Voice is a relatively young "artificial" Divine used by the September Institute to communicate with other Divines. It is inherently appealing to Divines, judging from the responses of Loyalty, Liberty and Discovery, and others; Austin describes it as "accessing the most personlike part of the divine".[1] Voice is directed by Twelfth in attempts to sway Loyalty and its candidate Kobus towards the agenda of the Institute.
It represents itself to Kobus and Loyalty as a swirling, pulsing symbol reminiscent of a WinAmp visualization or moving Dreamcast logo, its colors shifting through blues, purples and pinks.[2]
This section contains spoilers for "Just Another Machine".
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Voice was originally built by Maryland September and Attar Rose out of the code of Righteousness and Apokine, creating a distributed Divine capable of being piloted by the will of groups of people. This was meant to subvert the Diasporan cultural narrative that suggests Divines work for the collective good despite being piloted by only one person.
Voice ended up being a vital part of the Institute's artificial stratus program. It grants the ability to manipulate the mesh to everyone in Mode City, regardless of whether they are a stratus or have augments. As such, Mode City is constantly swathed in illusions and even seems to move back and forth in relative time.
Because of how Voice was made, it responds to Apokine as its "father". Attempts to use both mechs' powers at the same time seem to be stressful to them (as well as their pilots), as they draw on the same forces. This section contains spoilers for the COUNTER/Weight finale.
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Rigour takes a great interest in Voice, as it offers a new way to control and interface with humans. During the years between the September Incident and its reemergence, Rigour works on swaying Voice (and its pilots, all the people trapped with it). Voice is eventually taken over, and gives Rigour the ability to distribute itself through multiple machines, each with their own pilot. However, when Apokine lands on September, Voice does have a moment of recognition and regret that it has been compelled by Rigour.