Axiom Proper is a fiction world I am working on. It is inspired by History, SCP foundation Lore, Lovecraft, maybe a bit of the Cyberpunk universe, another bit by qntm’s fiction and who knows by what more. It’s centered around the following premise: what if there was an organization with the purpose of weaponizing entities to advance the New United States of America global agenda? Like the opposite of SCP, instead of containing, developing and weaponizing.
On the foundation of the Roman Republic
Summary prepared by Dr. [REDACTED] Valenzuela, PhD in Historical Sciences.
According to roman scholars, the Roman Republic was traditionally founded in 509 BC. But very little is verifiably known about the transition from monarchy to republic. Regarding the catalyst for overthrowing the monarchy, legend says it was due to the rape of Lucretia (who is described as roman virtue incarnate) by the king’s son, Sextus Tarquinius, who took a liking for her during a wife-virtue-boasting match with the young nobles, including Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, Lucretia’s husband.
Sextus forced her through an extortion scheme: if she refused, he would kill her and forever taint her by saying he did it because he found her in the act of adultery with a slave. Forced to keep her virtuosity, Lucretia had no choice but to concede. Soon after, she confessed what had happened to her father Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus, to her husband Collatinus, to Publius Valerius Poplicola and Lucius Junius Brutus, and then killed herself. This triggered a revolt lead by the four men, and resulted in the end of the Monarchy.
Soon after, Brutus and Collatinus were elected Consuls. But due to a conspiracy by the exiled Tarquins where they tried to assassinate the new Consuls, Collatinus who was a Tarquin himself was exiled. One key element of this conspiracy is that the conspirators were executed, including two of Brutus’s sons.
Until now, this is all more or less what the official legend says, but the Mad Historian Tito Marzio sheds an even more perverse light on these ancient Rome episodes. It was not due to chance that Brutus sons were part of the conspiracy. It was not due to chance that Brutus was elected Consul and had Collatinus be exiled. According to Mad Historian Tito Marzio, somehow Brutus was at the center of it all, even of all the events that lead to Lucrecia’s death.
A kingdom for a heart
Excerpt recovered from Proscribed History, Tome III by Tito Marzio
Brutus had finally accomplished it. A kingdom for a heart. Not his kingdom, nor his heart.
The ritual came as second nature to him. Even the horrendous sight of seeing his beloved Lucretia take her own life in front of him felt, though maddening, necessary. If he could not be with her, no Tarquin should have her. His obsession would never let him continue watching his beloved brother in arms Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, as much as he loved him, be tethered to his divinely virtuous Lucretia. Now that the kingdom is no more and Collatinus has been ostracized, Brutus had to conspire no more.
As the distant memory had commanded: the death of the beloved, the fall of a kingdom, and the exile of his own kinsman. The memory stemming from beyond the foundation of the land, far beyond the rise of the gods, and of course his own birth. But it was there. Implanted since who knows when. All Brutus knew is that he inherited it from the act of reading. But as soon as it was read, it was his own, and as soon as it was his own, it became his will. He was not devoid of doubts. Was it his own faith that fabricated this knowledge? Are the letters he once read capable of causing such hallucination and behavior?
But now, having sacrificed the desires of his own heart and those of the powerful, he was free to descend the steps below the archaic temple. The passage only he, and those destined to walk them since before the birth of Rome, knew of. Revealed to their minds only after the ritual was complete.
As the light of the entrance dwindled, the steps became inadequate, less human, irregular, and increasingly disproportionate. His flesh rebelling against this unnatural act, but his mind compelled to continue, knowing that the reward was beyond what nature offered him in life: eternal quintessential love.
There she was, at the end of the steps. Her face illuminated by a faint red light. Ignoring the blood, flesh and bones surrounding them, he embraced her. And as the world dissolved around them, only they remained.
Note from the curator: the original material suggests there is more text to read. But the rest of Tome III is unreadable due to a mixture of bloodstains and burned paper.
The inconceivable algorithm
Lucía had finally accomplished it. An algorithm that should not exist was being ran right in front of her. No need to debug; she understood it up until the very last bit stored. The cost: dereliction of fiduciary duty, her own country’s economic collapse, and the death of hundreds if not thousands of her own fellow countrymen.
The rise of Lucius Corp was nothing short of miraculous. After cracking the design of the LRM processor architecture, and the gradual establishment of a sophisticated supply chain network exclusively within the Estados Federados de Sudamérica (EFS), global compute was effectively monopolized by the company through a combination of patents and coercive negotiation practices. It is said that some of the EFS incursions into neighboring unaffiliated countries were motivated by failed negotiations over nationalized natural resources key for production of LRM processors.
Lucía knew this was all bound to happen. Ever since she read that obscure blogpost which contents can’t be precisely remembered, she’s had this intuition of her destiny. One day she’d compile the algorithm, and then she’d be complete. Although natural, it was not easy. The early death of her best friend Lucho deprived her of one of the key components of the algorithm. She saw herself forced to find workarounds that made the process way more complex, and costly both in resources and in human lives. That’s when she founded Lucius Corp.
Once she had enough funds she was able to execute the compilation steps of the algorithm. Prerequisites included siphoning resources into seemingly contradicting political causes, funding both violent guerrillas and fanatical cults, imposing impossible requirements to subsidiaries. At some point Lucía doubted herself thinking this could all subconscious self-sabotaging shenanigans. That the ancient knowledge she seemingly possessed was all a fabrication of her own mind.
But there she was. Deep under the company headquarters, in a terminal printing the program output, with increasingly macabre shapes taking place. Her own eyes were desperate to look elsewhere, but her mind was fixated on the goal. The face of her soulmate materializing on her own eyes. Once he embraced her, the world dissolved around them.
Unable to perceive the C4 detonating the entrance, flashbangs exploding around her, and the Axiom Proper Special Physical Operations Team entering the room, Lucía was apprehended and extracted out of the facility, never to be seen again.
Project Tether Executive Summary
Summary prepared by Dr. [REDACTED], PhD in Ontological Sciences.
It is still uncertain whether the entity code named Tether was developed within the Axiom Proper Initiative or if it was an ever-present property of existence. Further mathematical proof is necessary. But as part of the Axiom Proper initiative, it was successfully weaponized in favor of NUSA’s global agenda.
The first experimental target was prominent EFS-native CEO Lucía Julia Álvarez Álvarez, with the objective of disrupting the unexpected technological development of what otherwise would have been a tributary region.
Positive side-effects included the establishment of a NUSA-backed junta, and the hostile takeover of Lucius Corp.
Negative side-effects are unclear, but it is estimated that at least 2 billion EFS pesos were wiped out of the economy, and theorized that an uncertain number of lives was sacrificed in the process of compiling and executing the algorithm.
Lucía was extracted before the Foundation had the chance to get hold of her. Had the Foundation discovered the existence of the Tether entity, it may have been contained and rendered useless for the Initiative.
Anomalies reported on the operation include the possible causality-breaking properties of the Tether entity. It has not been verified that the creation and prosperity of Lucius Corp was caused by the Tether’s influence. Key pending evidence is the identification of the other end of the Tether.
Next steps include:
- Investigating the identity of the other end of Lucía’s Tether.
- Deployment of cleanup team to remove any elements that might reveal the existence of the Tether entity.
- Discussion of future deployments with the Initiative’s board of directors.
- Priming Project Ontologun in preparation for eventual loss of control of the Tether entity.
- Document and securely store the entity’s deployment procedure. Currently only Dr. [REDACTED] has successfully deployed the entity. The nonexistence of backup documentation poses a monumental risk to Project Tether.
KEY INSIGHT: If Lucía’s counterpart is observed to originate in the past, the implications of the Tether deployment escape the Initiative’s current ontological technology, and indiscriminate usage may result in existence-nullifying phenomena.
Signed off by Kavan Juste, Director of Weaponized Entity Deployments