Origins
Created in secret by a mercenary group of MEMS-less Daedalusts and Selenians, at the behest of the Emperor. Giant robotic shells, helmed by immensely robust learning AI. Each AI has, at first, typical roles that are carried out by its shell, according to standardized complexity models from Colossi class to Skein. A copy of this AI is kept locally within the shell, and each Colossi shell committed to the battlefield keeps a copy of every other AI present in addition to its own. In this way, only total destruction of the Osakami Sein deployed will prevent reinforcements from being re-printed. This comes with limitations, such as each AI is wholly unique in both its interactions, its learnings and its number of templates that it can be present in. They scour the battlefield and the cosmos, collecting unique data about people, places and things. This information is stored within each AI’s grouping (no matter how many shells/deployments and distances).
Morphology, Traits and Proclivities
An individualistic collective. Each “Named” unit is really a designation for an AI shell template that is printed by billions of microcells. As adaptive learning shells, they scour the cosmos for unique data. Units can spend turns deep scanning people, places and things to contribute towards their betterment, represented as version upgrades. These upgrades can be used to version up their skills, abilities and equipment or added to the collective Version Repository to help achieve a template upgrade.
Upgrades are like for like replacements of the existing local group with a newer version. It is a linear progression but must happen in stages. Certain Mavens can bypass this by allowing safe jumps in versioning but the unit will suffer severe handicaps and penalties if they are removed or destroyed without replacement.