|
|
Post by bumbles on Sept 16, 2022 8:46:24 GMT
A place for all drabbles and dribbles associated with new entries for the (I think we’re safe now. Ohh sorry. I’m early. (See: Shift).
|
|
|
|
Post by doctornolonger on Sept 16, 2022 14:46:32 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by bumbles on Sept 16, 2022 21:25:26 GMT
Fanwank (War-Era Terminology): Fanwank is the effluvia that results from experiments in alter-time states within and without of fictional narratives. It’s it believed to be harmless. The Houses, with few notable exceptions, are unlikely to engage in the creation of Fanwank, but the Faction has members that have raised it to a fine art. For examples of Fanwank see here….
|
|
|
|
Post by bumbles on Sept 17, 2022 1:10:18 GMT
Spiders: We do not discuss spiders. See Also: Squid, Mammoths and Nigel Havers.
|
|
|
|
Post by bumbles on Sept 17, 2022 5:40:07 GMT
Missing Years (Lesser Species Phenomenon): In a war in time, sometimes time is the battlefield. And sometimes it’s the casualty. It is not surprising that the planet Earth, more so than any other (other than perhaps Utterlost and Drornid) is scarred by such events. Experts from Earth, and Earth adjacent powers such as the Faction, have observed minor and not so minor examples across the recorded history of the planet Earth. This is, after all, where the Eleven Day Empire and Fourteen Day Republic were encysted into existence. Even military organisations, not traditionally known for their imagination but expert in banal record keeping, have shown evidence of such damage (lacking in one case clear differentiation between the 1970s and 1980s of the local calendar). However there is one case that, given the allusions amongst those prone to speculation as to enemy origins and their repeated focus on the planet Earth, should worry wartime speculative strategicians.
A gap of roughly a billion years is missing from the geological record of the planet Earth.
A gap of roughly a billion years is missing from the Homeworld record of events on the planet Earth.
A gap of roughly a billion years is missing from the Homeworld record of events on the planet Earth and no one beyond a rough, disparate coterie of renegades (including Godfather Sabbath and Amanda Legend Lefcourt (it can be presumed her sponsor in the City of the Saved is also aware and curious about this) cares enough to examine why.
|
|
|
|
Post by bumbles on Sept 17, 2022 6:50:55 GMT
That incidentally is a real, observed and inexplained scientific phenomenon….
|
|
|
|
Post by bumbles on Sept 18, 2022 9:58:29 GMT
Australia (Lesser Species Locale): Humanity is old. Older perhaps than history as recorded by the Homeworld can acknowledge ( see: Missing Years). The accepted record of human history goes back roughly 10 thousand years. Except on one continent. Known, as of the end of the 19th and 20th centuries (ie the periods most War Time Powers were most openly active) as Australia, the continent boasts oral and artistic records going back 60 to 75 thousand years. These are living records, maintained and added to by a (sadly) diminishing collective of cultures. Famously there is an oral record of watching the water levels rise at the end of Earth’s last (as of 2000ad, local dating system) ice age. It is interesting then that there is no record on either/any side of contact between the Houses, Faction Paradox, certain infuriating to catalogue and track renegades or even the enemy until roughly the year 1770 (local dating system). No one openly acknowledges why, nor are theories offered except certain eccentric individuals such as eccentric? ECCENTRIC?! bloody insane is the correct word. Even by Faction standards he was completely mad. And obsessed with Mammoths (see: Shift) leaving researchers and strategicians to make the only reasonable assumption. Australia was protected until the arrival of Captain Cook (but not necessarily the one you were expecting. Sorry I’ll stop now, this is where things gets interesting) In effect, Australia could EITHER be as believed by the European settlers (or insert other collective noun of choice here I prefer OWWW something just bit me. How do you bite a conceptual entity? Ohh crap…) or it genuinely was a land of ghost, monsters, spectres … The Land of the Dreaming, the only land (anywhere in the recorded cosmos) were the concerted efforts of the masters of history, the deniers of mysticism, the bringers of ruin to curiousity and difference ever had influence. (I’m attempting to whisper this. Get out now. Do not proceed any further. Please. Especially if you’re the D…..)UNTIL the local spacetime embodiment of those very factors invaded and built straight lines cutting off the weaving rivers of song that stretched across the country. Wilfully and willingly destroy art and legend. Wholesale genocide. Basically, de facto little lords of time came in and imposed their sense of history on the locals and destroyed something utterly, beautifully unique. Until (SERIOUSLY STOP READING THIS. *THIS* IS NOT WHAT WAS HERE WHEN YOU STARTED READING.) Something or rather, and it’s temptingly easy to guess who, someone had inserted a historical kill virus in the form of the penal colony of New South Wales ( here, let me help click HERE. NOW!!
|
|
|
|
Post by garyshots on Sept 19, 2022 18:55:31 GMT
Juan Oso
The legendary ursus mortis appears in many cultures under many local aliases: Beorn Beresune, Ivashko Medvedko, Giovanni dell’Orso, Jean de l’Ours, or simply John-of-the-Bear. Often portrayed as the offspring of an amorous bear and an adventurous peasant lass, John-of-the-Bear is closely related to the Bear’s Son tale group so brutally pillaged by the Beowulf scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As might therefore be expected, he is said to change his shape and to battle tyrants, berserkers, revenants and other supernatural or merely antisocial adversaries. What distinguishes him however is his shamanic aspect as a psychopomp for the souls of the wicked. These are said to be felled merely by his fierce gaze and led away meekly, either to his den to be devoured or to their appointed place of punishment. One particularly piquant development of this tale type is the ukuku of Quecha mythology. This liminal trickster figure, usually named Juan Oso, is said to usher condenados (the condemned or damned) to their penance. Once it has taken possession of their houses, unlocked the seven doors and unhoarded the corn from their seven storerooms (perhaps representing the Pleiades), it leads them away to the holy mountain Colquepunco (“silver gate”) or Jolljepunco (“silver lake”). There the condenados must climb the mountain, bearing cyclopean blocks of ice upon their backs. If they allow a single drop of sacred water to melt and spill upon the way, the maimed block is cast into the lake near the peak. Once they have collected a sufficient number of intact blocks to build a frozen pyramid upon the face of the lake, the penitents will assemble upon its summit and finally be set free to fly up to heaven in the form of a piteousness of white doves. Of course, this is a Sisyphean endeavour. Pilgrims ridden by ukuku spirits at the annual Quyllurit'i festival report seeing abraded ghosts tottering up the mountain on tattered legs, as if they had been labouring vainly there for many hundreds of thousands of years. |
|
|
|
Post by bumbles on Sept 22, 2022 23:35:34 GMT
Swords (mundane) (Lesser Species Weaponry): As a species develops, they will inevitably develop weaponry at the very least for defence from the large, predatory animals that lurk in the dark, as well as from the predatory individuals within their own species. The standard process starts with a stick. The first refinement of that is hardening the wood of that stick in fire. Soon enough (on a timescale of thousands of years), that stick is replaced with bronze or other planetary local specific easily refined metal (outliers in this process include the use of Obsidian). This process continues with more and more sturdy and refined metals. The sword became a symbol of competence and confidence, embodying a code of chivalry. Even in the age of reliable projectile weaponry, swords maintained their prestige and were used by the military elite as a sign of their competence.
|
|
|
|
Post by Cousin quest?on on Sept 23, 2022 1:15:37 GMT
THE ARK [House Military: Technology/Culture (War Era/Present)]
A consequence of the War’s unending duration and interaction with the lesser species seems to be a growing sense of individuality within the homeworld’s inhabitants. This is reflected most strongly (some would say most embarrassingly) in the choice of one of its pilots to occasionally alter the exterior of his 91-form timeship to that of a giant wooden boat.
Taking the camouflage idea to the extreme end of bad taste, this ship of war scans the local population for any universal or nearly universal lifeboat symbol and morphs accordingly.
Starting off as a bit of a joke, the iconography has now come to be a signal for a planetary purge and is meant to placate the local population as its reinforcements synch up their calendars for maximum erasure. Some have criticised this as being needlessly sadistic while others see it as a kind gesture.
When asked about it, the ship’s pilot said that it’s ‘whatever you want to believe.’ It’s important to note the pilot’s laughter that followed after making this comment.
A popular form it has assumed that’s noteworthy for its peculiarity is an object from earth somehow recognisable to the psyches of planets at the furthest edge of the Spiral Politic, which has lead some academicians to postulate that it’s one of the homeworld’s timeships run amuck through history. Either that or a joke. Evidence for both come from the same place: it’s small, wooden appearance along with it sporting a shade of blue one can only get from being soaked in the waves of the time vortex.
|
|
|
|
Post by bumbles on Sept 23, 2022 9:27:29 GMT
The Amber Room: Divinatory aids disguised as artworks are fairly common in human history. Most are either created through blood rituals or employ substances like Obsidian. Only one of the great families of Earth was extravagant enough to employ amber (a crystallised or vitrified tree sap) in an divination chamber and gild the remainder of the space with gold (atomic number 79) and position it within a palace complex. Naturally, we are referring to the House of Hohenzollern and their extended family, the Romanoffs. Put simply, the room was a work of art as well as something designed by one of the most eccentric and influential families of Europe whose various members had, notably, had several run ins with the Faction, agents of the Great Houses and at least three Mal’akh and one trickster deity (potentially Loki or Shango). Prior to it’s construction, the Romanoff family’s control of Russian territory was considered to be tenuous. Afterwards, and until the Russian Revolution (which records now how to have involved several agents of all the war-time factions, including obviously the Faction) the Romanoff family was virtually unassailable.
Rumour abounds that the room was damaged in some way in 1916. the only suspect was described as “Nubian”, which could be a catch all phrase for anyone with darker than Caucasian skin tone, and despite being tracked by armed guards and dogs was said to have disappeared leaving only the sound of thunder in his wake.
The amber room, having lost its divinatory abilities ended up a novelty, an expensive novelty, but a novelty no less. It’s reputation attracted the attention of the 20th most acquisitive, ruthless and mystically ignorant (despite their own opinion) régime. The Nazi Party wanted the Amber Room, and they got the Amber Room. The day after the room was reconstructed, and seemingly somehow reactivated, in Nazi Germany it disappeared from all record. The only recorded mention of it after August 1944 was a transcript of an officer facing a firing squad, he reported an untermench (put simply, anyone non-Aryan (ie non-Caucasian)) was seen nearby followed by an explosion and the lingering scent of static electricity, such as you’d experience after a thunderstorm.
|
|
|
|
Post by bumbles on Sept 23, 2022 9:28:56 GMT
And Who is Shango.
|
|
|
|
Post by Cousin quest?on on Oct 10, 2022 1:37:33 GMT
Birthmarks [Great Houses: Culture/Technology(?) (War-era/present)]
While the Great Houses certainly lack the ageless beauty one would expect from their gods, resulting in descriptors by those who have been in their presence such as ‘careworn’ or ‘wizened’, and the whole house military could be said to wear their scars with pride, this process of deterioration is usually one left to time and circumstance. So at birth, if one can still call it that, it is expected for new members of the Houses to follow a pattern of flawlessness, by house-standards at least.
This fact one must first understand in order to fully appreciate the concern this epidemic has caused amongst the homeworlders: a blemish on the skin of the newbloods.
The result of production strain on the part of the Houses’ breeding engines?
A workers’ protest as put forth by those dismissed on the homeworld as suffering from breeding-syndrome?
Or a psychosomatic indicator of war fatigue and an imminent victory for the enemy?
Although the suggestion by breeding engine sympathisers that this is some kind of coordinated revolt has been, unsurprisingly, discarded by most, the current placement of these ‘birthmarks’ on the newborns could be seen as an anthropomorphised cry of frustration.
What started as a subtle discolouration on the index or middle finger of either hand soon became, once the solution of gloves had started to take hold to the point where one could almost say wearing them was in vogue, facial scarring too similar to be a coincidence and too dark to be ignored.
Addendum:
A new theory has recently emerged: That this was a deliberate attack meant to shake house morale. What led to this idea of there being a tangible culprit behind the graffitiing of the typical homeworlder visage came about when one of the newbloods —— recently back from dealing with a certain irritant splinter group —— found, upon entering their burrow, what seemed to be a gift in the form of a black box with a note attached which read: “Here. This’ll help.” with an “X” underneath. Inside the box was a mask made out of bone. They reported to their respective house elder later, reflecting on their latest mission, stating, ‘I thought I heard sniggering!’
|
|
|
|
Post by Cousin quest?on on Oct 10, 2022 19:16:32 GMT
Breeding Syndrome [Great Houses: Culture/Technology/Group (War era/Present)]
A scary phenomenon where three (it use to be one but the number has gone up recently) in every forty-five new House members develops a unnatural attachment to their breeding engine or as they like to call it ‘their mother’.
The unpredictability of exactly which member will inherent the ‘wretched’ trait and perpetual need to fill up slots to fight in the War has meant out-and-out extermination is not a viable option. Instead, being quite useless in a fight, these members are put to work doing maintenance on breeding engines down below, which they generally perform admirably with the expected enthusiasm and mawkish devotion.
An investigation into why this may be and what it might say about any latent biological desires in the Houses has been suggested, but no one, as of yet, has had the nerve to actually speak with these ‘sexual deviants’ about their shared delusion.
The end result of these members not having anyone to talk to about their ‘fetish’ has led to the formation of a “support group”.
A house provost was able to pass on insight into the exploits of this secret society to the Ruling Houses during a closed session when the door to one of the deviants’ gatherings was carelessly left ajar.
Despite the outrage of a servitor who claims to be the one to make this discovery and reported it to the aforementioned provost, the head of the chapterhouse remains steadfast in their claim as being the one who stumbled upon this secret meeting. However, those familiar with that particular House member are sceptical of this sudden show of bravery.
Either way, whoever the observer, what they observed remains relatively the same, barring the obscene detail by the provost that they were all naked: the participants were put into pairs, spread out across the room and were hugging one another, whispering in hypnotic regularity ‘you’re a good boy’ or ‘girl’, depending on their preference.
The effect this had on the servitor in their retelling implied feelings of jealousy so potent one could call them primal.
The provost maintains in their version of being so completely unaffected you would think they were not even there.
The recent rash of birthmarks among the newer members was briefly thought to be the work of those with breeding syndrome, but was quickly dismissed due to it not matching the general docility of said group, and fear of what a retaliation by those charged with helping birth the homeworld’s children would look like.
In trying to keep aberrations out of sight, the Great Houses might have unwittingly fulfilled their ultimate dream by giving them a role where they get to play at being the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts of every new generation.
|
|
quad
Little Sibling
Posts: 47
Preferred Pronouns: he/him
|
Post by quad on Nov 1, 2022 20:10:56 GMT
Daleks [Lesser Species: Group (Pre-War era)]: Many War-conscious academics have wondered how a conflict as vast as the War could remain so simple in terms of factions. Surely there are other time active groups powerful enough to rival the Great Houses and the enemy. Well, there used to be.
Housed in near indestructible casings and bred to destroy all that was not in their own image, the Daleks were a veritable threat in the Pre-War Era. As a matter of fact, in the years after the Imperator Presidency, the Great Houses dispatched an agent to head into the creatures' past and avert their creation. While such an operation may seem commonplace nowadays, it was at the time seen as an immoral act of desperation which the House agent refused to carry out. This failed mission (known internally by interventionists as the Dalek Master Plot) would later serve as the inspiration for the House Military's retrogenocide campaigns of the Second Wave.
Ironically, the Daleks would not live (or rather exist) to see the Second Wave as they were erased from history by the War King himself in the final decade before the War. Without any kind of armed escort, he traveled back to the same moment in history as the previous agent and succeeded where the other had failed. It is unclear why the War King felt this was necessary or even how he was able to do it without causing irreparable damage to causality. The official story was the same as the original Master Plot, that the Ruling Houses foresaw that the Daleks would in time become "a formidable enemy that would pose a threat to the Spiral Politic" (it was never clarified whether they were referring to the enemy, though this seems unlikely). However, there are many rumours suggesting that this was instead a sort of revenge for the War King, who had suffered at the hands of the Daleks some 150 years before the War.
Whichever story is true, the Daleks are no longer a threat to the various factions of the War, as evidenced by their unexplained resurgence during the Fourth Wave. Having reengineered themselves into new and more powerful battle forms, the Daleks were ready to take their place as masters of the Spiral Politic. These plans were cut short when they were quickly erased from history once more in their first battle with the enemy. [For a full account of this conflict, see Appendix VII: The New Paradigm]
This kind of sucks but eh what the hell it's not meant to be too serious lol
|
|
