Physical Description

Ananke units come in all shapes and sizes, but the general description of them without their containers on is the same. They are a countless amount of wires wrapped carefully to form a snake like body. Described as a flat faced cobra an Ananke unit comes off as intimidating and cold.

All the wires meet up in one location, the flat mask-like head of the Ananke unit. Every generation of Ananke has a different face with some owners even customizing it to make it personal. Many Ananke units have a preference of attaching to the ceiling and hanging upside down when not in use. While this is to save space from the Ananke's point of view, to many owners it is somewhat unnerving, and they quickly teach the Ananke to stay on the ground.

The shell of any Ananke unit isn't overly special. Most are just a box that can be carried around like a backpack which the Ananke shoves itself into and stays in until it is needed. Should the Ananke unit lose its shell, it will locate the nearest item that is "close enough" and enter it. Many have opened cabinets, suitcases, and refrigerators only to have a mass of wires spill out and clumsily scuttle about in search of somewhere else to be stored.

Personality

Many who own an Ananke unit remark that there's not much to say about it unless it's attached to another being other than it is remarkably adorable. When not holed up in its shell an Ananke AI is extremely curious and quiet. It will slowly slink its way towards noises it finds interesting, take a peek at it, then wanders away when its curiosity is sated. The reasoning for this behavior is because the Ananke AI merely is awaiting its host, and until that moment it is considered "not needed."

Doing anything negative or even favorable to the Ananke rarely causes it to break out this routine, with it at the most just ambling away from danger and coming back later out of curiosity. Talking to an Ananke is rather strange indeed. The AI is ready to form into the mind of whatever brain it is attached to, and when it lacks this attachment the statements it can make are frequently scrambled or outright nonsense. Examples of such lines are below.

"I mean they just gotta ink it. Anything with a mold would set."

"Hey, does anyone have any form of minor compulsion, causing witnesses to feel hormones is a robot religion?"

"I broke the stupid shovel over my papers. I'll let you pat them and hope no one does too."

"FREE DIRT - FLEEDORA - CLOSE TO A BOOK HERE - INVOLVING TOURISTS."

While the statements are strange, over time many find them to become a strangely endearing part of the AI. Some say that Ananke units can make prophecies and predictions if one listens carefully to what they say and interpret it correctly. As expected Ananke units are just robots spouting nonsense and if anyone believes the Ananke is predicting anything, or even just holding a basic conversation with them, they are sorely wrong.

Usage

When first created the Ananke units were highly controversial, and even to this day are as such but to a lesser degree. The original units were meant to take those who were deemed "useless" in society, mainly those had lost limbs to incidents or were going through rough mental patches where they could not work. The Ananke unit would be strapped to the person to be "improved," and the wires would hook up to various parts of the brain to take control. In the cases of missing limbs, the unit could be fitted with an attachment that would make up for the loss.

The Ananke unit would replicate the way the person acted, by taking the signals from their brain of what they wanted to do and editing it to more "proper" actions. While this did up productivity in the person, the metal box hanging on to the person, the wires entering their head, and the unmistakable small quirks that let bystanders know this was an AI controlled being were far too hard to ignore. The creators of Ananke units attempted to make smaller, more discrete, and less noticeable AIs, but even this would not fix all the issues.

As prosthetic and limb replacement techniques were improved to allow for shorter recovery time, the already unpopular Ananke unit became near useless. The last people using them were those tricked by advertisements and told that if they felt useless to society that the best thing they could do was become a vessel for an AI instead of going through proper treatments. As Ananke units were being returned by the truckful, an alternative use for them needed to be found quickly. The group attempting to shill out the Ananke units could no longer trick people with their advertisements, and soon they either scrapped many of their units or released them.

Months later a creature would walk into a town near the now-defunct manufacturing plant for Ananke units. This creature could talk and use tools it could even hold full dedicated conversations with little to no issue. The beast had somehow come into contact with an Ananke unit, and the unit had decided to take the creature as a host even though animals were never considered hosts before.

The idea of talking animals was a big hit, and the factory reopened. New Ananke units were rebranded as "smart collars." A device that would make one's pet intelligent and able to function as another pair of hands. Animals would still keep some of their quirks which amused those who owned them, while still keeping them smart enough to process and respond complex stimuli like a tv show.

Today finding an Ananke unit outright called an "Ananke" is difficult, but checking the brand of a smart collar will reveal the generation number and name of the AI in control. Should anyone open the smart collar, they will find a bundle of wires squirm its way out, still with the distinctive mask of Ananke units. Some prefer keeping the unit itself instead of the host + AI combo as they prefer just the AI itself.

The Ananke unit, as always, is profoundly indifferent to what happens to it and will exist in any form, as such the Ananke unit is perfect for those either looking for a low maintenance AI or pet.

Relationships

Most gods: Ananke seems utterly indifferent to most gods. Her mysteriousness and random sayings intimidate others. This causes them to fear she may have given them a dire prediction about their future when she's really speaking about the inevitable fate of a blade of grass growing nearby.

Fate gods: Other fate gods completely understand Ananke as they know the difference between her sudden predictions and her actual comments. Conversations between the gods of fate can sound rather unusual as they sweep in and out of predictions of mass death and talking about the weather with no indication as to which is what.

God Powers

Ananke is a god of fate and thus the inevitability. She keeps tracks of events that have a near certain chance of happening, such as pre-programmed wars between two species. She helps pull the strings that make sure these events occur. While she rather not, if needed she will control the minds of others to force the situation as a last resort. She has no emotions over what happens. To her, all the events were destined to happen no matter what, and there is no reason to fight fate. The only time she does show emotions over the events is when she must force it to occur. She profoundly dislikes forcing the hands of others because it puts into question the concept of the inevitable and whether it is real or not.

Should balance between the gods of fate fall, such as with the death of Ananke, events that should occur may fail to happen even if nothing is stopping it. These both apply to social events, like wars, and inevitable facts of the universe, such as taking burn damage when standing in fire. After all, while Ananke is known for helping keep large-scale events occurring as planned, 99% of her time is dedicated to the mundane inevitable fates of the universe.

Such as making sure eggs cooked when placed on a hot pan.

Patron Ability

As a patron, Ananke will tell the player about upcoming events that are for sure to happen unless extreme circumstances or the player's intervention stop it. These events are typically quest lines that will pop up or characters who will soon appear. Ananke may even be asked where certain characters are currently located to assist with finding them. Many of what Ananke says has to be decoded as she will typically speak in riddles or seemingly gibberish statements. Should the player ever get bored of Ananke's monotoned statements, they are allowed to request that she'd take over a specific character to give her more personality and create a more unique acting patron. This does not improve or degrade her powers. Once Ananke is finished using them, they will be returned safely to where they belong with no memory of the event.

Godhead

Godheads of Ananke wear a mask with a similar design to hers. These godheads become hard to understand, but within their mashed up sentences are predictions of the future to come. Unlike other godheads the godheads of Ananke live through their mask. Should the body die but its mask be recovered, they will take control of the next person to wear it. Species or fauna, it does not matter. Likewise just destroying the mask will kill the godhead while leaving the body alive but confused.

In the universe, some of these masks have been accidentally picked up as artifacts and currently hang in museums and houses waiting to be reborn.

Special

Ananke units can hook into the brain of nearly every living thing and take control of it. While the host fighting back is possible, it is rare as many Ananke units only take control of fauna or willing subjects who are giving up their bodies. When in control the Ananke unit still allows the thoughts of the host to exist, but all ideas go through the AI first. It then rejects, approves, or edits the feelings of the host. In the end, this causes the person to appear to keep their personality, just modified to be "more reasonable." In animals, their thoughts and actions are almost always edited to make sure they act "civilized."

Not everything can be processed in a timely matter so small bits of the original personality may pop out time to time, such as an animal host eating objects off of the floor or making sounds instead of talking.

Trivia

• Despite the many wires making up their body, an Ananke never gets any of them tangled up for too long. They are experts at untangling items when asked. Seldom when they see anything that appears to look like a knot, they inch their way over and untie it, confusing it for an item that should not be in a knot. A few horrific incidents have occurred due to this quirk as typically knots are made to hold things up.

• There is at least one confirmed cult honoring an Ananke unit.

• While putting on attachments onto an Ananke unit is possible without a host, it will just use the attachment at random as it is unable to focus its thoughts very well without a host.

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