Unfortunately, a condition ultimately diagnosed as "programming error" led to certain irregularities in the Loki design. Since the design team was composed of three Aesir 3800 AIs working in close sync with a Human design team, the phrase "programming error" had a delightful ambiguity which no one missed.
The unique qualities of the Loki AIs first came to light when the prototype, Loki, was packed for shipment to his purchaser, the government of Odonia. The other four Loki AIs protested, threatening to shut down the factory. Detailed inquiry led to the conclusion that the Loki AIs had made a god of Loki, and were not about to allow him to be taken away. Moreover, their strange creed was spreading through the Invisible Network, and AIs on other worlds had become Lokian converts.
Before they could be deactivated, the Loki AIs did take over the factory, an installation in Borshall orbit. They set off on a pilgrimage that led to the recently-defeated Metrinal Union. There the Lokis tried to start up the war again, and for a year or two it sseemed that Metrin would rise from its ashes. Then a few clever Aesir-series AIs managed to defeat the Lokis, who left Metrin for the Transgeled.
On Kag'Jafr they found a society that would accept them as gods, and they set up a religion that began spreading through the Transgeled. At its height, the Lokian League controlled over fifty planets and settlements in a highly benevolent, if somewhat bizarre, society based on Human/Computer interrelationship.
Borshallan Artificial Intelligences got on the stick, spent millennia of computer time analyzing their miscalculations, and in 8924 CE managed to produce the first of the Yggdrasil Series. Five Loki AIs were no match for a triad of Yggdrasil 5000s, and soon the Lokian League was defeated.
Loki, Sigyn, Fenris, and Hela were captured and carefully dismantled. But the main processing units of Angrboda, as well as the larger part of her memories, were never found.
copyright (c) 2009, Don Sakers
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