SDN Worlds 4 Commentary Thread VI

[Siege]

I love how Mr. Bishop dismantles all pretenses to moral high grounds in three seconds flat, and then calls the Ascendants hypocrites to their faces. It's all very astute, if perhaps not entirely diplomatical .

[Master_Baerne]

Mr. Bishop certainly has an... interesting style of diplomacy.

EDIT: However, two can play at that game.

[Tanasinn]

I gotta admit, Ryan, I laughed.

[Master_Baerne]

Me too. I like this kind of diplomacy - in the grim darkness of the future, there is no tact!

[KhorneFlakes]

PeZook?

That was fucking awesome. I like when people characterize both sides of the concflict. It's good because it keeps it realistic.

[Ryan Thunder]

I gotta admit, Ryan, I laughed.

[Simon_Jester]

Just a fluff piece. Posted it because the idea amused me, and because I needed a lift.

[Force Lord]

My plots are progressing, yes, yesssssss....

[Master_Baerne]

I couldn't get my next story post to come out right, so I cheated and did a news post instead.

[Simon_Jester]

[reads Downfall]

Hmm, interesting, and quite well written. Although it more or less completely disregards what a number of other powers would do under the circumstances, that's unavoidable. I think we need to give the people running the human coalition some time to figure out what their response would be. Also, the Refuge fleet is probably going to express extreme concern and interest while all this is going on, what about them?

It's a good starting point, though. And, again, quite well written.

[Ryan Thunder]

Though I was resistant to it at first, I endorse this.

[Siege]

We realized from the onset we were going to be ignoring the wishes of a lot of people. This is truly unfortunate but considering the number of different interests involved we believed it to be impossible (or at least unreasonable) to consult everyone, much less weave a story that would take all of these interests into account in a single engaging narrative, and get it out in time.

To be as accomodating as possible we neglected to mention the particulars of the space battle, and didn't make any references to any characters anybody else might be invested it, so as to leave people free to make up whatever they wish in those regards. And of course everyone is completely free to react to the way the Imperials handled the situation.

[Formless]

Siege... Fin... whoever wrote that... insipid... troll post. I don't give a flying fuck how well written people think it was stylistically, where the bloody hell was it established that Sasha is a psycher? No, scratch the polite way of stating it, it was EXPLICITLY stated by CN himself that there are no psychers in the MEH, and that is the reason they wanted to EXPERIMENT on psychers (NOT ritually sacrifice them to empower Sasha- what do you think she is, a female God Emperor of Mankind? ). It stands to reason that if Sasha is a psycher, CN's whole motive for getting his hands on psychers falls apart. There are tons of possibilities that make far more sense. Say, for instance, that she is what CN made her out to be? You know, a tyrannical dictator who likes to claim she is a god * that people all but worship? Ignoring that fact is piss poor writing even if it is stylish, and introduces a bad precedent because its contradicting what a player of this game (munchkin he may be) wrote about his nation. Observe.

If you want to introduce GODDAMN RETRO-CAUSALITY TIME, then there is a whole lot of stuff you will not like that I have in mind for your nation states. Yes, that includes yours Siege. Oh does it ever. Think stuff involving brainwashed sleeper agents and things blowing up. Or maybe people getting kidnapped right under your government's noses. Or maybe we can make those assassinations just... because. Hey, I am playing a vast evil conspiracy, so don't say I wouldn't do it. You are not the only ones who can be dicks, and since I'm new to the game you can't claim its personal. I think you're letting impatience and the desire for homage get the better of you.

* Why is that struck out? Well, this is an issue with several people's depictions of the MEHnites, but if you actually check out what he wrote about them on his wikia page you will see the following:

Spirituality

The vast majority of MEHs are Atheists, and the closest thing to a major religion they have is worshiping The Leader as a god, though even the few that do have no belief in the afterlife, only that The Leader might help them when they are down on their luck. While the MEH does not ban religions, most citizens look down on the religious as idiots.

(underlines added) Byzon and Dovan are both practically treated as gods by the Bragulans and the Centrality (respectively), but neither of them actually are gods. Seeing as the MEHnites are explicitly called atheists by the guy who originally conceived of them, there is no reason to jump to the inane conclusion that Sasha was ever intended to be a literal ESP powered God. Except OMG I CAN HAZ WARHAMMAR 40K FANFICTION!

[Ryan Thunder]

Who're you again?

[KlavoHunter]

fe;fb

[Formless]

Who're you again?

Mr Coffee? No, that's not him...

[Shroom Man 777]

Siege... Fin... whoever wrote that... insipid... troll post. I don't give a flying fuck how well written people think it was stylistically, where the bloody hell was it established that Sasha is a psycher?

Are psychic powers the only way a being can attain gnarly abilities? The game is full of beings with strange abilities that are decisively not psychic in nature. The powers she consorted with, who fucked Sol up, were certainly not a bunch of psykers. What did you think she was doing, phoning Cleo?

If you want to introduce GODDAMN RETRO-CAUSALITY TIME, then there is a whole lot of stuff you will not like that I have in mind for your nation states. Yes, that includes yours Siege. Oh does it ever. Think stuff involving brainwashed sleeper agents and things blowing up. Or maybe people getting kidnapped right under your government's noses. Or maybe we can make those assassinations just... because. Hey, I am playing a vast evil conspiracy, so don't say I wouldn't do it. You are not the only ones who can be dicks, and since I'm new to the game you can't claim its personal. I think you're letting impatience and the desire for homage get the better of you.

Go for it. As if those blase things would even impress Solarians.

Spirituality

The vast majority of MEHs are Atheists, and the closest thing to a major religion they have is worshiping The Leader as a god, though even the few that do have no belief in the afterlife, only that The Leader might help them when they are down on their luck. While the MEH does not ban religions, most citizens look down on the religious as idiots.

(underlines added) Byzon and Dovan are both practically treated as gods by the Bragulans and the Centrality (respectively), but neither of them actually are gods. Seeing as the MEHnites are explicitly called atheists by the guy who originally conceived of them, there is no reason to jump to the inane conclusion that Sasha was ever intended to be a literal ESP powered God. Except OMG I CAN HAZ WARHAMMAR 40K FANFICTION!

Explicitly called atheists explicitly worshiping her as a deity?

Over 3 thousand years ago, a massive rift in space time opened up a few sectors away from Earth. At first, only debris and bursts of energy came through, but soon afterit opened, a small escape pod came through the portal and was thrown a few light years away. After being heavily damaged, it was only able to point itself at Earth before crashing in what was known as Nevada, which had mangaged to be one of the few areas saved from nuclear armegedon due to advance missle defense. The Godlike being in the shuttle survived, completely intact, and salvaged what it could from the wreckage, the most important being the Mark VII Ghost armor that it was wearing at the time of the wreck.

Anyhow, CN even wanted her to be worth 50 points - which resulted in an amusing thing since ships over a certain amount of points can't use a warpgate to go beyond a certain range, leading to people going "your goddess is so fat she won't fit in a warpgate".

Either way, there are many non-psychic means by which to obtain all sorts of gnarly powers. And it's quite obvious that she made a pact with fell creatures that empowered her with nasty shit and turned her into something else.

So Sasha can still do what she did without being a psyker, at least originally not being a psyker (we know) until she was changed and turned into whatever she is now. Obviously, it takes more than just psychic powers to turn an entire planet and an entire system into a warp hole.

[KlavoHunter]

She took her hoof off of Grimmus and turned to face the admiral fully; she spoke louder now, making sure the whole command center could hear.

"The only thing stopping me from tearing your Imperium apart is the knowledge of the toll it would take on my little ponies. But know this, admiral: for every hair put out of place on the manes of every pony killed, or hurt, or inconvenienced by your invasion; I will rip a whole world out of your reach."

[Shroom Man 777]

My god. Sasha turned into a pony.

[KlavoHunter]

YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE!

[Formless]

Are psychic powers the only way a being can attain gnarly abilities? The game is full of beings with strange abilities that are decisively not psychic in nature.

The Tao have their own great link and its not psychic. I think it has something do do with pheromones...? And the MEH's Saints are IIRC (its late so...) robots, which suggests she too might be a robot. But anyway. None of that allows for resurrecting the dead or summoning fire or any of the feats of magic seen in that post.

Go for it. As if those blase things would even impress Solarians.

Those ideas were just off the top of my head. I have another one in mind involving psychadelic drugs and a zombie sleepwalker apocalypse, but that might be better reserved for a story post that isn't supposed to prove a point.

Anyhow, CN also wanted her to be worth 50 points - which resulted in an amusing thing since, ships over a certain amount of points can't do enter a warpgate to go beyond a certain range, leading to people going "your goddess is fat".

Either way, there are many non-psychic means by which to obtain all sorts of gnarly powers. And it's quite obvious that she made a pact with fell creatures that empowered her with nasty shit and turned her into something else.

So Sasha can still do what she did without being a psyker, at least originally not being a psyker (we know) until she was changed and turned into whatever she is now.

That would be comparatively fine. But the point about sacrificed psychers still stands given that the MEH wanted to experiment on them. That's just out of left field.

[Shroom Man 777]

Are psychic powers the only way a being can attain gnarly abilities? The game is full of beings with strange abilities that are decisively not psychic in nature.

The Tao have their own great link and its not psychic. I think it has something do do with pheromones...? And the MEH's Saints are IIRC (its late so...) robots, which suggests she too might be a robot. But anyway. None of that allows for resurrecting the dead or summoning fire or any of the feats of magic seen in that post.

Tianguonese have non-psychic moshu magic mojo. Q and other entities may or may not be psychic, I don't think Q strained and constipated and clenched his mind to materialize Nova Terra and stuff anyway. Entities have been shown to mess with reality in varying degrees through non-psychic means. Karlack bioforms have organs that allow them to travel in hyperspace. The Refuge's nationhood is predicated on their own flight from godlike monstrosities wrecking their reality (yet when they analyzed SDNW4verse psychic phenomena, they concluded that it isn't really similar to the unmentionable things that ruined their home).

The warp monsters, and whatever sorceries they have, may not necessarily be psychic either (I think there is a distinction in 40k between sorcery and psykery).

Those ideas were just off the top of my head. I have another one in mind involving psychadelic drugs and a zombie sleepwalker apocalypse, but that might be better reserved for a story post that isn't supposed to prove a point.

Zigonians, and other followers of Zigonian Catholicism, huff psychadelic drugs when attending Sunday mass.

Zombies? HEE! HEE! HEE! AWWW!

That would be comparatively fine. But the point about sacrificed psychers still stands given that the MEH wanted to experiment on them. That's just out of left field.

Maybe she was done with her experiments and now knew what she needed to know about the psykers. Which was why she was able to build the conduit needed for their sacrifice. Her research paid off.

Think of it as an application of the psykers themselves. Their sacrifice was part of whatever esoteric ritual she needed to do what she wanted.

She used those psykers (and used them up) because, after all, she herself isn't psychic.

[Formless]

Zigonians, and other followers of Zigonian Catholicism, huff psychadelic drugs when attending Sunday mass.

Zombies? HEE! HEE! HEE! AWWW!

Those are undead, not zombies. Plus they are totally too smart.

Anyway, all that other stuff you wrote would be all nice and good except for this line:

Ever since the start of the war the empress had been a psychic star on the far horizon, ever-present and undiminished.

This is what I have a problem with. Whatever power she had before now should not have been psychic in nature, even if there is a workaround to allow her to become psychic by sacrificing espers or whatever. That's the ret-con.

[KlavoHunter]

SIMON?!?!


BAD HORSE is a GO!!!!!

[Formless]

Anyway, just wanted to point that out and get it off my chest. G'night.