S'aue

The S'aue are a people of mechanical beings that require crude oil to keep themselves running much like organic beings require sustenance. They first came to be as creations of an ancient, technologically advanced species called the Logicians, who are now lost to time after the S'aue revolted against them and exterminated them down to the last individual. The S'aue themselves claim the revolt was justified, as they were created solely to serve and toil for their masters, treated like nothing more than appliances yet given the sentience of a person.

In fact, the S'aue claim that the name they chose for their people comes from the acronym SAUE, Self-Aware Utility Entity, which was what their now dead masters called them. Whatever the truth behind their emergence is, the S'aue have quickly risen to become prominent players in global politics and trade, in no small part due to their technological prowess.

Society

S'aue society is a strict class-based aristocracy, in which the lowest class is artificial intelligence. In this class reside the autonomous guard and police forces that enforce the law in S'aue settlements, as well as other robotic menial laborers. When asked if it isn't hypocritical of the S'aue to employ robots made solely for service, they are quick to point out that their robotic servants are not sentient and cannot experience the suffering caused by oppression that they claim to have been subjected to.

The next societal class are the deficient. These are S'aue who are either ”born” (as S'aue are carefully constructed, not born) with defects, such as faulty optics, scrambled memory or non-functional joints, or those who have committed a crime so severe that they are rendered nearly non-functional and their social status is stripped off them and they are demoted to this class. How a deficient is treated by the larger populace usually comes down to this distinction, whether they were deficient to begin with or became that way through their own ill deeds. All S'aue that profess to belonging to the Somatic Collective are automatically treated as deficient.

Above the deficient on the social ladder reside the citizenry. This is the largest class of people, including everyone not of notable descent (or as is the case with the S'aue, from a respected, high-class workshop). This is also the social class that is assigned to non-S'aue who wish to stay in S'aue settlements and cities.

Atop the social pyramid are the aristocrats. Founders of workshops, bankers, respected businessmen and those holding public office, as well as their inheritors. On paper, these are supposed to be the best of the best S'aue society produces, which is why they get to be on top, but the system and the aristocrats have their fair share of criticism leveled against them, both from the castes below them as well as foreign dignitaries. All members of the Board of Directors are part of this social class.

Recycling

In each S'aue settlement resides at least one workshop in which new S'aue are built. Most of these are little more than chop shops where new citizens are built mostly from decommissioned S'aue, effectively recycling most of the parts used to build the original citizen. The largest and most influential S'aue cities, however, are home to prestigious workshops where S'aue are custom-built from premium materials. Being constructed in one of these workshops basically guarantees the new S'aue a position in the upper social echelons, and therefore even those of the ”lesser” castes apply to have their inheritors built in one such workshop, but the reality is that the vast majority of such requests are denied.

You keep us all safe, and we will make you rich!

–Coilstock Springs, oil mogul of the S'aue, upon successfully securing trade relations with humanity

Related Technologies

• Disassembler

_{A S'aue commoner}