LibriumArcana.Games

Just finished the Burning of Kass Zaris. It was a well done story Cavalier, the fleet battle was well done. Are you intending to write anymore on this war?

By the way is there a certain order one should be reading your fics in?

Ah, thank you. At the moment I don't really intend to follow that story up, though the Ssi Rissan and the interminable Imperial conflicts with them will be a major feature of the Holy Roman Empire's domestic scene.

But in essence they're all short vignettes designed to establish something of the background of the Habsburg Empire, or to explore facets of its life outside the multiversal context. There's no order to them though "The Burning of Kass Zaris" was the first one I wrote, "Unfinished Business" the second, and "Frozen Phoenix/Jade Throne" is a work in progress.

So how exacltly if you don't mind my asking did France end up Calvinist?

Finished Unfinished Business, which is a good spy story in my opinion and pretty interesting. Although it seems the Bogumil priest/monk/preacher dude had no idea how to actually convert people. Which suggests to me a status of not having to compete against another religion for a long time. Am I right?

Well, it was an isolated colony world. Fair to say they've had a monopoly there for a long time.

And in the ATL the Huguenots won the Wars of Religion, which happened a bit differently. The influx of exiles from Geneva, including Calvin himself, strengthened Protestantism in France from an earlier period as well.

Caught up on Frozen Pheonix/Jade Throne. Yikes that is frightening. Yang seems honestly unstable and I was sympathetic to the A.I.'s until they whipped out the mass murder. I'm not sure why Technocore thought it (they?) could behave in such a manner and receive a peace settlement afterwards.

Especially given the threat that a AI run nation with this behavior pattern would pose to the rest of the world.

And telepaths make their appearance within the Hapsburg universe!

Quick question, I'm assuming the American Revolution never happened?

Indeed, it did not. America is a geographic term where the French, English, Scottish, English Puritans, Spanish, Dutch, Swedes, Russians, and Poles all established fair-sized colonial holdings. Under the circumstances a revolution anything like that of 1776 would be very difficult to imagine.

Actually I think it would be more efficient if the AI's went with artificial insemination or if possible using completely artificial wombs. A quick over of the psychological issues involved would show that waste and further resentment would result actual forced (and it would have to be forced) inbreeding.

That would be quite a lot more efficient and logical, yes.

I just read Frozen Pheonix/Jade Throne. Wow. It's wrong on so many levels... but I couldn't stop reading it.

A good if chilling upgrade. Your history updates are always good if slightly disturbing.

Is the author an example of a majority opinion in the Empire?

Good question. It's an older sample than the first excerpt, from before the Deluge that ended the First Empire. The author would have been mainstream anti-authority at the time, though in retrospect the opinions expressed there appear more than a little crypto-Bogumil...

With the whole Flesh is better then demon machine bit yes.

Okay so why did it go the sadism route? Inefficient, time consuming and utterly damning sadism route.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Technocore assigns little or no value to individual human life. Partly it's a reflection of the logic of an AI, and partly also a reflection of Chinese culture as filtered through the ardent nationalists who created it. It is not actively sadistic, but it does not have any real inhibitions on how it handles humans either, and for various reasons chooses the most expedient route. Even if handling them better would generate returns in the long term, it has to allocate time, attention, and resources in the short-term which often favors less refined and developed methods. And in particular as it spreads itself out and becomes involved in esoteric research it simply doesn't devote much processing power or consideration to the human survivors, and the AIs underneath it are prone to various human failings. The initial models that were compiled into the Technocore were produced to be as human as possible and the AI programs the Technocore has spawned out of itself are based on that pattern.

Incidentally, conditions with the Technocore in the later parts of the story are based on a particular point of Chinese history that did not occur in this universe. Feel free to take a guess.

And the Frozen Phoenix/Jade Throne returns at last!

I feel a deep sympathy for Monkey, the more he learns what horror he unleashed, the deeper the guilt must be and I do not doubt he feels guilt over this war and oppression on both humanity and AI. Even as he labors to try and atone for his role in this, he must know that his efforts if successful will never be known, will never be written of and never understood. In many ways he has set himself up to be a silent martyr, destroying himself for people who will never be grateful, in the dark where they will never know.

You managed a darkness in this tale on many levels Cavalier.

That story will be buried.

More than likely buried, since Telepathy is considered unlikely and AIs are being seen as Evil Incarnate. I have to wonder where David and Julie will go, and what will happen to them.

Although the Priest's outburst at the thought of siblings continuing an incestuous relationship is fully understandable.

At this point it's really to late to stop. It would be adding extra trauma for no real good reason.

Well damn. How many were caught in the blast?

Enough to make for a suitably tragic end to the war. Hundreds of thousands of civilians and soldiers, at the least.