SDN Worlds 4 Commentary Thread VI

[Mayabird]

Believe it or not, it only now occurred to me that with Epaulette's love of lecturing and considering how full of himself he is, he's perfect for dropping pages of exposition. He probably restates the bleeding obvious that everyone already knows every day.

I should utilize the little tobacco addict more.

[Simon_Jester]

Temperamentally, he needs a pipe to puff on, but I'm not sure Avian anatomy would permit the use of that type of drug paraphernalia.

Darn.

[Force Lord]

Grrr. Homework pressure's been keeping me from doing any new story posts. I'll see if I get enough spare time to finish at least one draft.

[Zor]

Shroom, where did i state genetic memory or natural hatred of mankind?

Zor

[Simon_Jester]

It's a logical inference, under the circumstances.

You've got your mutated man-Tau (or some of them) behaving for all the world as Tau: no identity crisis, no sense of wrongness, no residual loyalty to the society that they grew up in that makes them reluctant to fight it.

There's no sense of the psychology of the outcast at all in there, no sign that you're dealing with people who are viewed as crazed abominations by the standards they themselves would have applied quite recently. Real people who have that kind of dysphoria, or who are a part of a minority that strongly despised, have to deal with this constantly: the lack of self-confidence and strong self-identity that comes from having assimilated the majority culture's belief that you are something less than human.

So it's not at all unreasonable, on a "fill in the blank" basis, to assume that the Tau-maker plague comes with some kind of indoctrination package- something that makes the victims, or some of the victims, think of themselves as Tau and behave as if they were naturally Tau. There's really no good explanation for why some of them would break with their past as intensely as you portray them doing, even in self-defense.

[Shroom Man 777]

It was speculated, in hushed tones, that the plague the Nova Atlantean wizards made contained within it the DNA of dead Tau, those same ones slaughtered by Byzantium, and that their collective genetic memory ingrained within the new man-Tau the intrinsic hatred for humanity and the God-Emperor which was why the mutants were so eager to cast aside their humanity and slaughter their former friends. That was why they were so eager to increase their numbers, to use the Nova Atlantean nano-virus to spread their plague of deformagrotesquetitudes throughout the Outlands.

In a population of mentally-scarred mutants, superstitious fanatics, uneducated third worlders, and other psychos, I think it's a pretty fair speculation as to how suddenly some men-Tau are so comfortable with becoming Tau with no identity crises, particularly for Byzantines who've become what they hated the most.

I also needed some psychotic bad guy for Sean Connery to kill.

And, come on, mutant man-Tau starting some kind of bizarre resurrection cult believing themselves to be the reincarnation of the Tau the Byzantines genocided, that's an awesome idea. I am so happy that I came up with it.


Aside from that, other speculations also include that the Nova Atlanteans diluted the nanites in water to make it a nanohomeotaupathic virus. And Tauists believe in some kind of nanotech Feng Shui, probably combining their mutations with Tianguonese mysticism.

Yes.

Tianguonese mysticism.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Man... I approve of Shroom's glorious work for the God Emperor himself.

*Stamps seal of approval*

[Shroom Man 777]

I think Zor's just angry that Sean Connery is blowing away the mutants while spouting inappropriate one liners.

Like it matters what those mutants, or those other peasants in the Outlands, think or believe about the plague or whatever.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I think Zor's just angry that Sean Connery is blowing away the mutants while spouting inappropriate one liners.

Like it matters what those mutants, or those other peasants in the Outlands, think or believe about the plague or whatever.

Honestly, I couldn't care less if more worlds, people died in that area.

I was merely acting in character.

[Steve]

Honestly, I think it's more a case that some people will just go mad and act like Tau, convinced they're damned, etc, since in Kantin I had the ones defending themselves do so only because they were more robust, psychologically, and were able to function enough to preserve their self preservation instinct.

[Shroom Man 777]

A deranged reincarnation cult is still awesome though.

[Mayabird]

And yes, you can assume the evidence is there. I am not going to write pages of technobabble bullshit a few minutes before bed.
[line BECAUSE I HAVE A JOB]

[Shroom Man 777]

GRAEPHS!



There are forty nine nations in the game.

Only seventeen of these are non-human or non-human dominated (I forgot to label the Collectors, sorry).

The rest, more than thirty of these, are human-dominated or human-ruled or predominantly human nations.

Plus or minus, I may have made some errors, and I did not label some ADHD Lemmings whose compositions I do not know.

GO INHUMANISM!

[Akhlut]

Uh, Shroom, you go from V (me) to VII (the Idurans) with no VI. Who the fuck is number VI? Is there some secret inhuman nation out there amongst the stars, biding its time against the humans?

[Simon_Jester]

Boskone?

[Shroom Man 777]

The Ranoideans, man.

[Simon_Jester]

Pique our interest regarding what? Hmmm.

[Agent Sorchus]

Shroom, I know that the Central Alliance has a goodly number of humans but it would be unfair to not label them as Inhumanists since as I recall they are lead by a non-human, they have three+ non-human species, and they have no connection to the humanity of this dimension. And yeah Coyote has disappeared to RL, but the least you could do is not count him off as a human nation.

[Shroom Man 777]

H'okay. I didn't know too much about them.

[Mayabird]

Zor, seriously, you've been an obnoxious little shit about this entire nanoweapon thing. First, you take a one-off revengence thing from someone else and turn it into your general all-purpose WMD with no time at all, THEN are completely unrealistic about the effects, and now you're trying to play like you're *totally unaffiliated* with the people who are doing your work so you can pretend to keep your hands clean even while you are destabilizing my area by giving away this shit like missionaries handing out Bibles of the wrong language. Don't think any of us are fooled, unless you are genuinely so freaking dumb that you are fooling yourself somehow. Your nation is being incompetent and malicious. I'm not letting this slide, unless you're going to throw in a quiet story post about the nanoweapons suddenly and *terrible things* just so happening to the people who have the biggest stockpiles. But I won't write it myself and if you won't, enjoy reaping the whirlwind you sowed.

[Siege]

Frankly the whole 'human vs. inhuman' thing is absurd on the face of it. Plenty nations have huge alien minorities; just off the top of my head Anglia, the Ascendancy, the other Ascendancy and the Sovereignty have self-ruling alien nations within their borders, yet these are somehow 'human' states? How does that even figure? It's extremely disingenuous to pit this as some kind of either/or situation when it clearly isn't that black and white.

[Shroom Man 777]

Well, the Brags are totally absurd and extremely disingenuous, so yeah.

Still, the majority of major polities in the known galaxy are dominated or otherwise heavily influenced or mostly ruled by a single species. That's still something that should be notable in-universe. Out of universe, the reason is that most players picked human nations, of course.

It might not be either/or or black and white, but the shade heavily leans to human.

[Simon_Jester]

Looking at the numbers, the "human" states all, or nearly all, have majority human populations, whose interstellar governments generally trace back to human colonists and thence to Earth and Nova Terra. There may be, often are, self-governing alien enclaves in those nations, but they're necessarily in the same strategic and political position as the US's Indian reservations. In theory they're autonomous, and that autonomy does give them jurisdictional freedom and a degree of self-rule, but in practice they are dependent on the larger nation they're embedded in.

If we could add up the populations of all the many states we've got listed demographics for, I think we'd find that the sentient population of known space itself is majority-human; it's certainly plurality-human by a very large margin. I doubt there's a single intelligent species in known space whose numbers come to even 10% of humanity's.

So to look at this and posit an "inhumanist" movement by various alien nations trying to establish some kind of collective bargaining voice for themselves, as a counterbalance to the inevitable degree of greater cultural and psychological unity among human powers who all share a common legacy... that's reasonable.

But to take my own Umerians as an example, there are two humanoid alien species in my space- the Phosako and the Vinarans. The Phosako haven't appeared much because their most notable trait from a human perspective is "boringly calm and reasonable;" I haven't come up with a satisfactory way to explore them and have been kept busy with other things. They're not as cool as Bragulans, Apexai, or Zigonians.

The Vinarans, well, they started as a vehicle for green-skinned space babe parodies, and became a vehicle for Hulk parodies when Shroom got his hands on them.

The Phosako integrated extremely well into Umerian society, and arguably adapt to the Umerian form of government better than the humans who invented the thing did. Even they, though, suffer from a degree of marginalization; they find living among large crowds of humans to be psychologically difficult, and human expansion around them has to an extent crowded out their growth- there would be a lot more Phosako in that region of space by now if it weren't for the humans showing up. That said, they are basically content with the situation, are overrepresented in the government, and have no interest in inhumanism.

The Vinarans, on the other hand, are a marginalized economic underclass in Umerian society: between the poverty of their homeworld and the tendency of Vinaran males to get unlikeably angry, they've had a very hard time finding a place for themselves in the Technocracy. They are interested in inhumanism, or at least some of their loopier and angrier political figures are, as we have seen.

[Steve]

Bragulan "Inhumanism" would mostly find inroads in Trill, Dorei, and radical Thanagarian circles when it comes to Anglia. The Trill would be most prominent; they did not willingly sign over their sovereignty but only did so because the Anglian Empire made it a required term for continued aid in rebuilding from the First Dilgrud War (and protection from the Dilgrud). They are the least active in the wider affairs of the Empire, with only a bare minority actually joining the military or Imperial civil service, and the message of Inhumanism will find ready listeners (though they're not exactly enthused with the Brags either).

The Dorei are a mixed bag. While the Trill have generally become a unified race with a dominant social and ethnic outlook, the Dorei still adhere to their national distinctions. Inhumanism will find its strongest proponents among the Meritocratic and Democratic nations of the Dorei, who generally dislike the Anglian political system's basis and are the most independent-minded, while the conservative (and mostly polytheistic) kingdoms of the Sindai and the other conservative nations - typically Oligarchical, some of the Meritocratics, and some of the monarchies will see the least support for it. (There are some nations, like the Lushan, who are the mid-way point, being democratic constitutional monarchies or republics that are more accepting of their situation with Anglia).

The Thanagarians, however, are steadfastly loyal to the Empire, and have been since the First Dilgrud War. The Dilgrud claimed 10 billion Thanagarians and brought their race to its knees; the Anglian Empire, despite being a long-term enemy, saved them from eventual extinction. The Thanagarians joined willingly and in a united form (unlike the Dorei, who saw some nations join only because they chose to go with the majority and accept the inevitable) and service in the Emperor's forces (the King of New Anglia is considered Emperor of Thanagar) is a respected profession, with many elite Thanagarian Regiments listed in the rolls. Think of them as the Anglian Empire's Sikhs.

[Dark Hellion]

I think it is also important to remember that an inhuman species is not going to view the world through the human perspective. For example, while the Emissaries are probably more capable of processing nuanced concepts than any unenhanced human the overriding and myopic single-mindedness of their ideology tends to shrink many concerns to black and white. Hell, the Emissaries like the Karlack which I don't think even the Karlack's allies actually do.

So, while the Bragulan's inhumanism may be slightly disingenuous it will probably ring true with many species who feel that humans have undue influence for a variety of reasons. And isn't that one of the great lessons of political history; that what you can get people to feel is true is far more compelling than what is actually true?