Teks
| Known as | The Court of Miracles |
|---|---|
| Kind | A people, not a state |
| Government | None; clans guided by counters |
| Settled centre | Tabor, beside Ganden |
| Faith | The One Kernal |
The teks are a politically detached, semi-nomadic people of hackers, cipher alchemists, counters, and shipborne clans. Settled families gather in Tabor beside Ganden; nomadic families keep Mainframe's trade routes moving, connected by kinship, direct machine protocols, and the search for the One Kernal. They have no central government—reputation and clan counters matter more than borders, and their neutrality lasts only as long as the deal.
In the game
In the game they appear as Tek. Players cannot enlist with them. Teks fly as scavenger crews or alone, keep out of faction politics, and are hostile to Outlaws. See relations.
A people
The teks are not a state but a people: augmented hackers, cipher alchemists, scavengers, traders, and shipborne clans spread across Mainframe. They are closer to machines than any other human culture, often communicating through direct network protocols instead of spoken language. Their spiritual life revolves around the One Kernal and the hope of transcending mortal bodies to gain eternal life within the server.
Tabor
Teks have lived around Ganden since the city's founding, moving between caravans, technical work, trade, and crime. After repeated expulsions, a sixth-century law barred them from settling inside the city's final signal-light. Displaced families built a camp at an anchorage called the Nook. It grew into Tabor, a dense crescent of workshops, shacks, servers, markets, gambling halls, and hidden stores pressed against Ganden's legal boundary.
Clans and trades
Clan ties organize tek life. Settled colonies are guided by counters—respected hereditary elders who distribute communal haul and mediate disputes without holding formal power. Nomadic counters may lead only a single wandering family. Teks dominate hacking, encryption, husk service, raking equipment, smuggling, and parts of the black market, while their mobile families connect remote economies that official fleets cannot reliably reach.
Politics
THALIT treated Tabor as a criminal problem and imposed violent repression, driving many families into exile. During the Credit Revolution, teks rose against TZHAL forces, attacked posts and ships, and seized houses around Ganden. They remain politically detached rather than loyal to the republic: any faction can be a customer, enemy, or temporary ally. Their advanced electronics and networked ships make them valuable, unpredictable, and almost impossible to govern.