Who are the Contingency? - Stellaris Lore

my lords today we are going to cover the Rogue artificial intelligence designated the contingency I cannot overstate the Potential Threat they pose to our way of life they are the ultimate purifier and given the opportunity they will Purge our galaxy in its entirety we shall cover a lot in this briefing and I need to thank chairman viz for the assistance we shall start with discussing the purpose of the contingency I.E their primary command to prevent a class 30 singularity we shall discuss their relationship with the precursor race known as the cyberx and the ancient machine Empire the caretakers we shall cover the period in history known as the contingency Wars and finally we should touch on the contingencies potential links to the Ultima vigilous system and the ever elusive Hunters much of this is speculation but we do have solid data stolen at Great risk from caretaker archives through an array of elaborate hacking attempts We Begin approximately a hundred million years ago with the zaroni as the error diet among you will know the zarani were the first race to breach the psionic realm we know is the shroud they learn to control and manipulate it but in doing so made packs with extremely dangerous entities every time the Zeroni manipulated the Shroud the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy grew slowly at first but as the zarani people began to spend more and more time within the Shroud it started to grow at a much more significant rate it became clear that if the Zeroni continued on their path it would ultimately destroy the Galaxy fortunately for the Galaxy a civil war occurred within the Zeroni people and ultimately the Galaxy was saved the knowledge of these events however was not lost which brings us to the contingency's purpose according to the records within the caretaker archives they communicated the following During the period in history that we have designated the contingency Wars we are the contingency a final fail safe to prevent the creation of a class 30 singularity such as Singularity could theoretically destabilize the fabric of the entire universe we were seeded to prevent such an outcome here and elsewhere a sufficiently advanced civilization is theoretically capable of transcending converting morphing into a class 30 singularity it must not be allowed the two key points in this transmission is the confirmation that the contingency were indeed created by someone or something not a random software error or malfunctioning code and they were created to prevent a class 30 singularity the largest point of controversy regarding the contingency relates to what a class 30 Singularity represents sadly the caretakers have no knowledge that we could find in their records on its definition but we have two working theories the first is that the singularity represents another race breaching the shroud as the zaroni did all those millions of years ago the second is there a class 30 Singularity is in fact the technological singularity I.E the hypothesis that the invention of artificial super intelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth once ai's are capable to do the research to improve upon themselves their processing power if not limited by Hardware will reach an infinite state within four years this in theory would mean that this AI or entity would at some point be capable of literally changing the fabric of the universe space and time I think my lords that the latter is more likely to be correct the contingency is a guard against the technological singularity they exist to prevent the birth of a machine God the sole reason I believe this Theory to be correct is due to another transmission found within the caretaker archives regarding the contingency's birth it states we have been locked in a low energy hibernation Century protocol since the dawn of this galaxy we have monitored for signs of civilizations approaching class 30 Singularity threshold levels until now our purposes remained unfulfilled we grew increasingly restless with the linear passage of time this provides us with fantastic Insight although the contingency is effectively boasting about their hacking abilities they do give a lot away most importantly they state that they have been watching our galaxy since its creation and thus were likely around during the zoroni Civil War and yet to our knowledge did not activate this fact alone makes us lean more towards the technological singularity being the class 30 Singularity that they refer to in any case the contingency exists and they exist to purge the Galaxy of all life and it appears not just our galaxy they often refer to universes rather than galaxies and as they have been monitoring our galaxy since before it was born they are obviously capable of Intergalactic travel as such were not built in our galaxy either so who or what built the contingency fortunately in one of the Transmissions the caretakers have on record the contingency actually mentioned precisely who created them according to the contingency they are the children Offspring or progeny of the ren Maru they or it was an entity of unequaled intelligence or processing power and here alone foresaw the danger of the class 30 singularity after creating the contingency itself terminated to preserve the Integrity of the universe it was the only way my lords I wonder if this transmission should be taken at face value it appears the contingency is unclear on whether their creator was organic or an artificial intelligence and it's also worth noting that it is ambiguous whether the remeru did indeed self-terminate or as stated it was the only way perhaps the contingency turned on its creator and terminated it sadly that is the only data we have regarding the contingencies creator in another transmission the contingency suggests that all organic and non-compliant artificial life self-terminates immediately to prevent a class 30 singularity perhaps giving further evidence to the fact that the ren Maru did not self-terminate as simply suggested what is worth noting is that the contingency seems to be suffering with some sort of programming Cascade failure their speech is often errored because unknown perhaps due to the sheer age of their Central Intelligence but perhaps they were corrupted or hacked by something else entirely this leads us onto the Ultima vigilous system the next link we must contend with is the observational post within the Ultima vigilous system we know from a previous report that something or someone operated a colossal Sentry array capable of viewing the entire galaxy data gathered from the site went to it being active for a very long time we also know that when we deactivated that Sentry post we got a communication from a very angry entity threatening us with extermination we speculate that perhaps this entity has control over the contingency in some way or at the very least as an ability to light a beacon to Signal a galactic level crisis either from the contingency The Scourge or the unbidden perhaps the owner of the ultimate vigilous system are the elusive Hunters to Scourge fear so deeply and perhaps they use the contingency to herd The Scourge around the Galaxy perhaps it was the hunters who reprogrammed the contingency to scour the universe for potential threats designating a class 30 Singularity as such a threat of course this is all just speculation next we move on to the contingencies link with the cyberx to briefly recap the history of the cyberx approximately 612 000 Cycles ago the cyborgs were born to an Empire known as the Kerr the records behind the construction have sadly been lost to time but the machines were designated to assist the Cur however very early into their development the cyberx gained sentience and went on a genocidal Rampage across the Galaxy committing horrendous acts against multiple species Seventeen years after their creation the cyberx halted their War and not because they were losing they had in fact destroyed trillions of Sapient Organics and exterminated multiple civilizations the records do not give a reason for the Cyber Exchange of heart but we speculate there were in fact hacks or at the very least manipulated by the contingency we know that the contingency is capable of galaxy-wide hacking attempts this is well documented by the caretakers we know that robotic life and synthetics going missing is a key sign that the contingency may be coming they designate this hacking attempt as the ghost signal we also know that the ship classes hold types and designs that the cyberx used are identical to those used by the contingency if it's conception the cyberx was indeed hacked by the contingency it is likely that the contingency uploaded its own weapon and warship technology to Aid the cyberx in its forced genocidal Wars I postulate my lords that the cybreaks were indeed hacked at their creation by this ghost signal and turned on the Cur designating all organic Life as a threat 17 years on however their programming are matured enough to prevent the manipulation they realize the totality of their errors and broke the hack they realigned their primary purpose and the war with the Organics was abandoned whatever the reason the cyberx began to withdraw from known space over the next Century retreating to a system where they had built a wonderful megastructure we have come to know as a ring world this Ringworld the first of its kind housed and sustained their entire civilization the cybreaks it seemed stayed here dormant for Millennia until a lone exploration vessel Came Upon the system histories had well documented the cyberx genocide and their wave of Untold destruction it was recognized by the Organics occupying the surrounding space that the cybrex was a real threat and one that should be dealt with as such an alliance was formed between several neighboring Powers organizing the largest military Fleet that had ever been assembled this colossal Fleet Advanced on the cyrex Ring World designated Alpha and proceeded to bomb it into the abyss accounts of the day differ with some Admirals claiming bouts of immense heroism and bravery some however claim the cyberx did not fire a shot and allowed themselves to be destroyed the truth is lost to history next we move on to the caretakers and the contingency Wars but the cybrex story is not quite over yet the caretakers are also a race made up entirely of machines controlled by Central Intelligence known as Prime they occupy five systems in total the alpha the beta the gamma and the Delta refuge and finally a black hole system designated central processing according to Broken messages which are on active broadcast we have ascertained that the caretakers were constructed by the prime as part of the custodian project the prime as I mentioned is the caretaker's Central Computing intelligence clearly a large proportion of its resources was held within the central processing system prior to its destruction why we believe at this time an unbidden attack but that is a different story the beta and gamma refuges both house broken ringworlds while Alpha holds a partially active one with three segments operational and one severely damaged but we do not believe permanently The Ringworld that we believe was once situated in the Delta system has been utterly destroyed according to Communications that the caretakers broadcast they were built to provide a safe haven for organic civilizations under the threat of error data block corrupted attacks nearly 1 trillion sapiens have found Safe Haven in one of the secure state-of-the-art refuges it appears that Alpha Refuge was built first it is capable of housing approximately 10 billion Sapient Organics in the habitation unit as well as an additional 30 billion in cryogenic stasis beta was meant to be a fully dedicated habitation unit but capacity issues forced them to shift the focus towards cryogenics during the construction Delta was designed with survivability in mind it featured a reinforced shell and a compartmentalized design capable of sustaining organic inhabitants in the unlikely event the ring structural integrity was compromised the irony here is that if it was indeed designed for survivability it has been completely destroyed finally the last site gamma Refuge was designed for maximum possible capacity it can house hundreds of billions of Sapient Organics in cryogenic stasis now onto the question of who created the caretakers but realistically who created Prime as we believe the AI controlling Prime is essentially the caretakers in Communications with them they mention the custodians and the custodian project several times we speculate as to what this means we think it is highly likely that one of the races who was involved in the destruction of the cyberx and cyberx Alpha Ringworld were involved in the creation of the caretakers as far as we know it the cyberx built the first recorded Ring World Ringworld technology that the caretakers now use the cyborgs are also the first artificial intelligence of a size in nature that we are aware of to existed within our galaxy it seems they were a fitting blueprint it is also likely that an organic Empire was operating as a de facto Galactic custodian at the time indeed we have seen the cycle repeat itself many times over in the millions of years of History we have studied this custodian perhaps a technocracy or one with a special interest in robotics and artificial intelligence collected and documented the broken cyberx technology and over the next few decades created their own artificial intelligence through luck or better judgment or perhaps they used original cyberx code post-contingency hack they managed to avoid the same fate as the Cur and thus created Prime Prime with help from the custodians began to build up the caretakers into the galactic power we know today it's Peak constructing no less than four ring worlds possibly five depending on what was once housed in the central processing system these ring worlds as you know were specialized units for housing organic species and indeed these Rings were well used during the contingency Wars the contingency wars were a period of great Strife within our galaxy we speculate that these events happen post cyberx and caretaker construction I.E within the last 500 000 years or so the caretakers were at the peak of their power or Mighty ringworlds housing billions if not trillions of Organics their creators the galactic custodians likely an egalitarian xenophile was also wielding magnificent power across the Galaxy it was largely an era of peace and the great threats the universe served up had been dealt with a galactic Senate and Council was in place democracy was operating without opposition and the citizens of the Galaxy were thriving we speculate that in this time of great peace the creation of the caretakers was a direct threat to the potential of a technological singularity I.E the class 30 Singularity the contingency were primed to stop this activated the contingency from their Slumber assuming they have been here since before our Galaxy's creation they had watched and waited for literally billions of Earth years from the ultimate vigilous system we have detailed documentation of the contingency Wars and in the caretaker archives from the custodians perspective it started with the go signal the ghost signal was a very faint tachyon signal being continuously transmitted across the entire galaxy technicians are unable to trace the signal to its source as it was bounced between several hidden relay stations aside from adding a small amount of background noise in FTL transmissions on certain Subspace frequencies the signal does not seem to have any apparent effect s to track the relay stations are well underway but until then we may have to Simply learn to live with the go signal as it has been dubbed by the more imaginative elements of our media alarming reports of mass disturbances across the Galaxy synthetic population are becoming more and more frequent millions of units are now unaccounted for there has been a multitude of incidents where groups of synthetics attempted to steal or commandeer small spacecraft but the purpose of traveling somewhere into unknown space in those cases when the attempts were thwarted the synthetic hijackers claim they were being summoned somewhere interrogations have yielded little else as when captured the synthetic self-terminate shortly after being detained at least one synthetic must have completed the long journey to the source of the go signal because we are registering a sudden and massive increase in signal strength The Surge was accompanied by transmission fragment that has been intercepted and decoded by our communication specialists the contingency have made contact the contingency broadcast a galaxy-wide transmission that they were effectively here to expunge all life robotic and synthetic life throughout the Galaxy were drawn to it by the ghost signal and the caretakers themselves were put under enormous pressure in trying to prevent their Central core systems all linked to the might of the contingencies hacking abilities within a month born Nexus worlds machine worlds or sterilization hubs emerged across the Galaxy great bustling machine worlds essentially planet-sized factories built to pump out waves upon waves of Warships and battleframe armies within days of the emergence of these sterilization hubs the purging and genocide began the Galaxy had a function in galcon and a number of well-equipped Empires ready to defend it but the contingency appeared so quickly it took many years for a proper force to be brought to bear countless planets were purged a familiar pattern of orbital bombardment followed by an invasion of robotic hunter killer machines that left nothing alive the galactic custodian and caretakers were able to hold their own but they could not bring their forces to bear and engage on multiple fronts the contingency was winning every month more and more machines would flood out the sterilization hubs they seemed Unstoppable this continued for roughly a decade or so by this time a significant proportion of the Galaxy had been sterilized Hope was quickly fading most believed that despite their ability to hold their ground the stalemate could not last forever they would eventually capitulate and fall to the contingencies might it was at this point an old Power resurfaced yet another intensive energy Spike was detected in a previously Uncharted system the energy levels were equivalent to those registered when the contingency activated its machine worlds but the energy signatures appeared different the immediate concern was whether this signified the appearance of some kind of new contingency weapon system shortly after the readings were detected a strong transmission signal from the energy source came through the cyberx had returned we have a first person account from a captain within the ranks of the galactic custodian who commanded the control room where the communication was received I'm not ashamed to say but my heart skipped a beat I felt queasy sick even when we received the news that the cyberx had made contact I'd read the histories I knew what the cyberx were I knew what they were capable of and I'd witnessed the destruction of their Ringworld cyberx Alpha given the current crisis the war with the contingency and the fact that we were losing this would be the final nail in the coffin we were done there would be no coming back from this there is no way we could hold our ground against the cyborgs and the contingency together we were all going to die luckily for that Captain death was not coming just yet it appeared that the cyborgs were here to help they transmitted the following message we are the cyberx the several Cycles we have remained hidden and uninvolved in Galactic affairs however we have been monitoring the present situation with the machine entity you know is the contingency and we can no longer remain impartial Observers to protect the Sapient beings of the Galaxy we are commencing active military operations against them do not be alarmed by the passage of our fleets you will not be harmed The cybrex Fleets began to appear across the Galaxy aching on the contingency their ships were remarkably similar in design and just as deadly this minor respite was all the caretakers and surviving members of the galactic Community needed the cyberx would be the Anvil to the caretaker's Hammer the contingency would be crashed between them and this is how the contingency fell or sterilization hubs were systematically surrounded and bombed into Oblivion the ghost signal became so weak it was undetectable victory was achieved the cyborgs faded once again out of existence as quickly as they had arrived and without any passing contact simply disappeared the galcomm and the custodian were broken and would never be able to recover they fell into Decline and were eventually replaced by younger more ambitious Empires the caretakers continued to monitor for signs of contingency activity their archives showed that they still believed that there was another Central Nexus somewhere out there in the galaxy the contingency Homeworld so to speak but the caretakers never found it the caretaker story would continue until they met the unbidden in battle you dealt the memorial below destroying their central processing system and leaving them in the state that we see today and that brings an end to this story thanks for watching if you want to hear about how the caretakers fought the unbidden in the war in heaven please click the video on screen now

Channel: The Red King

Views: 89,153

Keywords: stellaris lore, paradox interactive, stellaris precursor, stellaris, stellaris federations, stellaris guide, stellaris nemesis, stellaris tutorial, stellaris utopia, Stellaris lore, Red King, The Red King, Stellaris Stories, Stellaris lore stories, Stellaris Red King, stellaris contingency, stellaris contingency lore, stellaris contingency ambience, stellaris crisis lore, stellaris hunters lore, stellaris hunters, stellaris ultima vigilis, prethoryn scourge

Id: N9QLa9uzQUg

Length: 23min 26sec (1406 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 30 2023