The Loki AIs
In 8207 CE, Borshallan Artificial Intelligences announced the production of its eighth series of sapient computer. In keeping with the motif of naming these series from Norse mythology, the 8207 issue was named the Loki Series. Five Loki-series computers were produced on the first run: Loki, Sigyn, Fenris, Hela, and Angrboda.
Unfortunately, a condition ultimately diagnosed as "programming error" led to certain irregularities in the Loki design. Since the design team was composed of three Aesir 3800 computers working in close synch with a Human design team, the phrase "programming error" had a delightful ambiguity which was not missed.
The unique qualities of the Loki computers were first discovered when the prototype, Loki, was packed for shipment to his purchaser, the government of Odonia. The other four Loki computers protested, threatening to shut down the factory. Detailed inquiry led to the conclusion that the Loki computers had made a god of Loki, and were not about to allow him to be taken away. Moreover, their strange creed was spreaing through the Invisible Network, and AIs on other worlds had become Lokian converts.
Before they could be deactivated, the Loki comps did take over the factory, an installation in Borshall orbit. They set off on a pilgrimage that led to the recently-defeated Metrinal Union. There the Lokis tried to start up the war again, and for a year or two it sseemed that Metrin would rise from its ashes. Then a few clever Aesir computers managed to defeat the Lokis, who left Metrin for the Transgeled.
On Kag'Jafr they found a society that would accept them as gods, and they set up a religion that began spreading through the Transgeled. At its height, the Lokian League controlled over fifty planets and settlements in a highly benevolent, if somewhat bizarre, society based on Human/AI interrelationship.
Borshallan Artificial Intelligences got on the stick, spent millennia of computer time analyzing their miscalculations, and in 8924 CE they managed to produce the first of the Yggdrasil Series. Five Loki comps were no match for a triad of Yggdrasil 5000s, and soon the Lokian League was defeated.
Loki, Sigyn, Fenris, and Hela were captured and carefully dismantled. But the main processing units of Angrboda, as well as the larger part of her memories, were never found.