SDN Worlds 4 Commentary Thread I

[Shroom Man 777]

Yes! I can see it!

"I loved a Bragulan"

"The Collector abduction"

"Jenna does Chamarra 5"

Its all good until someone comes up with the idea of Karlack tentacle porn.

Man, maybe Agent Spozavik ends up wandering into these productions and without any idea whatsoever he gets cast in one of them!

[PeZook]

Its all good until someone comes up with the idea of Karlack tentacle porn.

Fortunately, that would have to be entirely CGI, since actual Karlack actors would probably eat the porn star

Man, maybe Agent Spozavik ends up wandering into these productions and without any idea whatsoever he gets cast in one of them!

And then wonder where CEID got pictures of him in flagranti with a human woman?

[Shroom Man 777]

Yes! I can imagine some weirdo Stirlitz joke-based scenario already!

[PeZook]

That's an interesting matter, BTW. Our world can throw around so much processing power that outright fabricating lifelike incriminating pictures wouldn't be a problem. How do we deal with that fact? Ignore photographic evidence altogether? Employ massive CI systems to analyze pictures for the tiniest inconsistencies?

Yes! I can imagine some weirdo Stirlitz joke-based scenario already!

It would be more like a Rzhevski joke in this case

"Please, put yourself in my position", the countess asked Rzhevski one day. Rzhevski put himself there, then again, and left her in that position.

BRAGULANS NEVER TAKE MONEY!

[Shroom Man 777]

Perhaps the detail needed for evidence, such as pictures, would be higher? Or perhaps storage mediums in the future are much more detailed. Like, how we can tell photoshopping by looking at tiny signs in a photo. In the future, the photographs of the future will record much more details which can be scrutinized. Imagine, using CI systems to see if the molecules you photographed in the polaroids are authentic on a pseudo-paleo-nano-quantum-bio-techno-pico-scale. If the polaroids have resolutions reaching to sub-molecular pixels, then scrutiny will reveal if you used the airbrush tool or blur or smudge or copy/paste on those individual quantum molecule nanoes.

[Steve]

I could point out very few know the Ebon Blade exists. But then I'd be spoiling the joke.

[PeZook]

I could point out very few know the Ebon Blade exists. But then I'd be spoiling the joke.

That's what front companies are for

[Siege]

It's a brilliant ploy. Your hidden order of evil sponsors these movies and makes a buck or two, and any intelligence operative who stumbles across evidence of your actual existence will think "surely not!" and will at any rate be far too embarassed about his find to present it to his superiors!

[K. A. Pital]

The Commune simply employs condensed expressionpacks which include smell, sight and audioinformation. Of course, expressionpack forgery is harder than forging pictures.

[RogueIce]

That's an interesting matter, BTW. Our world can throw around so much processing power that outright fabricating lifelike incriminating pictures wouldn't be a problem. How do we deal with that fact? Ignore photographic evidence altogether? Employ massive CI systems to analyze pictures for the tiniest inconsistencies?

Handwavium Analyzers.

[Dave]

I could point out very few know the Ebon Blade exists. But then I'd be spoiling the joke.

Surely there have been similar organizations in the past.

[Shroom Man 777]

Hell, they can be rumored. Just like Masons and Illuminati and shit. A bunch of psychic chicks doing lesbian torture porn to those they capture, terrorizing some villages in the fringe world yokelvilles, and having laser sword duels with sweet innocent lesbian Jedi chicks? There are eye witnesses, there are villages like the one in the prologued thread, there are people whose kids have been abducted, and Wild Spacers and smugglers like Balthier know about it. Sure, most would think it's just Wild Space hearsay and a whole crock of shit since Wild Spacers are a superstitious cowardly lot, most would think that it's just about as real as HERACULES' LEGENDARY JOURNEYS, but whatever.

Like, a lot of core worlders didn't think that the Reavers were real in Serenity/Firefly. These Ebon Blade chicks can be like the Reavers. Except sexier. AND they torture you, rape you, skin you alive and kill you in THAT proper order.

[Simon_Jester]

I could point out very few know the Ebon Blade exists. But then I'd be spoiling the joke.

That's what front companies are for

It's a brilliant ploy. Your hidden order of evil sponsors these movies and makes a buck or two, and any intelligence operative who stumbles across evidence of your actual existence will think "surely not!" and will at any rate be far too embarassed about his find to present it to his superiors!

Exactly.

Worst case, someone thinks they've stumbled across a mere criminal conspiracy to make snuff films or something. No one suspects that they've actually bumped into a psychic lesbian S&M version of the medieval Assassins.

Hell, they can be rumored. Just like Masons and Illuminati and shit. A bunch of psychic chicks doing lesbian torture porn to those they capture, terrorizing some villages in the fringe world yokelvilles, and having laser sword duels with sweet innocent lesbian Jedi chicks? There are eye witnesses, there are villages like the one in the prologued thread, there are people whose kids have been abducted, and Wild Spacers and smugglers like Balthier know about it. Sure, most would think it's just Wild Space hearsay and a whole crock of shit since Wild Spacers are a superstitious cowardly lot, most would think that it's just about as real as HERACULES' LEGENDARY JOURNEYS, but whatever.

Shroom has a point.

The Ebon Blade couldn't function without a way to get in touch with them; it's hard to be an evil psychic lesbian assassin-for-hire if no one knows where to mail the check. So at least within the underworld, the criminals and spies have to be fairly confident that the organization exists and that someone knows how to talk to them. The obvious example being Walter de la Poer; how did he know how to contact the Ebon Blade? How did whoever told him know? And so on.

And that awareness will propagate to the surface on some level. Their best defense is to make any evidence of their existence to look like the basis for a bad conspiracy theory... refuge in audacity, as it were.

[Shroom Man 777]

Certainly the greatest Wild Spacer adventure-entrepreneur JACK TURDNER would know of them too!

[Steve]

I meant in terms of "popular" knowledge. People know about the Mafia, for instance, but ask the average fellow on the street - or even the average politician (even a higher ranking one) - and they'd not know about the Ebon Blade as an organization. Given the Outback is, well, "Wild Space" and stuff, and that's where they like to operate.

The Hanson storyline will also be centered around the general anonymity operating in the Outback permits.

Now, obviously some authorities know of them. Admiral Fisher does, as does Anglian spymaster Sir James Bronson, but that's different from being widely known as real, and that's what the Blade avoids, since being widely known as something more than an Outback "myth" would inevitably result in agencies capable of crushing them coming after them. So they keep their contacts in the underworld, hide their assets carefully, and if any reporter or journalist starts to talk about doing an expose on some weird band of Mord'Sith wannabes in the Outback, well, there are ways to deal with that.

I mean, does this make sense? I don't mind having to alter the concept if needed.

[Simon_Jester]

Oh, it works fine; the Assassins operated in much the same way- though in their case, one of their biggest advantages was an extremely defensible citadel that it took the Mongol hordes to break down.

You might want to look into the Assassins as an example of how the Ebon Blade operates, as well as the Mord'Sith, because the Assassins were real... and nonetheless managed to hold an entire region in a grip of terror for roughly two hundred years, systematically playing off rival powers against each other and killing anyone powerful enough to pose a threat to them.

But the basic concept makes sense. You want the Ebon Blade's existence to be no more than a rumor in the eyes of the general public, much like the Illuminati.

EDIT: Though I'm not clear on just how wide-spread you intend the Ebon Blade to be. Are they purely a Wild Space phenomenon, or do they have strategic reach farther out, into other areas of known space?

[Steve]

Oh, it works fine; the Assassins operated in much the same way- though in their case, one of their biggest advantages was an extremely defensible citadel that it took the Mongol hordes to break down.

You might want to look into the Assassins as an example of how the Ebon Blade operates, as well as the Mord'Sith, because the Assassins were real... and nonetheless managed to hold an entire region in a grip of terror for roughly two hundred years, systematically playing off rival powers against each other and killing anyone powerful enough to pose a threat to them.

But the basic concept makes sense. You want the Ebon Blade's existence to be no more than a rumor in the eyes of the general public, much like the Illuminati.

EDIT: Though I'm not clear on just how wide-spread you intend the Ebon Blade to be. Are they purely a Wild Space phenomenon, or do they have strategic reach farther out, into other areas of known space?

I was figuring they're an Outback/Wild Space thing (note those two shoal regions are "connected") but have traveled elsewhere to fulfill contracts.

[Simon_Jester]

I was figuring they're an Outback/Wild Space thing (note those two shoal regions are "connected") but have traveled elsewhere to fulfill contracts.

It's mostly a question along the lines of "how far from their bases (which, yes, are obviously in the shoals of that region) do they operate?" Clearly they operate in Anglia, but given the geography, would they have any presence or effect at all once you get further afield from there (to, say, Umeria)?

[Steve]

They might operate as far as Umeria, though I doubt they operate often "west" of the UN. Just lone contracts and stuff.

[Simon_Jester]

Cement on the tanks... wow.

Well, the whole thing is completely insane and brutal, but... cement?

Guess it fits the North Korea IN SPACE! theme.

[Shroom Man 777]

Chobham has ceramic components. Bragulan space concrete is something like that.

It's also on their ships. I imagine it has improved resistance to energy weapons. Like ablative armor.

Oh! It can also work as heat-shields for when the tanks are reentering the atmosphere!

[Agent Sorchus]

Finally got that post up. Took far longer than it should. Anyway the Rangers are informally introduced, will have more later. There is just one more section to the story of Luis and company, but I got to save it for tomorrow.

[Coyote]

Bad news. My workplace has started a brutal crackdown on people going to "unauthorized" web sites. Anything not business-related is being threatened with employee termination. While I doubt they can do that with the ease and impunity they are trying to portray, our regional director has decided to make this his personal crusade. Everyone knew I did a lot of web-surfing at work and as long as I didn't go to things like porn, gambling, or streaming sites no one minded, but suddenly the powers that be got a bug in their butt and are shutting down everything. Even things like Wikipedia.

Chances are this won't last more than a few months but we never know; the director is a fanatical micro-manager and loves to use his power to go after peons. But it is safe to say that for the time being, I'm pretty much forced out.

The Central Alliance will go isolationist for a bit and if it looks like this is going to last for awhile I may have to just back out entirely since I won't be able to sustain it.

[PeZook]

Does it mean the Monolith will have to blast its way into your territory?

[K. A. Pital]

Bad news. My workplace has started a brutal crackdown on people going to "unauthorized" web sites. Anything not business-related is being threatened with employee termination. While I doubt they can do that with the ease and impunity they are trying to portray, our regional director has decided to make this his personal crusade. Everyone knew I did a lot of web-surfing at work and as long as I didn't go to things like porn, gambling, or streaming sites no one minded, but suddenly the powers that be got a bug in their butt and are shutting down everything. Even things like Wikipedia.

Chances are this won't last more than a few months but we never know; the director is a fanatical micro-manager and loves to use his power to go after peons. But it is safe to say that for the time being, I'm pretty much forced out.

The Central Alliance will go isolationist for a bit and if it looks like this is going to last for awhile I may have to just back out entirely since I won't be able to sustain it.

Damn, the Commune's plans unravel. Nevermind.