice Protocols, their overall appearance shall be inspired from an already existing lifeform, preferably humanoid or human. If the appearance is not chosen upon the conception of the Core, then the first person to initialize it will see their appearance be a source of inspiration for the Artifice's physical appearance. They can however be purposefully designed to look like after somebody specifically, if needed or wanted.

Certain body parts of an Artifice are imbued by Ether. This mostly applies to their eyes, their tongues, nails and appendices if they have them, such as horns, tails, wings, halo etc... This trait is explained by the fact that their body is being run entirely by Ether, via the Core in the centre of their body.

Artifices do not age, because the Core technology fundamentally prevents them to. They are also immune to most damages dealt to their body, because as long as the Core is intact, the body can be continuously regenerated. The speed of regeneration depends on each Artifice and how well they have affinities with Ether.

Their Core can be anywhere on the surface of their body, but it does not change within the lifespan of the Artifice. The most common places to find their Cores is on their forehead; hands; tummy; chest; back; pelvis and neck. If the Core is damaged, the Artifice will grow weaker and sustain permanent damages on their body, which they are not accustomed to unlike humans. If the Core becomes defective or breaks, it signals the death of the Artifice, however there are measures to transfer their data to a brand new one, but it does not come without risks.

They are seen to have navels, a sex attribute, toes and pairs of breasts, which are not necessary to their vital functions. They are present for aesthetic value and as the Artifice Protocols puts it, it is so the Artifices can blend in society seamlessly, by resembling their biological counterparts as close as possible, both for appearance and cultural roles. However, the same protocol prohibits Artifices from having fully working reproductive systems, despite being able to have intercourse, as they are not allowed to bear children whether it is with another Artifice, or a human. Seraphelle is seen capable of being a Meiosis cloning machine in Season 2, which is a specific feature written for her Core and is strictly forbidden by the Artifice Protocols.

Lady Melia, has granted true Artifices the ability to generate a unique weapon out of their Core, as an extension of their body. These can also be destroyed or damaged regardless and will be reconstructed.

Protocols
The Artifice Protocols, are known to be the law that dictates how an Artifice can be created, managed and how themselves they can live their life. This list is not exhaustive but covers the most important aspects of Artifice life. Some of them, were even created by Lady Melia herself, however not all of them are respected the same by the Ancients.


 * Appearance: an Artifice must bear the racial attributes of a species already existing, including every physical aspect surrounding it.
 * Consciousness: the consciousness within the Core must not be one that already exists or transplanted.
 * Humanity: Artifices, within the Ancient civilisation are considered humans, and as such, must be dealt with decency and humanity.
 * Rights: Artifices are to be devoted their Meister's orders, if not, are able to live a will-free life.
 * Creation: they must be created by the Ancient themselves only. Artifices themselves shall not procreate.
 * Help: Artifices are originally intended to help humanity and not harm them, only the Meister's orders can trump this rule.
 * Initialization: Only a strong-willed person may be able to awaken and bond with an Artifice, to become partners.
 * Reset: an Artifice must be Reset after a certain amount of time, or by their Meister's death, resulting in a new cycle of their life.

Meister
Meister, is the name given to whom initializes a Core, which gives life to an Artifice. One must be strong-willed to awaken an Artifice, which prevents anybody from getting one. That action creates an inseparable bond between the two, and the Artifice will actually bend to their Meister's orders and ways of life. In some sense, an Artifice belongs to its Meister. Some may be more lenient and let their Artifice live freely, other may see them as slaves, and all the in-betweens. It is not uncommon to see a Meister fall in love with their Artifice and end up marrying. Some may even be considered a family member as well. Most Meister-Artifice bonds are seen as partners, helping each other in daily life, while Artifices make sure that their Meister is not in danger. Some bonds are so strong that Artifices decide to be Reset upon their Meister's death, so if they get to be re-awakened again, they will live a brand new life, wiped of their past memories with a new Meister in an endless cycle.

The Meister does have the responsibility of their Artifice's wellbeing. If an Artifice is in a very bad shape, it will take a toll on the Meister's mental wellbeing and even physical at some point, as the bond is not only of creation, but constant exchange of Ether between the two, and an imbalance will result in those perturbances.

Purpose
Nowadays, Artifices serve the purpose to help humanity according to Lady Melia, implicating that their help may prevent them from self destruction or reaching dark paths that led to previous forms of humanity disappear. The move seem to have mostly been a success, as Ancients have been able to live a rather peaceful life for billions of years, while many forms of humanity appeared and vanished in between.

Modern Ancients, however do not bear that sentiment of help and are rather inclined to create Artifices for military, labour and family adoption reasons. Because of their abnormal resilience and infinite lifespan, they are prime targets for bottom-of-the-barrel jobs, while the Ancient race themselves can enjoy more leisure jobs. This explains how the Ancient race has not heavily invested into automation and robotics within their civilisations.

As an Artifice can bear the appearance of others, they are also the way of indirectly enabling the designer babies concept, so a family can adopt their perfect child. The major downside is that, Artifices do not age and if they are set to have a childish appearance, they will bear it until their Reset.

The Fake Artifices (Appharacts)
The Fake Artifice is a modern phenomenon that do not want to follow Lady Melia's designs to create Artifices. They indeed take a lot of time and efforts to be created, which did not coincide with an era of industrialisation that asked much more labour rapidly. As such, a newer form of Artifices have been created, which do not possess a Core, they are a nanomachine colony, which grants them many more features, minus the ability to have all vital processes in a single place.

These high volume, low quality Artifices were made in tremendous amounts for labour, and that phenomenon pushed the overall mentality of the civilisation to not consider them as human equals and more like lesser robots. The True Artifices, that bear a Core have to be initialized by someone that has a strong will, and a bond needs to be built, memories to be made and the Artifice becomes their Meister's partners, which is what made them look equal initially. The Fake Artifices do not have that same amount of involvement and commitment to become functional beings.

True Artifices do not consider the Fake ones as Artifices, but merely a new synthetic lifeform branch of the Ancients, the Appharacts. That movement is pushing Artifices to be granted access to self-Core-creation, a feature that was once present in the distant past, allowing them to have children.

Home Planet
Artifices have started appearing on the same planet where the Ancient Race have decided to settle on early in the timeline, which is NANUETTA-HF. They have lived in harmony with the Ancient race ever since in a homogenous civilisation.

History
The Artifices do not have an extensive history of their own, as their life mainly revolves around devoting their lives to their Meisters. However there are significant events that have marked their history.

Miktamkind Exodus War
As the Ancients have warned Miktamkind on Miktam-04B of an imminent threat, several powerful Artifices were sent to them for aid in case the battle becomes overwhelming. Artifices on Miktam were called "Echelons" by their people, and helped them fight off an alien civilisation that tried to destroy all miktamkind species and their planet along with them. Thankfully, The Echelons were successful at pushing back the invasion enough to let the miktamkind species run away via the Exodus Fleet. A particular Echelon, called Siren, was actually capable to couple its powers with the Apocrypha, which was stored within the Orbital Ring of Miktam. That Echelon in particular was tasked to protect the relic at all costs, and successfully did so.

The first occurrence of Seraphelle/Ampoule's consciousness as an Apocrypha contact started here, as Echelon Siren, which technically was their first incarnation in the distant past. After the war, the Echelons were not sent back to the Ancients as they insisted that they will help them in the long run. Each race within miktamkind ended up having 5 Echelons each, to this day they are presumably still alive and serve their respective peoples. However, the traces Echelon Siren in particular cannot be found, as it is speculated that the Apocrypha may have done something to that Echelon in particular.

Federation Conflict
Once the Federation established itself across the supercluster, it designated which races and species are deemed human and would receive human rights. Most of Miktamkind species got to have it with the exception of the Animalia group, and the Artifices were denied access to the human recognition, with the main argument that their life depends on somebody's else, a human, which prevents them being so. Most Meisters have made sure that their Artifices are in good conditions but the Federation will not let Artifices take advantage of their technologies and systems, which is creating a rising conflict between the Ancient civilisation and the Federation.

Ampoule, repurposed as Seraphelle, has been giving the burden of representing the Artifice race within the Shevat Protocol, an insurrection project that includes almost all intelligent species that exist. Not being aware that she is an Apocrypha contact, she was taken into the Kepler Academy, to train with the next generation of leaders. Seraphelle does not know who her Meister is which frustrates her, but she helps nonetheless the Protocol in their ambitions.

Production Codenaming
Artifices are not naturally produced, therefore they have a serial, a production number attached to them. Usually, they all follow the same scheme which is the initial of the producer, then their model number following their models from which species they are based upon. Certain characters that are not created within series production may not follow this rule.

By example H499-A48 : H -> entity that has constructed the Core ; 499 -> serial number of Core produced ; A -> Artifice model ; 48 -> Hexadecimal of the Artifice's initial.

Ways of writing a serial number: H499-A26 ; HA-26 Series 4999.

Special Cases
In certain cases when Artifices are not created in series and are hand built, they have unique codenames that do not necessarily follow the instructions above.


 * Ampoule, bears the codename of AP-X Serial 000 (Ampoule Protocol X Serial 000), because she was hand-made by Conn'el Hashmal, and revised later on with the help of Praxis Shachar.
 * Seraphelle, follows Ampoule's codename by changing the A to an S signifying the name change (Seraphelle Protocol X Serial 000), as technically, they are both one and the same, using the same Core.

Characters
The following list includes all known characters that belong to this species.