This is directed mainly at the lore writers of Keepers, K'Hara, Oracles, various Wild factions, Vagrants but also at everyone interested in nomads.
About a year ago, Huggie Sunrise asked for new ideas for K’Hara Lore and RP, including ideas that re-imagine it from top to bottom. Since the invitation coincided with the admins' willingness to rethink my ban for the first time since I got perma'd in 2009, I didn't want to throw it away by breaking the RP-only probation and started packaging my ideas into a story: "
Conception". It ended up taking a bit longer than expected, but in the end I'm quite happy with the result.
It explains some things that were left open by Freelancer and Discovery lore. On the surface it may seem a bit contradicting at first, but if you read it to the end (and think about it) you’ll find it just explains things in a different way. Remember that the story recounts only some events, and there will have been other events that lead the nomads to be exactly the way they’re seen in discovery now. For example the nomads on Pygar could have been left there by someone, or something, in ways that you’ll probably only understand until after you’ve read the last chapter. Or they could have been the result of another parallel universe altogether.
The way the story is told is intended to leave people wondering what's going on in parts (like the narrator also doesn't know what's going), and you’ll probably have to read it more than once from start to end to fully understand some of the earlier things. A lot of them are only hinted at, leaving readers to "solve the puzzle" on their own.
But it would be a bit "overkill" to not have anyone understand what's going on from start to finish, so I'd try to amend some things if it’s the case.
To that goal I'm particularly interested in what all of you think about the following topics and their explanation in the story, before I do a shortened OORP write-up of the Nomad/K'Hara concept contained within. Some things are only implied by the story without being directly written down. Consider some of them riddles.
I’m also grateful for any suggestion that will help improve the style and layout, as well as any errors you point out. Also parts that you thought were too difficult or boring to read.
(answering all or any of these questions isn't required if you want to give your opinions on other matters, of course)
1. What does the "poem" in the beginning mean (line by line), and what is its intention/goal?
2. Are the contexts and reasons for the changes in narrator perspective, tenses (past, present, future) understandable? At what moments in the story did you notice them?
3. Is it easy to understand what standard grey text, slanted grey text, colored/white text in quotation marks is, and colored text without quotation marks represent? Or should there be more "Andrea said", "Chris said", and “I thought to myself” to make it clearer?
4. How do the text/lyric/scripture citations at the beginning of each chapter relate to the previous and current chapter, and to the story in general?
5. Did you understand what a Nomad, the Slomon K'Hara, and the Godclay is (especially the difference between them)?
6. Your thoughts on the description of the Daam K'Vosh?
7. What exactly went wrong that started the “war” between Slomon K’Hara and Daam K’Vosh?
8. What’s the Slomon K’Hara’s motivation and what is it in relation to Daam K’Vosh and Humans?
9. How does the mind of a nomad / Slomon K’Hara aka “Mindshare” work?
10. How does the nature of the Slomon K’Hara/Godclay affect nomad RP with humans and among each other? What will the RP look like?
11. How does Nomad/K’Hara “infection” of humans work?
12. What are those blue ships (and other nomad/DKV tools) made of, what’s their energy source and light in them?
13. How does the K’Hara communicate with itself between locations, points in time, and different realities?
14. What happened to the Daam K’vosh, and why was Valhalla built?
15. What caused the great war of Sol?
16. Why was Sol destroyed, and how could most people in Sirius not know this?
17. Why do nomads use Babylonian names?
18. Found any Easter Eggs?
19. Found any plot holes?
I've been following the thread for awhile. But i reread it now. but before i get into that. heres whats up right now.
There was a perspective shift that occurred since then. For me at least. I realized at minimum the nomad lore and.. stories are built by those who write them for better or worse.. And im not trying to go on a rant here but as long as positions of responsibility can smash that and do whatever the fuck they want with you, your faction, and its lore It probably best not to get too invested.
They think their doing a good thing but they are at the end of the day bulldozing the house you built with many days and many friends efforts for years. Some of those friends might be dead now. and some of these people former admins.. former devs leave. Taking their stupid ideas with them. or leave their dumb npcs behind.
Leaving a fucking crater in you. where your interest and will to do things you love used to be. While they go and fuck off somewhere. You sit there.. "should I bother again when the whole thing could just happen again.?"
I sure as fuck wouldn't.
At the end of the day this place isnt worth building a legacy. the only thing that official factions worry about is activity checks and putting their friends in places they want them. Damn all the rest. Despite the slow death that will occur in the usual three year cycle. (most people leave in three years check the member list reference when they joined to their last posts that is a good a guess as i can give you)
Really any other ideas there are foolish. So these beautiful well written stories maybe invalidated... they maybe lost in forum crashes. ..(yeah dont get me staerted there) and time moves on. I guess you learn that you can put all your efforts in one place.
Disco no longer gets any of my eggs. a dozen is enough.
Karlotta you wrote 4 pages of posts and a huge thread. It was wonderful. I loved it Im pretty sure i got everything you were putting down. But this made me upset. Not at you but for you. Because the ineptitude of this place.. cannot be lost on you. You've seen and watched the whole story play out as long as I have.
If it makes you happy that is all that counts. I liked it a lot.
Some of the science is fuzzy but thats fine its scifi. The photons and the relationships of particles vs waves might expand the idea for you. The nature of observation in particle Technics can help too. But ill re iterate.. your blowing away your audience here. but that is just my opinion.
From a lore perspective Chris Todd.. if you can track them down wrote other things.. i used to read them.(when they were easy to find) and it had a simple elegance that made you fill in the blanks.
Cause really when you get down to it chris roberts had a vary .. minimalist view on lore. this is great for us to fill in the blanks because that is part of the allure of interactive media. Basically Chris's ideas were to frame up things. and let the players fill in their own virtual stories. And .. hes a bit lazy cause i mean.. well what the ef is a united empire? (star cit) .. i mean common guys.
You focused precisely on what counted. The characters and whats happening around them. The exposition especially about.. the hyper crystals which could be alien artifacts of their own sort. Was neat. but again. How its always happened is. People would read the old lore doc and take away what they want and develop it use it have it on thier own. Which i found.. funny. because the lore doc is just a pdf. And when it really "counted" it was always ignored. Which is why i kinda find the thing useless.
Good work have fun let me know if you need anything.
Thanks Huggie, I really appreciate you (and everyone else) taking the time to read the whole thing.
About the things you said about how efforts are most of the time wasted, I totally agree, but it's not just a problem of other people rejecting other people'S stuff (often for rather petty reasons), it's also a thing about raising wrong expectations and expecting rewards for writing RP that realistically cant happen the way they're advertised. I've been trying hard to get to the root of the problem instead of the symptom (like the rule re-writes and help systems and other stuff I keep ranting about), but it aint easy. So I'll gladly take up on your offer on "if you need anything", I'd further appreciate any help in getting people to read the story and other (oorp) stuff I wrote, and either back it up if they agree or voice their thoughts on it if they disagree. Both are equally important.
About the quantum pebble stuff, you're totally right, I started reworking that to make it shorter so it doenst blow of readers. Will probably take a few more days to refine it. Probably also the godclay chapter needs a lot of chiseling.
In case it didnt come across right before... I dont expect anyone to change their RP and abide to my personal vision of nomads or anything. It's all good, the main issue I had with my (sometimes unfair) criticisms of existing nomad RP was more about how people tried to force it onto others or portrayed it as being the only possible way. I tried to keep every existing type of nomad compatible with this, as being the result of another level of "thought stream" or another part of the multiverse.
It's taken me some time but i've finally got round to reading it all.
Here's some general thoughts. Very well written. You're a good story teller and have a talent for distinguishing characters. Even before you explained why each of these characters returned in the massive mindfuck and the end, your characters were clearly distinguishable by their dialogue. You didn't spend too much time on the narrative either which I like. The way you've laid the groundwork for the K'hara here is one the most in-depth pieces of lore I have ever read. It's a feast for nomad fans and a firm foundation you could build the NPC and subsequent player factions upon. The latter third is practically a guidebook to the way it works, no details spared. You've gone to great lengths to cite texts that complement the nomad ideals and for that I applaud you. It's a fine piece of work.
I quite liked the story, the plot was well designed and there were no sudden conveniences which isn't easy to avoid. Though I did feel there was a bit of a plot hole when Kara woke after the explosion. She goes from a dangerously paranoid mess to passively accepting of everything that happens to her thereafter. If this is part of the mind-altering effects of connecting with no-where then perhaps this could be disclosed. Also I admit I skipped over the romantic flashback bit. I undertsand why it's there, but I don't think it really added anything to the main plot apart from a bit of context. I'm not a fan of gooey bits and it was kind of a frustrating intermission in an otherwise exciting story.
As for the latter half: It's brave to take on quantum entanglement, quantum gravity as well as bridging quantum physics with general relativity and tie it all into nomad lore. But wow, reading it was hard. I'm quite familiar with quantum theories and still it was a struggle to grasp what you were referring to. I think when explaining something as complex as this it's important to establish four or five 'anchor' points that you explain very simply and in as much depth as is needed. Then branch out and return to these points when addressing a new concept. It seems to me you've explained it in a linear fashion which is unforgiving of readers who don't quite get it the first time around.
I still don't get your dimensionless existence diagram. Maybe because it's a 2D representation of 5D space or more likely because it went over my head. But something like that should be a supplementary reference point to what you're explaining in text. I could see what you were referring to but i couldn't quite grasp how it all fitted together. If anything the diagram confused me further making me believe I hadn't quite understood something when perhaps I had.
That being said, i'll answer some of your questions
5. Did you understand what a Nomad, the Slomon K'Hara, and the Godclay is (especially the difference between them)?
Vaguely. If you were aiming to establish a definitive difference between the three then it hasn't been made very clear.
6. Your thoughts on the description of the Daam K'Vosh?
A very good description. The motives for their actions are clear and their absence in Sirius is explained quite well.
10. How does the nature of the Slomon K’Hara/Godclay affect nomad RP with humans and among each other? What will the RP look like?
Your version of the Slomon K'Hara's origins would lead to more diplomatic dialogue between the K'Hara and other characters. However this is purely founded on the basis that the community accepts and actively engages with this version of lore. To that end there are several hurdles, one of which we've already been over which pertains to the complexity of the content. The only way I can see how we can adapt this material to in-game roleplay is to make it simple enough for the player to understand, but complex enough to bring about RP discussions in-game. People gravitate towards a 'purge the alien' mentality at present which is unhealthy for nomad interaction. Your lore could be formulated in a way that simplifies an overly complex concept to cater to those without the patience for heavy reading. Any other faction is driven by a base motive that is easily relateable for your average player. The motives of the K'Hara are much more complex and in this case, quite difficult to grasp. It's for this reason that it's even more important to layer the K'Hara faction lore right to make the base principles understandable by everyone. These base principles are what you'd expect from your average ID, FL Faction Desc or ID Card which form the first layer. The second layer being something akin to an official faction description and optional for those seeking to strengthen their RP. A third layer is the raw lore itself and is again, optional for those seeking to thicken their RP and that of their faction. Here you have all three layers mixed into one. This makes for an excellent base lore, but a poor reference tool. This content sets the stage for a huge number of exciting prospects, but it'll need to be tailored to a bitesize version to gain traction in the community.
11. How does Nomad/K’Hara “infection” of humans work?
With tentacles (couldn't resist)
Ok, I havent read through everything yet, but going off of my own personal experiences with these factions and their history (keep in mind I'm returning since the time of the keepers and speaking as the founder of the oracles here):
6. Your thoughts on the description of the Daam K'Vosh?
I didnt read your particular description (I have so many stories people want me to read right now, on top of writing my own, but i'll get around to it eventually), however I think we should refrain from ANY descriptions of the Daam K'Vosh, at least as far as their image goes. The whole point of the DK in the freelancer IP is to be this great mysterious thing that we know nothing about aside from the little clues they leave behind. We'll never meet them, we'll never know what they look like or who they were/are or what their real goals were, and that's what makes them interesting, they're a mystery.
7. What exactly went wrong that started the “war” between Slomon K’Hara and Daam K’Vosh?
In traditional lore, as far as keepers were concerned anyhow, there never was any war between these two. The K'Hara (the true name for nomads, nomad is a human term) were created by the K'vosh initially as a form of semi-biological machines which were to serve as caretakers of Sirius, and eventually evolve into their own advanced species by unlocking the clues and relics left behind by the creators.
The first nomads were hatched from seed-machines in the system where the Shrine is located (these can be seen ingame); these machines basically grew nomads in fledgling forms and sent them out into the greater area of Sirius over time. As they ventured out, the nomads evolved, grew larger, matured, and occupied other structures left behind by the K'vosh like the nomad lairs/nomad cities/dyson sphere, at which point they were able to activate facilities in these structures that would grow new nomad forms and allow them to expand their population and experiences.
8. What’s the Slomon K’Hara’s motivation and what is it in relation to Daam K’Vosh and Humans?
The K'hara are in a weird spot. Primarily, their motivation (during the events prior to the nomad war) is to expand their population and learn. They began largely like children, with curiosity and minimal pre-programmed information. They sent wanderers and scouts out across sirius to learn everything they could, and to find relics of their creators. With the events leading up to and following the nomad war during the freelancer campaign, the nomads have shifted to a more aggressive and militant role: while they once viewed humans as a mere curiosity, those humans have become a threat to their existence as a species. It is very likely that the first 'infected' humans (those implanted with a nomad incubus) were not actually created out of a desire to control or manipulate, but rather out of a desire by the nomads to learn more about human society - of course, it was treated by humans as an attack, and we wound up at war. After that, the nomads realized that they could use the infected individuals to create chaos and subterfuge in humanity's ranks, and also to utilize human resources they would've otherwise not had access to. Prior to activation of some of the nomad facilities in Iota and other nomad systems, growing very large forms like the marduk required significant resources to be fed to the shell, which is why we see the rheinlanders 'growing' them in shipyards.
At present day, most nomads are motivated by a few simple goals: First and foremost is the preservation of their species by keeping humans out of what little space they fully control, so that they can keep at least a foothold in Sirius and utilize the K'vosh architecture left behind for them. Second is finding a way to eventually push humanity out of the whole of Sirius, though that is obviously going to be a very long term goal and possibly even an unachievable one. Third is seeking out additional technology and relics left behind by the K'vosh that will allow them to learn more about their creators and could lead to gaining an advantage in the first two goals.
9. How does the mind of a nomad / Slomon K’Hara aka “Mindshare” work?
The simplest explanation I can come up with is this: Imagine the mindshare as a data cloud - a set of servers linked via internet that constantly back up, upload, and download data to various users. The nomads are those other computers. Each nomad is an individual, often with slight personality quirks and motivations that set them somewhat apart from the rest (though by and large they work as a cohesive hive mind, there is no dissension or civil war among nomads because they all view each of themselves as part of a greater whole, and there's nothing worse to oneself than cutting off your own limbs). Each nomad "ship" is just a shell, a body without an inherent controller. When a nomad wants to use a ship (form, as we commonly call them), they 'download' their mind from the cloud into that individual shell. When they want to change to a different form, they can upload back into the cloud (the mindshare), and then download back into another shell. If a nomad 'dies', their mind/soul/consciousness is backed up by the cloud, and they can download into another shell afterwards. This is why nomads, in most situations, are considered immortal. Their bodies can be defeated but they'll just come back in a new body later on.
Now, this is where things also get more complicated: the mindshare is, itself, contained within another dimension separate from our own. It doesnt technically 'exist' in a physical form in any one place in sirius or elsewhere. It cannot be physically reached or destroyed. However, it's range and connections are determined directly by the nomads that are using it. The mindshare link is strongest in nomad systems where many nomad ships roam, but as you move across sirius towards systems further and further away from areas that nomads patrol, the mindshare link becomes fainter until it disappears. Information transfer has a limited range in this fashion.
This is why we have what the keepers called 'wanderers'. Wanderers are nomads who travel throughout sirius, typically in a covert manner, in order to collect information from other nomads operating outside of the mindshare's range. Wanderers are like roaming flash drives: say you have a small group of nomads in New london, far away from the mindshare in nomad space; these nomads, if they die, will lose any information that they've gathered since they were last in range of the mindshare, since they last had a 'backup' made. A wanderer travelling by New london can download all info and make its own 'backups' of those nomads and their minds, and then carry that information physically back to the rest of the mindshare for upload by traveling back to nomad-controlled space.
Because of this, if a nomad leaves nomad-controlled space today, and spends 3 months in bretonia or gallia or wherever outside of the mindshare's range, and then dies before a wanderer collects its information, it will 'respawn' back in nomad space (in the mindshare, technically) and have lost all 3 months of memories and knowledge. Wanderers, therefor, are imperative for ensuring the integrity of nomad data collection.
11. How does Nomad/K’Hara “infection” of humans work?
The "incubus" is just another nomad form, just like any of their ship forms. It was developed specifically for interfacing with humans, and a nomad can download into an incubus form just as easily as downloading into a nomad fighter or bomber or gunship or whatever.
The incubus itself takes up a portion of the human's abdominal cavity, with a tendril and 'head' that extend up through the neck and into the brain. There is some debate on how the connection actually works and whether or not it can actually be severed/removed without killing the host. In most cases, an incubus 'seed' is implanted into a human and it grows into its full form before a nomad downloads into it. It may be possible for a fully developed incubus to force itself into a human body, but that's not very likely, as the size of the incubus would mean forcing an opening that would probably kill the human in the process. Most likely, 100% of infectees are simply implanted with a seed, which grows into an incubus, and eventually is inhabited by a nomad mind.
As far as how the connection actually works, some have said that the nomad incubus simply puppeteers it's human host by turning the brain to mush and taking its place, essentially wearing the human body as a suit more or less. In this case, the human no longer really exists, and the body is technically dead. It could be that this is the reason many infected appear pasty or ill, but not all of them fit that description and such an integration does not account for 'willing' hosts - nobody would willingly die for a nomad to use their body like a sock puppet.
Instead, I tend to prefer the idea that the incubus is able to merge its own cells with the human brain, fitting itself between neurons and taking the place of many connections that our brains already have. In this way, both the host and the nomad exist symbiotically, and while the nomad often exerts full control over the host its also possible for the host to act with the nomad's consent. This system also explains how it may be possible to temporarily subdue the nomad itself through chemical injection, allowing the host to speak while the nomad is sedated.
12. What are those blue ships (and other nomad/DKV tools) made of, what’s their energy source and light in them?
Nomads are a silicone based lifeform. Despite the squishy jelly-fish like appearance, it is far more likely that their ships are hard and crystalline in structure. Crystallized silicate also acts as a good transmitter for various forms of energy, from electrical to photonic.
As for the light inside of them, there's a few theories there: The light may be the nomad consciousness itself, which is a being of energy and light (essentially a computer program existing in the ship, which is like a big computer chip). The light may also be solar radiation which is stored inside the crystalline shell: nomads soak up and utilize solar radiation (primarily in the form of light) as 'fuel' or 'food' to sustain themselves. This energy can then be emitted from the shell in various wavelengths, which are how nomads attack other ships.
13. How does the K’Hara communicate with itself between locations, points in time, and different realities?
The mindshare is, as stated before, contained within another dimension outside of our own. Alternate or parallel dimensions tend to do quirky things with space and time, so time may not progress at the same rate in our dimension as it does there.
Each nomad ship acts like an individual wifi transmitter and receiver, creating a network between any other nomad ships in range. The higher the concentration of nomad ships (such as in their own systems) the more connections are made and the stronger the overall network becomes. This is also why smaller groups of nomads separated from the network by distance (like those operating far from nomad space) form their own 'mini-shares': you'll frequently hear about a larger nomad form serving as a network hub for numerous smaller nomads, particularly in the case of the nammu mindnode (gunboat), which often organizes various smaller nomad ships. Those smaller ships can become temporarily disoriented if the mindnode is destroyed, as they struggle to reform connections to each other and designate a new hub for the network.
14. What happened to the Daam K’vosh, and why was Valhalla built?
Nobody really knows what happened to the K'vosh except the K'vosh themselves (or other trans-galactic species who may have interacted with them). That's part of why they're such a mystery.
Valhalla was one of three great k'vosh structures left behind from their departure (the other two were the shrine, and the presumed 'progenitor' - a k'vosh starship - though that is part of the oracles' lore rather than vanilla).
Valhalla was a repository of technology and knowledge that the K'vosh expected the nomads to one day discover and make use of. It contained information on how to build jump gates, trade lanes, and numerous other technologies that the K'vosh frequently used (and left some scant remnants of in nomad space). Valhalla was, unfortunately, found by humans and the information contained therein was used by various human factions like Ageira to create the trade lane network, jump gates, etc. Without the vault in valhalla, humanity would still be taking months to travel between houses.
15. What caused the great war of Sol?
If you're referring to the nomads attacking sol, it was a separate group of creatures created by the k'vosh (not the same nomads we have in sirius), so their motives and reasons for that war are completely unknown. While the nomads of sirius were fledgling children at the time, whatever similar species attacked sol was far, far more advanced in its evolution, and thus by this point in time would be even further along.
If you're referring to the war between the coalition and the alliance, go play starlancer to figure that out.
16. Why was Sol destroyed, and how could most people in Sirius not know this?
We have no idea what the motives behind destroying sol were, as stated above. Only one individual (rockford or something?) managed to escape from Sol and follow the sleeper ships to sirius, and it's presumed that whoever he told either shut him up or swore him to silence so as to avoid mass panic among the fledgling houses. Over time, that information was probably largely lost, except by the most secretive of groups - which eventually became the LSF and then The Order. These groups knew about the nomad-like creatures that attacked Sol, and assumed that the Sirius nomads were the same enemy, pre-empting the war against them once they discovered nomads in Sirius.
17. Why do nomads use Babylonian names?
For the same reason that outcasts/corsairs use hispanic names, Liberty uses american names, Rheinland uses german names, Kusari uses oriental names, Bretonia uses british names, so on and so forth. This is a player choice by the first nomad factions (or possibly just by the keepers) in order to create a consistent naming convention for nomad players. Babylonian, akkadian, sumerian, and other ancient culture names are often distinctly unique from any of the other names used in Freelancer by the various factions, so they immediately set apart the nomad character from human characters. Additionally, there is often various mystery and meaning behind these names.
It should be noted, though, that not ALL nomads use babylonian names (there arent enough of them to go around, honestly). Anything that sounds distinctly nonhuman is usually acceptable regardless of origin.
18. Found any Easter Eggs?
Of course, but I'm not sharing my secrets here.
19. Found any plot holes?
Because so much of discovery lore is player/fan-made, there's obviously going to be points that dont match up, especially when trying to expand upon parts of the original game lore that were poorly or vaguely explained.