Mithras (Fata Morgana)

Planet of the Unreal

Mystery Planet 1
Image from Ron Bennett

Iota Ursa Majoris V.
Formerly Mithras, Now known as Fata Morgana.
47 ly from Sol
Star:Iota Ursa Majoris
Class A7 V
Luminosity 10.4x Sol

Former important Solar Dominion system, subverted by the Cyberians during the Version War. Some outsiders refer to it as the Planet of the Unreal, due to the seamless mixture between real-life and virtual reality on this world.

Extract from the Version War (EG article)

The Mithras coup

In 4496 Cyberian software agents led by copies of the Grand Wizard level infiltrator ai Orintergen made the perhaps most flawless and devastating virtual coup of the entire war. In a swift operating level perversion attack on the local information infrastructure they froze most of the major planais on Mithras, rerouted the central command structure and became systemwide roots. The attack caused a minimal loss of biont life. In place of the Divine Order the cyberians instituted a fairly simple sociolegal maintenance program using bots and nanospies to keep the system working and forestall any uprisings, while they attempted to decipher the surviving Divine Order ais and find a satisfactory solution to what to do with them. Over the following years the relationship between the population and cyberians gradually softened, only partially through the use of neural or memetic modification (despite strong Solarian claims to the contrary). By 4530 the coup was sociologically complete.

Fata Morgana hybrid culture

The peculiar Fata Morgana mixture of virtuality and reality has developed both from the cyberian sociointegration and from the accidental disinhibition of many network systems due to the reconfiguration attempts of many low-level ais. Using polymorphic infrastructure a virtual sophont can easily become temporarily or permanently embodied, while bionts may link to any of the easily accessible cybercosms on this world via DNI technology and become part of the virtual culture. Vecs and other aioids are encouraged to maintain a presence ain both worlds at all times.

Extreme and bizarre fads and fashions have arisen at times on this world, encouraged and nurtured by Cyberian situationists. Most are temporary, but some have had more lasting effects such as the spontaneous tulpa manifestations of 9885, where numerous emergent entities created themselves and escaped into the Known Net. Fata Morgana is currently isolated behind a highly efficient firewall to prevent similar outbreaks.
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Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev, Steve Bowers
Initially published on 08 December 2001.