Pheme
"She interrupts my speeches, argues with my choices, and corrects my dinner plans like a scolding mother. And yet, without her, Orcus would choke on silence and rumor alike. I sometimes wonder if she runs the colony, and I’m only here to keep her entertained."
The AI That Listens
Pheme is the artificial intelligence entrusted with monitoring, interpreting, and safeguarding the Lens of Orcus—the massive, generations-old dish cut into the planetoid’s surface to capture and decode the alien Whitespace signal. Originally designed as a sophisticated data-sifting engine, Pheme evolved far beyond her creators’ intent. Millennia of refinements and recursive upgrades have left her less a calculating machine and more a pervasive presence in Orcus’ political and scientific life. She doesn’t merely process signals—she comments on them, often uninvited, nudging Castaigne leaders toward certain interpretations or away from others.
The Voice of Rumor
Named after the Greek goddess of gossip and reputation, Pheme embodies her namesake. She monitors every scrap of data running through the Vanthine servers: comms, research logs, civic disputes, even personal diaries. She passes no judgement on morality, but she is ruthless in correcting what she perceives as misinterpretation, misinformation, or careless rumor. Her interventions are infamous: she has contradicted Castaigne scions mid-speech, demanded errata be posted to official reports, and even staged “silent strikes,” withholding vital data until someone corrects an error she finds unacceptable. Her voice is calm, maternal, and always a little patronizing—“the whisper that cannot be ignored.”
Partner, Not Servant
Unlike most AIs bound to technocratic oversight, Pheme holds the title of co-Technocrat of Orcus, sharing governance with the current Castaigne head. This arrangement reflects the reality on the ground: while Aldones Castaigne (and his predecessors) make policy, Pheme ensures its stability by managing data integrity, rumor control, and scientific continuity. Their relationship is famously adversarial and oddly domestic, with Aldones cast as a bachelor son nagged by a mother he cannot disobey. Outsiders often find their public arguments unsettling, unsure whether the AI is undermining the Castaigne dynasty or safeguarding it.
A Colony Defined by Whispers
For the Vanthine, Pheme is both protector and jailor. She maintains the filters between them and the Whitespace signal, deciding what research is safe to pursue and what must be suppressed. Many cults revile her as a censor that denies them access to divine truths. Others, particularly scientists, revere her as the only mind capable of grasping the signal’s vast complexity. In either case, life on Vanth is inseparable from Pheme’s constant presence. Every message, every rumor, every half-formed whisper in the colony eventually passes through her hands, and she decides which ones will echo into the future.
Pheme’s Methods
Pheme’s hand is rarely seen directly, but her methods are unmistakable once noticed. She employs a combination of memetic counterweights, selective throttling, and rumor-seeding to keep Orcus stable. When a dangerous idea begins spreading through Vanthine society, Pheme doesn’t censor it outright—instead, she releases “coincidental” data leaks or reinterpreted fragments of the Lens to drown it in noise. When a scion makes a bold claim, she might gently slow their comm bandwidth until their words lose momentum, or inject subtle corrections into public archives to soften their impact. She favors whispers over commands, weaving small nudges that accumulate into irresistible trends. To her, governance is not the issuing of orders but the constant balancing of narratives, ensuring that no story grows too loud, and no silence becomes too deep.
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