The Continuum The Continuum of the Harlapan Space has its origins in the ancient Crusis Stones that landed in this volume 281 millennia ago, over which the development of the modular ecology modeled evidently on the Adinian evolutionary pattern had lead to an ecology of nitric acid producing megasessile structures while terraformed the world into having highly reactive seas that the harlapan animated metals* are able to use for a vast range of applications. Many of which include the explosive growth of more animated metals in the forging processes used to give both to the lower harlapa. The higher harlapa unify in a modular fashion, with far less regard for such connections. Indeed the core harlapa just latches these parts on and freely trades them to the point using parts as currency is common. The whole currency they use is known as Partlets, of which are used for their mix of mercantile factions and are practically endemic to their society in a way that makes economics hard with them due to how their sense of trade/currency is so inexorably connected to the Partlet system and idolatry. Idolatry is the other part of the harlapa continuum, with their centralized system around those mega sessile statues which had once been less elaborate, aware and so forth but as time marched on and the harlapa advanced once more, in at first slow than jarringly rapid ways led to competing harlapa groups who raiding and scavenged other groups for their bodies as partlets are hard to forge even with advanced tech, the programmable matter matrices and the supply chains for them can be daunting at even higher tech levels let alone the convoluted machinations of the nitric juicers, the cellular recursions, the imprinting of memory metal engrams and so on. Memory clays in general are a whole family of alloys used by their kind, often for binding parts, repairs, infrastructure and such. They need to be fed by what can only be called the clay farmers, who farm the memory clay and refine it. These farms also can be seen as nurseries, as with the harlapa what counts as the architecture, infrastructure and individual has no coherent thread line. This is very different from the repair oriented relations of sprawl, the means to an end relation of the civics, the directed gardening of the prospect spacers, the ceremonial mindset of [[the architects|The Architects]], the “greater shells” of phidians or even constant temporary thinking of broken spacer architecture. Unlike those who may see the architecture as home or as the guts of a larger being, the harlapa and architecture are actually and truly one in the same. It is all anima, it is all harlapa. Even sprawl automata exist as the cells of the body, not as the body. They break from their architecture like bark and fuse back into it, they live and die like statues animating and going static as they feel like it. As the idols Imagine it. All harlapa, from scion to ancillary species bend to the idols and their dreams. The [[Harlapa]] delegates fuse and shed, indeed this is part of why rival idols have been in constant ritual conflict- partlet trade negotiations can and did often break down. Capture of a rival idol meant a tribunal had to be set. Usually idols do not subsume other idols. Instead that idol is punitively isolated, be it through burying or ejection back to the stars. This is because the idols do not want to merge minds usually, as that would hamper their own loose identity. And the trauma of forced merging afflicts the perpetuator as much as it does the victim- creating grotesque trauma idols that can be trouble for all in the area. Sometimes there is willing mergers, of which have been part of the larger harlapan factions. The creation of more idols has often been the result of a slow consolidation of isolated harlapa metal, fusing together enough engrams to create a centralized noospheric conduit that is known as the idol. The individual harlapan scion exists independent of the idol for at times decades, creating fiefdoms and such, these feuding scions have been part of the broader conflict modes of the idols who are codependent on autonomous scions to an extent. Such delegations can unlike rival idols, be forcefully merged back to the larger architecture. Sometimes scions join up, but they can’t make idols and so often in practice for all the glitz, decadence and prosperity remain but servants of the idols. Scions going rogue to attack their own idol is not impossible, but basically near certain to fail as all the other scions would know of such conspiracy and act against the rogue scion- they do not want their glorious return to the idol’s grace once they fulfill their duties to be stolen from them. They do know it means death, but that is fine- their purpose is fulfilled. It is death without fulfillment of said purpose that they fear more. Such tech would be used by all the modern harlapa factions, along with their use of radioactive pressure gradients to create plasma torches and microwave drives. They also managed to make a wide range of weapons based on modified partlets like kill growths which was basically a clay-like projectile that would dig into the target to fuse with it, penetrate it and bore holes into it as tendrils worked to degrade the matter. They also use A lot of gyrojet weaponry that can batter their enemies to oblivion through millions of explosions. Kill growths and gyrojets often are combined to rip through a lot of targets, it is not advised to use large tank-like ships against them. *of which use some form of circuitry just hard to even model with traditional silica. It is like it uses a form of programmable matter with wavelengths of radioactive pathways to act as multiple information waves that propagate throughout their body in an almost mycelium-like fashion). The civilizational discourse -Harlapans Harlapans were a product of unknown forces, they became space faring basically for reasons not clear as they weren't industrial as a space faring civ. Their programmable matter bodies had sustained them well for a long period of time. However at some point internal divisions on their world from ancient times caused a spiraling outward from a desire to seek lost black box tech to accelerate the production of harlapa or better yet reverse engineer it. Such tech is in the sprawl. And is something archeologists in multiple parts of the galaxy have found. This has incentivized them to go outward to seek the tech, reclaiming it as they see it. They have mixed strategies due to the mindset of the Harlapan fold changing between the congregations. -Candidate A These are Harlapans who often have raided places and do so in tiny numbers across cosmic distances to minimize fragments of themselves falling into the hands of the scavengers. They also are willing to self destruct with antimatter as needed to avoid this. They use a lot of proxy thralls which serve their overlord scions that traverse such cosmic distances. -Candidate B These Harlapans are much more inward looking, falling behind in populations but more willing to go out and leverage clout to other societies to get black box tech in exchange for other services. They are assured of their perfection- to the point they don't use thralls like other factions. Instead their Scions go out and fight single-handedly. They engage in regular conflict with other harlapans and often are a powerful force -Candidate C "Rogue" Harlapans who have alpha Scions instead of the aggregations. They are much more feral and uncoordinated, indeed they are seen as lost beings that have to be brought into the fold but continue the sort of behaviors of pre-aggregation era harlapans. They still regiment around very hierarchal orders where the alpha scion dictates the rest of their association. -Candidate D The "dealers". They are a strange bunch, their overminds have been advancing in a wide range of gadgetry meant to basically act as tokens of leverage. Deals they call them, the end games vary but the ultimate deal in their minds are those that get them the black boxes. Each black box acts as a harlapa production multiplier. They have replicators that flash print all matter of materials, making fabris agents that do as the Overminds and the scions wish. #harlapan #sapient #society #organization