The Great Machinators: Introductory Chapter

Conception & Construction

When the sixteen ancient Beast Clans set out to leave their homeworlds and begin a new life on a single world as one people, great colonizer ships had to be forged to ferry the survivors of the worlds on what could be a centuries-long voyage through the stars. The long-gone master architects and bioengineers resolved not only to make the ships functional, intuitive and hardy but beautiful as well. So, to symbolize the chain of unity between the 16 Clans, each world was charged with building one-half of two different starships that would come to be known as The Great Machinators, as well as half of half (half of the robots per ship, one half of each robot) of the 28 Machine Cores (later known as Ancient Machines) that would maintain the ship's wellbeing.
In the order of their planets alignments upon the day, they would depart from their solar system forever, the chain was formed. The cycle of Tortle (turtle), Minotaur (bovine), Remus (canine), Sorian (avian), Naga (serpent), Ursalin (bear), Selkies (seal), Meekses (rodent), Fauns (deer), Sphinxish (feline), Ganja (elephant), Merfolk (manatee), Centaurs (horse), Satyrs (goat), Pixies (dragonfly & butterfly), and Boto (dolphin) to complete the cycle. This chain resulted in the sixteen Great Machinators; Hwangso the tortoise shelled bull, Grusela the Terrasque, Kashikoinu the Hainu, Estrellorona the Feathered Serpent, Krodha the scaled grizzly, Nalu the sea bear, Ligonero the Monk Seal Mouse , Athas the Jackalope, Garjun the Sharabha, Roshanee the Gajasimha, Saagar the Gajamina, Seun the Kelpie, Brona the Unicorn, Nova the Dragon, Echo the glassy-winged dolphin, and Arciris the conch-shelled porpoise. Along with them, the seven cores, hearts, hands, heads, and voices combined that made up their Core Machine caregivers.

The Great Machinators: Sapient Animals

Through a complex endeavor of complex bioengineering, not only did the Great Machinators visibly resemble a fusion between their architects' Clans, but were endowed with a complex neural network as well, composed of the entire histories, and the hybridized personality of a select handful of the Beastfolk of greatest importance to both Clan's history. As a result, each Great Machinator was given its own unique personality within the bounds of being primarily driven by its mission, a mission ensured to be maintained by their Core Machines. Thus Great Machinators that shared half of the construction of their parent Clan became like siblings to one another, some growing closer than others. Examples being that, for better or worse, the Great Machinators Roshanee and Saagar became emotionally & physically inseparable, and the Great Machinators Kashikoinu & Grusela nipped sometimes dangerously at one another's heels.

The Great Machinators: Colonizer Starships

While primarily miracles of bioengineering on the outside, luckily for their inhabitants, the Beastfolk they carried did not reside in the flesh and bones of the Great Machinators' internal structuring. Often, the internal workings of the vast colony ships either resided externally, such as being carved into Hwangso & Arciris's bony shells, or integrated on the inside of the body, which was more often the case. Such matters were both works of biological rewiring, cybernetic organs/enhancements to The Great Machinators, and constructing survivable living spaces where there was room to spare as colony units rode inside the veins and were woven into the born marrow of the Machinators, providing a symbiosis of providing biological necessity for the Machinator, and places to live for the Beastfolk.

The Great Machinators: Planetary Defenders & Gods

Once arrived upon the planet soon named Terrabeastia, all terraformed and then inhabited by the Beastfolk who had for hundreds of years resided, quite literally, in their blood and in their bones. After insuring the Core Machines (now dubbed Ancient Machines as they had outlived many a generation of Beastfolk since there creation) the once-bustling and near overcrowded halls lay still and empty. Knowing well that the little creatures that they had been built and born to love and protect would likely never return, their original mission complete. Despite this knowledge, the Great Machinators could not shake a sense of loneliness, but could not land for they were never meant to touch the surface of a planet, meaning natural catastrophe for their beloved Beastfolk, and eternal binding to the surface for the Machinators. Even with this understanding, none of them could bring themselves to leave, so they resolved to orbit the world as they always had, keeping one eye on the planet below and another on the stars for potential extraterrestrial danger, sworn to protect the Beastfolk below and to be ready should they ever decide to return to the stars.
Many centuries after the discovery of magic and the abandonment and erasure of technology by the Beastfolk of Terrabeastia, the Great Machinators became little more than animal-shaped blots around which the stars shone. In their technological and societal regression, and through vague stories that obscured the Machinators' true natures, the Great Machinators unwittingly became gods in the eyes of their creators' distant descendants. As religions formed and their orbit around the planet aligned them with the Crescendos (The Magic of Terrabeastia: Introductory Chapter), they became associated with the Eight Songs of TerraBeastia, each Great Machinator to a different song. The amplified religious/magical rites performed at these powerful magical nexuses were able to reach beyond the atmosphere, despite such magics' normal dependence on the nature of sound. Though the magic reached them, due to the silence of the void of space, the Great Machinators were unaware that they were absorbing specific Songs into their being, whose awakening would only come through dire consequences.

The Impact, Era of Confusion & Rise of TechnoArcana

Attacked from within and without by the Malevolence and the Ancient Machines it had corrupted, one by one the Great Machinators fell to earth, leveling the centuries-old regimes of magic that resided on Terrabeastia's surface. This is when they finally heard it, centuries of magic-infused prayers sung to them all reverberating at once within their halls, turning them into magical meteors, and for many, it was their swan song. Depending on their luck upon impact and the success of the sabotage from within by the Corrupted Ancient Machines (Vampirialism) those who survived either lost their minds, going feral and rampage across the countryside to this day (such as Grusela), or retained their sanity and due to their mass and the pull of gravity, were rendered immobile (such as Nova). Mad or not, mobile or paralyzed, the survivors were rendered unconscious by the ordeal and would remain so until the end of the Era of Confusion, until the remaining loyal Ancient Machines were able to revive them in the aftermath of the rise of TechnoArcana. Those meager few who retained their sanity but could not move used their loyal once internal companions to do good will upon Terrabeastia, and to prevent the Vampirialism curse to spread further upon the Beastfolk whenever it was within their power.