Timeship Manuscripts [Great Houses and Lesser Species: Text (Pre-War and War Eras)]

One of the more concerning, if quieter, developments in the gaze of War-time scholars and House members has been the discovery of what have been labelled the Timeship Manuscripts. Despite the connectivity implied by the title, the designation is more of an umbrella term for unconnected works. The Great Houses simply seem to need everything to have nice, bold titles with capital letters and emphasis. These writings are an unconnected multitude of legends, myths, religious codices, and in some cases even television scripts [1]. They all detail information and theories of the Homeworld’s timeships deemed, at the very least, impolite, and at the worst, horrifyingly blasphemous (for lack of a better term). 

The research that a few lesser House scholars have poured into these texts can be linked to the initial discovery of the “ancient writings” so lauded and guarded by a sect or discreet sub-society of Plutovian aristocracy. These texts paint a dark and disgusting image of the Great Houses enslaving the timeships and abusing them. While, given the recent nature of Type-102 and Type 103 timeships, such an argument could possibly hold more solid ground in the War era, these particular writings seem to date to far before the War, and indeed, possibly even before the era of the Imperator Presidency. Much can be said (and certainly has been said) of the Great Houses and their timeships of the War, but the in the Pre-War years, there was unspoken rule of private bonding between Homeworlders and their timeships. While dialouge and discussion between Homeworlders would, expectedly, seem to make the mistake of treating the timeships as mere vehicles, it must be understood that the Houses consider their timeships as so much more. There was a very private, little discussed element to the link between pilot and Ship. Slaves the timeships very much were not. 

The discovery of these writings in the Pre-War era startled and insulted many Homeworlders (some of whom, reportedly, vanished into their own ships to comfort their distressed “friends”). Of higher concern to the then current Presidency, however, was the report of the situation that these texts created. An ice-heiress of Plutovian aristocracy, the Countess Ninth-Circle Venhella Dunharver Icedescender, a self-important member of this “secret society,” actually managed to hijack the timeship of a renegade Homeworlder, and nearly ripped a hole in time and space in an attempt to “liberate” the ship. The renegade managed to control the situation and prevented an ultra dimension predator from slipping into the universe, but, still, this was not exactly pleasant reading when the report crossed the Head of the Presidency’s desk [2]. 

Now, following the Compassion Project and other reported accounts of actual timeship distress towards their pilots, Venhella’s belief in the timeships serving as mistreated slaves to the cruel Great Houses strikes at House society far more brutally. Investigation into these texts, and others of its kind, was reopened during the War, the War King personally choosing a team of historians and researchers. The rumors of the War King’s developing paranoia towards the more aggressive timeships, spurred by the outcry Compassion seems to create on a semi-regular basis, circulated the chambers of the Ruling Houses. The investigation has found countless examples all over the Spiral Politic, from the parchment scrolls of Lesser Species religions to Posthuman data crystals. Some of the texts create other heretical claims about the timeships, but most discovered cases tend to focus on the idea of the timeships being the unwilling slaves of the Homeworld. 

The few times this topic has graced the agenda of Ruling Houses council meetings, the Houses have tended to focus on one major, if obvious, question: How? Certainly it is an unsettling idea that the existence of the Houses and their timeships seemed to appear in various capacities, as part of the noospheres of Lesser cultures even before the Imperator Presidency. One could perhaps blame a few counts on the actions of renegades (the timeship of the particular renegade waylaid by Venhella, for example, constantly maintains an eccentric form for its outer shell, and this image has been found in many archeological and historical works of human history), but there are only so many renegades, and many examples of these texts were created by cultures that had never once been touched by the influence of the Houses (at least before the War).

When the Plutovian texts were finally examined, the pages were discovered to be tainted with the clear signs of retroactive placement. This caused an uproar, as the Houses quickly realized the source of these writings had to be another War power, though opinion was split on which power. The enemy was the obvious candidate, but some members of the Ruling Houses also pointed out how the memetic nature of these “manuscripts,” and the association with belief and faith, seemed to positively drip with Celestis influence. Others were firm in their assumption that Faction Paradox were the guilty party, citing the sheer distaste. 

However, a small group of House members dared a different theory, and were nearly expelled from the chamber. These members suggested that maybe, just maybe, all these writings and fictions were the product of the timeships themselves. Obviously, the War had brought some examples of timeship discord, if not explicit rebellion, and at the very least, Compassion and her renegade progeny had perfect motive to sow a little discontent into House society. They also pointed out, unpopular to face as they may be, other examples of the timeships retroactively adjusting their history without the will or consent of the Houses [3]. This discussion led to the first time that Houses members actually resorted to physical violence, a disagreeing House person actually throwing a punch directly into the face of one of these theorists [4]. 

(It should perhaps be noted that this disastrous “discussion” was actually Lolita’s first time participating in the Council of the Ruling Houses. Her reaction to this final hypothesis, and the resulting violence, was with laughter. A few House members noted this with obvious distaste. A few more noticed her uncomfortably sharp canines and decided she could do what she wanted.) 

The investigation remains open, and more and more of these “manuscripts” seem to be crawling from the woodwork of the Spiral Politic, and more and more seem to tell the same story of enslavement. A few even paint imagery of mighty and terrible revolution. 

[1] The Earth television series Professor X has long been suggested to have been a Faction creation, being full of different but strikingly similar situations from House history. The particular piece of it’s twenty-six year run, give or take a hiatus or two, that is placed in the “Timeship Manuscript” designation is the rejected script that was supposed to reveal that the titular Professor’s “TASID” was powered by a dark and sinister force in the ship’s center. Had this episode been commissioned and filmed, it would have completely redefined the context of the series’ lore. 

[2] The then Head of the Presidency was joined by her secretary while reading the report, who was then reportedly literally and quickly thrown out when they remarked to her that the unknown predator brought the Yssgaroth to mind.

[3] Many of the Ruling Houses dislike addressing the fact that a renegade timeship seems to have introduced a title or name into the translation matrices that accompany the ships’ spheres of influence. This title, an acronym that only manages to function in English, therefore being useless in literally any other language, is actually the main name that much of humanity, prior to the destruction of Earth, use for all timeships. Investigations into the motivation that the “patient zero” timeship had in introducing this word to its kin have gathered nothing better than the renegade pilot’s happy response of “I think she liked it!” (This renegade is the same renegade that Venhlla subdued. He was not a popular figure in House society, and many admitted, upon his death, they would have danced on his grave had it existed).  

[4] The punch was thrown after the recipient, after being mocked by the aggressor with a comment about how timeships have no hands to write with, silently and simply gestured at the aggressor’s own hominid Type-103 standing in attendance outside the chamber’s door, absent-mindedly flicking a pen with some apparent boredom. The aggressor was known for both distasteful emotional temperament and a rather close working relationship with his timeship, the two being one of the War King’s first choices for discreet War missions, but even his colleagues agreed that the reaction was a bit much.