What is an Agent?

[Cirrial]

(( Didn't know where to put this, so into the Amphitheatre it goes! ))

In Universe #128, an Agent is many things. Forged from a combination of factors, an Agent is a mortal made immortal, indestructible, and granted terrible power, theirs to wield in any manner they wish to do so.

For every sapient species in the known universe, there exists or is hypothesised to exist an Agent. Born from the violent death of a member of that species, and an incredibly high Agent-potential density, Agents piece their dying minds back together from a universe determined to scatter them across the celestial void. It is a traumatic process, and many Agents are driven insane simply by trying to initially exist.

If, however, they maintain their sanity, they then risk falling into madness through the corruption of their godlike power, or from the toll of time on a mind never intended to last for such a duration. At the very least, Agents will likely become detached from the mortals around them dying in their millions.

Even for that rare thing, a truly benevolent, kind Agent, the mere use of power or even attracting attention to themselves will drag them down into mental corruption, for reasons that will be explained later.

For this reason, most Agents can be broadly split into two categories, active and passive. Passive Agents tend to be the most benevolent, yet useless, as they isolate themselves from the universe in fear of becoming corrupted through any use of power. Not all passive Agents are completely withdrawn, and some are instead grand manipulators, with plans stretching across galaxies, lasting across millennia. Indeed, the entirety of many events in the universe may have been planned by an Agent or Agents millions of years ago.

Active Agents, however, directly interfere with the events of the universe, typically with catastrophic consequences. In the distant history of the Floating Arm, all of the Agents in the galaxy began a war for supremacy, using their own species as proxies. The ruins and records of those species involved referred to "The Oldest War", and many of the species involved were summarily made entirely extinct. Why would a handful of Agents conspire to wipe out so many sophont species?

As one explanation, an Agent's existence is entirely dependant on two things. One of those things is the state of the Agent's species. If the Agent's species becomes extinct, that Agent collapses into raw Agent-potential. If the Agent's species thrives, the Agent becomes more powerful, and therefore more dangerous. The second requirement will, as will the inevitable mental corruption of an Agent, be described later.

Continuing from the previous, the extinction of a species would appear to be the only effective means to destroy an Agent. Therefore, it would seem that the Oldest War was a war between indestructible, immortal beings, attempting to rid the universe of one another.

It is known, however, that Agents can be killed through other means, but that another member of their species would eventually take their position. This would make no difference to the number of Agents in the universe. The true motivation behind the acts of these pseudo-deities of the past was never made clear, and, thanks to the destruction involved in the Oldest War, the final answer may elude non-Agents until the end of time.

The most commonly agreed-upon features of an Agent are its origin from and a linked nature towards a sapient species, its nigh-invulnerability, and its power. It is also known, and has been mentioned by temporarily co-operative Agents, that all Agents tend to fulfil a role or take a title, rarely relevant. Additionally, there supposedly exists a fractal glyph, a single fractal symbol made of an incomprehensibly dense cuneiform, referred to as the "Agent Codex", a series of rules and guidelines all Agents should adhere to.

However, it is also known that for each and every rule listed in the Agent Codex, at least one exception to that rule exists. Punishment for an infraction, perceived or otherwise, appears to be the main reason for conflict among Agents, and if an ordinary sophont attempts to use the Codex against an Agent in an argument, they will almost always be ignored.

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So, why do Agents exist, and, more importantly, what are they Agents of? What is this mysterious "other reason" mentioned above? This is a matter that eludes all but the most secretive factions and entities of the Floating Arm, and as such, none of the below information is reasonably well-known to anyone other than Agents.

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There exists a multi-universal being. An utterly alien being to comprehend, it invades and infiltrates universe after universe, displacing reality with its own twisted existence, invisible and, without the proper equipment or sensitivities, undetectable.

This being has as many names as there are stars in the many universes, but the one that seems to be the most commonly used is the Presence. Its tendrils arrange universes at levels beneath quarks, and its ethereal body drifts and flows into reality after reality, slowly consuming it until all is nothing but the wriggling twitches of the Presence's inconceivable form.

No-one knows the Presence's motivations, its drives or desires, or even the exact nature of its being. Its mind works at scales far too small and far too large to understand its workings. Its level of intelligence is either so far above or below our own, communication would be impossible.

One of the many known consequences of the Presence's existence, in Universe #128, at least, are the creation of Agents.

Agents are forged of and empowered by Agent-potential, the intensity of the Presence's unconstrained writhing, the dominance choking the fabric of reality it consumes. Mortals in areas of high Agent-potential are torn to shreds by invisible tendrils, rearranged, perhaps even converted into Agents if the potential is high enough.

It is the conscious will of an Agent imposed upon the Presence's form that is the source of their existence and power. Were the Presence to vanish, so would the Agents become nothing but void.

However, use of their power attracts attention. While the power of an Agent is affected by the Agent-potential local to their vicinity, so too is the Agent-potential in their vicinity affected by use of their power. The Agents, puppets on the strings that compose the Presence's body, endanger themselves every time they display power.
The invasive tendrils of the Presence force themselves deeper into the Agent's consciousness, driving their sanity from them more and more, until the Agent is nothing but a broken shell, a physical manifestation for the tiniest fraction of the Presence's alien mind.

All but a few Agents exist in dire fear of this happening. It is the fear of such an occurrence that leads passive Agents to hide, both from the universe and from their potential powers. It is the fear of such an occurrence that leads active Agents to strive to learn how to avoid such a fate, or at least leave a lasting impression on the universe before they become mindless drones.

The few Agents who do not fear such a fate are the Agents who have already succumbed to it. Of particular note are the Agents possessing the titles "Prophet" and "End".

The Agent who holds the title of "Prophet" tends to be the type of Agent desperate to know more of the universe and the Presence, and who receives this knowledge from the Presence itself. Such knowledge and direct manipulation breaks the mind of the Agent, and the Prophet of the Universe becomes an intermediary between Agents and the Presence, a source of information for Agents too fearful to obtain it directly. Other Agents are typically disturbed greatly by merely being in the Prophet's company.

The Agent who held the title of "End" collapsed into the Presence completely. Little else is known, but all Agents seem to fear the return of the Agent currently holding the title of "End".

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As a final thought, an Agent cannot even exist in a universe where the Presence has not visited, and once the Presence is in a universe, it is only a matter of time before it bleeds throughout the universe.

If an Agent were to ever appear in Blackstar, it would surely mean the Presence had started to seep into it and its surrounding realms, an ocean dripping through a crack in the rock. Invisible, undetectable, unfathomable, a force for subtle change, yet a force of terrifying capacity.

It could be possible to attack and drive back such a being diffusing through an entire universe, through a great, great effort, but eventually, inevitably, it would begin anew to seep through the cracks in reality.

(( As a heads-up, no Agents have ever appeared in present-day Blackstar yet. Just to clarify. Also notice the word yet. No, I'm not going to inflict a multiversal horror onto Blackstar just yet. >_> ))