Total Annihilation (TA) is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game created by Cavedog Entertainment under the guidance of lead designer Chris Taylor. In the distant future, the galaxy is ruled by a central body of humans and artificial intelligences called the Core (a contraction of “Consciousness Repository”). The Core’s technological and economic triumphs have allowed humanity to colonize most of the Milky Way and enjoy peace and prosperity. However, the balance is broken by a technological breakthrough that allows the consciousness of a human being to be reliably transferred into a machine, thereby theoretically granting infinite life, in a process called “patterning.” Following a mandate imposed on humanity by the Core requiring everyone to undergo patterning as a public health measure, a rebel band is formed out of colonies from the edges of the galaxy (hence their name, the Arm), whose members refused to leave their natural bodies to join the Core’s machines. A war lasting 4,000 years followed, with the Arm mass-producing clones as pilots for its vehicles and the Core duplicating consciousness-embedded microchips to pilot its own machines.
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