Well I'm thinking that the GAIA Computer mainly is for terra forming, so it technically doesn't affect life forms directly. Sort of like how the Earth was created. Life as we know it didn't exist initially on the planet (as it was nothing but molten lava/magma at one point that eventually gained an atmosphere and everything else that created life.)
The Caeles probably survived by means of space colonies.
How it would work... It would probably be an energy field that envelopes the galaxy and then performs the selected tasks.
Pretty much, the process would wipe out anything on a planet's surface... Anything that's living at least...
Nihiliods... I'm staring at my own gruesome creation and thinking these could be even more relevant to the entire story than I previously thought... Should I implement the changes where Nihiliods are the real threat throughout the story? ...should I focus on them or culture of the galaxy? Or something else?
True It's a dark alternative Instead of Aion turning against Achlys when she attempts to use the Ethereal Darkness, he helps her. This leads to a whole new timeline where a whole new set of outcomes could be true...
Maybe even the RP is actually of this alternative.
The next great turning point of the development of EG has occurred
Thanks to the concept of the Alternate timeline and something wholly unexpected that Kristia suggested
This happened
What better reason to have a war that lasts for seemingly forever than that of survival? Nothingness... the Void... What if the War of Eternity is not some petty squabble over a book of prophecy... What if it was a fight against the impossible?
The Inevitable Conclusion... A fight against the very thing that consumes all. A fight against the Void.
But can you really destroy that which does not exist? The absence of all existence? No. Can you delay it? Yes.
The Demon Caeles ... Is actually the Void. The Nihiliods are not just planet destroyers. They are the embodiment of the Void.
A fight for survival You would think something such as a fight against erasure would bring a galaxy together towards a common cause... Instead it tears it apart. Hysteria sets in... factions form with different ideologies on how to destroy the Void. A clash of views, everyone is afraid of the other's radical ideas on how to destroy that which destroys.
Time itself means nothing to the Void. Aion, the Master of Time, is rendered powerless. What can he do? He can do what one driven to the brink of insanity can do. Try again. "Cowards die many times, while the brave die but once."
He challenges the Inevitable Conclusion, the Void. But what does he have? His own power means nothing. Strength of Will alone? Against the Void?
Such naivety! What can the will of petty mortals do against the face of certain destruction? Of certain erasure from this existence?
More than the Void would think. For his own bretheren... Other Caeles... aid the mortals of Venturia. Against the odds, they choose to fight.
Upon the revolving cogs of fate does our lives hang. The threads golden with the hue of eternity. The clock turns and the hour hand points to a new time, a new era. Yet we live on, ignorant of the tick of the clock of fate. Nay, our lives are not defined by the clock, rather the events that doth unfold forth from it. As the new age dawns, threads will be cut. Lives will plummet into the abyss of history, forgotten. As they fall, war rises and ravages the hanging threads like a tempest most ferocious. Many lives, many of the golden threads are battered by the onslaught, helpless to change it. War defined their fate. War was the plague that the clock hands brought to help define the new era. But as war storms and thunders and starts the inferno that consumes all that it touches and reduces all to mere ashes...those with a will to change cruel fate stand up from the smoldering embers. With hope and strength of the heart, they force the clock of fate to change again, to move on to a new time, to bring new fortune. And so it does. The war ends and the hands bring peace.
The abyss The Void...
Our lives dangle from the clock of fate. As the threads are cut, we fall to the void. As the hands turn, we move closer to the void. War arises as the struggle for survival ensues. As the mortals clamber over one another in a desperate attempt to escape the void...
They cut each other and fall towards its gaping maw.
Eternity is but an illusion. For the Void is the end of time. The Edge of Eternity.
One does not simply destroy the Void. One can only hope to delay it.
The basic premise behind the entirety of Eternal Galaxy...
So this alternative timeline (codenamed "Void" until I think of something better) has led me to give the Goddess Venturia an actual role now. In the back of my mind i've been toying with using the notion of a religion to explain things. This would then help develop Venturian culture and then tie things all together.