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The Secrets' Crusade

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These are my priorities: Archive Headers already has Animus Data conditionally baked into it, which is exactly what I want to see, and Visions and Order incorporates Visions in the Jump from the previous vote that I got a nice solid "told you so" on.

I'm good with whatever else we have time for afterward.

[x] Archive Headers - Follow the data offered by Animus, particularly within the Archive. Investigate those command code files, and the preparatory data on the Resonant Spire. If you have any time left after that, focus on the Animus technical data.
[x] Visions and Order - There are two points of interest remaining among the research that was still ongoing when you woke Animus. Understanding the nature of the not!Practice suffusing this world, and finding out who, or what, is waiting at that starlit cathedral where Tahkel met you months before.

I still wanna see the Warden interlude.
 
Hmm, I'd be interested in shipteens, the wardens, the neras, or more on the delivery of the orrery.

[X] Archive Headers

Be way easier to check out that data with someone to point the way.

[X] The Nature of Souls
[X] Visions and Order
[X] Practice Secrets

Really want to dive into what this is, especially since it seems to be very similar to what the Consolat did.

[] Guardian Code

Ugh I want to do this before we wake it up on accident somehow, but not enough to focus on
 
Probably going to close this out this evening (5-6 hours), but I might leave it until Saturday afternoon. I'd prefer to have things a little more cut and dried (we currently have a three-way tie for second, aaaaaah) but that's part of how approval voting often functions. And I can make it work regardless.

Edit: @Pyro Hawk whilst voting for it is appreciated, Critical Mending is happening this turn regardless of votes.
Adhoc vote count started by Snowfire on Nov 22, 2024 at 6:22 AM, finished with 33 posts and 15 votes.
  • [X] Archive Headers - Follow the data offered by Animus, particularly within the Archive. Investigate those command code files, and the preparatory data on the Resonant Spire. If you have any time left after that, focus on the Animus technical data.
    [X] Animus Data - Dedicate a solid section of your time to Animus' technical files. The nature of their existence, their Telaxion, and also how any of this might be able to help Iris evolve. Maybe you can get an answer on what they mean when they call your daughter a 'sapling'.
    [X] Visions and Order - There are two points of interest remaining among the research that was still ongoing when you woke Animus. Understanding the nature of the not!Practice suffusing this world, and finding out who, or what, is waiting at that starlit cathedral where Tahkel met you months before.
    [X] The Nature of Souls - You know what Tahkel said, when the Uninvolved told you that you'd changed. You've felt it too, just recently, in how you recovered so much faster than Lea. Go looking with your Heartcircle's help, and see what you find.
    [X] Practice Secrets - The nature of the Practice, or at least of the Secrets created by it, now lies within reach. Once Mary recovers, to this endeavour she will go. Help her, where you can.
    [X] Guardian Code - Try to put together a workable plan to access the Guardian Node on Satellite Four-Fifteen. Command codes will be needed to get in, but you'll need a way to get it to listen before it flags you as intruders. Which, technically, you are.
    [X] Critical Mending - Mary's soul is still unrepaired, and as such she is unable to help your mission. You must resolve this as swiftly as you can. Only once that's done can you begin to understand what's causing it. [LOCKED]
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Snowfire said:
Edit: @Pyro Hawk whilst voting for it is appreciated, Critical Mending is happening this turn regardless of votes.
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Yeah, it was just simplest at that time to copy everything and narrow it down from there. So it stuck around as a 'well, this is happening so it doesn't matter' thing.

Also, clearly we need a new Voter to vote for just Practice Secrets!
 
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Unironically

[X] Practice Secrets - The nature of the Practice, or at least of the Secrets created by it, now lies within reach. Once Mary recovers, to this endeavour she will go. Help her, where you can.

I want this. Might edit in a few more votes later.
 
[X] Practice Secrets - The nature of the Practice, or at least of the Secrets created by it, now lies within reach. Once Mary recovers, to this endeavour she will go. Help her, where you can.
[X] Visions and Order - There are two points of interest remaining among the research that was still ongoing when you woke Animus. Understanding the nature of the not!Practice suffusing this world, and finding out who, or what, is waiting at that starlit cathedral where Tahkel met you months before.
 
[X] Practice Secrets - The nature of the Practice, or at least of the Secrets created by it, now lies within reach. Once Mary recovers, to this endeavour she will go. Help her, where you can.
[X] Visions and Order - There are two points of interest remaining among the research that was still ongoing when you woke Animus. Understanding the nature of the not!Practice suffusing this world, and finding out who, or what, is waiting at that starlit cathedral where Tahkel met you months before.
 
Altom said:
Ok. What else did they do? :V
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Gave something to humanity in death, as shown in the Metaconcert interlude.

You know that Practice, as it is now, is incomplete compared to what was intended. It's believed that it was meant to directly affect far more of humanity, if not all of it. The nature of Foci is also something that seems to have been more intended as training wheels rather than any sort of limiter.

You also know that the Consolat clearly found their way to something similar to Practice, as far as you can tell without a species like the Dragons sacrificing themselves for it. Exactly what the Consolat could do with that still isn't clear, beyond that it was absolutely used in creating the Secrets.

Beyond that...it's hard to say.
 
[X] Archive Headers - Follow the data offered by Animus, particularly within the Archive. Investigate those command code files, and the preparatory data on the Resonant Spire. If you have any time left after that, focus on the Animus technical data.

[X] Animus Data - Dedicate a solid section of your time to Animus' technical files. The nature of their existence, their Telaxion, and also how any of this might be able to help Iris evolve. Maybe you can get an answer on what they mean when they call your daughter a 'sapling'.
 
Snowfire said:
You also know that the Consolat clearly found their way to something similar to Practice, as far as you can tell without a species like the Dragons sacrificing themselves for it. Exactly what the Consolat could do with that still isn't clear, beyond that it was absolutely used in creating the Secrets.
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MTB said:
And then something happened that required/forced(?) the sacrifice of their whole race. Funny similarity when you look at Dragons and Practice.
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Snowfire said:
I would suggest casting your eyes towards the existence of the Secrets.
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The Consolat figured out how to create the Secrets, and did so. Unlike the dragons, who barely had any idea what they were doing at all, the Consolat knew exactly what they were doing. ...Up until it hit a critical point and suddenly their entire species was consumed to execute the process. And based on how sudden it seems to have been, and how desperate their actions at that time seem to have been to preserve what they could, they did not expect the cost. Or at least didn't expect it would be every last one of them.

This seems to have etched a path the dragons were barely able to perceive, which allowed them to create practice without really knowing what they were doing, but unlike the Consolat they were aware of the price it would take.

And this is interesting. The Consolat, despite appearing to have formulated the creation of the secrets with incredible detail, effort, and research were taken entirely off guard by the execution of the process consuming them, while despite barely knowing shit the dragons knew they would not survive creating practice. Perhaps the Consolat thought they had a way to defray the cost, or shove it on to something else, only whatever they tried was insufficient and it blew back on them.

Edit: Huh. I wonder if the secrets going live was an accident? They were running a test of the process, containment failed, and suddenly the entire process was executing before they were ready with no way to stop it?
 
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I wonder if the Dragons co-opted the interface that Animus is looking to connect to? Practice does seem to rewrite reality in similar, if much smaller scale, ways that the secrets do.
 
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Adnate said:
I wonder if the Dragons co-opted the interface that Animus is looking to connect to? Practice sure seen to rewrite reality in similar, if much smaller scale, ways that the secrets do.
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Now wouldn't that be quite the pickle? Imagine the look on the Hardline shiplords faces if this was the truth and they found out . . . Gods, the sheer outrage they would give off would be felt universally! Especially when they realize they were the intended first recipients! 😆 🤣 😂 what do ya say, @Snowfire? Shall we take a stab at it?
 
Byzantine said:
Edit: Huh. I wonder if the secrets going live was an accident? They were running a test of the process, containment failed, and suddenly the entire process was executing before they were ready with no way to stop it?
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Sounds disturbingly plausible.

As a general rule, you usually build a control interface (Animus) before activating something that will need that same control interface to operate.

And Animus was clearly not complete at the time of Secrets activation.

I will compare it to a nuclear power plant, which is built to contain and control the chain reaction before ever launching - because otherwise uncontrolled chain reaction brings disastrous results.
 
Faraway-R said:
Sounds disturbingly plausible.

As a general rule, you usually build a control interface (Animus) before activating something that will need that same control interface to operate.

And Animus was clearly not complete at the time of Secrets activation.

I will compare it to a nuclear power plant, which is built to contain and control the chain reaction before ever launching - because otherwise uncontrolled chain reaction brings disastrous results.
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Yeah, it seems like they were getting into the final stages of everything (animus was almost ready, but was just short of being plugged in, etc), ran a test... and found out their supercriticality numbers were, in fact, horribly miscalculated due to factors they did not expect. Resulting in the process breaking containment and immediately spiraling beyond the point it could be stopped. They spent the last few minutes? Seconds? They had shoving everything they could into storage in an attempt to preserve it, unaware they were accidentally breaking everything including that data in the process because of the blowback.

Honestly based on that attempt it seems like... prior to whatever process they started soul science didn't have that cost associated with it, so they weren't aware of what would happen if they tried to cheat it.

I figure this because the odds they didn't transfer anything between storages is extremely unlikely, which means either they somehow never tested it... or there literally wasn't such a restriction until they made it. And it went live before the process was complete.
 
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Alright, that's better.

Vote Closed
Adhoc vote count started by Snowfire on Nov 23, 2024 at 11:30 AM, finished with 51 posts and 20 votes.
  • [X] Visions and Order - There are two points of interest remaining among the research that was still ongoing when you woke Animus. Understanding the nature of the not!Practice suffusing this world, and finding out who, or what, is waiting at that starlit cathedral where Tahkel met you months before.
    [X] Archive Headers - Follow the data offered by Animus, particularly within the Archive. Investigate those command code files, and the preparatory data on the Resonant Spire. If you have any time left after that, focus on the Animus technical data.
    [X] Practice Secrets - The nature of the Practice, or at least of the Secrets created by it, now lies within reach. Once Mary recovers, to this endeavour she will go. Help her, where you can.
    [X] Animus Data - Dedicate a solid section of your time to Animus' technical files. The nature of their existence, their Telaxion, and also how any of this might be able to help Iris evolve. Maybe you can get an answer on what they mean when they call your daughter a 'sapling'.
    [X] The Nature of Souls - You know what Tahkel said, when the Uninvolved told you that you'd changed. You've felt it too, just recently, in how you recovered so much faster than Lea. Go looking with your Heartcircle's help, and see what you find.
    [X] Guardian Code - Try to put together a workable plan to access the Guardian Node on Satellite Four-Fifteen. Command codes will be needed to get in, but you'll need a way to get it to listen before it flags you as intruders. Which, technically, you are.
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With all the research options available to us, I am a bit curious if we could discover more than one way to "win" this quest. Yes, restoring Animus's connection to the Secrets seems to be the optimal path available to us now, but if we had botched the restoration or Animus decided they didn't like our face, would that have been game over (or at least locked us into the Long Bloody War ending)? Or are there multiple "quest chains" that could lead us to getting varying degrees of leverage to bring the Shiplords to the negotiating table?
 
Silverking said:
With all the research options available to us, I am a bit curious if we could discover more than one way to "win" this quest. Yes, restoring Animus's connection to the Secrets seems to be the optimal path available to us now, but if we had botched the restoration or Animus decided they didn't like our face, would that have been game over (or at least locked us into the Long Bloody War ending)? Or are there multiple "quest chains" that could lead us to getting varying degrees of leverage to bring the Shiplords to the negotiating table?
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There are multiple ways to 'complete' the Consolat home system. With that said, though, your actions at the Third Sorrow also opened up a potential route to a Less Bloody Long War with Kicha and the Hearthguard taking action. If my count is right - and I might actually need to recodify the sidestory bit into an actual vote if the numbers I got here continue - you're getting a Warden interlude this sidestory. And that will give you some of the picture for that route.
 
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