Name: Matteo Baresi
Epithets: Maestro of Science (Former), Empire of One, World Eater
Age: 300ish
Home-Plane: The Centori Nebula. A plane of logic and reason, defined by its observable laws and populated by people who wish to study and understand these laws; in other words, it is a plane utterly devoid of magic, the supernatural and mysticism. There are no ancient gods, no greater powers, no deep magics; just science and those who pursue it.
It is large and sparsely populated; great expanses of empty space interrupted occasionally by a pinprick of light or a mote of celestial dust. Some of these motes host life forms, both complex and simple, along with all of their works; fewer motes now than there once were, ever since Matteo started his search.
Description: Matteo has always had a fairly unassuming look about him. He is of average height for a male of his age, with a build that is unremarkable; he has black hair and brown eyes, both fairly common traits and is decently attractive, but certainly not enough to turn heads. In terms of clothing he tends to dress smartly but not extravagantly and nothing about his clothing or his accessories particularly make him stand out, aside from his lab coat. Were it not for his genius, people likely wouldn’t have paid any attention to him at all.
His personality is similarly bland; polite when he needs to be, friendly when he wants to be. Matteo is the type of person who no one particularly dislikes; able to navigate social situations well enough to at least leave a positive is forgettable impression on people. However, that is about as deep as he gets; though no one dislikes him, no one particularly
likes him either. In fact, if asked most people would struggle to really say anything about Matteo at all beyond “he’s nice” or “he’s friendly”. When speaking to people he always asks about them, prompts them to carry the conversation, but never reveals anything about himself. He’s like that with everyone, no matter who they are or how they treat him or what their reputation is, conversations with him are always the same; eerily similar and deceptively shallow.
Like he’s just following a script, or like he sees everyone as being indistinguishable from each other.
Backstory: In a civilisation where logic and the pursuit of knowledge and understanding are regarded above all else, those professions that put you at the forefront of discovery and exploration are the most revered and coveted. From the days where explorers and sailors would chart the unknown parts of the world, to the age of space exploration when people would charts the stars themselves. From chemists discovering and naming new elements, to scientists testing the limits of universal forces and seeing how far they’ll bend. All are respected for their noble endeavours.
Once, Matteo was respected as such; a scientist and an inventor working alongside dozens of others in a laboratory owned and run by one of the largest corporations in one of the most prosperous nations. At first that’s all he was, a single mind among many, but it didn’t take long for his genius to be recognised and for his exceptional work to be noticed. He was plucked from among the many and given the opportunity to prove himself, which he did. Again and again. His inventions dazzled, his discoveries awed and he himself was revered as a savant. Before too long, his was a household name and Matteo was lauded as the man who would usher in a new age of prosperity, not just for his nation but for the whole world.
The Maestro of Science.
But for Matteo such attention was… inconvenient.
The money and resources his station granted him were appreciated, even necessary for the kind of research he wanted to undertake, but the demands on his attention were not. Everyone wanted to speak with him, everyone wanted to know what he was working on,
everyone had priorities that they wanted him to focus on. Scientists working on
supposedly important projects would require his assistance, generals would ask him to waste time designing weapons in the interests of
national security, politicians would burden him with completing vanity projects they could take credit for and Matteo could find a singular moment to himself on which to focus on what was truly important.
They had to go.
All of these… obstacles, in his path. These people who would call him a genius and then question how he chose to devote his time. These
inconsequential things who scurried about underfoot and got in his way. Do they not understand what he trying to accomplish? Do they not realise that every insipid invention he ever made was just a by-product of his true work? Every discovery merely a single step towards the final and not the huge breakthroughs they thought they were?
They had to go.Destroying his world was surprisingly easy. He had been asked to create weapons and that was what he did, though far beyond their expectations. They were unprepared for his sudden aggressive attack, striking at them with weapons they had denied themselves out of fear and with technology far beyond what any nation or army on his world was capable of. Cities fell, one after another. Whole countries were consumed, depleted of resources and used to feed his conquest. In almost no time at all, Matteo had silenced his world and gotten rid of all of the obstacles in his path.
Then, he turned his attention to the stars.
Shard: A curious thing, this Shard. It is plain in appearance, little more than an orb small enough to fit in the palm of one’s hand, but Matteo cannot for the life of him begin to determine its material make-up nor its origin. Unlike almost everything else that has crossed his path, it cannot be broken down by his Nano machines and any attempt to discern its age inform him that it is as old as the known universe. In fact, Matteo has the strangest feeling that it is
exactly as old as the known universe.
But the most curious thing of all is the fact that it seems to be emanating a kind of signal. A type of energy signature quite unlike anything else he had come across. A signal which, somehow, seems to be leading him… he hardly has the words to describe it, but,
through the universe to something beyond it.
This requires further study.
Powers:Nano machines – Miniscule drones, barely large enough for the eye to see, programmed to be capable of following commands, break down matter and construct almost anything the controller can imagine, including other Nano machines. There initial creation was met with much enthusiasm, but early applications made it clear how easily such technology could be used for destructive means and their construction and use where heavily restricted; built in lifespans of only a few hours, the inability to replicate and a mandatory weakness to electro-magnetic fields were all instituted. Such weaknesses are not present in the machines that Matteo developed for his own purposes, as evidenced by their ability to quickly subjugate entire cities in hours. The only defence his world had against Nano machines was other Nano machines, but their neutered versions were no match for his own.
Longevity – For a long time, it was believed that if mankind ever managed to escape the chains of death it would be through transhumanism; unlocking the ability to digitise the soul, or replace the person with the machine without sacrificing the self. However Matteo found another way, one less fraught with controversy and discussions on the nature of humanity. Through the use of specialised Nano machines he is able to prevent the cellular breakdown that comes with old age, the process by which the cells naturally produced by the body to replace themselves have shorter and shorter lifespans over time; he put a stop to the slow deterioration that comes with growing old. Entropy, defeated. Because of this, Matteo is as young now as he was when he first made the discovery; he is somewhere in his late twenties and has been for around 300 years. This same discovery also keeps him healthy, free of disease and toxins and allows him to heal from injuries, so long as they are not fatal, rapidly. Eternal youth. Immortality, of a sort.
Folding space – The ability to make space smaller or larger, either compressing it in on itself, effectively shortening the distance between two space, or expanding it, to make something “larger on the inside than it looks on the outside” as one once succinctly put it. Though in this case the thing that is “larger on the inside” can just be a random spot of open air; it does not need to be an enclosed space. Arguably Matteo’s greatest invention; the ability to warp the dimensions of space itself. It was this discovery that allowed him to finally make a start on his plans to quantify the known universe, the capacity to compress space allowing him to make even the distance between stars something that can be crossed in a single step, while the ability to expand space allowed him to bring as much equipment with him as he deemed appropriate. Or at least enough Nano machines to make whatever he didn’t foresee needing.
Assets: For the purposes or warfare, Matteo’s Nano machines are often enough by themselves and a standing army is not necessary. He technically still possesses the resources of the armies who stood in his way, but with no one to use them and being inferior to his swarm regardless, he does not use them.
For the purposes of research and furthering his goals, Matteo has constructed laboratories, research centres and manufacturing plants on most of the planets he has conquered; the latter are used to supply the former as well as create more Nano machines, while the former allow him to delegate some of his work to the former citizens of his subjugated worlds. Ideally he would perform all research himself, but unfortunately he is just one man. Would that he could clone himself, but even he realised that would be a disastrous idea.
For the purposes of exploration, Matteo had constructed great fleets of ships capable of interstellar travel. Despite the claims of him being to step between worlds with his technology, the reality is more mundane; he needs ships, vessels filled with Nano machines, supplies and materials to move between worlds, though his technology to fold space means he can effectively travel at faster than light speeds to do so. These ships range from simple empty shells filled with whatever inorganic matter he needs to move from point A to point B, to fully furnished mobile research labs complete with living quarters for hundreds, if not thousands of people. Then there are, of course, the warships; huge dreadnaughts and battleships, swift cruisers and sleek corsairs, all supported by swarms of fighter craft harkening back to a time when humanity was sailing the seas and not the stars and the largest vessels they could construct were those meant to float on water. Nano machines are ill suited to space warfare due to the distances involved, so Matteo must rely on more archaic weaponry instead; mass-based weaponry firing solid projectiles or explosives through the use of electromagnetism or burning fuel. Energy based weapons are too power hungry to be efficient and Matteo has yet to dedicate time to solving that problem; there’s no reason to, when he has enough resources at his disposal to simply drown any resistance in fire and metal.
Gladius: Matteo’s wing of Gladius has, to be expected, been turned into a research lab. However, he is not simply using the space to house another facility studying the minutiae of his own plane; no, this facility is dedicated to studying the nature of Gladius itself. It was a surprise when Matteo discovered that there was someone else who had achieved the feat of expanding space beyond its natural capacity, to make it “larger on the inside than on the outside”, but he has yet to determine how or why.
How interesting.
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