The Nautch

The Nautch, the eternal dance. A setting inspired by Kinoko Nasu's Notes and Iain M. Banks' Culture novels.   The Apprentice Archivist Avis discovered an ancient space probe, one that has miraculously kept itself intact for billions of years. It contained the corrupted memories of a people who have long since vanished, whose time in the known universe was little more than a flash, a fraction of energy expended in the cosmic timescale: the memories of the Republic of Maharlika and its people. Still, it was an interesting find, and with only a few hundred years left to complete her apprenticeship, she decided to archive the data within it in what she called the "Nautch Restoration Project," named after the first photo she saw while browsing the probe's memory banks.   Helping her in this task is the probe's AI Administrator, Dew, who was dormant the entire time until Avis' discovery of the probe. To get her up to speed on the project and the sociopolitical context that may be required in order for her to participate in it, Avis made an interactive database of knowledge for Dew to browse through, although she suspects Avis just did it for her own amusement.   In the background, tensions between the scattered civilizations of the universe grow as the last stars slowly die out, while Cosmic Beasts continue to devour planets whole. The prosperous Ether Folk have come to the spiritual society of the Enaid to find a solution to this growing crisis, sending one of their most venerated Pantomaths as ambassador, a near-omniscient AI named Flere. They have taken a special interest in the Nautch, believing that it might be the key to halting the slow death of the universe itself.