Five Earths, All in a Row

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

Very few people think of themselves as evil, and even Amon Goeth had someone he loved, who also loved him.

One of your strengths as a writer is that you remember that, and convey it to the reader.

Originally Posted by tshiggins

Yeah, I started her out as a princess, but then thought that was too high so I reduced it to duchess-militant. I thought I'd changed all the rank references, but I missed that one. It's fixed, now.

There were two, and the second is still there:

Vuvara turned her attention to business. She drew her armillacom out of her case, spoke the code phrase, and the spherical display lit up. The princess sorted through the latest reports, and touched the file with the most recent observations of the future Terra.

On another note, though, I like the armillacom.

Originally Posted by tshiggins

That was my thinking. the Internet is a peculiar innovation, in a lot of ways. It started out as a way for military researchers to more easily communicate with university researchers, and then somebody thought it would be a good idea to make it redundant in case of atomic attack, and then the universities sort of ran away with it.

It took a particular set of circumstances for that to develop, which could only exist in a society that's technologically advanced, but not terribly militant, with an open culture that doesn't reflexively classify military innovations in such a way as to keep them unavailable to the public.

There's no way an authoritarian society could tolerate that, and a lot of them really struggle with the Internet, even today. The ease of communication it allows, and the technological skill it rewards, means it drives the motivation for illegal snooping (and thus, the need for innovative security countermeasures).

Very true. It helps that they're only one TL ahead of us, of course.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

One of your strengths as a writer is that you remember that, and convey it to the reader.

I appreciate the compliment. Thanks. :)

I think most people see themselves, and those they care about, in a positive light. Unfortunately, some people have a tendency to disregard or discount the notion that those they might not like, or who are too different, have any value as individuals.

The prevalence of that worldview -- that some people simply lack individual worth -- varies a lot form society to society, and it seems more predominant, the further one drifts from western Classical Liberalism.

When a culture has a fair number of people willing to deny the individual worth of a sufficiently large group of "others," and that society then faces difficult times, the results can be monstrous. But those who perpetrate the most horrific acts still consider themselves good people, who simply want to make their world better, by eliminating society's "worthless parasites."

It's not inhuman or evil, to them; it's really just "pest control."

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

There were two, and the second is still there...

Argh. Fixed. This is why proof-reading is important.

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

On another note, though, I like the armillacom.

Yeah, any advanced society is going to have tablets, or smartphones, or minisecs, or something. I also kinda struggled with how best to represent Cytherean culture, but then noticed you'd stuck to Western titles and such.

So, I went looking for Latin names for clever devices, and found armillary spheres. I pulled the name and the notional design, from that. :)

[warellis]

So the Cythereans wouldn't have an Internet equivalent?

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by warellis

So the Cythereans wouldn't have an Internet equivalent?

I can't see it. At most, I think they'd have an Arpanet-equivalent (hence, the armillacom), but access would be severely restricted to military and government personnel.

I doubt many, if any, private homes would have networked computers, of any sort. What they have would probably be glorified typewriters, and maybe dumb-terminals used to watch government-approved infotainment programming.

(Pretty Orwellian, really -- which is sorta ironical, given that Eric Arthur Blair is probably still alive, on DP-Earth.)

[warellis]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

I can't see it. At most, I think they'd have an Arpanet-equivalent (hence, the armillacom), but access would be severely restricted to military and government personnel.

I doubt many, if any, private homes would have networked computers, of any sort. What they have would probably be glorified typewriters, and maybe dumb-terminals used to watch government-approved infotainment programming.

(Pretty Orwellian, really -- which is sorta ironical, given that Eric Arthur Blair is probably still alive, on DP-Earth.)

Considering how sorta technocratic and "we trust the government a lot!" many 1950s era Western nations were, that weren't part of the Soviet Union, do you think something akin to the Internet will develop, though possibly with some differences due to differences in technology or maybe belief a little?

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by warellis

Considering how sorta technocratic and "we trust the government a lot!" many 1950s era Western nations were, that weren't part of the Soviet Union, do you think something akin to the Internet will develop, though possibly with some differences due to differences in technology or maybe belief a little?

I think exposure to Inp-Earth's technology will change nearly everything for Dp-Earth, and it'll happen far more rapidly there.

The fact is, the Internet expanded as quickly as it did because it's so useful, to so many people, for so many things. It's not just a place to watch porn and cat videos, and talk about games. You can learn things, there, and do business far, far more easily.

The rapid pace of change will cause the reactionaries on DP-Earth to freak out even more than they did on Inp-Earth, when things started to change in the 1950s. I'd expect more in the way of civil unrest of all sorts -- more Bull Connors, more drama-queenery similar to the actions taken by Arkansas Gov. Orville Faubus, more strange fruit, more burning crosses, more dead activists.

However, countering all of that is the very real existence of an advanced, wealthy society where lots of things just work better. Not perfectly, and definitely worthy of criticism in a lot of ways, but better, overall (the kvetching of right-wingers, notwithstanding).

So, yeah. I see DP-Earth getting an Internet, pretty quickly.

[Prince Charon]

What the Cythereans have would definitely be the TL9 or TL(7+2)^ equivalent of the ARPANet, and household dumb terminals. The big difference between their system and the Seleneans' is that the Seleneans never really put that many controls over what you could put in your account(s) on the supercomputers, beyond the need to pay for data-storage over a certain amount. The Cythereans, OTOH, have a set-up that tshiggins is right to call 'Orwellian'.

(On another note, the description of 'Safe-Tech' from the Ultra-Tech book makes it a specific type of divergent technology. The Cythereans' brand of TL9^ Safe-Tech is still a fairly good match for TL(7+2)^, though.)

As for Dsp-Earth, what the government and many corporate planners are aiming for is something like what the Seleneans have: lots of dumb terminals connecting to super-computers, but without really tight controls over what you can store, as long as it isn't 'obscene' (adorable cats are OK, though). Also, lots of propaganda to counter anything they think lead to Inp-Earth being so different in the specific ways they most object to - of course, there's more than a little disagreement about which bits are most disturbing. For example, the stereotypical Northern racist 'doesn't care if they get uppity, so long as they don't live close', whereas the stereotypical Southern racist 'doesn't care if they live close, so long as they don't get uppity.'

Things are going to stay interesting on Dsp-Earth for quite some time.


On another note, I've been seriously trying to justify to myself the creation of a group called the Federated Nations Ordnance Research Department, or a similar group with the same acronym; you're not cleared for what they do. ;)

Probably just going to make it an in-setting cartoon/comic, some time after the Federated Nations Accord is signed.


Re: The Weeping Sky, unless there's anything we still need to discuss, I think it can be posted to the fiction thread on SB.com, now.

[Prince Charon]

It occurs to me that I probably haven't posted the racial templates I've been working on. While they are subject to change, I'm probably done making the ones I'm about to post, unless anyone has suggestions, or notices a mistake I've made. Due to the character limit, I'm just going to put them each in separate posts, rather than trying to find out if they'll fit together.

First, the Seleneans (which I thought I had posted, but apparently not):

Amazon Woman on the Moon, 15 points.

Attribute Modifiers: ST-2 [-20]; HT+2 [20]

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Per+1 [5]

Language: Selenean

Tech-Level: early/mid-9^ (Safe-Tech), advanced in lasers & other optics.

Cultural Familiarity: Selenean

Subtotal: 5


Advantages

Allure 2 [10]
Attractive [4]
Flexibility [5]
Longevity [2]
Path/Book Adept 1 (Space) [10]
Temperature Tolerance 1 [1]

Perks

Active Thoughtform Generation [1]

Subtotal: 33


Disadvantages

Lecherousness (9) [-22]

Quirks

Culturally inclined to wear very little. [-1]
Incompetence (Bioengineering) [-1]

Subtotal: -23


Features

Unusual skin/eye/hair colours. [0]

Total: 15


Notes

Many modern Selenean women will also have Intolerance (Cythereans) and/or other mental disadvantages relating to the Genocide.

The surviving Selenean males are slaves of the She-Devils from Venus. Add Subjugated, Slave Mentality, the Cytherean language and culture, and a Phobia against thinking about the Selenean language and culture (if old enough to have either). They tended to produce somewhat more girls than boys.

The Selenean language is seemingly derived from Ancient Greek, being understandable at two steps worse - which is how they learned the other Dsp-Earth languages, once they had enough radio transmissions to interpret.

Lecherousness in this race is a factor in Status, though far from the only one: On average, people with Status -2 or -1 tend to have a self-control roll of 6, those with Status 0 or 1 will often have a roll of 9, Status 2 or 3 have 12, and Status 4 and above have a roll of 15, have it only at Quirk-level, or buy off Lecherousness completely. There are exceptions, but high Status combined with low self-control should require the individual to be exceptional in other areas, or be the child of a doting high-Status parent or guardian. Low-Status people with good self-control are treated with greater respect, and where an opportunity to advance comes up, are generally more likely to get promoted.

The style of technurgy (Weird Science and skills based on it, a contraction of 'technological thaumaturgy', as well as a compound word of its own - Greek for 'skill-working') used by Seleneans centres around something quite similar to Orgone Theory. Because of the damage to the infomats and libraries, skills higher than Weird Science (Orgone)/TL9^ 13 or Engineer (Orgone)/TL9^ 12 (and other technical skills, like Mathematics (Paraphysical)/TL9^) are the result of reinvention and research, and often have poor or no textbooks, due to many of the researchers having poor writing and note-taking skills. It is an Energy Accumulating style.

While they have very little information on genetic engineering, they do know that it exists, and suspect it may be responsible for their existence - specifically, that they are decended from bioroid sex-slaves. Their medical knowledge in general was heavily gutted by the She-Devils, so Esoteric Medicine (Orgone) effecively replaces Physician/TL9^, and Surgery/TL9^ can only be learned to skill 10 from the surviving books and infomat files (though experienced surgeons have brought their own skills up as high as 14 through trial and (often bloody) error, and have recorded what they've learned). Historical records of earlier medical knowledge are more complete, and all TL7 medical skills may be learned up to skill 15 from the available records.

The Seleneans also have a few traditional Symbol Drawing forms based on Dancing and/or Erotic Art (Symbol Drawing is the base skill, with whichever of the latter two is appropriate being both prerequisites for that required specialization, and a Complementary Skill for it). The act of casting a spell tends to be mechanically almost identical to Finger Tracing (Thaumatology p174; in the absense of Path/Book Adept, time should be in minutes, not seconds, though Path/Book Adept (Time) generally has no effect on Erotic Art-based Symbol Drawing styles), though many spells require one or more partners who also know the style, or at least that particular spell/position/movement (though the partners generally need not have any magical ability, themselves). For some spells, the subject must also be a participant, but need not necessarily be skilled in the style or spell. These are often Effect Shaping styles.

The infomats used by the Seleneans are large, centralized supercomputers, generally only a few per city, with extensive storage capacity (Mainframe to Megacomputer in size, with Hardened, High Capacity, and often double or triple data storage, if not more; some are also Fast or Genius). To use the infomats, the Seleneans have remote terminals, which are often portable, some as small as a wristwatch or a ring (Small or Tiny computer, with greatly reduced data storage (sometimes as small as 720 KB), Hardened, and often two or all three of Compact, Fast, and High Capcity; ring terminals always have Compact, and sometimes lack other options; otherwise functions as a Datapad (pUT23), with Tiny terminals having a holographic display). These terminals store addresses and bookmarks for files in the infomats, personal and otherwise, along with small amounts of other data, but have huge RAM to run programs which are stored on those infomats. The concept of personal web-pages open to all, or encyclopediae any idiot can edit, are simply foreign to them. They do have and use e-mail and telephone options; the idea of sending a physical letter, or having a dedicated 'phone that you don't carry around with you, would strike them as very quaint.

The only other computer in common use (apart from the dedicated systems integrated into many vehicles and devices, to make them work better) is the 'robot brain', which the various servitor robots run their Dedicated or Non-Volitional AIs on. This is a Small or Personal computer with Compact, Fast, Hardened, and often High Capacity. Only Mainframes or larger can have the Genuis option. The robots themselves are generally humanoid, and somewhat blocky-looking, like they came out of a '30s-to-'50s adventure serial.

[Prince Charon]

She-Devil from Venus, 60 points

Attribute Modifiers: ST-1 [-10]; IQ+1 [20]

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Will+1 [5]; Per+1 [5]

Subtotal: 20


Language: Cytherean

Tech-Level: mature-9^ (Safe-Tech), advanced in Psychology.

Cultural Familiarity: Cytherean


Advantages

Attractive [4]
Aspect 5 [20]
Mental Surgery 1 [10]
- Suggestion 1 (Alternate Ability of Mental Surgery) [2]
- Emotion Control 1 (Alternate Ability of Mental Surgery, cost due to Suggestion) [1]
Mind Shield 1 [4]
Night Vision 1 [1]
Telepathy Talent 1 [5]
Telereceive (Shallow) 1 [9]
Unusual Background (Cytherean) [40]

Perks

Active Thoughtform Generation [1]
Avatar [1]

Subtotal: 98


Disadvantages

Bad Temper (15) [-5]
Bully (9) [-15]
Hidebound [-5]
Intolerance (Non-Cythereans) [-10]
Lecherousness (12) [-15]
Low Pain Threshold [-10]

Quirks

Culturally inclined to wear fairly little. [-1]
Incompetence: Biongineering. [-1]
Incompetence: Memory alteration. [-1]
Culturally nocturnal. [-1]
Sexist (female-dominated society). [-1]

Subtotal: -64


Features

Cannot Hide Avatar [0]
Temperature 'comfort zone': 45° to 100° F [0]


Skills

Aspect [Will/H] [1] Will-1
Emotion Control [IQ/H] [1] IQ-1
Mental Surgery [IQ/H] [1] IQ-1
Mind Shield [Will/H] [1] Will-1
Telereceive [IQ/H] [1] IQ-1
Suggestion [IQ/H] [1] IQ-1

Subtotal: 6


Notes

Telepathy skills include the bonus from Telepathy Talent.

The Cythereans' Night Vision can be improved with practice, and some are naturally better at it, though at levels above 3, it would need a Biokinesis, Ergokinesis, or ESP limitation. It can also be improved with goggles, contacts or cybernetic implants, of course.

Stubbornness, Sadism, Overconfidence, Odious Personal Habit (Control Freak), Callous, and Bloodlust are fairly common disadvantages among the She-Devils. Charitable and Chummy are rare among these women, but not unheard of.

In terms of appearance, the She-Devils look, well, rather like a slightly racist 1940s Hollywood casting director was told to find a bunch of 'tall, pretty women'. The men have a similar racial appearance, but are generally average to short in height, from a Dsp-Earth human's perspective.

Male Cythereans drop the ST penalty (due to being far more often used as physical labor, work that is 'beneath' the women), and Will bonus, drop Aspect, Emotion Control, Mental Surgery, and Suggestion, raise Mind Shield to 5, and add Telepathy Sense 4 (this is not to say that males cannot have Mind Control powers, just that they don't have them automatically, and are rarely trained in them). Add 'Social Stigma: Second-Class Citizen' and 'Sense of Duty (Cytherean Women)' to Disadvantages, replacing Bad Temper and Bully. Many males have Charitable and Chummy. They look fairly Caucasian. There are about three girls born for every boy.

Many of the She-Devils of/from Venus have Instill Fear as an Alternative Ability of Aspect (or rather vice versa, due to point costs), a Linked power (with Aspect), or a separate power; a few have Instill Fear without Aspect, but this is worth a 5-point UB. As an Alternative Ability or Linked power, Instill Fear is normally at the same level as Aspect.

Emotion Control, Mental Surgery, and Suggestion, all being aspects of the same ability, tend to go up in levels all at the same time (until Mental Surgery and Emotion Control run out of levels), with the main power switching as needed, based on the most expensive power at that level (Mental Surgery for 1-5, and Suggestion at 6 & 7). Their inability to directly remove or alter memories (at best, they can create a Phobia against remembering or thinking about certain things, and/or a Delusion that the memories are false) is a weakness that a skilled deprogrammer can exploit. The 40-point UB is there to allow the use of Mental Surgery, which is quite difficult in this setting.

'Afflict/Remove (specific mental disadvantage)' may be bought as an Average technique of the Mental Surgery skill, with the same base penalty as that disadvantage would have normally, and no added Fatigue cost, as it is a normal technique, not an added ability. Afflict/Remove (Slave Mentality), for example, defaults to Mental Surgery-8, and is generally learned by a few specialists, for taking in new slaves (permanent or temporary), removing the disadvantage from temporary slaves whose sentences are up, or brainwashing the children of existing slaves, once they're old enough to comprehend it. It says something about their culture that many anti-social disadvantages like Bad Temper or Bully don't tend to get removed from women, even a slave - though very disruptive disadvantages like Berserk would be, unless the slave were intended to be a gladiator ("I want him in the games until he dies playing" is a legitimate criminal sentence on Venus). Of course, very few non-Cytherean slaves are ever freed.

Cytherean mothers will often directly shape their offsprings' personalities, to be sure they 'turn out just right'. In many cases this is not intended to be malicious.

While some Cythereans have been known to have powers not listed, here, none have been recorded possessing Mindwipe or Mind Swap, and non-telepathic powers require a 20-point UB, apart from Thoughform-related abilities. Their powers tend to develop fully after puberty, and are fairly weak (mostly or entirely Perk-level), before then.

The Cythereans live primarily in settlements in the northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere, and in a few, smaller settlements in the southern parts of the much less explored Southern Hemisphere. Their basic family unit generally consists of two to four women, one or two men, and about as many children, with the household lead by the 'strongest' telepath (which generally means the one who uses what they have most effectively, rather than the one with the most powers, or the highest levels), even if that person is male. Very wealthy She-devils might have more men in their harems, if they wish, and some family groups consist only of women, some of whom might adopt, or get artificial insemination (or natural insemination, for that matter). If there are any purely gay men among the Cythereans, no one knows of them (which is sadly unsurprising).

Their total population, at least in this star system, is probably less than one billion.

Weird Science (Cytherean)/TL9^ serves as the core skill for the Cytherean Effect Shaping techno-magical style, and a prerequisite for Engineering (Cytherean Technurgy). Mathematics (Paraphysical) could be considered part of the same style, or the core skill of its own. Interestingly, both the Cythereans and the Seleneans use the same paraphysical math, just with different symbols (though this math may have little to do with the actual science of Paraphysics, which does not truly become a 'hard' science until after TL12). In some ways, though not in others, one could say that it is the core skill of both styles. Both cultures use slide-rules and chalkboards or other writing surfaces, rather than computers, because the process of doing the math is part of the ritual. Getting the result could be done by a computer, but only a sapient mind can cause the magic to happen.

The standard sidearm for the Cythereans is a cyclic (repeating) ray-gun with two settings: Stun and Kill. The weapon's stun ray functions as Sleep 4 or higher (Psionic Powers p49) with the Cone (5 yards) enhancement, a maximum range of 50 yards, and an effective skill, for the Quick Contest, of 16 (some weapons may have a higher or lower skill, but 16 is the default). It also does 1d-5 toxic damage. Repeated cycles add 2 levels to Sleep and one 1d-5 tox per cycle.

The death ray is mostly as above, but removes Cone, increases range and cyclic rate, and does 1d+12 tox per cycle (as you may imagine, this is extremely painful), as well as an Affliction of Easy to Kill 10 (with the usual limitations of Easy to Kill - effective HT cannot be reduced below 3).

All effects are biokinetic in nature, derived from an ability possessed by a native Venusian fish resembling a manta-ray (though not related to it), and have a visible signature: a sort of 'negative flash', as the affected area or creature repeatedly switches between normal, then looking like a photographic negative, and then back. This is accompanied by a rhythmic squeal, like a theramin screaming in alternating higher and lower pitches.

Interestingly, Mind Shield and Psionic Shield both protect at half power, implying a telepathic component.

The statistics for the weapon will be in the next post, due to character limit.

[Prince Charon]

BEAM WEAPONS (PROJECTOR) (DX-4, or other Beam Weapons-4)
TL Weapon__________Damage_____Acc Range Weight RoF Shots___ST Bulk Rcl Cost__LC Notes
9^ Cytherean Ray Gun Will aff (5 yd) 6___50___4/C____3 1,000(3)__6__-3__1 $1,785__2 [1, 2]
___linked 1d-5 tox
[1] Projects a cone with the specified width at maximum range.
[2] Add -2 to Will roll per shot that hits.

BEAM WEAPONS (PISTOL) (DX-4, other Beam Weapons-4, or Guns (Pistol)-4)
TL Weapon___________Damage__Acc Range Weight RoF Shots___ST Bulk Rcl Cost__LC Notes
9^ Cytherean Ray Gun 1d+12 tox__3__100___4/C___7__333(3)___6__-3__1 $1,785__2
___linked Will aff______________________________________________[1]
___linked HT aff_______________________________________________[2]
[1] Add -2 to Will roll per additional shot that hits.
[2] Add -1 to HT roll per additional shot that hits.

A civilian stun-only version is also available:

BEAM WEAPONS (PROJECTOR) (DX-4, or other Beam Weapons-4)
TL Weapon___________Damage______Acc Range Weight RoF__Shots___ST Bulk Rcl Cost__LC Notes
9^ Cytherean Stun Gun Will aff (5 yd)__6___30___2/B____3___100(3)___4__-2__1_$935__4_[1, 2]
___linked 1d-5 tox
[1] Projects a cone with the specified width at maximum range.
[2] Add -2 to Will roll per shot that hits.

Sorry the forum messes with the formatting. Mostly fixed now, I think.