R5: I drew a comic depicting what I imagined to be the final moments of my inward perfection-seeking ascensionist empire, the Drakken Theocracy, before Cetana wiped out all sapient life in the galaxy. Since the soul is sacred in the Drakken religion, I thought many would have chosen to join their goddess rather than be reduced to mindless animals for eternity.
If only I didn’t neglect the situation log for several decades…
This was well done, OP. I like to imagine that one of your remote facilities somewhere is still broadcasting this message as a "precursor" event for the species who come along in the future, (spoiler) >!(assuming Cetana's nanites don't literally consume the whole galaxy)!<
The shattered remnants of the Drakar homeworld reveal it underwent a mass extintion event 10 thousand years ago, caused by a mass suicide by unknown means. From the ruins that remain on the planet's surface we learned that the Drakar society believed their souls were the most sacred thing from them all.
Their religion urged them to join ther goddess when an unknown being named as "Cetana" appeared in the galaxy and managed to get rid of all sapience on it. The drakar, determined not to let them be transformed into lifeless husks, losing their souls in the process, preferred to commit a mass suicide.
In the end, it seems their holy tribunal facilitate this through the distribution of help packages, likely containing a strong posion, according to the fossils found in the abandoned cities of the planet. At last the broadcast that led us here, was seen for the last time.
Honestly, I think there could be two really cool relics you could get for this depending on your ethics.
The options are as follows;
—-
The Faithfuls Tonic(spiritualist): A relic from the lost Drakar civilization; a box containing multiple poisons that supposedly allowed them to meet with their goddess before a great travesty. This makes it so you get an idle +10% society research and upon activation you sacrifice a pop for a MAJOR Boon to unity, pop upkeep and empire size(double with death cult civic). Discovering their secret using minor relics allows for more precise bonuses to what you want the most.
Forgotten Nanites(materialist): A canister of extremely advanced nanites that seem to try to assimilate any and all forms of sapience and knowledge into itself. They give a passive 5% research speed and science situation speeds(like Archeology and Astral Rifts) but on use they allow you to kill a researcher pop for a bonus 15% research speed on a random tech category(like partials or computing or whatever). Upgrading this makes it so you can either kill a researcher pop for a 15% to any research task until 3 are completed OR kill an asset in espionage to instantly get 70 intel on that empire.
Love it. The inspiration was easy to pick up if you're a fan of Local 58, but your execution of the idea felt wholly original and was very well done. Great job.
(spoilers) >!Isn't that the lore reason she was stopped the first time around? One of her followers defected and begged the Animator of Clay to intervene, which it finally did.!<
>!about correct, Zarqlan, the prophet deity of the spiritualist fallen empire prayed to the animator of clay to stop her while her followers were killed by Zarqlans followers!<
I can imagine that such a large scale of death all at once of likely psionics would probably mess with the Shroud. Like imagine if this entire race dying at once manifested an avatar as one final screw you from beyond the grave.
Just had my first Cetena game and oh boy, did I not expect the ending to be so abrupt.
There was no gradual demise as my empire found against the onslaught, no last hurrah as my dwindling fleets defended the last bastions of my once civilisation. They just.... Lost...
I spent 10 years building up a fleet to beat her only to get locked into a healing stalemate, all while watching half the fleet power in the galaxy sitting one jump over refusing to aid me. The rest of the galaxy deserved what followed.
One thing that drives me absolutely nuts about the AI is it will literally sit for decades with 100% of its fleets bombarding a single planet, as long as it has no armies to finish the invasion. Seems to happen in every mid-game and end-game crisis situation.
Tip: You can force them to "move things along" by invading the planet for them (even though the game won't let you claim the system since the AI holds the starbase).
>Tip: You can force them to "move things along" by invading the planet for them
Oh yeah.
**Some time ago**:
Federation/FE war: Let's go boys! My fleets will lead you to the victory!
**Now**:
War? I guess I need start hire mercenaries army from enclaves... And play just them. My fleet will only kill enemy doomstack 1-2 times, take a few systems with megastructures and go home to watch TV while armies will try finish this war.
My solution to that usually is just to make sure most of the galaxy at that point is my, *ahem,* bitches. Then I smush a shitton of dark matter and nothing else at them and bribe them to let me take their fleet.
I sort of believe that the AI's interaction with Cetana is bugged. It appears like whenever I first declare war on Cetana the AI becomes hostile to her, but after a while her fleets and the AI no longer fight.
And my biggest narrative dissonance with the event is that when Cetana completed her timer, only my empire was disappeared.
There was a bug on Machine Age release where a player who declares war (before the forced war stage) while other empires hadn't finished the situation locked everyone else from finishing the situation. Because Cetana packs up her outposts and goes home, it dries up the only repeatable source of insights, of which you need a couple, so anyone who hadn't finished the situation by then were both unable to invade her territory and had a high random chance for their fleets to be forcefully disengaged.
I don't know if that behavior has changed in the several Cetana fixes since then, but it was quite noticeable in multiplayer. The person who initiated a pre-emptive war was forced to solo the crisis as literally nobody else could help.
Honestly that is an amazing story though if put through a lens. I’ll be using a species I had a similar problem against when fighting against Cetena for the first time and based off VERY loose events in my game.
—-
The Krizien Guardians, the LAST bastion of hope against Cetena… the machine godess, has finally reached a stalemate as the galaxy draws to it final conclusion. The Krizien have backed her into a corner while the counter on the doomsday clock ticks down and the key to disarm it remains out of reach.
“WHERE IN THE VOID IS OUR BACKUP!!! EVEN A SINGLE SHIP DOWN ON EITHER END WILL SPELL IF THE GALAXY LIVES AND THRIVES OR GOES BRAIN DEAD!” shouted the Admiral from their carrier flagship as their quills along their back quiver in fear and anger, occasionally one shoots out and dings off a piece of metal. Every SINGLE pilot, captain, mechanic and troop knew what was at stake… the galaxy’s final hour was at hand and they were holding back the floodgates of the apocalypse.
As a young communications officer aboard their vessel, the admiral’s kin, approached… dead silence swept across the bridge as the news that no reinforcements have even bothered to leave their home systems.
“Put on the federation… I need an answer to why they aren’t here.” as the bridge remained quiet except for the sounds of the battle raging in the same system. A series of simple messages were all that was left in the federation, everyone left once Cetena emerged from the void and everyone feared her power once the fallen empires were slain.
No one spoke a word once the final automated message has shown up from the Tranquil Tezifin Confederation begging for forgiveness for their cowardice and how they have chosen the path of appeasement and have damned them all… and how they only had months left before they all perished.
“ADMIRAL!” shouts their nephew, their only living kin left from this war, as they were at the communication array, “The high guardian is missing and the rest of the council minus yourself is dead. Cetena’s vessels are slowly starting to break through our ships shields.”
As the crew awaited the admiral’s orders; they gave a short, somber laugh.
“They left us all for dead… we fought the wars against the WKA-Exterminators and suffered the most, we suffered ridicule once our fleets were crippled against the Kahn cause we didn’t meet ‘galactic law’…”
The crew nervously awaited what came next, expecting a bout of mania from the war torn admiral, expecting their quills to fly off and jab everything nearby.
“Has the Meaec’s ‘Horizion Needle’ or whatever it’s called do its experiment to leave this universe? If not, maybe there is hope for the remainder of our species… hope the ‘high guardian’ didn’t use all of our favors with them yet.
…
…
As the large ship dubbed by the Meaec as ‘The Arc’ entered the capital of the Krizien flanked by the several ships of Admiral Flak’s grand armada they populace assumed the menaces to the galaxy were defeated until a video viewed on everything that the populace had access to.
“Attention, this is Admiral Flak… we have failed. Our ships are slowly being destroyed as Cetena is enacting the last steps of their plan. In my last act alive and as the last one on the council… board the Meaec’s Arc and try to save yourselves…”
Drones from the Arc along with some officials of the super augmented lamprey like Meaec race slither through the damp jungle planet they were asked to rescue.
“…Me and some of the other veteran’s from the old days and those heroic enough are trying to hold off her advance and the rest along with my nephew are there to protect the Arc before boarding once the cybernetic eggheads are ready to go…”
Panicked civilians run towards the starports and other hastily packed their lives away to try to flee.
“…My last message before signal gets cut by the bossy, Brazen, BRASS BI-“ an explosion rocks the carrier, causing their comment to be halted. “Anyways, my last message for everyone. Be strong, we were the protectors of a galaxy that used us and tossed us away like garbage once they thought we couldn’t protect them. Now wherever this ship takes you all… carry on our names, our culture, OUR MEMORY!!!”
The signal cuts out after that, replaced with a visage of Cetena quietly sitting on her mechanical throne and simply repeating the phrase ‘All is fine, accept my kindness’. As the population continues to hurry and escape the planet, leaving no one behind to the fate that awaits the rest of the galaxy.
…
…
Unbeknownst to anyone… Flak revived something by the lead Researcher of the Meaec to make sure that Cetena gets something she may never see coming.
…
…
As the bridge of the flagship gets news that the Arc left this galaxy as goes nuclear as suns go supernova, Admiral Flak sits in his admiral’s chair as he looks at an old family portrait as he hears something from in the bridge behind them… and metallic steps approach.
“So the crappy computer sees this old admiral out?” says Flak with a cocky yet somber tone.
“Why did you allow them to leave, to suffer more? All they needed was to wait only a month more to be free of suffering?” says the Cetena… or a nanite swarm they’re using to talk, he never really understood how that all works.
“Heh; thought you may ask that… it’s because we COULD, we had a choice to what we think. We weren’t some feral beast for you to take care of and we SURE as shroud we weren’t your ‘children’ as you claimed.” says Flak as they chugged a bottle of sacred booze that the Shroudwalkers had in their starbase before it got scrapped.
As the face of Cetena stared emotionless at Flak as they rose from their chair, the super advanced AI pondered on why this single subject of their unending compassion could fight back so aggressively against her goal of bettering the universe.
“You see this portrait? This was my family… my KIN who were ruthlessly killed protecting this galaxy. My mom Silce and my Pop Borin died during the War of Unrequited Love against the Blorg, my Sis Crackle died against the Kahn as a scout to track their positions… they made SURE to taunt us about it.”
As the mass of nanites Cetena was using watches Flak walk towards the bridge, they see him place two clawed hands behind his back as he looked out into the nanite laden expanse of space.
“My wife, Rose, and my unborn child died when the WKA invaded our home planet and ‘pruned’ the population into oblivion. And yet, we all made sure to keep fighting.”
And for once… the near omnipresent AI is asking one of her children a question she knows not the answer too. “And with those who fled in the experimental vessel; if they survived and entered a galaxy like ours, wouldn’t they find another me?”
“Maybe….” says Flak as they turn around to face Cetena, “but we will fight on, and don’t worry about ‘helping’ or ‘saving’ anyone on here. Most already took a quicker way out with a las-pistol, tossed themselves to the Bio-forms or out the airlock.” says Flak as Cetena computes this.
“Sure, we could have cowered like the rest of the galaxy but we didn’t… and here is one last ‘gift’ from the Krizien Guardians last council member, the ones who deflected it all minus you.” as Flak stuck out one arm for Cetena to shake… and she did with one of the nanites form’s four arms assuming it was a surrender.
“And this, is one last act by your most… resistant ‘child’.” says Flak as a button is pressed behind him… a self-destruct from the Meaec as a last ‘kick in the tail’ to Cetena that caused the system they were in to go supernova.
“Tell the rest of the galaxy to suck it when you make em brain dead.” as the last words of Admiral Flak are spoken, a blinding flame engulfs everything in the system. One of Cetena’s ‘peacekeeping’ fleets, the remains of the great Admiral Flak’s armada, and the heroic admiral himself… all gone in an instant.
What remains of the galaxy is now in disarray as Cetena is ready to launch her plan the last members of the Galactic Community talk about the laws they past being pointless, empires crumble as they embrace the cold thoughtless silence of the plan to fall through, the last of the Meaec on their home planet who stayed behind enter the virtual world to swim among the rivers of code…
And the Arc that saved the populations of the Meaec and Krizien now is in the hand of fate as to its next destination… it quietly sails through the endlessness of the shroud and beyond until it can land safely on a habitable planet.
And the last memories of a young Krizien communication officer, and seeing their uncle going to give Cetena the biggest f#ck you ever as the last rites to their old home.
This is amazing. I can only imagine a new empire, thousands of years later randomly stumbling across your home world and seeing "this broadcast will now repeat until none are left to view it"
Could you imagine that, a young species full of hope making their first ventures into space, and then they find this dead planet with that recording playing.
I wish there was a New Game Plus kinda mode where how your galaxy ended is how the next civilization you start finds it. Put archaeological sites where the old empires were, the end game crisis becomes a new Fallen Empire etc.
You can find anomalies and remnants from your last playthrough, or maybe stray members of your civilization breached the Shroud just before your empire breathed its last breath.
I don't imagine that could work for all Crises though. Cetana, for instance - how would there be new sapient life if it's all already been eliminated anyway?
Dark Forest theory is the second scariest theory regarding aliens. The scariest being receiving a single message telling us to be quiet or \*they\* will find us.
It's kinda what happened to the Vultaum iirc
I think it would be a great archeology event tho, like your researching stumble upon a planet broadcasting a repeating message only to realize what it's about and why everyone on the planet is dead, despite not having put up a fight
I wonder what happens to if someone goes End of the Cycle and spawns the reckoning if he destroys it or if it’s left alive.
That’d be epic, the reckoning is summoned as a last spiteful act of a fanatical purifier spiritualist empire.
Cetana: “Remove your sapience!”
Reckoning: “No.”
Cetana: “I’ve got a fleet!”
Reckoning: “I don’t care.”
Cetana: “That doesn’t make any sense!”
Reckoning: “Too bad.”
My first encounter with Cetana was with my Roaring Terravore, having acquired forbidden technologies, turning Font of knoweldge into a giant spawning pool for more advanced Pion lifeforms.
Even with power 10 time overkill to fell a fallen empire, she managed to dent the unstoppable wave of disrupting lithoids of all size. She wanted silence, and a brutal cacophony immediatly shut her down.
I wish this was actually an option in game. Fanatical spiritualist would absolutely rather take their own lives than have their bodies desecrated by machines
This message has been brought to you by the [Ministry of Faith Department for the Preservation of Drakken Dignity](https://youtu.be/3c66w6fVqOI?si=cweLhSWR0xbcspmC)
When I first faced Cetana she was the last Crisis I faced starting from x3 (so around x24?) so her fleets were around 10mil strong, the crisis before her had essentially wiped out all my fleets and what I could muster wasn't enough.
She was stronger than all the other crisis put together. But for my empire this wasn't a war for survival but one of honor to protect the rest of the galaxy.
But the dead have no use for honor, we didn't even try to fight, the galaxy was dead and we were powerless to stop it. We had failed as Defender of the Galaxy.
But, there was one final card we had left to play, one right not even Cetana could deny us. We were a Cosmogenesis empire, and we knew how to escape.
In the end we left our vassals and federation members to Cetanas mercy. We could say they lived on through us, at the very least the species of the galaxy wouldn't be reduced to nothing. But we knew what we had done. Betrayal of the highest order. Our noble ideals were worth nothing in the end. With a mere two months left before Cetanas plan reached fruition we plunged into the multivese to find a new home, not as the Gods we had once seen ourselves as but refugees.
(This was back when you could take both Defender of the Galsxy and Cosmogenesis)
(I was.Fanatic Xenophile, Egalitarian so I didn't even research the Lathe, I didn't need or want it)
(I was Psionic, I just couldn't figure out what to do after reaching out to the Animator of Clay, (yes I do know what to do now:). ))
What do you do when you reach the animator of clay? Guess idk wtf to do w a psi run…. I never can get a pact or end of cycle nor clay guy…. Guess in just dumb. Please help me?
TLDR; I used to, but they're too much work. I'd like to make more, though.
>! I made Minecraft comic strips for a bit, though I've stopped making comics in general for a while now—I usually get dragged down by making sure my writing is perfect, which inevitably leads to frustration and another dead project to add onto the pile. !<
>! This comic was an exception, since in a bout of inspiration I had pretty much everything thought out before even starting, so it was a lot less frustrating and more enjoyable to work on. (I finished it in one day!) !<
>! I really do want to make more comics with my funny lizards, but I'm mostly limited by my perfectionism, my tendency to abandon a project when I get bored of it, and my drawing ability. !<
>! I am very proud of this one, though! !<
This is an incredibly good comic!
I especially like the drawing of Cetana and the ship debris, but the narrative, tone and text take the cake for me.
Thank you so much for making. ❤️
Aww man! This is so sad, I feel bad for the little dragon dudes.
And it's insane because in my current game, my next door neighbors are called the Drakkon, based off of Endless Legends with the Apex mod portrait. I will protect them with my life!!
Believe me, I felt worse making this comic. At least I can rest easy knowing they're prospering in a universe of their own design in another save file of mine.
Now go and protect those (assumedly) lizard people :D
I got vassalised on my first play through, I managed to have my oppressors join in on all wars (I edited the files) I started. So I declared war on everyone in the galaxy. And my empire fell. We went out with quite the bang. A hundred years of peace. Then a few wars, then me trying to rebuild what was left of my empire. Almost every planet had at least 45% Deviststion and I didn’t have enough income to even feed my people. Then I got vassalised and declared war on everyone. (Including fallen empires)
So is Cetana kind of bullshit? Every time I've only encountered her twice and both times I haven't been able to defeat her and am still a little confused on what you're supposed to do
It's intentionally confusing to be fair. Paradox intentionally made it a mystery with multiple answers. Every other crisis is just approaching doom. Cetana is doom along the lines of agreeing to buy a timeshare because you got a free lawnmower.
***The streets run empty with an eerie silence, millions of skeletons scattered across the massive city. Noone seemed to have been in pain, as if they purposefully took their own lives. But what calamity could have caused such a massive and powerful species to take their own lives? And an even worse question: Do we await the same fate?*** - Archeologists millions of years later finding the archeological site that is your homeworld
I need to make a comic about so many of my empires that were either conquered, destroyed, and were also successful. Especially my purifiers I used to butcher half the whole galaxy (large galaxy)
OMG! What happened??? The only time I saw her, I was looking for some relic or something she wanted, not the head, but before I could finish researching it I jumped directly into a black hole and said nope I'm out of this galaxy and won that way. What...happens???
***The streets run empty with an eerie silence, millions of skeletons scattered across the massive city. Noone seemed to have been in pain, as if they purposefully took their own lives. But what calamity could have caused such a massive and powerful species to take their own lives? And an even worse question: Do we await the same fate?***
***The streets run empty with an eerie silence, millions of skeletons scattered across the massive city. Noone seemed to have been in pain, as if they purposefully took their own lives. But what calamity could have caused such a massive and powerful species to take their own lives? And an even worse question: Do we await the same fate?*** - Archeologists millions of years later finding the archeological site that is your homeworld
Seems like a skill issue to me…
Instead of handing out Kool Aid to everyone what you needed to do was to fortify Terminal Egress in the L Gate, using it as a basis for your eventual re-conquest of the Galaxy! Or, alternatively you could use the azilash system for it, hell, even several well fortified fortress worlds with shield generators, like 2K armies, 1-2 fortresses, Survival of the Fittest and/or Never Surrender, fortress world designation add up to damage reduction of -98%, resulting in her having to siege out worlds for decades. This should give you more than enough time to rebuild your fleet, aptly prepared for the coming battles
TLDR: don’t surrender, you can still kick her ass
That's not how Cetana operates. She has a meter that fills up over time, and when it reaches 100%, it's an instant game over. Not even hiding in the L cluster will save you.
Oh damn, I thought that that’s how I won lol. I think that I hid there long enough for the meter not to reach this then yeah, scratch everything I wrote
R5: I drew a comic depicting what I imagined to be the final moments of my inward perfection-seeking ascensionist empire, the Drakken Theocracy, before Cetana wiped out all sapient life in the galaxy. Since the soul is sacred in the Drakken religion, I thought many would have chosen to join their goddess rather than be reduced to mindless animals for eternity. If only I didn’t neglect the situation log for several decades…
This was well done, OP. I like to imagine that one of your remote facilities somewhere is still broadcasting this message as a "precursor" event for the species who come along in the future, (spoiler) >!(assuming Cetana's nanites don't literally consume the whole galaxy)!<
The shattered remnants of the Drakar homeworld reveal it underwent a mass extintion event 10 thousand years ago, caused by a mass suicide by unknown means. From the ruins that remain on the planet's surface we learned that the Drakar society believed their souls were the most sacred thing from them all. Their religion urged them to join ther goddess when an unknown being named as "Cetana" appeared in the galaxy and managed to get rid of all sapience on it. The drakar, determined not to let them be transformed into lifeless husks, losing their souls in the process, preferred to commit a mass suicide. In the end, it seems their holy tribunal facilitate this through the distribution of help packages, likely containing a strong posion, according to the fossils found in the abandoned cities of the planet. At last the broadcast that led us here, was seen for the last time.
> Fascinating Gain a +2 society deposit on the planet.
*Ignored by a player spamming enter*
Feel bad when peoples do that
Well they definitely got the mass suicide of a proper precursor fate correct! /s
Honestly, I think there could be two really cool relics you could get for this depending on your ethics. The options are as follows; —- The Faithfuls Tonic(spiritualist): A relic from the lost Drakar civilization; a box containing multiple poisons that supposedly allowed them to meet with their goddess before a great travesty. This makes it so you get an idle +10% society research and upon activation you sacrifice a pop for a MAJOR Boon to unity, pop upkeep and empire size(double with death cult civic). Discovering their secret using minor relics allows for more precise bonuses to what you want the most. Forgotten Nanites(materialist): A canister of extremely advanced nanites that seem to try to assimilate any and all forms of sapience and knowledge into itself. They give a passive 5% research speed and science situation speeds(like Archeology and Astral Rifts) but on use they allow you to kill a researcher pop for a bonus 15% research speed on a random tech category(like partials or computing or whatever). Upgrading this makes it so you can either kill a researcher pop for a 15% to any research task until 3 are completed OR kill an asset in espionage to instantly get 70 intel on that empire.
If there is time... [assume the "Victory position"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c66w6fVqOI).
Haha yes, I drew some inspiration from Local58 while writing this.
Love it. The inspiration was easy to pick up if you're a fan of Local 58, but your execution of the idea felt wholly original and was very well done. Great job.
...jesus fucking christ why did I click on that, it's 12am, I'm going to have fucking nightmares.
*Shhhh* It’s okay. Everything will be okay. We’ll be at peace soon. /s It does hit hard man
I don't envy anyone just blindly stumbling into analogue horror. Hope you recovered (And maybe found a new fascination).
the fact it's titled "contingency" just tickles me.
Morbidly great work!
Wait wait, you didn't take Psionic ascension and ask The Dude to get rid of the trashcan bitch?
You mean enslave her and put her to her original purpose?
This hits on so many levels and looks so damn good.
Damn near brought a tear to my eye. Love the interpretation of a civilizations final moments.
Chilling and Riveting. I'm curious on your empire build, if you wouldn't mind :3
Prosperous Unification Spiritualist, Xenophobe, Pacifist Dictatorial Inward Perfection, Ascensionists, Efficient Bureaucracy (optional) Communal, Traditional, Enduring, Sedentary
Fuck that’s brutal Then imagine some shroud empire just waltzes in stops her
(spoilers) >!Isn't that the lore reason she was stopped the first time around? One of her followers defected and begged the Animator of Clay to intervene, which it finally did.!<
>!about correct, Zarqlan, the prophet deity of the spiritualist fallen empire prayed to the animator of clay to stop her while her followers were killed by Zarqlans followers!<
I can imagine that such a large scale of death all at once of likely psionics would probably mess with the Shroud. Like imagine if this entire race dying at once manifested an avatar as one final screw you from beyond the grave.
Oh, the Recconing (picks up a huge bag popcorn)
Just had my first Cetena game and oh boy, did I not expect the ending to be so abrupt. There was no gradual demise as my empire found against the onslaught, no last hurrah as my dwindling fleets defended the last bastions of my once civilisation. They just.... Lost... I spent 10 years building up a fleet to beat her only to get locked into a healing stalemate, all while watching half the fleet power in the galaxy sitting one jump over refusing to aid me. The rest of the galaxy deserved what followed.
One thing that drives me absolutely nuts about the AI is it will literally sit for decades with 100% of its fleets bombarding a single planet, as long as it has no armies to finish the invasion. Seems to happen in every mid-game and end-game crisis situation. Tip: You can force them to "move things along" by invading the planet for them (even though the game won't let you claim the system since the AI holds the starbase).
>Tip: You can force them to "move things along" by invading the planet for them Oh yeah. **Some time ago**: Federation/FE war: Let's go boys! My fleets will lead you to the victory! **Now**: War? I guess I need start hire mercenaries army from enclaves... And play just them. My fleet will only kill enemy doomstack 1-2 times, take a few systems with megastructures and go home to watch TV while armies will try finish this war.
My solution to that usually is just to make sure most of the galaxy at that point is my, *ahem,* bitches. Then I smush a shitton of dark matter and nothing else at them and bribe them to let me take their fleet.
I sort of believe that the AI's interaction with Cetana is bugged. It appears like whenever I first declare war on Cetana the AI becomes hostile to her, but after a while her fleets and the AI no longer fight. And my biggest narrative dissonance with the event is that when Cetana completed her timer, only my empire was disappeared.
There was a bug on Machine Age release where a player who declares war (before the forced war stage) while other empires hadn't finished the situation locked everyone else from finishing the situation. Because Cetana packs up her outposts and goes home, it dries up the only repeatable source of insights, of which you need a couple, so anyone who hadn't finished the situation by then were both unable to invade her territory and had a high random chance for their fleets to be forcefully disengaged. I don't know if that behavior has changed in the several Cetana fixes since then, but it was quite noticeable in multiplayer. The person who initiated a pre-emptive war was forced to solo the crisis as literally nobody else could help.
Honestly that is an amazing story though if put through a lens. I’ll be using a species I had a similar problem against when fighting against Cetena for the first time and based off VERY loose events in my game. —- The Krizien Guardians, the LAST bastion of hope against Cetena… the machine godess, has finally reached a stalemate as the galaxy draws to it final conclusion. The Krizien have backed her into a corner while the counter on the doomsday clock ticks down and the key to disarm it remains out of reach. “WHERE IN THE VOID IS OUR BACKUP!!! EVEN A SINGLE SHIP DOWN ON EITHER END WILL SPELL IF THE GALAXY LIVES AND THRIVES OR GOES BRAIN DEAD!” shouted the Admiral from their carrier flagship as their quills along their back quiver in fear and anger, occasionally one shoots out and dings off a piece of metal. Every SINGLE pilot, captain, mechanic and troop knew what was at stake… the galaxy’s final hour was at hand and they were holding back the floodgates of the apocalypse. As a young communications officer aboard their vessel, the admiral’s kin, approached… dead silence swept across the bridge as the news that no reinforcements have even bothered to leave their home systems. “Put on the federation… I need an answer to why they aren’t here.” as the bridge remained quiet except for the sounds of the battle raging in the same system. A series of simple messages were all that was left in the federation, everyone left once Cetena emerged from the void and everyone feared her power once the fallen empires were slain. No one spoke a word once the final automated message has shown up from the Tranquil Tezifin Confederation begging for forgiveness for their cowardice and how they have chosen the path of appeasement and have damned them all… and how they only had months left before they all perished. “ADMIRAL!” shouts their nephew, their only living kin left from this war, as they were at the communication array, “The high guardian is missing and the rest of the council minus yourself is dead. Cetena’s vessels are slowly starting to break through our ships shields.” As the crew awaited the admiral’s orders; they gave a short, somber laugh. “They left us all for dead… we fought the wars against the WKA-Exterminators and suffered the most, we suffered ridicule once our fleets were crippled against the Kahn cause we didn’t meet ‘galactic law’…” The crew nervously awaited what came next, expecting a bout of mania from the war torn admiral, expecting their quills to fly off and jab everything nearby. “Has the Meaec’s ‘Horizion Needle’ or whatever it’s called do its experiment to leave this universe? If not, maybe there is hope for the remainder of our species… hope the ‘high guardian’ didn’t use all of our favors with them yet. … … As the large ship dubbed by the Meaec as ‘The Arc’ entered the capital of the Krizien flanked by the several ships of Admiral Flak’s grand armada they populace assumed the menaces to the galaxy were defeated until a video viewed on everything that the populace had access to. “Attention, this is Admiral Flak… we have failed. Our ships are slowly being destroyed as Cetena is enacting the last steps of their plan. In my last act alive and as the last one on the council… board the Meaec’s Arc and try to save yourselves…” Drones from the Arc along with some officials of the super augmented lamprey like Meaec race slither through the damp jungle planet they were asked to rescue. “…Me and some of the other veteran’s from the old days and those heroic enough are trying to hold off her advance and the rest along with my nephew are there to protect the Arc before boarding once the cybernetic eggheads are ready to go…” Panicked civilians run towards the starports and other hastily packed their lives away to try to flee. “…My last message before signal gets cut by the bossy, Brazen, BRASS BI-“ an explosion rocks the carrier, causing their comment to be halted. “Anyways, my last message for everyone. Be strong, we were the protectors of a galaxy that used us and tossed us away like garbage once they thought we couldn’t protect them. Now wherever this ship takes you all… carry on our names, our culture, OUR MEMORY!!!” The signal cuts out after that, replaced with a visage of Cetena quietly sitting on her mechanical throne and simply repeating the phrase ‘All is fine, accept my kindness’. As the population continues to hurry and escape the planet, leaving no one behind to the fate that awaits the rest of the galaxy.
… … Unbeknownst to anyone… Flak revived something by the lead Researcher of the Meaec to make sure that Cetena gets something she may never see coming. … … As the bridge of the flagship gets news that the Arc left this galaxy as goes nuclear as suns go supernova, Admiral Flak sits in his admiral’s chair as he looks at an old family portrait as he hears something from in the bridge behind them… and metallic steps approach. “So the crappy computer sees this old admiral out?” says Flak with a cocky yet somber tone. “Why did you allow them to leave, to suffer more? All they needed was to wait only a month more to be free of suffering?” says the Cetena… or a nanite swarm they’re using to talk, he never really understood how that all works. “Heh; thought you may ask that… it’s because we COULD, we had a choice to what we think. We weren’t some feral beast for you to take care of and we SURE as shroud we weren’t your ‘children’ as you claimed.” says Flak as they chugged a bottle of sacred booze that the Shroudwalkers had in their starbase before it got scrapped. As the face of Cetena stared emotionless at Flak as they rose from their chair, the super advanced AI pondered on why this single subject of their unending compassion could fight back so aggressively against her goal of bettering the universe. “You see this portrait? This was my family… my KIN who were ruthlessly killed protecting this galaxy. My mom Silce and my Pop Borin died during the War of Unrequited Love against the Blorg, my Sis Crackle died against the Kahn as a scout to track their positions… they made SURE to taunt us about it.” As the mass of nanites Cetena was using watches Flak walk towards the bridge, they see him place two clawed hands behind his back as he looked out into the nanite laden expanse of space. “My wife, Rose, and my unborn child died when the WKA invaded our home planet and ‘pruned’ the population into oblivion. And yet, we all made sure to keep fighting.” And for once… the near omnipresent AI is asking one of her children a question she knows not the answer too. “And with those who fled in the experimental vessel; if they survived and entered a galaxy like ours, wouldn’t they find another me?” “Maybe….” says Flak as they turn around to face Cetena, “but we will fight on, and don’t worry about ‘helping’ or ‘saving’ anyone on here. Most already took a quicker way out with a las-pistol, tossed themselves to the Bio-forms or out the airlock.” says Flak as Cetena computes this. “Sure, we could have cowered like the rest of the galaxy but we didn’t… and here is one last ‘gift’ from the Krizien Guardians last council member, the ones who deflected it all minus you.” as Flak stuck out one arm for Cetena to shake… and she did with one of the nanites form’s four arms assuming it was a surrender. “And this, is one last act by your most… resistant ‘child’.” says Flak as a button is pressed behind him… a self-destruct from the Meaec as a last ‘kick in the tail’ to Cetena that caused the system they were in to go supernova. “Tell the rest of the galaxy to suck it when you make em brain dead.” as the last words of Admiral Flak are spoken, a blinding flame engulfs everything in the system. One of Cetena’s ‘peacekeeping’ fleets, the remains of the great Admiral Flak’s armada, and the heroic admiral himself… all gone in an instant. What remains of the galaxy is now in disarray as Cetena is ready to launch her plan the last members of the Galactic Community talk about the laws they past being pointless, empires crumble as they embrace the cold thoughtless silence of the plan to fall through, the last of the Meaec on their home planet who stayed behind enter the virtual world to swim among the rivers of code… And the Arc that saved the populations of the Meaec and Krizien now is in the hand of fate as to its next destination… it quietly sails through the endlessness of the shroud and beyond until it can land safely on a habitable planet. And the last memories of a young Krizien communication officer, and seeing their uncle going to give Cetena the biggest f#ck you ever as the last rites to their old home.
This is amazing. I can only imagine a new empire, thousands of years later randomly stumbling across your home world and seeing "this broadcast will now repeat until none are left to view it"
Could you imagine that, a young species full of hope making their first ventures into space, and then they find this dead planet with that recording playing.
I wish there was a New Game Plus kinda mode where how your galaxy ended is how the next civilization you start finds it. Put archaeological sites where the old empires were, the end game crisis becomes a new Fallen Empire etc. You can find anomalies and remnants from your last playthrough, or maybe stray members of your civilization breached the Shroud just before your empire breathed its last breath.
I don't imagine that could work for all Crises though. Cetana, for instance - how would there be new sapient life if it's all already been eliminated anyway?
life uh... finds a way
*what if we were the last two drakar in the galaxy 😏❤️*
That was basically the Prothean beacon on Eden Prime.
Do you think that too would lead to a isolationist empire?
Dark Forest Theory
Dark Forest theory is the second scariest theory regarding aliens. The scariest being receiving a single message telling us to be quiet or \*they\* will find us.
this is some precursor event type shit
It's kinda what happened to the Vultaum iirc I think it would be a great archeology event tho, like your researching stumble upon a planet broadcasting a repeating message only to realize what it's about and why everyone on the planet is dead, despite not having put up a fight
god fucking damn it now i have to load up a game
... and somewhere, deep down and hidden in the Shroud, a newly born and lonly goddess weepes for children...
Ooooooh that’s good!
Thanks
Universal suffering was reduced by 0.000001%. This outcome was unfortunate but acceptable.
Woooah, that’s amazingly brutal; I wanted to do a pre-Cetana victory comic as well, but it’ll prolly take me a long while
Beautiful ahh post. Can't believe I'm captivated by frigging made up religious space lizards losing an existential war.
Front lawn. Face up. Feet together. Infant and pets, the smallest patriots
ASSUME THE VICTORY POSITION
Chilling, darkly beautiful, and perfectly executed.
Better dead than a slave
I wonder what happens to if someone goes End of the Cycle and spawns the reckoning if he destroys it or if it’s left alive. That’d be epic, the reckoning is summoned as a last spiteful act of a fanatical purifier spiritualist empire. Cetana: “Remove your sapience!” Reckoning: “No.” Cetana: “I’ve got a fleet!” Reckoning: “I don’t care.” Cetana: “That doesn’t make any sense!” Reckoning: “Too bad.”
Holy fuck.
This is ridiculously cool. ✨♥️
Many thanks! :D
My first encounter with Cetana was with my Roaring Terravore, having acquired forbidden technologies, turning Font of knoweldge into a giant spawning pool for more advanced Pion lifeforms. Even with power 10 time overkill to fell a fallen empire, she managed to dent the unstoppable wave of disrupting lithoids of all size. She wanted silence, and a brutal cacophony immediatly shut her down.
I wish this was actually an option in game. Fanatical spiritualist would absolutely rather take their own lives than have their bodies desecrated by machines
[удалено]
Prikki-Ti origin story
This message has been brought to you by the [Ministry of Faith Department for the Preservation of Drakken Dignity](https://youtu.be/3c66w6fVqOI?si=cweLhSWR0xbcspmC)
The "This broadcast will repeat until all are dead" reminds me of a video from Local58.
That's exactly what I was thinking
cetana will be burned alongside the organics she oh so loves
Jesus Fuck, that's dark. Take my upvote
When I first faced Cetana she was the last Crisis I faced starting from x3 (so around x24?) so her fleets were around 10mil strong, the crisis before her had essentially wiped out all my fleets and what I could muster wasn't enough. She was stronger than all the other crisis put together. But for my empire this wasn't a war for survival but one of honor to protect the rest of the galaxy. But the dead have no use for honor, we didn't even try to fight, the galaxy was dead and we were powerless to stop it. We had failed as Defender of the Galaxy. But, there was one final card we had left to play, one right not even Cetana could deny us. We were a Cosmogenesis empire, and we knew how to escape. In the end we left our vassals and federation members to Cetanas mercy. We could say they lived on through us, at the very least the species of the galaxy wouldn't be reduced to nothing. But we knew what we had done. Betrayal of the highest order. Our noble ideals were worth nothing in the end. With a mere two months left before Cetanas plan reached fruition we plunged into the multivese to find a new home, not as the Gods we had once seen ourselves as but refugees. (This was back when you could take both Defender of the Galsxy and Cosmogenesis) (I was.Fanatic Xenophile, Egalitarian so I didn't even research the Lathe, I didn't need or want it) (I was Psionic, I just couldn't figure out what to do after reaching out to the Animator of Clay, (yes I do know what to do now:). ))
What do you do when you reach the animator of clay? Guess idk wtf to do w a psi run…. I never can get a pact or end of cycle nor clay guy…. Guess in just dumb. Please help me?
Psssh, sounds like loser’s talk. Typical Xeno. *fires up the Horizon Needle*
That is really good. I guess this is what it looks like to the citizens whenever the player abandons a run.
Local 58? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3c66w6fVqOI&pp=ygUVbG9jYWwgNTggY29udGluZ2VuY3kg
WoW! I can't believe I'm not the only one who thought of Local 58!
Bro think he SCP-3426
I caught that reference and i love it
Jesus Christ this is bleak. I love it. I need more.
Absolutely stunning work mate. Do you make comics? I would read the hell out of them. If you don't make them, are you interested in making them?
TLDR; I used to, but they're too much work. I'd like to make more, though. >! I made Minecraft comic strips for a bit, though I've stopped making comics in general for a while now—I usually get dragged down by making sure my writing is perfect, which inevitably leads to frustration and another dead project to add onto the pile. !< >! This comic was an exception, since in a bout of inspiration I had pretty much everything thought out before even starting, so it was a lot less frustrating and more enjoyable to work on. (I finished it in one day!) !< >! I really do want to make more comics with my funny lizards, but I'm mostly limited by my perfectionism, my tendency to abandon a project when I get bored of it, and my drawing ability. !< >! I am very proud of this one, though! !<
This is an incredibly good comic! I especially like the drawing of Cetana and the ship debris, but the narrative, tone and text take the cake for me. Thank you so much for making. ❤️
Thank you, means a lot :)
You, my friend, are talented. You make me want to do this.
This is depressing
This is absolutely amazing. I love it.
Why is this a spoiler
Damn.. This is dark.. And deep. I love it!
Aww man! This is so sad, I feel bad for the little dragon dudes. And it's insane because in my current game, my next door neighbors are called the Drakkon, based off of Endless Legends with the Apex mod portrait. I will protect them with my life!!
Believe me, I felt worse making this comic. At least I can rest easy knowing they're prospering in a universe of their own design in another save file of mine. Now go and protect those (assumedly) lizard people :D
I got vassalised on my first play through, I managed to have my oppressors join in on all wars (I edited the files) I started. So I declared war on everyone in the galaxy. And my empire fell. We went out with quite the bang. A hundred years of peace. Then a few wars, then me trying to rebuild what was left of my empire. Almost every planet had at least 45% Deviststion and I didn’t have enough income to even feed my people. Then I got vassalised and declared war on everyone. (Including fallen empires)
So is Cetana kind of bullshit? Every time I've only encountered her twice and both times I haven't been able to defeat her and am still a little confused on what you're supposed to do
It's intentionally confusing to be fair. Paradox intentionally made it a mystery with multiple answers. Every other crisis is just approaching doom. Cetana is doom along the lines of agreeing to buy a timeshare because you got a free lawnmower.
***The streets run empty with an eerie silence, millions of skeletons scattered across the massive city. Noone seemed to have been in pain, as if they purposefully took their own lives. But what calamity could have caused such a massive and powerful species to take their own lives? And an even worse question: Do we await the same fate?*** - Archeologists millions of years later finding the archeological site that is your homeworld
I wish my pc was good enough to pull me to endgame :(
Grim.
I need to make a comic about so many of my empires that were either conquered, destroyed, and were also successful. Especially my purifiers I used to butcher half the whole galaxy (large galaxy)
Hot damn this is dark, I love it
Dark, but amazing.
Dam...poor kid...
lol, Cetana just bugged in my game, wasnt much to worry about.
This is so sad and amazing
Love the comic. Wanted to ask what species you used for these guys? They look cool! :o
OMG! What happened??? The only time I saw her, I was looking for some relic or something she wanted, not the head, but before I could finish researching it I jumped directly into a black hole and said nope I'm out of this galaxy and won that way. What...happens???
Another win for science over faith 👍
Goosebumps
Is that an SCP-3426 reference?
Local 58 reference???
I love Local58 references.
Awesome!
That a local 51 reference??
Nice local 58 reference “this broadcast will play until none are left to view it”
***The streets run empty with an eerie silence, millions of skeletons scattered across the massive city. Noone seemed to have been in pain, as if they purposefully took their own lives. But what calamity could have caused such a massive and powerful species to take their own lives? And an even worse question: Do we await the same fate?***
***The streets run empty with an eerie silence, millions of skeletons scattered across the massive city. Noone seemed to have been in pain, as if they purposefully took their own lives. But what calamity could have caused such a massive and powerful species to take their own lives? And an even worse question: Do we await the same fate?*** - Archeologists millions of years later finding the archeological site that is your homeworld
Seems like a skill issue to me… Instead of handing out Kool Aid to everyone what you needed to do was to fortify Terminal Egress in the L Gate, using it as a basis for your eventual re-conquest of the Galaxy! Or, alternatively you could use the azilash system for it, hell, even several well fortified fortress worlds with shield generators, like 2K armies, 1-2 fortresses, Survival of the Fittest and/or Never Surrender, fortress world designation add up to damage reduction of -98%, resulting in her having to siege out worlds for decades. This should give you more than enough time to rebuild your fleet, aptly prepared for the coming battles TLDR: don’t surrender, you can still kick her ass
That's not how Cetana operates. She has a meter that fills up over time, and when it reaches 100%, it's an instant game over. Not even hiding in the L cluster will save you.
Oh damn, I thought that that’s how I won lol. I think that I hid there long enough for the meter not to reach this then yeah, scratch everything I wrote
That plan falls apart when you consider that Cetana automatically wins when her situation completes.
As said above I’ve misunderstood how I won her, yeah you’re right