You know, I've had a funny thought about the Old Ones.
*They set Giants to guard temples and complexes and stuff in Albion
*Sky-titans may have been meant to do the same for the tops of mountains too; perhaps to guard the places where the Windfalls would happen? (Idea connected to and inspired in part by the Waystone mention of "treasure yet to be collected", plus general mentions of Skytitans dwelling on mountains and being connected to the Old Ones)
*They have various Guardian Beasts(TM) for the Paths of the Old Ones, or their old temples and stuff
*They didn't build machines to fight Chaos; they started raising up Ogres. They built a warrior race rather than design a machine drone.
*They didn't build with machines, they had kroxigors. Slann and Skinks for magic and stuff. Saurus to fight.
*Dwarfs being meant to live under the mountains and take care of any machinery and engineering.
*The Old Ones having wardens and teachers for the Dawi.
*The Gods, I think Asuryan, burning down that one library the Elves had of advanced knowledge... ... maybe it was burnt down because there were no longer enough custodians around to safeguard the knowledge and how the knowledge got taught and passed on to elves?
What if the Old Ones... just, as a general rule, preferred not to trust knowledge or power to machines or non-living beings too much? What if they preferred to deal with living beings over inanimate things or tools where possible?
That is to say. It's funny to think about, but... what if the Old Ones preferred for knowledge and magic to be used by individuals, by people, rather than to be bound up in vending machines? Instead of a society where you'd go on the internet or browse a public library... you'd have a civilization of psychics, and connecting to the internet would require being good enough to join everyone else in meditation. That sort of outlook on things.
A library to the Old Ones might not look like a library. It might look like a Jedi Holocron, or like a Slann on a rocking chair that will recite every book or lesson known, but only to those authorized or considered ready for that knowledge.
"But what about the Golden Plaques?"
For things that got actually written down, or needed to be encoded and written... they were probably placed in highly secure areas, places where they would be always surrounded by people who would be authorized to use them, and also the people who that knowledge would be needed for for their job. Hence, Golden Plaques in Lustrian; where they're meant to be read by Slann and Skinks or whomever. People who need the knowledge for their job or to guide them, and who could be trusted with having that knowledge. And also trusted to be capable of keeping that knowledge secure.
"But Garlak", you might say. "Didn't living things start worshipping Chaos? Heck, it was living beings that helped usher in Chaos and cause all this!"
Yeah, but it was the Fimir and Dragon-ogres that did that. And they weren't trusted. They were trusted to be enemies. You trust enemies to act like, and be, enemies.
Only after the Fimir and Dragon-ogres helped usher in Chaos into a clean-room environment, did the other living races start worshipping it and getting corrupted by it.
So you could say that the Old Ones trust living beings to be shitters if living beings are shitters; and to be okay-ish if they are okay-ish. But machines and books though? Those are not trusted because they are tools or powers that anybody can use, which means you are having to trust 'how somebody might use a thing' or 'anybody that might get access to that tool or book', rather than trusting your ability to teach and impart knowledge and cultivate a people or society. ((Another motivation might be because you'd want to encourage people to git gud, rather than to rely on machines or things. Encourage people to learn and become Jedi if they want their internet, rather than just giving them internet. Set up incentives properly, and given a capable enough race of beings, and you get a society of powerful or capable people.))
"But what about the Great Machines?" Yeah, well, you got me. Maybe a preference for dealing with living minds rather than nonliving beings or nonliving minds only goes so far. Or maybe Cython has a point; maybe they're more like Gods than Machines. (Or maybe God-Machines? Or Machine-Gods?) Maybe they had to make an exception for some things and not others. The End Times (okay okay, End Times) did have the people being Wind Incarnates, so maybe...
Or maybe the Winds, or whatever it is that makes the Winds, is something that is both unspeakably complex and also unspeakably simple; like a simple lever... or a fission or fusion reaction. Or like a nuclear power plant; something that uses impressive technology and stuff... ... all in order to ultimately push a wheel around using water and steam in order to create electricity. The most impressive technology, and using precious resources. All to ultimately use water and fire and wheels again.
EDIT:
i.e. Maybe Taal's 'slaying' of a dragon was actually more like 'convincing the dragon to join with the forest'. Or maybe 'beating him up, the forcing him to mind-meld with the forest', and Deathfang just didn't want to -- or didn't fully know -- to acknowledge a dragon being beaten and semi-parasitized semi-symbiote'd or whatever'd. Or maybe it was a "If I beat you, you'll work for me/my wife. Deal?" deal, and Deathfang gave it a better spin.
*They set Giants to guard temples and complexes and stuff in Albion
*Sky-titans may have been meant to do the same for the tops of mountains too; perhaps to guard the places where the Windfalls would happen? (Idea connected to and inspired in part by the Waystone mention of "treasure yet to be collected", plus general mentions of Skytitans dwelling on mountains and being connected to the Old Ones)
*They have various Guardian Beasts(TM) for the Paths of the Old Ones, or their old temples and stuff
*They didn't build machines to fight Chaos; they started raising up Ogres. They built a warrior race rather than design a machine drone.
*They didn't build with machines, they had kroxigors. Slann and Skinks for magic and stuff. Saurus to fight.
*Dwarfs being meant to live under the mountains and take care of any machinery and engineering.
*The Old Ones having wardens and teachers for the Dawi.
*The Gods, I think Asuryan, burning down that one library the Elves had of advanced knowledge... ... maybe it was burnt down because there were no longer enough custodians around to safeguard the knowledge and how the knowledge got taught and passed on to elves?
What if the Old Ones... just, as a general rule, preferred not to trust knowledge or power to machines or non-living beings too much? What if they preferred to deal with living beings over inanimate things or tools where possible?
That is to say. It's funny to think about, but... what if the Old Ones preferred for knowledge and magic to be used by individuals, by people, rather than to be bound up in vending machines? Instead of a society where you'd go on the internet or browse a public library... you'd have a civilization of psychics, and connecting to the internet would require being good enough to join everyone else in meditation. That sort of outlook on things.
A library to the Old Ones might not look like a library. It might look like a Jedi Holocron, or like a Slann on a rocking chair that will recite every book or lesson known, but only to those authorized or considered ready for that knowledge.
"But what about the Golden Plaques?"
For things that got actually written down, or needed to be encoded and written... they were probably placed in highly secure areas, places where they would be always surrounded by people who would be authorized to use them, and also the people who that knowledge would be needed for for their job. Hence, Golden Plaques in Lustrian; where they're meant to be read by Slann and Skinks or whomever. People who need the knowledge for their job or to guide them, and who could be trusted with having that knowledge. And also trusted to be capable of keeping that knowledge secure.
"But Garlak", you might say. "Didn't living things start worshipping Chaos? Heck, it was living beings that helped usher in Chaos and cause all this!"
Yeah, but it was the Fimir and Dragon-ogres that did that. And they weren't trusted. They were trusted to be enemies. You trust enemies to act like, and be, enemies.
Only after the Fimir and Dragon-ogres helped usher in Chaos into a clean-room environment, did the other living races start worshipping it and getting corrupted by it.
So you could say that the Old Ones trust living beings to be shitters if living beings are shitters; and to be okay-ish if they are okay-ish. But machines and books though? Those are not trusted because they are tools or powers that anybody can use, which means you are having to trust 'how somebody might use a thing' or 'anybody that might get access to that tool or book', rather than trusting your ability to teach and impart knowledge and cultivate a people or society. ((Another motivation might be because you'd want to encourage people to git gud, rather than to rely on machines or things. Encourage people to learn and become Jedi if they want their internet, rather than just giving them internet. Set up incentives properly, and given a capable enough race of beings, and you get a society of powerful or capable people.))
"But what about the Great Machines?" Yeah, well, you got me. Maybe a preference for dealing with living minds rather than nonliving beings or nonliving minds only goes so far. Or maybe Cython has a point; maybe they're more like Gods than Machines. (Or maybe God-Machines? Or Machine-Gods?) Maybe they had to make an exception for some things and not others. The End Times (okay okay, End Times) did have the people being Wind Incarnates, so maybe...
Or maybe the Winds, or whatever it is that makes the Winds, is something that is both unspeakably complex and also unspeakably simple; like a simple lever... or a fission or fusion reaction. Or like a nuclear power plant; something that uses impressive technology and stuff... ... all in order to ultimately push a wheel around using water and steam in order to create electricity. The most impressive technology, and using precious resources. All to ultimately use water and fire and wheels again.
EDIT:
Maybe the dragon that Taal slew, might be related to, uh, what was it that Deathfang said... that one dragon who joined with the forest?
i.e. Maybe Taal's 'slaying' of a dragon was actually more like 'convincing the dragon to join with the forest'. Or maybe 'beating him up, the forcing him to mind-meld with the forest', and Deathfang just didn't want to -- or didn't fully know -- to acknowledge a dragon being beaten and semi-parasitized semi-symbiote'd or whatever'd. Or maybe it was a "If I beat you, you'll work for me/my wife. Deal?" deal, and Deathfang gave it a better spin.
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