Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
Datamining Laplace's cyber-addled brain for lore.
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Last Light of a Dark Age (Warhammer 29K/Disco Elysium)
- Thread starter Cetashwayo
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
Datamining Laplace's cyber-addled brain for lore.
bookwyrm
Doom of Public Libraries
- Location
- Wichita, Kansas
Sounds like the Age of Strife era of Mars sending out into the Void explorator fleets of Arks Mechanicus to hungrily devour lost knowledge and stitch together a like Athenian trade empire-y string of cousin Forge Worlds, from colonization and shared cultural assimilation both. The loose network the Great Crusade would later piggyback off of in a lot of its speedrunning the conquest of the galaxy.
Edit: oh damn beaten on the draw by @Waith
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Deadly Snark
Tryhard As Fuck
I dont believe it's the Emperor, and it's not necessarily the Great Crusade either. The vibing I am getting is that the Arks in Space are actually just Admech. Or rather the Mechanicum of Mars.
This quest is apparently taking place during the last years of 29k. At around this time, the Emperor should still be putting the finishing touches on the Unification Wars, beginning the reconstruction of Terra, and preparing for the Unification of the Solar System.
We have no idea how old Titanagalbat is. But the language used to refer to the Bronze King and the Pantheon implies that enough generations have passed for mythologization to happen. Whether it be natural or enforced, that implies at least a century at the minimum.
The Mechanicum has been a stable and advanced interstellar civilization for at least a thousand years at this point, and the Martian Parliament has been sending out Explorator Arks and Mechanicum Seed Colony Fleets for at least that long as well. I think it's far more plausible that the Bronze King was a Posthuman Warlord who made an alliance of sort with an Explorator Fleet.
And certainly both a Posthuman Survivor and the Mechanicum would view the Carnosans with nothing but open hatred.
This quest is apparently taking place during the last years of 29k. At around this time, the Emperor should still be putting the finishing touches on the Unification Wars, beginning the reconstruction of Terra, and preparing for the Unification of the Solar System.
We have no idea how old Titanagalbat is. But the language used to refer to the Bronze King and the Pantheon implies that enough generations have passed for mythologization to happen. Whether it be natural or enforced, that implies at least a century at the minimum.
The Mechanicum has been a stable and advanced interstellar civilization for at least a thousand years at this point, and the Martian Parliament has been sending out Explorator Arks and Mechanicum Seed Colony Fleets for at least that long as well. I think it's far more plausible that the Bronze King was a Posthuman Warlord who made an alliance of sort with an Explorator Fleet.
And certainly both a Posthuman Survivor and the Mechanicum would view the Carnosans with nothing but open hatred.
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Deadly Snark
Tryhard As Fuck
A Delian League-style Empire doesn't fit the vibe of the Mechanicum Colonies. It implies a political and bureaucratic centralization that wouldn't have existed Pre-Great Crusade. And certainly we never got the impression that the Martian Parliament held much sway in the stars, if they did, they would have cleansed Sol themselves and told the Emperor to fuck off.
Mars' relationship with its colonies at this point feels more akin to the relationship of Pheonicia and it's Trade Network. Cultural ties and contact existed, but the Cities and Forgeworlds were independent.
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Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
The way the colonies seemed to function is defined by their distance from Mars in an era of no easy warp travel. The explorator fleets were sent out in intermittent periods of warp calm, and then cut off in the interim while they waited for gaps for them to return. Frankly the forgeworlds are really way too culturally-similar to Mars given the long separations, but this is just the nature of the scale of time in 40K.
It seems to me these worlds were functionally completely independent, and only lost that independence during the Great Crusade. But because of the nature of the Treaty of Mars that never meant much, because they were basically allowed to continue as before within the larger schema of the Adeptus Mechanicus and Imperium. Both should be treated as much as civilizations as actual states - they demand a baseline level of cultural, social, and political adherence, but beyond that do not have huge central management. And there was not much central management outright during the Age of Strife.
Lots of good thoughts. All I will note on the discussion of arks is the answer as to who it is already available to you.
It seems to me these worlds were functionally completely independent, and only lost that independence during the Great Crusade. But because of the nature of the Treaty of Mars that never meant much, because they were basically allowed to continue as before within the larger schema of the Adeptus Mechanicus and Imperium. Both should be treated as much as civilizations as actual states - they demand a baseline level of cultural, social, and political adherence, but beyond that do not have huge central management. And there was not much central management outright during the Age of Strife.
Lots of good thoughts. All I will note on the discussion of arks is the answer as to who it is already available to you.
- Location
- an unseen void
- Pronouns
- Any
- Pronouns
- She/Her
oooo I like the design o.o
Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
If you're not familiar with titans in 40K, they are giant bipedal mecha upwards of 20-150M tall, which at the larger end are mobile fortresses. They are piloted by a princeps (and an attendant team) who is treated like a knightly aristocrat.
I make no comment on the relation of this more familiar form to Homotitan beyond that they are both, functionally, the same type of machine. You don't need much familiarity with 40K lore here, but it is always useful in uncovering references and implications.
I make no comment on the relation of this more familiar form to Homotitan beyond that they are both, functionally, the same type of machine. You don't need much familiarity with 40K lore here, but it is always useful in uncovering references and implications.
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Professor Vesca
Good News Everyone!
I want our character to diverge as much as possible from baseline human.
I don't want to be human. I want to hear X rays and see gamma rays and... and smell dark matter.
I don't want to be human. I want to hear X rays and see gamma rays and... and smell dark matter.
What do you mean? Regular old normal humans can already do all of those things. They also have exoskeletons and commune with their bone marrow.
Professor Vesca
Good News Everyone!
Not good enough. We must go further beyond.
Plus Ultra!
If we aren't confused with industrial equipment we aren't going hard enough!
- Location
- Moscow, Russia
Reason, conceptualization is the most powerful one in the game, it has thoughts that give a ton of XP. We are null, so inland Empire is not so interesting and will not lead to anything good. Shivers here is some unholy combination with cyberbullying, probably because of Mars and color red. Not really interested in playing the tech priest.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I think personally that the narrative of Kora's Progeny will work very well here, which seems to be all about alienation from the people around us? Titanagalbat and Koinon have another theme going around, but Kora's Progeny seems to specifically focus on the experience of profound loneliness in a world where everyone else is connected on a level you never can. There is a vibe I feel myself there, of course, as an asexual woman in a very sexualized culture, where everyone else seems to get this fundamental thing, but even more so, right? Everyone looks the same, but everyone else seems to get something, to know something, to feel something that we don't, that we can't. There's almost something autistic, to that kind of vibe? I think that would be be really fun, but also make a great narrative point to work off for this kind of transcendence narrative.
Deadly Snark
Tryhard As Fuck
I mean I dont think any of the 3 Civilisations/cultures presented are exactly normal to the eyes of a 21st-century human being. And all three clearly deals with themes of Isolation.
For example, I feel like people think Koinon is vanilla, but it's very much not.
Koinon is a Cult State that despite its exultation of "human" and contrasting itself against the Clones and God Machines very clearly has an exclusive view of "humanity". It has a clear Class and Caste structure, where the Psykers are the top of the Pyramid. This system functions because it's clear to me that despite that divide there's not actually much individualism within Koinon Society. All the Castes, and the armies and etc are just organs and cells of the Gesalt State that is Koinon. This makes sense given their culture's insistence of remaking their Gods/the Primordial Source of humanity.
Now this sounds all very Tech Priest-Lite. Until you remember that Tech Priest have a poor understanding of Psi Science. And yet the Koinon have a stable enough Psi-Discpline to make an entire class of them. As Cetash said, the descriptions are literal. The Ascended Will and the Divine Lung are clues that they are trying to create a Gestalt Will/Consciousness. The armies of the Republic march to gather the Breathes of the Father and Mother to return them to the Prodigal Child. Not a Hivemind, but a God in their image, the Republic itself animated as the new Primordial Source. As Above So Below.
A Sentient that is also a Blank becomes the ultimate Sin-Eater and Scapgegoat in such a society. Locked in simulations and thrown to the sides as a Living Omelas Totem to show the the Socials that their duties do come with privileges.
For example, I feel like people think Koinon is vanilla, but it's very much not.
Koinon is a Cult State that despite its exultation of "human" and contrasting itself against the Clones and God Machines very clearly has an exclusive view of "humanity". It has a clear Class and Caste structure, where the Psykers are the top of the Pyramid. This system functions because it's clear to me that despite that divide there's not actually much individualism within Koinon Society. All the Castes, and the armies and etc are just organs and cells of the Gesalt State that is Koinon. This makes sense given their culture's insistence of remaking their Gods/the Primordial Source of humanity.
Now this sounds all very Tech Priest-Lite. Until you remember that Tech Priest have a poor understanding of Psi Science. And yet the Koinon have a stable enough Psi-Discpline to make an entire class of them. As Cetash said, the descriptions are literal. The Ascended Will and the Divine Lung are clues that they are trying to create a Gestalt Will/Consciousness. The armies of the Republic march to gather the Breathes of the Father and Mother to return them to the Prodigal Child. Not a Hivemind, but a God in their image, the Republic itself animated as the new Primordial Source. As Above So Below.
A Sentient that is also a Blank becomes the ultimate Sin-Eater and Scapgegoat in such a society. Locked in simulations and thrown to the sides as a Living Omelas Totem to show the the Socials that their duties do come with privileges.
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- Location
- in the trash
Oh no, I got the idea that they've got some sort of fucked up caste stratification/psyker cult thing going on and a lot of exclusivity in their conception of humanity and probably a lot of weird artificial social engineering. Contrasting the psyker clone hivemind and the machine-worshipping theocratic state.
Deadly Snark
Tryhard As Fuck
I don't think Kora's Progeny is a Hivemind. The Vibe I got was more, I don't know how many people here knows about this title, but the manga Akumetsu. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Manga/Akumetsu
To spoil things, which is unavoidable given the context of this conversation, Akumetsu is an organization of clones. They were originally the cloned progeny of a Supervillain, but have since struck out on their own and were scattered without knowledge of their origins. The Clones eventually found each other and the labs that created them. This First Generation of Clones decided to upload their combined memories into a new generation, and then killed themselves and had their bodies recycled as nurient material for a Third Generaction and etc.
That's the vibe I got from the Koras. They are not a hivemind, rather through their Psychic abilities, each Individual is able to share memories and thoughts at will with their sisters. They are still able to make their own choices, but that psychic/cultural background is always there as a solid psychological and emotional foundation. It gives them the security to make their own choices as build their own lives.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
My guess for the arks is they are from the Dakaran Skywatch, and were specifically the Highfleet Verge, which if you pay close attention to the map is on a trajectory.
Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
Both Origen Station and Highfleet Verge are in orbit. Hence why they have orbits.
First off, wow, what an intro. It's clever, it's well written, it's different and fascinating; it simply has the right vibe for the time period. I might switch my vote around later but, for the moment...
[X] Koinon.
[X] Titanagalbat.
I desperately hope your quest survives the great filter that usually hits early on, and that you continue your fantastic work. Do you have a Kofi or anything set up for donations yet?
[X] Koinon.
[X] Titanagalbat.
I desperately hope your quest survives the great filter that usually hits early on, and that you continue your fantastic work. Do you have a Kofi or anything set up for donations yet?
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Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
For now, the very best currency I can obtain is commentary and enthusiasm. Time has always been a greater issue for me than money, and I would hate to ask for money when so little has been written.