The Four Kinds of Sentient Weapons, part 1: Affinity Weapons

Talking swords: a clumsy way of breathing life and magic into a fantasy world?

Sir Gudgai: "Egad! It seems the bandits have taken the whole village! What do you have to say about it, Reggie?"

Reggie the Sword: "Oh, I've got a few... cutting remarks for them..."

Sir Gudgai: "Ho! Ho! Oh, Reggie you rascal! Now, on with the slaughter!"

Or perhaps they are a useful mythic archetype that offers interesting opportunities in fiction and games? Let's investigate...

Affinity Weapons

We'll start off our list with the most unintelligent of varieties. Here we are looking at those kinds of weapons that reflect or embody the spirit of their owner in some fashion. It has been suggested by cognitive research that humans operating familiar tools perceive them as being an extension of the body in some way, so it should perhaps not be surprising that both myth and fiction are replete with such examples.

Gram: Sword of the Völsungs

This sword is spoken of in the Völsunga Saga. Originally driven into the great tree Barnstokk by Odin, only Sigmund the Völsung was capable of drawing it from the bark. When the blade was later used by Sigmund against a disguised Odin, the sword shattered, and the warrior was slain by his enemies. It was later reclaimed by his son Sigurd, who had it reforged by Reginn the dwarf. Naming the sword "Gram" (wrath), he immediately used it to slay Fafnir the Dragon and, shortly thereafter, Reginn himself. It would later play a pivotal role in his downward spiral into self-destruction.

“Why does Sigurd not strike off that traitor
Reginn’s head and keep Andvari’s Hoard
for himself?”
“Why not indeed!” Sigurd shouted

and leaped to his feet.

Obviously, we've got a lot going on here with the sword standing as a symbol of Odin's favor, the vitality of the wielder, the richness of the wielder's household and, later on, his temperament. Here, the direction of influence appears to be only one-way. The wielder dictates the sword's identity and its use, so the idea that the sword has any kind of latent "intelligence" is not immediately obvious. However, I would argue that by defining the sword as an instrument of revenge and destruction, Sigurd sets into action a kind of positive feedback loop in which anger begets violence begets anger. This is a case of the person not just having an emotion, but the emotion having the person. Sigurd remakes Gram and repurposes it. Gram is then only used in acts of violent, prideful revenge. He has taken on an archetype and has become willfully possessed by it. The sword has been defined as an instrument of anger as much as Sigurd. Both of them are equally instruments of a higher power: wrath itself.

The Blades of Sengo Muramasa

This legend is a huge mess of various bits of historically attested events and pure fiction.

Pictured: Not Muramasa

The historical information is that once the Tokugawa Shogunate was established, Tokugawa Ieyasu banned all swords forged by the Muramasa school, supposedly because too many of his folk had perished on these blades. Thus, the swords themselves became simultaneously reviled and prized (by his enemies). They featured in a lot of Japanese drama and fiction in the years since, most famously with a legend that Muramasa was a student of the renowned sword-smith Masamune (and legend it is as the two smiths were separated by around 150 years). The apprentice was so hell-bent on being greater than the master, he forged weapons with deadly, blood-thirsty auras. Muramasa's swords could cause warriors to cut themselves merely by inspecting them, inspire violence when drawn and "demanded" that blood be shed before they could be sheathed.

Here we again have an example of a human's actions "rubbing off" on the sword. In contrast to the legend of Gram, the pride and ambition of Muramasa becomes a curse that affects not only people in his family but anyone who uses his creations. However, I believe there is an underlying similarity in that those who choose a Muramasa blade are doing so because they are walking a path similar to the sword's creator. If you are in the market for one of these weapons, it's obviously because you are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve your goals and eliminate your enemies. It's a Faustian bargain, dealing with demonic powers and being unable to bring about anything but the works of hell.

Gurthang: The Black Sword of Túrin Turambar

Sindarin for "iron of death", in Tolkien's fiction we have the clearest example of a blade becoming so tainted with violence that it begins to manifest an intellect both separate from and reflective of, its wielder. The story of Túrin Turambar is too lengthy and poetic to recount here. You should either read the book or listen to this wonderful audio reading of it. However, I will say it combines both an evil blade-smith, a traumatised young man and a tragic tale of brutal violence. The protagonist takes up the most devastating sword he can find in a hopeless campaign of vengeance against, what amounts to be, Satan himself. Fighting evil becomes his sole ambition, and he becomes identified with his weapon to the point where people actually start calling him "black sword" rather than his real name.

In end, Túrin is left alone and friendless, his whole family slain, and it's mostly due to his own choices and actions. Despite perceiving himself as a one-man army, this is a delusion in the face of the inherent inter-connectedness between humans and their kin, and it is his friends and relations that end up paying for his life of anger. He's basically become Homer in 'The Cartridge Family'.

"This gun has made me lose everything... my family, my friends,

everything but my precious, precious gun."

Finally, at the end of his frayed rope, he starts talking to his sole companion:

" 'Hail Gurthang! No lord or loyalty dost thou know, save the hand that wieldeth thee. From no blood wilt thou shrink. Wilt thou therefore take Túrin Turambar, wilt thou slay me swiftly?' "

And what is Gurthang's response? What else could it be? Like him, the blade's sole motto has been: live for revenge.

"And from the blade rang a cold voice in answer: 'Yea, I will drink thy blood gladly, that so I may forget the blood of Beleg my master, and the blood of Brandir slain unjustly. I will slay thee swiftly.' "

Affinity Weapons in Gaming

A seemingly obvious example of how games could evoke such a concept would be implementing a crafting system. I imagine the logic would be that any game that allows you to create your own spin on a given weapon would allow you to dole out your own personal brand of violence. However, I'm not sure if such systems really achieve the effect that the aforementioned myths and stories get across. Again, we are looking for a system whereby there is a loop between the player controlling the weapon and the weapon controlling the player. The idea is that both weapon and wielder are involved in a relationship that neither has complete control of, and the only way to opt-out would be to cast the sword aside. Games that have a fully-customisable crafting system or some such put the player firmly in the driver's seat. The player gets everything they want and there is no consequence or limitation imposed by making a particular weapon. Indeed, such systems are predicated on wish-fulfillment and the idea that you get to be the "author" of your own experience. This is precisely the opposite of what we see happen with these myths where the protagonist does not have control over the results of their actions.

Vagrant Story

So far, I think a good example of a system that invokes a vicious relationship would be that presented in this PlayStation classic from 2000.

While it does have a crafting system, therein lies a single mechanic that makes all the difference. In the game there are a variety of different kinds of creatures. Beast, human, dragon, undead, phantom and evil are all enemy types that have various strengths and weaknesses, and whenever you deal damage to a creature, you slightly increase the damage that the weapon will deal to that enemy type in the future. The upshot of this is that after hours of play, you have created a weapon that is "designed" to kill a certain creature type. However, this was brought about by the player's actions and not their whim or decree. When you come up against a powerful undead, it doesn't matter how strong other weapons might be, the weapon you have "trained" to kill undead will likely be the best to combat it. The player is held responsible for the past decisions they have made in combat, and while the weapons can be reforged and upgraded, the core of the experience remains the same. The only problem with Vagrant Story is that it didn't really combine this amazing system with its brilliant narrative in any meaningful way. While there was a causal relationship between Ashely Riot gaining spells upon recovering lost memories, the weapons system wasn't employed to express any themes or concepts.

Affinity Weapons in Conscientia

The main example of such a weapon our game is not that of Luin, a being with its own independent personality, but that of Eidos herself. Eidos is the apparatus through which the player can interact with the world of Conscientia and in this sense, she is a tool. However, Eidos' ability to effect the world is entirely decided by the player's choices of where they go and what they do. It is demonstrated in the dialogue system where a tyrannical statement cannot be followed up by a statement of intellectual curiosity. At this point, the player has chosen to present Eidos as a forceful instrument of will, a person not interested in absorbing new information. Such choices will ultimately effect the manner of abilities that she will gain access to, and access to these new abilities will remove other options.

A good example of this would be the following scenario: the player has presented themselves in the world in such a way so that they have manifested a means to do violence: whether this be through techne or possessing the Luin blade. Now when encountering a strange or ambiguous situation, the player will have the option of combat. However, they will no longer be capable of retreat. Eidos has been shaped into an active force. While resolution of situations through dialogue or non-violent techne may still be possible, inaction is a choice Eidos is no longer capable of making.

The Mesopotamian goddess Ianna. Her depiction represents

her descent into the underworld and existence between

two realities. Eidos, her counterpart in Conscientia,

also stands at the crossroads of the player's choices.

Tune in next time on part two, when we discuss Weapons with Constructed Intelligence!

The End of the Beginning

OK. After the past 24 hours of deliberation, I've finally come to a novel solution. The Tower of Wisdom is basically one third temple exploration, one third acid trip and one third trip to the Underworld. I was always caught between the physical and the spiritual. Clearly Ormenos used this place to get a Glyph but it seems like he also used it to become immortal and perhaps regain his Glyph abilities. A mental change and a spiritual change. Also, there needs to be something ViraVan was there for. So how to get all in one thing? It seemed an alchemical approach was the right way to go for mind/body stuff but what about Glyphs and the mental space? So I've decided there will be three parts to the Tower of Wisdom:

The physical: Two chambers where physical things are encountered. They also lead to other two experiences.

"Augmented" physical: 3-5 chambers where you walk around in the physical world tripped out, seeing things with a shattered mind. You can get a Glyph out of this (Corruption/Purification/Discipline/Awareness).

The mental: The player can sacrifice their body and become a Vanquished (robot body). This is what Ormenos did. However, the process throws you into the Graylands and splits up your Glyphs and souls. Here you will encounter Ormenos. If you are not prepared (Glyph of Awareness), he will take over your body and the game will end. This will be the fulfillment of the idea that the minds within you are dangerous.

Theory Into Practice

FINALLY: Practical stuff for the game. What can you do in the Tower?

Well, the best way for a place to communicate in a game is through gameplay. Wrong way: resurrect Ormenos and he says, "Ha! You fell into my trap! You see, it was I who reconstructed the Tower of Wisdom! First I had to understand how the Glyphs were first authored..."

Right way: You learn by interacting with the tower. Three basic methods:

Observation of latent phenomena (dead body on floor, journal, fresco, etc.)
Being acted upon by the environment (getting attacked, closing off of paths/doors, one way direct communication about present situation)
Interaction (encounter, puzzle solve, using something).

Here is what could happen:

Eidos observes an item/situation/environment
Eidos is attacked
Eidos interacts with an item/situation/environment
Eidos meets an NPC
Eidos gets a new Glyph

All of these can interact further with collected Glyphs and experiences. Let's get more specific.

Eidos watches someone learn a Glyph (unlikely)
Eidos sees some folk left behind by Ormenos (likely)
Eidos sees evidence of ViraVan (likely)
Eidos interacts with an NPC
>Ormenos minon
>Survivor
Eidos makes a Glyph
Eidos makes a crystal
Eidos projects a soul into a body
Eidos sacrifies herself and something happens
>Eidos becomes Ormenos
>Ormenos is filtered out of her mind and is reanimated)

As far as previous experiences, there are a few that exist as well as a few that could be created in Ur'Ruk which might be pertinent.

Mention of boys that pray near the Tower for favor.
Merchant that sells a page from Torma's journal where he explains stuff.
Mention of strange goings on in the temple to this day.
Ormenos sympathizers
Guy who says that if you have Ormenos inside you, you should go sacrifice yourself.

Ok, let's put something together! The whole place is a school/place of trail

Entry: Setting the scene. Observing the environment.
Chamber 1: Physical sacrifice. Jump in the tub and enter Da'at.
Chamber 2: See abominations and get attacked. Need of Luin to get passed this place. Drink from the water and awareness is augmented.
Chamber 3: Purification/corruption of physical. Need of either Glyph to get passed this place.
Chamber 4: Command of the physical. Need Glyph of Command or knowledge to get through.
Chamber 5: See place where crystals are fashioned and bound.
>See that Ormenos bound people to these tables literally?
>Spiders spin the crystals?
>Crystals are frozen fire. Fire needs to be created. So, it would seem as though crystals are sacrificed people.
>Maybe you have to go through the process multiple times.
Chamber 6: Command of the spiritual. Need Glyph of Occult to get through.
Chamber 7: Resurrection/destruction of the spiritual
Da'at: A virtual space. Here the player is questioned. If passes, moves on to 8 or 9.
>Could be questioned, however and other possibility is that Ormenos is separated out. Here, the player has to contend with him. What does this mean? Should likely be a conflict of something. What do you need to beat him?
Chamber 8: A virtual space. Here you get the Glyph of Discipline. If you already have it, get Occult. If you have that, move to 10.
Chamber 9: A virtual space. Here you get the Glyph of Awareness. If you already have it, move to 10.
Chamber 10: Creation of Immortal body

OK, it looks to me as if there has to be a bit of a separation here. A physical space and a mental space. Basically, Glyph learning and all that happens in the Graylands. You can also explore a physical space and see the mutants, crystals and crystal creations.

Descent into Maddness

Tree of Life

1. Malkuth *GLYPH OF EIDOS*
2. Yesod (Foundation) "Connection" *GLYPH OF FARCASTING*
3. Hod (Majesty), Michael, *GLYPH OF PURIFICATION*
4. Netzach (Victory) Completion *GLYPH OF COMMAND*
5. Tiferet (Adornment) "Balance/Integration" *GLYPH OF ???*
6. Geburah (Severity) Fire, judgement *GLYPH OF ???*
Da'at (knowledge) *GLYPH OF VANARGAND*
7. Chesed (love repairing the world) *GLYPH OF RESURRECTION*
8. Binah (Understanding) "Processed wisdom" *GLYPH OF TONGUES*
9. Chokmah (Wisdom) "from nothingness, beginning of creativity" *GLYPH OF AWARENESS*
10. Kether (Crown) "Incomprehensible to man" *GLYPH OF VIRACOCHA*

Tree of Death

1. Nehemoth (Whipserers) *GLYPH OF ???*
2. Gamaliel (God is my reward) *GLYPH OF LUIN*
3. Samael (Venom of God) *GLYPH OF CORRUPTION*
4. Harab Serapel (Ravens of the Burning God) *GLYPH OF FAMLICUS*
5. Thagirion (Disputers) *GLYPH OF FENRIR*
6. Golachab (Burners) violence *GLYPH OF CONQUISTUSGUERNICUS*
Belial (worthless) "Knowledge as an end in itself" *GLYPH OF DISCIPLINE*
7. Gamchicoth (breakers/devourers) 'The Binding Ones of God' *GLYPH OF JORMUNGUND*
8. Sathariel (Concealment of God) *GLYPH OF THE OCCULT*
9. Chaigidel (confusion) *GLYPH OF BABEL*
10. Thaumiel division/end of creation *GLYPH OF HEL*

There is a problem. We still don't have a good idea of how this translated into Ormeos winding up inside a crystal in the Awakening Chamber. How did all that go down? Also, eight rooms! What is there to do in all these places? "You walk in and fell your Glyph resonate... That's about it."

We need to answer the following questions:

A. What did Vira/Van want from Ur'Ruk?
B. What did Vira/Van want from Ormenos?
C. How did Ormenos get over the whole, being draugified and unable to use techne thing? (Unless it was just elixir)
D. What happened between Ormenos and ViraVan?
E. Why is Ormenos in the Awakening Chamber?

Answers

A/B: The answer: Eidos. Ormenos absorbed the Glyph of Eidos. They wanted it. So they dragged him back to the Awakening Chamber to get it out of him.
>Problem: Why not extract it from his mind? Also, why not just toss his crystal in the dumpster?
C: Alchemy (see below)
D: A fight, because that's exciting
E: They wanted to give Eidos the option of absorbing him.

Ok. We have a basic schema of how the Tower if Wisdom works, but we need the nitty gritty details. After all, the player is supposed to be navigating this thing and actually participating in Ormenos' resurrection. If it really is something that the player should be able to just stumble into, than it should be somewhat simple. If they have to jump through a million hoops to make this happen than its basically a fetch quest with a complete bait and switch at the end. Now maybe that could be cool. The one fetch quest we have is a complete red herring. But let's have some redundancy.

The Tower of Wisdom not only has to be involved in the writing of Glyphs but also in the creation of immortal bodies. Or does it? We still have the Memorial site. Maybe that's where Ormenos wants the player to go.

Possible schema:

VI: Thought Wheel

This was made to imitate home of god. Organised information on a physical medium. Data on a hard drive. Also the Temple of Abzu. Chaos, mystery dark water. This water destroys any living thing it touches. A poison. The worshipers of unlife create the neverborn. Unliving but immune to death. Thus, society has a balance between life and death. Duality. Being and nonbeing. Creation and destruction.

>Criticism: Death is bad, the neverborn represent a third way that is not contained in the duality. Question of nature vs artifice, nature/fate vs choice and determination.

V: Eidos Cult

This tries to combine the two. People celebrate humanity. Hedonistic cult with drinking, fellowship, sex and drugs. At the height of "ascendancy" some will drink/immerse themselves in the dark water. Are dissolved into vapor, heat and light. Part of a strange rite. Transformation of human into the ethereal. People inhale the vapours and trip out. Discovery of the Glyphs in this way as they are connecting mentally to other people. However, the Glyphs are only seen and cannot be used.

>Critics say people are just killing themselves. Organised information is life and intellect. This is just destruction. Light =/= life. Batshit nuts.

IV: Red Temple

This is further attempt to reorganise things. Solution of mortality is that humans think and die but neverborn live forever and don't think. Also, can't get at the Glyphs. Thus, alchemical reaction to transform body and soul. The Eidos cult and water temple are abolished to give rise to Red Temple that will conduct the alchemical rite: blackening (chaos) > whitening (separation into constituent purity) > yellowing (transformation into radiating light) > reddening (perfection and immortality)
Blackening: Death. Human is put into dark water and killed. Chaos reduces them down to their essence as Eidos (form)

Whitening: Purification. Form is separated into Glyphs that are not physical.
Yellowing: Awakening. They awaken to Eidos and their connection with other humans.
Reddening: Unity of opposites. They are reconstituted into a neverborn vessel.
They are the Victorious Vanquished (The Nethercast). Their awareness of Glyphs allows them to manipulate them and connect with humanity. They use the same alchemical process to create crystals. The entire civilisation is formed on the Red Temple. The Thought Wheel silently turns on, processing everything.

>Critics: Duality of Glyphs is still not resolved. Creation/destruction is halted. But only in humans. Great technical skill (Techne) but not Awareness. Only Discipline. Why is the universe inconsistent? Limited perspective. Immortality isn't enough. Transcendence is needed.

III: The Empyrean

So, what does this mean for Ormenos and the Tower of Wisdom?

Tower of Wisdom has a chamber in the basement for dark water immersion where they will die. Their essence will pass into the Glyph chamber. There it will be divided purified into Glyphs (forms). Then they will be awakened by being combined with the Glyph of Eidos. Then they will be recombined in a physical body at the top. Four parts with one hidden below (just like real-life Ur'Ruk).

So, Ormenos went to the Tower, got the pariah to repair it. Then he tried to figure out what was going on. He sent a bunch of people through the thing and produced different horrors and mutations. Why? A few possibilites.

1. He didn't use dark chaos water. He used liquid nullstone. Maybe draugnir are actually an abomination after all. Or at least, dark side of nature.

How Does One Use the Tower of Wisdom?

Ormenos must have come upon the Tower of Wisdom and commanded the pariah to rebuild it. So, which structure in Ur'Rul was the Tower of Wisdom? It's obvious: the Red Temple. The temple of the mind. This was the highest level of human development before the creation of Conscientia. It's destruction directly prefigured the formation of Conscientia. We know it crafted writing (Glyphs). This is why Ormenos wanted it rebuilt.

So the Tower of Wisdom was once alive. Teeming with ideas. But it does so though division and externalisation and at it's heart, at it's lowest levels, is Eidos. What once was a temple is now a prison (or was it always a prison?)

This does lead to the question: where did the Glyphs come from? This is a big deal here because we are talking about epistemology. Writing of the Glyphs gave rise to their civilisation and thus Conscientia. This is a point at which the whole thing could hang. However, we want to maintain some degree of uncertainty. So the solution needs to fulfill the following requirements:

A. Deal with origin of glyphs
B. Deal with Ormenos' relationship with pariah
C. Maintain ambiguity

So:

A. The Goddess was an idealised human (Eidos) and was hacked apart to create the Glyphs. The Glyphs are distilled human thought. They divided Eidos up into Glyphs. All the Glyphs were taken from her. That is why she is able to learn them so fast. They all belong to her. They are the hidden wisdom within the archetype of human.

IMPORTANT POINT: This was not physical Eidos as we have in the game. This is a past that doesn't quite belong to her. This Eidos was non-physical. Perhaps either a living Glyph or principle extracted using the first DKR. In other words, this isn't Leeloo from 5th Element.

B. Well, Ormenos needed them to rebuild the temple. But he also fucked with them. Why? The pariah can't look into her mind or even understand Glyphs. Neither can he at this point. One possibility is that he had no mechanism to record/extract the Glyphs. Maybe he needed human sponges. Blank canvases to imprint Glyphs upon. Humans were is apparatus in some way. Perhaps neverborn/draugnir were used historically in this process. Maybe Glyphs were extracted onto humans. We already know that humans can be put into crystals, crystals can hold Glyphs and humans can hold Glyphs in their minds. So maybe he exposed the people to these Glyph chambers and they absorbed them through osmosis.

C. Still have questions about where Eidos came from, how she related to earlier Vanquished, how Era IV Vanquished related to her, etc.

SO!

Here is the final Tower of Wisdom Concept: A structure built upon the Eidos Temple that extracted Glyphs from her.

Now we need to figure out what gameplay this would involve the player that could get this across somehow in an interesting fashion. What is there for the player to do there other than bringing Ormenos back to life? Because basically, if he succeeds in returning, it's coming down to a life or death showdown.

So now we have to figure out what the interior of the Tower of Wisdom is like to see if that would yield any organic gameplay elements that the player could experience without some guys explaining the damn thing.

Structure of the Tower of Wisdom

It is built on the remains of the Goddess temple. So, it has a foundation at the lowest level. It was a place of Glyph writing and extraction. So perhaps there was a Fenrir room or something. Definitely something akin to a monastery. But again, let's go back to history.

We already have a tradition that tries to figure you the nitty gritty of how god relates to the earth by dividing things up into rarified concepts. The Jewish rip-off of Neoplatonism: Kabbalah. I know I already used the Tree of Life in the Mindscape but I think it would be better here. One problem is that the whole Sephirot thing has been done before, however, I would argue that it has never been done in any meaningful way. Generally they just mention Sephirot/Spehiroth and slap the image of the Tree of Life on things.

Ten Sephirot = Ten Rooms

The idea is that back in the day, folk would go into a chamber, sit down in meditation or what have you, and come out with a Glyph. Heck, maybe it took so long that only the neverborn could do it or something. Doesn't really matter too much. Ormenos came along, reconstructed the tower, hoped to get the Glyph of Hidden Mind and stuck pariah in the chambers to do it. Now, you might think that the pariah would be incapable of learning Glyphs. But how about when the Tower of Wisdom was created, everyone was pariah in those days. They only became non-pariah when they started learning the Glyphs (maybe there was a Glyph of Telepathy or something). In any case, we don't have to worry about it too much because the whole point is, that it didn't work out.

As the player navigates the tower of wisdom, they are confronted with Ormenos' failed experiments. Some of them can resonate with Glyphs you might have collected. The Graylands is a soul reward zone, this place is Glyph reward. The more Glyphs you have, the more stuff that can happen. Sometimes it will involve combat, social interaction, learning, or puzzle solving. The end is a showdown with Ormenos. Only eight rooms are accessible as Ormenos only needed to construct up to level eight to get Occult Glyph (see schema below).

"No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots go to hell."

-C.G. Jung

Now, what about the whole angel/Glyph thing in the Empyrean? Well, here's my thinking. There is the Kabbalah and the Qliphoth. Normal and corrupted Trees of Life. The Vanquished were able to generate 22 Glyphs in all (2 trees of life each with 10 plus 2 for the connecting Chambers). However, they couldn't combine them, or derive one from the other. Conscienta was able to do this. Basically, Conscientia is God. To him, duality can be resolved. He's a transcendent being. They deconstructed the Tower of Wisdom because they were plugging in all the Glyphs they had learned into the creation of Conscientia.

What is the Tower of Wisdom?

A tower built by the Vanquished, however, repurposed by Ormenos.

Ormenos: Used the Tower to rediscover the means of writing a Glyph. Done through a great sacrifice of pariah. Lots of folk died/were mutilated in order to bring this forth. Big question: Was this done in the manner Vanquished had gone about it? Perhaps the Vanquished required a sacrifice. A blood sacrifice. However, this has to be distinct from Full Metal Alchemist. That show has a Babylonian city/sacrifice style thing. So, the solution is to go back to real history and mythology and avoid that made-up wacky Japanese crap which would put this solidly in the realm of anime imitation.

So let's get a brief run down of the historical Uruk.

Mini History of Uruk

In real life, Uruk's history was comprised of a number of eras. They are numbered chronologically backward from our time, e.g. I is most recent, followed by II and so on. In each era, there were changes in the structure of society, politics and religion. This was relfected in changes in the city. Principally, in a series of temples that were built but then ritually deconstructed to give rise to new temples.

Era VI: Creation of the first temples.

Stone Temple
The Stone Temple is a ziggurat which might have been an attempt to simulate a mountian. As part of their religion, they worshiped a sky god (Anu) or gods (PIE reliigon derivitive) who lived in the mountains. However, Sumeria was flat. This temple is an attempt to simulate a meeting between the divine and the earthly. Natural site of divine contact.

Multi-coloured Stone Cone Temple
This was the site of some kind of water cult. Water is nature. Idea of chaos. Abzu/Tiamat. The womb from which the world springs. Nature as mother that gives rise to all things and yet is also dangerous and must be appeased. A primordial mystery.

Era V: Creation of the Third Temple

Limestone Temple
This was a massive temple built to Inanna, the goddess of love/fertility/sex. Built to honour human face of gods. Notion of human quality of divine or divine quality of human.

Era IV: First Death of the Temples

Riemchen Building
The multi-coloured stone cone temple is demolished in ritual and interned in a burial site. This place had a fire burning within at all times.

Red Temple
The Limestone Temple is similarly deconstructed and upon its foundations is constructed the Red Temple, a tripartite building. Apparently, some of the first human writing was created here.

Era III: Final Temple Phase

The Red Temple is ritually destroyed in III for reasons unknown.

White Temple
The Stone Temple is somewhat destroyed. Upon it is constructed the White Temple. A beautiful palace and Home of the Gods on Earth. A demonstration to surrounding city states that they are rich badasses and not to be fucked with.

Prior to this, we also have PIE religion. This in broad strokes concerned a sky god that wandered the heavens, a god that had something to do with law and order and the military, and another that had something to do with farming. Also had a dying-rising god, world-ending flood, sacred groves.

I actually think this stuff works well for our purposes. Uruk did not sacrifice people like in Fullmetal Alchemist. It sacrificed ideas. It sacrificed religions. Perhaps even gods.

Where does this leave us in Conscientia World?

The basic landscape of Ur'Ruk should have been a changing city of nodes or collections of information. These nodes would eventually be disassembled and recompiled to form others. Now, it might be tempting to put the Jinetes into here somewhere. Stone Temple = ConquistutsGuernicus Temple because they are... strong or something. However, I think it would be cool if we indicate how primitive or removed early Vanquished stuff was. The Vanquished themselves should be inscrutable, so the early history of their civilization should be really difficult. Again, we can maybe use real history for some inspiration here. We don't know why the Red Temple was constructed where it was for instance. We don't need to formulate the one to ones on every single one of these temples. In fact, to preserve ambiguity, it might be best if some of them were left mysterious. However it could be that it went something like this:

Ur'Ruk of Kabu

Like us, the Vanquished were caught between human, nature and divine. Are these things are separate or not? They were moving forward to find the answer.

Era VII: Spirals

Spirals and chaos culture. Natural maelstrom of life and survival systems. Analagous to proto Kabans and perhaps our own civilization. No one unifying leader, religion, concept or ideology, but small whirls or eddies of power, knowledge or information will appear and then disappear. Goves, dying and rising god (Eidos), other mysterious stuff.

Era VI: Stone Temple and Water Temple = Thought Wheel (DKR) and Waters of Abzu

Attempt to simulate meeting between the divine and the earthly. Site of divine contact. Home of the gods but not gods personified. Ergo, a computer centre that builds towards god. The home of god. Receptacle for God. The first DKR? Can be thought of as the largest DKR and the one from which all others spring. Stone = Mountain = Home of Gods = Thought Wheel (DKR)

Water is nature as well. Idea of chaos. Womb from which the world springs. Primeval chaos. Abzu in Sumerian myth. What could this be? Well, it could be a unified life/death principle...thing. Well if everything was chaos before and now they've got a thinking engine on their hands, it might stand to reason that they have an "other" place. A source of concentrated chaos. A house of entropy through which they can touch the "other". Basically, it could be something like dark "chaos water" that can't be understood and kills life. It might be cool if this thing is somehow related to creation destruction and therefore is a grandmother of Mortis/Hel on some level. Maybe a precursor to the Door of Night?

Ergo

Era VI: Thought Wheel (DKR) and Waters of Abzu

Era V: Inanna Temple = Eidos Temple

Built to honour human face of gods. Notion of human quality of divine or divine quality of human. However, this form is archetypical. Idealised. A dying and rising god. It's clear what this must have been.

Ergo

Era V: Eidos Temple

Era IV: Water temple turned into Memorial Temple = Neverborn Temple (Draugnir Temple?)

OK. The Water Temple's death. Death of Underworld? How? And turned into a dead, fire temple? Well, fire is human artifice. It's the crucible from which humans create. They burn nature within it. Also, the water cult of mesopotamia was associated with craft anyway. In our game, the neverborn and draugnir are very similar. So let's basically say that this was the site of "the other" in terms of creating weird minions or automatons or whatever. Also, the Underworld=Graylands for us so the Closing of the Door of Abzu is basically cutting them off from the Graylands. Draugnir are cut off from the Graylands.

Ergo

Memorial Temple = Neverborn Temple

Era IV: Conversion of Inanna Temple (Eidos Temple) to Red Temple = Tower of Wisdom

Godess turned to human mind. Also, tripartite. Divided. Divisions give rise to mind. Common idea with the Greeks. Athena divided from Zeus.

So what was the Red Temple? We know it crafted writing (Glyphs). What characterised it? It would seem the obvious conclusion would be separation. Writing is the externalisation of an idea. It is divisive but it is generous. It seeks to externaise an idea, make it independantly manifest in the world so that others can do with it what they will. So it does contrast with Jinete attitudes. Jinetes were divisive and jealous, secretive and occult. When they externalised an idea, it was entrypted so that only like-minded individuals would be capable of making use of it, so that it would ultimately be an extension of themselves. Limited, but secure. The glyphs that were made in the Red Temple were understood by all. Unlimited but insecure.

Ergo

The Red Temple is the Tower of Wisdom. Repurposing the Eidos Temple.

Era III:  Conversion of Stone Temple (DKR) to White Temple = The Empyrean

White Temple is simple. Built upon Stone (DKR). Now, the home of God on earth (Conscientia).
Ergo
White Temple = The Empyrean

Era II: Creation of the Angels

Era I: End of the Vanquished = Destruction of the DKR and The Empyrean

Ultimately, the White temple was destroyed, which created the Wasteland and current situation.
Where did the Jinetes come from? They could have been created at any time. Post Tower of Wisdom seems likely. However, they were built from recombined structures. This could lead some to say that Mortis hails from Era VI (Door of Abzu) while Vanargand hails from later. Or vice versa. Heck, they could have been created after Conscientia. They certainly were in terms of their modern purpose. However, they likely should have been around prior to Era III in at least some sense. However, not necessary to figure this out at this point.