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  1. - Top - End - #451
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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    Quote Originally Posted by jseah View Post
    The Culture's response to that would basically run along the lines of "Personally, I prefer staying where we are. But you are free to try convincing anyone who wants to join you. "

    The Culture's culture (anarchist liberal) where everyone does whatever they want is kinda like the exact opposite of the Greater Good. >.>
    How would the Tau react to that?

    And the Culture are really fussy about being used as a big stick. About the only thing the Tau could point them at are Tyranids.

    The Tau would have the firm, unshakeable belief that The Culture would still be a valuable addition to The Greater Good, and would spend more effort searching for the precise way they could join -- if not as a whole civilization, than as individuals or small groups, and if not as full partners, than at least as an ally or aide to the Tau cause.

    The Tau would probably be curious about the anarchist-liberal thing, and while not greatly unsettling to them (they've seen worse by this point...), they would be intrigued about it and interested in knowing more about it, especially hard data on the metrics and measures of how well the society maintains cohesion (probably hedging their bets for understanding other civilizations), and gaining a more subjective understanding of how The Culture acts relatively in concert. Again -- this is about the firm belief that there is some way this group can further the cause of The Greater Good, it just has to be found.

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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    Also... regarding Tau and grimdark...

    the Tau (at least some commanders) have done some things they aren't proud of. There's probably some depressed commanders that were put out to pasture by trauma and grief based on some of the things they did. So there is incidental truth to some partial truth to the allegations by Imperials of wrongdoing. Again, this is basically a nation doing things normally morally repugnant, cause they had no idea whatsoever how to handle the problem in their normal context of peaceful expansion, ie 'this entire planet we conquered appears to be completely insane! What do we do?'

    So there is a bit of angst going on there, yea.


    Also, did you read my other post in the other thread about long term Tau interaction?
    Last edited by Gavinfoxx; 2012-11-11 at 10:22 PM.

  3. - Top - End - #453
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    Lol, the Culture and cohesion? Its exactly like it appears. In the Culture, everyone does whatever they want. (which is less pure chaos and more, like-minded cliques)

    In some ways, it is a disadvantage, like the current disagreement over how to treat orks. In other ways, it is an advantage, because it makes them flexible enough to respond quickly to absolutely anything.
    Every ship is a law unto itself. The ships govern each other only by consensus and vague guidelines.
    EDIT: if you imagine a space 4x game where we have a choice of government type, the Greater Good would have:
    Population Loyalty +++
    Factory Production +
    Alien Assimilation -
    Government Efficiency +
    Large public sector
    The Culture would have:
    Population Loyalty -
    Alien Assimilation +++
    Research bonus ++
    No public sector
    Prone to divisions


    And indeed, quite a number of the Culture organics would be interested in giving the Greater Good a try, and a smaller number would want stay permanently. I imagine the Tau have no problems with that.

    What about the reverse? If the Culture opens its doors to Tau emigration, would the Tau be willing to let those who the Culture accepts leave the Greater Good?

    Quote Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx View Post
    Also, did you read my other post in the other thread about long term Tau interaction?
    Don't think I've missed any, got a post number?
    Last edited by jseah; 2012-11-11 at 10:39 PM.

  4. - Top - End - #454
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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    Quote Originally Posted by jseah View Post
    Lol, the Culture and cohesion? Its exactly like it appears. In the Culture, everyone does whatever they want. (which is less pure chaos and more, like-minded cliques)

    In some ways, it is a disadvantage, like the current disagreement over how to treat orks. In other ways, it is an advantage, because it makes them flexible enough to respond quickly to absolutely anything.
    Every ship is a law unto itself. The ships govern each other only by consensus and vague guidelines.


    And indeed, quite a number of the Culture organics would be interested in giving the Greater Good a try, and a smaller number would want stay permanently. I imagine the Tau have no problems with that.

    What about the reverse? If the Culture opens its doors to Tau emigration, would the Tau be willing to let those who the Culture accepts leave the Greater Good?

    Well... Leave? Hmmm. It's a very Manifest Destiny like philosophy... mostly, traveling with The Culture would be fairly formal exchange programs, ie, groups of Tau just being a part of The Culture's society for some time, but still beholden to The Greater Good. The Tau that fall from the Greater Good are basically the Tau that fell to Chaos (which are astonishingly rare; these Renegade Tau don't have any other Chaos-specific behaviors, just the fact that they aren't part of The Greater Good).

    Some of the non-Tau groups that are allied with the Tau Empire that, depending on the situation, might not fit in that well? Kroot, Vespid, Demiurg, Nicassar, Tarellians, Galgs? Yea, some of those might be more interested in 'leaving', especially because The Culture is crazy wealthy. Especially if there is a good amount of Water Caste envoys and similar groups who can help them maintain a link back to the Tau Empire...

    I'll find the post number, standby.
    Last edited by Gavinfoxx; 2012-11-11 at 10:38 PM.

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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    The Tau are very very reluctant to let people leave, and the Ethereal's mind control powers mean it's pretty seriously unlikely for Tau to leave (Gue'vesa [Humans] and Kroot might, being more or less free willed still). The only time I can think of Tau leaving the Empire is the Farsight Enclaves, a group of military colonies in Imperium of Man space who seceded from the Tau Empire and are only protected from being retaken by the Damocles Gulf and the immortal Commander Farsight himself.

    Remember; GRIMDARK! The Tau Empire is, at the least, as much of an ideological threat to the Culture's "moral right to exist" as the Idirans ever were if not more-so. They are an Empire bent on conquest who routinely use mind control and strictly restrict personal choice of their citizens, and the fact that they see it as doing the lesser races a favor doesn't change that they are pretty much exactly opposed to the Culture's idea of "good."

    And they're the Good Guys in 40K. The IoM is an actively genocidal anti-tech theocracy, the Orks literally know nothing but war and violence, the Tyranids want to eat everything in the galaxy, the Necrons want to eat every soul in the galaxy, and the Chaos Gods want to burn the whole universe and torture every soul within it eternally. GRIMDARK! GRIMDARK!!!
    Last edited by Water_Bear; 2012-11-11 at 10:46 PM.

  6. - Top - End - #456
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    Quote Originally Posted by Water_Bear View Post
    The Tau Empire is, at the least, as much of an ideological threat to the Culture's "moral right to exist" as the Idirans ever were if not more-so.
    Well, yes. That is why the GCU recommended that medium to long term reform be attempted...

    Which if they discover mind-control, they might just neuter it outright. Wouldn't be too hard to use the nanobots to block all the Ethereals from doing their thing without killing the Ethereals.

    If the Ethereals are instinctively using it, they might not even notice...

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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showp...postcount=1310

    There you go.

    The thing is... the mind control thing of the Etherials is... iffy.

    It is part:

    -Cultural - very strong cultural and shame and similar controls
    -Genetic predisposition of the Tau race itself
    -Generally actually good leadership
    -Historical context (they were fighting a lot in their early past, the Etherials made everything immeasurably better.
    -Pheromones

    It is not a Psyker type mind control!

    The Tau do not know they are mind controlling their civilization! The Etherials don't know it. They just know that they have a happy, cooperative civilization, and it is much better than things used to be.

    Also, without those controls, and the example of the Tau race themselves, the Tau civilization would probably fall apart.
    Last edited by Gavinfoxx; 2012-11-11 at 11:01 PM.

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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    Isn't it ironic that a group which loves talking about freedom so much sees nothing wrong with involuntary surgical alterations to an entire species to destroy their society and ideology?

    I mean, yeah, turnabout is fair play and all, but it seems pretty deeply hypocritical. That and their mirroring the old Chinese Communist euphemism "Thought Reform," plus my existing dislike of their philosophy... ugh. I might need to take another break from the thread.

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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    Quote Originally Posted by Water_Bear View Post
    Isn't it ironic that a group which loves talking about freedom so much sees nothing wrong with involuntary surgical alterations to an entire species to destroy their society and ideology?

    I mean, yeah, turnabout is fair play and all, but it seems pretty deeply hypocritical. That and their mirroring the old Chinese Communist euphemism "Thought Reform," plus my existing dislike of their philosophy... ugh. I might need to take another break from the thread.
    That's because (this version of) The Culture places the agency of the sentient individual, and their capacity for meaningful and rational thought and decision, as an extremely high virtue, rather than any other conglomeration, like on societal or group levels...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx View Post
    That's because (this version of) The Culture places the agency of the sentient individual, and their capacity for meaningful and rational thought and decision, as an extremely high virtue, rather than any other conglomeration, like on societal or group levels...
    The way I'm interpreting the Culture is that they are all about maximizing individual freedom. That's the cornerstone of their philosophy.

    How this squares with them being able to blur the lines between intelligences is not a question I can answer. You'll have to ask Banks.
    (my personal thinking is that intelligence engineering to the level of the Culture's makes the concept of individuality pointless, so it's not like I agree with their philosophy either)

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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    Quote Originally Posted by jseah View Post
    The way I'm interpreting the Culture is that they are all about maximizing individual freedom. That's the cornerstone of their philosophy.

    How this squares with them being able to blur the lines between intelligences is not a question I can answer. You'll have to ask Banks.
    (my personal thinking is that intelligence engineering to the level of the Culture's makes the concept of individuality pointless, so it's not like I agree with their philosophy either)
    Well, regardless of !PHILOSOPHY DEBATE!, did my other post help any? Or the things here, at least?
    Last edited by Gavinfoxx; 2012-11-11 at 11:14 PM.

  12. - Top - End - #462
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    Quote Originally Posted by jseah View Post
    The Culture's response to that would basically run along the lines of "Personally, I prefer staying where we are. But you are free to try convincing anyone who wants to join you. "

    The Culture's culture (anarchist liberal) where everyone does whatever they want is kinda like the exact opposite of the Greater Good. >.>
    How would the Tau react to that?


    And the Culture are really fussy about being used as a big stick. About the only thing the Tau could point them at are Tyranids.


    I'll keep that in mind, but its actually a rare three weeks in which nothing happens. At the rate of the Culture's ships being produced and moving around, they run over something important every few weeks.

    And being that there's so many different threads, *something* happens every now and then.
    What I'm trying to do here is give all of them equal light. If I was doing it by "what would happen", part 7 would be all about the Necrons... and maybe the ork thing.
    They would be curious and want to know how that actually works. How do they achieve anything if they are all working at possibly cross purposes? (The answer being that they are powerful enough that they don't need anyone's help.)

    The Tau would love to have their Tyranid problem go away and would be willing to accept almost any deal to get that.

    Sure I guess but eventually things will slow down as they learn pretty much everything and have to wait for their actions to take place.

    On Tau mind control, well it's not exactly mind control. They are evolutionary designed to obey the Etherals. Perhaps they were altered into that role or not. At the same time they are evolutionary designed to be a caste system as everyone's body is suited to their roles. Air Caste can barely walk for example, because they've spent generations in space.
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  13. - Top - End - #463
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    Well, whatever the Culture do, the Tau can clearly wait for a pretty long time. So they're not going to rush it.

    And perhaps someone might think of a better way to work the Tau problem. The Greater Good occupies a position in their society similar to a state religion, so breaking it by neutering the mind-control might be a bit harsh.

    They might be able to covertly plant a non-Mendelian (>50% inheritance) genetic marker that conveys resistance to the mind-control though. Not enough that they'll break away from the Greater Good, but weaken its hold over the Tau.
    Once it spreads, they'll transition it to mind-control immunity, and the Greater Good would probably still continue out of social inertia. Then they try reform.

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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    Quote Originally Posted by Forum Explorer View Post
    Air Caste can barely walk for example, because they've spent generations in space.
    I think that's an exaggeration... but they are adapted to shipbonre life, yes.

    The thing is, if you explained to most types of individual Tau, in precise detail, the exact nature of their racial mechanisms of control, their strengths and weaknesses, how and why they worked, and offered them a choice in turning them off, they wouldn't want to turn them off.

    It would be like... like a group asking someone to turn off the instinct to like cute things, and to protect them, or to be repulsed by the smell of death. People wouldn't really want to change that. It's too much a part of who and what they are, you know? And its not like every other species ever doesn't have instinctive methods of social control, including Humans! What do you think the genetic and evolutionary purpose of a large chunk of our emotions are for?? At least those from The Tau tend to be relatively benign on the individual they are done to, for the most part.
    Last edited by Gavinfoxx; 2012-11-11 at 11:33 PM.

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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    It seems to me that the theme of the Culture, especially in interacting with other factions from outside their own setting, is very much Hubris. The way they think, interact with other factions and generally are going about their desperate effort to single-handedly fix the entire galaxy really should end up massively biting them and possibly everyone else in the bottom.

    Take the Tau for example. Yeah, it's entirely possible that they will choose to undo the Ethereal's ability to mind control the Tau and their pheromone enforcement of the "Greater Good."

    This could possibly result in the resumption of the Tau infighting and war of mutual extinction that they were in the middle of when the Ethereals turned up in the first place. Which depending on your take on the issue, The eldar could see as a direct attack by the culture on themselves, as they are the cheif suspect behind the whole setup.

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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    WHICH group of Eldar (if any!) possibly were involved in that plot, who can say though, and where they are, or whether or not they are even still alive, or even what their original goals were, or if it was some other group entirely (several species would be capable of it)...
    Last edited by Gavinfoxx; 2012-11-11 at 11:40 PM.

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    While it is true that I am writing the Culture as meddlesome people who try to do everything, that is actually also kinda the way they are represented.

    Player of Games has them intervene rather more drastically than my proposed plan to reform the Tau via subtle manipulations. They outright threatened the Azad Emperor, saying that if the Culture won the Azad game, they would come in all guns blazing and just take over the entire Azad empire by force.

    If we consider that to be a 'normal' Culture response to something like the Azad, which are just small fry compared to most 40k factions, it would not be implausible to have the Culture just outright break the IoM into pieces and pick up all the bits afterwards.

    It wouldn't even be difficult. One high speed pass through Sol and a Pancaker strike on the Astronomican, and poof, the IoM is gone.

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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    And then lots of people turn to the... darker... 'lights' to try and navigate their way through the warp... and the repressed technology that allows more than 5 lightyear jumps becomes more mainstream...

    Also, would they really condemn that many innocent lives to death?

    Anyway. Looking forward to your next update!
    Last edited by Gavinfoxx; 2012-11-11 at 11:56 PM.

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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    Quote Originally Posted by jseah View Post
    Ah, about the Emperor. Isn't the emperor basically dead? As in, only a few cells of him is still alive.

    So the Culture would have an even harder time reviving the Emperor than Guilliman. There is also the problem that the Golden Throne and Astronomican are tied together. They risk breaking his flashlight and the rest of the IoM by extension.

    If the "few cells" bit is true, then you know, there really isn't very much they can do. But even his memories are gone since his brain is (mostly) gone.
    How much is the Emperor alive? Well, his Soul is there since he's still psyking enough to keep the Webway Gate closed (which killed the #2 Psyker of all time in the Imperium in short order) and continues to guide the Imperium via the Emperor's Tarot.

    So yeah, he's probably pretty alive in there.

    Now of course it'd be hard for The Culture to revive The Emperor out of hand, but I was talking to a time when Rowboat Girlyman was already walking around, kicking ass and taking names. Since The Culture already revived him he'd be more than happy to see if they couldn't do the same to daddy -- knowing that The Emperor of Mankind is powerful enough to throw off any hooks that The Culture might put into him.

    And once daddy's alive and kicking, the two of them would crush the Minds and harness their tech for Humanity. Not that The Culture would know this, particularly if they didn't brain-scan Girlyman after they brought him back to the land of the living.
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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    Quote Originally Posted by jseah View Post
    While it is true that I am writing the Culture as meddlesome people who try to do everything, that is actually also kinda the way they are represented.

    Player of Games has them intervene rather more drastically than my proposed plan to reform the Tau via subtle manipulations. They outright threatened the Azad Emperor, saying that if the Culture won the Azad game, they would come in all guns blazing and just take over the entire Azad empire by force.

    If we consider that to be a 'normal' Culture response to something like the Azad, which are just small fry compared to most 40k factions, it would not be implausible to have the Culture just outright break the IoM into pieces and pick up all the bits afterwards.

    It wouldn't even be difficult. One high speed pass through Sol and a Pancaker strike on the Astronomican, and poof, the IoM is gone.
    It's worth noting that it took 70 years for them to act against the Azad and in the end they didn't do anything but beat the Azad game. That was enough to cause the system to collapse and a natural revolution to begin.

    The artificial constrictions that create Empires in the 40K-verse aren't nearly as easy to fix as the Empire structure is the best way to deal with the threats that plague them.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oracle Hunter
    and continues to guide the Imperium via the Emperor's Tarot.
    Does he? Or is that just the dogma overlaying the abilities of the psykers who use it?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jseah
    They outright threatened the Azad Emperor, saying that if the Culture won the Azad game, they would come in all guns blazing and just take over the entire Azad empire by force.
    That was a lie though. It was never the plan.
    The actual plan was to discredit the societal infrastructure that held the society together, paving the way for social reformation.
    The upper echelons of the Azad, with their state sanctioned sexual horror shows and instruments made from the skins of tortured children, were also operating on a level of internal dysfunction beyond even the IoM, and more on the level of Slaaaneeshi or Dark Eldar.

    Take the Tau for example. Yeah, it's entirely possible that they will choose to undo the Ethereal's ability to mind control the Tau and their pheromone enforcement of the "Greater Good."
    But that is also likely to be a multi-generational project. The Tau are "nice-enough" for long term diplomacy. So are the Eldar.
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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    Also, the Tau Empire is probably the best place for The Culture to get cooperative psykers. Look up the Nicassar.

    Also, I think The Culture would have a lot of individuals that would really like Kroot. 'Savage' people who have a sense of humor, who like good fights and other visceral fun, who are awesome hunters, who have w complex shamanic culture, who have magnificent dinosaurs, who have an innate drive for physical biological improvement? Hell yea. I can't think The Culture would have that much of a cannibalism taboo either, what with not being raised in a situation where the biological body of a person is considered an irreplaceable part of who that person is.

    I could see extreme body modification and replacement coming back into vogue, what with all the advances in biology the setting can bring.
    Last edited by Gavinfoxx; 2012-11-12 at 12:51 AM.

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    Oracle Hunter:
    But he's mostly alive in the Warp, not in real space. In the Real, he's... mostly dead.

    And the Culture can't act much in the Warp at all. Asking them to stitch his soul back into a new body is like giving a Victorian Era scientist a technical manual and asking him to repair a nuclear reactor.

    They're just as likely to accidentally kill the Emperor than revive him. Or just end up with a not-really-special clone.


    After they have Warp engineering? Maybe they can, depends on how much of the guy's soul is still there. But the Culture with Warp engineering would probably just win the whole setting outright.

    They probably look a lot like Chaos if the Minds learn to Alter Reality (su). Just less spiky and more happy fun times.
    EDIT: and that you better have "happy fun times" too because we're about to rewrite reality so that you can't have anything but "happy fun times"

    Quote Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx View Post
    I can't think The Culture would have that much of a cannibalism taboo either,
    Nope, it's not a taboo. At the end of State of the Art, one of the major Contact people hosts a banquet where one of the dishes is human meat. Synthesized of course, but at Culture tech, synth is as good as the real thing.

    The rest of them think it's a bit of good fun, if a little queer. But then that guy is known for being queer so they just humour him. (he was the one that suggested they CAM Earth btw, and no, that wasn't treated seriously)
    Last edited by jseah; 2012-11-12 at 03:36 AM.

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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    Quote Originally Posted by jseah View Post
    Oracle Hunter:
    But he's mostly alive in the Warp, not in real space. In the Real, he's... mostly dead.

    And the Culture can't act much in the Warp at all. Asking them to stitch his soul back into a new body is like giving a Victorian Era scientist a technical manual and asking him to repair a nuclear reactor.

    They're just as likely to accidentally kill the Emperor than revive him. Or just end up with a not-really-special clone.


    After they have Warp engineering? Maybe they can, depends on how much of the guy's soul is still there. But the Culture with Warp engineering would probably just win the whole setting outright.

    They probably look a lot like Chaos if the Minds learn to Alter Reality (su). Just less spiky and more happy fun times.
    EDIT: and that you better have "happy fun times" too because we're about to rewrite reality so that you can't have anything but "happy fun times"


    Nope, it's not a taboo. At the end of State of the Art, one of the major Contact people hosts a banquet where one of the dishes is human meat. Synthesized of course, but at Culture tech, synth is as good as the real thing.

    The rest of them think it's a bit of good fun, if a little queer. But then that guy is known for being queer so they just humour him. (he was the one that suggested they CAM Earth btw, and no, that wasn't treated seriously)
    Well the Emperor is still attached to his body. If it was brought back to a condition where it could sustain itself outside the Golden Throne then he could re inhabit it.
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  25. - Top - End - #475
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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    Unrelated to the current Tau discussion: here's an essay I found by Iain M. Banks that provides a bit more detail on the Culture from both an in-universe (for those not as familiar with the series) and an out-of-universe (for those with philosophical disagreements with the Culture) perspective.
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  26. - Top - End - #476
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    Default Re: The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

    Come to think of it, since psykers can make warp rifts, and that Chaos gets lots of psykers and the most powerful ones, why doesn't Chaos use psykers as portable warp rifts?

    Or install a... I dunno, warp rift generator on their ships (D-Cannons and detonating warp drives sort of do that right?) and just proceed to pave the galaxy over with an artificial Eye of Terror.


    Are warpstorms some kind of natural disaster like event or are they deliberately targeted by Chaos?
    What are the limits to a warpstorm's size or is there some method by which they are limited in real space? (eg. Necron pylons)

    And since A+ psykers eventually die by getting eaten by the Warp and are immune to everything in Realspace (aka. everything the IoM can do), wouldn't they end up on the side of Chaos?
    Multiple A+ psykers on the Chaos side? With training? Lolz, there must be some -serious- infighting for them to not have won already.

  27. - Top - End - #477
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    Quote Originally Posted by jseah View Post
    Come to think of it, since psykers can make warp rifts, and that Chaos gets lots of psykers and the most powerful ones, why doesn't Chaos use psykers as portable warp rifts?

    Or install a... I dunno, warp rift generator on their ships (D-Cannons and detonating warp drives sort of do that right?) and just proceed to pave the galaxy over with an artificial Eye of Terror.


    Are warpstorms some kind of natural disaster like event or are they deliberately targeted by Chaos?
    What are the limits to a warpstorm's size or is there some method by which they are limited in real space? (eg. Necron pylons)

    And since A+ psykers eventually die by getting eaten by the Warp and are immune to everything in Realspace (aka. everything the IoM can do), wouldn't they end up on the side of Chaos?
    Multiple A+ psykers on the Chaos side? With training? Lolz, there must be some -serious- infighting for them to not have won already.
    They do. It's the most common way world become daemon worlds is they get enough psykers to perform a ritual which creates a warp rift.

    They don't know how to make an artificial one. Only the Eldar posses lots of warp rift tech. Vortex grenades and the like are much rarer and harder to come by.

    Both. If it's random then there is no limitation. If it's deliberate then the power of the psyker determines how large the storm will be.

    Kinda. They get possessed by daemons and get burned out very quickly. During which time a lot of damage is done. That's generally what we mean by getting eaten by the warp is something takes over and they burn out from too much energy going through them. It's why they are killed by the Imperium which doesn't want Chaos to cause so much damage.
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  28. - Top - End - #478
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    Quote Originally Posted by Forum Explorer View Post
    Kinda. They get possessed by daemons and get burned out very quickly. During which time a lot of damage is done. That's generally what we mean by getting eaten by the warp is something takes over and they burn out from too much energy going through them. It's why they are killed by the Imperium which doesn't want Chaos to cause so much damage.
    =|

    One would think that rather than burn them out, Chaos would be better served if they didn't feed them too much energy and used them more intelligently?

    Or perhaps the nature of A+ psykers is such that they naturally burn out anyway.


    But in any case, meh, so much for that line of inquiry.

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    Back to the Tau,

    Thanks Gavinfoxx, I have my own ideas but I can certainly use some of yours.

    Quote Originally Posted by Forum Explorer View Post
    They would be curious and want to know how that actually works. How do they achieve anything if they are all working at possibly cross purposes? (The answer being that they are powerful enough that they don't need anyone's help.)
    The Culture manages to work together on big problems (see Idiran War) because sometimes, enough people think something is worth doing that they do work together to do it.

    Those who didn't want to join in... didn't. They broke away and formed the Peace Faction. They still won, but even if the Culture was slowly losing the war, they wouldn't have forced their other people to join in.

    It's not like numbers makes much a difference to the Culture except on the tactical scale. They have gone beyond raw numbers, with exponentially fast replication from nowhere available to them if they feel its worth the 'inelegance'.
    Apparently the Culture doesn't like making things from thin air/gridfire because they think its crude and 'boring'. Boring! Which means that it's not all that difficult to convince them that they need to, just threaten something they hold to be more important, like their ships or the existence of the Culture, and requires that conjuring of matter from nowhere and they'll do it.
    Last edited by jseah; 2012-11-12 at 05:31 AM.

  30. - Top - End - #480
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    Quote Originally Posted by jseah View Post
    =|

    One would think that rather than burn them out, Chaos would be better served if they didn't feed them too much energy and used them more intelligently?

    Or perhaps the nature of A+ psykers is such that they naturally burn out anyway.


    But in any case, meh, so much for that line of inquiry.
    By Chaos' nature they can't help but burn them out. Daemons are basically incapable of restraint when it comes right down to it. So they possess their target and just refuse to leave, eventually burning them out no matter how weak the daemon. It doesn't help that a A+ psyker would get possessed by something along the lines of a Greater Daemon of a Demon Prince.

    Or the A+ psyker just blows themselves up because they haven't learned how to use their abilities safely.
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