Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
The Neras are but curious and innocent fungi. Your suspicious saddens them
The Practice War [Complete]
- Thread starter Snowfire
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi
The Neras are but curious and innocent fungi. Your suspicious saddens them
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Didn't you imply they were ~as old as the SL?
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
I didn't imply that. I outright stated it. They're contemporaries.
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- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
And how do peace-loving innocents survive more than a thousand millenia of SL attention? Something doesn't match up in this picture ...
Presumably they just ran away - if the Neras and SL were contemporaries then the Neras and their bio-FTL drives probably had a strong mobility advantage over the SL at first, and the Neras were really spread out by the time the SL developed 1st Secret drives to the point they could outrun a Neras. At that point the cost of supporting those drives as they ran all over the galaxy hunting down individual Neras probably outweighed just making threatening noises at the Neras when they toe the line.
Shwaggy
Weapon of Math Instruction
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- he/him/his
Why would anyone want to destroy them? They're just fun guys.
I mean, who wouldn't trust a fifteen kilometer-long species with interstellar teleportation capabilities?Why would anyone want to destroy them? They're just fun guys.
More seriously:
The Shiplords run down and exterminate other FTL capable nations, and maintain War Fleets to fight someone. I doubt just being able to run real good would have kept the Neras both alive,and maintained their relative immunity as a trustworthy purveyor of secure meeting facilities. That the Shiplords respect enough to stay away from.
Either they're both in on it, or the Neras are much scarier than it first seems.
Neras-style teleportation may be a weapon as well as a form of transport for example.
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
Presumably the Neras have their own mastery of the Secrets the SLs cannot replicate. Or have allies beyond the void who would intervene. Or are in their own strange Nera way helpful to the SL agenda - Maybe their existence holds back the things from the void.I mean, who wouldn't trust a fifteen kilometer-long species with interstellar teleportation capabilities?
More seriously:
The Shiplords run down and exterminate other FTL capable nations, and maintain War Fleets to fight someone. I doubt just being able to run real good would have kept the Neras both alive,and maintained their relative immunity as a trustworthy purveyor of secure meeting facilities. That the Shiplords respect enough to stay away from.
Either they're both in on it, or the Neras are much scarier than it first seems.
Neras-style teleportation may be a weapon as well as a form of transport for example.
Like I said, they're either in this together, which I think is unlikely, given the two Interludes we got from the PoV of the Voidborn and the Neras themselves. OR they are a sufficient military threat that the Shiplords would rather let sleeping dogs lie.
The Shiplords built the War Fleets for a threat bad enough to eradicate multiple fleets.
They built Soulbreakers. They kill planets and systems. They warp the souls of sapients to convert them into autonomous espionage and assassination units. They're extremists. Control freak extremists.
And yet we see none of this near the Neras.
What sort of threat in being does the Neras community serve that the Shiplords not only leave them alone, not only let them play UN, but doesnt even attempt to use that dedicated stealth surveillance division to keep an eye on who shows up and leaves?
That's my point.
They leave them alone because they aren't a threat and picking a fight with them would occupy so many resources that the Shiplords wouldn't be able to do their other tasks properly.
As powerful as the Shiplords are, if their resources are stretched thin enough that many young races rising in revolt simultaneously would be very problematic for them, I doubt they can afford to pick a fight with a decentralized peer.
And the decentralized part is important. There's no homeworld or home star to attack, because most members of the species live rather solitary lives. You basically need to hunt down each one individually.
There's a very big difference between hunting down a nation that has been FTL capable for decades or centuries and a group that's been FTL capable for eons. We know from the UPI report that the Shiplords aren't up to their eyeballs in Warfleets because that shit's expensive, and that they don't have the depth of Regular forces to blanket the entire galaxy - hunting down every last Neras across the galaxy would require total mobilization for a prolonged period, so the Neras get a fair bit of leeway because actually hunting them down is really hard.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Why would anyone want to destroy them? They're just fun guys.
I mean, who wouldn't trust a fifteen kilometer-long species with interstellar teleportation capabilities?
I mean, the species themselves aren't fifteen kilometres long. That's just the average size of a Starhome. House vs person here.
Your key assumption here is that the Shiplords have always been this way.
- Location
- Staring into the void
What happened to make the Shiplords like this?
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
This is an excellent question.
Hmm? That's certainly not the impression the Neras PoVs have given.
Doesn't really matter if they were always this way or not. They are now.
By the time you've blown up your first half dozen planets and downed your one hundred trillionth shot of Soylent Green bioslurry, more generous deals you made in days past come under review.
That they haven't moved against the Neras, that they leave the Neras alone to run their confidential hospitality centers in a galaxy where they attempt to maintain panopticon levels of surveillance? Suggests not forbearance, but deterrence.
IMO.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Exactly. The nerus interfere - there must be a reason that is tolerated. Or a reason why it cannot be stopped. And how the SL are portrayed, 'we like them' isn't the first idea that comes to mind.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Assuming said hypothetical Starhome didn't just immediately jump away, of course.
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
@Snowfire
1. What do we know about the Neras and what have the Group of 6 told us about the.?
2. In general, what do the Group of 6 know about the SL's arbitrary tests?
3. What precedent do the Group of 6 know about Tribute Fleets suffering Drive Failure? Does that count enough for a Tributary to gain independence?
1. What do we know about the Neras and what have the Group of 6 told us about the.?
2. In general, what do the Group of 6 know about the SL's arbitrary tests?
3. What precedent do the Group of 6 know about Tribute Fleets suffering Drive Failure? Does that count enough for a Tributary to gain independence?
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Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
- Well, they're contemporaries to the Shiplords, which is kinda a Big Thing all on its own. They either started out as or modified themselves to become quite happy with living in space - the Starhomes appear to have been built as a combination of comfortable shell and way to interact with other spieces. The exact number of Neras Starhomes in existence is unknown, but between them the Group of Six are aware of thirty-one. Most interesting to yourselves, no doubt, will be how they appear to have some ability to manipulate the First Secret without needing a jump drive. Exactly how restricted this is remains unknown.
- They are highly non-interventionist, but also very curious. It's been known for them to occasionally show up to greet new races that have won free of the Tribute System. They've been known to trade with those races, actually, but what they've asked for has always been history instead of anything tangible. They're highly generous in what they give in return. This has backfired a time or two, with races attempting to use technology given to them by the Neras to carve out empires. Yet the Shiplords have never once moved against them (the Neras) for doing so.
- Assuming you survive First Contact, Tribute Fleets will show up at specific points - that appear to be pegged to life cycle, actually - and try to knock you down again. What you learned from the G6 was that the Shiplord Tribute Fleets don't always take lives, and even if they do, it's almost never as bad as First Contact. Once you manage to actually win - either blow up the Tribute Fleet entirely or inflict enough casualties that they retreat - then a Regular Fleet comes along to check on you. You pass whatever test they give (no one knows what they're looking for, but you might now) and you're free. Well, theoretically.
- Not enough, no. A Tributary has to win. And drive failure, whilst it can happen, doesn't really explain away a lack of courier drones.
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I agree. The Shiplord's past matters insofar that we find more effective ways to defeat them. Of course their motives are relevant when determining their degree of culpability, but I strongly believe the minimum retribution should start at being permanently confined to their homeworld and forced tech regression (a la Halo ancient Humanity), and go up from there. That is the least we can do for the countless billions dead, and dozens of civilizations rendered extinct just in recent memory. Let's not even talk about their inexplicable and malicious 'Tribute cycle' and their heavy-handed 'peacekeeping'. And for what? Even if they did all this for the noblest reasons, their inexcusable callousness makes even a hard-hearted humanocentrist like me balk.
Hell, the Forerunners, usurping murderous space assholes that they are, decided to preserve other sentient races before pressing the big red button. And they were dealing with a ramped-up Flood.
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- Location
- Florida
Alrighty