These are my thoughts, based on the currently available information and many discusssions within the Arataka Research Consortium. I’m trying to analyse the Triglavian mystery using information gleaned from the Abyss and what we know from historical references. The focus is on examining the possibilities and what, if any conclusion can be drawn, this could all change depending on future revalations.
The Secrets of the Abyss Event raised new questions and possibly delivered some new, if not answers, important information regarding the Triglavians. Firstly, an unknown group sabotaged the suspect flagging system CONCORD had put in place to deter people from exploring the deeper tiers of Abyssal Deadspace. Secondly, a ‘mysterious sponsor’ offered various rewards, boosters and Triglavian ship skins, for Abyssal exploration and experimentation. It seems likely that the two are connected but who they are is still a mystery. There are a number of suspects and hopefully more will be revealed in future. Capsuleers were also able to interact with the Triglavian Bioadaptive Caches and exchange Trigalavian Survey Databases for Triglavian Cache Data Vaults, these yielded more Triglavian Survey Databases and Triglavian Trinary Datastreams. There are four different types of these and each type has three different snippets of partially translated information, similar to other snippets recovered in the past.
Triglavian Trinary Datastream AEA
The code refers to ‘Ancient Enemy Azdaja’, a group that Triglav have a long-standing enmity with. The three snippets of this type refer to interactions with them and actions taken by the Triglavians as a result. There are a few possibilities as to who this group might be.
Triglavian Trinary Datastream AFN
‘Augmented Foreign Narodnya’, which appear to be us, as in Capsuleers. The datastreams seem to indicate they found us in some way compatible and are testing us to see if we are.
Triglavian Trinary Datastream DAV
‘Deviant Automata Vila’ I think; Vila being their term for drones. Essentially, Veles Clade think they can be useful, Svarog Clade insists on destroying them and Perun Clade are not sure. The topic is locked, possibly pending further research, leaving the action taken up to the individual situation.
Triglavian Trinary Datastream HFN
‘Hivelinked Foreign Narodnya’, given the groups we have encountered in the Abyss there are two possibilities, Sleepers, or Drifters. The Triglavians percieve some kind of corruption in their Hivelinking and the recommended view is extirpation. Capsuleers were previously seen to be corruption free.
The Datastreams are interesting, for a number of reasons, and give new clues to the origins of the Triglavians and also insights into the workings of Triglavian society. Not only that but their use of language is quite revealing too. Its hard to work out which topic to tackle first, in this case reverse order makes most sense to me.
The language used in both the Datastreams and the fragments recovered from Triglavian blueprints and structures is curious. Its difficult to understand at first and then it becomes second nature after studying it for a while, but even then its complicated to explain. This is how ideogrammatic languages work and its very interesting, particularly as the Triglavians use the word ‘noema’ quite a lot.
To quote one source:-
“In other words, the noema seems to be whatever is intended by acts of perception or judgement in general, whether it be “a material object, a picture, a word, a mathematical entity, another person” precisely as being perceived, judged or otherwise thought about.”
Even in ancient Earth philosphy, there are four schools of though on what a ‘noema’ may actually be. With the Triglavians is almost like a noema becomes, once accepted, the only viewpoint, or approach, that Triglav society, as a whole, will take on a particular subject. This takes the full agreement of all three Clades, as in Perun, Veles and Svarog, although then there is this.
“Convocation of the Troika of the Vodya Subclade of Veles Clade divined purpose for the deviant automata in the flow of Vyraj. The Koschoi of Vodya made a casting that the winnowing of the clades would be served by turning poshlost to sobornost. The Navka of Vodya gave this noema profound reverse-time sense and grounded the metaxy. The Narodnya of Yodya accepted the volition and merge-consented in the Koschoi and Navka of Troika Vodya. With this scribing is the working of the flow revealed as law”
Which indicates that a Subclade can set its own laws, providing the Narodnya, Koschoi and Navka agree, but those can be overriden by a noema. The noema seem to be linked to the Cladeflow, at one point I considered that it might be written into the DNA, possibly some kind of RNA coding. Its more like an internet, or corporate intranet, a society wide content management system. Instead of using devices, they appear to use it at an infomorphic level, there might be devices as well. It runs through all their systems and, if a Triglavian encounters something they have not actually met before, they search the database for the current policy. So, in the case of ‘Ancient Enemy Azdaja’, there is an age-old policy in effect. What we see with the datastreams are actually translations of mind to mind communication via infomorphic technology, hence ‘hivelinking.’ It works like an insect hive in that information can be disseminated immediately across society. This would account for the various (indecipherable) entries in our translations and also why some of their concepts seem to be context dependent.
Grious talks about Jovians having that level of communication technology, so its not inconceivable that the Triglavians, whoever they turn out to be, would have access to it as well.
Which bring things around to the Narodnya, Koschoi and Navka. Everyone appears to be in agreement that Narodnya refers to the people as a whole. The Koschoi seem to be their equivalent of Capsuleers, so in that way our societies are not that different. The Navka are the odd ones to try and comprehend, I have a couple of distinct possiblities. The term translates as ‘souls of the dead’, in both Slavic and Egyptian thinking. Its possible they are just that, the minds of Triglavians that have lost their bodies. Perhaps through disease, or there is a term, ‘cladistic mortification’, do the losers of the various provings die? Seems extreme, especially for a society that might be low in actual numbers. That runs contrary to Jovian law too, ‘one body, one mind’, even if that body is in cryostasis, it has to exist. Unless, like Grious in Templar One they are ‘ghosts’.
The other option is that they are synthetic infomorphs, again from Templar One:-
“The Other,” Grious continued, “is the first virtual-born creation of the Architects—a sentient intelligence that did not originate from flesh and blood. We do not know if his genesis was intentional or an evolution of the Construct itself. What we do know is that the Enheduanni were torn about whether or not to allow it to exist. But before they could decide, many more like him were born—”
This is a complicated one, the Navka do not appear to be physically involved, but they are used as consultants and, within a Subclade at least, all three groups have to agree. I am certain they are some kind of group that exist within a virtual construct.
The Triglavian Origin question is the most difficult to answer, they may even be an entirely new group. Looking at the sparse information we have on the historic factions of Eve there are pros and cons for each of them. Some can be ruled but others lead to a question mark. There are four ancient races, Sleepers, Yan Jung, Talocan and Takmahl. Add in a number of Jovian groups and the Enheduanni and there is a fair number to choose from. CONCORD’s original release stated that they appeared to be a human civilisation that has developed in isolation, perhaps for millenia.
The Yan Jung, seem to have died out completely, and kept themselves to one particular region. I think we can safely rule them out; they dont fit with what we know about Triglavians at all.
The same goes for the Talocan, their technology was way in advance of what the Triglavians have shown. That kind of technology could undoubtedly access Abyssal space and that might be how the Rogue Drones came to be aware of it, given that they occupy the Devil’s Dig site. Their whereabouts are a mystery, a lot of decayed sites have been found and some are quarantined, although it not known by who.
The Sleepers we know about, the ‘Jovian Stasis’ faction. These are active in the Abyss and almost certainly the Hivelinked Foreign Narodnya mentioned in the Datastreams, which pretty much rules them out.
The Takmahl are curious, the original Sani Sabik sects ‘departed for parts unknown, to settle new colonies and build their strength.’ Originally from Amarr, so they could be linked to the curious landscape image with Amaar statues on it. An odd religion revolving around purification and immortality, with a hierachy of savants and followers. Its a stretch, we know about the Blood Raiders but there were a good number of groups and they split off from Amaar around 2500 BYO, so the timescale would fit, as would time to gain technology and develop in unknown ways.
The Enheduanni then, Uriel Paradisi Anteovnuecci has already posited that these may be the Triglavians, and a lot of factors appear to fit the profile. They were the guardians of the Architects, who became known as the Sleepers. Then a whole host of things happen, dating back a long way. The Architects used the Construct’s time dilation ability to leapfrog technologies. The Jovian Disease appears and people seek refuge in the Construct, and then the synthetic intelligence appears.
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Consider that the sworn mandate of the Enheduanni was to ease the Architects in and out of the Construct responsibly, governing their perception of the virtual world and managing their preparation for the migration back to reality. They expanded that mandate to include the guidance of mankind toward utopia. The Other rejected those mandates and replaced them with his own.” From Grious Templar One.
Also this line seems relevant:-
“There were clues, even back then,” Grious said, “about the Enheduanni’s struggle.”
Makes we wonder if there are two groups of Enheduanni; one still moving mankind towards utopia
, although Grious also says:-
“The Enheduanni have been infiltrated and compromised; all their work to shepherd mankind toward the sociotechnical utopia they know we can achieve was revealed to the Other.”
A second group who escaped elsewhere, using technology developed by the Construct, taking with them the uncorrupted minds they were able to rescue from it and possibly the synthetic intelligences that were born after the Other. That would make the Struggle the fight against the Other, and Triglav Outside the Struggle are the group that escaped, still acting as caretakers for what remains of the Architects. Which would explain the Navka. It also means that the Sleepers and Drifters are not just the remains of the Architects, but those that were corrupted by the Other. The Hivelinked Foreign Narodnya lack traces of corruption because they dont have the mingled infomorph signature seen in Empress Jamyl. And the Ancient Enemy Azdaja is the Other, Azdaja fits with the Other’s ability to invade a number of minds at once.
The Enheduanni offer some very interesting potential and the plot thickens further. Are they the mysterious sponsor? Maybe getting us pass the provings and unite with the Triglavians. Or is it the Other, or the Jove, who now see the Enheduanni as their enemy?
It doesnt preclude the Triglavians being another group we have yet to find other traces of, or even an amalgam of the remnants of groups we have some awareness of. Certainly a lot to think about, and look forward to other revelations.