Backstage - OOC Forums
EVE-Online RP Discussion and Resources => EVE OOC Summit => Topic started by: Silver Night on 27 Jul 2010, 16:12
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Another post to see what people's ideas are about non-obvious angles Serpentis RP might take.
What sort of things might there be to the Serps other than just being New Eden's drug dealers?
Keeping in mind that I'm not suggesting that the following would be anything other than a small minority:
Maybe a faction of Serps that are politically active, with an interest in increasing Serp influence in Placid not just to gain power (thought there is that) but also to help the region. Some of them might even be from Placid, and disillusioned with the Fed. Maybe something similar, but with Syndicate. Maybe they see the Serps as a possible uniting influence to bring order to what they feel is a chaotic system.
Perhaps a group of Serps that are legitimately interested in doing 'good' (and helping to establish a power base among the local poor in their area). They might use some of their illicit profits to open free clinics and fund social programs in impoverished communities on planets and stations in the Fed. (Perhaps said clinics are also used for less altruistic purposes.)
Maybe a faction that feels like they want less Angel influence in their business?
I seem to also remember that Saxon Hawke had some info on a Serp Cult. If you're around, Saxon, would like to see more about that. :D
Anyway, what're your ideas?
See the other 'Unusual RP angles" threads: Blooders (http://backstage.eve-inspiracy.com/index.php?topic=330.0) and Sansha (http://backstage.eve-inspiracy.com/index.php?topic=528.0)
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Group of serpentis doing fringe research to medical sciences, bordering on mad-science. Fringe research on mental health, lets think victorian age kinda dark and creepy asylum stuff.
Black market clones and and body modifications for the Average Joe. Wanted that bigger junk to wave around? With scales... and poisonous needles. Tails, cat ears... gills. Pick your freak fetish. Snakes provide quality gene splicing.
I will post in more detail when I have time :3
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Have recently been brainstorming some 'Venture Capitalist' Ideas for AI, where by we help people get set up with a project/etc and take a cut of the profits till investment has paid for itself.
It's still rather vague though. XD
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Long layover is long.
Silver, whatever gave you these ideas? (http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1336725)
They might use some of their illicit profits to open free clinics and fund social programs in impoverished communities on planets and stations in the Fed. (Perhaps said clinics are also used for less altruistic purposes.)
What's that now? (http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1341859)
Perhaps a group of Serps that are legitimately interested in doing 'good' (and helping to establish a power base among the local poor in their area).
You don't mean... (http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1351473)
Some of them might even be from Placid, and disillusioned with the Fed.
By my boots! (http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1355274)
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Clearly I need to read IGS more :D
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I would not consider Serpentis "pirates" in the standard definition.
Instead, I see them as illegal corporate paramilitaries. Their focus is on booster production and feeding the narcotics market in the Federation, not pillage/plunder, or in the case of Cartel/Guristas, conquering territory by claiming tribute. Their focus is not power in this regard. Take a look at the extent of the Serpentis, just a constellation, yet they are able to give the second-largest nation a run for their money. This is contrasted with the Angels and Guristas outrightly controlling an entire region each.
I see it as the Serpentis attempting to leverage in on the Federation's business community through fronts...maybe the SDII have trouble with them...
"Agent, we need you to infiltrate this warehouse owned by GenericCorp. Obviously, we can't just go in because we'll be breaking the law, the free flow of business and all that, since we don't have any proof. We need you to hack into their secure computers and find evidence that they are actually a front for the Serpentis, supplying narcotics to this area"
This is contrasted with the more generic piratisms of the Angels/Guristas...
"Agent, the Guristas are plundering some village on a remote lowsec colony, go take care of it by eliminating them".
May be hindsight by CCP that they'd rather not call them pirates, but just rogue states.
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Well, the Serpentis in particularly hired the Guardian Angels as their security force. So rather than think of them as a paramilitary per se, I tend to view them as something like a megacorp gone bad who's moved out to where they won't have so much interference with those pesky government regulations.
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Well, the Serpentis in particularly hired the Guardian Angels as their security force. So rather than think of them as a paramilitary per se, I tend to view them as something like a megacorp gone bad who's moved out to where they won't have so much interference with those pesky government regulations.
This is close to what my view has always been, I think.
Speaking of Megacorps, what about deniable cooperation between the Serps and a Caldari Megacorp?
NOH, perhaps? I could see SuVee or even Ishukone too. Again, this might be a deniable connection, perhaps even a corporation under the megacorp umbrella doing something on its own initiative.
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Well IRED did buy all my drugs at one point. :D
What interests me at the moment is I've looked over a few Serpentis Missions/Complexes, and a lot of them seem to have nation ships in them.
Whilst I'm not really happy to 'jump on the bandwagon' so to speak, I'm wondering what the connection is.
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Milo, do you mean that the Serpentis missions and plexes have Sansha ships in them, or something else?
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Several missions against Serpentis have Sansha rats in them. There's a L2 (or maybe it's L1) storyline that has some, and there's at least one L1 mission that does as well that I know of off the top of my head.
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Additionally, there's a DED Deadspace Complex: http://moiracorp.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/contract-report-sanshaserpentis-collusion/
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Several missions against Serpentis have Sansha rats in them. There's a L2 (or maybe it's L1) storyline that has some, and there's at least one L1 mission that does as well that I know of off the top of my head.
It's the Serpentis L1 "Seek and Destroy". Dropbear advised me some time ago not to read too much into the Sansha presence in that and other Serpentis missions (yep, I did ask him about it), since it's likely just an artifact of the mission designer's(s') NPC ship balancing.
(However, I do think it'd be awesome if there was a Serpentis-Sansha connection, even if one was trying to destroy the other.)
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The Serpentis cult is the Aenebra and the pertinent prime fiction is the article found here: http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=1955&tid=5 (http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=1955&tid=5)
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Cough cough cough (http://moiracorp.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/contract-report-sanshaserpentis-collusion/).
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Serps working with Sansha is roughly as sensible as trying to drink out of the wrong side of a glass.
If the world becomes a utopia, where will they find troubled youths to sell drugs to or criminals to hire as planetary agents? That is unless there was some fragment of the corporation that expected the Sansha to fail, therefore were selling tech to them with the assured result that they would keep the money, and their customers and the evidence of the deal were blown up by capsuleer forces. But considering the toasters seemed to whip eggers pretty good for a time, that seems like a stupid investment.
Do toasters even use money? I would have expected them to be using like, Big Daddy Kuvakei Fun Dollars by now. It's not like he's selling arms to anyone now that he's been given the image of a transmogrified cyborg mastermind in the public sphere. So what kind of economic influence do they really have?
Come to think of it, if Kuvakei's vision of the future is realized, capitalism will no longer be a valid structure for society. So in working with the Sansha, Sarpati would be destroying everything he built his life's foundation upon as the owner of an R&D corporation.
If anything, the Serpentis would stand to make a killing in the green collar economy if they gave someone else a fighting chance, which would give some sort of validity to the concept of them assisting the Federation or fringe elements fighting against the toasters. But working WITH or FOR them? No evidence, no logic, and no gain for what is essentially the greediest Mega in the world.
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The Serpentis have business interests in drug production, illegal implant technology, and the cloning markets (recalling off hand). These are three categories that would to a Sansha, make them desirable for business. Unlike the Angel Cartel, who is in direct contact with the Nation's borders, the Nation has no reason to oppose the Serpentis outside of them being Angel allies. I may be missing something here, but nothing alarm worthy comes to mind. (Colony suicide pills might be a reason if that ever gets expanded upon as Serpentis)
There is the ideological angle to consider, but down to business the Sansha would have a place for the Serpentis' business - just not how it gets out into the public.
It's possible in my mind for the Serpentis to find motivations to work for the Nation, but they'd have to overcome their current business with the Angels. In an end game scenario if the Nation is winning, for example, I could see the Serpentis turning.
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Serpentis relies on the current structure of EVE society. Sansha's structure of society is very different to what currently exists, ie. the concept of "markets". If 90% of the world are going to be True Slaves, that only leaves 10% as the True Citizens, and even they won't be concerned with such things like capitalism, they'll be too busy pursuing the next evolutionary step of mankind.
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Serps working with Sansha is roughly as sensible as trying to drink out of the wrong side of a glass.
So a good idea when you have the hiccups?
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No hate, I'm just making a point on the sensibility of the two factions working together. It's been brought up as a potential more than once.
I would assume that as a massive corporation, the Serpentis wouldn't invest in a client if it meant they wouldn't get anything in return. Admittedly, the Sansha have a broad scope of technology including WH generation, which might be useful in the long run for the Serpents. But the fact is that if the battle turned in Kuvakei's favor, I severely doubt he'd just let the Serpent employees just occupy the remaining 10% of space that wasn't part of his utopia. And even if he did, the global economy is no more; there's no society left to function on monetary value generating human greed.
If anything, I might attribute all this speculation to individual cells or commanders of the Serpentis taking one-time jobs for a quick buck, or going against Sarpati's orders - the Seven might even be to blame, using the speculation to paint the Serpentis as Sansha sympathizers to hurt business.
For that matter, it's not like even if the Serpents were willing to help the Sansha out, the toasters would need the help. Up until the incursion nerf, all I remember for their campaign report is a couple carriers lost in exchange for stomping resisting forces in the nuts, opening a private WH, and abducting enormous numbers of civilians despite capsuleer efforts. I think they're doing fine without minor support from an R&D company.
Kuvakei was a Caldari at some point, not to mention a weapons developer. I think he'd be wise enough to know there's no point cutting a deal if you're not getting your money's worth.
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Pinning down the Serps seems a lot harder than most factions. There are a couple really easy generalizations out there, but they really don't seem to fit.
On the one hand, you have the simple drug dealers motif - a bunch of heartless, profiteering bastards preying upon society, selling drugs to kids, etc. This seems to be how most people view the Serps if they don't bother to look closer.
Next you have the research aspect - selling drugs is a way to profit from it, but at its core, the corporation was founded for cutting edge R&D and became "outlaw" when their research went beyond what society/law permitted. There really isn't a real world comparison, as the resources required for such research in today's world require that you be in a major industrial country under the rule of law or even funded/run by the government.
Then you have the pure business aspect. Oops, I just bought ORE. All your miners are belong to me. Things like control and manipulation of legitimate markets, just like any other corporation.
Hard to find a simple way to describe them, then, unless I’m missing something obvious – a distinct possibility. Comparisons to the mafia seem apt, if incomplete. I suppose the distinction between the Angels and Serps could be similar to that of the Italian and Eastern Eurpoean/Russian mafias – though which is which would be a matter of debate. Perhaps if you crossed the mafia with Pfizer and removed some of the corporate stupidity?
Orthic IC is pretty strictly a businessman, only associated with the Serps for backstory reasons that were partly out of my control – not that I regret the decision to pursue them in the slightest. I have, however, had some ideas for fun stuff you could do.
Rehab Center – perfect place to gather information on the impact of your product on your customers, while providing a valuable service and making lives better. And really, it’s a Serpentis-run Rehab. My sense of irony almost demands that I make it happen.
Welfare/service system. Think Hamas in Palestine. The entire world considered them terrorists, but they won local elections in a landslide and took over. Why did they have the local support? Because within Palestine, they were known for helping people out – simple things like driving them to the store/doctor/etc, providing services, whatever the people needed. So, set up an operation providing human services and get the entire local community to love you, despite the fact that the world thinks you’re a dirty drug dealer.
Pure researcher – just trying to make the best human you possibly can, in ways that the law might not approve of. See thread discussing body mods.
Booster addict trying to get better prices by working for his supplier, or make a buck by learning to deal as well as use.