Post by FreelanceZero on Apr 25, 2021 3:35:15 GMT
Zeroth Era - The Progenitors
In the very beginning, the Puppeteer race were a society of nomadic hunter-gatherers. Small and limited in number but in excess of intellect, the Puppeteers quickly discovered the ways of the world and spread to the four corners of their homeworld, conquering it as they did the elements. It wasn't long past the start of the bronze age when the Puppeteers began to discover their psionic potential--hence their current racial name. It was during the Iron Age that Osten descended upon the planet, gifting the fledgling people the gift of knowledge. Leveraging the Puppeteers' heavily religious beliefs, Osten usurped their religion and transformed into a philosophic and scientific utopia. From that point on, Puppeter development continued exponentially, well into the space age as their kind settled on planets throughout their known space.
Naturally, such an explosive development left their galactic community uneasy. A motion was passed by the eldest races of the time to subdue the young upstarts, which led to a one-sided war that the Puppeteers lost as they had left behind the destructive nature of war since Osten's arrival. This loss rekindled their desire to protect themselves using weapons of destruction, spurring the development of countless devastating creations and unyielding engines of might using the brilliant science and technology they had horded until now. A second motion was passed by the intergalactic community to quell the upstart that hadn't learnt from the previous example, except this time there would be no next time.
This was the first time the Puppeteers truly used the word 'genocide' as they nearly rid the entire galaxy of non-Puppeteer spaceflight-capable life. Their domination was total and unyielding, bitter and thirsty for vengeance for past injustices. Pleas of surrender were ignored, attempts at diplomacy were erased. The few who survived were races too timid and frightened to dare threaten the Puppeteer war machine. But, after settling their home galaxy as they did their homeworld, the Puppeteers had mellowed out once more as their minds turned to further expanses. However, other galaxies were far too distant for traditional ships to cross, and trans-galactic technologies had yet to be developed. Another method was needed.
First Era - The First Worldship (First Golden Age)
Several hundred ideas were put forward to expand out of the Puppeteers' native galaxy, spurred on by wanderlust and increasing population density. Ideas included cryosleep colony ships to dimensional folding techniques, but it was ultimately decided upon by an overwhelming amount of their kind on a massive ship, capable of sustaining itself both in deep space and stellar space. Every shipyard that could produce such a gigantic craft began almost immediately as the call went out, all intent on being the very first to build such a mighty vessel. In the end, the shipyard that launched the first Worldship, the Intrepid Void, was lost to time.
However, many more appeared on the tail of the Intrepid Void. Amongst the newly built Worldships was the City of the Cosmos, the third Worldship to be launched in Puppeteer history. In the Fourth Era, this ship was later converted to become part of a Dyson Sphere.
With these new Worldships in production, the Puppeteer population soared as these massive ships made way for the uncharted frontiers, spreading the Puppeteer name to galaxies far beyond their own. This age of prosperity was not to end for eons.
Second Era - The Great Scattering (First Fall)
However, all universes were to end in some form or another. On the edge of discovering one of the 'true forms' of Dark Matter, it suddenly came to a start to the entire race that their universe has expanded so much that the very fabric of space-time had begun to rupture. This was not the heat-death or the big crunch the Puppeteer's greatest minds had predicted, and the end of their home universe came billions of years too early than their predicted models--and far too soon for the Puppeteers to evacuate more than a fraction of their people.
All Worldships, after picking up as many refugees as possible, all charted course out of their universe using experimental wormhole drives. It was never determined exactly how many Puppeteer lives were lost as a result of the abrupt collapse of the universe. But, as a result of the experimental technology involved as well as numerous methods to tune the drives themselves, the Puppeteer race ended up becoming scattered across an immeasurable amount of time and space.
Though relatively few Worldships were lost during this era, the lack of infrastructure and direct communications with several Worldships caused a massive dispersion of ideologies and research. Now, each Worldship was reliant on itself for all of its needs, be it shelter, security, or supplies. This age started the trend of the city-state Puppeteer politics that endure to this day.
Though Osten himself had the means to contact all of the Worldships (and indeed, that's what he did during this time), the Puppeteers were adamant in their ways to find a solution. With newer and newer interdimensional technology being introduced, most Worldships tried their hands at reconnecting with their lost brethren from across spacetime. Some were successful; others, considerably less so. In the end, it was found prudent to simply ask Osten for help, and once the Worldships reconnected with one another and begun to compare notes, it set the stage for a grand renaissance that would consume the multiverse, both for better and for much, much worse.
Fourth Era - The Answer to Entropy (Second Golden Age)
Starting with the first Assembly of the highest Adeptus across all of the Worldships, the Second Golden Age was both the most prosperous and long-lasting of all the Puppeteers' ages; the Second Golden Age spans an estimated 41% of all Puppeteer history. While rather subtle at first, the Second Golden Age was punctuated with many new discoveries and even more inventions that pushed the Puppeteers to the levels that only gods had reached before.
Everything from the universal Self Containment Suit to the massive Sentient Suns that both powered and controlled their titanic Dyson Spheres, every pinnacle and dream that had been envisioned before were aspired and surpassed during the Second Golden Age. The Gestalt Theory provided immortality that allowed people to cheat physical death and change bodies on a whim. Singularities were harnessed for their power and might to fuel the ever-expanding Puppeteer fleets. Localized vacuum decay bombs and hyper-powerful resonance wave cannons were utilized to keep any who dare challenge Puppeteer power in check, lest the trespasser be erased from existance. Even many of the gods themselves fell before Puppeteer might in the form of Reality Anchors, devices tailored to allow the Puppeteers to 'anchor' anything or anywhere they wish to their rules; Their field of play. Suddenly, no longer were the Puppeteers bound to even the rules of reality, and found themselves with a colossal, endless sandbox to play in with nearly nothing to challenge them.
The discovery of Iryphium, one of the many forms of Dark Matter, answered countless questions on the nature of reality. The very manifestation of entropy in quasi-physical form, suddenly the Puppeteers had the perfect solution to the question of heat-death. With experimentation came great fruits of result, as it was discovered that it was possible to manipulate Iryphium to become anything the Puppeteers wished it to become. It was the penultimate miracle matter. With this magical material, no longer were the Puppeteers bound to the laws of reality; now they had the tools to freely rewrite it on a local scale. Some even openly applied the matter to themselves in order to better use its peculiar properties.
Little did they know, this was the horn that sounded the death kneel of the Puppeteers as an empire.
Fifth Era - The War of Heavens (Second Fall)
Though Iryphium naturally occurred in the multiverse, the chances of it encountering solid matter to absorb was nearly nil before it burned itself out. That is, until the Puppeteers had discovered it.
Iryphium turned out to be ultimately uncontrollable in any of its forms, and the Puppeteers in their hubris, complacency and hedonism aided its spread throughout time and space. At this point, even military warships had instant teleportation systems that connected Worldship to Worldship. To Dyson Spheres and Protectorates. It was the perfect network for a pathogen to exploit and spread its filth across existence, without boundary or pause. All it took was one mistake. One spark.
All of this was recorded by Osten as a reminder to the Puppeteers' failures. To their sins and the grand price paid for their deviancy.
That mistake came when a single unreported case of Iryphium ran rampant on a lone Worldship. By the time Puppeteer forces were mobilized to engage it locally, it had spread out of control like wildfire. First responders sent in came out shambling zombies, conscious but as walking corpses desperately seeking a remedy to their torture. Tanks brought to bear against this new enemy were mutated into hideous aberrations, almost fused into one being. Ships that strayed too close to bombard the unchecked threat were bombarded in turn, and assimilated. Soon, the entire Worldship had fallen, with none close enough to immediately respond to this disaster.
The already-horrific situation quickly took a turn for the worse. Teleportation systems across entire fleets were activated as plagued individuals crashed into unprepared crewmen. Entire Worldship fleets were assimilated and turned against their former brethren. World after world was lost to the tide. And, as the Plague grew, so did its relative intelligence, though it would be difficult to measure. When teleporter relays were shut off, reincarnation bays full of insane, corrupted individuals strewed about chaos and sabotage. When reincarnation bays were destroyed by force, false flag refugees were used to sneak in the Plagued. When the order was given to spare no quarter and enact a scorched earth retreat, the Plagued hardened its infected and gave chase.
In this war, even Osten had to bring to bear his greatest and most powerful assets to prevent the collapse of the Multiverse, or worse--its total consumption. In the end, the Puppeteers hung by a thread but narrowly managed to avoid total extinction and finished the extermination of this threat, but at unparalleled cost. Countless souls had been extinguished just to try and keep the Plagued in check. The former glories of the Puppeteers layed destroyed or were erased from existence. Billions of fleets had to hastily downgrade themselves to try and hide themselves from the coming tide.
In the end, the Puppeteers had no final estimate on the number of casualties that had been inflicted during the War of Heavens. All that mattered to them at this point was that they had lost more than they could ever hope to replace. Thus was how Iryphium was dubbed a new name: The Nightmare Plague.
Sixth Era - Broken Recovery(Second Dark Age)
Crushed, trodden upon and almost utterly destroyed, but ultimately still alive, the Puppeteers worked on rebounding themselves. Though the War of Heavens cost them very nearly everything, they had succeeded in the impossible. They were still alive. There was still a chance of a future.
However, rebuilding from the ashes was a monumental task. In the War, countless archives were lost and those that survived were often corrupted by the scorched earth policies enacted. Now, the Puppeteers had the unenviable task of pushing buttons on a machine whose function had nearly been forgotten and hope that it doesn't kill everyone on the ship. Experiments were enacted. Databanks were recovered from the many ruins that still remained. Explorers bravely trekked into the new unknown, that which had not been ever chartered before.
Slowly but surely the Puppeteers regained what had been lost. But even then, it was only fragments of a dream long shattered by the reality of the world around them. Now they understood that even the gods had their limits for a reason, and this was the price paid for ignoring those limits.
Seventh Era - Renaissance (Third Golden Age)
The Third Golden Age was a humble era if it was to be compared to the Second Golden Age. While there were many wonders and even more spectacular devices much like eras bygone, it was still an attestation to the tenacity and brilliance of the Puppeteer race. Despite the grievous scars inflicted, they healed over as new skin made way. For the Puppeteers, this was the proof that they were not irrelevant. That despite all of the barriers and walls thrown at them, that they were still competitive and were not going to let some young upstart overtake them, let alone commit the same mistakes that the Puppeteers themselves had once made.
The Puppeteers expanded, grew, and thrived. Not as much as before as they modulated themselves, but more than could be imagined of the race that took the worst of it during the War of Heavens. However, the old scars still itched when the ancient race gazed upon some of the younglings, and experiments with the Nightmare Plague were dissuaded by example, historical records, and if needed be, unrestrained lethal force.
Eighth Era - The Great Debacle (Third Fall)
Despite the glory of the rebounding Puppeteers in the Third Golden Age, it became clear that their long, arduous history was taking a toll on them. Precursor traditions no longer had meaning. Ancient edicts never retracted plagued many who lacked lateral thinking. Old, tried-and-true methods became the status quo. Finally, the Puppeteers were showing their true age, and in a grotesque cultural fashion. Many Puppeteers regressed into single-minded thinkings, forgetting the hard-earned lessons of their ancestors. Technology stagnated as did their minds.
What sparked the Great Debacle was what would otherwise be a laughably mundane philosophical argument in the distant past, the question of whether or not the Puppeteers should interfere with the development of younger races or merely let them be and allow them to discover the harsh lessons on their own. This debate quickly grew heated between two parties, coined the 'Downworlders' for those who wished to interact with the young races, and the 'Enlightened', who believed that they should find their own way and intervention would ultimately be harmful.
It is unknown who fired the first shot but the result is undeniable; thirty years later, only a small amount of the Worldships remained from thirty years ago, with many more who sought to distance themselves from the infighting having gone missing. When Osten returned and set the situation straight he was, obviously, a whole lot less than thrilled. If it weren't for the efforts of several top Adepts, it is not impossible to imagine that the god may have simply left the Puppeteers to decay.
However, that is not the situation, as clearly shown by the modern day.
Ninth Era - Aeonic Remnants (Third Dark Age)
Today, the Puppeteers are once more sorting through the remains of their ruins, salvaging what is useful and what is not. This time, however, Osten has made it a point to sabotage the schematics of old, as it would force the Puppeteers to understand the abilities and implications of such technology before it is ever employed. However, thanks to Adeptus Azun, a new vision is rising; to learn from others and cease the silly protocols, and simply doing what should be natural. Interact, learn, grow.
A brief history of the Puppeteer race. They are venerable ancients with innumerable scars and stories to share--for those who can earn their respect and heed their words. Otherwise, they largely distance themselves with "petty matters" of politics or wealth.
"I bear seeds of knowledge and learning. Sow them, nurture them, and feast upon their fruits, for the stars above are your rightful domain." -Osten, First Contact with the Puppeteers.
In the very beginning, the Puppeteer race were a society of nomadic hunter-gatherers. Small and limited in number but in excess of intellect, the Puppeteers quickly discovered the ways of the world and spread to the four corners of their homeworld, conquering it as they did the elements. It wasn't long past the start of the bronze age when the Puppeteers began to discover their psionic potential--hence their current racial name. It was during the Iron Age that Osten descended upon the planet, gifting the fledgling people the gift of knowledge. Leveraging the Puppeteers' heavily religious beliefs, Osten usurped their religion and transformed into a philosophic and scientific utopia. From that point on, Puppeter development continued exponentially, well into the space age as their kind settled on planets throughout their known space.
Naturally, such an explosive development left their galactic community uneasy. A motion was passed by the eldest races of the time to subdue the young upstarts, which led to a one-sided war that the Puppeteers lost as they had left behind the destructive nature of war since Osten's arrival. This loss rekindled their desire to protect themselves using weapons of destruction, spurring the development of countless devastating creations and unyielding engines of might using the brilliant science and technology they had horded until now. A second motion was passed by the intergalactic community to quell the upstart that hadn't learnt from the previous example, except this time there would be no next time.
This was the first time the Puppeteers truly used the word 'genocide' as they nearly rid the entire galaxy of non-Puppeteer spaceflight-capable life. Their domination was total and unyielding, bitter and thirsty for vengeance for past injustices. Pleas of surrender were ignored, attempts at diplomacy were erased. The few who survived were races too timid and frightened to dare threaten the Puppeteer war machine. But, after settling their home galaxy as they did their homeworld, the Puppeteers had mellowed out once more as their minds turned to further expanses. However, other galaxies were far too distant for traditional ships to cross, and trans-galactic technologies had yet to be developed. Another method was needed.
First Era - The First Worldship (First Golden Age)
"No longer shall our kind be bound to the terrestrial soil of our home galaxy. With the launch of our first Leviathan-class Worldship, the Intrepid Void, I declare the founding of our Nomadic brethren!" -Partial First Era Announcement Transcript.
Several hundred ideas were put forward to expand out of the Puppeteers' native galaxy, spurred on by wanderlust and increasing population density. Ideas included cryosleep colony ships to dimensional folding techniques, but it was ultimately decided upon by an overwhelming amount of their kind on a massive ship, capable of sustaining itself both in deep space and stellar space. Every shipyard that could produce such a gigantic craft began almost immediately as the call went out, all intent on being the very first to build such a mighty vessel. In the end, the shipyard that launched the first Worldship, the Intrepid Void, was lost to time.
However, many more appeared on the tail of the Intrepid Void. Amongst the newly built Worldships was the City of the Cosmos, the third Worldship to be launched in Puppeteer history. In the Fourth Era, this ship was later converted to become part of a Dyson Sphere.
With these new Worldships in production, the Puppeteer population soared as these massive ships made way for the uncharted frontiers, spreading the Puppeteer name to galaxies far beyond their own. This age of prosperity was not to end for eons.
Second Era - The Great Scattering (First Fall)
"All hands report to security alert one. Code Zero Zero Zero Apocrypha. We are facing our universe's end. Experimental wormhole to maximum--we must leave our home." -Last transmission of Lambaste of Hubris before escaping the collapse of the Puppeteer home universe.
However, all universes were to end in some form or another. On the edge of discovering one of the 'true forms' of Dark Matter, it suddenly came to a start to the entire race that their universe has expanded so much that the very fabric of space-time had begun to rupture. This was not the heat-death or the big crunch the Puppeteer's greatest minds had predicted, and the end of their home universe came billions of years too early than their predicted models--and far too soon for the Puppeteers to evacuate more than a fraction of their people.
All Worldships, after picking up as many refugees as possible, all charted course out of their universe using experimental wormhole drives. It was never determined exactly how many Puppeteer lives were lost as a result of the abrupt collapse of the universe. But, as a result of the experimental technology involved as well as numerous methods to tune the drives themselves, the Puppeteer race ended up becoming scattered across an immeasurable amount of time and space.
Third Era - United Yet Divided (First Dark Age)
"To anyone that can hear this transmission, the Associate has designated universe Six Seven Zero as rendezvous point Sigmund. To anyone that can hear this..." -Transmission beacon lost to time and space.
Though relatively few Worldships were lost during this era, the lack of infrastructure and direct communications with several Worldships caused a massive dispersion of ideologies and research. Now, each Worldship was reliant on itself for all of its needs, be it shelter, security, or supplies. This age started the trend of the city-state Puppeteer politics that endure to this day.
Though Osten himself had the means to contact all of the Worldships (and indeed, that's what he did during this time), the Puppeteers were adamant in their ways to find a solution. With newer and newer interdimensional technology being introduced, most Worldships tried their hands at reconnecting with their lost brethren from across spacetime. Some were successful; others, considerably less so. In the end, it was found prudent to simply ask Osten for help, and once the Worldships reconnected with one another and begun to compare notes, it set the stage for a grand renaissance that would consume the multiverse, both for better and for much, much worse.
Fourth Era - The Answer to Entropy (Second Golden Age)
"Dangerous but wonderful; This new dark matter substance we dub Iryphium is a versatile tool--it would be easier to count what it can't do!" -Log of an unknown Adeptus, upon first discovery of what would later be known as the Nightmare Plague.
Starting with the first Assembly of the highest Adeptus across all of the Worldships, the Second Golden Age was both the most prosperous and long-lasting of all the Puppeteers' ages; the Second Golden Age spans an estimated 41% of all Puppeteer history. While rather subtle at first, the Second Golden Age was punctuated with many new discoveries and even more inventions that pushed the Puppeteers to the levels that only gods had reached before.
Everything from the universal Self Containment Suit to the massive Sentient Suns that both powered and controlled their titanic Dyson Spheres, every pinnacle and dream that had been envisioned before were aspired and surpassed during the Second Golden Age. The Gestalt Theory provided immortality that allowed people to cheat physical death and change bodies on a whim. Singularities were harnessed for their power and might to fuel the ever-expanding Puppeteer fleets. Localized vacuum decay bombs and hyper-powerful resonance wave cannons were utilized to keep any who dare challenge Puppeteer power in check, lest the trespasser be erased from existance. Even many of the gods themselves fell before Puppeteer might in the form of Reality Anchors, devices tailored to allow the Puppeteers to 'anchor' anything or anywhere they wish to their rules; Their field of play. Suddenly, no longer were the Puppeteers bound to even the rules of reality, and found themselves with a colossal, endless sandbox to play in with nearly nothing to challenge them.
The discovery of Iryphium, one of the many forms of Dark Matter, answered countless questions on the nature of reality. The very manifestation of entropy in quasi-physical form, suddenly the Puppeteers had the perfect solution to the question of heat-death. With experimentation came great fruits of result, as it was discovered that it was possible to manipulate Iryphium to become anything the Puppeteers wished it to become. It was the penultimate miracle matter. With this magical material, no longer were the Puppeteers bound to the laws of reality; now they had the tools to freely rewrite it on a local scale. Some even openly applied the matter to themselves in order to better use its peculiar properties.
Little did they know, this was the horn that sounded the death kneel of the Puppeteers as an empire.
Fifth Era - The War of Heavens (Second Fall)
"To every man, woman and child hearing this broadcast, this is a total call to arms against those who have been Plagued. Every rifle...every cannon...everything that can be fired at the Plagued forces is one more tiny gap between our victory and our total defeat. The Puppeteer Peacekeeping Forces no longer hold the capacity to combat the Plague on all fronts... we are requesting immediate assistance!" -Unknown Broadcast from Puppeteer-controlled peacekeeping space.
Though Iryphium naturally occurred in the multiverse, the chances of it encountering solid matter to absorb was nearly nil before it burned itself out. That is, until the Puppeteers had discovered it.
Iryphium turned out to be ultimately uncontrollable in any of its forms, and the Puppeteers in their hubris, complacency and hedonism aided its spread throughout time and space. At this point, even military warships had instant teleportation systems that connected Worldship to Worldship. To Dyson Spheres and Protectorates. It was the perfect network for a pathogen to exploit and spread its filth across existence, without boundary or pause. All it took was one mistake. One spark.
All of this was recorded by Osten as a reminder to the Puppeteers' failures. To their sins and the grand price paid for their deviancy.
That mistake came when a single unreported case of Iryphium ran rampant on a lone Worldship. By the time Puppeteer forces were mobilized to engage it locally, it had spread out of control like wildfire. First responders sent in came out shambling zombies, conscious but as walking corpses desperately seeking a remedy to their torture. Tanks brought to bear against this new enemy were mutated into hideous aberrations, almost fused into one being. Ships that strayed too close to bombard the unchecked threat were bombarded in turn, and assimilated. Soon, the entire Worldship had fallen, with none close enough to immediately respond to this disaster.
The already-horrific situation quickly took a turn for the worse. Teleportation systems across entire fleets were activated as plagued individuals crashed into unprepared crewmen. Entire Worldship fleets were assimilated and turned against their former brethren. World after world was lost to the tide. And, as the Plague grew, so did its relative intelligence, though it would be difficult to measure. When teleporter relays were shut off, reincarnation bays full of insane, corrupted individuals strewed about chaos and sabotage. When reincarnation bays were destroyed by force, false flag refugees were used to sneak in the Plagued. When the order was given to spare no quarter and enact a scorched earth retreat, the Plagued hardened its infected and gave chase.
In this war, even Osten had to bring to bear his greatest and most powerful assets to prevent the collapse of the Multiverse, or worse--its total consumption. In the end, the Puppeteers hung by a thread but narrowly managed to avoid total extinction and finished the extermination of this threat, but at unparalleled cost. Countless souls had been extinguished just to try and keep the Plagued in check. The former glories of the Puppeteers layed destroyed or were erased from existence. Billions of fleets had to hastily downgrade themselves to try and hide themselves from the coming tide.
In the end, the Puppeteers had no final estimate on the number of casualties that had been inflicted during the War of Heavens. All that mattered to them at this point was that they had lost more than they could ever hope to replace. Thus was how Iryphium was dubbed a new name: The Nightmare Plague.
Sixth Era - Broken Recovery(Second Dark Age)
"We have survived. We will rebuild. We shall reclaim. We are alive." -Unknown motto.
Crushed, trodden upon and almost utterly destroyed, but ultimately still alive, the Puppeteers worked on rebounding themselves. Though the War of Heavens cost them very nearly everything, they had succeeded in the impossible. They were still alive. There was still a chance of a future.
However, rebuilding from the ashes was a monumental task. In the War, countless archives were lost and those that survived were often corrupted by the scorched earth policies enacted. Now, the Puppeteers had the unenviable task of pushing buttons on a machine whose function had nearly been forgotten and hope that it doesn't kill everyone on the ship. Experiments were enacted. Databanks were recovered from the many ruins that still remained. Explorers bravely trekked into the new unknown, that which had not been ever chartered before.
Slowly but surely the Puppeteers regained what had been lost. But even then, it was only fragments of a dream long shattered by the reality of the world around them. Now they understood that even the gods had their limits for a reason, and this was the price paid for ignoring those limits.
Seventh Era - Renaissance (Third Golden Age)
"Old ways once forgotten have unravelled themselves once more. We are blessed to inherit the foresight of our ancestors." -Unknown Adeptus remarking on the rediscovery of 'new' technology.
The Third Golden Age was a humble era if it was to be compared to the Second Golden Age. While there were many wonders and even more spectacular devices much like eras bygone, it was still an attestation to the tenacity and brilliance of the Puppeteer race. Despite the grievous scars inflicted, they healed over as new skin made way. For the Puppeteers, this was the proof that they were not irrelevant. That despite all of the barriers and walls thrown at them, that they were still competitive and were not going to let some young upstart overtake them, let alone commit the same mistakes that the Puppeteers themselves had once made.
The Puppeteers expanded, grew, and thrived. Not as much as before as they modulated themselves, but more than could be imagined of the race that took the worst of it during the War of Heavens. However, the old scars still itched when the ancient race gazed upon some of the younglings, and experiments with the Nightmare Plague were dissuaded by example, historical records, and if needed be, unrestrained lethal force.
Eighth Era - The Great Debacle (Third Fall)
"I leave you alone for thirty years to tend to my own business and what do I find on my return? Perhaps I should've left you all to slay your bretheran to the last." -Osten, upon his return to the situation.
Despite the glory of the rebounding Puppeteers in the Third Golden Age, it became clear that their long, arduous history was taking a toll on them. Precursor traditions no longer had meaning. Ancient edicts never retracted plagued many who lacked lateral thinking. Old, tried-and-true methods became the status quo. Finally, the Puppeteers were showing their true age, and in a grotesque cultural fashion. Many Puppeteers regressed into single-minded thinkings, forgetting the hard-earned lessons of their ancestors. Technology stagnated as did their minds.
What sparked the Great Debacle was what would otherwise be a laughably mundane philosophical argument in the distant past, the question of whether or not the Puppeteers should interfere with the development of younger races or merely let them be and allow them to discover the harsh lessons on their own. This debate quickly grew heated between two parties, coined the 'Downworlders' for those who wished to interact with the young races, and the 'Enlightened', who believed that they should find their own way and intervention would ultimately be harmful.
It is unknown who fired the first shot but the result is undeniable; thirty years later, only a small amount of the Worldships remained from thirty years ago, with many more who sought to distance themselves from the infighting having gone missing. When Osten returned and set the situation straight he was, obviously, a whole lot less than thrilled. If it weren't for the efforts of several top Adepts, it is not impossible to imagine that the god may have simply left the Puppeteers to decay.
However, that is not the situation, as clearly shown by the modern day.
Ninth Era - Aeonic Remnants (Third Dark Age)
"Perhaps it would be prudent to lean less on the glory of our forefathers, and instead pave a new path to our new ascension." -Adeptus Azun, at a conference between millions of Adeptus.
Today, the Puppeteers are once more sorting through the remains of their ruins, salvaging what is useful and what is not. This time, however, Osten has made it a point to sabotage the schematics of old, as it would force the Puppeteers to understand the abilities and implications of such technology before it is ever employed. However, thanks to Adeptus Azun, a new vision is rising; to learn from others and cease the silly protocols, and simply doing what should be natural. Interact, learn, grow.
The ideal is still in its budding stages, but is already showing progress. There is resistance, but less so after Osten officially endorsed it. Only time will tell to see how such a new doctrine will fare in this brave new world.
A brief history of the Puppeteer race. They are venerable ancients with innumerable scars and stories to share--for those who can earn their respect and heed their words. Otherwise, they largely distance themselves with "petty matters" of politics or wealth.