A Nomad Player since "The Shrine" and the Trial I.D were a thing coming in for some commentary. Since I've been playing Nomads since 2016 I'd like to give a little bit of a comment here for anyone who resonates.
I have said it before in some brief discussions with fellow roleplayers in the xeno factions when it comes to the role of the Nomads, how they're being played today,
how they should be roleplayed (including speech) and how they were played in the past in Discovery by our K'hara and Keepers of those times. I have also made comments about
the Da'am K'vosh and the precursor to the creation of the Nomads and this debate on humanity being a form of inheritor or "stealing a birthright" and all of these opinions that
have been added to the story ---
I want to point out something that needs to be said in general about these xeno creatures in how they've evolved in the minds of the players who remained to carry on such
a story of the Nomads -- which by their original design by Chris Roberts' team (pardon me for not knowing the story developers thoroughly enough to mention who had the idea
of the Nomads to begin with) did not have many of the traits that are being described as of now. This is something like archeologists through who tests of bones and carbon dating
and design, create bone structures to tell us "this is what the dinosaurs looked like" and because theyre the ones we trust to tell us what is true or not about these beings that
existed (the dinosaurs from our irl, Planet Earth) we have fantasy content created about them from stories and art to movies and video games like Jurassic Park series and Ark: Survival Evolved to what came to mind first...
The Nomads are exactly like this. Chris Roberts introduced this idea of an alien species with strange formations and ways of being, revealed the idea of an alien parasite influencing
humanity to off itself through turning it against itself, and that the way to beat them was to open a hypergate by shooting a laser beam at a weird structure in the center of a Dyson
Sphere to pull in some aliens and its over its done! Woo Hoo!
If I remember correctly, Chris Roberts and his team were on a form of budget and time constraint and had to develop Freelancer with a campaign and multiplayer compatible mode
by a certain time and this is how the story ended up without much time or resources to flesh it all out. (please correct me if wrong.)
So you have this whole idea grown over time by the fandom itself that Nomads had telepathy at all, which wasnt revealed in the Campaign.
You have this idea of Thralls and Infiltrators which is a creative idea by our story developer and is needed, not many people are continuing the story and making sense of it making this person a very valuable member of the community... however still...
THE COMMUNITY DECIDES WHAT THE NOMADS ARE, WHY THEYRE DOING WHAT THEYRE DOING, WHY THEY LOOK THE WAY THEY DO, WHERE THEIR BASES ARE, WHAT THE EVENTS ARE AND WHY... etc etc. The Community has all the power in deciding what they are because Discovery is the mod, not the original creators intentions... So Nomads are the extension of the community's mind and those who have an interest in xenos, aliens, psychic powers and the like meaning...
Much of the Nomad's current lore is a continuation of an established alien species by a previous story developer by those with a form of experience and knowledge of psychic abilities, hostile/aggressive xenos (maybe like the xenomorphs and the like), alien parasites and the like (im thinking chestbursters and all them)... I'm not an expert enough to give references, and I believe if we recruited creators and authors of actual sci-fi books and film to take a peek at Disco's development of the Nomads and give their true honest review we could get a good inspiration to make Nomads even more accurate and interesting to what they were originally intended to be by getting more ideas out... the bottom line I want to make is:
Nomads will only be ever as advanced as the minds of the community, the creative abilities of the official story developers and the inspiration they gain thereof (from movies, games, sci-films and invited author/filmmakers opinion) and they can be anything the community wants them to become to fulfill the person of an exciting antagonistic alien threat...
Apologies in advance for what I'm not aware of, however this then brings me to the argument that many of our writers and storytellers and roleplayers ignore many things about the Nomads and their existence. Mainly being the Dyson Sphere which still remains which is a feat that has not been done by humanity in the timeline presented by the Discovery
community and remains largely untouched in a sense that it has been discovered and reported in roleplays and been a form of intelligence factions possessed within roleplay however
the fact that this Dyson Sphere does exist does give sense to an advanced feat of construction that Nomads do possess.
That if within a Dyson Sphere is a universe of its own kind where Nomad beings can reside and exist -- are we giving enough attention that the Nomads have a form of technology
far beyond the development of human beings? If they maintain this kind of power structure, what are the Nomads truly capable of?
1. Construction or the maintenance of construction of massive superstructures capable of harnessing the power of a star
2. Warforms of organic based ships using projections of energy
3. Psychic abilities, mind control and telepathy -- in whatever forms allow it
4. Creation of parasites and incubi -- (roleplayed as the creation of, not the species itself)
5. Advanced manipulation and control of human beings and the minds there of, advanced plotting and planning ahead of futuristic space humans abilities to stop
it leading to the creation of a faction "The Order" to handle such a threat... i can yada yada all day about this
6. A "Mindshare" and a form of hivemind intelligence that can create such unity between forms that are revealed and unrevealed to the roleplay environment and to the story itself,
which is a power that humans do not possess without a form of skynet-like technological brain chipping (or wherever my mind goes with what humans could go to reach that power
in a Discovery timeline).
7. An invention of a form which can destroy entire suns, which was revealed in an extra scene and this community made a ship for it in the game by my memory....
These 7 points alone in my opinion, would make the Nomads a form of "Type II" civilization by the Kardashev Scale, an interesting proposal:
And leaving Humanity in a very weak spot in comparison, in that Nomads would present themselves to the faces of the people of Discovery Freelancer since their inception by Chris Robert's team a form of Elder/Master race in comparison... A space race of potentially energy based beings of advanced consciousness who, integrate with organic vessels of their design and with a negative twist -- have the ability to create parasites and chimaera creatures much like one can create a virus or bacterium and THOSE are the Incubi which are sent to humanity and not the Nomads themselves.
I believe Chris Roberts wanted us to think bigger when he presented the idea of the Dyson Sphere however if we are going to continue to allow Nomads to possess it we must
reflect the power that they must have, by being able to develop in complete security with the idea of a Dyson Sphere for the amount of time they have... there is alot more to these aliens than is being reflected in by the storyboard as its developed (although, still a very talented take on the idea). A story needs alot of minds to come together to create it however I believe Nomads should be reflected as a form of "energetic based consciousness" that creates forms to inhabit and are quite good at doing so...
Think of the game "SCP Secret Laboratory" and multiply that by 1000x. You get the idea of what the Nomads could be doing with sourcing a star as an infinite energy source and having
an advanced, high population Dyson Sphere...
In my mind, which seems to be much different than anyone elses, Nomads were destined to be a much, much bigger idea that was not fully fleshed out here in this community but
we are right at the door because the Dyson Sphere is still there and it can still be roleplayed from here perfectly fine that Thralls and Infiltrators are just the chimaera forms
of Nomad and we struggle with their minor forms. And they maintain themselves happily within their Dyson Sphere in a sense. In the creation of this form of lower being chimaera
that is programmed to contain humanity's rapid expansion through space, they use humanity's own natural warlike tendencies to expand upon one another and hurt one another,
and inflate these shadow traits of humanity without having to get their fingers dirty. This is where I'd go with the idea. And that Nomads, may be cosmically indifferent to humanity
in many respects and instead can play with the concept of them through this form of war that is processed ENTIRELY different empathetically to them than humanity would understand.
Now would I prefer a more humanitarian xeno? Sure, it has no representation in the Disco universe. However I am sure it can be roleplayed through the Nomads with this idea in
mind. Now, the idea of course that Nomads want to exterminate humanity from the basis we can assume from what we see in the campaign of vanilla sure, those are the Thralls
and Infiltrators and the like and the concept of good and evil, to the Elders of this race that sent these chimaeras/parasite disease was to be a form of control for human expansion
and wasnt entirely, from a cosmic perspective "EVIL" as that would be a human creation and human idea to a RACE OF BEINGS COSMICALLY INDIFFERENT TO HUMAN AFFAIRS
in many ways as these. And I'm sure, with RP simillar to the Vagrants, we can create multiple factions of Nomads that can satisfy each xeno players desire to roleplay a certain
way instead of "extermination alien", a more human friendly "cosmic intelligence alien" or many other kinds... who knows. Creativity becomes endless with that being allowed with
the roleplay of it that we are all creators and all making this story together.
If the creatives of the community ask me to take a knack at some story development I'd like to give it a shot --
To those who read this, I salute you it was alot
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
