Ethereals: Dossier

Cogitian

"Knowledge is not just power; it is all that matters."

- Imperial Archivist Cogitian, of the Ethereal Empire

ADVENT Intelligence Report 0992

Subject: Internet Ethereal (Not Quisilia)

Agent: M. Ramiraz

This is one of the more interesting things we've been keeping an eye on lately, and more recently it's only become more prominent. To give a brief history on this entire subject, XCOM originally brought to our attention the profiles of suspected aliens, primarily Ethereals. Contrary to popular belief, Quisilia is not the only one who can use the Internet and there are quite a few others who appear to do as well.

There are, of course, many impersonators and fakes, but it's generally fairly easy to pick out which ones are, and are not real. Actual Ethereal accounts will generally not explicitly state they are alien (Unlike Quisilia, who I cannot discount is like this because it gives people the wrong perception). They will act like normal users, and only through examining their questions, knowledge, and opinions will you generally be able to piece together something that could potentially be an alien.

One such user is a bit of an odd one. Our best guess is that this particular alien is the Ethereal identified by XCOM as Cogitian. He has a large number of associated accounts relating to historical, political, mathematical, and biological subjects. He appears to go out of his way to find more obscure journal sites and enthusiast groups, in addition to the more public groups on reddit and YouTube.

It's hit or miss on if he actually reveals he is an alien. Now that we have an idea of which accounts are his, we have determined that he lurks for at least several weeks before actually participating. It is speculated that he is using that time to become acquainted with the subject itself, since subsequent posts indicate a deep knowledge of the subject in question.

Once he establishes himself with the respective community, he will likely begin asking some more pointed questions about certain things. Sometimes people will be suspicious, and he will usually drop his identity as an alien, and offer some kind of knowledge in return for answers to his question. Through this method, he has acquired a significant amount of information about our species, but in return information relating to the ancient Ethereal Empire has also been received.

The information that is shared is ultimately not that important. Much of it is already public record, and honestly, what he shares in return is also useless to us militarily. It is only important to historians and archaeologists (However, the archeological remains that he has revealed on other planets may be worth investigating in the future).

He is also taking some things into his own hands. He managed to download the entirety of Wikipedia, which was sent to a known alien-controlled server in Australia, and then presumably stored on their internal network. He is also not above paying for information, and indeed is subscribed to nearly every major scientific and historical journal out there.

How he gets this money?

It is unknown at this point, but we suspect he is getting it from the Chinese. There are multiple conversions to various other currencies that are connected to various accounts, but the concerning thing is that he is maintaining twelve different accounts and regularly uses them with the same amount of frequency. If I didn't know better, I'd say he has a background in white-collar crime. Assuming that all of these accounts are tied together, we can at least deduce that he is a management expert, and really has to be if he's maintaining so many façades at once.

I half suspect he may only be running part of this major intel-gathering op, and using an AI or machine intelligence for another half. If this is indeed Cogitian, he did create the CODEX system, and it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility to set that up.

So based on what we have learned and seen from him, he is not going to give up important Collective secrets. However, I do think that we can leverage him in other ways. He wants to spread and acquire knowledge. I suspect that we might be able to map parts of the galaxy if we use several of our accounts to give him something he wants in return. Collective star maps would be exceptionally valuable when we transition to space.

I have attached such a plan with this report.

CODEX Log 1911

Subject: On the Application of Knowledge

Location: The Temple Ship of the Imperator

Author: Archivist Cogitian

There is a saying among the Humans, "Knowledge is power." They are not the first to come to such a realization, of course, and the same sentiment has been echoed across the ages. Yet there is a directness to it which I remember more easily than the flowing words and sentences of the Empire and species of old.

Yet there it is not quite correct. To equate knowledge with simple power vastly understates both the importance and versatility knowledge provides. At the root of all things: technology, improvement, war, and power; all of these rest on the existence, usage, and destruction of knowledge. A power that one does not know how to control will kill the user; technology cannot be created or improved if one does not understand the fundamentals which they learned from teachers and books.

Every aspect of society, every decision made that affects lives, at the root is a manipulation of knowledge. Some speak as though the words 'information' and 'knowledge' are different, but they are simply two interpretations of the same thing. Our Empire allowed the rumors of our power to spread to the outsider species, but refrained from offering significant details. We built upon each previous generation of Ethereals to adapt, evolve, and advance forward.

One might ask if any of this would exist if we as a species did not prize knowledge.

It simply would not.

Advancement cannot exist without the acclamation of knowledge. Society reaches stages where they become more and more reliant on things they do not understand. This is natural and expected, but as a result it becomes more and more fragile. Should the knowledge of how to operate the complex technology of the Empire have been lost, we as a species would have crumbled or descended into wars.

Regressed.

Our species was one of the few who have had little internal conflict. Other species are not so lucky. One of two things happen – They wipe themselves out or they ebb and flow through time; advancing to the point where they reach the first stage of a technological revolution, then they go to war, the knowledge is lost and they die off until only the smartest survive.

They are set back hundreds of years, and each time they pull themselves to the same point before they inevitably kill each other again. I have only witnessed this happen as long as three cycles, before the species destroyed their world in a bioplague. A sad and cruel fate; so close to the stars yet unable to reach them.

The Empire thankfully did take such precautions at my insistence, for what little good it sadly did the Empire. Yet should another stumble onto the caches of knowledge stashed throughout the galaxy, perhaps they will be able to make use of them. Knowledge is as vital to the galaxy as fleets, armies, and ships. Without knowledge, all of those are of limited use.

I understand why the libraries, data vaults, and network towers are often targeted by militaries. Deny the enemy information, and all you need to do is prevent them fixing it and they will proceed to destroy themselves. Killing the farmers and wrecking their equipment is all that is needed to drive a planet to surrender. Will they be so willing to fight if they are starving?

I cannot and never will condone such deprivation, but the reasons for such actions are abundantly clear. Yet I feel that if you must deprive the enemy of knowledge, it should be preserved first for historical purposes if nothing else. The Empire made many strides in our history, but it was also consumed with itself; believing that it had nothing more to learn.

That is why it stagnated.

That is why we lost.

We cannot afford to let this happen again, and I fear that we have learned precious little from the last war, which leads me to another quote of the Humans.

"Those who do not know history, are doomed to repeat it."

XCOM Profile 172

Authorization Level: Internal Council

Subject: Cogitian

Threat Level: Low

Assessment Author: Aegis

Approved by: The Commander of XCOM

SECTION 1: Physical Characteristics

Hair color: None (Ethereal)

Eye color: Solid Orange

Skin color: Dark Purple

Height: 9'2"

Weight: 210 lbs. (Estimated)

Distinguishing Features: He is one of the few Ethereals to not wear a helmet or any other kind of facial protection, similar to the Overmind. Otherwise there is nothing that would distinguish him physically from other Ethereals.

Physical Condition: For an Ethereal, he is…weaker than most. A MEC could easily overpower him and I suspect an enhanced Human (Such as Carmelita) could do the same. He has sufficient stamina, but cannot last long in sustained combat.

SECTION 2: Assessment

Cogitian is who I would describe as the second least-dangerous Ethereal. It is good not to underestimate him, but he is not anywhere near the level of even the Guardians, let alone ones such as Isomnum or the Overmind.

Cogitian is one of the few Ethereals that is relatively unique. The first reason is because he comes from a very small batch of Ethereals who were designed differently than most, created to prioritize intellectual capability over psionics. This led to a batch of the smartest Ethereals to exist in the Empire, but with exceptionally poor physical and psionic strength.

This was not necessarily the result wanted by the Empire, and it was further refined later onwards. The batch that was grown then worked as archivists and advisors throughout the Empire, and sadly rarely used to their fullest capability. I should clarify that Cogitian was not grown in this batch, but is, rather, the child of an Ethereal from it and an Imperial scientist.

He is indeed one of the treasured natural births, and as a result is unlike most other Ethereals. He retains the standard physical capabilities of many of the Imperial scientists, but a mind of the intellectual batch. Cogitian has a perfect memory and the mental capacity to have his mind concentrate fully on multiple different projects or tasks at once, while still retaining full effectiveness.

His raw intellectual capability is far greater than even Revelean and the Creator, and likely close to that of the Imperator and Fectorian. If he truly wished to do so, I believe he could just as effectively do their jobs. Every single development in the Empire gets sent directly to him and stored in his mind and twenty other different digital locations.

He is not asking simply for the sake of the preservation of knowledge, he is learning everything that is happening in the Empire. He doesn't restrict himself scientifically either; he reads Zararch and Special Operator reports with a fascinated zeal, also storing them away once completed.

Cogitian never forgets anything. He has a tendency to appear to be a slightly overzealous archivist, but he has thousands of centuries worth of knowledge stored in his mind. He may not say it, but he knows everything about every species in existence, and what he does not know, he will chase down.

I actually know Cogitian quite well, as he was one of the few Ethereals of Imperial Civil Command to visit the front lines of the Synthesized War. He even fought several times (from a distance), but mostly recorded what had happened, gathering quotes and accounts, and then returned to Imperial space to share what was happening.

Few wanted to hear it, and when the defeats began mounting the Empire took…steps to change the narrative. They began directly sending him to dangerous warzones, or areas where the Empire was sure to win. What they failed to account for was that Cogitian knew every single detail of the planets he was being sent to, and was too smart to fall for the propaganda victories. His own knowledge of the planets helped turn what would be losses or routs into victories or successful evacuations.

By the end, Cogitian told me that he suspected the Empire was trying to kill him, and that he found it humorous. I suppose that after seeing the costs of the war and facing down Director Flagships, the Ethereals of Civil Command were an almost laughable threat. He then said that he saw no way for the Empire to win and was simply chronicling their fall and storing it on hundreds of worlds to perhaps serve as a warning in the future.

Cogitian had his own contingency plans set in motion long before the Imperators arrived, and when the Imperator made an offer to Cogitian, he immediately took it on the condition that his work could be finished as close as envisioned. This was granted, and Cogitian followed the Empire to its final days before the Imperator recalled all that he had chosen to be placed in stasis.

To this day those caches, within which Cogitian stored our history, technology, and warnings, still likely remain. He took precautions to ensure that they would not be easily found. He has continued doing the same thing in the Collective. He maintains small caches stored on dozens of worlds and continuously updates them to ensure that whatever happens is not lost forever.

If nothing else, his drive is to be commended.

SECTION 3: Psychological Profile

It would not be an exaggeration to state that Cogitian is obsessed with the acquisition and preservation of knowledge.

He believes that it is the most important resource in the galaxy, and places it above all else, even life itself. To him, the targeting of libraries and museums are a much greater insult than attacking military bases or civilian houses. Living beings, he believes, can and will be replaced. It is not always the case with knowledge.

To this end, he is not interested in hording it for himself, hence why he has established caches on dozens of worlds. If it were up to him, the Collective would be far more interconnected than it is now, and he only tolerates the secrecy and division between species because he has access to everything.

However, just because he has this capability does not mean he often uses it. Anything the Imperator knows, Cogitian knows. Anything the Special Operators know, so does he. Anything the Collective knows about Earth, he does as well. He likely knows more about your species than most of your own kind do. And he will go to great lengths to acquire knowledge he does not have; ethics are malleable to him depending on what is at stake. If he has to steal from a being who would rather horde a valuable relic or document than part with it, he will do so, if not simply kill them.

It should also be noted that Cogitian does not have an innate prejudice against aliens. If it were up to him, he would have had the Empire form alliances and agreements with the various species, and he despises isolationism, believing it to be a form of stagnation. He has little patience for intolerance, greed, selfishness, and incompetence.

He dislikes violence as a general rule; considering it rather savage and primitive. This leads him to support more ethically questionable acts like telepathically dominating a species to end a war, instead of fighting in traditional combat. Even if he accepts combat, he prefers it to be swift, elegant, and effective. Thus he prefers fast-acting bio and genetic plagues, nano-infection, or telepathic domination. Guns, explosions, anything involving actual combat he dislikes on principle, believing it a waste of time for the sake of tradition and a primitive bloodlust.

With that said, he has admitted that certain parts of history would not be as enjoyable if it ended when the enemy was telepathically dominated a few moments after preparing for a fight.

Cogitian has never had a true mate, and shown a disinterest in ever acquiring a traditional one. I would chalk that up to more there being a lack of options at this point. Although I would personally state that it is likely do to the fact that he, during the war, was quite friendly with one of the Battlemasters. As far as I know, she died, though what is odd is I cannot recall him ever going through any stage of grief or even acknowledgement.

I suppose this might not be too strange. He is not a normal Ethereal, and it would be expected that he does not think like one either.

SECTION 4: Concerns and Abilities

I suspect you only included this for posterity, as this section does not apply to Cogitian at all.

Psionically, he is, theoretically, on the level of Patricia. Realistically, he could likely be overcome by a telepath of sufficient skill. He has not developed his telepathic abilities even if he does maintain strong mental barriers. Yet he is a very small threat on the battlefield, and wouldn't show there in the first place.

Physically, he is not suited for combat whatsoever. He is not fast, strong, or agile. Even a small team of XCOM soldiers would be able to overpower him, especially if they were enhanced. If you ever face Cogitian in combat, it is almost a certain victory. You will have far more trouble catching him in the first place.

The actual "threat" if you wish to call it that, is his mind. He will likely know the area better than your soldiers, he'll know their tactics, and he will plan accordingly. He will also not put himself above blackmail or forced coercion if pressed.

His actual danger is, in all honestly, negligible. He is not an Ethereal that deserves to die and is simply on the wrong side in this conflict. If possible, I highly recommend that he be kept alive. If nothing else, what he knows about…well, everything, could be useful to us.