The Family

Origin: Eons ago, possibly multiple big bangs ago, a species that could be anything you like them to be lived on a planet that was orbiting a dieing star, they had very advanced tech but never cared much about space travel or colonisation, and thus were still not highly capable of it. Probably this was to due with a very small population throughout their whole history. As they slowly died out due to lack of light and thus food a small group of what you could call scientists tried to figure out a way to save them, well researching the dieing star The being that would come to be known as the outsider accidentally turned part of a core of the dieing star into what you all called an Essence. The head of the project and his younger brother (now known respectivly The Wise Man and The Faceless King) pushed the group to test this new tech, thinking it would allow them time to save their people. The Faceless king was the first to attempt it, and the others followed moments after, only realizing upon passing out of their mortal bodies that there were other beings outside of the physical world.

The group realized that the beings were all totes cray (as the britesons would eventually become) and destroyed them, however by the time this was done their own people had all died and their home planet was a lifeless husk. The decided to leave their planet and try to make a better world since they could not save their own.

so they traveled from planet to planet, finding young species and teaching the about tech, jumping them forward in progress at a breakneck pace. Each time they would turn the gifts the britesons gave them into weapons and end up killing themselves off, eventually each of the britesons became so jaded that they would see the seeds of eventual self destruction that were not in fact there, and destroy the race they were 'helping' as a 'mercy'. Talusians were just the latest attempt at that.

Eventuality, to some, destroying likely became as enthralling as creating. In a lot of ways they were like Space Fairies, mercurial and utterly amoral.

They usually didn't get put into people with like...their own personalities, usually clones or removed the mind first or whatever. Altec was so prominent in the Wiseman because he was the only other -full- personality, rather than just a role original wiseman played for a lifetime.

Most of the people they placed themselves into were just bodies to them, vessels. Maybe they added in bits or wholes of personas they liked. It's reasonable they did that before and just overroad the personalities, and that the Wiseman only didn't do that because he was worried about getting murdered or didn't have enough time to pull it off when altec was killed. Yuriy Briteson is a much better example of egos combining to form a gestalt.

There were seven playing the game this time, but there were more at different points in time. Some became "unrecoverable" - this was mentioned by The Prince at one point, possibly in the destruction of a previous or multiple previous worlds. New ones were made at times, like Santos (who was the only voice in his essence).

Wiseman: Probably the most history because he was the first developed character among the bunch. One of the two main leaders of the family, and probably the most thoughful, tended to be the last one to give up on a species (since the outsider never really did, just went along with her family) Still an optimist at heart, even in the end he would try to save particularly talented or unique people from races they destroyed. Somewhat like a father to many of the britesons you all met. Tended to control others through charisma, and quickly take up a role of teacher. Think Odin. The Wise Man was about to elected Grand Protector or High Protector or whatever I called it of the Talusian Protectorate, Soooo president of earth, when he suddenly decided to leave to go to Karst. Fate: Essence passed to Altec

The Faceless King: the younger brother of the wiseman and the first to leave mortality behind. By far the most talented at the "Game" probably not always the bad guy, but certainly the one who was best at burning worlds when it came to it and the best at the actual killing thing. The most talented at killing and at splitting his mind to either control armies or multiple bodies as he did in the final mods. Controls and guides whole civilizations via manipulation, preferring to remain 'faceless' only appearing in person when it was totally necessary. He was tens of thousands of years old. His face: http://www.monster-camp.com/index.php?route=product%2Fproduct&path=59_61&product_id=97 Fate: Lost The Game and was imprisoned in a capsule by The Outsider for safekeeping.

Outsider: The only one who actually kept hold of any morality over the centuries. Was perfectly fine with the guiding civilizations and playing the 'game' but always became to attached to just burn everything down. Was probably the only one that was still able to feel emotional connections with other species without like... a whole fuckload of help. The Outsider was always the rock among them, trying to convince them to not destroy worlds, and to give humans (and other civilizations) a chance. She was in love with the Wise Man, and when he started giving in to the destructive ways of the rest of the family, she'd always put him back on track. Coza had seen some of her memories because she had her essence, and explicitly trusted her after talking to both her and the Wise Man (who was in Altec). Fate: Essence passed to Coza

Devourer of Eyes: A 12 year old child saved by the Wiseman from the wreckage of a city he had just burned (probably like, 3-4 species back) the immortals chose to 'save' her by bringing her with them. So she was made immortal at the age of 12, after seeing her new family destroy first her own city, then her entire planet. Turns out that probably wasn't healthy...who knew. Fate: Taken by the Dendrites to be destroyed in the crucible

The Prince of Laughing Steel was born Ahu, the child of pearl divers on a small planet presumably close to or orbiting Talus. He was taken by the Faceless King after his world was torched. He thought of the Faceless King as a sort of distant father figure and the Wiseman and the Outsider as elder siblings (mind you that atomic family roles don't really apply to them). He was meant primarily as an example of what all the immortals were like when they were young: idealistic, noble, kind, and giving. But the countless centuries of failure and indolence eventually corrupted them. His age was meant to be a massive plot point regarding this, he was extraordinarily young. Before they became super plant heavy, the Timochen were going through a societal schism where half were becoming post-apoc tree druids and the others were becoming like Tech-priests who worshipped a god named Ahu. Who was the Prince subtly communicating his wishes through their nanites. The Prince of Laughing Steel was a friend of Ortega during the First Rebellion. Luther was his champion. He "lost the game" (in part or whole because the Rebellion failed), and was imprisoned under the Old City as a result. He was ~1500 years old Fate: Imprisoned and taken to space with the Outsider.

Swordsman/Jared Briteson: Jared Briteson was a Officer under The Wiseman during the Unification Wars. Originally a human who was described at one point as being a philosopher. Joined by invitation of the outsider, may or may not have been a couple for awhile as humans. Used a hard light sword, which passed (along with his essence) to Richard Caplan after his death.

As Richard Caplan, The Swordsman was an aldebrandi who wanted to see his people travel the stars. Fate: Taken to The Crucible by the Dendrites to be destroyed.

The Thief of Tomorrow: Okay, this is kind of extensive so bear with me. The first thing you have to realize is that the Legion Field Hospital were brainwashing people. I think in the original first few games there was a thing where if you went into critical and drew a black stone then you could be pulled into the hospital for emergency treatment and come out fine. But you'd gain the "Molded" trait and would be subject to dominate calls down the line, also they wouldn't help you out again (this was called Project Thinking Cap)

Fast forward to the Sons of Vartok arc. I played a lieutenant to Ramos named Brother Rigel (there's a picture of him somewhere). Anywho when the Facility was being gassed in sections to divide and conquer the Sons, Brother Rigel (as well as a few others) were secreted away by Little Dot.

Fast forward about a year and Brother Rigel has been captured by the Legion and tortured *extensively* as well as forced to undergo the "Molded" treatment to extract all the juicy technological knowledge the Sons possessed. Being fully turned, he's assigned the name Harlan Locke (this was called Project Grandchild) and given a lot of leeway in the Legion Field Hospital, especially the "Blue Wing" where spooky stuff goes down. Fast forward to Rowen and Roosevelt doing black ops stuff and Locke fucking with them. There was a side-plot about how the mysterious director of the Hospital was slowly "Molding" every lieutenant in the area and how DeWitt was on to the scheme. As well as a secret super solider program called Project Werewolf, where Locke was stripping the personalities from soldiers and making them into really scary ORC killing dudes (Universal Soldier Plot)

Fast Forward to the ORC Occupation where DeWitt put out an arrest order on Locke. Rowen and a handful of others go after him with ORC Captain Stirling. A fight breaks out and Locke's werewolves go fucking crazy beast-mode upon seeing Stirling Locke escapes. Locke having no where else to turn to, goes directly to Slane and offers them his services. The Britesons see that he's a determined, decisive person with some sort of quality that would pair well with being immortal. They make him the offer of "We'll make you an immortal god-like entity, but you have to prove your loyalty. Burn the Legion" and Locke was like, "Sure."

Locke proceeds to murder the fuck out of the remaining members of the Legion and goes full Briteson. Unfortunately Rowen died, who was someone he was hoping she would rise up and surpass/replace/beat him. He thought of himself (likely inaccurately) as a sort of mentor to her and lost a lot of his drive from then on out. He tried to project that desire onto Barnaby, but Barns wasn't really rebellious enough to be the hero Locke was looking for. He also embraced the Werewolve's Heart of Darkness shit like whoa. Fate: Taken to The Crucible by the Dendrites to be destroyed.

The Innocence of Water: Trapped on a planet as a moon collapsed into it, unable to be recovered

The Joker: Santos, who was new enough to never get his name officially before he was killed. He would have been a mix between Loki and the Joker. Santos came out when we first fought the Faceless King (Spring 2). Ryder fought him to the death, ripped out his Cortical Stack (which is where Ryder's implants came from), and pocketed the Essence. Cyrus was the last one to have it. The Family wanted to start a new one of their own, and Santos was eager for immortality, so they used him... But wanted him dead immediately, so they could balance out his personality with someone a little closer to their interests. Fate: Unknown