So many are asking, what was the point of the Owl Sector stuff? What exactly is SIVA? The background shows that the two are related and I will attempt to explain them here. It also shows some fairly unethical research occurring in the name of science. Golden age wasn’t quite so golden. One of the things that was confusing people in the Owl Sector record logs, is that they were both present day and historical records intertwined, so understanding the timing was difficult. But lore wise, the mite infection we briefly endured leading up to RoI is a parallel research that along side the one that generated SIVA. So centuries ago in the Golden Age, a scientist named Z. Shirazi was performing research for Clovis Bray under the oversight of Willa Bray (relation not known yet) at a facility located on Mars in the Dust Palace. Shirazi recorded her research in log books as she injected test patients with nanotechnology (code named Glory, Magnificence, Brilliance, Splendor, Fortitude). The nanotechnology was injected into human hosts in which the mites were trying to augment human abilities (I believe the code names to indicate the elements of the human they were trying to augment). Basically enhanced humans, but these patients experienced a wide variety of negative effects. The research was all about colonization. Shirazi’s research was trying to improve human’s abilities to survive the colonization of other planets/systems. To endure the harsh physical and mental demands. Shirazi was initially enthusiastic to be leading such important research, but in time, became more and more skeptical. As her patients kept having severe negative side effects, she began to uncover files that Willa Bray secretly kept indicating that previous versions of the research Shirazi was currently conducting had 50-60% mortality rates. This high mortality rate caused Shirazi to become upset because this information was not told to her and it makes her second guess her research. In current time, Owl Sector, a group of humans living in the tower and liasons to the Vanguard, begin to observe Guardians becoming infected with mites after visiting the Dust Palace. They send a member of their team to the Dust Palace to look for the source, and they discover all of Shirazi’s old research files from the golden age and that the mites (nano robots) had been released. As the mites spread across the Guardians, Owl Sector and the Vanguard restrict contact between humans and Guardians because while the mites appear to have beneficial effects on guardians (in game represented as increased Exp/Rep), it still proves as harmful to humans as it did back in the golden age research that Shirazi was conducting. The lead of the Owl Sector, a human male named Shun Li, accidentally gets exposed the mites and nearly dies (as a side note, it appears that him and Ikora have feelings for each other and may at one point had a romantic relationship). Through reading Shirazi’s old research notes, Owl Sector is able to cure Shun of the mite infection and in our current time, the threat of the infection ended. In the Owl Sector entry under Fortitude 3.1, the last log entry Shirazi made back in the golden age stated: [spoiler] “After I sent my research staff home, I entered Clovis Bray’s data isolation chamber with borrowed credentials. I had to know. My predecessor’s annotations are sparse, but I believe the data from previous trials show mortality rates of 50-60% for the last generation of injectable biotech. I should have been informed of this. My report will begin with the words: Unacceptable, demonstrated risks preclude further human trials at this time. I must make Willa Bray see that this way lies disaster.”[/spoiler] So how does this tie to rise of iron and SIVA? Dormant SIVA fragments, those red glowing things we collect in RoI. Let’s start with the very first one, Clovis Bray 1.0: The fragment does not identify the names of the two individuals talking but let’s see what they say and infer. First dialogue: “I can’t in good professional conscience recommend further research in this direction without stringent review of protocol and mitigation of the undisclosed lethality risks. Which I should have been informed of.” So this looks to be picking up right where Shirazi’s last Owl sector record left off. Simliar words and sentiment. Shirazi is expressing her anger over not being told all the facts. And she receives a response back from someone: “Should have been.” Is this insubordination, Zarin? Zarin? Seems to be a name. And Sharzi’s first name…as in Z. Shirazi from her log records. Zarin Shirazi is her full name. And the log entry notation below is recorded as SIVA.MEM.WB065… WB, Willa Bray. So Shirazi and Willa Bray are the ones talking. Keep reading the dormant siva fragments and later it openly states the name Willa Bray as one of the narrators. Over the next 4 Dormant SIVA entries, Shirazi is removed from the research project after Willa discovers she’s been snooping around her secret files. In parallel, a Dr. Zhang, is working on another version of the research, building the replication chambers for SIVA. The SIVA nanotechnology is not just the mite technology that Shirazi was researching, the one we enjoyed briefly in the week leading up to RoI, it is the technology we see kill the Iron Lords centuries ago and infect the fallen in the present story. While Shirazi’s version of the research used the mites to augment human abilities for colonization , the SIVA version show the mites as being able to operate independent of a human host. A rather simple analogy, but think microbots in the Disney movie Big Hero 6, controlled by AI. The SIVA version are intelligent swarms of mites capable of constructing without the human requirement. These SIVA swarms could travel long distances, operate independently, and even construct colonies, so that the first augmented human settlers would already have some place pre built to live when they arrived. In the late golden age, we have at least one documented evidence of Rasputin using one of the cosmodrome colony ships to take SIVA to a distant place (Old Russia 4: http://www.ishtar-collective.net/cards/ghost-fragment-old-russia-4?highlight=Old ) We know from RoI that Rasputin has control over SIVA. Based on a few loose pieces of lore, it would appear that Rasputin took control of SIVA at some point in the late Golden Age, possibly without permission. When the collapse occurred and Rasputin went dormant, he vaulted SIVA away in one of his bunkers, until the Iron Lords showed up looking for it. Which is where the RoI story line picks up. Hopefully this helps create the backstory and understand things more Edit: updated to reflect Shirazi's research was going on in parallel with SIVA (Haffocs post)