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

[The Glyphstone]

I don't think the thread could withstand the awesome. If Cain does make an appearance, it should be an unnamed cameo.

[Gavinfoxx]

Have we figured out a particular date, so we can figure out what events have and haven't happened, which named individuals are alive or not, and (roughly) where they are in their adventures?

Also. If we can encourage Jseah to read every Ciaphas Cain book and short story ever, this can only be a good thing. He's been sent as a diplomat before, right?

[Fan]

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

Have we figured out a particular date, so we can figure out what events have and haven't happened, which named individuals are alive or not, and (roughly) where they are in their adventures?

Also. If we can encourage Jseah to read every Ciaphas Cain book and short story ever, this can only be a good thing. He's been sent as a diplomat before, right?

Rejuvenation treatments would keep most named characters alive.

[Gavinfoxx]

Originally Posted by Fan

Rejuvenation treatments would keep most named characters alive.

Or they might not have been born yet, or might be 'lost', depending on the exact date, right?

[The Glyphstone]

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

Have we figured out a particular date, so we can figure out what events have and haven't happened, which named individuals are alive or not, and (roughly) where they are in their adventures?

Also. If we can encourage Jseah to read every Ciaphas Cain book and short story ever, this can only be a good thing. He's been sent as a diplomat before, right?

A murky, indefinite time after the year 41,000. We're treating the timeline with as much respect as GW is.

[Oracle_Hunter]

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

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

Alpharius and/or Omegon. Because nobody would confuse The Culture more than Alpha Legion

[Tavar]

For those interested, here is a google document. Still updating it to be in line with recons and the like.

Anyone following that link can comment on the story so far. If you see something that needs correcting, bring it up.

Also included is one non-canon segment, as well as a run down of the Culture's 'let's screw the Imperium plan' as well as the Necron's realizations about the Culture.

[Gavinfoxx]

Also, the C'Tan Shards themselves might actually be physically impossible to destroy. Just saying. Not impossible to defeat, but impossible to ever completely destroy...

Also, Jseah: According to the latest codex, a Tomb World, once the wake-up process has begun, might take decades or centuries to completely wake up. I think this doesn't make any sense.. but you can do whatever. Maybe only the inhabitants are waking up, the actual processes might take longer, or there are lots of components that aren't waking up right, or whatever... Also, there are codes of 'honourable war' that some Necrons adhered to; The Culture might be able to, even if they end up at war with this particular Tomb World, impress them enough (they are immortal! IMMORTAL!) that they apply their codes of honor to The Culture. There even is a bit about some Necrons seeking to end 'The curse of biotransference' by seeking a biological entity to host their minds. Apparently that idea weighed heavily on the Silent King's mind as he issued the final biotransference command. Surely The Culture would be able to fix the issues with Biotransference, if they get enough of an insight into Necron tech and history and 'culture'...

Also, their is some weeiiirrrd tech in Necron tombworlds. One of the tomb worlds has an Orrery of the galaxy which can, if they snuff the light of the star out in the Orrery, will cause the relevant star to go Supernova 'long millennia before its destined time'...

[Forum Explorer]

Originally Posted by The Glyphstone

A murky, indefinite time after the year 41,000. We're treating the timeline with as much respect as GW is.

So none at all then?


Anyways if Cain is showing up then Amberly would be right behind him for maximum snark potential.

[The Glyphstone]

Originally Posted by Forum Explorer

So none at all then?

http://www.instantrimshot.com

Anyways if Cain is showing up then Amberly would be right behind him for maximum snark potential.

It'd have to wait for a time, at the best. Cain is terrified of Necrons.

[Tavar]

How long is it after the 13th black crusade? That matters for Cain.

[The Glyphstone]

Only to a point - we've got a one to two century leeway space, since Cain canonically 'came back from the dead' so many times that the Administratum finally gave up listing him as dead and so his official date of death is unknown.

[Forum Explorer]

Originally Posted by The Glyphstone

Only to a point - we've got a one to two century leeway space, since Cain canonically 'came back from the dead' so many times that the Administratum finally gave up listing him as dead and so his official date of death is unknown.

Actually he doesn't have a date of death at all. The order to just assume he was alive was never overturned.

[The Glyphstone]

Originally Posted by Forum Explorer

Actually he doesn't have a date of death at all. The order to just assume he was alive was never overturned.

That's what I mean, yeah. He has no official date of death, and we can only get a rough estimate for an unofficial one.

[jseah]

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

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.

Yes, RT guy is next. The basic idea is, he gets some mercenaries, gets into hot water with the Ad Mech and Ordo Xenos (who have connected the dots and are hunting anything that looks too high tech) and goes away into interstellar space.

He then decides to go raid a Warp-stormed (but real space accessible) planet in hopes of loot and treasure and runs across a Khorne chaos warband stumbling around trying to find the Culture.
At this point, the Culture's cover gets blown as the Chaos people demand to talk. The RT guy blows them out of space anyway and the SC agent tells him about the Culture.
I haven't decided what his reaction will be. Especially since the SC agent will also tell him that the Culture aren't going let him talk to other IoM people about them and they can watch him *very* closely.

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

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...

Yes, there's also the Eldar. And the Orks. And the Eye of Terror.

There's a minor note about Ordo Xenos activity as well.

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

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...

And I guess we can have this. A cultist can do the same thing as the Eldar, and the Culture will probably try to talk, but with lots of security (communicate by dead tree storage only and scan the stuff to read it, not actually touching the things)

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

Also! NaNoWriMo:

Unfortunately, I already have an entire book planned. You may have noticed my comments in the Nanowrimo thread, but I already have more than enough material. I just need to write that book. Thanks anyway.

[The Glyphstone]

RT: I knew you were hiding something, but couldn't figure out what.
SC: Yeah, I'm actually a spy for a gigantic extragalactic civilization with technology and powers beyond your wildest dreams
RT: Cool. Now, how can I use that to get rich(er)?

[jseah]

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.

There's a drone stuck in a hypermaze trap, assumed dead and reloaded by the Culture (there's two of it, but only one is running around now).
But the stasis field that caught half of Expy 7 had its generators blown up and we agreed that uncontrolled winding down of a stasis field destroys everything in it, so all of those are gone.

But yeah, the Necrons have one drone, which they aren't letting out of the maze yet.

Hmm... how would the Necrons react to a demand from the Culture that they return any captured artifacts? (with an implied threat of offensive action to recover them if the Culture detects he has kept some)
--- The logic being that it's only fair that since the Culture returned Necron stuff, the Necrons should return Culture stuff. Of course, Necrons might not understand fairness, hence why there's some teeth to back it up


As for taking time to power up again, let's have it that after everyone's awake, there's still alot of repair work and preparation to do before he can strike out and do things.
In any case, I was intending him to send a ship out in part 7 looking for his Crownworld. And the question I've been meaning to ask is what is the Necron FTL mechanism?

[jseah]

Originally Posted by The Glyphstone

RT: I knew you were hiding something, but couldn't figure out what.
SC: Yeah, I'm actually a spy for a gigantic extragalactic civilization with technology and powers beyond your wildest dreams
RT: Cool. Now, how can I use that to get rich(er)?

SC: Why do you need to get rich? Here, with this tech and this tech, which we are going to give you, you can have anything you want. Including turning any asteroid into a new battleship and cloning your crew to run it. Yes, we have working cloning and we are giving it to you. Now will you work for us?

[The Glyphstone]

Originally Posted by jseah

SC: Why do you need to get rich? Here, with this tech and this tech, which we are going to give you, you can have anything you want. Including turning any asteroid into a new battleship and cloning your crew to run it. Yes, we have working cloning and we are giving it to you. Now will you work for us?

RT: How much are you paying?

[Gavinfoxx]

Originally Posted by jseah

And the question I've been meaning to ask is what is the Necron FTL mechanism?

Oldcron: Basically Culture Hyperspace, I think. Or one of the Culture equiv-techs, which you already said was different, but that might be that they access it in a different way than the Culture was expecting.
Newcron: Hijack Eldar Webway.


I would strongly suggest you go with Oldcron for this.

[willpell]

Responding to a post by Jseah from the previous thread (not answered in that one, I dunno if it has been here):

Actually, this bit bothers me about his works. I mean, the Culture has all this control over biology (it's basically miracle working here) and everyone's an almost-standard human?

Seriously?

It's mentioned in Excession that people used to turn themselves into all manner of weird shapes, but that this behavior has fallen out of fashion in recent centuries. Essentially it was a fad, and the novelty wore off, so now it's the sort of thing you might do as a teenager or something, especially in private, but probably wouldn't make a lifestyle out of. Though it also seems to vary by local (small-c) culture; one of the minor viewpoint characters is a resident on the Tier habitat, who has wings himself and who is shown hooking up with a girl that has four arms. So there are some places like Tier where that sort of thing is more common than in other places, such as Phage Rock, for various reasons of socialization (which assume very significantly increased importance in a society as peaceful and non-utilitarian as the Culture; being fashionable and well-thought-of is practically a state religion).

[The Glyphstone]

I'd favor Oldcron FTL as well. The Webway barely works for the Eldar with various branches corrupted, cut off, or damaged, it'd be extremely impractical for the Necrons who only have access to sporadic chunks.

[jseah]

Originally Posted by The Glyphstone

RT: How much are you paying?

Lolz. The Culture can pay whatever asking price he wants. Hell, he can turn an asteroid into Thrones if he wants.

But seriously, do they not understand anything other than money? Like, maybe he doesn't _need_ money anymore?


How about these, in order of what the Culture is likely to try:

"after you investigate so and so warp rift, you can upgrade to a full citizen and join us in happy land"

"you have the chance to fight Chaos for the Imperium. You have the ability to do more than the imperial guard and space marines combined. You can be the most powerful person in the entire IoM apart from the Emperor. "

"we intend to reform the Imperium after we secure from Chaos. You can have a hand in it and we will listen to your advice. You have the chance to decide the future of the whole IoM. Is that enough power for you?"

[jseah]

Originally Posted by willpell

It's mentioned in Excession that people used to turn themselves into all manner of weird shapes, but that this behavior has fallen out of fashion in recent centuries.

=D Clearly, I have been reading the wrong books.

Never mind me then.

[willpell]

Originally Posted by jseah

=D Clearly, I have been reading the wrong books.

Never mind me then.

Well I can't really recommend Excession as your first Culture book to read, though I have yet to encounter any of the others. It's....good, but a bit strange. An acquired taste, if you will. Granted the same might be true of the Culture in general, but this book in particular, since a LOT of it is told from the viewpoint of the Minds, making it a fair bit more "foreign" than the several stories which focus mostly on an outsider on some backward planet, doing the Culture's dirty work while seeing them only from a fair distance (this is all me going by Wikipedia summaries so I apologize if I'm misrepresenting anything).

[Gavinfoxx]

Originally Posted by jseah

=D Clearly, I have been reading the wrong books.

Never mind me then.

Yes, you clearly have to set everything else you are doing down, and read these:

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ciap...ovel_Series%29

Okay, really, you only have to read the two compilation books... (Hero and Defender), but after that, you'll be good.

And then have Ciaphas end up, somehow, as a diplomat to The Culture... with Amberley in tow, of course. And you positively must do it in the style of one of Ciaphas's irreverent and innacurate narratives, with Amberley as a talkative editor!

[The Glyphstone]

Originally Posted by jseah

Lolz. The Culture can pay whatever asking price he wants. Hell, he can turn an asteroid into Thrones if he wants.

But seriously, do they not understand anything other than money? Like, maybe he doesn't _need_ money anymore?


How about these, in order of what the Culture is likely to try:

"after you investigate so and so warp rift, you can upgrade to a full citizen and join us in happy land"

"you have the chance to fight Chaos for the Imperium. You have the ability to do more than the imperial guard and space marines combined. You can be the most powerful person in the entire IoM apart from the Emperor. "

"we intend to reform the Imperium after we secure from Chaos. You can have a hand in it and we will listen to your advice. You have the chance to decide the future of the whole IoM. Is that enough power for you?"

No, he gets all that, but he also wants to hedge his bets. You don't get to be a Rogue Trader by playing it safe, but you don't succeed as a Rogue Trader if you put all your eggs in one basket. The Culture is making big, grandiose promises, and while they've certainly shown their chops, he's not going to dismiss the possibility that it's all a scam right up until the very end when he's actually being crowned High Lord of Cultureterra...so he'll want a nest egg just in case the whole thing goes down the tubes and the Culture has to run away (taking its nifty supertech with it).

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

Yes, you clearly have to set everything else you are doing down, and read these:

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ciap...ovel_Series%29

Okay, really, you only have to read the two compilation books... (Hero and Defender), but after that, you'll be good.

And then have Ciaphas end up, somehow, as a diplomat to The Culture... with Amberley in tow, of course.

I think Cain would be deeply uncomfortable with the Culture, but more to the point, a Cain story isn't a Cain story unless he has to go on some dangerous, hairbrained mission. There won't be any dangerous hairbrained missions to go on within a few lightyears of the Culture, because anything a human considers 'dangerous and hairbrained' is Tuesday to SC.

[Kinslayer]

Originally Posted by jseah

"after you investigate so and so warp rift, you can upgrade to a full citizen and join us in happy land"

Oh god run away. Warp Rift = Best Chance to have your ship eaten by a giant disembodied tongue this side of Lovecraft.

Originally Posted by jseah

"you have the chance to fight Chaos for the Imperium. You have the ability to do more than the imperial guard and space marines combined. You can be the most powerful person in the entire IoM apart from the Emperor."

And the profit margin, and proof to present are...?

Originally Posted by jseah

"we intend to reform the Imperium after we secure from Chaos. You can have a hand in it and we will listen to your advice. You have the chance to decide the future of the whole IoM. Is that enough power for you?"

Too much power, with too much risk. Also, mortal terror of the Emperor personally disapproving. It's one thing to flaunt His laws a million lightyears away. On his doorstep*, not so much.

*Metaphysical, political, or physical. It's the Emperor. He's everywhere. Watching you. (Cielingcat is the Emperor's best buddy while they hang out watching. Eeeeverything.)

[Gavinfoxx]

Originally Posted by The Glyphstone

I think Cain would be deeply uncomfortable with the Culture, but more to the point, a Cain story isn't a Cain story unless he has to go on some dangerous, hairbrained mission. There won't be any dangerous hairbrained missions to go on within a few lightyears of the Culture, because anything a human considers 'dangerous and hairbrained' is Tuesday to SC.

I'm completely sure that some kind of dangerous and hairbrained mission can come up. Really. I trust Jseah to come up with something plausible. Cain is like... the super SC. Hell, he'd probably end up co-opted into an official liason to a SC team as they end up in some kind of absolutely awesome ADVENTURE!

And yes, I would agree that he would be deeply uncomfortable with the Culture.

[jseah]

Warp Rift diving is probably dangerous, Culture-tech or no.

Originally Posted by The Glyphstone

No, he gets all that, but he also wants to hedge his bets. You don't get to be a Rogue Trader by playing it safe, but you don't succeed as a Rogue Trader if you put all your eggs in one basket.

Ah, that's fair enough. I guess they can turn an asteroid into solid gold for him if he wants. I mean, after the matter-energy conversion tech, the SC agent herself can make his nest egg.

So, again. The Culture are just going to ask "What's your price?" Because all the Culture can give him is the basic science and plans to build... not-quite-equivi-tech but still good enough to trash anyone this side of reality short of a C'Tan.
And then they'll even turn it over to his Techpriests provided the techies agree to not run off to the Ad Mech (trying isn't likely to work). And even if none of them agree to, they can work out a mental implant for any particular crew member he cares to name that'll teach them how to use everything.

Hell, they can probably en-smarten his servitors.


After that, if he still wants to make an asteroid of solid thrones, he can do it. The Culture doesn't have to do it for him even. And obviously, they'll let him.

"You want a CAM launcher? Yes, first page twenty down. "
"You want a Lunar? Sure, just use so and so plan... although we recommend X and Y modification... *details*"
"You want a shipyard? Yeah that's ten pages over..."
"Asteroid miner? Solar statite collector? Antimatter manufacturing cyclotron? Space based hydroponics? All there. You have everything you need to start your own self-sufficient nation. "
"Thrones?! Seriously? Uh, ok, do you have a Throne we can scan? ... right, it's the new plan at the bottom. "
"You want to take over a planet? Are you sure you can handle it? Yes? Then go on ahead, you have free reign to do nearly whatever you want. You can call on us for help if you're getting in trouble. ... Oh, uh, just don't whack the Eldar or Necrons, it's kinda touchy. "

...

Hmm, how about. Backup services. The Culture gives him the tech (that doesn't include the ability to manufacture people) and will provide reloads from backup for eternity onwards in return for him doing some Chaos whacking on the side and serving as a possible contender for replacing the IoM's government.
(there are some rules as to the kind of government the Culture wants, namely a representative democracy, but they'll assure him that they'll only require elections until after they're done with Chaos)