Post by cousinunseen on Dec 7, 2022 22:03:27 GMT
(Basically this was a written entry I did a few years back that linked FP to a podcast that also dealt in Time Travel and War (Ars Paradoxica. I also wrote this with CCK Philosophy's Video on Hauntology, Lost Futures and Nostalgia in the back of my head, which shows itself in this entry. Not sure how well it hold up now tbh.)
O’Paran [Minor Power]
One of the more inexplicable and bizarre third parties to have appeared during the War. Outside of a few eyewitness accounts and an alleged testament from one of the O’parans themselves, little concrete information is known about their exact nature as a temporal entity and even less is known about their origins. What can be determined about the O’paren is as follows:
Firstly, they are vaguely humanoid in shape, around a head taller than the average human being, and in all encounters thus far have been entirely enclosed in a bulky suit of armor with a near spherical helmet made of a dark-coloured material that’s impossible to see into. This has for obvious reasons made it frustratingly hard to determine the biology of the O’paran underneath, one of the many areas they have yet to actually bring up.
Debates are still ongoing as to whether the O’paran are a unique species created within and adapted to the conditions created by War-Time, a far-flung offshoot of Humanity that managed to carve its own temporal niche outside of its future and PostHuman cousins, or just an elaborate stunt by Faction Paradox to create a “more uninspired version of the Remote”. There is certainly a sizeable amount of evidence to support the “Future-Human” theories, as the O’paran not only have an affinity for Earth (Though the same could be said for many blatantly non-human entities), their technology tends to aesthetically resemble more primitive hardware developed in Earth’s Cold War period. In fact their overall appearance is strangely reminiscent of how popular culture from that era often imagined humanity’s future, a somewhat fanciful and unrealised vision that would repeatedly rise up to haunt them throughout history onwards.
Of course similarities have been pointed out between the O’paran’s apparent relation to this “retro-futurism” and the Remote’s attachment to media aesthetics, which along with their humanoid appearance gives certain credence to the theory that they are merely a successor created by the Faction. This however is not the biggest justification for that theory. There are more obvious reasons for that comparison, reasons that for the sake of length will be elaborated upon later.
Debates are still ongoing as to whether the O’paran are a unique species created within and adapted to the conditions created by War-Time, a far-flung offshoot of Humanity that managed to carve its own temporal niche outside of its future and PostHuman cousins, or just an elaborate stunt by Faction Paradox to create a “more uninspired version of the Remote”. There is certainly a sizeable amount of evidence to support the “Future-Human” theories, as the O’paran not only have an affinity for Earth (Though the same could be said for many blatantly non-human entities), their technology tends to aesthetically resemble more primitive hardware developed in Earth’s Cold War period. In fact their overall appearance is strangely reminiscent of how popular culture from that era often imagined humanity’s future, a somewhat fanciful and unrealised vision that would repeatedly rise up to haunt them throughout history onwards.
Of course similarities have been pointed out between the O’paran’s apparent relation to this “retro-futurism” and the Remote’s attachment to media aesthetics, which along with their humanoid appearance gives certain credence to the theory that they are merely a successor created by the Faction. This however is not the biggest justification for that theory. There are more obvious reasons for that comparison, reasons that for the sake of length will be elaborated upon later.
Secondly the O’paran possess a highly advanced and unique form of time-technology, different from that of the major powers. Rather than using Timeships or even more basic time-tech such as vortex manipulators, the O’paran’s devices (Referred to as ‘Time-Pieces’) appear to be built directly into their armor. Consequently each individual unit “theoretically” has the capacity to travel independently through spacetime to a degree rivaled only by certain Timeships and ‘augmented’ individuals.Emphasis on the word “theoretically” however as the full extent of their travelling capabilities remains to be seen. All known incursions into the Spiral Politic do seem to follow a backwards trend, a trend that abruptly stops around the mid-1940s (In Human Chronology).
Another major feature of O’paran temporal manipulation is the creation and operation of environments set apart from conventional space-time. Doubtless those reading here will already be familiar with the concept in the form of Faction Paradox’s alter-time realms, the most infamous of them being the Eleven Day Empire. Unlike the Faction’s tendency to go overboard with surreal occultist camp, the O’paran take a much more utilitarian approach to their environments, referring to them as “Black Rooms” or on the odd occasion; “Cages” (Keep in mind the already sinister implications of that term for later on.). According to alleged eyewitness accounts, these ‘cages’ simply consist of a large, all encompassing void of black, and a series of glaring white lights illuminating a comparatively dull floor. Occasionally machinery is spotted in the far distance, too far unfortunately to determine any kind of purpose.
A lot is still frustratingly unclear about these zones and the fact that being brought into them by the O’paran is rare in of itself, let alone spending a long enough time to really take in the space around them doesn’t help much. However, given that all other searches for an O’paran powerbase in the Spiral Politic have turned up nothing, it may be reasonable to assume that these Black Rooms are where the O’paran originate and operate from; possibly even part of a pocket universe containing their civilisation. (Either that or they’ve been very thorough in making their location invisible to everyone else).
Finally and most eyebrow raising of all, the O’parans have a suspicious affinity with Faction Paradox. Not only have they allied themselves with any cells of the notorious time-terrorist organisation whenever they’ve encountered each other, they’ve also made sure to incorporate elements of Faction skeletal armor into their own suits. They’ve even managed to replicate some of the Faction’s rituals with a disturbing amount of accuracy, which is far more than expected from what many assume to be another second-rate bunch of Faction-made shock troopers.
What makes this connection even more bizarre however is that most of the Faction adamantly deny being remotely aware of the O’paran’s existence before they made their abrupt entrance into the Spiral Politic, let alone having any hand in their creation. Naturally many commentators presumed the Faction were just being misleading as usual in an attempt to save face. But given that the O’paran are so blatantly upfront about their Faction connections they may as well be wearing skulls atop their helmets, there doesn’t seem to be any reason the Faction would even bother to hide it in the first place.
Indeed their reactions to the O’paran with what could be described as cautious acceptance. No doubt most Faction members have taken advantage of the O’paran’s declared loyalty, yet many of those same members have been somewhat alarmed by just how adept their allies are at their own rituals (With some exceptions of course; one Godparent was reportedly dismissive on the O’paran’s approach to the rituals, describing them as “lifeless half-arsed imitations with none of the artistry or aesthetic charm we give to our traditions”).
Assuming for the moment that the Faction are being genuine, it does raise some concerning questions as to how exactly the O’paran got their hand on such extensive Faction knowledge in the first place. However, as mentioned in the opening paragraph of this entry, one of the O’paran apparently went to the trouble of providing some details on how they came to be. Unfortunately in typical Wartime fashion this testament, supposedly written down by a visiting Faction acolyte, was irritatingly vague and provided barely any clues to forming an actual understanding of the O’paran as an entity. But as a narrative it is coherent enough to follow (About as much as any narrative in the War would allow anyways). Here is the abridged version as follows;
Decades ago in the distant past, the O’paran’s ancestors were at the height of a large and bloody war when one of their experiments accidentally linked two points in space-time and created an anchor in reality, shortly leading to the discovery of Time Travel. Thankfully the war ended shortly before they managed to properly develop it but as they did the ancestors entered a new age of paranoia. Caught in an ideological and political struggle with their new enemies, they resolved to perfect and weaponise their newfound gift to prevail in any way they could.
Unfortunately or fortunately depending on the perspective, the ancestors immediately ran into some major complications. Their equipment could only take them backwards, not forwards, and only to the point of the accident itself. However those limitations could be easily worked around, and paled in comparison to the effects that using and abusing time travel had on the ancestors themselves. Whether it was a byproduct of the technology they used or simply inherent to their biology, anyone changing history and interacting with the past slowly had their sense of causality warped in the process, resulting in confusion of tenses, erratic behavior, brain damage and after enough trips would fall into a permanent coma. The ancestors tried and failed multiple times to find a cure to this ailment (The O’paran referred to this as Temporal Sickness), but only one thing seemed to mitigate the effects. Having managed early on to create cages that existed outside of present time, they found that travelers placed in these ‘cages’ were somewhat spared from the effects of Temporal sickness, so long as they stayed within them. With that in mind and the increasing number of travelers either stuck there or succumbing to Temporal Sickness, the ancestors were approached by an outside party with the proposal of a temporary alternative: A suit of armor isolating the user from the rest of space-time whilst allowing them to operate the suit from within. And to their surprise, it worked.
Soon enough they had managed to seal in the remaining operatives they had, and sooner still the suit became mandatory for all volunteers. Those entering were assured that they were merely a temporary measure until a successful cure for Temporal sickness could be found. And so the suited volunteers, the ones that would eventually become the O’paren, waited and went about their duties patiently, hopeful that they would one day emerge from their shells. Unfortunately it seems that day never came. The ancestors never found that cure, or if they did, they never shared it with the volunteers. In fact, all contact between them and the ancestors ceased abruptly without any explanation. The volunteers were left alone, stranded in the cages built to protect them in the first place. Their past was little more than a distant memory to them, and the future they’d been looking forward to had ceased to exist. Not only that, but as a result of the way their suits operated, the trapped volunteers were even disconnected from the world around them, only able to interact with it from a distance. (Some have of course drawn comparisons between this part and the state of human culture in the early decades of the 21st Century, invoking phrases such as “hauntology” and ‘collective isolation’.)
How long they were trapped there remains unsaid, but it can be guessed that by the time they managed to step out of their cages and reenter the present on their world, they had lost all sense of their previous identities. At this point the account somehow becomes even more vague. It’s not clear how they broke out or why they were trapped to begin with. Several things are alluded to however. First is that after exiting the cage, the O’paren met a group of people unlike them, lacking the armor they had become so used to living in. No further description was made but presumably these people were either the ancestors, their descendents or perhaps even the outside party that had built the suits in the first place. What is certain is that this first trip into reality evidently did not go well for the O’paren as an attempt to remove the suits proved fatal, causing the user inside to perish almost immediately upon exposure to real-time. What happened after is again left up to interpretation, but references to a war are mentioned, either by the O’paren or the unarmoured people. It’s in this vague war that the O’paran apparently had their first glimpse of Faction knowledge, either by chance or from some unknown but very educated entities.
This knowledge not only told them of the Faction’s existence and their methods, but also of other civilisations with mastery over time travel time-traveling that made their ancestor’s technology look pitiful in comparison. They learned of the ongoing war between these civilisations across the fabric of history itself, and they learned of the weapons they used to not only wipe each other out, but rewrite history so that they never even existed in the first place. And in learning this, the O’paren became terrified.
Before this knowledge their world had been small and strictly defined. Their time-travel had limits, and their history would remain intact no matter what happened to the past. But the knowledge of Faction Paradox had destroyed that certainty. It had not only made the possibilities infinite, but also made their history far more precarious. Just one attack or fallout from the war could undo their existence and wipe them out forever.
And so the O’paren vowed to never let that happen. They would follow in the footsteps of Faction Paradox, a group that shared their fragile relation to history and adapted one of their most infamous rituals on a far grander scale than even the Faction would have dared; a retroactive campaign of destruction waged against the ancestors that created them. In wiping out the past so utterly, the O’paran hoped to rip themselves entirely from the structure of causality and so eliminate their biggest fears. They would be set free to forge a new future for themselves, one where they could live among the War-powers, rather than in fear of them.
And this is pretty much how the account ends. It’s rather unsatisfactory but so far any attempts to get any further story, from the Faction Acolyte and the O’paran, have yielded a frustrating response of absolute dead silence. Whether the O’paren did succeed in pulling a mass species scale equivalent of the Faction initiation ceremony is again left unanswered, but the fact that nothing substantial has been found of their history in the spiral politic might offer a clue.
[ADDENDUM: For this article, any mentions relating to occurring and frankly outrageous theories that the O’paran originated on the Earth itself, including from an alternate timeline or even as a manifestation of ‘humanity’s potential’ from the just as disputed Ghost Point in Earth’s history, as well as any following attempts to link them with the Enemy have been omitted with good reasons. These ideas are unproven, ridiculous and only serve to spread unnecessary alarm and paranoia. It would be appreciated that these conspiracies not be indulged any further. Thank you.]
Another major feature of O’paran temporal manipulation is the creation and operation of environments set apart from conventional space-time. Doubtless those reading here will already be familiar with the concept in the form of Faction Paradox’s alter-time realms, the most infamous of them being the Eleven Day Empire. Unlike the Faction’s tendency to go overboard with surreal occultist camp, the O’paran take a much more utilitarian approach to their environments, referring to them as “Black Rooms” or on the odd occasion; “Cages” (Keep in mind the already sinister implications of that term for later on.). According to alleged eyewitness accounts, these ‘cages’ simply consist of a large, all encompassing void of black, and a series of glaring white lights illuminating a comparatively dull floor. Occasionally machinery is spotted in the far distance, too far unfortunately to determine any kind of purpose.
A lot is still frustratingly unclear about these zones and the fact that being brought into them by the O’paran is rare in of itself, let alone spending a long enough time to really take in the space around them doesn’t help much. However, given that all other searches for an O’paran powerbase in the Spiral Politic have turned up nothing, it may be reasonable to assume that these Black Rooms are where the O’paran originate and operate from; possibly even part of a pocket universe containing their civilisation. (Either that or they’ve been very thorough in making their location invisible to everyone else).
Finally and most eyebrow raising of all, the O’parans have a suspicious affinity with Faction Paradox. Not only have they allied themselves with any cells of the notorious time-terrorist organisation whenever they’ve encountered each other, they’ve also made sure to incorporate elements of Faction skeletal armor into their own suits. They’ve even managed to replicate some of the Faction’s rituals with a disturbing amount of accuracy, which is far more than expected from what many assume to be another second-rate bunch of Faction-made shock troopers.
What makes this connection even more bizarre however is that most of the Faction adamantly deny being remotely aware of the O’paran’s existence before they made their abrupt entrance into the Spiral Politic, let alone having any hand in their creation. Naturally many commentators presumed the Faction were just being misleading as usual in an attempt to save face. But given that the O’paran are so blatantly upfront about their Faction connections they may as well be wearing skulls atop their helmets, there doesn’t seem to be any reason the Faction would even bother to hide it in the first place.
Indeed their reactions to the O’paran with what could be described as cautious acceptance. No doubt most Faction members have taken advantage of the O’paran’s declared loyalty, yet many of those same members have been somewhat alarmed by just how adept their allies are at their own rituals (With some exceptions of course; one Godparent was reportedly dismissive on the O’paran’s approach to the rituals, describing them as “lifeless half-arsed imitations with none of the artistry or aesthetic charm we give to our traditions”).
Assuming for the moment that the Faction are being genuine, it does raise some concerning questions as to how exactly the O’paran got their hand on such extensive Faction knowledge in the first place. However, as mentioned in the opening paragraph of this entry, one of the O’paran apparently went to the trouble of providing some details on how they came to be. Unfortunately in typical Wartime fashion this testament, supposedly written down by a visiting Faction acolyte, was irritatingly vague and provided barely any clues to forming an actual understanding of the O’paran as an entity. But as a narrative it is coherent enough to follow (About as much as any narrative in the War would allow anyways). Here is the abridged version as follows;
Decades ago in the distant past, the O’paran’s ancestors were at the height of a large and bloody war when one of their experiments accidentally linked two points in space-time and created an anchor in reality, shortly leading to the discovery of Time Travel. Thankfully the war ended shortly before they managed to properly develop it but as they did the ancestors entered a new age of paranoia. Caught in an ideological and political struggle with their new enemies, they resolved to perfect and weaponise their newfound gift to prevail in any way they could.
Unfortunately or fortunately depending on the perspective, the ancestors immediately ran into some major complications. Their equipment could only take them backwards, not forwards, and only to the point of the accident itself. However those limitations could be easily worked around, and paled in comparison to the effects that using and abusing time travel had on the ancestors themselves. Whether it was a byproduct of the technology they used or simply inherent to their biology, anyone changing history and interacting with the past slowly had their sense of causality warped in the process, resulting in confusion of tenses, erratic behavior, brain damage and after enough trips would fall into a permanent coma. The ancestors tried and failed multiple times to find a cure to this ailment (The O’paran referred to this as Temporal Sickness), but only one thing seemed to mitigate the effects. Having managed early on to create cages that existed outside of present time, they found that travelers placed in these ‘cages’ were somewhat spared from the effects of Temporal sickness, so long as they stayed within them. With that in mind and the increasing number of travelers either stuck there or succumbing to Temporal Sickness, the ancestors were approached by an outside party with the proposal of a temporary alternative: A suit of armor isolating the user from the rest of space-time whilst allowing them to operate the suit from within. And to their surprise, it worked.
Soon enough they had managed to seal in the remaining operatives they had, and sooner still the suit became mandatory for all volunteers. Those entering were assured that they were merely a temporary measure until a successful cure for Temporal sickness could be found. And so the suited volunteers, the ones that would eventually become the O’paren, waited and went about their duties patiently, hopeful that they would one day emerge from their shells. Unfortunately it seems that day never came. The ancestors never found that cure, or if they did, they never shared it with the volunteers. In fact, all contact between them and the ancestors ceased abruptly without any explanation. The volunteers were left alone, stranded in the cages built to protect them in the first place. Their past was little more than a distant memory to them, and the future they’d been looking forward to had ceased to exist. Not only that, but as a result of the way their suits operated, the trapped volunteers were even disconnected from the world around them, only able to interact with it from a distance. (Some have of course drawn comparisons between this part and the state of human culture in the early decades of the 21st Century, invoking phrases such as “hauntology” and ‘collective isolation’.)
How long they were trapped there remains unsaid, but it can be guessed that by the time they managed to step out of their cages and reenter the present on their world, they had lost all sense of their previous identities. At this point the account somehow becomes even more vague. It’s not clear how they broke out or why they were trapped to begin with. Several things are alluded to however. First is that after exiting the cage, the O’paren met a group of people unlike them, lacking the armor they had become so used to living in. No further description was made but presumably these people were either the ancestors, their descendents or perhaps even the outside party that had built the suits in the first place. What is certain is that this first trip into reality evidently did not go well for the O’paren as an attempt to remove the suits proved fatal, causing the user inside to perish almost immediately upon exposure to real-time. What happened after is again left up to interpretation, but references to a war are mentioned, either by the O’paren or the unarmoured people. It’s in this vague war that the O’paran apparently had their first glimpse of Faction knowledge, either by chance or from some unknown but very educated entities.
This knowledge not only told them of the Faction’s existence and their methods, but also of other civilisations with mastery over time travel time-traveling that made their ancestor’s technology look pitiful in comparison. They learned of the ongoing war between these civilisations across the fabric of history itself, and they learned of the weapons they used to not only wipe each other out, but rewrite history so that they never even existed in the first place. And in learning this, the O’paren became terrified.
Before this knowledge their world had been small and strictly defined. Their time-travel had limits, and their history would remain intact no matter what happened to the past. But the knowledge of Faction Paradox had destroyed that certainty. It had not only made the possibilities infinite, but also made their history far more precarious. Just one attack or fallout from the war could undo their existence and wipe them out forever.
And so the O’paren vowed to never let that happen. They would follow in the footsteps of Faction Paradox, a group that shared their fragile relation to history and adapted one of their most infamous rituals on a far grander scale than even the Faction would have dared; a retroactive campaign of destruction waged against the ancestors that created them. In wiping out the past so utterly, the O’paran hoped to rip themselves entirely from the structure of causality and so eliminate their biggest fears. They would be set free to forge a new future for themselves, one where they could live among the War-powers, rather than in fear of them.
And this is pretty much how the account ends. It’s rather unsatisfactory but so far any attempts to get any further story, from the Faction Acolyte and the O’paran, have yielded a frustrating response of absolute dead silence. Whether the O’paren did succeed in pulling a mass species scale equivalent of the Faction initiation ceremony is again left unanswered, but the fact that nothing substantial has been found of their history in the spiral politic might offer a clue.
[ADDENDUM: For this article, any mentions relating to occurring and frankly outrageous theories that the O’paran originated on the Earth itself, including from an alternate timeline or even as a manifestation of ‘humanity’s potential’ from the just as disputed Ghost Point in Earth’s history, as well as any following attempts to link them with the Enemy have been omitted with good reasons. These ideas are unproven, ridiculous and only serve to spread unnecessary alarm and paranoia. It would be appreciated that these conspiracies not be indulged any further. Thank you.]
[[▲O’paran unit in full armor, presumably in one of their many “black rooms”]]
