What happened to the other 'Emperors'?

[EvilDrGanymede]

I dunno if this is covered in the TNE corebook, but Survival Margin doesn't say what happens to Craig, Strephon, and Margaret after Virus is unleashed. Presumably their domains all collapse messily? Did any of them actually survive? It seems to me that Strephon could have easily sought refuge in the Regency.

And what of Antares, I wonder? Brzk is dead and we know that his domain fell apart shortly after... and then there's that supernova prediction in SM... if Antares is still intact by 1248 - and if the prediction is valid - then it's rather likely that it could go boom within the next century or so... Or perhaps it's already exploded and nobody knows about it yet! Are the Vargr up and running again by 1248?

And whatever did happen to Lucan? Dulinor obviously didn't kill him since his 'victory speech' was a fake and he turned his Coronation Fleet back after Virus was unleashed during the assault on Research Station Omicron. We know Dulinor himself was killed by Virus on Ghaku in 1130, but know nothing of Lucan's fate...

Questions, questions. Now I can but wait for MJD to tease us mercilessly with hints and clues!

 

[Erik Boielle]

Strephon, I think, would have gone down with his pocket empire.

Defending 'His People' to the last would have appealed to his sense of being altruistic.

All very Imperial.

 

[Arsulon]

Doc,
Not too sure about the other factions, but Challenge Magazine ran several adventures for Trasilon agents (the Antarean intelligence agency) that ran straight through Brzk's assasination and collapse of the government. Trasilon agents, in the wake of the disintegrating government, are tasked with spiriting away key government figures to the Federation of Ot Zell. By the time the lights come on again, we have the descendants of Brzk's "vision" living in the Federation of Antares: a pocket empire built on the ruins of Ot Zell and Antares which carries on the Archduke's dream of racial integration. Check the issues in the 70's. Mind, I don't claim to speak for MJD on what's being salvaged from Challenge and what's not .

Erik,
Strephon does seem like he's going down with the ship, as evidenced by his refusal to retreat across the rift with the Vengeance (stiff upper inbred lip and all that rot, eh wot?) On the other hand, he's in a pretty good position to survive the virus. Strephon is (aside from Norris after the AV returns) the ONLY individual in the Imperium that knows the location of ALL the Jumpstart caches: that knowledge would be a real boon to a recovering pocket empire.

 

[MJD]

Lucan's tale is integral to the TNE 1248 storyline.

Craig we know *just* failed to hold it all together long enough.

Margaret's faction got hammered by Virus.

Strephon knew about Research Station Omicron.

 

[MJD]

Actually, I thought I'd spelled out what happened to Strephon and his faction in other posts. Sort of.

Go on, someone take a guess...

 

[EvilDrGanymede]

Originally posted by MJD:
Actually, I thought I'd spelled out what happened to Strephon and his faction in other posts. Sort of.

So I need to do a search for 'MJD' here, right?

 

[kafka47]

If Stephon knew about the power of Ommicron, did he have the inkling of the cure for the virus? If so, why did he not transmit this information to Norris? What secrets did he also give to Avery?

Excluding the big secret that Avery is avatar for Grandfather of the primordials...

Those who have signed the agreement with the Men in Black, will know what I mean

 

[Arsulon]

I seem to remember from SM/AV that Strephon sent Avery off to Norris with the locations of all the Jumpstart caches and the data on Project Longbow. I thought Avery worked for the Sparklers, not the Primordials...

 

[EvilDrGanymede]

Originally posted by Arsulon:
I seem to remember from SM/AV that Strephon sent Avery off to Norris with the locations of all the Jumpstart caches and the data on Project Longbow. I thought Avery worked for the Sparklers, not the Primordials...

I think he ends up in the Regency sourcebook. The claim is that he died years before TNE, but in fact he got sent off to coreward on a secret mission, something to do with Longbow II, IIRC?

 

[Whipsnade]

Evil Dr Ganymede wrote:

"I think he ends up in the Regency sourcebook. The claim is that he died years before TNE, but in fact he got sent off to coreward on a secret mission, something to do with Longbow II, IIRC?"


Dr. Thomas,

He marries Norris' clone daughter and manages to produce a heir; Caranda, who becomes the 'Regent'; as in the 'Regency'. The marriage is pretty much one of political convenience. Avery is few decades younger than his 'wife'.

Avery spends much of his time working in the RQS super secret Virii labs and eventually fakes his own death in order to depart on a mission into whatever Virus has turned the Vargr Extents into. The mission's purported target is the Empress Wave itself. Avery is accompanied by 'domesticated' Viral strains and psionicists - both 'natural' and 'mechanical'. It seems the 3I had had some luck in creating 'artificial' psions and the Regency built on their success.

Whatever happens to Avery is up to MJD I suppose. Boy, is M:1248 going to set sales records or what?


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[MJD]

It'd bloody well better.

But about Omicron. Strephon knows about it. Now, he couldn't know what woujld happen in a premature release, but he knows that Lucan has access to a project that can infect computers and shut them off.

Does anyone think that Strephon would NOT have made at least some attempt to protect his ships and computers against infection?

Now, Strephon knows the location of all the Jumpstart caches. He's got partial Virus defence.

Implications?

 

[Arsulon]

Ah ha! That's why the 4I is billed as the legitimate sucessor to the 3I! I knew Strephon wouldn't take the Collapse lying down!

 

[Erik Boielle]

Originally posted by MJD:
Does anyone think that Strephon would NOT have made at least some attempt to protect his ships and computers against infection?

<Raises hand>

Obviously just because I liked it the way it was before, but Strephon had been out of the loop for at least three hundred million virus generations by the time it is released.

Last time he saw it you had to provide it with a large nutrient frame and a dummies guide if you wanted it to write an excel macro.

Plus I live in a class ridden society dominated by an absolute monarch, and so have no illusions about the desirability of rule by Public School Wankers.

 

[MJD]

Yes.
Arsulon, you win a coconut.

Lots of people were screaming about how the 4I is stupid because the Regency would never found it, and I kept on smirking and saying "yes, that's right. They wouldn't".

The truth is now out. The 4th Imperium is largely founded and based upon the Usdiki Faciton (or the Usdkiki Peacemakers as they become known).

They have partial Virus resiastance and knowledge of Jumpstart. These are powerrful tools, though not enough on their own.

 

[Whipsnade]

MJD wrote regarding M:1248 sales:

"It'd bloody well better."


Sir,

Are you kidding!?! That book will sell so fast the ink won't have time to dry!

You can figure a generous intitial print run, double that number, double it again, and still have late comers sqawking on the various Traveller internet fora that they can't find a copy. Be prepared to sell it via Amazon 'cause QLI, BITS, and Warehouse 23 won't be able to handle the number of orders.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[saulweaver]

When is this 1248 book going to be available?

 

[MJD]

Larsen is indeed wise. Let us hope his wisdom in this matter is correct...

 

[Arsulon]

MJD,

If it's not too much trouble, would you mind signing the coconut? If it's too much trouble, a free advance copy of M:1248 would suffice...

 

[MJD]

The sceduule for manuscript delivery is almost exactly one year from today. Three months after that, I expect.

Though this is not in any way concrete. We've had to reshuffle already because of printer issues.

I will be happy to sign the coconut, and throw it personally at your head...

 

[William]

Originally posted by MJD:
Yes.
Arsulon, you win a coconut.

Lots of people were screaming about how the 4I is stupid because the Regency would never found it, and I kept on smirking and saying "yes, that's right. They wouldn't".

The truth is now out. The 4th Imperium is largely founded and based upon the Usdiki Faciton (or the Usdkiki Peacemakers as they become known).

They have partial Virus resiastance and knowledge of Jumpstart. These are powerrful tools, though not enough on their own.

While I appreciate that you don't have anything even remotely like the time to do this, MJD, perhaps someone else on this board would take it upon them to put together an outline of all the delectable bits that you have set forth here? This latest bit is very good news to me as I get back into TNE in a real way. I don't have the time either but certainly someone out there could dump all of these threads and clean them up?

Of course this would all be with the understanding that everything is subject to change...

Just a thought...

William