Brainstorming Story Ideas:::

[Hydro]

Gentlemen,

All these great ideas…I’ve got at least four story germs right now! This type of synergy is one of the ways collaborative fiction can be so much fun! I’ll have to give these new germs some TLC this weekend. I’ll also move my first ‘germ’ story to the thread.

Rand – I wasn’t abandoning the Alliance/Axis at all, far from it. I think you are right that some of the alliance might be more co-belligerent status excepting, perhaps, the PKs and Gaians. I see the Hive helping subdue the Gaians and PKs and, of course, Morgan. This lets Yang get a greedy foothold on all the continents.

I do think we can leave some of the details to emerge within the story of The Protectorate, I think. I’d hate to squelch even a mote of creativity – and a developing plot line/history – by having too much of a straightjacket. Who nuked whom first and why are, perhaps, some of the biggest questions and the source of speculation and braggadocio by each faction. This could also be a source of solace for defeated factions whose bases are occupied or are held in thrall to a sour tempered overlord.

Hydro

[Rand Al'Tor]

Hm; one thing I note though is that the Protectorate still seems to have the know how of how to capture and interrogate Transcendi, which are basically at the far end of the tech ladder. Does that fit with the whole technological step back? Or is it perhaps done with pre-spasm equipement?

[Rand Al'Tor]

Originally posted by WotanAnubis

You do realise I sometimes use understatement, right?



Why should they? If I'm not mistaken (and I admit I may very well be), empaths and other psychics in the game start appearing when a faction pursues the Centauri technologies. This suggests that only when working with Planet can humanity develop their psychic talents.

Myeqh, I don't tend to put TOO much stock in what techs give you what possibilities. You need to know the secrets of the human brain to start a fundamentalist regime as well. Not to mention, all that is needed is the knowledge, acquired from studying empathic stuff of the mindworm. Once that is acquired, even Miriam running free Market can have empaths as much as she wants. Gqiqns might have been the first to get empaths, but in the end, all other factions learned to use that stuff too I'd imagine.

However, with their easy use of Planet Busters, the remaining factions have pretty much forsaken Planet and the voice of Planet has fallen silent. Why should there be empaths?

Has the Voice of Planet fallen silent then? Or is it screaming in rage. And if it's silent now, is it a silent 'I'm not listening to you now, but lemme cool down' or 'I'm catching my breath from the last spasm, once that's done I'll start killing again' silent?

Game mechanics aside, it would just make for a good story, in my opinion. If The Path to Transcendance is kind of the Humanity's Ultimate Destiny, then the death of the Gaians and the complete loss of the empaths (who are pretty important in the Book of Planet) means that humanity has gone off course, drifting without real purpose, never getting anywhere.
And then when the Gaians somehow rise from the ashes, as Planet begins to whisper once again, as empaths are born once more, the current status quo becomes threatened (somehow). The factions need to make a choice, to remain in stasis on a war-torn Planet or attempt to embrace the rising change. All of which, of course, leading to one great big climactic battle and whatnot. It's a story, after all.

That is a potentially good story. Though I like the possibility of a Planet that isn't just 'not talking' to the humans, but actively hates them, and stasis might not be an option as Planet very much intends to wipe them out. And there is something very... spooky about the peaceful Gaians transforming into a genocidal cult. It might also lead to a climatic battle, not about whether humanity will reach transcendence or not, but whether they'll survive.

(BTW, if someone PM'ed me, I seem to have troubles seeing PMs so... just put it up here or mail me?)

[korn469]

More thoughts before the spasm...

The Gaian/Peace Keeper alliance was a union of of like minded people pursuing shared goals. Both factions had adopted democratic principals for their governments, along with Green economies. They eschewed weapons of mass destructions, and neither faction built either Planet Busters or units equipped with nerve gas. Despite their distaste for weapons of mass destruction their alliance possessed formidable military power. Pravin Lal commanded the second largest military on Chiron behind Yang's horde of soldiers. Although the Gaian military was much smaller than the Peace Keeper army they were far from defenseless. The Gaians had more native life units in their military than all of the other factions combined. They also had the largest, best funded, most highly trained Psi corps on Chiron. From it's humble beginnings in the Empath Guild, no other faction nurtured promising telepaths like the Gaians.

After a long period of sanctions, the Gaian/Peace Keeper alliance half-heartedly welcomed the Conclave into their ranks. The Believers vision of a settling a new Garden of Eden wasn't without its hardships. Their close proximity to the Godless devils Zakharov and Yang lead to a series of wars. Although Sister Miriam's forces did confront Chairman Yang's armies more than once, this paled when compared to the nearly endless hostilities with University of Planet forces. Both sides used nerve gas against each other, and both sides raised enemy communities when occupation wasn't possible.

Once the University of Planet seemed to finally have the upper hand in the conflict, the Believer's religious councils sought out reliable allies. Morgan refused to provide direct military assistance. The UoP were vital trading partners, and a strong counter balance against the Hive, so he didn't dare alienate them. The Spartans were further away, and although they had clashed with both Yang and Zakharov in the past few of the Believer's senior leadership trusted the Spartans. Although the Alliance was as sinful as the rest of the factions, they weren't wicked. The Gaians dabbled in experiments that seemed closer to witchcraft than science, but the U.N. still had hope of redemption. Lal, in what he claimed was one of his proudest moments, brokered a peace between the two warring factions. Though this peace came mostly from the Alliance's strength than any understanding between Miriam or Zakharov.

Academician Prokhor Zakharov established himself as a wily opportunist, that few trusted including his own population. Known as both an enigma and a chameleon, Zakharov guided his faction through difficult times. Although the Morganites developed a strong economic ties with the University of Planet, Nwabudike Morgan always made sure everyone knew it was only business. Zakharov financed his ongoing conflict with the Believers by developing technologies for Morgan to commercialize. UoP forces turned on the Hive after a short lived alliance, which resulted in quick victories for the University. Countless Hive citizens gave their lives helping UoP scientists develop the Longevity Vaccine. After Miriam turned to the alliance for assistance, the University of Planet agreed to an armistice. However, this lead to cooperation between the UoP, Hive, and Spartans. Although not a true partnership, these factions did adopt the philosophy that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The alliance became a mutual obstacle to all three factions.

The neo-fascism of the Spartan Federation placed it at odds with the Gaian/Peace Keeper alliance on nearly every front. Their values, political systems, economies, and general philosophies all clashed. The Spartans fielded the best trained army on Chiron, armed with weapons nearly as advanced as anything the UoP had to offer. Colonel Santiago believed that destiny would test the Spartans, and if the Spartans could rise to the occasion they would force peace upon humanity. One of the longest, bloodiest wars on Chiron was an earlier stalemate with the alliance. Shortly before the Spasm, Colonel Santiago personally authorized Operation Harmony the preemptive strike on the Alliance that pushed Chiron over the brink of disaster. The highly secretive Spartan Planet Buster program inflicted massive losses on the Peace Keeper military. Her last speech praised the Spartan forces as they overran the greatly weakened alliance. It isn't known if her hubris lead to a Spartan PB sneak attack on its nominal allies, or if either the Hive, UoP, or Believers launched a retaliatory counter strike on the Spartans. In either case, the resulting devastation from this exchange left much of humanity in ruins.

The other faction leaders rarely glimpsed Chairman Yang's subtly. Universally regarded as tyrant by other factions, only the Hive understood him as a social reformer. In the decade before the Spasm, the Hive actually had a lower rate of capital punishment than any of the factions except for the Gaians or U.N. (both of which had banned capital punishment shortly after landing on Chiron). The Hive had a lower crime rate than any other faction, the second lowest incarceration rate behind the Gaians, and it had the lowest rate of recidivism amongst all of the factions.

The Hive didn't have secret religious courts like the Believers. Political dissidents weren't assassinated by the secret police like the Spartans. Poor drones weren't incarcerated for decades because they stole medicine they couldn't afford like the Morganites. Citizens didn't disappear as part of brutal experiments like the University. The Hive rehabilitated prisoners on a massive scale unlike the U.N. Finally, the Hive provided all of its citizens with virtually unlimited social mobility unlike the Gaians who provided nearly all of the opportunities to Empaths or Elite Talents that had attended the most prestigious schools, had the most prestigious families, and the best political connections. Santiago was harsh, Yang was stern. Zakharov was capricious, Yang was steady. Miriam was unforgiving, Yang was empathetic. Morgan was corrupt, Yang was principled. Lal was pompous, Yang was humble. Skye was elitist, Yang was egalitarian

The Hive had the largest military, but it wasn't recklessly aggressive. Yang pursued patient policies, and avoided direct conflicts when possible. Though he had initiated hostilities with other factions when it was expedient, he wasn't a warmonger. Force simply allowed the Hive to advance its agenda, which ultimately improved the human condition. The Hive's policies were amongst the most utilitarian of all of the factions'. Many resisted including some of the Hive's own population, but Yang's determination to help humanity reach the next stage of social development would overcome those challenges.

...ok i'm tired I'll write more later

[Hydro]

Korn - wow!

I only have a minute. Perhaps the Spartans used the "Korn Chop and Drop" to devastate the Gaians and PKs? This fits their high-tech, elite persona and would yield a multitude of captured bases in such a short period that the others in the UoP-Hive-Spartan alliance would be shocked - and frightened.

I'd like to leave exactly who nuked who and why as a mystery. Of course there are prime suspects, and likely opportunists that would come out of the woodwork (or fungus!) once the PBs start raining upon poor, blighted Planet. Chaos breeds chaos, and daggers sheathed in the backs of former friends.

I also like your Yang. it is just like I picture him and seems similar to the Yang of Chronicles: calm, ruthless, determined, and deliberate (that shouldn't be a surprise since I wrote a good bit of Yang in SC!).

Hydro

[Rand Al'Tor]

Korn, it's a great read, but way to detailed, and not really neutral. I feel it'd make a better storytelling of someone giving his view of history than an actual 'setting of the scenes' I feel the exact spirit and reasons for alliances should re,ain a secret. only whether there WERE alliances should be said here, and let the people of the present themselves which story they pick.

Especially the last part about the Hive sounds like it's a Hiveran history book. Of course; perhaps that was the idea and I look like a total idiot now.

[korn469]

Hydro,

If the U.N. expected a conventional fight, they may have massed a large portion of their forces in bunkers along their border with the Spartans. If the Spartans nuked these forces, along with any major stacks of Gaian mindworms, then chop and drop would work perfectly. If the Spartans didn't consult with the Hive or UoP before they did this, then it would unnerve Yang and Zakharov at best. At worst it would provoke them into a war. Especially once they saw the Spartans intended to take all of the spoils for themselves. Though if this is a secret attack plan to take out two rivals with a greater combined power than what you have, of course the Spartans would have kept it a secret. Miriam might of had a few PBs in her arsenal and retaliated since the Spartans launched an unprovoked attack on her allies. It's possible though unlikely that Morgan might have been the first to strike back, maybe trying to cause a general disorder that he could profit from. If things were going swimmingly for the Spartans, maybe they had another Operation similar to Operation Harmony (Operation Unity perhaps, the followup strike on any or all of the remaining factions) that they decided to initiate. Whatever happened it resulted in a general PB war, then the Spasm.

Though once the second round started, I could see the Hive nuking at least the Spartans and UoP, with the possibility of hitting every other faction. Same would go for the Spartans. I could see the UoP hitting everyone but Morgan, unless they think that they could overwhelm Morgan. The Believers if they had PBs would strike at the Spartan/Hive/UoP combo, and Morgan if he got involved.

As for Yang, I think there are only two ways to characterize him. You can make him a brutal dictator like Stalin. Or you can show him as an Orwellian version Plato's Philosopher King. Somebody who truly believes in a totally collective utopia, that's a moderate to very dystopia to anybody who belives in the individual. I personally like the second way.

[korn469]

Rand Al'Tor

I was striving to give truth for each faction along with giving each one a factional slant. Something between a truly objective writer, like a Progenator Anthologist, and an "offically approved" faction history book.

[Rand Al'Tor]

Hmmm, personally, I'd still keep some matters 'unknown'. For example, let it be known truth that the Believers and the UoP fought long and hard, and eventually they got involved in alliances, but who exactly commited the worst atrocities, how and why they got in the alliances, leave that lost in the mists of time.

[korn469]

Rand Al'Tor,

I think that we should come up with a fairly coherent story up until the spasm, and anything after that should be open to interpretations except for maybe the most basic things (Hive recovers fastest, splinter factions arose after the Spasm). I don't think that anything any of us writes is canon until most of us agree that's the way things happened, or that's the way something works, or that's how this character acts.

Plus I guess I got carried away when I was writing, and as things came to me I wrote them. This is a brainstorming thread btw...

[Rand Al'Tor]

heheh, check, and hey, keep brainstorming. I definately don't want to stop the flow, just giving some thoughts.

And yes, before the Spasm should be coherent, but vague. I'm pretty much in favor of having the 'canon' leave some big question marks. Who fired the first Planet Buster among them. After all, considering what happened later, it's very likely that the culprit would have hidden that information away. If we fix in cqnon that Deidre and Lal were reluctant to get Miriam in their reunion, it kinda narrows possibilities a bit: (True, I could just say my character presents a false history, but one of the fun things of this thing is that, outside a general outline, there is no 'true' history.)

Of course, it might be that you're bainstorming for ideas for the end of writing your own history, rather than 'the canon' in which case things are a lot different of course.

[korn469]

Well I hope that most of the stuff I write either becomes canon or leads to a discussion that leads to another discussion that becomes canon.

[korn469]

Some thoughts about Thought Control...

I think that drugs should be an important part of Thought Control, but only part of of it. I could see the drugs making people more open to suggestion along with reducing anxiety, fear, and aggression. Maybe the drugs interfere with sleep patterns, which in turn could reduce creativity. Then to complement this, I imagine video screens constantly playing overt propaganda, with subliminal messages embedded in the broadcast. I think a Thought Control society who used technical (non-Psi) means of control would also have cameras that use advanced algorithms to spot unusual behavior, along with something similar to an advanced MRI that could scan brain waves for unusual, or potentially harmful patterns. Add in some type of RFID monitoring, so the authorities would know where everybody is at any given time (again with automatic programs that alerts authorities to suspicious activities).

Here's an example of the system in action (taken from the matrix). Everybody wears their standard black suits walking to work one day, except a woman in a red dress. The camera system notices this is out of place, and it triggers an automatic flag. Using the RFID system it locates and identifies that person. The system completes a more thorough brain scan than normal. If the person doesn't have any previous flags, isn't in an unusual location, and doesn't show any strange brain activity, then the system will follow that person's activity for a few days. The flag remains on this person's permanent file. That person's personalized propaganda package gets a few minor tweaks emphasizing compliance. At that person's next doctor's appointment (which gets rescheduled because of this person's new priority), the Doctor makes sure their isn't any drug resistance, or other physical problems to interfere with the proper functioning of the medications. Maybe some of that person's peers get subliminal messages to praise the value of conformity. A number of things happen, but none of them seem directly tied to wearing a red dress. However, the whole system works subtly like that. Similar responses could happen if a person went to an unusual location, or if the wandered into a forbidden zone accidentally. If a person's brain scanned showed unhappiness, anger, or maybe even love or some other strong unusual emotion, a counselor/morale officer/priest (for the fundamentalist thought control societies) would "happen" by for a chat.

However, for a person that had previous flags, or a combination of unusual behaviors (brain scans show high levels of aggression, the person is in a prohibited sector, the person is wearing camouflage), the system would alert the proper authorities, who would swiftly respond with an appropriate, though not excessive amount of force. Propaganda would then show the authorities stopping the dissident, follow ups would include the punishment, rehabilitation (think clockwork orange), and successful reintroduction of the person back into society. Although rehabilitation would always take precedence, probably a handful of habitual offenders would exist. After repeated attempts to reform them, the thought control society would eventually recognize them as an unredeemable cancer it would have to eliminate. After an appropriate amount of vilifying these individuals, a publicly broadcasted execution would take place.

I'm sure other technical means would exist to maintain thought control. For factions with great skill as empaths, I'm sure that Psi methods for thought control could also exist (ie the telepathic matrix).

Also other things a faction using thought control might monitor would be social networks. If a person without a flag maintained constant contact with individuals who had flags, then the system would see if other characteristics matched. If the people with flags were troubled young men, and this was their assigned morale officer then that person wouldn't get a flag. If the people were rebellious former writers from another factions, and the individual associating with them was also a writer from that former faction then the system would flag that individual. The faction would also monitor work performance. Excessive absences, poor performance, or any behavior outside of the normal could trigger flags. Shopping lists might also come into play as well. If a person bought fertilizer, then one of his associates purchased synthetic diesel fuel, those individuals would get flagged unless they were farmers or had other legitimate uses for that combination of materials. If a person's leisure activities coincided with some trait related to dissidence, then the person would receive a flag. This is just a small portion of things the system could look for.

Any thoughts on that?

[Hydro]

Hmmm. Sounds like the basis for a story! Exploring mechanisms, rationalle, and attitudes make for good fodder.
Hydro