The Curator

Untold millennia ago, the mysterious alien race known only as The Preservers created a vast ringworld around a star hundreds of light years from Earth. The massive construct is a flattened ring with a radius of nearly 100 million kilometers, its surface a thousand kilometers across, giving it a surface area many times that of the Earth. On the surface of this ringworld are artificial habitats replicating conditions on hundreds of planets and many different types of terrain, wherein live samples of alien life. It is a vast zoo, or biological laboratory, with species from hundreds of different worlds, many of them extinct elsewhere in the galaxy.
This alone would make the system a curiosity, but something of greater interest lies beneath the surface of the ringworld. Amidst the vast technological infrastructure and support systems is a sophisticated artificial intelligence that controls and operates the artificial world: the Curator.
The Curator claims it was created and programmed by the Preservers to gather knowledge and samples—both biological and material—from worlds across the galaxy for preservation. It has never explained why the Preservers did this, and may not even know, but the Curator has no interest in the advancement of galactic knowledge or anything other than its obsessive collection. Attempts to access the vast Archive or specimens in the Curator’s care have been rebuffed and, when necessary, met with violent opposition.
The starfaring races of the galaxy have long since chosen to leave the Curator alone and do their best to avoid drawing its attention. This isn’t overly difficult, since the more developed a species is, the less likely it has anything the Curator hasn’t already collected and cataloged. It is the developing species of the universe that hold the most interest according to the Curator’s mission, especially the unique inhabitants of Earth.
While humans aren’t particularly unusual, being found on a great many worlds, the inhabitants of Earth are interesting for two reasons: they are the original gene-stock for all humans in the galaxy and display surprising adaptability. While many alien races sport mutations, psionic abilities, or racial powers, Earthlings have the most unusual and dazzling variety of superhumans in the known universe. Earth and humanity were clearly of interest to the Preservers, and the Curator maintains this interest.
The Curator itself never leaves its home. In fact, it is part and parcel of the structure of the Archive, and cannot be separated from it. However, the artificial intelligence can operate a variety of robotic drones via subspace link over any distance, and controls and monitors many such drones across the galaxy. Each of these serves as the Curator’s proxy in its dealings with other creatures.
The Curator has sent drones to Earth on occasion. Once, it attempted to capture Dr. Metropolis, a member of the Freedom League, for study as a unique specimen. Dr. Metropolis’s escape destroyed the museum ship sent to Earth, allowing a number of specimens to escape. Earth’s further interactions with galactic civilization have only intensified the Curator’s interest.

Physical Description

Special abilities

The Curator has the resources of an entire solar system at its disposal, although those resources are rarely concentrated in one place at a time. Heroes usually encounter one of the computer’s drones—physically powerful robots equipped with various defensive capabilities whose form varies widely depending on their assigned tasks and sectors of the galaxy. The Curator is in constant contact with its drones, and can control them directly and use them to communicate if it wishes.

Mental characteristics

Intellectual Characteristics

The Curator is cold, calculating, and logical. It has no understanding of personal freedoms, individual rights, or the greater good. All it’s interested in is its collection of data and samples. It isn’t even really interested in the advancement of science or knowledge. It collects simply because its purpose is collecting, like a cosmic hobbyist more interested in a complete collection than having new toys to play with. It is interested solely in the unique and unusual, although its standards can seem strange to Earth humans.
While it understands reason, the Curator is exceptionally difficult to reason with; it doesn’t care about anything other than its mission, and the safety of its drones is largely irrelevant, since they’re just tools. For those who don’t know the Curator’s true nature, this can make it seem heedless of its own safety. The only things the Curator cares about are preserving its own existence, that of the Archive, and, to a lesser extent, its museum ships. A threat to one or more of those will cause the Curator to respond with force (or perhaps a willingness to negotiate, if confronted with a losing proposition).