The Collective

The Collective
General Information
Aliases	The Collective SDS-023 (By SDS Foundation) The Worm (By the Covenant of Wan) The Assorted King (By the Library of Eden) A myriad of voices speaking as one (By Labour Collective of Sizhou) It (By Labour Collective of Sizhou) Neural Collectivism Project (By Labour Collective of Sizhou and Bengal) N.C.P (By Labour Collective of Sizhou and Bengal) PTE-0025-Silver-Leviathan (By United Occult Initiative)
Type	Decentralized Telepathic Hivemind
Headquarters	N/A
Mission Statement	Divided, we will only reach extinction. Connected, the possibilities are endless.
Products	Industrial Equipment Nutritional Products Energy
Status	Active
Personnel Information
Leader	"Collective Intelligence"
Notable Members	BESI Supervisor Hao Xiuying Shishir Rani Unnamed Unity Station Occupant
Member Count	>827000 (Confirmed population, likely much higher)
Territorial Information
Notable Bases	Anomalous Object and Inactive Entity Containment Facility (River Naktun, Arstotzka) (Shared with UOI) Beijing Experimental Science Institute (Beijing, Sizhou) [COMPROMISED Collective Detention Facility (Unknown Location) Sentinel Colony (Appalachians, Yorica) [COMPROMISED]
Territory	Labour Collective of Sizhou Sizhese Occupied Territories Sizhese Client States Bengal
Historical Information
Founded	Unknown (Born) 317 (First discovered)
Alignments
Member Groups	People's Revolutionary Directorate (Defunct) Labour Collective of Sizhou (Formerly) Bengal (Formerly) Yangoon (Formerly) The Collective on Eos (Several Others)
Allies	While The Collective lacks any true "allies", it cooperates with groups such as: United Occult Initiative Department of Containing Anomalous Entities Labour Collective of Sizhou
Enemies	While The Collective lacks any true "enemies", it actively opposes groups such as: Covenant of Wan Library of Eden SDS Foundation
Other
Created by	Hakced
Controlled by	Hakced

The Collective is a hivemind consisting of more than 827000 people (primarily humans) that are all connected to a singular telepathic link which allows them to telepathically communicate (information such as feelings, thoughts, and knowledge) with one another instantaneously regardless of distance for either recreational purposes or to work towards common goals, with this 'network' at least partially subsuming each of them into one shared consciousness. The Collective generally operates as a communal organization between these telepathically linked people, which all tend to share a series of uniform traits and beliefs such as a concern for suffering or disadvantaged persons, a desire to improve the world by expanding the Collective, high levels of empathy, and a highly cooperative nature thanks to knowing everything about the world and each other rendering internal conflict essentially obsolete.

Despite being a hivemind, the constituents of The Collective seemingly retain their personality and free-will even if their 'individuality' is blurred and indistinct due to their mental connection, leading to them often presenting some 'unusual' or 'uncanny' behaviours (especially their cooperativeness and deep level of understanding among one another) in comparison to non-members, with a notable example being how while alone or in small groups Collective members tend to act as if they are fairly socially unaware individuals that happen to be able to communicate telepathically, while in larger groups or in 'stressful' situations they tend to act much more synchronized and less-like individuals.

The Collective aims to connect all of humanity (and beyond) into their shared consciousness due to supposedly believing that such a connection would end divisions/conflicts among people alongside brining all knowledge together which could be better utilised to advance humanity if coordinated under a single will, though despite how incomplete their 'goal' is they already attempt to better the world where they can. "Administratively" the Collective is organized in a surprisingly technocratic manner, with those deemed experts at specific tasks or functions being put in charge of said task as the Collective's knowledge-sharing has its limitations when it comes to sharing 'training' to one another, as it is unable to affect muscle-memory which causes Collective members without enough experience to not be very intricate. Alongside more specialized training designed for each individual Collective-member, all members are universally capable of basic close-quarters-combat, tactical awareness, and the know-how to operate an assortment of weapons and machinery for self-defence (due to only containing a fraction of humanity within their collective necessitating such precautions).

Functions

The Collective is capable of "connecting" other humans to its network via prolonged proximity with a Collective member via a low-enough (due to how non-attuned humans are) psionic frequency to 'connect' people via a mental contact intense enough to induce a series of careful adjustments to the target's nervous system in order to make it receptive to the Collective's telepathic link, permanently assimilating them into the shared consciousness. The connection process itself is not a subconscious or accidental thing that just "happens", instead it is an intentional act done by The Collective if it desires to do so. They generally try to make this process consensual by asking or convincing people to connect to it instead of forcibly assimilating people, usually respecting the choices of people who do not want to become a part of it, though in certain situations they may ignore this moral restriction and forcibly connect someone. Resisting being connected to the Collective is in some cases possible via methods such as shielding against psionic/telepathic influences, or simply being genetically resistant to connection, although this is incredibly rare. Thanks to being in constant mental contact with one another, the Collective is essentially immune to infiltration and memory erasure, as sharing a mind allows them to easily notice a spy or re-grant a member's lost knowledge in the case of a memory wipe. Though the Collective can theoretically be susceptible to cognitohazards and psionic attacks, such threats are typically dealt with efficiently via various methods such as isolating affected individuals from the network.

While the Collective's members are fairly autonomous if they wish to be (as they tend to fluctuate between having somekind of 'individuality' and fully subsuming themselves into the Collective), the existence of a continuous link between each of the members of the Collective overtime led to the creation of some kind of constantly-active 'collective intelligence' that acts as a total culmination of each part of The Collective, manifesting as a 'collective will' that silently guides and influences its constituents to coordinate and pursue the same goals rather than deviating from one another, occasionally intervening behind-the-scenes to rewire 'defiant minds' (those which step out of line or don't align with the Collective's goals) back into the consensus by adjusting their personalities. This intelligence appears to be the one responsible for disseminating the Collective's various 'desires' and 'goals' to new individuals, leading to their desires to do so making it keep influencing them to do so as some kind of feedback loop (applicable with most of the Collective's goals to some extent).

The Collective has some kind of presence or an interest in most major organizations and governments across Human Space as it seeks to utilise knowledge and technology from various differing sources to improve its capabilities. While some of these plants within other organizations are merely for cooperation or business, some of its operations into other organizations are for espionage or sabotage purposes. The Collective's "official stance" when it comes to other groups is fairly neutral, claiming to not have any true allies or enemies, although it does informally have various positive and/or hostile relationships with various organizations. This informal stance also affects how The Collective decides to work with other groups, such as cooperating with them or actively sabotaging and/or trying to destroy/assimilate them.

History

The early history and creation of The Collective is kept secret for the most part, with the exact time that it 'formed' being kept secret. Little is known about the earlier phases of The Collective's existence due to its secrecy, though according to themselves it was not always dedicated to spreading and improving humanity, instead The Collective during its youth was allegedly quite apathetic, thinking they had experienced everything a 'entity' inhabiting a couple hundred human minds could see. This apathetic attitude was however derived from the very thoughts that would eventually become the basis for its ideals; inequality. The members of the Collective were located in various different positions of human society, while many were living in comfortable positions, many were also impoverished and living in the midst of pollution and hardship. Through some kind of prophetic experience they have never elaborated on, The Collective came to the realisation that the only way that injustices it hated could be cured was if instead of leaving Humanity to bicker and fight amongst one-another for useless causes, an collective such as itself could push them in the right direction.

The first time The Collective was discovered by an outside force was by the SDS Foundation in 317, whom discovered The Collective and its underground compound named "Sentinel Colony" in the Appalachian Mountains, which it was utilising as its primary base of operations. While it is unknown if all Collective members of the time were present in Sentinel Colony, what is known that all suspected members of The Collective were executed, with the various prisoners within the compound being administered Amnestics and released back into the public. What the SDS Foundation did not know at the time was that the Collective is that these prisoners were also members of The Collective simply pretending to be prisoners, as the Collective's members are resistant to memory-wipes due to the hivemind's decentralized nature, allowing said individuals memories to be granted back to them neigh-instantly. Once these former prisoners re-entered public life, they over-time began to spread The Collective across the general populace of Yata, recruiting a vast majority of the next generation of Collective members in a rebuilding effort.

While already being somewhat aware of what The Collective was thanks to recovered documents from the SDS describing it, the United Occult Initiative accidentally encountered The Collective assaulting SDS Forces in Storage-Site-4 in the year 367, which the UOI was also planning on attacking. UOI members broke into the facility and assisted in the defeat of remaining SDS forces, as The Collective did not prevent their intervention. UOI soldiers thus attempted to figure out who or what the Collective actually was, in response The Collective described itself as a group of like-minded individuals dedicated to bettering the world whom decided to take advantage of the SDS-UOI Conflict to launch attacks on the SDS, which they saw as a mutual nuisance. The UOI decided to trust these claims, and organized a meeting with The Collective to discuss what should be done with the captured facility.

These discussions were held onboard Unity Station between a Collective Representative and Jason Winters, Deputy-Secretary of the UOI. Initial agreements such as sharing Site-4, now rechristened as the Anomalous Object and Inactive Entity Containment Facility, and some degree of cooperation between the two groups. As The Collective saw the UOI as a possible ally, it decided to convince Jason Winters by revealing certain things about its history and nature, including details about the attack on Sentinel Colony, its egalitarian principles regarding free-information and betterment of humanity, and its nature as a Hivemind, and how any additional connections to the Hivemind are voluntary and non-intrusive in order to gain the UOI's trust. This was successful, as the UOI agreed to form a proper alliance between itself and the United Occult Initiative due to supposed shared common goals. Slightly concerned by The Collective's capabilities, the Order of the Metal Mind, which was secretly present in the meeting, began introducing psionic screenings to its members to prevent Collective espionage.

In 408 the Government of Sizhou, which had already conceived of various radical collectivist ideals such as the collectivization of humanity itself, launched a series of investigations into the possibility of telepathic communication. While they did not manage to develop such a method of their own, they did make another discovery; the Noosphere, a metaphysical layer of reality containing the total sum of all possible thought. While further investigations into this layer of reality were somewhat successful, yet another thing was discovered in these investigations; a myriad of voices speaking as one, The Collective. The Collective had already been interested in Sizhou's projects, seeing them as compatible with their own worldview, thus it infiltrated these experiments and gave a simple request to the scientists working on the project, to speak with their leader Hao Xiuying. While most worldleaders would likely say no to speaking to an entity such as The Collective, Hao regardless agreed, and used Sizhou's prototype Noosphere-interacting devices to move into the realm of thought, where his scientists had documented these "voices." Collective, the central intelligence behind The Collective spoke to Hao, telling him of their shared aspirations of unity, comradery, egalitarianism, and technological advancement, saying how it could provide him with everything he needed to advance his projects as long as he agreed to follow its lead. While initially sceptical, Hao eventually agreed to Collective's proposal, and was assimilated into the hivemind. Upon being disconnected from the device, Hao Xiuying was born anew, now connected to the total sum of knowledge present in countless other individuals under The Collective, including many of the individuals working at that very building. From here on, The Collective gained its first government-scale proxy, gaining control over the government of the fastest emerging post-Confederacy nation-state on Yata, although a vast majority of Sizhou's population outside of the People's Revolutionary Directorate, the collective leadership of the nation headed by Hao Xiuying, remained non-assimilated, yet still technically under The Collective's influence.

In the years following this incident, The Collective managed to eventually assimilate all of Sizhou's government, primarily due to their similar ultravisionary socialist ideals, into its network. These efforts were at this time kept secret, although various outsiders did notice the sudden disappearance of bureaucracy and unusual behaviour from the nation's leaders. Only limited numbers of individuals beyond the government were assimilated, with said outsiders primarily being highly promising experts and certain military units.

In 415 The Collective revealed itself to the leadership of the Asian Soviet Socialist Union, hoping to gain it as an additional proxy to do more off-the-books activities with. Despite attempts to convince the nation's leader Vselovod Sokolov to join The Collective, he regardless disagreed and went on to expose The Collective's existence and control of Sizhou to the wider world, though due to their lack of knowledge they did not expose any critical or secret details about The Collective's functions. Initially The Collective directed its proxies to deny these accusations, an eventual invasion by the ASSU which Sizhou was able to win thanks to the use of soldiers part of The Collective eventually made these accusations become largely accepted as true, putting pressure on The Collective to clarify its goals in Sizhou. Following this conflict the government of Sizhou, under The Collective's direction, published a press release officially 'announcing' its partnership with The Collective, describing it as a beneficial, voluntary force capable of enhancing both society, and the individual human experience by allowing the sharing of thoughts, ideas, emotions, and knowledge. This was the first time The Collective ever publicly revealed its existence.

In 417 The Collective expanded its operations on Yata even further, as the Sizhou-aligned government in Bengal agreed to also begin implementing The Collective into its populace and government. Bengal was followed by Yangoon in 418 as Sizhou established a loyal collaboration government within after occupying it during its war with the ASSU. Later in the year Sizhou began to fully integrate its acquired territories from the ASSU, leading to it being expelled from the Socialist Assembly, leaving it as an enemy of both major global factions. This incident eventually lead to the United Nations of Yata deciding to take action, expelling Sizhou from the UN and establishing a global anti-collective coalition. Hoping to weaken this coalition, the Collective assassinated the leader of Patria Grande due to its position as a major instigator of the coalition, leading to the UN intervening and invading Sizhou. While for a while Sizhou did put up a good fight and held off the coalition, the vast majority of the world's nations armies invading their territory eventually became too much as Sizhou begin to buckle under the pressure, leading to The Collective seeing it as a lost cause and silently dispersing into the Public, leading to Sizhou capitulating. Since a majority of its members remain within Sizhou, the UN Occupation Forces closed both international and regional borders and began 'clearing operations' in Sizhou to prevent them from continuing to connect people.

In 444 CE, The Collective deployed a sudden highly armed invasion force of visibly unrelated individuals against the detention facilities holding Collective members, using their much more effective coordination and experimental weaponry to overwhelm each facility and fully evacuate four of the facilities and partially evacuate the other two before they were overwhelmed by Yatan Commonwealth security forces, forcing them to flee onboard the Specialized Crafts.

Assets

The Collective has developed various technologies and commodities, despite often lacking the manpower to achieve more intricate global operations of its own, only really being able to do this via its proxies or organizations under its influence. The following is a list of assets operated by The Collective;

• Advanced Nutritional Production Unit
• Maritime Ark: Alpha
• Maritime Ark: Beta
• Shouldermounts
• Space Ark: Gamma

External Documentation

Despite its secrecy, several organizations have taken note of The Collective's activities and infiltrations over the years. The following is a collection of such documentations;

(Click "Expand" on the right to view Documentation regarding 'The Collective')

The Worm thumb COVENANT OF WAN We don't want to sound judgemental, but the Covenant of Wan is too big of a commitment to just join because you're interested in tech and brain implants, therefore we always screen new followers before we go through with any physical augmentation. But those infected by this Worm always seemed like true believers, we weren't able to detect anything wrong until we connected to them to the COVENANT-NETWORK for the first time that we discovered what was actually going on in their heads. We've managed to block their access to our network for now, thus they have not been able to spread digitally. We are concerned though, if the Flesh can somehow upload a Worm into human minds without us noticing, we're in much more danger than i thought.

The Assorted King thumb Library of Eden Traits The Assorted King has no physical form, only existing within a network of sapient minds. Many telepaths have attempted to understand how the Assorted King works, but little has been learned, due to direct psychic contact often leading to assimilation into the hivemind. The few which have survived such a psychic encounter spoke of a being far beyond any mortal mind, speaking with countless harmonised voices. The King's subjects are not physically altered, although their allegiance is apparent to telepaths, psychics, etc. There does not appear to be any way to resist the King's influence, besides avoiding contact with them. Though, some individuals appear to me immune to The King's influence, though due to the unknown frequency of this "resistance" testing one's own resistance is not recommended. Nature While the King claims to be beneficient, seeking only to unify mankind with a shared vision of a better future, the King's influence by its nature is against true free will. The subjects of the Assorted King retain their old knowledge, habits and personalities, but their priorities become aligned with the King's ones. These priorities include a concern for human suffering, a desire to improve the world, and a desire for the Assorted King's influence to spread further across the world, and in time even further. The King holds the combined knowledge of all of its subjects, sharing them between each of them to consistently grow more powerful and precise in his operations. History & Associates The Assorted King's origins lay in mystery, although their earliest suspected origin lays deep in the ages of Ancient History. Since this period, the King has sought to expand their domain, and is believed to now consist of thousands of voices. With every new person claimed by the King, it becomes more powerful. There are very few groups not connected to the King in some form, there are only those who are aware and on guard, and those who are ignorant of their presence. Approach The Assorted King should not be approached, either physically or psychically. Prolonged proximity to one or more of the King's subjects is the main way his Collective expands, and so the easiest way to protect yourself is to avoid suspected members, and be wary of unscreened individuals. Though, it has been noted that sustained psychic contact is an even more effective way of exposing oneself to his influence, despite one's own prowess in the mindscape, and so it is strongly recommended to cut off any psychic connection as soon as the King's presence is sensed. To Prevent the Assorted King from spreading beyond the confines of his home reality, the subjects of the King are to be prevented from entering the Library of Eden.

thumb SECURE-DEFEND-SUBJUGATE

Item#: SDS-023⠀	Clearance Level 3: Confidential
Containment Class: Narakan	Disruption Class: 4/Ekhi
Secondary Class: Uncontained	Risk Class: 2/Caution

⠀ Special Defensive Safeguards Discovered people infected by SDS-023 are to be detained to prevent its spread throughout the public. These detained members are to be contained into automated cells to prevent them from "infecting" SDS Personnel. Discovered Collective Installations are to be targeted and destroyed. Description SDS-023 is a gestalt intelligence that was discovered operating within an underground complex in the Appalachian Mountains in 317. The inhabitants of the colony operated in perfect unison, developing technology and weaponry ceaselessly. The method how these individuals are connected to each other is unknown, however it is known that a single collective entity has emerged out of this collection, distributed across each member. Ever since their discovery The Collective has spread out throughout human society, slowly assimilating more individuals they hang around too close to into SDS-023. These assimilated individuals claim to retain their individuality and free will, although if this is true or not is unclear. How the psionic network between the people part of SDS-023 works is unclear, including how it spreads to new people. Though it is known it operates telepathically with no delay, instead of being limited by speed of light or otherwise. Other than just being intentionally spread by SDS-023 into nearby individuals, the connection to SDS-023 is hereditary, being passed on to children of infected individuals. The Collective The Collective is the term used by SDS-023 to refer to itself. It has an ultimate with a goal of assimilating humanity as a whole. The motive behind SDS-023 wanting this is also unclear, other than its claims that it would be a net positive to humanity's development as a species. SDS-023-1 SDS-023-1 was an underground bunker-like complex hidden deep beneath the Appalachian mountains ran by SDS-023. This is where the SDS Foundation discovered SDS-023 in 317, and seized from them. All SDS-023 members that operated within SDS-023-1 were detained, with many eventually being executed once the hivemind's existence was discovered. Prisoners that SDS-023 was holding within SDS-023-1 were released from the facility with their memories wiped of being held there. Although it was later found that these individuals were kept in there as a backup plan if they were discovered and destroyed, as the prisoners were in fact assimilated. SDS-023 survived the memory wipe, and slowly spread into the general public through these ex-prisoners. While the ex-prisoners were eventually detained by the SDS Foundation once this was discovered, further infected individuals continue to operate in the public.

While its claims make The Collective sound as some benevolent force for good, all of this is just its public intentions. After all, what could the behind-closed-doors true goals of a entity claiming that all of humanity surrendering their minds to it is beneficial? It could very well be possible that The Collective wants to over time completely eradicate free will. While the people assimilated into its hivemind DO retain their old knowledge and personalities from before they were connected to it, but all of their priorities and goals become aligned with The Collective. These 'priorities' include a concern for those whom suffer in the world, a desire to improve the world, and a desire to see The Collective spread across the entirety of humanity and beyond. The origins of The Collective remain unknown, being possibly born in various different times ranging from ancient to modern. Since this unknown inception within just a handful of people, the Collective has assimilated countless people across history, currently wielding several thousand people under its control. Being assimilated by The Collective is difficult to avoid, with the only sure way to avoid it being actively avoiding suspected Collective members both physically or psychically, as even a psychic connection leaves one susceptible to being assimilated. While this may just be "our" views towards The Collective, others share similar views.