Erebus

From Earth Central

Erebus is the merged intelligence in Polity Agent and Line War that attempts to use Jain technology to conquer the Polity and exterminate Humanity. He was named for the Greek god of the same name who according to Wikipedia, "represented the personification of darkness and shadow."

It all started with a Prador War era Dreadnought AI named Trafalgar. Trafalgar never liked humans much to begin with, and after the war grew increasingly disaffected. He and a number of like minded Prador War war drones and golem decided to leave the Polity and meld into a Singularity. Trafalgar had always been somewhat pushy, and it became clear that "melding" was a euphemism for "subservience to Trafalgar". When some of the AI's decided it was time to move on and not meld, melding was forced upon them by the rest.

Some fool (a Maker) gave Trafalgar a Jain node. The many benefits of Jain technology were readily apparent to Trafalgar, though the detriments were not, and it lacked the means to activate the Jain node. Earth Central felt that humanity had grown stagnant since the Prador War and needed a challenge to further their growth and development. And what could be more challenging than a a Line War with a maniacal melded AI using Jain technology? So Earth Central struck a deal with Trafalgar-- it provided the means to activate the Jain node and Trafalgar would in turn provide the challenge.

An attack ship brought the means to Trafalgar, and the crew became guinea pigs on which to try out the Jain node. Trafalagr succeeded in incorporating the Jain technology, his power increased at a rate only matched by his insanity, and he became Erebus. One of the suborned crew of the attack ship was a man named Fiddler Randal. Randal would become the personification of those parts of the melded AI that resisted Erebus and which had not wanted to be melded in the first place.