Reading guys boasting about genocide and torture, I really can't figure out why people think Collectors are particularly horrible about their thing
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
Collectors aren't horrible as such. However, two things:
One, they are spoooky. This affects how people think about them.
Two, they are (from an outside perspective) a closed society: no one knows what they do in their home territory, so everyone makes up their own theories, which are generally spooky, consistent with the overall spookiness of the society to outsiders.
Whereas no matter how much the Byzantine high command jerks off about PURGE THE XENOS!, most of the galaxy at least knows that the Byzantines are approximately human, and that the average citizen is basically just another guy trying to live a normal life. Even with societies like Bragule, that's true- they're not human, but they're hard to dehumanize when you know what's going on inside their borders.
Whereas the Collectors are so enigmatic and weird that they dehumanize themselves before anyone else even interacts with them.
Indeed part of the reason the Chamarrans are so paranoid about the Collectors being after them is that they have no idea what the hell happens to kitties that fall into Collector hands and therefore their imagination has run amock. In fact if they ever found out what actually happens...they'd probably be a little disappointed.
So yeah being mysterious is paradoxically more scary than say boasting about how many humanoids you pummeled, gassed, shot and then spaced for littering.
Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:And the IoM has never bothered to follow the Genevan conventions since the Imperium-Tau war.
I'm pretty sure the only 'convention' the IoM follows can be roughly summed up as, "Whatever the God-Emperor dictates."
"How can I wait unknowing?
This is the price of war,
We rise with noble intentions,
And we risk all that is pure..." - Angela & Jeff van Dyck, Forever (Rome: Total War)
"On and on, through the years,
The war continues on..." - Angela & Jeff van Dyck, We Are All One (Medieval 2: Total War)
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." - Ambrose Redmoon
"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight
Simon_Jester wrote:
Whereas the Collectors are so enigmatic and weird that they dehumanize themselves before anyone else even interacts with them.
But...but...we have robots that look like humans!
Perhaps we need something friendlier. I know! We'll make a chassis that's shaped in an amusing way...say, like a salt shaker! Painted in pastel colors! Yes, humor makes humans relaxed and at ease. Then, to make sure thing are not ambiguous during contacts, we'll have them clearly and loudly state everything they are about to do!
What could possibly go wrong?
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
Shroom Man 777 wrote:Just a FYI, Bragule doesn't give a shits about the Leader, and is just as happy smashing the shits out of the rest of the MEH.
After all, how could a creature so pathetic as to settle playing god for mere humans compare to Glorious Comrade Byzon?
Of course, having the other coalition members squabbling over who gets to execute/vivisect/torture/eat/jail a self-proclaimed living god provides convenient distraction to allow the Brags to engage in mass anti-human action.
I'm still quite certain that Byzon is actually Byzona, and there will be a grand wedding ceremony for the unification of the Byzontine Imperium of Bear and Man
"The 4th Earl of Hereford led the fight on the bridge, but he and his men were caught in the arrow fire. Then one of de Harclay's pikemen, concealed beneath the bridge, thrust upwards between the planks and skewered the Earl of Hereford through the anus, twisting the head of the iron pike into his intestines. His dying screams turned the advance into a panic."'
Simon_Jester wrote:Baerne, that takes RP balls of steel. I salute you!
Glad you approve.
Conversion Table:
2000 Mockingbirds = 2 Kilomockingbirds
Basic Unit of Laryngitis = 1 Hoarsepower
453.6 Graham Crackers = 1 Pound Cake
1 Kilogram of Falling Figs - 1 Fig Newton
Time Between Slipping on a Banana Peel and Smacking the Pavement = 1 Bananosecond
Half of a Large Intestine = 1 Semicolon
Tanasinn wrote:Of course, having the other coalition members squabbling over who gets to execute/vivisect/torture/eat/jail a self-proclaimed living god provides convenient distraction to allow the Brags to engage in mass anti-human action.
Which gives the Union expeditionary forces a perfect excuse to skirmish with them since we have virtually no interest in Sasha...
2000 Mockingbirds = 2 Kilomockingbirds
Basic Unit of Laryngitis = 1 Hoarsepower
453.6 Graham Crackers = 1 Pound Cake
1 Kilogram of Falling Figs - 1 Fig Newton
Time Between Slipping on a Banana Peel and Smacking the Pavement = 1 Bananosecond
Half of a Large Intestine = 1 Semicolon
Anyway, I think I agree with the decision about the espers and how that works, if my understanding is correct.
Basically, it's like cheat codes for reality - it's sort of warping reality, but the tools to do so in those particular ways are already written in. That's why the Refuge keeps getting "Inconclusive."
Real reality warping, the kind that sets off the alarms, would be more like going through the actual source code and directly rewriting stuff.
DPDarkPrimus is my boyfriend!
SDNW4 Nation: The Refuge And, on Nova Terra, Al-Stan the Totally and Completely Honest and Legitimate Weapons Dealer and Used Starship Salesman slept on a bed made of money, with a blaster under his pillow and his sombrero pulled over his face. This is to say, he slept very well indeed.
Maya, I redid your numbers for THIS is OMINOUS, and it looks like you might have missed an entry, because I total 6300 instead of your 6500. Doesn't matter really so meh. And yeah that is everybody of the Ominous fleet except what ever Zor was intending on sending. Please don't mess it up, but if anyone spots a problem go ahead and mention it.
the engines cannae take any more cap'n
warp 9 to shroomland ~Dalton
PeZook wrote:Reading guys boasting about genocide and torture, I really can't figure out why people think Collectors are particularly horrible about their thing
Actually, the Collectors fell onto the Imperium's "toothless dragon magpie jackdaw" list.
Last edited by Fingolfin_Noldor on 2011-06-26 03:02am, edited 1 time in total.
STGOD: Byzantine Empire Your spirit, diseased as it is, refuses to allow you to give up, no matter what threats you face... and whatever wreckage you leave behind you.
Kreia
Simon_Jester wrote:I'm sure they do- but are the Imperium 'people' as PeZook uses the term? Certainly they're not a representative sample of 'people.'
I'm not sure what you are supposed to mean, but after the recent incident, the Imperium doesn't give two shits about the collectors. They fell to the bottom of the list of xenos to care about. There's nothing mysterious about them. They collect like what magpies and jackdaws do. Like some robot version of coin collectors, just that they collect organic lifeforms.
STGOD: Byzantine Empire Your spirit, diseased as it is, refuses to allow you to give up, no matter what threats you face... and whatever wreckage you leave behind you.
Kreia
Yeah, I'm sure it was such a surprise to everybody
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
PeZook wrote:Yeah, I'm sure it was such a surprise to everybody
It's more a surprise that anyone would consider them mysterious.
But then it's an impossibility for you to even be a bastard and crush an ant so...
STGOD: Byzantine Empire Your spirit, diseased as it is, refuses to allow you to give up, no matter what threats you face... and whatever wreckage you leave behind you.
Kreia
Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:
It's more a surprise that anyone would consider them mysterious.
Why is it a surprise, IC?
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
Did the Inhumanist League go public with their own MEHstomp? While the Chamarrans did confide to the Shinrans and Klavostanis, how did the Atlanteans get the memo?
"DO YOU WORSHIP HOMOSEXUALS?" - Curtis Saxton (source) shroom is a lovely boy and i wont hear a bad word against him - LUSY-CHAN! Shit! Man, I didn't think of that! It took Shroom to properly interpret the screams of dying people - PeZook Shroom, I read out the stuff you write about us. You are an endless supply of morale down here. :p - an OWS street medic Pink Sugar Heart Attack!
Agent Sorchus wrote:Maya, I redid your numbers for THIS is OMINOUS, and it looks like you might have missed an entry, because I total 6300 instead of your 6500. Doesn't matter really so meh. And yeah that is everybody of the Ominous fleet except what ever Zor was intending on sending. Please don't mess it up, but if anyone spots a problem go ahead and mention it.
...You're right. I guess I was tired when I was adding it. But hehehehe to "What's ground troops?"
And yes, finally bringing in the Shear Cannon. Granted, I don't think it'll be all that impressive in normal combat, but the fight may get very abnormal at the end...
DPDarkPrimus is my boyfriend!
SDNW4 Nation: The Refuge And, on Nova Terra, Al-Stan the Totally and Completely Honest and Legitimate Weapons Dealer and Used Starship Salesman slept on a bed made of money, with a blaster under his pillow and his sombrero pulled over his face. This is to say, he slept very well indeed.
"DO YOU WORSHIP HOMOSEXUALS?" - Curtis Saxton (source)
