*punches a hole through ur door and opens it*hiii~ Tell me about your ancients I've seen some of your art of them but I do not know the deets if there's any public.
hello. i've decided to go absolutely off the wall with this one instead of answering like a normal person! :D
separating this into categories, i've made a masterpost of ancient headcanons. sorry this took so long to answer but i think you will come to understand as most of this only existed in my brain until you hit my inbox
Government/the Council Pillars
A local group is consisted of atleast three cities, and always has atleast one Council Pillar, typically on the oldest structure but not always. The Council Pillar houses the governing body consisting of the High Councillors, the Esteemed, and the local Low Council.
HIGH COUNCILLORS High Councillors are the highest government of their society and are responsible for many things, including punishment of criminals, judgment regarding severe crimes, assigning people to governing positions, and overseeing their Lower Councils and the Iterator Project. They are only chosen by eachother, and live in the highest rooms of Council Pillars. They typically come from backgrounds of privilege, scholars, rich folk and people of influence. They are the only people who aren't required to always have an ID drone on hand.
ESTEEMED MEMBERS OF THE ITERATOR PROJECT A position gifted to Iterator Project scientists who show special talent with and understanding of the iterators and/or organism purposing. Esteemed Members are directly responsible for an iterator in some way. They are administrators, project leads, bio-engineers and analysts, to name a few. They must be endorsed by another Esteemed or a High Councillor, and then be approved by the rest of their High Council. They are either chosen from the pre-existing team on an iterator, or from scientists and new scholars. Typically, the top student of the graduate class from the School of Solutions is endorsed and sent to a structure in need of scientists.
ADMINISTRATORS Iterator Admins are always Esteemed and are considered of more influence than their peers. They can access everything an iterator can about themselves as well as more. They are responsible for the continued functionality of their charges, as well as the quality of their workload. They are often approached by their local High Council for their opinions on issues and are typically held at very high esteem (haha) by society. Their rooms in the Council Pillars are always above the rest of their local Esteemed, and contains a large motherboard of sorts for their iterator. Here they can access their statistics, health, work, current processes, memories, overseers, and probably most other things you can think of. Iterators must run some things by their admins before they do them, for example purposing life.
LOW COUNCILLORS If a city loses a Low Councillor to death or ascension, candidates are chosen by their Council and an election is held after multiple sessions of debate. Low Councillors are responsible for less severe crime, city construction/welfare, management of emergency resources, overseeing festivals/celebrations, and governing law enforcement, as well as other municipal work.
Punishment for crime is usually things like public service, but severe crimes and sometimes breaches of sensitive information can involve more harsh punishment. Violent criminals or enemies of the High Councils are sometimes responded to with a... mandatory visit to the religious acid bath! (void fluid tub time babyyyy)
There is visible class divide. People still live below the clouds, away from the Iterator cities. These lower industrial settlements are often quite slumlike, and the high class are scorned and often disdained by them. These settlements tend to be quite close-knit and casual, very opposite to the professional and flamboyant nature of the higher class. They have eachothers' backs because the government doesn't seem to have theirs. Life extending treatment and easy access to void fluid are not available to these people. They must fight very hard to reach scholar positions and achieve "success" in high society's eyes.
Everyone outside the High Councillors MUST have an ID Drone so they can be kept track of. Ways around this are common among the lower class. Some even just smash them as act of rebellion.
Anatomy/The Ancient Race/Customs
Ancients share a common ancestor with Scavengers and are bipedal mammals. They have frills and barbells like scavengers do, and their "hair" is not really hair and is closer to large frills in a sense? to be fully honest I'm not fully sure how it works. The Ancients have large hands, long limbs, and three digits on their feet. They have flat teeth, except for four sharp shark-like back teeth evolved for breaking insect exoskeletons and shellfish shells. Ancients now typically live off of nectar and plant matter.
Sexual dimorphism is incredibly limited and is only really visible in the sin bits. Trans and queer people are widely accepted and pretty common. Having children is rarely a priority. There are medical advancements available mostly to the rich that allow for lifespans to be stretched much longer than natural, and many consider introducing new lives to the Great Cycle immoral.
Although their spiritual beliefs revolve around enlightenment beyond the self, they are an indulgent people. Celebrations and festivals take place throughout the major cycles, and body mods and fancy clothes are commonplace in iterator cities. There are alcohol and drug equivalents, i sketched a comic once (that I've never posted) in which Flowers gets absolutely wasted. I'll probably post the full thing sometime but it in general covers some pretty sensitive themes haha
Its a drunk evil man wow
I haven't chosen any specific festivals but I imagine there are some based on the seasons, and there is probably large celebrations when people of importance go to the void.
The Ancients are called that for their innate understanding of the Great Cycle, and for the old belief that their kind all have old souls. They've been around the cycle so many times that they themselves Are Ancient. Extended lifespans has resulted in the same people remaining in positions of power for very extended periods of time, and the desperation for a solution to the Great Problem to be found increasing. I have some confusing headcanons on how the cycle of life and death works- I'll spare you all that garbage for now mostly because I've already been writing for so long. All you really need to know is that if you die of any way that isn't old age or disease like the rot, you cycle back to the beginning of that day. If you DO die of age or destructive illness, you begin a new cycle and reincarnate. Extending their lives was intended to help continue scientific revolution but it just meant entrapping themselves longer. Their increasing desperation eventually lead to The Mass Ascension.
The Mass Ascension
(the following text is copy-pasted from the above picture so you don't read it twice lol)
A member of the High Council of one of the first iterator cities one day decided that they could tolerate the imprisoning nature of the cycle no longer. They developed a weapon of mass destruction, a device that would release a soundwave powerful enough to tear along the entire world. This soundwave was not the real weapon; rather it was the trillions of single cell lifeforms it ferried across the planet. These organisms were comprised of almost pure void fluid, were invisible to the eye, and were programmed to specifically consume Ancient matter and break it away in the same manner that void fluid does. Once they run out of matter to consume they die. This process happened much too quickly for the Ancients to have time to feel much pain, or even comprehend what happened.
Basically, it released a gaseous wave of void fluid across the entire world. This attack was horrifically efficient. Almost the entirety of Ancientkind were destroyed 30 hours after the attack, and those who were fortunate enough to somehow evade the blast were spread too far apart and were unable to carry society on their own. The Ancients went extinct.
This behaved like normal ascension. If you had reached enlightenment or were well-enough attuned, you properly ascended. If not, you became an echo. This most likely resulted in a lot of echoes.
It was the nuclear warfare rapture, basically.
(copy-paste text end)
One day I might give a name to the guy who ended the world but for now I got nothing, lol. I think I'll name the iterator they lived on Deafening Secret or something like that. I imagine the blast caused Secret considerable damage.
I'm sure I'm going to think of 500 things to add once I post this but for the sake of actually answering one of these asks I'm gonna post it, lmao. hope this sates your curiousity a bit!! thanks for the opportunity to infodump