The First Minds

If you say the phrase "The First Minds" near any Cheldrun you had better say it with reverence. As far as anyone knows the Cheldrun have always been atheists, but they come close to worshiping these figures of their ancient past. In the houses of more traditional Allskin families one can still trace the wafting incense back to a small shrine dedicated to them. On the shrine a brass gong sits with a symbol carefully hammered into its center: a circle with an equilateral triangle laid over top.

Constantly aware of themselves as a remnant, for many Cheldrun veneration of the First Minds is the only link they have with a past, which in their imaginations is utopian. Indeed, with the Cheldrun the past is a complicated omnipresent reality. Everything from the names of their cities, to their stubborn refusal to adapt to life on Karia is connected to their understanding of where they have come from. This is further complicated by the wild imprecision of their historiography.

Yes, as precise and methodical as the Cheldrun can be in almost every regard, they suffer from a kind of collective selective amnesia regarding their past. From the moment they arrived on Karia everything has been meticulously documented. If you go back in the record one day further you encounter a void where verifiable information is concerned.

The Allskin have an explanation for this. Once the Cheldrun had a priestly caste, selected from among the oldest and wisest Allskin houses. The priests, known as Saishi, were responsible for carrying on the teachings of the First Minds and recording the history of the Cheldrun people. Just before the fleet of Cheldrun vessels crashed into Karia Vitalus there was an uprising by the Biomade and Mechified, which overthrew the old order. In the confusion (no one is precisely sure what happened) only 117 ships made the landing though the original number was much much greater. After the dust had settled, not one Saishi could be found among the populations of the surviving vessels.

In one fell swoop the link to the past had been severed.

Who were the First Minds? Without the Saishi it may be impossible to know. Popular devotions have characterized them as three individuals - the progenitors of each type of Cheldrun. They were responsible for commencing the Great Experiment and laying out its ground rules. They had technology which later generations have never been able to completely replicate, including the Mechas which Allskin pilots inherit. According to the Biomade they were geniuses. According to the Mechified they were fearless pioneers. According to the Allskin they were enlightened. Maybe they were all or none of these things.

Among the few Allskin families which have retained even a dim memory of the doctrines of the Saishi, there is a belief that the "three individuals" of popular devotion is a convenient myth. In reality, these families believe, the First Minds are a metaphor for the spark of creative genius which lies within every Cheldrun. By venerating the First Minds they believe they are doing honor to their own potential.

Whether they are right or not, their shrines are blackened with the soot of perpetual devotion.