@Dif, in reference to your ideas about remodeling the Void - something came to me out of the blue for how to handle that, and it lines up pretty well with this bit of your post:
One way to help define the Void - which fits in somewhat with your idea of the Void as Autochthon's despair and self-loathing melded to his genius - is that the Void is what happens when the Great Maker's brilliance outstrips his wisdom. It's the point where reach exceeds grasp, and careful planning gives way to fevered obsession.
A pious Autochthonian engineer plans everything piece by piece, putting obscene amounts of work into making sure his project will accomplish its defined goals with minimal resource expenditure and without disrupting any of the existing elements of the system it's going to be made within. An Apostate engineer "designs" as much through free association and improvisational engineering as anything else, chasing the idea at the heart of his vision without concern for anything else. He doesn't care about meeting a budget or mitigating the effect his work has on the region, and he doesn't notice if the foundations of his work start to corrode out from under him, because all he can see is the completed design, the wonder he's already assembled in his head, and nothing else in this world matters besides making reality catch up to that idealized image as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that Voidtech is doomed to failure - occasionally unstable, certainly, often riddled with imperfections & unintended consequences, but the Void is still ultimately the wellspring Autochthon delved into when he did his best work. Its real danger is that it is predicated on either selfishness or ideological fixation. A Void devotee asked to justify subverting some of the Great Maker's systems to bring prosperity & peace to his community in exchange for cascading hardships for neighboring settlements would bluntly say "because I don't care about those settlements", or "because what I'm doing with those resources is more important than their survival" - sentiments that can be understood, even sympathized with under the right circumstances, but also ones that are completely and utterly antithetical to the collectivist, "stand together or fall apart" philosophy that's driven survival in Autochthonia for eons.
Because again, when Autochthon himself took the Incarnae's bargain and set out to make weapons that would butcher his siblings, when his rage and grief and personal perspective overwhelmed all other concerns, he was invoking the Void. Whether it takes the form of self-absorption or saintly ideological devotion, Apostasy is about going "Why should
your world matter more than
my world?" and then doing whatever's necessary to achieve your goals.
Which plays into your previous mentions about Apostates doing things like repurposing sections of Autochthon's world-body to suit their own ends, or trying to build their own world-body by salvaging his own mechanical flesh - and the idea of the Void representing the part of Autochthon that wishes to die and be reborn, no matter the costs & risks inherent in taking such extreme measures.
Thoughts?
