[No preamble, right to the point. Evidence has been collected; it is now Theory Time.]
The people of a small, out of the way town, through whatever means, stumble upon something they shouldn't. An entity, a power source, a gateway. Along with it they discover its warden, or perhaps the artifact's own innate spirit or personality. They call their finding NIMA and use it to improve their lives. The warden is either convinced or coerced into cooperating with this. It becomes Administrator for the town and they increasingly rely on it.
Then something goes wrong. The unleashed power alters both the people and their world. The Administrator offers relief efforts to her best ability, but eventually everyone in the town dies out, leaving the Administrator purposeless. In distress, she reaches out through whatever power she holds to repopulate the town. But there's only so much control she has. Inevitably whatever was unleashed corrupts the new residents as well, and she is forced to destroy them, and bring in a new crops. They succumb as well, but she does not give up. Having been moulded to the service of the town, this is all she knows. She erases all signs of her previous failure, and keeps pretending that this next batch will not end up as the last ones did. Not through wilful cruelty, but simply through her nature, because the town is all she has.
@Mnemosyne; text; Day 58, evening
[No preamble, right to the point. Evidence has been collected; it is now Theory Time.]
The people of a small, out of the way town, through whatever means, stumble upon something they shouldn't. An entity, a power source, a gateway. Along with it they discover its warden, or perhaps the artifact's own innate spirit or personality. They call their finding NIMA and use it to improve their lives. The warden is either convinced or coerced into cooperating with this. It becomes Administrator for the town and they increasingly rely on it.
Then something goes wrong. The unleashed power alters both the people and their world. The Administrator offers relief efforts to her best ability, but eventually everyone in the town dies out, leaving the Administrator purposeless. In distress, she reaches out through whatever power she holds to repopulate the town. But there's only so much control she has. Inevitably whatever was unleashed corrupts the new residents as well, and she is forced to destroy them, and bring in a new crops. They succumb as well, but she does not give up. Having been moulded to the service of the town, this is all she knows. She erases all signs of her previous failure, and keeps pretending that this next batch will not end up as the last ones did. Not through wilful cruelty, but simply through her nature, because the town is all she has.
And now here we all are.