Entelechy
From Destinypedia, the Destiny wiki
Entelechy is a book released with the Collector's Edition of The Final Shape. It is a collection of transcriptions compiled and annotated by Eido in her search to understand the Witness and its motives behind the Final Shape.
Text in this color indicate annotations and findings by Eido.
Scribe Archive XI-2-4A
TYPE: Personal Communications, Unsent Draft
RETRIEVED FROM: Wintership Simiks-Fel // Databank E7619P
ORIGIN: HD 219134 // Unidentified ship, tetrahedral structure, derelict, heavily damaged; left in place
KEYWORDS: Gardener; final shape; HNW047622
IDENTITIES: HNW047622
ANNOTATED TRANSCRIPTION FOLLOWS
I arrived at the garden-to-be to find barren rock, as lifeless as the expanse around it. Just as the surveys said.
It's perfect. Rather, it will be perfect.
The moment I laid eyes on the allotted system, I knew my initial plans had to go. How inelegant they were, those drafts drawn up in smiling ignorance! Only experience could have cured me of such shortsightedness.
Yes, now I can see the path to the [summit/Pyramidion/final shape). Here, the matredda blade-leaves. There, the green-glass isbati blossoms arcing overhead. I have brought enough progenitor material to seed a hundred worlds, never mind five! In time, there will be a grand harvest of panacea* from this garden. I'm sure both you and your [Merciful/Penitent/Benefic]** will be pleased.
I could cover these bare rocks with greenhouses, of course. Rows of neat enclosures, lights in just the right spectra, growth solutions mixed to just the right proportions, microclimate domes calibrated within a fraction of a degree, Very neat. Very efficient. Very, very boring.
After all, that would just be a [reflection/shard/imitation] of System R-3TN-PLRMA, wouldn't it? And you know I've never had any interest in recreating other people's designs. So, just between you and me, here's a little secret: the panacea progenitors weren't all I brought with me.
Heh, I can hear you scolding me now! But there was so much space in the cargo hold, and... well, to be frank, you're not here to disapprove. Besides, if you could see this allotment as I do see the potential writ in the cracks and crevices of every rock, feel the heart-song of their molten cores you would understand.
But you won't need to take my word for it. By the time you can bear to leave work long enough to come visit, my garden will have taken root and grown strong. How lovely it will be, to sit together and listen to the wind whistling through the boughs! Perhaps even you will smile.
Oh, but I mustn't get ahead of myself. Before any of this can happen. I'll need to prepare. I've unfurled the Pergola to capture what I need to weave each planet's atmosphere. The Pergola's sail is so vast that I must cross my ship from vertex to vertex to see around the sparkling cloth.
It's exhilarating. I've wielded the Gardener's*** tools before, but never at such scale. It feels unfair, honestly. You led the development of such marvels, and yet you're leaps away, unable to see the culmination of your hard work. I know you claim it doesn't matter to you as long as you know your work is being put to good use but still! Permit me this idle fancy.
At this rate, it shouldn't take more than a few centuries before I have enough substrate to work with, and then...
Well, you'll just have to come and see the [summit/Pyramidion/ final shape] for yourself, won't you?
HNW047622****
TRANSCRIPTION ENDS
Scribe Archive XI-2-5C
TYPE: Ship Cargo Manifest
RETRIEVED FROM: Wintership Simiks-Fel // Databank E7619P
ORIGIN: HD 219134// Unidentified ship; tetrahedral structure, derelict, heavily damaged; left in place // Crystalline storage media
KEYWORDS: Gardener, HNW047622
ANNOTATED TRANSCRIPTION FOLLOWS
PRESERVED IN RESIN
5,908 – asphodelia-stem cuttings – panacea
7.734 – veruut-whole leaf cuttings – soil enrichment
7,869 – isbati-root cuttings – panacea
9,405 – sphenel-bulbs – decorative
[additional entries omitted for brevity]
COLD STORAGE
14,401 – lyceradite-seeds – decorative
17,092 – auderee-seeds – decorative
18,734 – matredda-seeds – soil enrichment
[additional entries omitted for brevity]
EQUIPMENT
1–Pergola – for atmospheric weaving – on loan
4 – replacement sails – in case of damage
3 – Crèches – for initial abiogenesis
8 – abiogenetic solution - canisters
6 – Cauldrons for elemental synthesis
3,965 – fundamental particles vacuum tubes
[additional entries omitted for brevity]
TRANSCRIPTION ENDS
SCRIBE NOTES
*Appears to be a general term used to refer to organic material with medicinal properties.
**A group or organization of some sort. Mentions of the group across various records suggest that its members were scientists and doctors.
***Another title for the Great Machine; the Traveler.
****An identification code associated with this individual. Need to cross-reference.
SCRIBE OBSERVATIONS
I began my search with the familiar. During the Long Drift, peaceful encounters between Ketches were rare, even when they hailed from the same House. But when such meetings did occur, they would exchange valuable resources, including data. This practice helped the Eliksni navigate that vast and dangerous void, to know who might open fire or which areas had already been stripped of resources. These data exchanges leave traces, and even if the relevant entries are later overwritten, a Scribe can track these traces to their source. Especially a Scribe who grew up with the hum of a Servitor!
I combed the databanks of our Lightships for any mention of the Witness, and followed those paths as they forked through dozens of Ketches. Based on a single mention of records recovered from a "tetrahedral ship," I was able to track down these transcripts. They were buried in the databanks of a decommissioned House Winter Ketch, the Simiks-Fel. Repairing the ship's generator was quite an adventure-I shall have to tell you about it another time!
According to the Simiks-Fel's collection log, the transcribed records were originally found aboard a derelict ship encountered during the Long Drift. Associated telemetry suggests that this derelict was similar, but not identical, to the Witness's fleet of Pyramid ships. An older design, perhaps? The ship was ancient beyond reckoning, and though it was badly damaged and SCRIBE ARCHIVE XI-9-20 abandoned, some of the data crystals were intact enough to be decrypted. It's a shame that the Simiks-Fel did not bring along any of the physical crystals I'm sure the Cryptarchy would have liked to have a look!
These are the oldest of all the records I have found, by an order of magnitude. When they were originally penned, the species that would go on to become the Ecumene had not even emerged from primordial ooze. Though my findings are not conclusive, I believe that these documents were created by the Witness's precursors, which revered the Great Machine as the Gardener (see REP #776-AHSA-WTN). Though they were hardly the only civilization to use a similar title, other elements suggest a possible connection: the tetrahedral structure of the derelict where this record was recovered, and repeated mention of a concept roughly translated as 'final shape.
There was one last note of interest from the collection log, about the star system where the derelict was encountered. Every planet in the system showed large-scale damage from crude explosives. No signs of life were found.
