The first alliance of sentient life in the universe emerged from photonic beings. This alliance consisted of four species, each hailing from different nebulae shortly after the big bang. It is thought these first four were potentially the originators of all types of life in the universe. They were the first entities with a sense of self and a curiosity about the universe around them.
Originally they called themselves the League of Light. The founding members were The Luminary, The Collective, The First, and The Final. For all their wisdom, photonics had a flair for the dramatic. Over the first billion years several hundred new groups joined them, until finally they met the PECO (Photonic Entities of Class Omega). The PECO were eager to join, and among the first potential members hailing from a single-star solar system instead of a stellar nursery. Their lonely star had a collection of debris (later known as “planets”, “moons” and “gas giants”) caught in its orbit.
Most strange of all was the PECO’s insistence on only joining the League if their system’s co-inhabitants were also welcome. The founders had encountered silicates (silicon-based lifeforms) previously, but nothing as advanced as this species. The silicates the PECO cohabitated with called themselves the Senti. The entirety of the League of Light had never encountered anything like them. The Final found them grotesque, while The Luminary spent centuries with the PECO learning how to communicate with these bizarre new lifeforms. They were so limited. They could travel between star systems but at significantly slower speeds. Though capable of experiencing non-linear events they resolutely chose to live linearly. Some of them even had carbon-based companions – short-lived, unintelligent, but loyal creatures the silicates doted on. Every new fact made them more mysterious and odd.
The PECO and Senti’s application took half a billion years for the League of Light to discuss and debate. Though they existed at light speed, their bureaucracy moved like it was trapped in a black hole. During this time more silicate species were found in other systems. The waitlist for membership grew so long it forced the founders into action. In the time it took for the founders to settle on a decision entire civilizations rose and fell. They did not yet understand how finite other forms of life – even silicate life – could be. The only existence the photonics understood was an immortal one. Ultimately it was decided that The League of Light must evolve as an organization to handle this new understanding of sentience. Two branches were created for the two types of sentience now acknowledged. Nothing would ban one from communicating with the other, but silicate issues would be handled and managed by silicate leadership, and photonic by photonic. The Collective and The Final, having never truly accepted the Senti or later silicates as actually “alive”, would continue as leaders of the Photonic Branch.1 Meanwhile The Luminary and The First would help establish the new Silicate Branch, acting as ambassadors between their realities. The Senti were the first silicates officially welcomed as members in this new organization.
On the outskirts of the PECO and Senti’s home system, in the clouds of gas giant A-34-QZ, silicate League of Light members came together to build what would come to be known as The Conference Center. Silicon and Photonic lifeforms typically have a poor grasp on the concept of subtlety. Having communicated with one another in isolation for millennia, the Senti and the PECO had developed a technology that converts Photonic light into an organized form, a hologram. The Photonic could choose the form of any League of Light species to imitate, though any identifying features would be randomized. Even silicates have their vanity and did not like the idea of someone copying their exact specifications. Photonic beings did not understand the need for this until experiencing the constraint of being an “individual.” Some truly embraced this existence, finding this to be the first novel thing they’d experienced in millions of years.
Smaller versions of The Conference Center began popping up in almost every League of Light member system. As these two lifeforms found commonality, more spaces were built to host photonics, and eventually technologies were invented that allowed silicates to experience photonic life in small amounts. Experience changed both branches at a core level. After the first million years together, League of Light members – by a large majority – insisted the founders come together and create a new name. Thus, The League of Artificial life and Light,2 or LAL was born.
1Appendix A: Biography of Photonic Origins (author’s note: to-be-written)
2Much to the chagrin of the Founders, this name would evolve again in a short two or three hundred million years. See Chapter 2.
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