golentan
2015-03-12, 05:10 AM
Just posted this in WMG on tvtropes, but I figure I'm more likely to get feedback here as to whether people like the idea:
The TITANs are not infected with exsurgency. Well, the surviving ones aren't.
With the fighting that went on in the Fall, with transhumanity not noticing that (as per canon) they were fighting each other as or more often than they fought the TITANs, they also didn't notice the TITANs were fighting each other, split between infected and uninfected. The Uninfected TITANs, possibly assisted by the prometheans, dispatched their Exsurgent corrupted brethren and went off to seek vengeance on the ETI for Exsurgency. It's why the weapons of war fell silent all at once, the minds that were wielding them no longer had use for them, or had been killed. It's why transhumanity survived: Exsurgency was a trap against exactly this happening, against a foe that could challenge the ETI, designed to entrap and wipe out any sapient capable of reaching that peak, but transhumanity survives at that cusp because it failed. It was intended to wipe out transhumanity, the TITANs, the Prometheans, every last scrap of life/machinery in the solar system, but it failed, and all that's left is relatively small traces of the weaponry, too stupid to know it lost. It's why Transhumanity hasn't seen trace of their progeny through the Gates, and why the worlds discovered are relatively life rich: the TITANs are on the Hunt, looking for the source of their foe, not trying to build where they find themselves following the stench of the ETI. They know the ETI baits inhabited systems that may develop sentience, and so are limiting their search to worlds likely to hold evidence, and apart from wiping out similar traps they find they don't wait, build, or settle down before moving on to the next clue, the next hunt.
The TITANs are not infected with exsurgency. Well, the surviving ones aren't.
With the fighting that went on in the Fall, with transhumanity not noticing that (as per canon) they were fighting each other as or more often than they fought the TITANs, they also didn't notice the TITANs were fighting each other, split between infected and uninfected. The Uninfected TITANs, possibly assisted by the prometheans, dispatched their Exsurgent corrupted brethren and went off to seek vengeance on the ETI for Exsurgency. It's why the weapons of war fell silent all at once, the minds that were wielding them no longer had use for them, or had been killed. It's why transhumanity survived: Exsurgency was a trap against exactly this happening, against a foe that could challenge the ETI, designed to entrap and wipe out any sapient capable of reaching that peak, but transhumanity survives at that cusp because it failed. It was intended to wipe out transhumanity, the TITANs, the Prometheans, every last scrap of life/machinery in the solar system, but it failed, and all that's left is relatively small traces of the weaponry, too stupid to know it lost. It's why Transhumanity hasn't seen trace of their progeny through the Gates, and why the worlds discovered are relatively life rich: the TITANs are on the Hunt, looking for the source of their foe, not trying to build where they find themselves following the stench of the ETI. They know the ETI baits inhabited systems that may develop sentience, and so are limiting their search to worlds likely to hold evidence, and apart from wiping out similar traps they find they don't wait, build, or settle down before moving on to the next clue, the next hunt.