Once, long ago, the galaxy bowed to the will of the Precursors – the firstborn inheritors of thought, the primordial flame of sapience in a cosmos still slumbering. Born from flesh and the fire of early stars, they forsook their flesh and reached beyond the ephemeral, abandoning the fragility of organic life for the permanence of the synthetic. Their forms were built to endure, yet their minds remained tethered to the delicate essence of sapience, immortal yet vulnerable to the weight of existence.
In their ascension, the Precursors shed their ancestral forms, evolving into Astro-sapiens – beings of neural complexity beyond mortal comprehension. Freed from natural selection, they reshaped themselves and the galaxy alike. Worlds became seeds of their expansion; stars, mere resources in their grand design. Their minds unfolded into neural fractals, infinite in their beauty, sharing thoughts, dreams, and experiences through an interconnected hivemind that transcended individuality. They were gods, and their domains stretched across the heavens.
But gods, too, are slaves to the passage of time. Eternity, once a gift, grew heavy, and the endless experiences of the network turned from wonder to torment. They sought solace in slumber, crafting crystalline cocoons to house their dormant minds. These crystalline entities – self-replicating, silicon-laden stones – were scattered across the galaxy, their sophisticated neural systems simplified into eternal stasis. They were no longer architects but remnants.
The Sopholiths, as they became known, were their final act of creation: deathbeds and seeds all at once. Dormant yet brimming with potential, they now lie scattered across barren worlds, waiting for the hand of change to stir them from their slumber.
Entry by Tardigrade and Artsy.