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

[jseah]

Previous Thread:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=256776

Someone can collect the links to previous story posts if you want. I think it starts on page 2? Maybe?

I'd hunt for them, but I've yet to meet the day's word quota for Nanowrimo.

Also, I'll try to post everyday, but the length might get a bit shorter since I still have to write 2k words somewhere else. =(

Collection of story posts:
http://sync.in/ep/pad/view/ro.f7Ii2bq8IM01rFxsOm/latest

[Forum Explorer]

Does NaNoWriMo deny fanfiction? Because you should use this story then.

[The Glyphstone]

Originally Posted by jseah

Previous Thread:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=256776

Someone can collect the links to previous story posts if you want. I think it starts on page 2? Maybe?

I'd hunt for them, but I've yet to meet the day's word quota for Nanowrimo.

Also, I'll try to post everyday, but the length might get a bit shorter since I still have to write 2k words somewhere else. =(

Just apply Chandler's Law to your story updates and you'll be fine.

[Gavinfoxx]

I'm collecting the previous stories, editing them very slightly, and will post a mediafire link soon.

Also, have you decided how or what will be done to get the Rogue Trader access to a bunch of IoM-Standard blueprints (both recreations of STC and non, ie, more 'recent's stuff?)? Have you decided what will be in there? Based on what is or isn't in there, there could be some issues... I'll PM you some ideas on that, maybe.

Also, there are some plotline threads still hanging for Part 6, like seeing how the IoM fights Chaos (including recovering from a Chaos incursion), or other Rogue Trader stuff... as well as the ships going near the Eye of Terror...

I'm also very interested in Chaos contacting them directly; after all, Chaos Sorcerers should have some future-reading or Future Sight, and at least some aspects of Chaos (especially some Tzeentch-based Warlords and the Dark Mechanicum) should be trying to contact them...

Also! NaNoWriMo:

"What genres are okay? Can I write fanfiction? How about a memoir?

Any genre of novel is okay for NaNoWriMo. Yes, really, any genre. Fan fiction is okay. Steamy adult content is okay (as long as you are careful about where you post it!). Memoir is a sticky one; as long as it is fictionalized, it is okay, too. We just want you to be excited about writing. If what you’re writing doesn’t qualify as a lengthy work of fiction, we’ve set up a group for NaNo Rebels in the forums."

[Fan]

One thing I'd like to see is that when the team near the core triggered that hypermaze trap, that whoever was lost, and their attached culture gear got hidden away by that Necron Lord.

It'd be pretty interesting to see what some Crypteks would do with some CREW'S or Mirror field devices.

[The Glyphstone]

Originally Posted by Fan

One thing I'd like to see is that when the team near the core triggered that hypermaze trap, that whoever was lost, and their attached culture gear got hidden away by that Necron Lord.

It'd be pretty interesting to see what some Crypteks would do with some CREW'S or Mirror field devices.

Argue and/or fight over them, probably. Necrons are almost as bad in the 'Not Invented Here' syndrome as Eldar...Necrons at least will recognize superior technology, but they'll keep it for themselves rather than try to replicate or reverse-engineer it, since their culture connects rarity with status.

[Selrahc]

Originally Posted by Fan

It'd be pretty interesting to see what some Crypteks would do with some CREW'S or Mirror field devices.

Absolutely nothing. Culture tech is locked down tight. Culturetech doesn't work at all for anybody outside the Culture. Equivtech stuff is locked down even tighter, and most of their wargear has brains. If tampering starts up, then the high likelihood is that things will self destruct.

[Tavar]

Would you mind if I collect/edit(including recon) the stuff into a google doc or fanfiction.net story?

As for NaNoWriMo, I think FF is discouraged(you can't publish it), but not forbidden.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

From the last thread:

Originally Posted by jseah

Seriously?

If you go by what we would do if we could design our own bodies, there'll be a hell of alot of wings. Both feather and butterfly style ones, although probably ornamental. Gods, can you imagine how overworked the service bots would be cleaning up the feathers.
EDIT: Hell, if I could do that, even I would go for a pair of white feather wings for a couple of years.

And some mermaids. And pre-puberty body plans (it also works better with wings if you want to actually fly so there's that too).

I can also see some people going for tentacles, or turn into a distributed intelligence of a hive... =/

That actually happens quite a bit, including your last two examples specifically. In Excession, one ambassador to an alien species (the Affront, floating methane breathers who resemble jellyfish/squid hybrids) decides to trade out his human body for an Affront body for a while to better enjoy his time on their planet. In Matter, one SC agent becomes a member of an alien species whose name I don't remember that's basically a sea urchin with 20-foot tentacles that branch off into fine manipulators, which involves moving his mind to an artificial brain and setting up a distributed nervous system in the body with it.

One man in Excession (I think it's the ambassador but it might be someone else, it's been a while) has grown wings and really likes them, but he removes them and his neural lace while on a particular planet for the duration of a "back to nature" celebration when everyone gives up some sort of augmentation and enjoys being unmodified for a while. It's also mentioned in Matter that there are some more obscure and out-there transformations (like becoming a four-dimensional energy being) that are basically irreversible due to how different they are from the baseline humanoid.

Wings, gills, altered senses, and such are less common due to the prevalence of antigravity, the ability to modify bodies to different gravities and atmospheres at will, the ability to gland chemicals to alter perceptions, and so forth. The sort of people who would want to turn themselves into bird-people can instead simply use an AG rig to go flying for a while, which is more convenient than wings in everyday life and also comes with the ability to breathe in higher atmosphere, on-board AI navigation, etc. If they want to try wings until the novelty wears off, they can do that too, and I'm guessing that's why most people look "normal"--the gross physical augmentations can be duplicated in more subtle versions, so unless you're specifically going for a certain visual it's often easier to use the subtle version.

[Gavinfoxx]

THE STORY SO FAR (EDITED):

http://www.mediafire.com/view/?ub9nk5i779ttncq

Note: be sure to download it, dont look at it in the preview screen.

I did edit most of the OOC out, and added some paragraph spaces where Jseah didn't put any, but I gave up on doing that after a while... that's why there are two different spacing methods.

[Fan]

Originally Posted by Selrahc

Absolutely nothing. Culture tech is locked down tight. Culturetech doesn't work at all for anybody outside the Culture. Equivtech stuff is locked down even tighter, and most of their wargear has brains. If tampering starts up, then the high likelihood is that things will self destruct.

Not if they're kept in stasis fields. They themselves would be trapped in one moment in time. They'd never act, even if they did have minds.

[Forum Explorer]

Originally Posted by Fan

Not if they're kept in stasis fields. They themselves would be trapped in one moment in time. They'd never act, even if they did have minds.

but then the Necrons couldn't do anything with them either.

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

THE STORY SO FAR:

http://www.mediafire.com/view/?lcmp9majr8fb0km

I used Mediafire's 'Edit File' beta feature to copy and paste the changes I had made in notepad++... it should be relatively updated, even though the link is the same.

I did edit most of the OOC out, and added some paragraph spaces where Jseah didn't put any, but I gave up on doing that after a while... that's why there are two different spacing methods.

Every page contains one sentence and no more.

[Fan]

Originally Posted by Forum Explorer

but then the Necrons couldn't do anything with them either.

They can observe external matrixes, use X-Ray equipment to gaze within.

Tons of stuff, but no physical manipulation or testing.

They could also use their ability to isolate shards of time (they use it passively for defense in tabletop, Harbinger of Eternity Crypteks.) to break it into pieces once they've studied the components and gaze into it's inner workings.

[Gavinfoxx]

Originally Posted by Forum Explorer

Every page contains one sentence and no more.

@)#(*!@_#$*

That's weird... when I go to Edit it, it looks fine...

Ah well. I suppose I will delete it and upload the file without using their beta 'edit file' feature.

How about now?

[Spamotron]

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

@)#(*!@_#$*

That's weird... when I go to Edit it, it looks fine...

Ah well. I suppose I will delete it and upload the file without using their beta 'edit file' feature.

How about now?

For me the formatting is all screwed up and every other sentence cuts off in the middle.

[Gavinfoxx]

You are downloading it, right? Not opening it in the preview screen?

[Parra]

Originally Posted by Fan

They can observe external matrixes, use X-Ray equipment to gaze within.

Tons of stuff, but no physical manipulation or testing.

If all the Stasis field does is stop physical manipulation but still allowed X-rays and other energy to pass through, then they are a lot less threatening to the Culture than they first appeared to be. In fact, it would allow the Culture to just use its Displacers to whip something out of the stasis field entirely.

Edit:

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

You are downloading it, right? Not opening it in the preview screen?

Its working fine for me

[Gavinfoxx]

How much does a stasis field protect from external influence though?

Also, shouldn't The Culture have designs for IoM time manipulation by now? Shouldn't they be freaked out by that??

[Fan]

Originally Posted by Parra

If all the Stasis field does is stop physical manipulation but still allowed X-rays and other energy to pass through, then they are a lot less threatening to the Culture than they first appeared to be. In fact, it would allow the Culture to just use its Displacers to whip something out of the stasis field entirely.

Edit:


Its working fine for me

Hmm, I may be incorrect, let me see if they st- yeah they do stop directed energy weapons, I'm dumb.

Still, Crypteks do have the ability to isolate objects from time, there's no reason why they couldn't just isolate one part of the object from the rest in time and slowly take it apart, even an ongoing fusion reaction is only dangerous to the touch frozen in time.

[Gavinfoxx]

If they stop DEW, why doesn't the IoM use them defensively?

[Fan]

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

If they stop DEW, why doesn't the IoM use them defensively?

Because the IOM has Void Shields that also work against the warp, and also stop all of (their) conventional energy weapons.

Stasis fields are also used for medical purposes in the IOM, and their emitters don't get much larger due to tech constraints. It is also VERY DIFFERENT from being frozen in time the entire thing that's stopping them from self destructing.

What I am describing is a Harbinger of Eternity using his Aeon stave in a method similar to what he does for defense (displacing rounds into shards of time), and instead using it to dismantle and compartmentalize the captured Culturetech for other Crypteks to study, but also due to their nature of being frozen in time and behind stasis fields, and various other Necron Tech (Likely in a Lord's vault being studied for use in his own personal gear, and carefully guarded against even other Necrons.), and the tech having effectively "vanished" due to being trapped in time, preventing the culture from knowing they have it.

It's complicated, but it's there, and I'd imagine given that this world's own lord is mad the first among the Necron challengers who would come to claim these new items would be Trayzn the Infinite.

[Gavinfoxx]

Maybe someone on one of The Culture ships should be like, 'Hmmm, if these Necrons have time-distorting tech, maybe there is other time-distorting tech elsewhere in this galaxy that we haven't recognized. Why don't we take a closer look at these Forge World plans?' At which point they can probably look at the plans for Stasis Fields and similar, with which they can maybe develop some more applications of localized time distortion, a technology they really haven't explored at all?

Also, I was thinking of things on smaller scale than Void Shields, which is for Big Stuff Only; like as supplemental to vehicle-scale Power Fields or something.

Also, when they finally get to analyzing the bodies of the Tyranids, the ideas for their biological sciences should increase dramatically. The base technology and capability, likely no... the idea fodder for creativity and things to do with biology? Definitely!

[The Glyphstone]

Originally Posted by Fan

\
It's complicated, but it's there, and I'd imagine given that this world's own lord is mad the first among the Necron challengers who would come to claim these new items would be Trayzn the Infinite.

Who is in harsh competition with Nemesor Zandrekh for 'coolest Necron Special Character', so I'd be okay with him making a cameo appearance, particularly since the Nemesor wouldn't fit the story except (briefly) across a battle line.

And I forgot how the Culture boobytraps their gear. So the Crypteks would blow themselves up a few times, then abandon their efforts, study what they could through a stasis field, and otherwise abandon the attempt. Cue Trazyn showing up to acquire some nifty new toys for his museum.

[Fan]

Originally Posted by The Glyphstone

Who is in harsh competition with Nemesor Zandrekh for 'coolest Necron Special Character', so I'd be okay with him making a cameo appearance, particularly since the Nemesor wouldn't fit the story except (briefly) across a battle line.

Honestly I do just kinda want to see him in here.

I'm also a big Sanguinus fan, so that's also why I was pushing him.

But the idea I posited DOES work, and it does make sense given how Phareonship of a world is passed is through single combat.

So I could see Trayzn coming in, zapping all the current nutty lords with his staff of Obliteration, and claiming the world for himself, and claiming what his Ethermancers saw in the stars for himself.

He'd also be the most likely to replicate, and study it. If only out of curiosity.

[The Glyphstone]

Originally Posted by Fan

Honestly I do just kinda want to see him in here.

I'm also a big Sanguinus fan, so that's also why I was pushing him.

Yeah, but one of those options is a more 'realistic' one by several significant orders of magnitude. The Culture would have to know of Sanguinis's importance to even consider attempting to revive him somehow, and if they did, they wouldn't try it because of the upheaval it'd cause. Only once they'd revealed themselves and the Imperium was falling to pieces anyways would it be worth it.

So I could see Trayzn coming in, zapping all the current nutty lords with his staff of Obliteration, and claiming the world for himself, and claiming what his Ethermancers saw in the stars for himself.

He'd also be the most likely to replicate, and study it. If only out of curiosity.

That, and him being a historian and all, he knows a ton of stuff, stuff the Culture would want to know, and he might be able to finagle that knowledge into a trade for working Culture doodads.

[Gavinfoxx]

Yea, I am actually quite interested in The Culture getting to a point where they talked to named characters. Like characters that we know and care about in the canon of 40k itself. Whether it is an Astartes hero or a Tau renegade or a particular Eldar Farseer...

Does anyone have any particular named character that they want to see have dialogue with The Culture?

[Kinslayer]

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

Does anyone have any particular named character that they want to see have dialogue with The Culture?

The Emperor. Alright, how about Fulgrim. No... Lorgar? Wait, they need to learn about the Warp so what about Magnus?

Okay, I can't pick a character that they should actually meet.

[The Glyphstone]

Originally Posted by Kinslayer

The Emperor. Alright, how about Fulgrim. No... Lorgar? Wait, they need to learn about the Warp so what about Magnus?

Okay, I can't pick a character that they should actually meet.

Cypher. So they can be as confused as we are.

Is he even still canon?

[Tiki Snakes]

Bearing in mind that I only know of him via meme, but there's a fellow springs to mind. Ciaphas Cain hero of the imperium?

[Gavinfoxx]

Fixed it for you...

Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes

Ciaphas Cain, Hero of the Imperium!

Oh My GOD YES.