Entry 4: Rebirth

       I have harnessed the power of radiation to restore light and life to the city, and felt its warmth beneath my hands.

     I have unleashed the atomic fires that scoured the world of the 97%, and been destroyed by its embrace.

     There was no pain when we triggered the device. Just a white light, consuming everything, as for an instant I became one with the background radiation. An instant in which I was united with everything.

     I am reborn.

     I am creator and destroyer. I understand, now, the meaning of the old proverb. The meaning of the words that Galton carved upon his mask. Creation and destruction; two sides of the same coin, of divinity itself, the two sides of what men call the Glow. And I have embraced both.

     He was right, when he said that no-one else would truly understand me, that the fools of the city would fear my knowledge, would stand against me to prevent the creation of the new world I would build. He was wrong, though, in that he thought this would matter.

     I do not need their validation. I do not need their approval. If they would stop me, let them do it with blood -- and they will find that I'm no easy prey. They know what I am now. I can give them power and life... or I can bring them destruction.

     I am Maximus Capacity.

    And I will change the world.

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EUREKA!

Entry 3: The RTG Device

"Why don't you have lights?" 

"The Oil Barons shut off the power." 

"Why haven't you used your science to fix it?"

     The question kept me up all night, after the trade gathering. I was embarassed, at first.

     Then I was angry. How dare this Aggie bitch presume to talk about our troubles?

     With time has come clarity; I was angry at myself for not accomplishing this, embarassed that another had commented upon it. I am the proper target of those feelings. And there is only one way to deal with this.

     Over a year ago, a star fell from the sky. Not a star, a Sat-Light, one of those enigmatic machines of the oldcestors that orbit our world for purposes we can no longer understand. I tore the radioactive power core from the wreckage as the dead were drawn for miles to the crash; I nearly died buried beneath the hungry dead, and I would have if not for Tex. But I never let go. Not once.

     I have a year's of notes spread across my desk regarding this 'RTG Device'. A year's worth of research, of minor experimentation. The burns on my skin, the days of sickness from exposure, have been worth it. The knowledge I have gained of radiation from this device and other research has been significant - but I know it's only a drop of the genius it took to create such a thing as this.

     While I do not understand how it works, I believe I know what it does. It absorbs the radiation that emanates from the fuel rod contained within, and converts it directly into electricity. It is the most sacred of relics - a device that uses the Glow itself to power the world.

     The next step I have only hesitated to take because of fear. I am not afraid anymore. I will roll the dice, play my hand, and let the Glow embrace me if I fail.

     I will tear the secrets of the pre-fall scientists from the guts of their work. I will replicate their work, I will convert radiation into power. I will bring the light of the Glow to Bravo or I will die trying.

Entry 2: Galton

     I will admit; I had doubts about our research at first. Others told me that this line of research had to be abandoned, that Bad Brain Disease (BBD) was incurable and our methods pointless, that all we would do is create new raiders. When I saw the remains of MacKenzie and the others spread across the area around the demolished lab, my heart sank; would we ever be able to do anything more than create homicidal monsters?
     All my doubts fell away when Galton found me in Hope's Edge. He was intelligent -- eloquent, even -- and had complete control over his raider band that he'd found. The signs of derangement were there, but subtle; he believed himself a God, a megalomaniac urge that was the flaw in his creation, and he succumbed swiftly to the natural raider urge to contaminate others. Unfortunately we do not have sufficient data to determine how much of this was due to his personal issues and how much due to the effects of BBD -- but it's clear that we were nearly successful. Continued research and adjustments to the formula should hopefully clear up this problem.

     The question that has not been asked is how this works. I have some theories. As I observed in my previous post, the nascent hive-mind that can be activated in a raider by a 'raider king' is clearly the sign of a new entity's evolution. Why was Galton able to retain his personality and thoughts with only minor deviance while still acquiring raider adaptations and the connection to their hive-mind?
     One must first ask where our consciousness lies. The brain is clearly the source of consciousness -- physical damage can alter it, and yet even if it were completely destroyed, the Gravemind can rebuild it with only minor deviance in most cases. This leads me to suspect that our consciousness is, in part, disembodied -- what the religious might call a 'soul', perhaps -- and exists partly within the hive-mind of the Gravemind. As we have seen with the Shard, and possibly the Blue Man (insufficient data regarding this entity is available), a single powerful personality can rise to the surface of the hive mind and express itself individually, if still influenced by the madness below the surface. As the first personality placed within the 'raider mind' with modifications to keep him from being completely subsumed by madness, Galton naturally became - to this 'raider mind' - a similar presence as the Shard.

     If my theories is  are correct, it means that even if the process is perfected, the more people converted via this process the more 'crowded' the hive mind may become. Given time and conversion, this may result in the same madness in the Gravemind. It may be that our inevitable destiny is one of singularity, where in one way or another, we all must become one. If that is so, let it be in a mind of our choosing, one of living flesh rather than rotting meat. If we are careful to cull the unworthy and only convert those pure of purpose and focus to the 'raider mind' as it grows, we may be able to avoid the madness. This will necessarily result in a loss of majority populace, but hopefully we can minimize this loss.

Entry 1: On Raiders

    Given that the primary research project of the Mortus Supremus is focused on raiders, it is first important to attempt to understand what a raider -is- and why they are the primary focus of this research.
     From the view of the layman, what a raider is seems simple; a deranged individual, often masked, obsessed with the torture and murder of others, and in some cases the conversion of others into insane raiders. The whys of this don't matter to most people. From a more scientific viewpoint, a 'raider' is an individual that has been exposed to Bad Brain Disease via contact with the bodily fluids of a living 'raider'. The damage caused by this disease to the brain is irreversible. The prevailing theory amongst scholars is that a 'raider' has had their mind subsumed into the Gravemind for the most part, leaving a mad husk. The Mortus research has determined that raiders will always return from death, rather than become a zombie, resulting - effectively - in an insane immortal. This new information has been ignored by most, who have simply posited that a raider is 'too insane' for the Gravemind to absorb completely. I believe the prevailing theory to be wrong, and my evidence and theory follow.

     It has been noted in the progression of Bad Brain Disease (further in this document abbreviated to BBD) that at the later stages, psion crystals begin to form in the brain tissue. Our research has discovered a loose psionic connection between raiders -- the so-called 'raider king' phenomenon wherein one particularly powerful raider can draw others to him/her from a distance and seem to control them. Other mutations have been noted, for instance the 'raider rage' adaptation that creates a sudden surge of activity in the infection that regenerates flesh and bone in mere moments. This suggests that BBD is more than simply a degeneration of nervous tissue, but is in fact merely an early stage of something more.

   A brief listing of some of the evidence towards the theory I am forming:

• This is a degenerative, contagious, genetic-altering disease that targets the brain.
• Sufferers are spurred to acts of sadism and murder against non-raiders, including conversion into others like them.
• Despite the claim that raider minds are subsumed into the gravemind, raiders have been seen to attack zombies in the past.
• Psion crystals form in raider brains, creating a loose hive-mind that more powerful members can take advantage of.
• Further beneficial mutations, such as the 'raider rage', have been noted in raiders.
• BBD prevents advanced sufferers from being physically absorbed into the Gravemind, allowing them to return again and again without notable decay or degeneration of flesh.

     I will continue to expand upon my theory, which is as such: I do not believe that this is simply a degenerative disease. I believe, instead, that we are witnessing the early stages of the evolution of a predator that targets the Gravemind. Much in the way that the Gravemind itself is a creature that - technically - includes all of the strains as part of its makeup, the theorized 'Raider Entity' that is beginning to evolve is both immune to the Gravemind's largest threat (subsumption) and specifically targets creatures that are still connected to the Gravemind.

     My next entry will go into what we have learned from the Galton scenario, and how that information impacts my theory - and how my theory may affect our research and its potential results.

Cover Page

     My name is Maximus Capacity Ewing, as of this writing the Curie of the settlement of Lone Star. These are my personal jernals, left for posterity's sake in order to preserve knowledge for those who come after me - if, indeed, there will be anyone at all who comes after me. If the calculations of the Mortus Supremus are correct, there are at most a handful of generations remaining before we are all one with the Gravemind. We must force evolution's path forward in order to avoid this fate as a species.

     These jernals will document both my research and personal observations, in the hopes that if we fail in our work, another will find these notes and pick it up where we left off. Or if all goes according to plan, that this might one day become a historical document.

     Savannah be praised.