Tennebrek's Halcyon

Origin

After his falling out with the rest of the Pantheon, Tennebrek was left isolated, aimless, and despondent. He was stuck in this state for a dreadfully long time. While adrift in the galaxy for what surely must have been centuries, he paid particularly close attention to those beaten down by society; the downtrodden. He felt responsible for their circumstances.

During his time spent as a vagabond, he often spoke with those less fortunate. He wasn't sure what he was hoping to hear. Maybe he was hoping to find a reason this was their fault. That way, he could absolve himself of responsibility for his hand in allowing a society to develop that embraced classism as not just a feature, but a core tenet. Eventually, he'd heard enough. He understood that something needed to be done.

He knew he couldn't take a godlike heavy-handed approach and try to re-direct society and their collective thoughts. He'd tried that before to disastrous effect. He knew with his power, his skill, his expertise, he could at least engineer some kind of bandage-like solution to the problem. Thus, the creation of the Halcyon.

The Halcyon

A device that is both ingenious and horrifying in equal measure, The Halcyon is essentially an artificial heaven. Probing a bit further, it's an isolated, set of interconnected servers that hosts the psyches of countless individuals.

With clear intent and absolute understanding of the dire implications of such a thing existing, Tennebrek knew this device had to be easily hidden, extraordinarily sturdy, and resilient enough to be capable of withstanding the test of time. More importantly, if it or he were ever discovered by his fellow gods or other threats, there would have to be fail-safes.

The result of these needs is a modular, psionic mainframe stored in an isolated personal rift detached from common reality.

• The rift can only be accessed by Tennebrek himself. He can focus his psyche to generate a temporary doorway through which only he can walk. Inside the rift is a high-intensity micro-nebula. The electric charge generated by this nebula provides a functionally infinite amount of power to maintain The Halcyon.
• The hub is a giant, floating, truncated icosahedron. Each hexagonal face has a plethora of reinforced sockets.
• The sockets are intended to hold solid marnite pearls. The pearls, being made of marnite, are psionically conductive spheres that Tennebrek uses for transporting psyches he's collected over a period of time. If something were to happen to Tennebrek, only that singular pearl would be lost rather than the entire Halcyon.
• The environments within the pearls are purpose-built, temporary utopias, thoughtfully crafted and engineered by Tennebrek himself. While contained within the pearls, the needs and wants of the collective psyches are easily met due to the lack of need of tangibility. Instead, everything can be created purely by thought. Once the pearl is socketed into the hub, the environment of the pearl merges with the greater whole. The Halcyon utopia is then realized with the amalgamation of the pearls' environments with that of the hub.

Charity(?)

Once Tennebrek had his handy-dandy solution built and in hand, he took to the stars to begin looking for those with whom he'd spoken in the past. Obviously, the lifespan of a god far exceeds that of your average mortal, so most were simply no longer alive for him to re-engage with. To the few he did encounter once again, he made a proposal: they can escape the dregs of their current existence that they so loathe if they're willing to entrust their psyche, their life, their continued existence to his care. He fully explains what this means - no trickery, no half-truths, just absolute sincerity. He simply says, "If you do this, your body will die, but your consciousness will live on within a utopian environment. Your every need, want, and whim will be met in perpetuity."

Not all took well to Tennebrek's offer. Some saw this as some kind of sick means by which he was seeking permission for murder. Some simply disagreed. Others still saw it as disturbing the natural order of the universe and simply too easy to corrupt and abuse with control and power. Rather than become defensive, he simply listened, acknowledged, disagreed, and moved onto the next "candidate."

From then on, he continued on the same mission: find the neglected, the ostracized, the vilified, and see if they were truly victims of circumstance and society. If they were, he made the offer. If they weren't, he simply continued on the mission.

No matter what, however, he was always careful. He knew his brothers and sisters were still out there; still searching; still hunting. He could not simply advertise this opportunity lest word spread well beyond his reach and control and get back to the rest of the Pantheon. Were that to happen, he knew his continued efforts would be forever under threat.

Further ensuring the safety of this endeavor, he only opens the rift to The Halcyon once a year. This is the average maximum amount of time it would take for him to "fill" a pearl with psyches. Beyond this limit, the pearl would risk shattering - a risk simply not worth taking.

"Fine Print"

As with all things that seem too good to be true, that sentiment rang true here, as well. You see, one thing not often considered when blending societal ideas, even in a pre-existing utopian structure, is the conflicting ideas of the inhabitants. It doesn't happen often, but there have been occasions where the conflict of those within the pearl simply becomes untenable and irreparable. In these instances, Tennebrek attempts to intervene and rectify the situation. While almost always successful in doing so, there are occasions where the conflict grows even beyond his control. In such events, he deemed it necessary to abandon the prospect in favor of preserving the integrity of the greater whole. He would crush the pearl and dump the remains into a nearby star.

One has to wonder, though, what would happen if the conflict of psyches arose and festered within The Halcyon itself? Would purging a single pearl from the hub be enough? A handful? An entire panel? If Tennebrek ever finds himself in the same exact situation that brought him to the idea of The Halcyon in the first place, will he purge the system and abandon it entirely, giving up once again? He'd be condemning millions to non-existence, but would that be so bad? He'd be free of the pressures and responsibility once again. He'd be free to try something else.