Daeni
Daeni
eve.png
Eve of Pixar's Wall-E
Type steel.png
Magic Use ★★☆☆☆
Distinctions Artificial intelligence
Human and machine hybrids
Variant in model style
Lifespan Several hundred
Exact lifespan varies
Territories The Dome
Region Tyrrhenia

The Dae ( singular, Daeni, plural, Dae ) were originally conceived as a labour force, that could withstand the harsh conditions of the Outlands. At the time of their creation, the Dae were entirely robotic, and rather simplistic creatures, capable of carrying out directive order on a loop. Their intelligence programmes functioned, thus, somewhat as a script loop does, executing commands in an unending cycle until explicitly told to stop, or move onto another task. Dae were not originally capable of logical reasoning, though they could do some mathematics, and understood simplistic commands. As they were programmed to build the Dome, and little else, the Dae were not much interesting at first.

Since the Dome's completion, however, Dae have become a very staple part of life in the Dome. The Dome is also the only place one will find so many Dae in one place, and finding a Daeni outside of the Dome is a bit akin to finding a unicorn. Dae have become rather sophisticated in their programming, and some have begun to evolve and learn, even some fully mechanical Dae exhibiting signs of empathy and emotion.

In more recent years, severely injured, crippled, or ill humans have been preserved, by replacing choice pieces of their anatomy with Daeni parts. These are typically referred to as an organic Daeni.

Biology

Daeni can vary immensely in appearance. If one can build a chassis in a given shape, they can most likely input a Daeni operating system in said chassis with relative ease. Some Daeni may appear more human-like, and synthetic hair and skin have come to seem very life-like, making it somewhat difficult to pin-point a Daeni if they happen to look more human. However, there are still many Daeni that look very much like machines, though newer machine-style models will be generally very sleek and aerodynamically designed. Some may walk, and some may hover. Get creative! You are only really limited by your imagination with the Dae.

Known History

The first Daeni were designed and built by early Tyrrhenians. These, for some reason, ceased being built at some point, and the last working ones are thought to have all shut down, or been purposely shut down. Following the End, however, the early United Republic decided to revive these old machines, and put them to new purpose. Early post-End Daeni designs were clunky, and not very efficient. Their programming was simplistic, directive, and were incapable of independent, intellectual thought. They were programmed to repeat a series of tasks indefinitely, somewhat like a basic computer scripting loop.

In contrast to their organic creators, the Dae were much more durable and had an easier time tolerating the Outlands. As such, they were very well-suited to constructing the Dome amid the Outlands' chaos, and over time, the Dome's organic construction workers were steadily replaced by a Daeni. Most did not mind this, as the Outlands were rather terrible to deal with. Dae were thus set to working on finishing the construction of the plasma barriers, and setting up the climate controls. They eventually also proved to be useful in maintaining the varying facilities, and many became maintenance workers following the Dome's completion. Some also showed a particular knack for nurturing and maintaining livestock and crop fields, and many Dae became the first farmers in the Dome.

Later, a group of Dae dug and filled the man-made lake in Eridanus, which later became part of the Glass Forest, also built by Dae, as was the Gabriel Memorial Gardens, both a garden, and a cemetery. Many hundreds of years after their creation, one Daeni developed the prototypes that became the first airships. Humans have no name for the energy that the airships run on, but the Dae call it plasma, which is also now used to power certain other machines and weaponry. The harnessing of plasma as an energy source was also pioneered by a Daeni.

Initially, Dae were barred from ever seeing, let alone handling, a weapon. At some point, however, someone decided "screw it," and gave a Daeni a gun.

Nowadays, each Daeni is generally unique and designed individually from its fellows. All fully-robotic Daeni are named after Greek letters, and vary in design and equipment. Some Dae may be outfitted with no weaponry at all, while others may have a massive arsenal at their disposal. This depends on their assigned purpose, and the desires of their owner or employer. Most Dae are considered public servants, and perform generalised tasks for the good of the Dome as a whole. A few are owned by private individuals. The uppermost class in the Dome are most likely to own one or two. Some may have even been customised by their owner, to suit their own purposes. Most Dae that are partially organic are employed by the Republic, but some may choose to take on other career paths.

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Metal Gear Ray drawn by xericho, a vague example of an AI
There is a sub-group of Dae referred to specifically as just "AIs," which refer to a far less intelligent, larger version. These typically take the form of several dozen foot tall, generally bipedal, robot tanks. Think Metal Gear, and you're along the right lines. They are operated by a unit of Republic soldiers called Melanges. AIs exist primarily to assist Demonicas and chipped Psionics in defending the Dome from invaders. AIs are thus typically very heavily armoured, and tend to have quite the array of weapons.

Age and Development

Typically, Dae are created instead of born. As such, they do not really develop or age physically, but some with advanced AI programming may mature and develop mentally and personality-wise, over time from exposure to organic beings. It is quite normal for a Daeni to develop some semblance of a personality, but many never really being to experience emotion, empathy, or attachment to others.

Those Dae that were once entirely organic may cease ageing, but this is dependent on how much of them is Daeni. One with merely a robotic arm would probably still age at the same rate as before, whereas one that is mostly robotic with only a sliver of their organic body remaining, would likely cease ageing entirely. Mostly robotic Dae with only an organic brain remaining tend to just… stop living, after a point, as their brain simply shuts down. It isn't unheard of for them to live beyond 200, and this is thought to be as close to dying of old age as they will ever get.

Factions, Groups, and Organizations

Dae do not typically have a society of their own, rather, theirs exists parallel to that of the Dome. There are a few exceptions, however. It is exceedingly rare for a Daeni to exist outside the Dome, but there are a small number of them in the Outlands. Most Dae that are owned or employed by the Republic have remote shut-down features, to prevent a robot uprising, presumably, and so most Dae cannot really leave the Dome, anyway.

Still, while a Daeni does not typically feel very strongly in regard to any one specific situation or goal, some may consider themselves allied with a person rather than an ideal, and side themselves with whatever faction or movement that person is allied with. A much smaller number, generally those that have begun evolving and learning, may develop genuine feelings about current events and problems, thereby legitimately ally with something.

Relations with Other Races

Most other races have no problems with Dae. They are the one race that has never had any real conflict with another, and they are on good enough terms with the other races. Generally, Dae view Demons, Demonicas, and Psionics, as perhaps not human people, but beings with intellectual capacity, and worth respect. Some of the most successful Demon trainers, and Psion Project Handlers, have been a Daeni. On the whole, Dae are polite, perhaps a little overly so, and humour, figure of speech, and turn of phrase, tends to go right over there heads. Many find this adorable, but some may be more exasperated by it.

If a Daeni becomes vicious, in and of itself very rare, it is likely to be in defence of something or someone they find to be worth defending, as Dae generally do not harbour ill-will — actually, they are quite incapable of understanding a legitimate interest in harming another being, if that being is not threatening you first. Thus, they are not difficult to get along with, if you have a little patience, and speak a bit more literal than usual.

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