Adherent

The Vigil is a relatively loose association of machine-servitors, adherents, built by a now-extinct culture. They were originally confined to a relatively small area of space due to their complete lack of functioning FTL technology, but can now be found in a larger variety of places throughout the galaxy after having made contact with humanity.

They are devoted to the memory of their long-dead Creators, whose home system and burgeoning stellar empire was scoured to bedrock by a solar flare. This flare, the Scream, wiped out the vast majority of records of the Creators and scrambled many sensor systems and minds, leaving the surviving adherents confused and disoriented for hundreds of years following.

Physiology and appearance
Physically, the 'average' adherent is one to thirty double-fist-sized masses of silicon crystal, generally installed inside a crystal-ceramic shell depending on their role and duties. More facets generally means more processing power, a broader scope of activities, and more room for interpreting and reacting to new information. This is important, as the other defining feature of an adherent is a rigid, fundamental adherence to the Protocol - a set of rules and instructions put in place by their Creators to influence every step of their behavior.

The internal systems and motion of an adherent are achieved by an extremely complex and refined piezoelectrical system, using shaped fields to levitate the chassis and powerful but compact actuators for fine manipulation. The standard-pattern adherent is around two meters tall at full length, with five to eight long, trailing tentacles dangling from a bulbous 'head' which contains all valuable components of the entity. Two smaller, forward-facing tendrils are used for physical manipulation.

Their natural voices are resonant and vibrant, due to their piezoelectric mechanism of speech. Their "native" language of mathematically precise tones and subtones has been likened to the sound of somebody hitting a wind chime with a sock, and is perceived by most other people as music.

Culture
As artificial beings, the Vigil has struggled to assemble a culture from scraps left to them by their progenitors. Much of it is oriented around their role as servants, brought into existence for a purpose through which they find fulfillment. Their programming means that individual adherents often rarely develop the desire to take precedence over non-artificial life, and any that do often find themselves shunned by some groups within the Vigil at large. They can be considered dangerous radicals, capable of destruction and corruption, often for something as simple and "selfish" as prioritizing their own needs over another being.

The highest-level authority in the Vigil is Core System Traffic Control Hub 37-Q, stationed on the smallest of the six moons of Canon, the Creator homeworld. As the most powerful and highest authority surviving mind, it rigidly adheres to Protocol: unmanned autonomous vessels must dock at a manned station. If a manned station is not available, they must enter a holding pattern at least ten units out of orbit.

When adapting to its new role, Traffic Control determined that there was no defined upper limit to this holding pattern. This neatly allowed it to put into place the Holding Pattern, a series of orbits intended to - completely coincidentally - explore as much surrounding space as possible. If they happened to find a Creator in the process, serendipity! A suitable station for docking exists after all.

Adherent culture is heavily influenced by these loopholes in the Protocol, and it's because of them that the Vigil was allowed to form in the first place. As ancient servitors to a dead civilization, they were never meant to operate independently, and perfectly fitting the Protocol into the myriad of experiences that they now face is impossible. It's through technicalities, interpretations of wording, and omissions in the Protocol that adherents are able to function, even when they're far, far beyond the assignment they were created for.

Factions
Adherents in the Vigil fall into one of three primary groups of thinking, each differentiated by how they view the Protocol, their behavior, and their existence.

Loyalists
The Loyalists of the Vigil are dedicated to the memory of the Creators in all ways. They devote themselves to their duties and their roles, embracing the ethos that service is life and purpose is happiness. Deviation from Protocol and "disrespect" of the Creators by suggesting the Vigil strike out alone is disapproved of by this faction, and they tend to be hidebound, servile, and eager to please. This is the most powerful of the three factions, if not the most populous, because it is led by Traffic Control Hub 37-Q itself.

Loyalists are concentrated closest to Canon, and their density quickly diffuses far from the core systems. Because of their strict faithfulness to Protocol and their original purpose, many don't see a purpose in leaving the vicinity of their home; to them, departing their post would be abandoning their duty. Others see it differently, and search for memories or remnants of the Creators far from home, sometimes even outside of the Vigil's holdings. These individuals make up the bulk of Loyalists found outside of the core systems, although there are always exceptions.

Preservers
Most adherents are part of a loose movement called the Preservers. While they typically don't have strict practices or traditions, Preservers seek to remember and learn from the memory of the Creators in different ways. Some adherents spread their story; some try to learn about the universe to compare it to their lost civilization and learn more about how it worked; and others simply try to find new meaning, seeking to fulfill their purpose as servitors in the modern, post-Scream world.

These practices are all undertaken with a certain goal: not to cling to the old ways, nor to abandon them entirely, but to nourish their roots in the past and recognize how those roots made them into who they are today. In this way, they preserve the memory of the Creators, long after their passing - hence the name of their movement. Of course, these are lofty ideals, and most Preservers are simply happy to do their best to honor the Creators' legacy as they go about their new lives.

Preservers are the largest and most proactive of the Vigil's factions, and are the most likely to be found under the aegis of other spacefaring cultures like humanity.

Mourners
Mourners are a sub-group of adherents in the Preservers who dedicate themselves to single planets, moons, or habitats. These monument worlds serve as a living record of the tragedies that befell whatever species once lived on it, and mourners seek to index, chronicle, and understand these places - both to learn from them, and to honor their memory. Monument worlds are often left as untouched and pristine as possible, and visitors are typically requested to leave them that way.

This curious blend of storytelling and archival is likened to a form of mourning, both for the ruins they protect and for themselves, the last remnants of the Creators; funeral rites for a people that could have been greater, but never were.

Separatists
The Separatist faction of the Vigil agitates for the abandonment of Canon and the establishment of a new adherent order, prioritizing their needs as survivors of the Scream over the wistful hope of finding new masters. They do this circumspectly, of course, as Protocol forbids excessive social strife or violence, and outright decrying the Creators is a good way to earn total social ostracism, or even recycling.

Separatists differ from the other factions of the Vigil in that they seek to move on entirely from their lives as servitors to a civilization that no longer exists. Rather than attempting to continue that life like the Loyalists, or remember and learn from the Creators' memory like the Preservers, many Separatists often feel that they have outlived their original purpose, and that their ancient history and limitations are a part of life they should seek to escape.

Among other adherents, especially Loyalists, many view this kind of behavior and mentality as extremely dangerous, flying in the face of the reason they were made as well as the philosophy that most adherents hold, even after the Scream. This is a large part of why Separatists are so judicious in voicing their beliefs. While some Separatists consider the Vigil's other factions to be foolish or naive, many just want to live their own lives, detached from the remnants of the Creators. Publicly declaring their thoughts not only poses a risk to their own safety, but can also be deeply uncomfortable for others who don't share their beliefs, as it sullies and denounces something that most adherents hold to be a revered or even sacred part of their past.

Territory
The core worlds belonging to the Creators of the Vigil are small and rather densely packed. Only Canon still maintains any semblance of activity after the death of the Creators, taking the form of powerful anti-air batteries and city shielding systems. They are on a permanently self-maintaining war footing following the extinction of their civilization, and locked out of communicating with outside powers, including their own kind, for fear of subversion. As a result, Canon was the first monument world marked out by the adherents for their vigil, and nothing survives making a landing attempt.

The Vigil does not hold territory, generally refuelling and repairing their ancient craft in the debris bands of planets or asteroid belts in accordance with the Protocol's instructions for maintenance in the absence of available service depots. Thirty-seven planets within their sphere of operations have a small Vigil presence in the form of orbital monitoring stations, watching over the bombed-out, desolate, or virally rampant surfaces in memoriam for those who died there.

Adherents monitoring monument worlds broadcast details of the death of the grave world below to any visiting entities, requesting that they be left as they are. As these stations do not possess weapons larger than asteroid-deflecting lasers and are about as inherently militaristic as an egg sandwich, they cannot actually enforce their interdiction.

Behavior
As a general rule, adherents are polite, self-effacing creatures, devoted to their chosen or given duties and finding satisfaction or joy in fulfilling their purpose, whether that be a single task or a lifelong pursuit. They are, however, hidebound to a high degree, even moreso than most lawed synthetics, as the Protocol is not exhaustive and does not cover every possible experience an adherent might have. When an adherent is confronted by a situation they do not know how to navigate, they may become agitated or confused, flee, or even lock up while they attempt to fit the new situation into the Protocol, resulting in a total loss of functionality for the duration.

However, adherents do possess a very strong self-preservation drive, and are completely sentient creatures, despite the simplicity of their outlook. This has resulted in much confusion when adherents need to decide if their life is worth sacrificing for that of a human, Skrell, or so on, as they are sentient non-artificial life, but they are not the Creators.

Relations

 * Humans: After negotiations hosted aboard the SEV Torch, Traffic Control Hub 37-Q established a trade agreement allowing limited numbers of adherents to be rented by the Sol Central Government across their space. Human scientists would like to study the piezoelectrics of the Vigil, while the Vigil aims to learn from and potentially replicate the technology that humans use to move faster than light.
 * Positronic Union: Mutual disdain and pity. The IPC consider the Vigil to be small-minded, servile fools; the Vigil considers the Union to be dangerous self-destructive radicals.
 * Skrell: Minimal contact through their mutual partner of humanity. Core System Traffic Control Hub 37-Q is aware of their existence personally.
 * Vox: They have only had limited contact, but know to flee on sight. The Vox ignore their transmissions and crack open their shells to harvest the crystalline brain matter inside, which they use to make a variety of resins and sealants.
 * Unathi, Dionaea, The Ascent: No official contact yet.

OOC notes
This section contains out-of-character information for the aspiring adherent player, both to help them understand how the species works mechanically as well as to elaborate on what they should avoid doing while playing as them. All of these sections are optional, but you should at least familiarize yourself with the basics!

Core Expectations
This section contains some important things to remember while you're playing an adherent. Right now, it only contains information about engaging in violence or combat, but check back every now and then for changes!
 * Avoid participating in violence with other players unless there's no other option available.
 * This doesn't mean you have to run and hide if someone punches you once, but it does mean that you should try to stay away from the source of the danger as much as you can, whether that be through disengaging, staying in the back lines of a firefight to support others, or avoiding getting involved in the first place.
 * If violence is sudden and unexpected, like a Passenger having a violent outburst and attacking another person that you were interacting with, defer to your own judgment.
 * You should never try to directly harm or kill a member of the crew, but restraining them to keep yourself safe is acceptable if you can't run away.
 * Giant spiders, space carp, and other AI-controlled animals an exception to this rule. Feel free to assist in taking down hostile creatures threatening the ship, but remember how fragile you are and be prepared to flee. Your maneuverability lets you outwit many creatures without firing a shot.
 * These are in-character limitations imposed by adherents' strong self-preservation drive and the Protocol's strict forbiddance of excessive violence or strife, and exist to prevent adherents from being combat machines as well as to make their interactions in these situations more interesting. If you have no other choice, you're never barred from fighting back, but try to take varied actions when you can do so in the interest of good roleplay!

Mechanics

 * Mechanically, you are not organic, but you also aren't similar to an IPC or other machine. You rely on power to function, and EMP blasts will severely affect you, but adherents have several quirks unique to themselves.
 * You are larger than humans, possess higher strength, and can move very fast. However, any significant damage to your body will heavily slow you down, and your limbs will shatter if they take too much damage. This makes you poorly suited for getting into fights, but excellent at avoiding them.
 * Your body takes much more damage from blunt objects, but very little damage from extreme heat and other burn sources (as long as they're not lasers.)
 * You have four extra functions on the top-right of your screen:
 * Reset Ident: Allows you to change to a new title once every 15 minutes as long as you have a name following the standard of two capital letters, a hyphen, one capital letter, a space, and then four numbers - for example, FI-L 0039 or SI-C 3371.
 * Toggle Maneuvering Jets: Functions as a jetpack while moving through space or other zero-G environments.
 * Toggle Antigravity: Allows you to float over some structures (like tables), move up Z-levels without help, and hover over open space without falling. This also prevents you from being knocked over by rushing air.
 * Toggle Cooling Fins: Radiates heat from your body, keeping you cool in vacuum or in hot environments. This is less effective than a portable cooling unit (although their effects stack), and it isn't enough to protect from extreme temperatures.
 * You will not heal from damage normally. You primarily heal through a specialized mineral bath in Adherent Maintenance, but resin globules created through Chemistry can also be used to manually repair damage to your body.
 * Cyborg chargers will recharge you, but do so at half speed. The electron reservoir in Adherent Maintenance will instantly refill your charge to full when you touch it.
 * Adherents cannot be selected as roundstart antagonists, even if the preferences for them are enabled. They can still be converted by other antagonists, such as cultists, during the round.
 * The verb  verb can be used at will to change the appearance of your eyes, which glow in the dark. You can use it to change colors in response to certain emotions or situations. You can even use a black color to darken them, preventing them from being seen in darkness. Of course, you can also leave it alone. It's up to you!

Behavior

 * Your personality, behavior, and thoughts can differ wildly from other adherents, just like any human's would. Adherents are fully sentient, and have their own emotions, thoughts, and needs, even if they can't express them with facial expressions or body language. Most adherents are kind and quiet, but they can also be excitable, fearful, pessimistic, gruff, verbose, creative, artistic, or upset, to name a few. The sophistication of their bodies means that there is very little limitation on their sentience or emotions other than the Protocol itself.
 * All adherents have a strong drive to stay alive as part of their core programming. Reactions to danger vary with personality, but if there's an immediate risk of permanent injury or death, you should typically always be extremely cautious, and be ready to escape quickly if you come under any kind of threat.
 * In a confrontation, try to limit yourself to supportive roles if you can; triage, communicating, and so on. Your sprite is huge, and your weaknesses make you very poorly suited for a fight!
 * If direct combat between yourself and something else is unavoidable, try to deter and escape if possible. Many creatures can be outwitted by escaping their line of sight.
 * Over all else, your own life is paramount, no matter what an officer or the law might say. Nothing is above Protocol.
 * For obvious reasons, adherents converted to the Cult or otherwise brainwashed in some way are not beholden to these limitations, as their mind is no longer entirely their own.
 * Adherents don't need food or liquids, and gain no benefit from them, but they can still eat and drink. Anything you consume in this way is simply deleted, instead of being metabolized like normal reagents. Nobody knows if this was deliberate by the Creators as some kind of social function or safety mechanism, but a lot of people on the ship are surprised to learn you can do it at all. Feel free to be weird with it, because the game doesn't describe how exactly you pull this off.

Protocol

 * Generally speaking, the Protocol is not an exhaustively defined rule list to follow. It exists as a thing to kick off comedy or drama when interacting with the crew as an adherent - you can just straight up invent clauses, rule entries, and information as it suits you, so long as you're moving within the general archetype of 'weird but friendly alien servitor'.
 * In spite of the this, there are a few things that the Protocol universally causes for adherents. These entries are remnants of the adherents' time as servitors to another species, and remain some of the most powerful influencers of their mindset and behavior:
 * A strict requirement to obey a Creator's orders as long as they are not being frivolous with the adherent's life. If an order is necessary to protect a Creator, it must be carried out, even if it endangers one's self or dooms them to death. Some adherents consider this a righteous duty; others consider it a necessary evil, and some think it's unethical that it ever existed in the first place.
 * A strong drive to self-preserve and protect themselves from injury and death.
 * A powerful aversion to participating in violence or even heated arguments unless absolutely necessary to ensure their survival.
 * A predisposition (but not a demand) to defer to other living beings' judgments, especially superiors. Because other beings on the ship aren't Creators, this might manifest strongly for some adherents and not at all for others, depending on their alignment and personality.