What is The Many?
1.
One of the villains of System Shock 2, a kickass computer game.
The Many are a species with a collective conciousness. They are designed to... "harvest" humans, and add their tissue to the biomass, so that new organisms may be created. They're like the Zerg, but creepier.
The Many were created by
"Why do you help the machine mother? How can you value cold metal over the splendor of flesh?
Your friends, who you deem dead, are not.
They sing in our symphony of life."