Backstage - OOC Forums
EVE-Online RP Discussion and Resources => CCP Public Library => Topic started by: Yoshito Sanders on 07 Feb 2012, 18:50
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Is it just me or are these pieces of fiction on the new website previously unreleased? I certainly don't recall them:
http://www.eveonline.com/creations/fiction/3140/blood-and-ash/
http://www.eveonline.com/creations/fiction/3146/khadrea/
http://www.eveonline.com/creations/fiction/3149/timeout/
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These are definitely new. Interesting, too - must be the start of that whole "micro-fiction" thing Abraxas was talking about in his last blog.
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Yay I like that Khadrea one a lot.
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I liked Blood and Ash quite a bit myself.
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So, was perusing the EVE fiction forum earlier, and I noticed someone make reference to "the EON chronicles on the new site". I don't know if anyone who has a complete EON collection feels like poking through them, but might these be from EON?
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I feel like I've read a couple of them before.....
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err guys, those are E-On chrons......including their artwork
quite nice from CCP to make them free for reading to be honest.
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Welp - CCP Delegate Zero says (https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=772485#post772485) they're not EON, but new (Blood and Ash, Khadrea) or highly revised (Timeout) chronicles.
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The art from E-ON chronicles has been re-used for the new site chrons. Timeout uses the art from E-ON Exchange Rate, for example.
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The art from E-ON chronicles has been re-used for the new site chrons. Timeout uses the art from E-ON Exchange Rate, for example.
That makes a tremendous amount of sense.
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Yeah, I was a little disappointed when I realized they were only re-using the art work from Exchance Rate. Those EON Chronicles are too good to be locked up.
Exchange Rate is one of my favorite Chronicles and I used it as a bit of inspiration for the creation of this character. Thanks to whoever wrote that.
(I know it was one of you here)
♥
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That'd be me :D
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Which one was Exchange Rate? I barely remember my own writing for E-ON.
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Exchange Rate was about a lady capsuleer named Avi Tarkin. She undocks out of Kisogo in a Condor, on the maiden voyage if I'm recalling correctly, and when she arrives at the gate she is greeted by a pirate who's killing a bunch of innocent lives for ISK.
It's in the very first issue of EON.
Bravos on the good write. o7
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Hmm. I think I don't have a copy of issue 1. Zapatero kept promising to send me one, but never got to it.
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Make that four new chronicles?
http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Pax_Ammaria_%28Chronicle%29 (http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Pax_Ammaria_%28Chronicle%29)
Pax Ammaria.
...it is the only way to be sure.
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Aaaand, now my faction is retarded.
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Didn't the Pax Ammaria come out relatively recently, too? Just prior to the start of the game recently?
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Aaaand, now my faction is retarded.
In before "you're religious, you already were" from Miz. :P
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Well, that's Miz for you.
But seriously, nice to see Amarr in it's entirety is just a big joke haha.
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Didn't the Pax Ammaria come out relatively recently, too? Just prior to the start of the game recently?
Tib and I were discussing this, and yes, I'm fairly sure that it was a recent thing as well - wasn't the publishing of the Pax Amarria one of the things that directly lead Hiederian (sp?) to get the Aidonis award?
I looked through Evelopedia, though, and all references to a print date appear to have been cleansed.
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Well, clearly the mistake wasn't a mistake, as the fact that every important person involved in the publishing of the book was in on it. Heideran meant the title to be spelled with two 'M's' rather than two 'R's', making it Pax Ammaria (as in Ammatar) rather than Pax Amarria (as in Amarr). What I don't get is why the persecution of the book takes place well before the Emperor's death. The chron strongly suggests it was mainly the Theology Council and Chamberlain that were responsible for the - OH WAIT, ya this chron is retarded.
Fuck you CCP fiction people, fuck you.
Tib and I were discussing this, and yes, I'm fairly sure that it was a recent thing as well - wasn't the publishing of the Pax Amarria one of the things that directly lead Hiederian (sp?) to get the Aidonis award?
I looked through Evelopedia, though, and all references to a print date appear to have been cleansed.
Dear God, they're pulling a Ministry of Internal Order move.
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http://community.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=135&tid=4
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Kudos to Louella, Keeper of the Sacred Truth.
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CCP: Always filter prime fiction through RPers. We will catch any and all inconsistancies with an obsessive, laser-like focus. And then, we will let you know.
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(http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/3368/wutfishmg9.jpg)
I'm Sansha and even I can see the huge internal consistency issues with this.
Also the sheer ridiculousness over a single typo and the ensuing deaths smacks pretty heavily of warhammer 40,000 levels of ridiculous. While hilarious, this is not warhammer 40,000.
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unreliable narrator ?
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There's unreliable narrators, and then there's completely full of shit.
Unless CCP is doing some serious retcons, this chron falls under the latter. :\
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unreliable narrator ?
Unless it is literally the most unreliable of narrators, and the story is written under the presumption of being completely incorrect in-character. There are factual errors that exist that contradict the PF, and it's not clear if the narrator is unreliable or the editing missed a lot of problems.
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http://community.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=135&tid=4
heideran vii's much appraised book 'pax amarria' published
2003.09.03 19:15:56
Pax Amarria, a book written by the Amarr Emperor Heideran VII himself, was released yesterday through the Amarr Empire Ministry of Information. It will be published shortly in other empires. In the book, Heideran VII describes his lifelong dream for galactic peace and how he has worked zealously to enforce his vision. The book has met great critical acclaim throughout the Empire and political analysts everywhere say it's a 'must-read' for everyone interested in inter-stellar politics.
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Pasted here, just in case they wipe that one as well.
I think anyone could, and should, treat the chron as a joke, some hack selling a cheap knock off he got that has the mis-spelled title. Maybe if enough of us RPer's start posting the true dates of the Pax, we can get CCP to change its mind.
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Yep, that chron is pretty much "all space Empires must be Imperium of Mankind" type. Hunting "counterfeit" scripture is something I understand, and missions have before referenced the player levelling "heretics", but some of the stuff on the chron is a bit overblown.
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Yep. I'm taking the "story is full of crock" route with this.
Personally, I see some significance in that the Evelopedia has not had any references to the Pax Ammaria (spelling intended) added to it. The "well they wouldn't know because the MIO covered it all up" argument doesn't work here either, because Evelopedia is full of tons of stuff we can't possibly know IC.
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http://community.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=135&tid=4
louella, how can you search such new snippets so far back in time? i've been able to find old news items for gallente related stuff but the new website format keeps screwing with me
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http://community.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=135&tid=4
louella, how can you search such new snippets so far back in time? i've been able to find old news items for gallente related stuff but the new website format keeps screwing with me
google :\
google found the "book of eve", which is a player-made compilation of news articles, chronicles, short stories etc.
http://go-dl1.eve-files.com/media/corp/SantaClaw/EVE_News.pdf
and yes, the new website thing doesn't always seem to have the "related" things, you know, it had a list of things the news article was filed under? click on "emperor family" to get a list of news articles about the Emperor Family etc.
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And it's for this reason I sometimes pity Jesmine.
...and myself for playing her. Dealing with the IC back-lashes of the Fed's history etc. is one thing, but the Empire consistently becomes this absurd caricature drawing that's just all out of proportion.
"This village here might have ONE COPY of a book we want burned. MIGHT.HAVE.ONE.COPY. Might. Maybe.
Let's not even bother to go make sure, because we don't really give a shit about our own citizens, nope. Let's nuke the site from orbit and send a few hundred thousand Amarr to God ahead of time because there MIGHT BE A FUCKING BOOK IN THE VILLAGE THAT WE DON'T LIKE.
Yes of course. Because with a fleet of warships, or even just one ship, it's impossible to send down enough troops to secure the entire village and search it, or in worst case, bring out all the people THEN torching the place. That would make sense - we are the fucking evil empire so let's instead do the most idiotic-over-the-fucking-top thing we can and kill everyone and scorch the place. Just to make sure.
I though Tony G left CCP, this smells badly of his brand of Empire-hating bullshit.
Ironically that's what I'll consider this article. None of my toons have any reason to believe such an absurd story so if anyone, ANYONE, comes out and claims the Empire did this to their own over a book or whatever, that's what I'll tell them. "Bullshit." Then I'll tell them OOC where the issue lies and how the not-retconned-to-shit facts stand on the matter.
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I think you lot complaining about the Amarr Empire being made to sound like something out of 40k are pretty misguided.
We're talking about a race that saw fit to expand into space so they could find lesser cultures to crush and enslave. They're not nice people. They're a people who are accustomed to the sight of slaves in day-to-day life, and they're OK with it morally. If cultures are to be judged by how they treat their weakest members, this is one sick puppy of a culture. The Amarr would be right at home in 40k's hilariously over-the-top megadeath universe.
Answering a misprint of a book with a typo with OTT oppressiveness and brutality is precisely what I'd expect a slave-driving theocratic empire to pull off. Nuking a village that contains a copy is a surefire way of stopping the heresy from spreading, after all. The neighboring villages and towns will see a lance of light like the finger of god striking down into a nearby area, and shortly afterward, air-dropped leaflets will inform them that their neighbors have been judged wanting in the eyes of the Lord, and that they should not mourn the former den of heretics turned smoldering crater. Thus the faithful are encouraged to redouble their faith, and the wayward are warned to submit. Praise the lord and cycle the tachyons.
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Was the American South during the time of slavery okay with obliterating one of their own cities over a book?
Was the Roman Empire?
Were the Greeks?
Now, Rome and Greece burnt towns and villages to the ground all the time when they were conquering them or quelling full-blown rebellion. Not in peace time because there was some vaguely threatening document supposedly in the general vicinity. I'm alright with bad things happening, just not them being so utterly implausible it's mind-boggling.
Another thing is that this chron is utterly confusing. Why is half of the Empire trying to destroy a book written by the Emperor himself? Is it really because of an error, or did the Emperor write something heretical? Why is the book so dangerous? Why does EVERYBODY have to die? Nothing is explained.
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Rome and Greece were actually relatively small nations. Not very densely populated. We're talking about a nation that contains dozens of populated worlds and hundreds of colonies.
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Was the American South during the time of slavery okay with obliterating one of their own cities over a book?
Was the Roman Empire?
Were the Greeks?
Now, Rome and Greece burnt towns and villages to the ground all the time when they were conquering them or quelling full-blown rebellion. Not in peace time because there was some vaguely threatening document supposedly in the general vicinity. I'm alright with bad things happening, just not them being so utterly implausible it's mind-boggling.
I can imagine it being run more like the most brutal and incomprehensibly nasty inquisition however.
Lone Ordinators in search of single copies locking down an entire village / city district and forcing the damned book to the surface so that the owner can be burn't slowly to death and his records wiped from the registers of all Imperial documents.
...but ORBITALLY bombarding a village? Yeah no. The realities of deploying that sort of fire-power is just stupid - orbital bombardments are basically nuke like, so the Amarr randomly like nuking themselves? yeah no.
Along with PF inconsistencies... just, wtf-is-this-shit.
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It does seem extreme, but as a thought, this IS an extreme universe. Even the Federation is far more extreme because of its libertarianism. We might be expecting easily relateable and familiar nations. The Gallente have spore launchers embedded in city flora as a form of semi-narcotic advertising. That's just as wierd, in its own way, of eradicating a village based on a book.
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Why obliterate villages/residental sectors with orbital bombardment, when you can enslave them for reeducation and the Empires' seemingly unending need for human labor resources?
They can't be any ideologically worse than the non-Empire slaves that are brought in under the Reclaiming.
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Yeah, maybe. Maybe they can't be fucked with spending the resources. Authoritarian states IRL don't have a great track record, and Amarr are most definitely authoritarian.
It seems there are two EVEs here...one is a caricature Gallente who clumsily try to colonize others because freedom is good but they actually have no idea what they're doing...another is that they demonstrate strong political restraint with a light government footprint, while still being able to push their goals through more subtle and covert means. Same with the Empire...a stable beast full of necessary evils, having preserved countless races from killing each other off by enslaving them...or just evil.
Internet culture is quite liberal and alternative thinking. It's why Minmatar and Caldari get a better job, since they represent 'alternative' societies, despite their gaping issues.
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The most offensive part to me is right here;
" As the hunt became harder, frustrations mounted and methods became more extreme, and more and more sightings were referred directly to the Ministry's elite Ordinators. Quiet infiltration operations gave way to screaming dropships disgorging armored troops into sleepy bookstores, which in turn gave way to orbital strikes against entire settlements suspected of harboring a lone copy. The Ordinators were fanatical in their pursuit and uncompromising in their methods."
Suspected. Not confirmed, or in any way sure. They obliterated entire settlements because there MIGHT be a book there, ignoring even the idea that they should double-check, or confirming that the people in the settlement was in any way in on it. Ergo, even if there was some lone person hiding in the town pretending to be a modest, innocent settler along his own faithful fellows, with a special printing-mistake in a locked chest somewhere, the Ordinators would just kill him/her along with ever single other perfectly innocent citizen just to make sure, and it wasn't even guaranteed that there was a copy there. That's not grim-dark, that down-right idiotic and moronically incompetent.
"Sup guys, I hear there may be, possibly be this guy, in Dam Torsod, hiding out with a few of these books. Maybe. Bring ya fleets and let's go glass the capital, just to be safe, yeah?"
Another annoying factor is that not even the 40k Imperium is this idiotic - the Imperium, on occasional, burn entire planets down. But this nearly always has a good reason behind it - full-fledged heretical chaos incursion that will be/has so far proven to be far to costly to remove, massive alien invasions that will be completely to costly to remove. Human lives is the imperium's greatest currency and they count in it. If it costs millions of Guardsmen to clear out a planet and this is worth taking the planet back, in the poor bastards go. If not? Viral-bombs from orbit.
This even goes all the way down to the same small-settlement scale - they get torched every now and then, but again, for reasons usually understandable. Treason, heresy, collaboration with aliens, incompetence, etc. As far as I can remember I've yet to read a 40k story involving the Imperium flattening some settlement because there might be one heretic there, or whatever. Usually they send in some troops for that, or in the case of heretics, the Sisters/Inquisition makes a visit. Or even the local planetary guard forces and their attached imperial priests, even. Nukes from orbit is usually not the first and only option considered, let alone used...
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http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Redeeming_the_9th_anniversary_present?utm_source=2012May9thAnniversary1&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2012May9thAnniversary1 (http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Redeeming_the_9th_anniversary_present?utm_source=2012May9thAnniversary1&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2012May9thAnniversary1)
Have a look at gift number 8, a Collectors edition of Pax Ammaria.
... the Amarr obliterate whole settlements out of hand on the mere mention they MIGHT have one of these, even if they are functionally identical to these; Pax Amarria (http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Pax_Amarria).
Tens of thousands of Capsuleers might have a copy for free as a gift starting tomorrow :bash:
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In a mission against the CONFIRMED heretical cult "flame of peace", other than the cult leader who you shoot down and presumably destroy, the surviving cult members are "mind wiped" and put into corrective slavery.
This, after having INVESTIGATED rumours about things.
Not being sent to obliterate things at the first hint.
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Also, it is about the Theology Council's order: "All copies must be destroyed", rather than the misspelling itself.
The existence of a copy, means a Council order is unfulfilled. To have a copy, is to defy the Council.
But still, it is hardly a case for orbital bombs.
Also, the Amarr Empire, has been in space for 2000 years, and has existed for >8000. They are also a practical society, and would know that extreme authoritarianism is not very stable.
Furthermore, the Khanid Zealot background would be nonexistent, if such inquisitions were routine. Given that the Khanid Zealots ancestry is all about the various Khanid cults that have different interpretations of the Scriptures. If such inquisition tactics were so trivially used, the Khanids would have been wiped from the Empire a long time ago.
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also:
http://community.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=137&tid=4
where is the amarr emperor?
2003.09.08 17:31:31
Since emperor Heideran VII failed to attend a CONCORD meeting the other day there has been no signs of him anywhere. All plans for his public appearance have been cancelled, including many book signings of his new book, Pax Amarria. News from the Amarrian authorities have been conflicting, with offices of the Imperial Chamberlain saying he's resting from a slight ailment, while the Imperial Chancellor says he's on a vacation at one of his remote palaces and does not want to be disturbed. The rumor-mill is already at full speed as could be expected and speculations are ripe.
emphasis added
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Also, the Amarr Empire, has been in space for 2000 years, and has existed for >8000. They are also a practical society, and would know that extreme authoritarianism is not very stable.
Very true. I think its own of those pandering to lowest common denominator things. 98% of the playerbase won't care...and now they feel badass for having a naughty book. for a funny reason.
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Was the American South during the time of slavery okay with obliterating one of their own cities over a book?
I suspect they'd have been happy to burn a barn full of runaway slaves teaching each other to read the Rights of Man though. (sense of scale in proportion) Amarrian Empire millions of times bigger than the Confederate States.
Was the Roman Empire?
They sure razed and salted one of the greatest multicultural trading cities of the era into the ground and salted the ruins so that nothing grew there for a couple of thousand years. Roman Empire (well republic technically) with orbital lasers - sure I believe they were completely capable of razing a village from orbit for ideological reasons.
Were the Greeks?
Alexander the Great destroyed the City of Thebes to send a message to the other greek city states (you're either with me or against me more or less). All inhabitants slaughtered outright or sold into slavery.
Now, Rome and Greece burnt towns and villages to the ground all the time when they were conquering them or quelling full-blown rebellion. Not in peace time because there was some vaguely threatening document supposedly in the general vicinity. I'm alright with bad things happening, just not them being so utterly implausible it's mind-boggling.
Why is it implausible that an empire built on the interpretation of faith with religious devotion as a method of civil control would consider written ideas a significant threat? Our own history on Earth tells of some of the violent purges the early Catholic church had against its own on minor matters of interpretation after the Nicaean council and subsequent ecumenical councils.
Its interesting reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_heresies_in_Catholicism
Specifically in what it actually takes to get somebody labelled a heretic and burned at the stake.
(and consider that a couple of heretical priests in our history certain = settlements and towns in the Eve Universe given the vastly wider scope of the space opera we play)
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Why is it implausible that an empire built on the interpretation of faith with religious devotion as a method of civil control would consider witten ideas a significant threat?
Yes, for significant threats. The chronicle never explains why two 'misplaced' letters are such a significant threat, which is the most frustrating thing about the story. WHY are some of the most powerful institutions in the Empire wasting vast amounts of resources tracking down misprinted books when they could be weeding out Blooder cults or stomping Minmatar terrorists? Is there something deeper about the meaning of the 'misprint', is it some kind of hidden message, subliminal mind control, or is a mark on the professional dignity of the Imperial Presses that humiliating that everyone involved in it needs to be tortured and killed, then everything in the general vicinity of that error needs to be melted? This would all make perfect sense if the book was in some way seriously heretical. But there is no indication to that. It's just a misprint.
Assuming this book is really that dangerous, the act of repression makes perfect sense for the Empire. But still, the scorched earth method still does not, because it simply would cause more harm than even potential good. I admit that practicality is not always on the mind of Imperial officials, but there is a certain point where routine destruction of settlements is going to get noticed and complained about. "Pardon me, but I was the Holder of that town and I rather liked the income I was receiving from it... Now, I understand the importance of a mandate from the Theology Council, but could you please do your operations with a bit more FUCKING PROFESSIONALISM?!" I suppose then you off the Holder and his family, silence anyone else who might have known the real truth (at this point probably a few hundred people), blame it on the Minmatar and fly off to chase the next lead. Job well done! Only had to behead the leadership and collapse the economy of a small corner of Silly Planet #143. Now to do the same to the rest!
There's a big difference between this:
"Sir, we believe the book is in this town. What are your orders?"
"Gather up suspects, interrogate them thoroughly and scour the town. The book will not escape us."
And this:
"Sir, we believe the book is in this town. What are your orders?"
"Blow it up, zero shits given."
So please, explain to me how any of this would make sense in any society besides the Imperium of Man. As I said, I really don't mind the Empire doing evil things, I just want these evil things to be complicated affairs that make sense in the end. Now, I am going to assume that there is more than meets the eye with the story described in the chron, and I will chalk it up to poor writing that it is not well hinted at. However, if you take the chron at face value it just makes the Empire seem like a caricature; an over-simplified mass of stupid government and even more stupid bureaucratic floundering. This is boring. If we're going to have something uber ebil, please take the time to have it make some sort of sense.
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Noteworthy that old Aritcio's blowing up one of his subjects' settlements was something that was intervened by the Speakers of Truth - in a case where there was significant evidence that they were acting against the Heir's orders (no matter how nonsensical they were). But yes, at least I think the references to "Amarr God-Emperor" were retconned out of the game.
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I love the idea of rehabilitation slavery in this case.
Thousands of shackled slaves in front of chalkboards, writing "Pax Amarria has only one m" over and over again.
This has to be the worst way to recover from a programming error ever. ("wait, didnt someone get the correct spelling down from Storyline to Programming? Shit, ok, ok, we can fix this...")
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Why is it implausible that an empire built on the interpretation of faith with religious devotion as a method of civil control would consider witten ideas a significant threat?
Yes, for significant threats. The chronicle never explains why two 'misplaced' letters are such a significant threat, which is the most frustrating thing about the story. WHY are some of the most powerful institutions in the Empire wasting vast amounts of resources tracking down misprinted books when they could be weeding out Blooder cults or stomping Minmatar terrorists? Is there something deeper about the meaning of the 'misprint', is it some kind of hidden message, subliminal mind control, or is a mark on the professional dignity of the Imperial Presses that humiliating that everyone involved in it needs to be tortured and killed, then everything in the general vicinity of that error needs to be melted? This would all make perfect sense if the book was in some way seriously heretical. But there is no indication to that. It's just a misprint.
Assuming this book is really that dangerous, the act of repression makes perfect sense for the Empire. But still, the scorched earth method still does not, because it simply would cause more harm than even potential good. I admit that practicality is not always on the mind of Imperial officials, but there is a certain point where routine destruction of settlements is going to get noticed and complained about. "Pardon me, but I was the Holder of that town and I rather liked the income I was receiving from it... Now, I understand the importance of a mandate from the Theology Council, but could you please do your operations with a bit more FUCKING PROFESSIONALISM?!" I suppose then you off the Holder and his family, silence anyone else who might have known the real truth (at this point probably a few hundred people), blame it on the Minmatar and fly off to chase the next lead. Job well done! Only had to behead the leadership and collapse the economy of a small corner of Silly Planet #143. Now to do the same to the rest!
There's a big difference between this:
"Sir, we believe the book is in this town. What are your orders?"
"Gather up suspects, interrogate them thoroughly and scour the town. The book will not escape us."
And this:
"Sir, we believe the book is in this town. What are your orders?"
"Blow it up, zero shits given."
So please, explain to me how any of this would make sense in any society besides the Imperium of Man. As I said, I really don't mind the Empire doing evil things, I just want these evil things to be complicated affairs that make sense in the end. Now, I am going to assume that there is more than meets the eye with the story described in the chron, and I will chalk it up to poor writing that it is not well hinted at. However, if you take the chron at face value it just makes the Empire seem like a caricature; an over-simplified mass of stupid government and even more stupid bureaucratic floundering. This is boring. If we're going to have something uber ebil, please take the time to have it make some sort of sense.
Aldrith, I fucking loved your post. This may be due to vodka. I am responding to it specifically.
Imagine if there was an empire. One built entirely on the precepts that some people are holier than others, and thus automatically know better than you, how to live your life. Imagine that at the head of this empire sat an Emperor, a quasi-immortal being who has defied centuries of death to bring you a message from god. This Emperor is infallible because he was chosen by GOD HIMSELF and if you believe anything different you get sold into slavery. Now imagine how such an infallible emperor would deal with a typo misprint of his treasured work, meant to be read by all Amarr.
There is plenty of bureaucracy, yes, and there is plenty of civilized-acting fellows in shiny coats who do not think they are evil; but in the end, their very empire is an evil, a stratified slave-ridden caste system where everyone gains the handholds to advance forward by driving their daggers into an older man's back. This is what the Amarr are, an ever-expanding religiously justified termite mound.
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If that's all they were, we never would have cared.
If that's all they are now, then we won't care any longer.
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I think what I'm the most upset about is that the chron just confuses the hell out of me. I have no idea why things are blowing up, and that's the author's fault for not being clear about it. Is the Theology Council, MIO and Chamberlain trying to eliminate all first editions of the book because it is the only one that is untouched by their censorship (which would make for a compelling story), or is it because some dude goofed on the front cover of one of the most important books in the universe and SOMEHOW the 5-jillion people working on it didn't notice until after it shipped. Option #1 is awesome. Option #2 is derp.
I'm going with Option #1 because I really can't imagine anyone willing to die to protect a 2-letter misprint.
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People getting all bent out of shape out of a chron that's intentionally written to be jokey.
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People getting all bent out of shape out of a chron that's intentionally written to be jokey.
The chronicle does a poor way of conveying that, unless its complete absurdity is meant to show that.
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Ass Mode
An intentional series of behaviors or statements by a disgruntled employee designed to harass the employer with out reaching a level that would result in the justified termination of the employee.
Ass Mode was first seen on the CBS "Late Late Show" with Craig Ferguson. Where Craig often say's something that is not politically correct or controversial ad will end the statement with the CBS catch phrase "CBS Cares" This behavior has also been seen on the "David Letterman Show" when Dave will say things about GE which owns CBS.
Craig will sometimes tell the audience that the show is running in ass mode because CBS is so cheap that the lighting hasn't been fixed, or a graphic was reused by crossing out part of it and crudely drawing in the new material
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If that's all they were, we never would have cared.
If that's all they are now, then we won't care any longer.
^
Can we get less goofy Amarr material for once or are they just here to be the laughing stock of the cluster since Heideran and Doriam died ? I am starting to get seriously bored of the usual "Amarr are evil twirling mustache jesters". DONT MAKE NO SENSE IN MY EVE.
Reminds me of Clear Skies 2 "Blame the Amarr. Nobody likes them anyway." No wonder why Amarrian RPers are dying since TEA.
I think what I'm the most upset about is that the chron just confuses the hell out of me. I have no idea why things are blowing up, and that's the author's fault for not being clear about it. Is the Theology Council, MIO and Chamberlain trying to eliminate all first editions of the book because it is the only one that is untouched by their censorship (which would make for a compelling story), or is it because some dude goofed on the front cover of one of the most important books in the universe and SOMEHOW the 5-jillion people working on it didn't notice until after it shipped. Option #1 is awesome. Option #2 is derp.
I'm going with Option #1 because I really can't imagine anyone willing to die to protect a 2-letter misprint.
This is what I have never liked with most of their newer chrons (unlike the old descriptives ones about Concord, Khanid, Blood Raiders, Vak'Atioth, etc etc) : they always have to be cryptic in some way, and make you scratch your head over and over again wondering what they meant with that. Sometimes to a point where I start to wonder if they are not thinking "omg look how deep my stories are !".
Reminds me of the end of ME3. Want to be artistic and tends to forget everything else related to the context.
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I think you are missing the point here.
The narrator of this chronicle is, presumably, a Paxista or Paxist as per the definitions given within it. The stories of settlements being obliterated for suspected posession of a copy is the view of one person. Think of this person as a conspiracy theorist and the chronicle makes much more sense.
That's not to say the bit about copies being hunted down because their existance goes against an order of the Theology Council doesn't make sense.
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Yeah; my way of making sense of the chronicle has hinged heavily on unreliable narration and the narrator's attempt to win over a capsuleer -- who are a bit notorious in the fiction for not having the greatest of connections to the world around them, in some cases. Whether not taking the chronicles as the word of God is what was intended or not, I'm unsure, but I've found some to make much more sense that way.
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I was going with the idea of:
1. The Pax Ammarria is Bad News
2. The reason it is bad news isn't exactly what is stated in the chronicle, but the story in the chronicle is a theory that has come up, to explain some goings on.
To explain:
The notion of a central press printing everything is somewhat inefficient, given the size and scope of the Empire (40% of all inhabitable space or thereabouts, not including Mandate & Kingdom).
Instead, it is a network of local printers, but it is still "the court chamberlain's personal press", in the same manner of doing things as occurs in one of the Amarr COSMOS missions: Saint Ageroth being wrapped in a few thousand death shrouds, so that many different shrines can have "the genuine death shroud of Saint Ageroth"
So... during the printing process, one of the localised printers, made The Extra M, and as a result there was an Investigation.
And it was found that the local printer was also distributing Seditious Literature (gasp!), including things not too dissimilar to the http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Fraudulent_Pax_Amarria
And, subsequent investigations find cultists, good old Sani Sabiks, hence, the Theology Council assault troopers.
Anyone with the Pax Ammarria, may be a Sani Sabik, according to the Investigation, Or a sympathiser. Or some other kind of seditious person, the nature of their treasonous heresy will be determined when they are found guilty at trial (they are always guilty).
So... the Pax Ammarria is Bad News, but the reasons why it is Bad News are Wildly Speculated About.
Least, that's how I'm interpreting it :)
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Yeah; my way of making sense of the chronicle has hinged heavily on unreliable narration and the narrator's attempt to win over a capsuleer -- who are a bit notorious in the fiction for not having the greatest of connections to the world around them, in some cases. Whether not taking the chronicles as the word of God is what was intended or not, I'm unsure, but I've found some to make much more sense that way.
At Fan Fest I asked for more unreliable narrator story stuff - specifically stuff that was "true" from one point of view that contradicted other stuff that was "true" from another point of view.
Abraxas specifically said they wanted to avoid unreliable narrator stuff, I think because they had enough difficulty keeping everything straight when it could be taken at face value, and trying to keep it straight when it was intentionally biased would make life for them even harder.
I also think they reserved the right to make stuff unreliable if it made the story better... so I'm not sure what my conclusion is :(
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Given some of Abraxas' recent comments in the related EVE-O forum thread, I think it's fairly safe to say that this story was meant to be a deliberate combination of unreliable narrator, tongue-in-cheek amusement, and that when, in Greyscale's words, we read of something as absurd as orbital bombardment to destroy settlements even suspected of harboring a book with a single mispelling, we should be reasonable enough to roll our eyes, say "yeah right", chuckle and move on.
Poe's law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law) was fully in effect here, and I guess the point was missed the point.
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The trouble arises when there's multiple styles mixed within the same lot. Of course, one might be expected to be able to figure out all by themselves what is caricatyred, what is "hearsay" and where we have Word-of-God (apply plural as you feel inclined), but the practice is a bit more difficult.
Specially when we already have had a few instances of "factual" text gone thru the QA which are written from the point of view of Amarr Empire = Imperium of Mankind.
(Though yes, I did find the discussed chronicle amusing. Not as amusing as ponies, though.)
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Oh certainly, and in my response to Abraxas I pointed out that there very much has been enough stereotyping of Amarr that it's not completely crazy for people to look at this and assume it's serious. Mainly, though, I'm glad this story isn't part of it.
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Of course, in the real world places have been bombed and/or missiled into oblivion because it was believed a terrorist was there. Pity about the bystanders.
So maybe orbital strikes aren't so crazy an idea after all?
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Of course, in the real world places have been bombed and/or missiled into oblivion because it was believed a terrorist was there. Pity about the bystanders.
So maybe orbital strikes aren't so crazy an idea after all?
These cases were done by outsiders bombing people they did not give two shits about. I'd like to see, say, the US bomb Alabama because a terrorist MIGHT be hiding there. More likely they will consider other options. The over-reaction and stupidity assumed for the Amarr are absurd here. Highly unreliable narrator, fanciful lies and idiotic bullshit is what I'll assume from this in and out of character whenever this pops up in future. It already has and it will again, I'm sure.
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Of course, in the real world places have been bombed and/or missiled into oblivion because it was believed a terrorist was there. Pity about the bystanders.
So maybe orbital strikes aren't so crazy an idea after all?
These cases were done by outsiders bombing people they did not give two shits about. I'd like to see, say, the US bomb Alabama because a terrorist MIGHT be hiding there. More likely they will consider other options. The over-reaction and stupidity assumed for the Amarr are absurd here. Highly unreliable narrator, fanciful lies and idiotic bullshit is what I'll assume from this in and out of character whenever this pops up in future. It already has and it will again, I'm sure.
That can be done easily inside an empire. Consider, the troops used for the Tianemen square protest where deliberately brought in from another province, and would have had trouble speaking to the protestors. In more ancient times Roman auxilliaries used to be posted to places in the Empire far away from home. Ideally this would mean less empathy with the locals.
To be honest though, I'm only being devil's advocate here. The story in the chronicle does seem unlikely to me as well.
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These cases were done by outsiders bombing people they did not give two shits about. I'd like to see, say, the US bomb Alabama because a terrorist MIGHT be hiding there.
I'd like to see the US bomb Alabama because well... it's Alabama.
I think carpet-bombing the red states would do the US a lot of good. :|
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These cases were done by outsiders bombing people they did not give two shits about. I'd like to see, say, the US bomb Alabama because a terrorist MIGHT be hiding there.
I'd like to see the US bomb Alabama because well... it's Alabama.
I think carpet-bombing the red states would do the US a lot of good. :|
I would not be opposed to the carpet-bombing of Jesusland so that the rest of the states could have an excuse to go join Canadia.