Wait, she stole this from the adventurer encampment?
Not from the Middle or Inner Ring? Why the hell do the merchants and info-brokers have something that looks like it comes from the Temple's intelligence reports? For that matter, reports that are only days old even, as they reference Hunger's part. How do they
get this stuff? Who is good enough to sneak into the inner areas and steal it? Or, who has contacts to the Temple people? Or...?
... And what's up with Hunger's anti-scrying stuff. Where is that coming from? Gisena's Nullity? Attunement to Verschlengorge? Bearing a ring of power? (But if so, wouldn't Hunger notice?) The Azure Moon interfering with their scrying efforts? Cursebearers having a "Do Not Fucking Scry On" innate property??
No False Moon is this, but the anchor of the world itself! Come now into mine grasp, that my descedents may flourish evermore.
descendants
To which the Council notes that the number of stars in the night sky is very nearly innumerable, and the current rate of extraction will see our civilization through for many millennia to follow, far beyond the circumscribed lifetime of any Inner Resident save the Immortals themselves.
but rest assured that its longevity as a power source is effectively infinite! That is why the treasure must be impenetrably defended, not only by the citizenry of the Temple, but by the Immortals of the Council themselves, whose imperishable might is the sole and necessary justification for their continuance beyond the prescribed lifespan of one thousand years.
That is why the treasure must be impenetrably defended, not only by the citizenry of the Temple, but by the Immortals of the Council themselves, whose imperishable might is the sole and necessary justification for their continuance beyond the prescribed lifespan of one thousand years.
Do not envy them their eternal vigilance, and mourn not your finite hours, for it is by their tireless regard that the Treasure which shelters us all is kept secure for the generations to come. Theirs is not a privilege but a duty, no reward but an onerous and ceaseless burden, which is why any Councilor elevated to the Rank of Immortal is stripped of all commissions and departmental roles, and their voting power further cut by half.
... If the well of energy they can extract is supposed to be endless or so large as to be indistinguishable, then
why exactly do they bother with the "Immortality is only for people who're Strategic Assets!" and "You're prescribed 1000 years" things?
... You know, the reflexive reaction to this is "Wait wtf, they're keeping immortality limited to a rare few?" but I wonder if there
is some truth to it being a duty or burden. Namely, I wonder if too much power is... let's say
transformative. Maybe the Immortals can't live a normal existence very easily or anymore. Maybe they have to spend their life in isolation, or in very careful regimented environment, in order to maintain stability.
Or maybe, stuffing so much power into a person -- or drawing out so much power from the Moon in order to use for anything -- risks drawing in powerful Astral Beasts. Meaning, that it's actually dangerous to concentrate too much power or energy from the Ring... because it risks backlash. I mean, we were, after all, told that "The Voyaging Realm resists attempts to exploit it... especially industrialized exploitation." So maybe they're worried that if they made tons of super-powerful Immortals, the Astral Lord known as Murphy will show up and wreck their shit.
After all, the Temple residents are already seeing some pushback from the Voyaging Realm -- tons of adventurers are coming for them.
This does make me wonder, though... If we freed the Ring... and tried to take it or use it, giving it to a party member... Would we have, uh, calamitous difficulties in bringing it out of the Voyaging Realm? As any attempt to mine power from the Voyaging Realm?
Given these and many lesser disruptions in Ritual activity, containment efficacy has fallen calamitously, down 8% in the last 72 hours. Recommend re-commissioning of Star Forge #27 to begin extraction of sub-quadrant F5 to compensate.
What exactly are they sealing away? And, why do they need to re-commission a Star Forge to make up for the loss of power? Again, if this place can draw all the power it
wants, then why is there a problem here?
We have informed the Chief Coordinator that incursion activity may spike as uncontained Power is released into the greater Outside. In light of this limited containment breach, termination or subversion of all major Incursions is the utmost priority.
? They need to draw more Star Power in order to contain the thingy. But, the thing that is leaking out... is Power?
Hmm, so... So, are they preventing either the Mooncall or the Light-of-the-Soul from escaping and emanating away? Is that what they're worried about here? Either the Moon being able to call out more strongly, and thus either more and more powerful Adventurers or even Astral Beasts will show up and that is
bad times... Or the Light of the Soul will leak out, and so the Adventurers might power up from that (and thus become a bigger threat).
Why do the information peddlers even have this?
How do the info-brokers even have this?? How'd they
get this?
Were they given this, or did some Adventurer long ago manage to sneak into the Inner Ring and steal stuff and return with it, and then the spoils were kept by the adventurer or party and gets passed down over time and kept secret?
But no, it can't be that, or at least not
just that --
because the stolen papers involve a report about stuff that happened just days ago, which means that
somebody here is able to reach into the Inner Ring and steal papers? Or that they're being given this?
Fewer, more heretical minds have proposed a different question - what if the Forges were turned to the harvest of the moon itself? The Council, as befits its dignity, has not seen fit to answer so ludicrous a query. Star-stuff suffices to power all but the most esoteric applications of Inner Ring society, from power and lighting to the time-twisting Calendar Engine and even the carefully regimented Dimensional Vortex upon which the Inner Ring sits.
Marshall, imbibe dutifully the information contained above, and take heed as to the tenor of questions that the Council will and will not countenance. Such is crucial to your harmonious existence within our Inner Ring.
Stuff like this immediately and transparently seems ominous -- "Don't ask questions! Do not question!" -- and a sign of a messed up society. And while I think that's of course still the case, I'm also wondering whether there's also other problems with too much curiosity or the wrong kind of curiosity too. Namely... I dunno. The idea hasn't quite percolated in my mind. Just... Wondering if there's a "On the first layer, this appears like a society's jerkish actions" "But I wonder if behind this, this first layer which will make everybody who sees it go 'Ah, so that's what this is' there is also a
more disquieting truth, too."
Because, after all, if the answer was the obvious: "No, we are not going to harvest from the Moon itself, because that is the Golden Goose,
no duh." why wouldn't they have just said precisely that. Unless they're worried about
any talk of their source of power, or any talk that would be about... hrm. Or maybe the simpler reason is because trying to grab and pull the moon would, uh, well... unmoor the moon. Or in other words, tear it free from the trap. Which, y'know, is also a thing that the Moon is trying to accomplish by Calling out to people. So hence, the high-ranking people worry about
any possibility or sign of talk that might touch upon that; because, what if that's the Moon itself trying to pull a fast one?
... Mmm... I'm probably overthinking and over-analyzing this part. Probably it's just a simpler answer and there's no conspiracy behind
this particular thing that grabbed my eye. There doesn't have to be super-significant stuff behind everything and every part. Probably it's just as it looks, a secretive or censorious or oppressive government, and for the usual and normal reasons for governments being such rather than for any eldritch reason.
Though, thinking about it... It makes me wonder. Do they, does their nation... have a Panopticon too?
It would fit the pattern of conformity and such. And a Surprise Panopticon would make it harder to sneak about if you were infiltrating or even just were let in and then wanted to do something surreptitious while inside.
Anyway. Something to think about, I guess. If they're an advanced society, they might have advanced surveillance too. ... Of course, they also had trouble scrying Hunger, so... ... But then maybe that was just magic failing, and more mechanical and mundane means might not fail?
...
I wonder
how their magical scrying got "DENIED!" by Hunger though. And why. Like, if the answer is just "Because he's a Cursebearer, and scrying on somebody touched by the Accursed is innately a baaad idea" that seems a bit... I mean. It doesn't quite seem right. Cursebearers don't have innate defenses against scrying. I mean, they might have innate defenses against Going Mad From The Revelation, and innate defenses against "Oops, your magic doesn't work in this reality!" but
scrying defenses? So... did our Ring do this? (But if so, why didn't we notice it?) Or perhaps the Azure Ring? ... Or maybe it's our Evening Sky? Maybe it's linked to the Azure Ring or something or I dunno.
... Or maybe it's just Nullity. Maybe their heads went pop from scrying Hunger because Hunger hangs around Gisena all the time. ... Or because Hunger is now attuned to an Armament...
[ ] Business - The support. Instead of focusing solely on her skills as a mercenary alone, Aeira studied the dismal science in an attempt to better understand and possibly extricate her family from its dismal situation. While this isn't immediately relevant, it would substantially improve her value to Letrizia as a magus-advisor in the Human Sphere, providing a form of long term income that isn't as vulnerable to abrupt termination as her current line of work. Grants +++Wisdom, ++Intelligence, ++Charisma.
Bonus: Apocalypse Later - Vastly reduces the risks of taking Aeira out of the Voyaging Realm. Without this, complications will almost certainly ensue.
... Why's this even a thing... This is weird. Why would there be problems extracting Aeira? And and
why does "study economics/business" address the Voyaging Realm Anti-Looting Mechanism???
