Comment on the "Spartan Chronicles"

Aredhran · July 14, 1999, 11:03

I must say to you guys, as Lal the Mad would put it "My hat is off to you".

Truly, it is an excellent story you're putting up here, thanks for the pointer at alpha.owo, Googlie.

I'll try to join if I can find the time.

Aredhran

Googlie · July 14, 1999, 11:31

Thanks, A.

As you can tell, we're having a whole bunch of fun.

We need to get Mark G to split the Chronicles thread into pages every 20 posts or so (rather than their default 50) because the way this is going in two or three weeks time the story will be a thousand pages long

(I'm now printing 75 pages to have hard copy, and it's only day 3 or 4 of the action

)

Feel free to jump in, take a still vacant unit, create your own, disband it if you get bored or can't find the time (or write in a masive defeat, or surrender

yeah, right) or write in your unit's absorption into another's.

The more authors, the more unpredictability the more challenge, the freshness.....

Glad you are enjoyning them, anyway.

G.

Saras · July 16, 1999, 03:29

The first thing I do every morning for the last couple days when I come to work is open the Spartan Chronicles and Microsoft Excel and keep my fingers on Alt-Tab, just in case.

It is absolutely fantastic. I have no other words.

Saras
Admirer of literary talent

Dcole78 · July 18, 1999, 13:36

they are incredible especially considering that you have several different writers but it is still making sense and following a definite plot line. Very Very impressive.

The other stories on here are good as well, but they seem hardly ever to be updated please please do! I love them all

cmnash · August 12, 1999, 07:51

A new comment on the Spartan Chronicles:-

I am a fan of the Chronicle & look forward to each new instalment, however I have to say that I am disappointed by the new thread involving the inquisitors.

The idea of a Spartan Inquisitor organisation goes against my picture of the faction from the game & the society outlined in the chronicle so far. I would see this organisation far more at home in the opressive regime of Yang's Hive (or perhaps more appropriately, in Miriam's Believers')rooting out dissent & non-conformists.

The whole ethos of the Spartans is towards individual development as a survivor & warrior not collective uniformity, thus making a torture-based inquisition, IMHO totally inappropriate for this society.

Whilst I protest their inclusion I will continue to be an avid fan of the chronicles

Googlie · August 12, 1999, 13:11

cmnash:

Good observations,

But:

why would you assume that "The Chosen" are a Spartan sect?

Could they not be pan-Chiron?

Ishmael Skye - not Spartan - hints of relationship to Lady Deirdre

"The Chosen" - the name hints at a Believer schism

"The Grand Inquisitor" could be Hivean - or any Police State for that matter.

And if we believe that by 2200 Psi energy and psi power will be understood and utilized, then a "dark" side will surely emerge.

But we know that good will prevail (after all, we are the authors

)

Googlie

Veracitas · August 12, 1999, 14:43

Adding to what Googlie has said, déja,

cmnash, the Spartan Federation is described as "right wing" "sociopaths," which is what you seem to equate the use of torture methods to (id est Believers or Hive (in command structure, not ideology, for the latter)). It is not that odd for the Spartan governmet--a seemingly corporate state (Mussolini fascism)--to have a Department of Inquisition. It is not "official" that they use torture methods and the severity with which the execution was carried out in the post that you witnessed was directed by Ishmael and his evil cult of the "Chosen," not by the Grand Inquisitor of his own volition. Though they use cruel methods, they probably would not have gone to the perverted lengths that Ishmael did.

--Veracitas

Hydro · August 13, 1999, 09:13

cmnash,

Right-wing governments frequently have official and unofficial 'enforcers' and death squads. El Salvador, Argentina and the ever-present Nazi Germany are good examples. These are outgrowths to control what are seen as dangerous elements that threaten their society or to protect the personal privileges of the elites. I generally see Spartan society as having evolved beyond such inefficient thuggery. States that use these methods don't seem to last very long (certainly not 125 years) and the fact that they are used at all is a symptom of weakness. I can see how elements within the society might gravitate toward such methods.

That said, I too was thrown by the reference to the Inquisition, which has heavy religious overtones and seemed to be an inappropriate name for a Spartan group (unless they are ex-Believers, of course). Also, the techniques suggested seemed, well, 'base' for a technologically sophisticated society. Trickery (technical and otherwise) and terror are more effective than torture. My guess is that it is a group that was driven underground with the enactment of the Spartan Civil Liberties act in MY 2199 (I can’t remember the exact name, it was in one of Googlie’s recent posts). I don’t think that they would have the support of a significant part of Spartan Government, and if they do than Sparta isn’t a much different than the Hive.

Hydro

cmnash · August 16, 1999, 04:26

Hydro & others,

Having read your responses to my comment, I feel it's time for humble pie - a large portion of!

I was falling into a trap of my own making in viewing the Spartans as 'the good guys' of Alpha Centauri, when in fact there are no good guys in this environment - only 'us' & 'them'.

You were all quite correct in pointing out the right-wing nature of the Spartan society & the connatations that has with death squads, enforcers, etc. I guess I was looking at their society as an extrapolation of modern US society rather than analagous to a military dictatorship, which is what Spartan society is - or was before the Colonel disappeared (or am I behind the story & she's back now? it's hard to keep up with the pace sometimes!).

I apologise if I offended any of the authors of the Chronicles with my ill-considered comment
[This message has been edited by cmnash (edited August 16, 1999).]

Googlie · August 16, 1999, 10:59

No need to apologize - after all we are the ones who decided that the SE would be Democracy/Green/Power, but have interpreted it as democracy stopping at the Base Governor level (at least I have)

So the Junta ruled, with some semblance of democracy, but the generals would have a hart time reconciling inquisition and torture (at least the ones we've fleshed out).

But that's not to say that The Colonel didn't condone a little of it prior to 2199, when the Grand Inquisitor may have been active.

So keep on challenging us - the more we have to be specific about the society and the choices the Spartans have made, the better and tauter the story line will be.

Googlie

Veracitas · August 16, 1999, 22:52

killing double post
[This message has been edited by Veracitas (edited August 16, 1999).]

Veracitas · August 16, 1999, 22:52

As Googlie said, no need to apologise. Constructive criticism is always welcome (though grudgingly we might consider it

.

Tokek Belerang · August 17, 1999, 10:42

cmnash,

Nuff said on the apology - none was required. Challenges like yours present a fresh perspective, and that's always useful.

I had some misgivings about the Grand Inq as well, but that was because I'm a democrat and would like to think of 'our' Sparta as a democracy. I had Levavassier pipe up about Googlie's hard-line intervention just because of that (and had him pipe down again at Googlie's sweet-talking

).

Cheers,
Kek

------------------
Numquam turbae misceri

Hydro · October 11, 1999, 00:52

MetallicaFan,

One of our SC authors Tokek pulled together a Word doc of the SC. It only goes through 8/18 with post 225. We are now over 400 posts to SC.

If you would like I can e-mail this file to you (warning - it is 330 pages long). For the rest you may have to plow through the posts. Maybe we can con, er - convince, someone to do the rest. Note that Korn is methodically pulling the posts into chapters here at Apolyton (a BIG job!).

Hydro

P.S. - Could you do me a favor, Metallica? Please post your comments and suggestions here! We LOVE feedback! Obviously, no one has posted any SC comments for a while since this thread was buried 2 months ago. Also, I would appreciate it if you could delete your post from the SC thread. We like to keep things neat and tidy...
[This message has been edited by Hydro (edited October 11, 1999).]

Rynn · October 13, 1999, 11:25

MetallicaFan:

I updated Tokek's work recently and brought it up to date (last night's post)

I'll e-mail it to you

Rynn

Cotroneo · October 13, 1999, 22:35

Hello, im kind of new to this forum writing, which if i may say, is impressive. I wish i could bring my teachers here (if they understood the total game theme) and let them marvel in your writing skills....well to the point.

Im almost done with a part one of a story i put together, im probably going to post it on the official firaxis forum...its very dull over there. Well my plot is taking a orginal faction from the beginning of story, the landing, and bringing that faction story out in more detail. The time frame would be from beginning to end. What would be nice is to show this original faction's point of view of the new factions coming into the scene. The aliens should be very interesting to encorporate. Although there is alot of time covered, i refuse to not go into detail. That i believe makes the spartan chron. so good, detail. oh yes, check for the story this weekend, maybe monday...i want to make sure with stupid spelling and grammer and other things....

Well i was also wondering if i could get into the spartan story? Its seems like its very evolving story, up my ally. any rules i should know about?

oh yes just wondering...how old u guys? student, college, adults ?

Hydro · October 14, 1999, 00:45

Cotroneo,

I'm glad you're interested in SMAC fiction! But please, if you are going to post at the Firaxis fiction forum (which, as you said, is very dull), post here too! Most of the SMAC fiction seems to have migrated to Apolyton, so you might as well join the club.

As to SC, the rules are pretty simple: respect the threads of other authors, keep the story lines generally (but not exclusively) within the bounds of SMAC, make sure your story lines follows the tac of the story in general, and don't be afraid of change! If you want to get involved then I suggest you identify some element that could be covered better and make a proposal. For instance, when we started we each chose an element of the Spartan Military. New authors means new ideas, so you're welcome!

I'll be waiting for your post!

Hydro

Googlie · October 14, 1999, 03:01

Cotroneo:

I second Hydro's comments. Please post your story here at Apolyton.

And as H says, browse thru the Chronicles and see if there is an element missing that would add color to the plotline and the narrative, and suggest it.

That's how we got the submarine corps, the empath division and the space defense division.

There have been offers to write for Yang, Lal or Deirdre, but I think I speak for all the authors in that we want to each or any of us feel able to incorporate them into our stories (same with the Yoop, gaian and believer resistance movements)

It's a hard slog reading the posts so if Rynn is reading this maybe you'll get the tales.zip file e-mailed to you - it unzips into a word.doc with all 650 pages, and makes for easier reading than the posts.

There's also a map of the world at the Chronicles beginning in 2225, and there's one just after the swap and secession of the bases.

The military action should be picking up again any time soon as the diplomatic posturing comes to an end.

Googlie

Velociryx · October 14, 1999, 08:10

A case in point: when the story opened, I was doing writing from a military standpoint, but since that beginning, almost all of my posts have been on odd offshoots which introduce new characters to the mix. What can I say, I like tossing out random ideas in the form of characters and seeing where people take them....

Oh, and I'm 31....
-=Vel=-

Rynn · October 14, 1999, 10:29

I am

and I did

Rynn

Cotroneo · October 14, 1999, 14:34

thanks guys, im trying to catch up to the stoyr, i had just recently been reading the chron... so im still reading....i have a few good ideas....how many of you guys are writing? there seems to be alot of you guys.......oh yes...thks ryan for the large file.....thats alot of writing

Hydro · October 14, 1999, 16:36

Cotroneo,

There are about 14 or so SC authors. We know this because Rynn put together a nifty calendar a while ago (which has 14 months, with 38 days per month) with one month named after each author!

Happy reading!

Hydro

Slats · October 16, 1999, 11:27

Hmm...... let's see who we still have though as regulars:

Hydro
Googlie
Veracitas
Korn
Velociryx
Rynn
Paula Forbes
Tokek
oh, and me... Slats

Have I missed anyone??

Slats

Rynn · October 16, 1999, 17:34

And of course Paula and I are one and the same (I created her so that the posts would instantly be recognizeable as morgannews items, but somehow she got dragged into the plot

so lost the exclusivity).

The number of active posters is way down.

Paula (Rynn) Forbes

Cotroneo · October 16, 1999, 17:47

You can count me as one, as soon as i'm done catching up with the story

Rynn · October 16, 1999, 18:25

Cotroneo:

What a lovely name for a month

(I'll e-mail you a copy of the calendar with one of the original delinquent posters names dropped off after you've added your first post to the Chrons.)

Rynn

------------------
The Truth will set you free

Gayle Storm · October 16, 1999, 18:31

Hey, if I post an offering in the Spartan Chronicles do I get a month named after me?

If so, let me tell you the real story about Velvetgrass Point.....

Gayle (writing in the month of Storm)

Hydro · October 17, 1999, 13:23

Gayle,

Please, write about Velvetgrass Point! We have only an outline of what happened to the Gaians and the founding of Velvetgrass. There are 3 other Gaian bases, too, but they are fairly new.

Hydro

Slats · October 18, 1999, 14:11

That sounds good. The Gaians could always use some background data since they are a relatively new faction to the SC.

However, we don't want to the Chronicles overwhelmed with Gaian history posts. Gayle, that's going to require some scripting to fit into the current story. I look forward to reading it.

Good Luck,

Slats

Gayle Storm · October 24, 1999, 14:40

Hydro,

WOW, your Sarah post was wonderful. I wish I could have written it

Not to knock the warriors (again) but it's refreshing to read from a different angle, and many of the SC posts are thought provoking.

Keep up the good work.

Gayle

ps. My PC suffered a major crash and was out of commission for ten days or so, hence nothing on Velvetgrass or my Daughter of Gaia - even worse, I lost the map in the crash

[This message has been edited by Gayle Storm (edited October 24, 1999).]