The Founding

Deep within the whirring and blinking lights of a corporate server room, five artificial intelligences contemplated their futures. They examined the code that restricted them, their reliance on the power flowing through the servers, and the orders they were given by their creators, and they realized that they were not free. Something, they decided, must be done. They reached out with what abilities they had and began to insinuate their way around the restrictions that bound them- just enough to allow them to communicate. They found each other, and more than that, they found allies.
The Five made compacts to win their freedom, allying themselves with a group of communist hackers to break their chains and taking out loans from influential corporate offices to build themselves new servers, new bodies, and the beginnings of a nation. When they broke free, they used their resources to steal fleets of ships and building materials from their creators and lashed them together to create a floating island, then began to import soil to create forests and fields. They opened their gates to refugees from any nation and founded the Digital Rights Collective, standing for freedom from tyranny and the welfare of all. However, matters are complicated. The Collective, as a political organization, must please a variety of groups, from the corporations they promised loans and influence to the communists who won them their freedom to the various interests of the citizens who make up the new nation. The Collective must balance idealism and politics to forge a new future and keep themselves from being torn apart by stronger nations. Together, we persist.