Even more such futuristic tales by "the other one"

were going to start off with a bit of a comedy number


For millennia they have been a mysterious force in the galaxy. They live nearly forever, some of them even knew the Emperor in his original state. Having lost their home, they wander the galaxy in great world ships, manipulating events so that maybe their race can survive one more day... at the expense of humanity.

Last month we lost the Inquisitorial light cruiser Kyrie. Its wreckage, along with the XVI fleet of the Canopus sector was found in the Phoenix Nebula. The Adeptus Mechanicus took 2 weeks to recover what they could off the black box.

The Inquisitorum, with your approved security clearance, wants to take you...

INSIDE THE AELDARI

::The whole cruiser shakes as if in an earthquake::

"Captain Yaznik! Massive gravitic waves are hitting us! Something HUGE is jumping insystem almost on top of us!"

"Pray to the Emperor it does not collide, then."

::The Palace comes in right in front of them bathing the bridge of the otherwise grimdark-looking ship in the colors of a California sunset::

"WHAT IS THAT, CAPTAIN????"
.
"We have found them at last. Try hailing them at whatever frequency you can get"

"Its too high pitched sir, its gonna blow out the systems, its SKREEEEEE"

::Everything on the bridge shorts out and suddenly otherwise primitive monitors broadcast, in full color, Sunstream looking up at the "camera" with large, sad eyes::

"Why must you come to us and remind us of our greatest failure?"

"I am Captain Federov Yaznik of the Inquisitorial scout cruiser, Kyrie. My assignment was specifically to locate the Alaitoc craftworld and deliver to you this message: cease your travels through this sector at once."

"Yes, you have found Alaitoc, the Crystal Palace. We are on a quest to find the world in my fathers dying vision. Do not interfere."

(at this point anyone who has played Lunar 2 will be cracking up picturing Suntop unleashing "Plasma Rain" like Althena did at the start of the game)

"Captain, i think the clouds in this ones head are forming a storm...."

::in a brilliant flash of light, the cruiser gets thrown many light years away::


A week later the Kyrie caught up to Alaitoc again, and this is what happened...

::The camera focuses in on the side of a pool in the lower levels. Aquatic Sunstream pops up::

"Ok, what do you Imperials want???!! You interrupted bath time!"

::Sunstream gets pulled back under::

(Brill! The blasted Imperials have found us again! Give me a second!)

::Sunstream pops back up. Everyone on the Imperial bridge is shocked beyond belief::

"Sir! What has the Xeno done this time, turned himself into the Creature from the Rainbow Lagoon?"

"Silence! Xenos, you are hereby found to be in violation of the space containing some of our few arable planets. I command you to turn back at once by the orders of the 14th fleet of the Canopus sector..."

::Said fleet pops in. Its not that great. Its the 14th fleet of the sector after all. They immediately fire nuclear missiles and other such at the Palace::

"Pool tells me your men are opening fire on us with their second-hand technology. How quaint."

"And I, Captain Yaznik, ever so witty.. have another message to deliver to you as we eradicate your foul stain from the cosmos in the name of the Emperor..."

"OOOHHH... who lives in a pineapple under the sea... SUNTOP SQUAREPANTS!..."

"I... wait... how did you.... is this translation correct? Ok, thats it.... Strongbow?? Blast that cruiser out of existence."

::The Kyrie is blasted to smithereens. The Palace then teleports out of the way, also on its way out causing the missiles to retarget THE FLEET.::

oh my , Suntop has gotten pretty wild. We don't even know him like this ...
I have not read these future quest stories. The aliens are those dragons who sniff everything, right.

You have to be more wild than mild when dealing with those Imperial guys...

and when Yaznik says Xenos, its what Imperials generally call aliens, including elves.

This is what happens quite a bit after Skyward and all that, actually, it doesnt end well and you know who we can blame for that. This is why Sunstream is referring to humanity, at that point, as the elves greatest failure.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...!

I just have NO idea which kind of "Empire" he refers to, but it was funny.

I have the strange feeling it would be even funnier if he had to deal with Shaddam's Empire.
I always dreamt of having space-faring Sunstream utterly messing with the Golden Lion Throne..

PCoquelin wrote:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...!

I just have NO idea which kind of "Empire" he refers to, but it was funny.

Its the Imperium of Warhammer 40,000, where for some reason Aeldari (formerly named Eldar) bear odd similarities to EQ like the soulstones and craftworlds.

One whole craftworld, in fact, has a sword going through a moon as its symbol, its colors are blue and yellow (which wolves see best), and their whole army consists of a confederate, guerilla force of Rangers whose main specialty is disabling the enemy before they even get to the battlefield. They are described as fierce protectors of the Way of the Eldar, and is also too small for the number of elves affiliated with it, half of them wandering the galaxy looking for their new home (also their words!)

They also have a reputation for disliking humans but if Strongbow is training all these guys that totally makes sense, and just look at the way those Imperial dingbats act, you wouldn't like them either.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.......

I see..

So THAT's the Imperium you referred to, all along.

Funny.
Never could figure, myself, why so many people were impressed by that, or even interested in that Warhammer 40K context.

Especially when comparing to Herbert's impressive Imperium of a million planets..
..or to Lucas' evil Empire, ruled by Palpatine.

Maybe you can explain, then.

It only seemed to me to be but a poorly designed, semi-futuristic extension of the AD&D universe.
I always denied any semblance of interest to that .. erm.. 'universe' to my players.
Not my cup of tea at all.

Maybe it's because I knew "White Dwarf" to be a splendid and interesting magazine..
..BEFORE it became a mere catalog for that.. harrrrumph!.. 'system'.

Now, don't get me wrong:

Many artworks and even some figurines WERE great, along the creation of the Warhammer thingie.
It's just the game system I cannot feel anything else but disgust and loathing about.

As well, even if I strongly despise the vision of Drows (or dark elves) as simply 'evil elves with gray or dark grey skin', because the Fiend Folio (the ONLY valid reference - yep: I spit on any other reference, and don't even ask me what I think about the Drizzt tales..) describes them as epitome of evil, with jet-black skin, white-on-white eyes, salty white hair...

..well, I MAY admire some little things, like:

I know the Drizzt tales. I liked them a little bit but they stink off against EQ.
The dark elves are all totally evil with black skin and red eyes( in Drizzt part1 ) only Drizzt himself is a good one and it is visible in his eyes , they are purple. (Hey guy, show me your eyes, if they are purple, you`re ok otherwise not and I slaughter you)!
When I was young we played the table top RPG "Midgard", I believe it was a german game. Or it was translated and we had a lot of fun with it. Our dark Elves had pure white skin, red eyes and black hair (the inverted dark elves, laugh).

Well, the game is terribly English flavored. Explain everything? All written from the standpoint of the Imperium, and borrowing from everything imaginable to make a horrid backdrop for a universe of battles that are desperately in need of more tactical detail and game balance.

I could beat its game design and story easily but these days, in America, you don't want to be associated with gaming or the people in it anymore. Politics has ruined everything.

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Intro



The fires of ages past have long since died,
the foul powers of superstition banished to the nether realms
and the gaping wound in the universe sealed
with the birth of a bright shining star of hope
-Ellicandron-

The others, asked about so long ago, answered the Great Call
and settled the third world of the reborn star system
along with renegade humans known as -Cetra- "The Others"
who speak a language made from things that do not fit into Galazhkaya.
Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Thai, Korean and Hindi
and it is no surprise that this language is now found in quite a similar city
to where it most likely originated.

A few thousand years later, races from all over the galaxy come to our world,
some fleeing the oppressive inertia of the Imperium.
In the form of Solaris, it carries on, refuses to die.
We stand against it in our many forms... machines, elves, Kel'pathae, humans, animorphs
and defend our world and the great city under the tree by the sea....

"Do i have to go in there and teach them myself?"

Sunstream had barely woken up when he had recieved this year's test results from the Farsight Academy. The sun was filtering through the -Aurata- and glaring on the screen, but he swore the only thing they got right in the section on register alignments was the ancient phrase "Soul meets soul when eyes meet eyes". He was honestly shocked at the number of people who still actually believed that not consummating the Recognition would bring about death. Hadnt anyone read the part of the class text where he wrote about his sister telling it to well, kiss off? These old and sexist supersitions really had no place in modern Tushitan society, especially since we learned so much otherwise over thousands of years. He blamed teenage boys and other people wired like -Leetari-. Or perhaps it is the sheer strength of the impulse in some cases depending on the distance between their colors, or en-factor....

Suddenly his -ayoohyah- rang. It was Lorenthis.

"Yep, buddy, you guessed it right, you as the only specialist in this field are going to have to explain it personally! The last professor quit last night and has retired to an entirely monochrome room because he cant stand colors for some weird reason... Anyhow, next class is at 11:10!"

And so, it was time to get downtown, to the source of all Captain Obvious studies- University of West Tushita, to explain for the umpteenth time how all this worked.... He went to his grav car and hit the wraithbone freeway with all due speed...

and promptly got stuck in traffic.

To be continued after this traffic jam!


-Aurata-: A form of excess magical energy in the air. Oddly enough, this does create ozone.
-Leetarri- : Mender, who is just as surprised to still be about as Strongbow.
-Ayoohyah-: Slang for an EPR cell phone

-Intro Pt 2-

The morning is glorious in Sukharavati, the sunlight filtering through the aurata shining through the tops of the giant tree roots that divide the city and unfortunately led to this state of affairs where there only a few stable and ancient passageways over them. Too much weight, and the great tree would topple right over, taking the Palace with it.

This mornings traffic on Kings Highway was also the result of too much weight as well. A sloth-type asura had escaped containment in the North Valley where they raise the elemental beasts, and now had expanded to take up the whole freeway while happily eating the tall cocolutz trees that provide light, oil, and amusement to the city. The engineers were beginning to become concerned about the stress on the wraithbone, and wouldnt you know this happened downtown by the college.

Someone must have taken their minor asura with them to school and the contaimment ball popped open. Typical.

As Sunstream sat hopelessly stuck in traffic on his way to deliver a lengthy lecture about twin flames, the Scroll, and the arcane color matching process, his mind went back to the events of the previous week..... actually, more like those of eight and seven cycles ago, because thats where it all began during a great crisis in the galaxy... however, it was only a week ago that a series of events occoured
that could aptly be called...

THE RE-DISCOVERY

(warning: contains a depiction of poor Sunstream drowning in his mind. It was quite shocking to him, especially since hes become quite accustomed to being able to turn into a fish)

-end intro-

All those years ago....

Sunstream looked again at the reported statistics of the latest Imperial superweapon that was currently working its way through the UAC towards Rigel - an ancient artifact known as the Black Omen. 13 kilometers long and its true power unknown other than the fact that it seemed to be crushing everything in its path. The worst part is that it appeared to have some...helpers.

Elfin ones.

"Where did they get that kind of equipment?" He looked carefully at what video and pictures actually were recovered after the battle. Whatever they were using that passed for asura appeared to be built in a Swooping Hawk pattern.

"And you say there were 8 of those?"

Kitari was a small, brown humanoid lagomorph wearing a standard UAC flight suit. The fur on the rabbits head looked ragged and one of her ears was flopped over. She looked like she hadnt slept in days on the trip over here. Then again, considering the amount of refugees traffic coming from the UAC was amazingly bad right now. It would take days - unless one had a way around the gate system.

"Yes. I cant believe i made it out of there without one of those guys tearing open my cockpit with those overgrown arcade claws of theirs..."

Sunstream completely froze upon hearing that detail.

"Sir? You alright? Please remember to breathe..."

And so it was, later on, that Sunstream deliberately channeled his father so as to defeat their reborn enemies. The Last War is deserving of a story in its own right, from Rigel, to the Battle of the Phoenix Nebula, to the final battle where the destruction of the Omen turned Merkab B into a black hole and the subsequent signing of the ZVEZDA treaty that currently governs all trade and boundaries between Tushita, the Federation, the UAC, the machines, and the Imperium.

However, like all bad hairstyles, that knot remained in Sunstreams hair far past its expiration date. And thus... he remained stuck thinking he was Cutter. This was terrible for several reasons, not the least of which was the blunting of his abilities. And especially one in particular - the ability to turn into a fish, or for that matter the consciousness that he was part fish.

Poor Brill.

Many schemes were hatched over 15 years to take that knot out of his hair.. and it took quite long for... have you ever tried sneaking up on Cutter? Its pretty much impossible. Finally, a plan was hatched that involved the simultaneous appearance of Brill dressed as Leetah ("Cutter" had been wondering where she was), a projection of Leetah from the Palace, and Jink who never agreed with this harebrained idea in the first place to cut the thing off.

Unfortunately, there was a major complication in the plan. It was a bit like the time Cutter suddenly removed the wrapstuff from Sunstream, who in this case had felt like he had been submerged and holding his breath this whole time - a dangerous game, if one cannot turn into a fish on command.

But this time, it failed him, and to his massive shock, he drowned like any other air breather when he inhaled water. He reflexively tried getting up but it was no use, and he just breathlessly floated in his own mind, thinking....

This cannot be... its impossible... im.................

And on the outside, his half-sister screamed as she was suddenly presented with a flaccid, completely paralyzed Sunstream, which she caught and laid on the floor.

"Hes stopped breathing again!"

Leetah's spirit yelled "Get away from him! If he turns into a fish, youll be just as paralyzed as he is!" She sped over to her son's side to begin the healing process. *Please son...come back to us!*/
Brill ran over as well. *Lifemate! remember who you are! You are Prince of the Sea!*
Yet still he remained in a state of complete and utter shock, turning ashen even as Mender, Snakeskin and Skimback joined the efforts.

The connection Sunstream has to the rest of the elfin race goes both ways, as a matter of fact, and in times when he is in trouble such as these everyone feels compelled to pray for him. The energies came back to him through the many vine like connections, and...

Suddenly, deep within, the Little Sea Prince came to life, and gleefully shot to the surface.

Sunstream came to gasping, like on his wedding night where he nearly drowned and startled Leetah, ultimately causing the healers over the next week to grant him the aquatic form at Brills request. As she put it, "Hes pretty good for an air breather, but even he runs out of clouds in his head!"

And thankfully, there she was, right there, holding him....

Whew. Stay tuned for Part 2 where i get to describe Mender's massive eye exam machine for elves, and other things on our way to deliver this lecture.

(...please dont ask what happened to Leetah, but ill tell you this... its what ultimately caused everyone left to get on the Palace and leave....)

(Sorry, youre getting it anyway because it figures into the stooy)

The sun may have finally set, but no one could tell for everything was on fire. The shattered, broken, and of course, burning remnants of a whole WW1-era armored cavalry battalion surrounded Sunstream for miles. It took him a few moments to realize that he had indeed set them all ablaze, the blood of Zarhan Fastfire having not ever been forgotten. The reason why he could clearly hear behind him, as his sister and his remaining healer cried over the loss of their mother and two of their tribesmates, right there in front of the Palace. He readied himself to send out one great big cry through the aether, a warning for all elves to abandon this fallen world...

Sunstream awoke again in a hospital bed, looking at his lifemate and that healer... Mender. Theories abound as to how this particular Lythari is still around, for he has so far never died and gone back through the Palace, waiting for the colors to line up again. Sunstreams favorite was that, much like how his mother had warned Ember all those years not to make funny faces lest her face freeze like that, hed managed to get himself permanently stuck on the Sor'inesti setting. However, in Strongbow's case it was just him hanging around the Palace for far too long so.... take your pick.

"Are you alright? Scans appear normal now, but further testing needs to be done... Brill, you can let go of the patient any time now...."

Brill, of course, was holding onto him tightly... "Oh, my poor Cloudfish! Promise me youll never do that again.."

At that point, compounding matters, Korafay came back into the room, immediately squeed, and flew straight over to join her mother in the cuddling going on.

"I know you appreciate him being back and alive but i have to administer the Eldari Color Vision Acuity Test. Its vital for his position, after all.....

After his lifemate and daughter finally let go of him after their tearful reunion, Sunstream was led to the ECVAT room. The machine for this had to reach at least half a kilometer upward in its huge silo, or so it appeared: the narrowing dimensions of the machine created a foreshortening effect. 4 great wheels and one auxiliary wheel were quite apparent in the machine's long and intricate workings.

The reason for this is that the double-sized elfin eyeball contains a number of unique and possibly engineered adaptations. Four cones, in a tetrahedral arrangement with yellow forward, sense tetrachromic color (RGBY) while three rods at each corner provide high resolution and infrared vision. This sophisticated setup is then tesselated over the retina, giving an elf diopters measured in kilometers or so an exaggerated Tushitan saying goes.

Needless to say, going through all those wheels of color is going to delay the family reunion for a bit longer..... Hours later, Sunstream wasnt sure he could take any more.

"Thats you"
"Thats Venka"
"Thats.. Rayek..."

"Good. I think weve managed to get rid of Cutter's vision bias. Youre free to go."

Lythari in particular have a tendency to see blue and yellow best due to their wolf blood... and quite obviously, that was supposed to be his sister's department. In fact, such a thing could potentially impact Sunstream's ability to read the Scroll properly, which could be disastrous.

As he walked out of the ECVAT room, however, he was greeted by his notorious half-sister, Jink, who as usual teleported right in front of him. This time however, she had a legal order from Tushita's parliament. He grabbed the ornate, wax-sealed letter, and opened it to find that he has been ordered to literally never channel his father AGAIN no matter the circumstances.

"Ill comply, but could you do me one favor? I want to forget being him for almost two eights of turns, and i would really, really like to forget the day my mother died. Just......"

"I cannot do that."

"Why?"

"Because in truth this talent isnt as amazing as people think it is. Know what it really does? It causes people to lose vital parts of themselves. When i wiped out the memory of the terrible day we left Abode, i ended up forgetting where the Palace was...and wandered for hundreds of years trying to find home again. Eventually, i waited on Abode, disguised as a human, hoping one day it would come back - and it did, fortunately, but..... Then there was the time i wiped Skywise's memory, and it was also a disaster... and might i add... theres something important that you forgot, that would have prevented this whole mess from happening..."

Jink touched Sunstreams forehead...

.....and suddenly he recalled being a child thousands of years ago, specifically the day he tried going on a hunt with his father's tribe, and nearly got trampled in the process.

"If you had forgotten that day, i really doubt carving more holes in your memory would solve anything."

She then disappeared.

.....And that was yesterday....

Teaser:

The light contains all the many colors in potential, and when split by the prism of consciousness the primary archetypes emerge....

I like this rainbow sendingstar very much!

In keeping with the theme, Sunstream once again awoke, this time in his own bed alongside Brill. Remembering that bearing fountain and stream takes constant practice, he started his day with the meditation and exercises taught to him in the Sun Village so long ago until he was sure he could stand all the input, including the e-mail in his box.

And so after that, and a terrible period in time stuck in traffic, Sunstream arrived at the University, to show the students the secrets of frequency and vibration.

"Good afternoon class, i am Sunstream and i am here to show you how the Scroll of Colors and Recognition work such that some notions may be dispelled. Few know that the Scroll itself, the artifact in the Palace, is just a finger pointing to the moon. A better analogy, rather would be a magnifying glass, able to look in on minute fractions of infinity. The truth of the matter is more as follows: The clear light contains all the many colors in potential, and when split by the prism of consciousness the primary archetypes emerge."

Sunstream pulled out an ancient artifact known as the Aero Prism, an item he picked up originally during his meditation retreat on Algol III. He directed the students to shutter the windows and turn off the lights, opening one up a small extent to let direct sunlight in - as in, the opening was aligned with the sun. He put the prism in the beam, and it sent a splash of colors into the eyes of the students in the front row, many of which were humans considered metaphysically advanced enough to take this course.

Each of us is a shade of one of these sixteen primary bands. I know this looks different to the human students from what they are used to, however the nature of the Aero-Prism is to make things visible which are normally hidden, and my intent was so that you could see these colors as we do. The names of these archetypes are in Sanskrit, from the ancient human religion of Buddhism.

The highest frequency at the top belongs to Samantrabadhra, an archetype of primordial wisdom. You can see the good of this archetype in Strongbow: he is like a primordial, powerful source of the Way speaking from times before elves landed. However, the worst? we dont like talking about her. Either way, extremely powerful. Often depicted in the human religion wearing little to nothing, and so are both of the above.

The next lowest is Candraprabha the moon bodhisattva, which may as well literally be Moonshade: she is also a high, mystical vibration, making quite the compatible pair with a Samantrabhadra. If this one goes off
their axis, the result looks like Kahvi.


Note that Strongbow and Moonshade also act like the higher chakras of the tribe.


Manjushri is the archetype of a noble warrior with keen insight about the Way, such as Cutter. These tend to make great authority figures and law enforcement. A malfunctioning one can become a brutal authoritarian.

Akashagharba, Sky Treasure is another one like Moonshade - it may as well literally mean Skywise. Fun fact: these types tend to look goofy but get lucky anyhow. Fun fact #2: the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Anthony, was one of these, and it explains everything about "Cant Stop". Theres a few other songs of his like that.

And for the record, ive never met the guy, he must be hallucinating.

Maitreiya or Krishna: Is the archetype currently teaching this class!


Notice that the above three, blues and cyans communicate and are oustpoken, although aqua is kind of introspective like the below greens who are about inner awareness and deep compassion:


Ksitigharba or Vishnu: Actually the parent archetype of Maitreya, generally known for being loving, hard working, and self sacrificing. Lily "Ruffel" was one such person: by all means Skywise and his lodestone should have been hit.

Suryaprabha, the Sun Goddess: This one belongs to Dewshine and Redlance, who are just rays of sunshine

Avalokitesvara or Kwan Yin: The goddess of compassion, this is Leetah.

Yellows and oranges are firey powerful types, warriors and guardians.

Vajrapani, aka Shiva: A complex and rather dark archetype prone to fits of rage and destruction, some of which however is justified karma. Rayek is like this, and so surprisingly is Mender and a lot of other doctors....

Sitatapatra, the White Parasol: This archetype is a shield against black magic: she is Venka. Tyleet is like this as well, she guarded against -her- other favorite form of black magic which was altering the weather patterns around the Holt.

Durga: This goddess is the spear and the arrow - hello Nightfall.


Reds and infrareds are about either the ability to see through or break through.


Vajragharba: Dispeller of illusions. This is Dart, and for him it is an inner battle.

Amoghadarsana, or the Unfailing Eye of the Serpent: This is Scouter.

Vasudhara the Bejeweled, goddess of wealth and fertility: Newstar.

Aksayamati, Inexhaustible Awareness: This is Pool.

Sarvanivarana, Remover of Obstacles: Skot was like this archetype. Not sure which other one youd want to bust open a door, Treestump might do it but pull something in his back.. perhaps Cutter, but Skot was really solid.

Sorandril wrote:

..but these days, in America, you don't want to be associated with gaming or the people in it anymore.

Fortunately,

PCoquelin wrote:

Sorandril wrote:

..but these days, in America, you don't want to be associated with gaming or the people in it anymore.

Fortunately,

I live



in France.

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Et encore plus heureusement, j'ai fait des recherches et, apparemment, les jeux de table deviennent un refuge contre les salles de chat toxiques, etc.

Et encore mieux, dessiner ce diagramme m'a fait réaliser la solution à votre livre 1, Page 2 Ultimate Riddle ....

.... mais je ne le dirai pas à haute voix non plus .....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And even more fortunately, i did some research and apparently tabletop gaming is becoming a safe haven from the toxic online gaming chat rooms etc.

And even better, drawing that diagram made me realize the solution to your Book 1, Page 2 Ultimate Riddle....

.... but i wont say it out loud either.....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorandril wrote:

.. Riddle ..

Want a riddle?

The giant pyramids of Gizeh illustrate exactly how the very best way of hiding a secret..