Duvors

Remembering something, Grace will scan the porcelain fragments we've collected from Mallory's room with the bicorder.

I've already mentioned everything specific I've thought of (spheres, druidic sciences), what I meant was that I had a specific conception of the methodology of names. Essentially the idea is that a lot of the names for things would be influenced by 'magical' terminology that was developed in place of our 'scientific' terms. Say, for example, saying 'Gramarye' in place of 'Theoretical Physics' or suchlike. I imagine there would also be 'sciences' that don't exist in our world, largely based on fields of study that can exist due to the setting's premise.

Ah, no. The Ancient Empire is dead and any functional remnants would be outside the known galaxy and incapable of influencing it. As for size, neither Empire would, even that their height, comprise more territory than a single, moderately-sized League member state. Besides, as much as I love Babylon 5 I'd rather not have an obvious ripoff of the Shadow-Vorlon conflict. I much prefer the idea that the current crop of Astronations are independent actors so that their actions have more weight (and so that those responsible for fighting a violent war against the wishes of their populations are more culpable). And anyway, I'm afraid the idea isn't usable now because you've articulated it in a publicly accessible thread. This sort of thing works best when it's a major reveal and having it out in the open where anyone can see beforehand it kind of spoils it. In fact I never had any plans for the Benefactors other than using them as an explanation for the Ytaxxi having so many different craniums. Now I think of it, making them a hive specifies would probably accomplish the same effect. I've been pronouncing them 'plu-RAV-vian' and 'y-TAX-xi' (the 'y' as in 'you') respectively. I see nothing wrong with your arraignments of events, but I have no idea what most of these events are. You've thrown out a lot of words and names that have never appeared in this thread before and I'd like to know what you're talking about. The ITA/Space Police were created by the Drandora Accords (I think I've mentioned that before) but probably took a few years to be properly established.

"Well, we might as well visit the last guest room on the lower deck." Vote for 1f. Also, is Engineering Access a room that can be searched or just a passage? I can't seem to remember if that's been mentioned before or not.

I'm good with stopping here.

Grace will scan the bed. (She really doesn't want to touch it.)

Thanks! To be honest I can't really think of any overall 'positive' qualities for the Empire. I suppose the stability they provide and public access to education, healthcare, and other services would all be points in their favor, but they're ultimately a repressive police state. To be honest I'm not really thinking of them in terms of pros and cons but rather as settings for adventures. Since this game doesn't involve players competing with one another on behalf of the in-game factions (unlike, say, Guilds of Historica in the Historic Themes section) I feel I can get away with it. I do intend to have a reformist faction present once I'm actually finished, but they'll be in the minority at the time the game starts. This guy has a bunch of figbarfs that use some really interesting techniques, for both humanoid and non-humanoid characters. I also found this. The build is digital but it think it's possible to make in real life (aside from colors). And Ivan Martynov makes some truly weird creatures (his polyp series is a favorite of mine).

"Well, the last one was pretty clean." Grace will search the desk.

Thanks! I'm still on the process of writing this so expect to see changes and additions in the near future. Your worries about this being too extensive for a simple introduction to the two factions echo my own doubts and I'll probably write a more condensed version when I'm done. I'll probably adopt your suggestions on formatting too. The Benefactors have no particular relation to the Ancient Empire, they're a different species and stick around longer. They're probably still present in some capacity even if they no longer interact with younger species much. The name changes you've suggested are very good. To be honest I chose the names I did specifically to evoke the image of older European institutions, to give the empire a feeling of being antiquated and traditionalist as opposed to the more modernistic League. The 'Alien Trooper' and 'Alien Pilot' heads from Alien Conquest. The ruling caste would use the alien 'leader' heads from the same wave. I have no clear timeline for either. I deliberately left that vague to be fleshed out later. What I do know is that the reforms of Emperor Calaaxis occur before the formation of the League (which only formed about two centuries back) and the Elevation of the Merchants occurs after it. The War officially lasts five years but the cease-fire occurs three to four years in and counting the Pluravvian Civil War as part of the same conflict can extend it anywhere from six years to 'still in progress' depending on how you define 'war'. I have no plans for Blackstar or any other non-state actor at this point. I wanted to get the major nations in a finished state before all else. Nothing has changed from my initial lore post. Not sure. The only ideas I have revolve more around terminology than specifics. I have some ideas for metaphysics and the traditional four elements but that requires further research on my part. You'll have to ask WBD about all that. I have no ideas myself but none of my ideas are official anyways. The only measure of 'cannon' at this point is what WBD decides to use.

Grace will (again) examine the closet.

Grace will examine the desk. "I'll also vote for 1d, there doesn't seem to be much here."

@Lind Whisperer; I'm sorry to hear you might not be able to complete this. I've honestly been worried for some time about you based on the things you've said, and if you can't continue because of your problems then certainly you should stop. But if it's only running the game that's a problem and you think you're still capable of playing then I could probably manage something if you're interested.

"I'm only following the right-hand wall, which I'm told is the quickest path through a maze. I think we entered at an angle that will allow us to keep going this way for a while without exiting, and I don't know of any other entrances on this side of the mountains anyway." "... No. In fact this is the last thing I expected. Look, see those cliffs around this place? We're still in the maze."

Grace will examine the closet.

"Good point, but someone could've entered while he was asleep. Still, you're probably more right than me."

"You're assuming that the shards were placed in here the day the murder happened. Considering how few rooms you'd actually searched before today it's possible the shards were somewhere else before being moved here. The same with the burnt papers in the storeroom too."

"Well the information from the door handles is worthless at this point anyway, too many people have touched them. Anyway from what I understand anyone in the ship's staff can enter these rooms at any time, correct? And I think that anyone able to imitate their keycards somehow would be able to do the same. However since every major piece of evidence I know about was found either somewhere only the staff could access or in one of the passenger rooms it seems simplest to presume we're after a member of the crew. We should still check all the guest rooms though, just in case." The door handles may have had many hands touch them, but what about the flush handle on the toilet? Has Grace scanned that? Who touched it? If she's already scanned that, Grace will examine the trash instead.

"Well no-one has checked the trash yet. As for where to go next the obvious place would be 1b, as it's the closest place we haven't looked."

Grace will scan the handles with the bicorder.

Loot Distribution Magnhildr - Venom Yelana - Fire Bomb Having handed out the spoils Sam began to examine the paths ahead of them. "Well, according to theory we should still keep going straight ahead. And voices are at least more concrete than... whatever we're hearing from down that path. Any objections?"

"Well, looks like we found where that one bloody shard came from." Grace will scan the shards with her Bicorder and bag them as evidence.

Grace examines the closet.

Major Nation Lore

"Are you sure? I think you're using a very narrow definition of what he said. Sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between the way people act and a machine designed to imitate them, I think something like that might be what he meant. And his remarks about your temperament were not entirely unwarranted, you were being kind of hostile at the time." "But why? There's no reason not to just lead with that instead of faking a battle and then sending us off after some random ingredients." He sighed, "Look, I don't want to seem dismissive, but you've been lying to us about where you come from and why you're here since we first met a couple of minutes ago. I understand you don't want to tell us the truth for whatever reason, and trust me I don't care anyway, but it comes off a bit entitled to expect us to accept your unsubstantiated theories but not be suspicious of someone who only just wandered out of the wilderness." OOC: I wouldn't take the entire image at face value, that picture is from 2011 and was taken by someone is isn't currently active on these forums for a different quest entirely. It's likely Lind is simply using it for the big snake and not for the rest of it's contents. To be honest I think you're overanalyzing this a little, it's more likely that Lind simply wanted to indicate he was injured without putting much thought into the exact numbers. I'm sorry to hear that. I hope that interacting with people helps you at least a little.

Grace will go through the desk drawers. Afterwards I suggest we continue to 1a.