I got the AI voice tech whirring.

I've decided I'll have Amra be voiced by Dagoth Ur for this one. Let's see what he sounds like when he meets some visitors on his platform.
 
What a thing! Truly AI may pose a strange new frontier for fanfiction!

I'm now moderately interested in turning some of these into an audio version. Hmmmmm. Which program did you use for this?

As to teh actual voice, there's a certain smugness to Dagoth Ur. A certain gravitas. Though Amra possesses the formidable later, I don't think he'd necessarily be smug. I would probably say there's an element of magisty to it, a sense of overwhelming certainty and superiority, but also a disticnt twang of hatred when Amra talks to people the Emperor doesn't like
 
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What a thing! Truly AI may pose a strange new frontier for fanfiction!

I'm now moderately interested in turning some of these into an audio version. Hmmmmm. Which program did you use for this?

As to teh actual voice, there's a certain smugness to Dagoth Ur. A certain gravitas. Though Amra possesses the formidable later, I don't think he'd necessarily be smug. I would probably say there's an element of magisty to it, a sense of overwhelming certainty and superiority, but also a disticnt twang of hatred when Amra talks to people the Emperor doesn't like
Eleven labs.

Here use this as a guide.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1wStMAG2Vo
 
Thank you that was indeed great to hear again. I would say though it also felt off to me a bit, I've never taken amra to be the sort of warrior to call his attacks.
I admit I imagined Amra's voice to be a lot more like dormins from SOTC echoey, rumbley, as FD said full of gravitas, but maybe with the two suit's on those sort of effects if not just in my head would be less noticeable.
Still great though.
I confess even outside of fics/omakes this game inspires vivid daydreams in me. Sadly I just don't find most compelling enough to expand into anything.

I keep having mental images of Amra finally (finally) engaging in soul binding and huge groups of psychers being led/ dragged up the fortress monestary , their heads going glowy and some popping like grapes while others sprout bridges of light linking them to him that then fade from view, something like a magical web slowly spreading over all interconnected imperial territories.

I also dream of seeing teams of marines in the badlands competing for most giants captured/killed with the former being more illustrious from the harder challenge.

My mind conjures images of Hellpit either growing as a massive power or having all its specimens stolen by the remaining amputate, greatly enhancing them, and allowing them to burrow deep into the earth.

I'm often pleasantly surprised by what gets conjured up here though, for example I never expected to see a depiction of the machine cult starting to recruit in the old world for example and wasmuch delighted by that as well as the whole Musa/Iteraor saga. I recall being slightly underwhelmed when we finally got to see Marines vs Vmapies but thats probably because my own mind had overhyped it with images of possessions and curses and large impressive units like Coven Thrones and the like.
 
Thank you that was indeed great to hear again. I would say though it also felt off to me a bit, I've never taken amra to be the sort of warrior to call his attacks.
Normally he wouldn't but if he's a video game boss that's what he would do rather than just silently kill them when they do get on his ride.

@FractiousDay to get this they said they also used audacity.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYWh4gTs3tY&t=1s

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzJ2VyYkmaA
 
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Happily not really a problem as I can just extend.

In terms of engagement generally, orc quest is getting like 20% engagement, 20 or so votes for 100 active readers.

That's also because I've been giving different formats of votes though. I can't really do anything about that though here because the format is plan votes for a chapter master quest. I don't really see a way of doing similar alternate voting styles in this quest because of the format.

Open to suggestions though
For suggestions to improve participation, you could add more Interlude Turns with Interlude choices. Maybe making Amra the POV for most of these interludes would give someone people would cheer for. And the interlude choices would give us more a sense of story and characterization, alongside more options for shaping and interacting with things.

Could also see how the most popular Chapter Master quest, From the Brink, does it.
 
I recall being slightly underwhelmed when we finally got to see Marines vs Vmapies but thats probably because my own mind had overhyped it with images of possessions and curses and large impressive units like Coven Thrones and the like.
For this one specifically, the Vampires decided to retreat before they managed to get that stuff out.

I'd also say perhaps that the technology of the vampires as well hasn't developed to that extent yet. They have about 200 years of R&D to do before they make various advancements, for example things like refinements through Manfred's research in Lahmia.
These are cool ideas, and certainly could be going on in the background. I suppose that one of the weaknesses of this quest is the rather higher level view. I shall consider them in future interlude planning. Once, yknow, you choose the soulbinding option in the first place
For suggestions to improve participation, you could add more Interlude Turns with Interlude choices. Maybe making Amra the POV for most of these interludes would give someone people would cheer for. And the interlude choices would give us more a sense of story and characterization, alongside more options for shaping and interacting with things.

Could also see how the most popular Chapter Master quest, From the Brink, does it.
This quest does indeed draw extensively from From the Brink in organisation, as well as broader ck2 style quests which the author popularised. Similarly though the Planetary Governor quest Durin ran.

I think potentially the interlude choices might be a good idea, I suppose that would require me to write more interludes, but we can see.

One of the problems of From the Brink though is that it's incredibly complex and there are incredibly granular planning requirements. I require people to choose 2 choices from 6 in Stewardship or something. Comparably, Torroar in one instance punishing the questers for forgetting to deploy a techmarine in a particular military force. To me this seems really weird, but I also think that's just Torroar's style, they like to have granular stuff, see commentary on ogre archers in this very thread for that. But the author also wrote FtB as a very dense quest, functionally focused around long term (like 80k words) military deploments or campaigns. Comparably, for my part, I've largely glossed over such things because I'm looking at it from a much higher scale. What would the decisions of a single Astartes mean in the long term of the Mallus Compliance? Not a lot I'd have thought, but we could see I suppose.

I'm certainly open to trying it out, but I'm also wondering what the actual impact would be. For example, @16 characters mentioned being disspointed that Nassor had just slaughtered the human nehekharan cultists, and I think someone mentioned that they might want to be able to choose deployments (may have been you 16, not sure).

I'm certainly thinking that interlude choices would work quite well in the eventual deployment against the Chaos Dwarves, or against Ulthuan or something, i think that could go well, but I'm also really consious that I'm trying to hurry teh quest along through the timeline a bit to expand what's going on etc. If we tarry at every interlude that takes more time.

As another point, I don't think Amra provokes the same reactions as Grok'mash. People are invested in Grok, but Amra is an human monster, his desires unfathomable to everyone. Or at least I might say so.

Also, a wider question. You've made plans, but lets imagine you hadn't. If I made an interlude choice, would your participation in that increase your desire to make plans? If I increased participation in interludes but failed to carry this over to the actual plan section, I think that would be a failure.

Thanks for the suggestions though!
 
The first week back at college was wild. As for interlude choices, I genuinely think they might improve player participation and maybe even satisfaction by making things more participatory.
For example, during the Envoy interludes it might have been nice to have the option to skip the whole ''fight the knight'' shenanigans in the form we got them.
Thus having some sort of options like ''take the blow directly to demonstrate your vast superiority'' or '' Arrest the dastard, taking the time to remove his finer extremities ought to show these barbarians what is thought of assaulting a chapter master when he is deported back'' or at least an option to dismember him without the use of a single weapon if the whole thing really was about painting a picture in human blood.
I think perhaps this could have gone for the Chaplain Interlude too, though I admit many of them work fine as is or even excellently so.

Involving choices say during the Khong portions of the narrative I think would have even been farcical since it was more the inevitable result of hubris, to begin with than an operation running on decent intel.

That said for me
What would the decisions of a single Astartes mean in the long term of the Mallus Compliance? Not a lot I'd have thought, but we could see I suppose.


but I'm also really conscious that I'm trying to hurry the quest along through the timeline a bit to expand what's going on etc. If we tarry at every interlude that takes more time.

As another point, I don't think Amra provokes the same reactions as Grok'mash. People are invested in Grok, but Amra is an human monster, his desires unfathomable to everyone. Or at least I might say so.

Personally, I can say without any doubt whatsoever, that if I was presented with more options I would make more plans, yes.

As for slowing down your game, I think that's entirely avoidable if you for example either offered more time skips for busy-work type options like Lion Forge or as Exmorri Indicated before: ''
''Perhaps you could make there be less "turn after turn" of the same things taking too long by offering fewer such options, ...I figure most voters aren't particularly interested in reading four turns of digging either. But in placing this option here, you've created a system where we have to vote for four turns of digging in order to get our additional vehicles out without breaking the ship, and there will have to be a lot of glossing over if you don't want to write the results of these four votes, and however many other votes there are for (1 of N) actions.

Don't offer us options that you don't want to write the results of.''
That is having some choices for some of these would be great and enriching but certainly far from everyone of them needs it. As for viewpoint characters and audience connections, I agree, though I am deeply glad that a being like Pridelord Amra, The Master Of Mallus is on our side he has grown too inhuman thricefold from his position and transformations to be easy to empathize with.

The narrative is not lacking such characters though, from Palantine Olga, to Codicier Kaaram, From Archfactor Gallanus to whomever the son of the Sultan Of Copher might be, heck even I have high confidence that you could easily pull of making any interlude from their point of view relatable. Even Explorator Magna Thall would be a character I wouldn't mind seeing come back in this capacity.
 
A radical proposal: Cut out the entire Stewardship section.
The narrative is not lacking such characters though, from Palantine Olga, to Codicier Kaaram, From Archfactor Gallanus to whomever the son of the Sultan Of Copher might be, heck even I have high confidence that you could easily pull of making any interlude from their point of view relatable. Even Explorator Magna Thall would be a character I wouldn't mind seeing come back in this capacity.

entirely avoidable if you for example either offered more time skips for busy-work type options

So am thinking of some reforms. Perhaps will keep this arc the same for the moment, but perhaps by the next one I'll start some of this sort of thing. Indeed, cutting out stewardship or turning this into a more narrative focused quest could be good. Am thinking of perhaps hopping around characters, seeing what particular people are up to during this compliance. Meanwhile the Chapter can be doing space marine stuff I suppose.

One of the objectives of this quest was to explore the CK2 style, I think it's ok, but it is indeed limiting. I tried the economy turn for example, but didn't really feel like pursuing such a thing. I also think I will probably cut out the stewardship stuff, which while radical, I think would indeed serve the appropriate purpose

Maybe we'll go back to the 10 year turns, and I'll do 1 set of interludes from a particula rperspective for each one. So for example 5 interludes about the Sisters conquering the Vaults or something.
when Amra did his visits it includes bigwigs like the sultan or his successor?
Presumably yes, just off screen, perhaps to be covered at some later point.
 
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Would anyone here be more willing to vote if I proposed a vote based on long-term stuff like the lion forge, vehicle repair, soul binding, etc? Is it a lack of appealing options being a factor for indecision?
 
(An Abominable Intelligence wrote this lol) Chapter 8: The Battle for the Iron Mountains
There's been some discussion in the fanficing community recently regarding AI stories, and fears that AIs will generate them etc. I generally find these fears to be somewhat overstated, as I don't think AIs will ever be able to generate a story in the same way a writer can. Some of this is technical difficilties, AIs find it difficult to plot stuff in the long term for example. However, recently @rx915 had made an AI do Amra's voice, which I thought was pretty cool. I'd recently been playing around with ChatGTP, and put this fic through it, asking it to write the next chapter.
I can see where it's getting certain things, and presumably it's sifting the internet for stuff to use, but the AI has obviously completely invented this 'Augustus' guy who is apparently actually the Chapter Master.

Chapter 8: The Battle for the Iron Mountains

The Iron Mountains, long a source of minerals and iron for the Empire, had become a flashpoint of conflict. The dark elves of Naggaroth had been raiding the mines and shipping lanes, seeking to disrupt the Empire's supply of war materials. The Emperor had called upon the Mallus Compliance Space Marines to put an end to the raids and secure the Iron Mountains once and for all.

Chapter Master Augustus, accompanied by a detachment of his best Space Marines, had arrived in the area to take command of the Imperial forces. The local governor had welcomed him warmly, eager to have the help of the legendary Space Marines. Augustus was pleased to see that the governor had mustered a sizable army of Imperial soldiers, as well as several regiments of handgunners and crossbowmen to bolster their ranks.

Augustus quickly set about making a plan to drive the dark elves from the mountains. He knew that the enemy would be well entrenched and would not give up their positions easily. But he also knew that the Space Marines were more than a match for any foe.

The first order of business was to secure the mine entrances. The Space Marines set up a perimeter around the mines, with their bolters at the ready. The dark elves did not take long to make their move. Wave after wave of corsairs and warriors, led by fearsome sorcerers, attacked the Imperial forces. The battle was fierce and brutal, but the Space Marines held their ground, their bolters roaring as they cut down their enemies.

The dark elves, however, were not to be underestimated. They brought forth a beast, a massive Kraken that had been summoned from the depths of the sea. The beast attacked the Imperial lines, its tentacles lashing out and crushing everything in its path. The Space Marines fought back, their power armor and weapons no match for the creature's hide.

Chapter Master Augustus, ever the leader, rallied his troops. He knew that the Kraken was the key to victory, and he led a charge directly at the beast. With a roar, he brought his power sword down upon the Kraken, slicing into its flesh. The beast bellowed in pain, and the Space Marines seized the opportunity to attack. Bolter rounds and power weapons slammed into the creature, and it finally fell to the ground, defeated.

With the Kraken slain, the dark elves were forced to withdraw. The Imperial forces had secured the mine entrances, and the Iron Mountains were safe once again. Augustus was pleased with the outcome of the battle, but he knew that there would be more challenges to come.

The Space Marines set up a permanent base in the mountains, training the local Imperial troops and fortifying the mine entrances. Augustus was determined to make sure that the Iron Mountains would never again fall to the dark elves. He knew that the Empire was facing a dangerous time, with enemies on all sides, and he was determined to do everything in his power to keep the Empire safe.

And so, the Battle for the Iron Mountains became a turning point in the war against the dark elves. The Space Marines had proven themselves to be a formidable force, and the people of the Empire began to see them as heroes. Augustus and his Space Marines continued to wage war against the enemies of the Empire, securing their borders and defending their people.

Years passed, and Augustus became known as one of the greatest Chapter Masters in the history of the Mallus Compliance Space Marines. He had built an empire, not just in the Iron Mountains, but throughout the entire Empire. The Space Marines were a force to be reckoned with, and their reputation spread far and wide.
 
Chapter master Augustus sounds like an ultramarine but acts like an early wordbearer, lol.
All the same I genuinely would not mind seeing the Iron Mountains put to seige when we have proper naval forces.
I think the A.I was mixing up this unit(Krakensides) with this monster(Kharibdyss) in it's description, but honestly it didn't do a bad job for an entity entirely new to Warhammer.

Actually now I'm wondering what it would have been like to have started with the Guard facing the dark elves as our first enemies, I bet that version of this quest would have been short but interesting.
I wish I could spend more time on these posts.
 
Actually now I'm wondering what it would have been like to have started with the Guard facing the dark elves as our first enemies, I bet that version of this quest would have been short but interesting.
I wish I could spend more time on these posts.
Nah I think the Kraken would have been an actual kraken, like the creature etc.

As for Guard, you would have come with a considerable force, so I think you could have done alright actually. It would have rapidly turned into a slave rebellion type thing. I assume you'd hvae brought something big along, like a Deathstrike Missile etc, and the Druchii would have no way of dealing with that (at first, given its an OCP), so say you blew up Naggoroth immediately and caused great confusion and devastation, taht could have been quite an interesting quest.
 
Warhammer Krakens can't really move on land though and it was?.....I think...? a terrestrial battle, furthermore krakens are not known for their hides but the Kharbidyss very much is. '' Its slimy body, adapted to resist the fantastic pressures of the ocean, is unstoppable once on land, possessing colossal strength and incredible fortitude.''

Otherwise good points, I do tend to forget that the guard would likely have given us much larger numbers of troops to make up for the reduction in quality.
I wonder wether it would have been a random roll for supports( Mechanicus/ Echlisarchy most likely) and or extra goodies such as ratlings, Ogryns, environmentally specialized vehicles and the like?
If we had gone with guard could it have ended up being a mixed regiment force? One of my favorite WH fanfic series Tankers Vs T'au had the lovely idea of presenting vostroyans and kreigers fighting together, but I don't know exactly how realistic or common such things are.
 
I wonder wether it would have been a random roll for supports( Mechanicus/ Echlisarchy most likely) and or extra goodies such as ratlings, Ogryns, environmentally specialized vehicles and the like?
If we had gone with guard could it have ended up being a mixed regiment force? One of my favorite WH fanfic series Tankers Vs T'au had the lovely idea of presenting vostroyans and kreigers fighting together, but I don't know exactly how realistic or common such things are.
So for example, you had about 1000 Astartes, and you swapped out the potential for other Astartes to broaden out and use your other stuff like Knights.

Comparably, for the price of 1000 Astartes, you might have brought 10,000 Soroitas. If you had Guard, you might have had 100,000 equivalents. Maybe the numbers wouldn't scale in exactly that way, but such a Guard force would probably have been a Crusade force which got lost or went on a Crusade in the outer reaches of the galaxy. With such a Guard force, you could have brought Superheavies, supply ships, industry, and yes things like Deathstrike missiles or other tactical nuclear weapons. As for mixing, yes a crusade force would probably be mixed. In the Tauros Campaign for example, there were 10 Tallaran regiments, then another 10 of something else I think, with 2 Companies of Marines and a few other random people hanging about. There's a funny bit with it where the IG commander asks the marines to be a distraction force against the Tau and they're like 'lol no we're going to attack them'
 
Vote closed
Scheduled vote count started by FractiousDay on Feb 2, 2023 at 12:26 PM, finished with 42 posts and 4 votes.
 
Oh darn I was going to wait until these first submissions were graded and then propose another plan in the hopes of more votes. Such is life though, at least there was a consensus even if it was only 4 people out of something like 250.

After this turn, is anyone interested in putting someone else in charge of Medes? It feels more than stable enough at this point that hermina could go elsewhere I think.

E:
Would clearing the Forest of Shadows of it's gribblies like we did in Sylvania and Drakwald earn us any more favor in the empire if we could pull it off?
 
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Would clearing the Forest of Shadows of it's gribblies like we did in Sylvania and Drakwald earn us any more favor in the empire if we could pull it off?
Sure, potentially. Would be best to include Empire forces though like the Knightly Orders, and that might make them more cooperative. Drakwald was one thing, but there's a lot of places in the Empire which need sorting. There's the Grey, Black, Middle and World's Edge Mountains, there's also the Wasteland with all the Fimir and things like that. So yea there's a lot of places which have historically been difficult for the Empire to actually sort out, which the Astartes could indeed help with. For some reason no one can find the Blood Keep for example, and I don't think anyone has ever found the Black Pit. It's things like that where airpower is really effective because you can resupply and strike even through dense forest. The Empire's strengths are partly in diversity, they can bring artillery, good quality state troops, and knights along, but if they're trying to fight in the forest they can't deploy any of those AND OH SIGMAR THERE ARE SPIDERS EVERYWHERE etcetc.


Also, @Zeitgeist Blue did you have any thoughts on specifics for your write ins? Eg specific populations in the Badlands, as well as how you might subvert the Soroitas? Just thinking for flavour etc, it's not going to make the rolls worse if you can't think of things
 
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Also, @Zeitgeist Blue did you have any thoughts on specifics for your write ins? Eg specific populations in the Badlands, as well as how you might subvert the Soroitas? Just thinking for flavour etc, it's not going to make the rolls worse if you can't think of things
For the Borderlands maybe we could continue liberating the enslaved Giants? We did a few of those actions a while back. Otherwise maybe @16 characters has some ideas.

For the subversion of the Sororitas perhaps we could do things like vetting candidates, having joint exercises with Kabor (who'll act as liason, observer and consultant), having their stronghold in the Mountains actually be on perpetual loan from us, and to tie their supply lines of power armour and higher tech gear to us and the AdMech.
 
Badlands/Borderlands Populations: Well, I'm hoping we don't bomb the snot out of Barak Varr *just* on account of them just being dwarves unless they actually do anything belligerent towards us. Having them alive and at least neutral would mean less loss of resources over pointless fighting.
I'm also praying that we don't massacre the inhabitants of the floating village or any other settlements near magical stuffas witches or anything because most are not in fact chaos forces.
I desire that at least like a breeding pair or three of wyverns be left in the wyvern cliffs so it can be a future astartes training ground. I mean afterall, how can you be a full-fledged super soldier if you can't face down large carnivorous reptiles?

Any wandering humans we come acrosss will likely have connections to smuggling things in and out of the border princes and could make very good spy candidates for that reason. See: Badlands Ranger

I'd like to see the greenskin populations culled severely, although again maybe not eliminated completely because of their training utility.
I'd like to put feelers out towards the local ogres, we currently have no ogre contacts and could use at least some intel thats not for a thunderhawk going by.

@Zeitgeist Blue Does that sound sensible enough?
 
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