Remove ads

Paths of Civilization

Reader mode
[X] [Conq] Take the northern lowlands (Thunder Speakers become vassal, Txolla annex additional territory, gain Ruined Thunder Horse as vassal, remainder fragment, -4 Econ and 4 temporary Econ damage from supporting wrecked vassal)
[X] [Refugee] Send out runners that you have food and intact farmland (6 temporary Econ damage, -6-8 Econ Expansion, -1 Stability, chance of further loss, +6-8 Econ next turn)
[X] [PttS] Black Mirror
[X] [PttS] 0 Stability
[X] [Diplo] Let's maybe spread out in case the gods throw another bolt (Found Far Northern Trade Post)
[X] [PSN] Bit more black soil (Sec Black Soil, -1 Centralization)

I'm going with veekie today.

On the arguments I skimmed going through the 30 pages you people made already:

Magic and Divine Intervention: Even in the real world there are occasional cases today of inexplicable happenings, not even accounting for biblical miracles or other old recorded events with similar serendipitous events that seemed to just make everything 'go our way'. If you ascribe to the idea, good for you; you have your explanation. If you don't? Well, better start hoping something something dark matter and statistical probability. As for myself, I'm not against the idea that sometimes there are inexplicable things that happen, and I'm willing to chalk up a meteor landing on our enemy's head as being pretty fucking inexplicable.

Angry that now we have Astrology because it worked once: Just because it worked once doesn't mean we won't be able to refuse ever again. Benefits of Love of Wisdom, skepticism is a beloved trait. Even now, as we're reaping the benefits of insane luck, the narrative of the priesthood at the top is "fuck shit we were wrong." Even if RA has risen... astronomically, the faction responsible for it is still walking on eggshells around this new technique because they misread the whole thing.
 
BungieONI said:
I swear though if PttS gives a Myst drip I will crap out a little chunk of burning plutonium. I mean, think of all the stats we could have gained if we built it when we first got the chance to build it!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Just pretend that it only gives a Myst drip because of all the Iron Age tech we have plus the Astronomy knowledge we got from the Khemetri if it helps you feel better.
 
It has been over ten hours since the last update and the Quest is growing impatient. Choose a distraction
[][Dist] Argue technicalities (main Talk Boats, +1-2 Informative, +1 Salt, chance of further gain)
[][Dist] Argue people (main Talk Meta, +0-2 Funny, +0-2 Hugs, chance of +1 Salt)
[][Dist] Argue mechanics (main Talk Magic. Special: boosted Insight generation this turn)
[][Dist] Argue opinions (main Talk Religion, +3 Salt, small chance of Insight, moderate chance of Manus)
[][Dist] Argue off-topic (main Talk Bullshit, -1-2 Salt, small chance of Manus)
[][Dist] Argue the damn dam (main Talk Dam, chance of +1 Salt. 78/5 uses in a row)
[][Dist] Let it be (Quest takes over until next turn, ???)
 
Last edited:
Chronic said:
Sure.

Just make sure that you never ask AN about this.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
*gives every single hug ever, currently, and possible*

YEP.

I shall also studiously blank from my memories any answers he gives in this vein if someone else asks. As far as I am concerned, those answers will not exist. :V
 
Menolith said:
It has been over ten hours since the last update and the Quest is growing impatient. Choose a distraction
[][Dist] Argue technicalities (main Talk Boats, +1-2 Informative, +1 Salt, chance of further gain)
[][Dist] Argue people (main Talk Meta, +0-2 Funny, +0-2 Hugs, chance of +1 Salt)
[][Dist] Argue mechanics (main Talk Magic. Special: boosted Insight generation this turn)
[][Dist] Argue opinions (main Talk Religion, +3 Salt, small chance of Insight, moderate chance of Manus)
[][Dist] Argue off-topic (main Talk Bullshit, -1-2 Salt, small chance of Manus)
[][Dist] Argue the damn dam (main Talk Dam, chance of +1 Salt. 78/5 uses in a row)
[][Dist] Let it be (Quest takes over until next turn, ???)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Lol.

 
Ooc, we should be assuming there is no magic, as it's the explanation with the fewest assumptions - Occam's razor hasn't gone anywhere, after all.
 
[X] [Conq] Take the northern lowlands(Thunder Speakers become vassal, Txolla annex additional territory, gain RuinedThunder Horse as vassal, remainderfragment, -4 Econ and 4 temporary Econ damage from supporting wrecked vassal)
[X] [Refugee] Send out runners that you have food and intact farmland (6 temporary Econ damage, -6-8 Econ Expansion, -1 Stability, chance of further loss, +6-8 Econ next turn)
[X] [PttS] Black Mirror
[X] [PttS] 0 Stability
[X] [Diplo] Send out reassurances (Sec Trade Mission to Khemetri, Trelli, and Harmurri)
[X] [PSN] Bit more black soil (Sec Black Soil, -1 Centralization)
 
Last edited:
Menolith said:
[][Dist] Argue off-topic (main Talk Bullshit, -1-2 Salt, small chance of Manus)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

*sees this*

*is massively tempted to make bad and very vulgar Surprise jokes*

*you know the kind*

DocMatoi said:
Ooc, we should be assuming there is no magic, as it's the explanation with the fewest assumptions - Occam's razor hasn't gone anywhere, after all.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Of course.

I'm going to personally be applying this to everything, though Yenyna has firmly been shown to be weird to me. Something is up there.

What that weird is, I have no idea and I'm not gonna speculate much because I have basically been thrown into the dark with nary a light.
I hope there are no Grue.
 
Last edited:
Remove ads
Torment of Tormulyna
  • Sidestory
    • Torment of Tormulyna

    I looked, and I saw. I grasped for the rough paper and the stinging coal bit, and I wrote it down. The nice-voiced one let me hold his hand and made good noises. I looked, and I saw, and I wrote it down. The nice-voiced one helped me give him a hug. I did not see him again, and other ones put me on a loud and bad thing to take me someplace else. I do not like loud things.

    I like words. They do not move around when I look at them, they are not too big to see all of, and they make sense when I read them, because I do not have to hear them. The nice-voiced one followed me to a place with many, many words, and very, very few people. So I read words, and remembered what I saw, and... and...

    I wrote it down. I hoped they would let me see it, like the nice one did. There were noises, some of them weren't so good. The people took my papers and looked at them. I made my face look like theirs. Afraid. They were afraid.

    Nobody lets me hold their hand anymore. They touch my back and head and I don't want them to. They sound good, but they're not. They didn't let me see it. I tried to go out and see, but they didn't let me. I am in the word-place a lot, now. I only get to see the sky once a day.

    I want to hold the nice one's hand again. I cry.
     
  • Sidestory
    • Powerofmind said:
    Torment of Tormulyna

    I looked, and I saw. I grasped for the rough paper and the stinging coal bit, and I wrote it down. The nice-voiced one let me hold his hand and made good noises. I looked, and I saw, and I wrote it down. The nice-voiced one helped me give him a hug. I did not see him again, and other ones put me on a loud and bad thing to take me someplace else. I do not like loud things.

    I like words. They do not move around when I look at them, they are not too big to see all of, and they make sense when I read them, because I do not have to hear them. The nice-voiced one followed me to a place with many, many words, and very, very few people. So I read words, and remembered what I saw, and... and...

    I wrote it down. I hoped they would let me see it, like the nice one did. There were noises, some of them weren't so good. The people took my papers and looked at them. I made my face look like theirs. Afraid. They were afraid.

    Nobody lets me hold their hand anymore. They touch my back and head and I don't want them to. They sound good, but they're not. They didn't let me see it. I tried to go out and see, but they didn't let me. I am in the word-place a lot, now. I only get to see the sky once a day.

    I want to hold the nice one's hand again. I cry.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Well that's dark.

    Now I feel sad. :(
    You write well.
     
    Powerofmind said:
    Torment of Tormulyna

    I looked, and I saw. I grasped for the rough paper and the stinging coal bit, and I wrote it down. The nice-voiced one let me hold his hand and made good noises. I looked, and I saw, and I wrote it down. The nice-voiced one helped me give him a hug. I did not see him again, and other ones put me on a loud and bad thing to take me someplace else. I do not like loud things.

    I like words. They do not move around when I look at them, they are not too big to see all of, and they make sense when I read them, because I do not have to hear them. The nice-voiced one followed me to a place with many, many words, and very, very few people. So I read words, and remembered what I saw, and... and...

    I wrote it down. I hoped they would let me see it, like the nice one did. There were noises, some of them weren't so good. The people took my papers and looked at them. I made my face look like theirs. Afraid. They were afraid.

    Nobody lets me hold their hand anymore. They touch my back and head and I don't want them to. They sound good, but they're not. They didn't let me see it. I tried to go out and see, but they didn't let me. I am in the word-place a lot, now. I only get to see the sky once a day.

    I want to hold the nice one's hand again. I cry.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    @Academia Nut, please threadmark this.
     
    ...bizarrely enough I'm reminded of that one Lore Charm from Exalted that lets you look at some records and go "Yep a meteor is going to fall on the Imperial Palace."
     
    kilopi505 said:
    ...why are you all talking as if real life isn't possibly a low magic setting? There are still lots of unexplainable things in the modern world, you know?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    In real life, most unexplainable things are ones that we get access to only through multiple layers of intermediaries. Witness accounts are notoriously unreliable, which is why such things aren't really significant as far as evidence goes.

    In comparison, in PoC we just had a direct view at at an unexplainable event, which is therefore much stronger evidence.
     
    DocMatoi said:
    Ooc, we should be assuming there is no magic, as it's the explanation with the fewest assumptions - Occam's razor hasn't gone anywhere, after all.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Really, at this point we are left with two possibilities - either Genius Mystic was genius enough to jump from our basic math to orbital mechanics equations, and to get accurate enough data to feed into them from our super-basic instruments, or a wizard did it. Both are rather far-fetched and we can't prove or disprove either. Let's keep our eyes open for more.

    Also, a bit of interesting trivia - word "genius" did mean something like "guiding divine spirit" in Latin, and if people were called "geniuses" it implied that they were guided by a higher power.
     
    Last edited:
    agumentic said:
    Really, at this point we are left with two possibilities - either Genius Mystic was genius enough to jump from our basic math to orbital mechanics equations, and to get accurate enough data to feed into them from our super-basic tools, or a wizard did it. Both are rather far-fetched and we can't prove or disprove either. Let's keep our eyes open for more.

    Also, a bit of interesting trivia - word "genius" did mean something like "guiding divine spirit" in Latin, and if people were called "geniuses" it implied that they were guided by a higher power.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    And that's not the only strange thing. I went through a weird realization on page 3883(if you missed it), but something is up with Yenyna.

    The Genius Mystic I ain't got a flying flippin lobster of a clue.

    tenchifew said:
    Ahhh, bureaucratic charms.
    Among the most underappreciated charms in Exalted.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    They sound hilarious.

    Though that one charm Sidereals get that lets them punch you so hard you and everyone in Magic Asia turns into a duck, twice, is always funny to read about.
     
    Ghostdevil said:
    Based on AN's posts, History and Astronomy
    She saw the signs from our past, and saw the signs of it happening again
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Which is concerning since that seems to me to indicate that our planet is intersecting with orbital debris at an alarming rate.

    Also, I suspect part of it was tracking the path of a visible comet in the sky (that we didn't care about because high stability). Which still represents a helluva good understanding of orbital mechanic to predict the impact location

    The part I find particularly concerning/interesting is that somebody took that raw information about an impact and then invented a fairly complicated geopolitical response to take advantage of it. And yet the derived information about what to do was presented with little understanding of why (the gods intend to smite this area with starmetal).
     
    I'll point out again, that the warnings our priests decoded were vague. There's no way in hell you can get orbital mechanics to spit out vague, prophecy-style warnings.
     
    Last edited:
    I have to admit. With the current Conquest vote of taking two vassals winning (and overwhelmingly at that), I find myself rather anxious of how we are going to administrate said territories.

    Things were pretty bad for a while when we integrated Txolla, and that was one vassal - and this is going to be two more. On top of that, we already have a looming crisis with the Heaven's Hawks (they are at 1 dependency now, and loyalty has gone down from 5 to 4), Txolla is still a vassal instead of a true cultural match for us, and on top of that we've got Guild Quests now to juggle with everything else.

    Can I gently suggest that as our next passive policy, we choose Vassal Support? Please?
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top