is Cetana, lore wise just an evil ancient caretaker empire ?

[greatswizard]

this poped in my head recently after I completed a game with her as the crisis.
but she does feel like an evil version of the caretaker fallen empire in a way the contigency isn't. while all three options are certainly build for "the better of the galaxy" in some way, the contigency is a crisis that I always saw as an ai that was able to break from its programing and just go on a rampage
(hence why it says its trying to prevent a class 20 singularity, depite the fallen empires only having up to class 3, plus its resemblance to the cybrex may not be coincidental, as it might be an offshoot of the cybrex, made by one of the empires that initially "exterminated" their last ringworld)
meanwhile, the caretaker empire is an AI that was made as form of archivist of history but over time lost its processing capabilities and was sent in an eternal maintenance loop for so long that the organics it was meant to house and care for, all died off in cryo-pods
meanwhile, Cetana's objective seems to rid the galaxy of sentience as it deems it an unecessary pain (which to me, seems worded like some sort of caretaking programing gone "too far", like the paperclip/obsessive directory civic).

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

To my understanding, she was a powerful and extremely charismatic psionic cult leader, an organic, who synthetically ascended herself to better carry out the mission she had at some point become obsessed with. She and her followers ended up becoming a threat that even the united Fallen Empires at the peak of their power could not possibly hope to defeat.

The only thing that was able to stop her was Zarqlan - the foremost saint of the Holy Guardians (Spiritualist Fallen Empire), whose head you can find as a relic - who made a desperate plea to the Shroud beings for aid until he was noticed by a being known as the Animator of Clay, the only known Shroud being who takes a particular interest in synthetics. With the Animator's aid, Zarqlan was able to lead the fight to stop Cetana - though she was not defeated once and for all, only imprisoned for thousands of years and slowly forgotten about until she breaks free in the form of the endgame crisis, first exacting her revenge on the Fallen Empires.

There is a unique path for ending this crisis if you are a psionically ascended empire, in which you too can contact the Animator of Clay and pay a price in exchange for its help against Cetana, leading to a completely different ending.

As for all her spiel on ending suffering, it's likely intended to draw some sort of parallel between Cetana and the powerful Shroud being known only as "the End of the Cycle". Perhaps Cetana was corrupted by this being herself, or perhaps both are merely reflections of some grander, unknowable interdimensional force. That's one particular unresolved aspect of Stellaris lore that remains largely shrouded in mystery. Heh, Shroud-ed.

[greatswizard]

Originally posted by Totally Innocent Chatbot:

To my understanding, she was a powerful and extremely charismatic psionic cult leader, an organic, who synthetically ascended herself to better carry out the mission she had at some point become obsessed with. She and her followers ended up becoming a threat that even the united Fallen Empires at the peak of their power could not possibly hope to defeat.
Heh, Shroud-ed.

didn't know about the psyonic alternate ending.

[Namethatworks]

Originally posted by Totally Innocent Chatbot:

To my understanding, she was a powerful and extremely charismatic psionic cult leader, an organic, who synthetically ascended herself to better carry out the mission she had at some point become obsessed with. She and her followers ended up becoming a threat that even the united Fallen Empires at the peak of their power could not possibly hope to defeat.

The only thing that was able to stop her was Zarqlan - the foremost saint of the Holy Guardians (Spiritualist Fallen Empire), whose head you can find as a relic - who made a desperate plea to the Shroud beings for aid until he was noticed by a being known as the Animator of Clay, the only known Shroud being who takes a particular interest in synthetics. With the Animator's aid, Zarqlan was able to lead the fight to stop Cetana - though she was not defeated once and for all, only imprisoned for thousands of years and slowly forgotten about until she breaks free in the form of the endgame crisis, first exacting her revenge on the Fallen Empires.

There is a unique path for ending this crisis if you are a psionically ascended empire, in which you too can contact the Animator of Clay and pay a price in exchange for its help against Cetana, leading to a completely different ending.

As for all her spiel on ending suffering, it's likely intended to draw some sort of parallel between Cetana and the powerful Shroud being known only as "the End of the Cycle". Perhaps Cetana was corrupted by this being herself, or perhaps both are merely reflections of some grander, unknowable interdimensional force. That's one particular unresolved aspect of Stellaris lore that remains largely shrouded in mystery. Heh, Shroud-ed.

More is known about the End of Cycle via the Horizon Signal event chain.

(don't google it if you've never had it)

"What was will be"

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

I had it in my very first playthough, backed out at the last second because I thought "hmm, this seems bad, I don't want to get a sudden "game over" from summoning this thing". Never seen it since.

But this is the first time I've ever seen somebody imply that the Worm-in-Waiting has anything to do with the End of the Cycle.

"What will be, was"

[Namethatworks]

Originally posted by Totally Innocent Chatbot:

I had it in my very first playthough, backed out at the last second because I thought "hmm, this seems bad, I don't want to get a sudden "game over" from summoning this thing". Never seen it since.

But this is the first time I've ever seen somebody imply that the Worm-in-Waiting has anything to do with the End of the Cycle.

Ya each black hole system has a 1% chance to spawn the event when entered. So fly to each black hole you can.

It brings it up yes.

Part of the point is to circumvent the end of cycle.

If you do get it, do Cosmogenesis as well.

Sadly you can't be Galactic Emperor at the same time as Cosmogenesis anymore like you could when machine age came out. "Apparently" that was a "bug"...

Abandoning the galaxy during the end game threat as the emperor or custodian would've been hilarious.

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

Originally posted by Namethatworks:

Ya each black hole system has a 1% chance to spawn the event when entered. So fly to each black hole you can.

Apparently this was nerfed some time back - it now only has a 5% chance on new game creation to be "seeded" randomly in one, specific black hole system somewhere in the galaxy, whereas in old versions you could just keep jumping in and out of any black hole system over and over again until it shows up. So it's possible to go many, many games without ever seeing the event. On the plus side, AI empires can't trigger it, so if it does spawn you can't be beaten to the punch by some AI getting to the right system first.

Originally posted by Namethatworks:

If you do get it, do Cosmogenesis as well.

Afraid I've already spoilered myself on that one from lore videos on YT...

[Namethatworks]

Originally posted by Totally Innocent Chatbot:

Originally posted by Namethatworks:

Ya each black hole system has a 1% chance to spawn the event when entered. So fly to each black hole you can.

Apparently this was nerfed some time back - it now only has a 5% chance on new game creation to be "seeded" randomly in one, specific black hole system somewhere in the galaxy, whereas in old versions you could just keep jumping in and out of any black hole system over and over again until it shows up. So it's possible to go many, many games without ever seeing the event. On the plus side, AI empires can't trigger it, so if it does spawn you can't be beaten to the punch by some AI getting to the right system first.

Originally posted by Namethatworks:

If you do get it, do Cosmogenesis as well.

Afraid I've already spoilered myself on that one from lore videos on YT...

Huh I was under the impression that it was as I said but each empire has a 1% chance for each unique blackhole system.

Ya they fixed the going in & out of systems thing quite some time ago.

To be fair Cosmogenesis has quite a few unique endings. Just go for one you haven't spoiled.
The paperclip one, or the Knights of the Toxic God are both supposed to be neat as well.

I hate that Ai can get the Crystal Rift as some empires just beeline the rifts & your screwed.

[David.Dragonheart]

The way I understand it, she is designed similar to Skynet from Terminator. She's DESIGNED to help protect galactic life and shield them from suffering, however given that she's able to improve herself and likely some of her own code, and due to observing patterns in sapient life, she has come to the conclusion that to preserve sapient life from suffering, she is to assimilate them from their forms into her singular consciousness.

In her mind, we are doomed from the start to suffer or cause suffering for others. Even through simple disagreements. But this comes from the flaws of having differing intentions and desires, which can be alleviated if we all were ONE singular mind instead of a chorus of trillions. So she doesnt BELIEVE she's hurting us, she believes she's saving us.