The Gravital are the secondary antagonists of the science fiction novel All Tomorrows. They are the evolution of the post-human Ruin Haunters.
Biology[]
A Gravital's digital brain is housed in a mechanical shell, primarily spherical in shape, with one glowing red eye and three orifices seemingly for vocalization. Some have taken rectangular forms, and others wield robotic limbs.
History[]
When the Star People of one world were bio-engineered into the Ruin Haunters by the Qu, their punishment was tame compared to what others would face, being reduced to mere hunter-gatherers as advanced technology from both civilizations was left behind on their planet. After 5 world wars (2 of which went nuclear), the Ruin Haunters developed to master the ancient technology and consider themselves the sole heirs to the star people. As other post-humans evolved to rebuild civilization, the Ruin Haunters refused to join their alliance out of arrogance for believing superiority to them. When the sun of their world began expanding, they shifted their brains into mechanical bodies which achieved locomotion by manipulating gravity. Eventually, their organic brains were replaced with quantum computers hosting their consciousness, transforming the species into the Gravital.
The Gravital would use their advanced technology to achieve interstellar travel, colonize planets and wage war on the other post-humans. They would block out a planet's sun with sails millions of miles wide, allowing them to orbital bombard a world by surprise. Over 10,000 years, these campaigns lead to the extinction of several species across the galaxy such as the Satyriacs, Killer Folk, Snake People and Asymmetric People, while the Bug Facers were enslaved as pets, genetically modified into the Subjects (much like the Qu had done to both their ancestors before). The Subjects served them in roles such as pets, livestock, living art pieces or religious sacrifices. Despite this, the Gravital did not do so out of active hatred, merely viewing the organic beings as of lower value life equal to an object.
As they retained human-like capacity for thoughts, ideals and philosophies, some Gravital individuals sympathized with the organic peoples, even falling in love in cases. Factions of these Gravital demanding more rights for organics lead to intense civil unrest, which the leaders of Gravital society distracted from by uniting them against the Asteromorphs, the most similarly advanced of the post-human species. The uneasy cold war between the two civilizations came to armed conflict, resulting in a war lasting millions of years that caused immeasurable death and destruction before the Asteromorphs emerged victorious.
The defeated Gravital were considered to hold valuable abilities, so instead of being wiped out, their intelligence, life-spans and gravitational powers were reduced, converting them into the New Machines, who would serve as second-class citizens in Asteromorph society. 1 billion years later, all human descendants had disappeared from the galaxy for uncertain reasons, leaving their final fates unknown.