Babel

A babel was an advanced version of a cast, a weapon created by the Great Houses long before the War.

Recognising the limitations of casts, the Great Houses decided to improve upon them. The project was codenamed the Catherion Imprimiture.

A loom was obtained from the extinct House Catherion to make the babels. It was symbolically purchased for three birds' eggs, a plot of land formerly used for flying ceremonial flags on state occasions and a small very well made pocket watch that belonged to a Mr Harrison of Yorkshire, England around 1765.

The goal was to make a self-aware system that would be linked to the mind of a time-active agent, not the the Homeworld's noosphere or the operating system of a timeship.

Only about eight were created, and all were incurably insane. An escaped babel massacred almost everyone at House Catherion, leaving only one survivor. After obtaining substance from radiation, it gained more mass by absorbing the people it killed. Finally captured with more casualties, it was supposedly destroyed at House Ixion.

Oddly, Mr Harrison's pocket watch disappeared at the same time, never to be found again.

Most of the other babels were confined in areas where they were deprived of radiation and eventually starved to death. However, at least three were allowed to survive and were used in the War during the Lethean Campaign. (PROSE: The Book of the War)