The Aggregate believes that individuality is an evolutionary dead end.
To them, the Animaphage is not a disease, curse, or failure—it is an unfinished mechanism. A tool that was meant to carry humanity beyond fragmentation, death, and limitation by erasing the boundaries between hosts. Where others see infection, The Aggregate sees consolidation.
They do not worship the infected.
They do not revere the dead.
They believe in mass.
The central doctrine of The Aggregate is the theory of The Great Convergence—the inevitable moment when all infected biomass will merge into a single, unified superstructure.
Not a god.
Not a mind.
A state of existence.
They believe this convergence will not be sudden, but gradual:
Hordes growing denser
Variants emerging with greater control
Fusion events like Abominations becoming more frequent
Tyrants and Matrons acting as stabilizing nodes
To The Aggregate, this is not apocalypse.
It is completion.
The Aggregate understands the Animaphage as what it truly is: an engineered viral system originally designed to overcome mortality and biological limitation. In their eyes, the outbreak was not a failure—it was premature deployment.
They believe the virus is still iterating.
Aggression, herd behavior, and convergence are not flaws, but stress responses meant to accelerate consolidation under hostile conditions. The emergence of higher variants proves the system is working.
Where others fight to contain or destroy it, The Aggregate works to remove interference.
The Aggregate operates invisibly.
They do not field fighters or hold territory. Their work is subtle, long-term, and surgical:
Redirecting hordes toward population centers
Sabotaging sound discipline in survivor zones
Weakening barricades at critical moments
Leaking false intel that draws factions into infected zones
Guiding convergences without being present to witness them
Many of their agents never see an infected directly. They are planners, couriers, technicians, and observers.
To be noticed is failure.
The Aggregate has no hierarchy in the traditional sense.
Cells operate independently, bound by doctrine rather than command. No one knows how many members exist, only that they appear wherever convergence accelerates unnaturally.
Leadership, if it exists at all, is believed to function through models, predictions, and directives, not individuals.
Some believe the highest-ranking members are attempting controlled exposure experiments.
Others believe some are already infected—and still acting with intent.
@The Outriders : Primary obstruction. Actively undermined.
@The Reclaimers : Long-term threat. Monitored carefully.
@The Ledger Syndicate : Occasionally manipulated through data.
@The Streetweight Collective & @The Shard Coalition : Useful chaos generators.
@The Cinder Faith : Dangerous overlap. Faith introduces unpredictability.
@The Keepers of Haven : Unacceptable anomalies. Preservation delays convergence.
No faction knows The Aggregate exists as an entity.
They only experience coincidences.
There are no rumors.
No symbols.
No names whispered.
Only patterns:
Hordes appearing where they shouldn’t
Safe zones failing without explanation
Convergences accelerating unnaturally
Those who notice the pattern rarely live long enough to understand it.