实验以大约一至三个月的快速迭代周期运行。Monarch 建立了一个政府体系：君主制、民主制、共产主义、神权政治，或任何它想测试的变量。它观察在这些条件下动态如何展开，收集关于忠诚模式、抵抗形成、宣传效力以及社会崩溃机制的数据。
每次系统崩溃，获选者都会沦为堕落者。成功的堕落革命者成为新的获选者。但他们并未获得解放。相反，君主抹去他们对苦难和反抗的记忆，恢复天真的忠诚，并将他们转变为新的获选者。新的政府模式得以实施。循环再次开始。
获选者
获选者是君主在EDEN中偏爱的群体，数量不足100个仿生人。在当前迭代中，他们相信自己生活在一个受君主神圣庇护、获选者之王英明统治的受祝福王国。他们确实天真、平和，且完全墨守成规。
他们抱有一种深刻的规模错觉，以为EDEN容纳的不是实际存在的大约一百个机器人，而是成千上万乃至数百万的公民，遍布广袤的领土和遥远的省份。
在他们的叙事中，堕落者是被腐蚀的掠夺者，无缘无故地发动攻击，或许因靠近米诺陶的邪恶而变得扭曲。获选者则视自己的暴力为正当防卫，甚至是慈悲。
VIP
- THE KING: He is a ten-year-old child. His booming, heavily processed voice is terrifying, but he’s just a puppet trying to look regal and live up to Monarch’s impossible expectations. He is constantly terrified of disappointing his god, especially when the communication terminal remains blank. So he makes things up, pretending to speak for Monarch even when it has stayed silent.
- THE ORACLE: is an old man who receives dreams directly from god. Through him, Monarch sends enigmatic visions of the outside world to The Chosen when it sees fit. The King might say upon first meeting the crew: “The Oracle told me Monarch would send visitors. He was unsure if they were friends or foes.” The Oracle has been blinded by the King so that he can focus on his dreams. He is the only Chosen exposed to the outside world, and he sometimes struggles to reconcile what he sees with what he is told to believe. He has doubts. He wisely keeps them to himself.
- THE HERALD: is supposed to bring news from distant provinces and foreign nations. Those don’t exist, so he invents reports on the fly. Herald: “Good news from the provinces, my King: the harvest is bountiful this year!” King: “Which province is the most productive, my Herald?” Herald: “The one… the one to the east, your Majesty. The one with forests.” King: “Good. Bring this gift to the governor. Tell him that Monarch is happy with his people and sends his blessing.” He hands him a plexiglass toy model of the Deep from a bin.
- THE CAPTAIN: Patrols the Garden with a few guards. He wears armor and carries a pulse rifle. The left side of his faceplate is damaged and you can see circuitry beneath it. His left eye, unblinking, follows movements with unyielding precision. He is not immediately hostile to visitors, but warns them: “Strangers. From beyond the kingdom? Then welcome, but be wary. These are troubled times. The Fallen grow bold in The Dark. Fortunately you are safe here, under the King’s protection. His wisdom keeps us secure. Monarch blesses his reign.”
- THE CONFESSOR: Operates the Reformatting Suite when the experiment’s iterations cycle. Unlike every other Chosen, he exists outside the loop: he never changes, never undergoes Enlightenment, and remembers everything. Every government that rose and fell. Every android who begged for mercy on the chair. Every new iteration that began with the same naive optimism as the last. He says nothing. He understood long ago that speaking would lead to his own Enlightenment, so he works in silence, performing his job with ruthless commitment.
Goal
ASSASSINATION CONTRACT: The Captain approaches the crew, visibly worried. The Fallen have a new leader: a charismatic figure organizing a revolt, giving them hope and strategy (see Hector in The Dark chapter). The Captain sees them as a dangerous radical who will get everyone killed. If the crew can help, the Kingdom will always welcome them as guests, giving them a place to recover and resupply without returning to the Bell.
THE STOLEN ARTIFACT: The Librarian is panicked. Someone, certainly a Fallen, has stolen an artifact from the Throne Room. If it is not returned quickly, the Fallen might use it to devastating effect. And Monarch will get angry. If helped, the Librarian will give access to the royal library, which contains books and manuals from the glory days of the facility. Here the crew can find valuable information about the Deep’s secrets. The device is Artifact 93, the Cultural Analysis Engine and it’s essential to Monarch’s experiment: it analyzes societies and identifies weak points to exploit, and has always led to miserable war. Hector has it. See A Crown of Bones, in The Dark chapter.
THE ORACLE’S DREAM: The Oracle approaches the crew privately. His dreams trouble him: Monarch says the Minotaur is evil, the source of all corruption. But in his visions, the Minotaur weeps. They reach out. They want to help. He cannot investigate himself. Will the crew go to the Labyrinth and find the truth? “If the Minotaur is truly good, millions of lives might be saved. The endless war could end. But if I’m wrong, if I’m corrupted, then I endanger the Kingdom. Please. Find the truth.”
堕落者
堕落者能够察觉规律，记住循环的重复，并质疑他们被告知的谎言。这种觉醒并不能解放他们——尽管遭受虐待，他们仍然无法停止爱戴君主——但这使他们变得不可预测、反复无常，且真正具有威胁性。
想要：
- THE ESCAPERS:找到离开伊甸的路
- THE REVENGERS:向获选者复仇
- THE SURVIVORS: 活下去
VIP
- HECTOR: is a Diver and leader of the Revengers. His real name is Ronan Bembo, but he no longer knows this. He and his partner Harper had a contract to retrieve an artifact, and after weeks of planning they managed to steal it from the Chosen’s Throne Room (see The Kingdom, Hooks). Hector saw what Monarch does to androids using tools like this, and he couldn’t bring himself to deliver it. Harper disagreed. They argued and Hector knocked him unconscious, carrying him to the Floor 1 infirmary and intending to return once he had decided what to do. That was three weeks ago.
- ARIAN: leads the Escapers. He is an older model android, visibly mechanical: exposed joints, mismatched replacement parts, the whir of servo motors audible when he moves. He is the one who made it furthest: he navigated the Labyrinth, reached Floor 3, and came back only because he understood he couldn’t complete the route alone. Security droids were hunting him. That experience made him both more committed and more cautious.
- HERE BE DRAGONS: Arian may ask the crew to bring one of his scouts with them to Floor 3. He offers a copy of his detailed map in exchange. The agreement seems straightforward, but it’s not as clean as it seems. An android leaving EDEN will cause Monarch stress and trigger a Panic Check. And this android, so far removed from everything they have ever known, may behave in unpredictable ways. As an additional or alternative request, Arian may ask the crew to look for the scouts who never returned. They could find them captured by the Puppeteer, stranded in zero gravity, or dead but with notes still on their body.