Something in your bionic teeth
Hello again,
today, we have a bit of a lore update for you guys. We’ve had a poll on our Discord recently where we asked you guys what aspect of the game you want to see expanded and apparently you’re interested in hearing more about the “techno-cultist” faction. But who are these people actually? What are they up to in the post-apocalypse, what are their goals and motivations?
As you may know, Ascent of Ashes is set on another planet in the mid-future. Colonial cities prosper under the guidance of a central super-AI assisting in administration and research. When the AI together with the planet’s top researchers devise a plan to grant immortality to the population by uploading their consciousnesses into a single, massive computer mainframe, it causes a schism. Large swathes of the population object to the idea of becoming parts in a computerized collective and a civil war breaks out that destroys society as they know it.
The cultists are the other side of that conflict. Tech-aficionados and trans-humanists before the war, these guys saw in the AI’s proposal a cure for the human condition: a life without strife, suffering or death. When the Ascension Program was announced, they were tripping over each other to be the first in line. Paradise was within their grasp. Except then it was snatched away by technophobes too afraid to embrace the new technology. Not surprisingly, this has left them somewhat unhinged.
With immortality denied to them, they pursue the same goal they always have: to transcend the limitations of the human body. Set up in abandoned clinics and hospitals, they use patient wings as barracks and operating rooms to install just about any bionic they can find into themselves. Some of those are looted, others acquired through more gruesome means.
Their newfound disregard for human lives has rendered them hostile to most outsiders and they harbor a special hatred for remnants of the Planetary Defense Force. They also keep a supply of Post-Cognizance Remote Invigilators for use on any unfortunate victims.
Players who covet their large stockpiles of medical supplies and advanced bionics should prepare for a siege, as the deranged fools will happily fight to the death to defend their hideouts. Players who share their trans-humanist attitude on the other hand might find them willing to share some of their supply, in trade for shiny bionics of your own of course.