Reports are surfacing of Google censorship of text messages on Android phones. If you try to send a link to thedonald.win, it will get scrubbed, apparently. I use Android because I hate Apple (although naturally I hate Google just as much, although I use... blogger, youtube, Google sites and an Android phone. Sigh. Life enslaved to the oligarchy.) I haven't tried to confirm this indepedently yet.
https://voxday.blogspot.com/2020/12/mailvox-google-censoring-text-messages.html
Kathleen Kennedy is not gone. She just made a presentation to the investors at Walt Disney Investment Day, looking very much like she's not gone from Lucasfilm at all, and announces what looks to mostly be a slate of woke garbage, starring a bunch of POX and women, and written by white man hating bigots. There may be a handful of gems in this, but I'm not confident at all. Sigh. Why is Kathleen Kennedy not gone?!
The slate is so full that it also shows that they were straight up lying when Bob Iger announced that Disney had decided Star Wars fatigue was to blame for the failure of Solo. As opposed to the roaring trash fire that was The Last Jedi as well as the creeping woke garbage agenda, which was plenty evident in The Force Awakens too. Disney is one of the most evil corporations in the world. And that's saying something; I mean, it's got pretty stiff competition; there's Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter and worse out there in the corporate world. And of them, Disney's hatred of American culture and the American people probably rises to the top. Anyway, let's go through the list.
Rogue Squadron. By Patty Jenkins, the director behind the recent Wonder Woman film. This one may turn out ok. Yeah, yeah... Patty Jenkins and Wonder Woman; I'm sure there'll be some eye-rolling grrl power moments in it, but mostly, Wonder Woman was expected to be feminist garbage, and it wasn't really. And Patty Jenkins' father was a fighter pilot who died in the course of duty and rather than being bitter about that, she sees her father as a hero. She seems to have the right attitude to do this one justice, so of the announced series, this one may be among the better ones out there. Then again, if it's in the same era as the Mandalorian, I dunno. The X-wing pilots we've seen in that show seem to be like space state troopers running around in territory where they don't have any jurisdiction, yet trying to throw people in prison for traffic violations like not having a proper license plate. That makes no sense whatsoever in a frontier environment. I do think Disney Star Wars has laid a creaky foundation for this to be laid on, and I'm unsure how well it's going to fare.
Untitled Taika Waititi film. Taika doesn't really seem to have struck out yet in either Marvel or Star Wars, although he hasn't been up to bat all that often yet either. Hope this isn't Star Wars: Love and Thunder; the women are going to come and shriek at you about how entitled they feel to steal your stuff from you. Which maybe isn't fair. Thor: Love and Thunder hasn't even come out yet and we don't know much about it. But the very fact that it's being done at all is a ludicrous prospect.
Obi-wan Kenobi. I know that buzz about this has been around for a while, but honestly, I'm not quite sure why. It was very clear from the movies that Obi-wan "enjoyed" a quiet retirement on Tatooine keeping a hands-off eye on Luke Skywalker. Trying to squeeze out "adventures" from this time period, and bringing Hayden Christianson back to play Darth Vader some more just seems ridiculous. They're going to ruin the character in an attempt to milk nostalgia rather than just creating somebody new that we can root for. Mark my words. And having the Chinese lady who directed a few Mandalorian episodes be in charge of it may not be the worst thing ever; I'm not really familiar with her work other than that show and they've all been... OK, I guess. But the rather pointed avoidance of giving any decent work, either as stars or as directors, to any white men so far is duly noted (except in the notable case here, where the character is a legacy character and they could hardly turn Obiwan into a black woman or hispanic trans-gender abomination. Although no doubt somebody at Disney seriously suggested exactly that). Disney Star Wars still hates its fanbase. They may be taking a more conciliatory approach, given that they were smacked back just a bit by a mild revolt and a few flops, but SJWs are like the old saying about the Huns; they're either at your feet or at your throat. We didn't leave them as smoking dead corpses at our feet, so they'll take every opportunity to sneak around and come for our throats that they can until we do.
Ahsoka. Limited edition series written by Dave Filoni, the controversial guy who maybe he's on the fan's side and maybe he's a simpy beta yes-man, we're not quite sure because he seems to be both like some kind Jekyll and Hyde. I don't mind Ahsoka, although I think she's over-rated in some circles, especially the circle that makes up Dave Filoni's head. She's kind of like his Mary Sue fake girlfriend. Except she's from space instead of Canada. It probably won't be actively bad, but I doubt it will be excitingly good either. The Clone Wars was kinda her show, told (mostly) from her perspective as the kinda sorta protagonist character for the whole show. Everything else that she's done, she's felt shoe-horned in to because Dave Filoni has a crush on her. Starring Rosario Dawson and presumably in the same era as the Mandalorian again.
Rangers of the New Republic. Although we don't know much about this, except that it involves Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, I think most people expect that this is the Gina Carano spin-off. Because, let me remind you, even the Mandalorian, which fans have mostly enjoyed, has quietly avoided casting or working with a white male in either a director or star role. Women and POX all around. Dave Filoni excepted. No, Jon Favreau isn't white. He's Jewish. I dunno. I've been somewhat less impressed by the character of Cara Dune than a lot of fans, I suppose, so I don't expect much. She's fine. She's nothing special, though. And although casting Gina Carano was just about the only way making her a women was going to be credible, I still can't help thinking that wouldn't it just have been easier to cast a man in this role, so when he acts all manly all the time it kinda, y'know, makes sense?
Lando. A one off event, I think. Written by the guy who wrote the hate screed Dear White People for Netflix. Even if it isn't terrible, which I expect it to be, I may avoid it on principle because I'm ticked off that they think hiring someone infamous for writing that can possibly be a good fit for any role at all in our society, much less heading a Star Wars special about a black character. Starring Glover, so more or less in the same gray area that's between the prequels and the original trilogy time frame as Rebels and Solo, I presume.
Andor. A prequel show? Special? One-off? I'm not sure, but I suspect it's a one off. The announcement wasn't super clear. A prequel to Rogue One, featuring that Hispanic guy who can't even speak English without a super strong accent. I do like the idea of darker spy thrillers set in Star Wars (liking a lot of stuff about the Agent storyline in Old Republic, for instance) and George Lucas and Greg Kurtz and even Mark Hamill all remarked in the late 70s that Star Wars had a lot of things in common with James Bond, particularly how they envisioned going forwards with the franchise, so it's overdue that we actually get that kind of action. Rogue One was OK. Almost certainly the best offering of the Disney Star Wars era. Although, again, it conspicuously 1) avoided all white men in starring roles, and 2) cast a woman as the lead. Although to be fair, the woman was just along for the ride and wasn't saddled with the "I am stronk wamman!" nonsense. She actually showed some feminine strength as she was caught up in events over which she had little control, and used her feminine qualities to influence the progression of the plot rather than masculine qualities that were inexplicably grafted on to her, like most of Hollywood does with their stronk wammans. No doubt this was subconscious because they were making a film for a Chinese audience who isn't as delusional about biology as Americans have become. Still... if only we could have a Daniel Craig or Sean Connery like secret agent instead of a rinky-dink little Mexican dude with a funny accent.
The Acolyte. The only show that I'm aware of set in the so-called High Republic era, this is the long-rumored, infamously man-hating (yet ironically who looks more like a man than a woman) Leslye Headlund show. While the premise sounds good; pre-prequel era shadowy dark side Force-using thriller stuff, I obviously have absolutely no confidence in the person who's leading it.
The Bad Batch. For whatever reason, fan favorite clones the Bad Batch don't seem to have had the same problem that almost every other clone did; maybe the chips didn't take on them because of their flawed genetic matrix or something? Anyway, in the Rebels time frame, or maybe even a little earlier, yet after Revenge of the Sith, these guys go private, and become a kind of A-team of the Star Wars universe. Which isn't a bad concept, except the cultural background in the 80s that made the A-team work doesn't exist anymore, so... I dunno. I'm wary of everything, even if it sounds relatively good, which this does. Animated. No word yet if it's more Clone Wars or Rebels or even Resistance in its animation style.
Visions. Anime short films set in Star Wars. Ugh. That said, I'm sure that there's a super dedicated (albeit probably smaller and more niche than they realize) built in fanbase for this stuff. It'll probably do OK, but won't be up my alley.
A Droid Story. It's bad enough that Lucas himself started turning R2-D2 into a major Mary Sue. He was supposed to be a tubby little mechanic with the personality of a faithful dog, and he somehow became a more capable combatant than actual super battle droids? Gimme a break. Anyway, the description here is pretty vague; somewhere between animation and visual effects, a new character mentored by C-3PO and R2-D2, who really need to step back and let somebody else have a day in the sun fer cryin' out loud, and should have done it years ago already. I dunno what to think of this one.
Indiana Jones. They're bringing Harrison Ford out of the old folks home to be this character again. Why? Seriously, why? It was bad enough in the Crystal Skull that he was obviously too old for that kind of thing, and that was released 12 years ago already! That said, Hal Mangold, most recently famous for the excellent Ford v Ferrari film is going to lead it. As I noted to my son, who agreed with me completely, the underlying star of FvF and why it was so successful was because it showed a time when America was American and American men got to be awesome by being American men. (Granted, Christian Bale's character was British. But you know what I mean.) LA, where it's set, hadn't yet been invaded by hordes of demanding, entitled foreigners, so it was a successful and beautiful place. Ford showed us that even then corporate culture was toxic, but the mom-n-pop style business of Shelby was where the real magic happened, before "American" "elites" did everything possible to quash them and loot them. It was somewhat brave (an overused word in Hollywood, and yes, I am using it somewhat ironically, but not entirely) to make a movie that featured as the main star, even moreso than the actual stars, an era in which America was American and confident in itself. Mostly Hollywood creates propaganda pieces that justify to the elites (including themselves) why they've stolen that America from us, because we were the worst thing ever. The palpable sighs of relief during that movie that it wasn't a woke, anti-American, anti-white, anti-man screed, like almost everything else that's supposed to "entertain" us is almost for sure one of the key secrets of its success. The fact that it was also a compelling story with good performances and capably made was just the icing on the cake. It felt like the kind of movie that we used to get in the 80s, or even earlier, except with modern advances in special effects and pacing. Good stuff. Anyway, I'm not 100% sure how well that's going to translate to geriatric Indiana Jones, but maybe it'll work out.
Willow. I'm not sure that anyone asked for a sequel to Willow, especially one that won't even feature the only interesting character in that movie, Madmartigan (or if they do, he'll have to be as geriatric as Harrison Ford, but they mention Warwick Davis, not Val Kilmer, so I don't think so), but the Chinese guy Fake American who brought us Crazy Rich Asians is going to direct it, for some reason. This seems really out of the blue, and nobody asked for it. Don't know what to think of this one. Honestly, Willow wasn't all that great to begin with.
Children of Blood and Bone. The adaptation of a YA novel of anti-police pro-BLM propaganda. Sounds right up Disney's alley, but not that of any reasonable audience. The book is supposedly a NYT bestseller, but that category has been already exposed as a hoax in terms of how they determine it, and I doubt that the book really has enough popularity to justify adapting it. Like most of what Hollywood themselves produce, popularity in book publishing is largely Potemkin popularity; all smoke, mirrors, and illusion.
Curiously, on an instagram page I follow that's all about fans making Mandalorian costume armor, they asked what people were excited about from this announcement. At least half of all of the comments said that the only thing they would be excited for would be Kennedy getting the boot.
Also, most of the shows take place in either the same time frame as Rebels and Solo or the time frame of the Mandalorian. Conspicuously as absent as any masculine white males is anything at all set in the sequel trilogy time frame. I wonder why they're avoiding that era so hard, hmmm?
Update 6.2 is installing right now as we speak in the background while I'm working on another computer. I don't know really what it's going to be, although I'm sure everyone is expecting new story content of some kind; looks like a new Mandalorian themed flashpoint and some kind of new story mission or two. This led me to think about what planets I'd like to see added to the game and be able to explore a bit, which led me towards listing all of the planets that have appeared in a Disney Star Wars movie. I probably need to go do an even bigger project where I do all of the planets that have appeared in The Clone Wars, Rebels and the Mandalorian. Maybe the Resistance too? I dunno. I still haven't watched the Season 7 stuff, because I want to get to it by finishing my rewatch of the entire series, and because I was playing a lot of RDO and then SWTOR, I haven't been doing that very fast at all; I'm still in season 3, I think. It wouldn't be difficult to just finish though. I never finished the last season or two of Rebels either, and I never watched The Resistance at all, but one of these days I should, because hey, Star Wars visual content.
Anyway, I'm on record as suggesting that the locations (and visual design of such) is one of the few areas where the Disney Star Wars movies did a relatively good job. (Although I'm also on record as suggesting that while the sequel trilogy was pretty terrible, the two spinoff movies were better, bordering, on occasion, on being actually good. Rogue One was better than Solo in most respects, but Solo isn't that bad either.) And curiously, there's been a fair bit of overlap already between Disney Star Wars planets and Old Republic planets, what with Corellia making its first movie appearance in Solo, Tython now showing up in the Mandalorian. So, going through the planets from the Disney movies, let's have a look at what I think make good candidates to being added in Old Republic?
Exegol. As much as the return of the Emperor was kind of a stupid idea, the planet of Exegol and the Sith Cult were sadly underdeveloped and underutilized cool ideas. Given that the Empire is half of Old Republic, and we do explore other Sith planets like Korriban, Ziost, Oricon, and a few others, adding Exegol and maybe having it be a stronghold of Vitiate would work quite well, because after all, Vitiate and Palpatine seemed to have similar conceits in terms of trying to constantly trying to seek immortality. It makes perfect sense that Palpatine would hang out in Vitiate's old stomping grounds, in my opinion. Plus, it's just a cool environment, and some fun stuff could be done there.
Crait. While I don't know of any particular reason to make Crait be a place that gets attention other than the cool visual design, it does have really cool visual design, and a very unique look. Because of that, it actually rises up as a good candidate, although there's no story reason to make it important, so that would have to be invented from scratch.
Mustafar. While Mustafar isn't new to the sequel trilogy and other Disney movies, two new environments on the planet are added in these movies, including Darth Vader's castle in Rogue One and the strange ironwood smoky forest that we see briefly when Kylo Ren is chopping up some weird Darth Vader cultists. It's also a relatively unique environment, and while there's some lava in some planets in Old Republic already, Mustafar really is a different kettle of fish altogether.
Kessel. This is another one that I like, because it has ties all the way back to the first Star Wars movie, when C-3PO laments that he suspects being sent to the spice mines of Kessel and Han Solo references the Kessel Run. We actually see them in Solo when Han and Lando and Co. go on a heist of the Pyke's slave mines and steal a big batch of coaxium. It's ties to all kinds of lore in Star Wars makes it a great candidate.
Sinta Glacier Colony. Kind of like Mek-Sha; an asteroid station, except in this case it's an icy rather than rocky asteroid. It's actually kind of a cool idea, albeit one that's not unique. Asteroid versions of this are common, but an icy asteroid? Again, it gives a really interesting visual distinction. Maybe a little less so in this case, given that we already have two icy worlds in Old Republic, but I like it.
Anyway, as I said, I really should make a list of the other movies and the TV shows too, because it gives me all kinds of new options. Granted, some planets are just "cameos" like where we see Jedi getting gunned down at the end of Revenge of the Sith, for instance, but many of them have bigger appearances in Clone Wars or Rebels.
And adding this detail: without going through the list of planets in Clone Wars or Rebels or whatever, I do think I'd love to see Dathomir and and old-timey Old Republic era spin on the Nightsisters and Nightbrothers. Maybe with darksabers too, although the connection between Darth Maul and the darksaber, I realize, doesn't really have anything to do with the Dathomir culture.
First off, I'm mostly enjoying the second Mandalorian season. It's better than the first season. It's still not as good as I'd wish it to be, and feels like a safe and politically correct and small-scope outgrowth of the Original Trilogy, even moreso than the Clone Wars did to the Prequel Trilogy. Where the Clone Wars expanded the setting and the mythos and told bold stories—sometimes—the Mandalorian doesn't, really. It just treads water in a quiet little corner of the pool where it can't make big waves or get too noticed.
While of course there's nothing wrong with that per se, that's not really what I think most Star Wars fans want from Star Wars content. Or, at least I think so. Star Wars fans like the Mandalorian, but few of them love it, really. Now... I could be wrong. The nebbish EU nerd probably gobbles this show up for the same reason he gobbled up some bizarre novel about Porkins' adventures in an x-wing, or whatever. But I do get a sense from most of the people I talk to and the YouTube videos that I watch that fans like the Mandalorian, but hope for it to grow into something a bit bigger than what it is right now. Some of the latest episodes are getting them excited because it seems like that's what it's doing, but is it really? Callbacks and fan service and cameos (even extended "guest star" appearances) don't really expand anything; in fact, they have a tendency to almost shrink it sometimes. That's similar to how in almost every movie we end up back at Tatooine; even in the sequel trilogy, when we aren't on Tatooine, we're on separate planets that are completely indistinguishable from it—Jakku, Jedha, Pasaana; many of them literally filmed in the same place in Jordan. Now, granted, I like the concept of an arid planet, and I actually think it likely that there would be many desert planets across the galaxy if there were really inhabitable planets, but they really make no effort to make them feel different to each other, and you get no sense of place for any of the places that they go in the sequel trilogy. They're merely somebody's attempt to take a cool visual cue and implement it, but there's no connection to anything other than a visual that flashes in front of you briefly and then is gone as they rush off to the next superficial and shallow visual cue. It's kind of a shame; there are some really cool looking places in the sequel trilogy, and even a few good ideas here and there, but lack of development of any of them make them—ultimately—nothing more than something that's vaguely pretty but boring. Of course, they were saddled into horribly stupid plots with unlikable characters, and the fact that they flash so quickly before our eyes, and are often lookalikes of planets we already know without anything unique to make them more interesting, makes the whole seem smaller even as it tries to be bigger than ever.
That actually, now that I think about it, is a good reason for me to love my Traveller-inspired method of travel. It forces the characters to spend a bit more time in the systems that they visit. They can't be just flashes that go before your eyes with no impact; they have to actually have some substance. But it doesn't have to be that way to get that benefit, it just requires better writing. The Clone Wars introduces all kinds of planets, and most of them actually have some character, because they actually do something there where the environent actually plays some kind of role in most of them. Look at the exploration that we get of Mandalore, or Rodia, or Dathomir, etc. Even the expansions of planets we already knew like... yes, even Tatooine... expand the setting and make it feel bigger and better. The stuff that we've seen since then doesn't really seem to do that, and the places that they go all feel interchangeable and lacking in any character. Even when they may or may not have a cool visual cue, which admittedly some of them do.
Anyway, more to the point, I've been playing loads of Old Republic. I've got my Jedi Knight where he's ready to start the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion, although I think I'm going to keep doing Ziost dailies for a while first to get the greenish space armor set which you can buy with your Ziost currency. My Sith Warrior still needs to do the Black Hole, but then he's ready to start Makeb and the Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion. (He has done Section X already.) I also finished Chapter 1 with my Smuggler; I kind of rushed through the story missions to get Risha unlocked as a companion, and now I'm going back to finish some of the world stories, exploration missions and bonus series on Chapter 1 planets before I dive into Chapter 2. It's a little sad that I had to put up with so much story material with Risha before being able to change her appearance with the customization option that I bought for her (what can I say? I really like the platinum blonde version #9, and I had it unlocked before I even started the smuggler). I've spent a lot of time this last week doing the Dantooine pirate event too, although the Heroics aren't really solo-able, so it sucks and my progress has been slower and more grindy than I'd have liked. Only to find that, honestly, I don't know how much I really want any of those rewards anyway, other than the prohibitively expensive kath hound mount. (I'll pick up some pieces of the pirate armor/clothing set too. I really like that jacket combo, although it drops in various colors throughout the game, and my Jedi wears a reddish brown one, my smuggler wears a khaki colored one, and I'm sure that there are other color options out there too. If there aren't, though, I've previewed some dye modules, and it dyes quite well.
I'm finding that I'm getting a little too caught up in the grinding and collecting. The same thing happened to me in Red Dead Online, and while I enjoyed it for quite some time, it was also the last hurrah before my interest waned, no doubt. I feel a kind of need to do it so I can have the cool cosmetics that I want, and to grind for credits and XP even, for that matter, and I've even gotten pretty caught up in the crafting of a lot of stuff. But it's really the stories that I enjoy the most. Ideally for me, there wouldn't be any need to do anything non-solo; all of the flashpoints, heroics, and even operations would have to be done so they could be soloable. Granted, most of the Heroics and at least half of the flashpoints have been modified so that they can be played this way, but uprisings, operations, a handful of Heroic 4s, and half of the flashpoints are not. As a big fan of the older Knights of the Old Republic game, I simply don't find the MMO side of the shop compelling at all, and I admit that there's a little bit of resentment that I can't participate in that content solo. I also don't like the microtransaction aspect of the cartel market. While yeah, I've spent some real money on some stuff here and there, I prefer to use the GTN and credits wherever possible. Of course, the most desireable things to have are somewhat rare, and therefore extremely expensive when subjected to the forces of supply and demand. No doubt this was on purpose to encourage microtransactions. Keep in mind that BioWare is owned by EA. Not shocking, but certainly disappointing and frustrating. I like being able to find everything in game the way Knights of the Old Republic did.
Luckily for me, I've got lots of story content to turn to when I start to get frustrated with the grind. I have four character classes that I haven't even started, two that I'm still kind of in the very early stages of, and even for the two classes that I've finished, I've got plenty of expansion content to go through. I've reupped my subscription (I bought the 2-month one that doesn't auto-renew) a month or so ago, and I'll probably do it at least one more time before I'm done; a full six months in total of subscription is what it'll end up having been. Will I really play all my my alien girl versions of the characters after I'm done with my white guy versions of all of the characters? Maybe, although I doubt I'll feel the same sense of urgency. I do want to both unlock the alien races across the spectrum, and I also want to see the female voice actor performances of the dialogue. Plus, it gives me a different romance option suite, obviously, to be a woman rather than a man.
From Davidski's blog, here's some stuff that he's "in the know" about in the publishing pipeline. It's consistent with what he's been predicting for some time, but he expects the data that's the source of his confidence in those predictions to drop shortly. In fact, he expected most of it to drop in 2020, and blames the scamdemic for it's delay. Scamdemic being my label, not his. I don't know what he thinks about the Chinese coronavirus. Anyway, his specific predictions—paraphrased—with a little bit of commentary from me:
All of the Viomium Marches worlds share a similar context. Three systems in close proximity that are surrounded by many enemies; in particular numerous Reaver worlds, and the Phatoru Shdor Seraean colony. All of them are a little difficult to reach for any friendly system; from the Emerus Marches, the nearest Bernese worlds, most have to bulk jump through Oerken in order to reach it. Comaius, the only one reachable from Oerken is thus the gateway to the Viomium Marches; to get to any other world in the colony, yet another bulk jump from Comaius is necessary.
Another odd quirk of the Viomium Marches is that they were originally settled by Seraeans, but not Seraeans as in the much more recently arrived colonists of Phatoru Shdor or the rest of the Outremer colonies. These were refugees from the tyranny of the Empire, and came way back in the time of the Marian Empire and settled these mostly unused worlds. However, when the Bernese came here, they eagerly threw in their lot with them, appreciating not only their culture, but their relative strength in being capable of holding back the many enemies that surrounded them. These Bernese and Seraeans are now almost completely intermarried and interbred, and the majority population of the Viomium Marches is thus unique genetically showing equal amounts of traits of both. Mostly, they look like Bernese (i.e., like white Heritage Americans) with silver chrome eyes and silver-white hair; an inheritance of their former Seraean half. The Viomians also have a minority populaton on all three of their worlds of Reavers, although these have also been here for many generations now, and do not "reave" as those from the Reaver worlds do, which is the source of their name. In fact, they Reavers here are a bit prickly about being called Reavers, in large part because they want to disassociate themselves from the violent reputation of those who come from Reaver worlds, and often make a big deal about calling themselves Kvuustu, their own name for themselves. It's worth noting, however, that the reavers of the Viomium Marches have been here for generations, and most of them speak Galactic standard and know very little of their own ethnic heritage language, even the names that came from their heritage.
The third and final point of context is that they have no leader. Originally led by a margrave, he was killed in action defending an outlying convoy in the Typhoeus system five years ago. For whatever reason, the king of the Bernese Monarchy has not assigned a new margrave to the colony yet.
System: Comaius
Hex Location: 1738
Star Type: Single M9 V
Number of Worlds: 11
Gas Giants: 5
Planetoid Belt: Asteroid belts and comet belt
Starport Type: C standard star port, but see below
World Size: Larger than earth
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like (at the elevation where cities are)
Surface Water: 0%
Population: Small ~600,000
Political Affiliation: Bernese; Viomium Marches
Tags: Flying cities, warlock academy, secret cabal
Notes: In the case of Comaius, a criminal underground of warlocks pulls the strings, now that they are completely unfettered from the fear of being rooted out by an official government agent. For better or for worse, they do not believe that they can rule openly, however, without attracting the ire of the entire populace, so they keep their influence fairly secretive. They also are very concerned about threats to the colony, which would threaten their position, so they do cooperate, within reason, with the rulers of the other two worlds in the colony. Their puppet in the government offices is deputy governor Hogan Pompeius. They have an academy for the training of warlocks, but it is an insular affair, and they mostly only admit those whom they can depend on their loyalty. Even this is somewhat secret from the inhabitants; like the Ivy League schools now, most of the people within the colony believe that they are merely very selective and have high standards for meritocratic achievement. This isn't really true, just like with our own Ivy League schools; you have to know the right people, be part of the right secret societies, grease the right palms, etc. to get it. But if you do, you will have a cushy road to riches and ease in Viomium society. This same secret society operates across the colony, but only on Comaius do they actually run things, and that is their headquarters.
Comaius is also an unusual main world; it does not have a rocky surface at all, and is in fact a modest-sized gas giant. There is a layer of the atmosphere that is earth-like and habitable and comfortable for humans to live on, and that is where the floating cities are, although there are only three of them, and their populations are relatively modest; a couple hundred thousand people each. These cities are build on the remnants of flattish rocky asteroids that were tugged into the atmosphere and placed in permanent floating positions by ancient warlocks, and then the cities were built on them. Deep pipes plunge into the thick clouds below the cities, where gas is extracted. In spite of the fact that the cities here only have C class starports, they differ in one notable respect; refined fuel is readily available at a good price because the raw materials are right there and make up the bulk of the industry of the planet. Sytor gas, which is normally only found in pockets deep beneath glacial ice on some extremely cold planets, is also relatively plentiful in the thick lower atmosphere, so sytox fuel, the so-called nitrous oxide for spaceships, can be found here too. The Seraeans of Phatoru Shdor crave this stuff, as they are often adrenaline junkies by culture, but so far they have been content to trade for it legitimately. Perhaps the dreadnaught stationed in the system as one of the last official actions between the late lamented margrave and the home office in Bernese space has contributed to this peace, however.
Once you get too far down, the atmosphere rapidly becomes untenable for breathing, so the elevation band that allows for habitation is relatively narrow. There is also no liquid water, given that there is no surface, but water vapor is plentiful in this habitable belt, and often falls as rain. Most homes have rain collection equipment, but there are also city-wide water caches as well as lakes, ponds and other artificial bodies of water all across the cities' surfaces.
 |
| A selection of Reaver faces |
System: Enticum
Hex Location: 1739
Star Type: Double (distant) F9 V and G2 V
Number of Worlds: 16, 5
Gas Giants: 2, 5
Planetoid Belt: None, and rocky asteroid belt only
Starport Type: C
World Size: Moon-sized
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: 66%
Population: Large, ~3 billion
Political Affiliation: Bernese; Viomium Marches
Tags: Psionic knight academy, boomtown, local specialty
Notes: Enticum is usually considered the capital of the Viomium Marches, although lacking a margrave for the colony, each of the systems has reverted to de facto self rule under deputy governers, who meet semi regularly on Enticum to discuss issues that need a reaction from all of them. While Enticum is a fairly small world in terms of surface area, the ancient terraforming that was used here must have included a lot of thaumaturgy, because earth-like gravity and atmosphere pervade across the world, except in deep chasms and in high mountaineous areas. Dark volcanic spires, peaks and crags make up most of the surface, but it is not entirely bare, as grasslands and semi-isolated groves and stands of trees cover much of the surface as well. It is a bit Spartan in terms of scenery and habitability, but the grasslands support herds of both domesticated and wild reptomammalian creatures like thoats, platabirds, sandkine, mannoths, zitidars, and more. The plains are fed by many rivers, and crops grow sufficient to feed the fairly large population. There is a local burrowing animal that lives within the bedrock of the planet, and probably predates the terraforming. It's a miracle that this many-eyed wormlike, clawed creature survived, but it is the key to the economic dominance of the planet. Its secretions are known as spice. It isn't exactly like the sandworms spice on Arrakis, however, but this spice is not only a local delicacy which causes plant life that grows here to have unusual taste and texture which is highly valued by others, but the refined spice itself has remarkable medicinal qualities. Although there are synthetic alternatives elsewhere, Enticum spice is seen as preferred in the creation of healing and regenerative gels, as well as anti-aging supplements that seem to have the effect of lengthening the potential lifespan of those who take it regularly by up to almost 50%.
Because of this local specialty, which is in high demand, Enticum probably is the most militarized of the Viomium worlds, and its defensive capabilties are well known. The nearby Seraeans and Reavers have typically given the system a wide berth, although sometimes bold strikes by pirates on shipping convoys deeper in the system are not unheard of.
System: Typhoeus
Hex Location: 1839
Star Type: Single G3 giant (III)
Number of Worlds: 5
Gas Giants: 4
Planetoid Belt: Icy comet belt only
Starport Type: X
World Size: Earth-sized
Atmosphere Type: Earth-like
Surface Water: 27%
Population: Medium ~15 million
Political Affiliation: Bernese; Viomium Marches
Tags: Feral world, primitive aliens, hostile solar system
Notes: Typhoeus, when looking at the world tags, may seem like a kind of primitive backwater; the equivalent to a Third World hellhole, but in reality, the people who live here, and the rest of the Viomium Marches peoples in general, consider it a Utopian paradise to be treasured and protected. (The primitive aliens can be re-read as primitive natives rather than aliens, as they are the Bernese/Seraean mix for the most part.)
When the Bernese came here, there were Reaver settlers, as across the rest of the system, and Seraeans, but they lived in an unusually peaceful small community agricultural holdings on a world that is largely forested. The Reavers themselves had adopted a largely pre-technology lifestyle, other than a few technological conveniences, and the Seraeans adopted much of their culture from them. As the Bernese arrived, they too adopted to much of this small village and farming community lifestyle, and refused to set up industrialization centers, large trade centers, or even any kind of significantly centralized government. Threats or challenges which require coordinated effort have temporarily assigned dictators appointed (in the old Roman Republic version of the word, not the more modern one) and militias and volunteers have proven, so far, sufficient to deal with any challenges, would-be tyrants, attacking pirates or Reavers, etc. The Typhoeans don't reject visitors exactly, but they are careful about settlers... although there are some visitors among them who have been there fore literally years and not worn out their welcome. It's almost as if the Typhoeans are like a space-faring Amish country planet, and it serves a similar role as the Amish do, attracting tourists and visitors who value their hand-crafted arts, crafts and tools, as well as those who are fascinated and maybe even sometimes envious of their low-stress, low-tech lifestyle. Of course, many of these visitors are traders who take their goods elsewhere for sale; because Typhoeus is kind of at the back-end of nowhere, difficult to reach, and surrounded by a number of hostile powers that only give a single reliable space-lane to reach it; and a long one at that, visitors are less frequent than in our own Pennsylvannia or Ohio Amish country.
(8 red worlds left to develop. 16 blue worlds. And 34 italic worlds.)
I've made a few minor changes. I'm pretty sure now that when I named the Carrick Grand Marches that I either deliberately made the choice (and then forgot about it) or subconsciously made the choice to use the name of the Republic space station in Old Republic, which is Carrick station. I actually don't love that, but on the other hand, Carrick has that kind of old-fashioned Anglo-Saxon feel to it that is perfect, so I doubt that I'll change it. However, I will point out that my focus has kind of migrated away from the Carrick Grand Marches, and I'm more interested now in the Emerus Marches, and the soon-to-be arriving Viomium Marches and Machesk Frontier sections; both also Bernese colonies. I'm also thinking in many ways of taking the focus of the action, for that matter, off of the Bernese strictly speaking. I still see them as kind of the "protagonist peoples" of the area, but I think actual protagonist characters may be those who wander a bit farther from home, and they may go to Bernese worlds, but just as likely peregrinate to other places. In fact, given the supposed relative peacefulness of most Bernese worlds, they probably spend more of their "story time" outside of the Bernese worlds entirely, for that matter. So, the Bernese worlds in the Colonial Main would be the places that maybe they're fighting to preserve and protect, to some degree, but not necessarily where any such stories would be as likely to be set. There's simply not enough derring-do required on a peaceful world, for the most part.
That also highlights some minor changes in nomenclature. Not that I actually mention it much, but I had at one point named this entire sector, on the big map, the New Alderamin sector. I don't know where I got that name; probably just picked it off a list given to me by a name generator. It means very little to me now, though, and I don't like it very much. If it actually matters, I'll call this sector the Rubicon sector, named for the river which Caesar famously crossed when Pompey and the corrupt Senate tried to trap him with procedure to remove him from power and probably murder him. Caesar, of course, percieved the trap, crossed the river anyway, the Roman people celebrated him for doing so, those who thought that they could entrap him fled and were eventually soundly and completely defeated, and Caesar ended up going from success to success after that until he was actually murdered. Crossing the Rubicon has now entered our vocabulary as an expression for making a risky gamble on which success or failure has big implications for your entire future; a kind of point of no return type of decision. Given the political situation of the Rubicon sector, especially the Colonial Main, I think I like that. Plus, it's timely to us Americans right now, as we hope that Donald Trump crosses the Rubicon and commits to draining the swamp rather than retreating from their attempts to illegally and tyrannically steal the election from us, because the result if he doesn't is that we become an oppressed people living under a neurotic communismistic tyranny for the foreseeable future. But with regards to my space opera, that's probably neither here nor there, of course, unless I get sent to a gulag for wrongthink and can't continue to work on it.
The Colonial Main is a new bit of nomenclature that I've started tossing around in some of my most recent planetary system data sheets. I see most of the bottom third of my sector map as belonging to this Colonial Main, so called because most of the spacefaring nations within it are colonies of bigger empires or polities elsewhere. The Bernese Colonies are contrasted with the Bernese Main, which is the space occupied by the Bernese Monarchy proper, the very smallest southern portion is shown at the very top of the map. There's also an Imperial or Seraean Main, a Revanchist or Republic Main, etc. Not everything has to be called a "Main" but it works quite well, plus it gives me that Colonial swashbuckling Spanish Main piratey feel that I like. The "protagonist space" of the Colonial Main is therefore the portion of the sector map that is south of the Cilindarean and Dhangetan... er... mains, and west of the Imperial fringe on the far east of the sector map. It specifically excludes, however, the Reaver Worlds (mostly just because I don't want to mess with them) and probably the Altairan Ascendency worlds, even though by stellar geography they should be part of it, I don't actually intend to develop those. It also specifically includes, even though I would otherwise exclude them, a few Dhangetan worlds which extend into the same space, and probably need to be detailed because they're more likely to be used in some fashion.This makes the Carrick Grand Marches and its most immediate neighbors to the galactic east and southeast and northeast the frontier of the Colonial Main space. In fact, I have no intention of doing much (if any) development east and south of what I've already done with the exception of a few systems that are specifically called out. And I haven't prioritized doing the westernmost edge of the Colonial Main very much either, because that would threaten to get me caught up in doing the Altairan Ascendency due to sheer proximity, if for no other reason. For that matter, although I've been threatening to do this for a long time, I've actually got some stuff in the works that would make it a reality, I'm about ready to be done tinkering with world-building at a macro scale altogether.
Check out the page listed in the link below, including the updated map attached. Every system that has some development done is a link to a subpage on the wiki. Those that aren't links haven't been done yet. I had earlier italicized a few systems of the Galaide Worlds that I hadn't done, but I've decided that they aren't a priority at the moment, as I doubt I'll be using the Galaide Worlds in the near term. Rather, the red-highlighted systems are those that are high priority to finish before I quit macro world-building. The blue highlighted systems are medium priority; to be done after the red ones are complete, but only whenever I get around to it, and I'll probably do them in parallel with some other stuff. I do actually have some main characters and situations ready to be developed into a plot outline, so I'm going to start telling actual stories in Ad Astra Ferociter. Much delayed and overdue, but still. And I've added some additional italic lower priority ones to do on the Western edge, including finally the Altairan worlds, but those are even lower priority than the blue ones, and I doubt I'll get to them anytime soon, if really even ever. Anything that isn't specifically so highlighted I have no plans to develop at all.
The image is one that I found simply by doing a Bing image search for vintage space opera, although it doesn't seem to be too old fashioned of a picture relative to the covers of old magazines from the 40s and 50s, etc.
https://sites.google.com/site/adastram20/home/setting
As an aside, that gives me, in terms of macro world-building:
