Hello, my name is Jack

by on November 11, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The games we play say much about our personalities. I like to play Mechs of War. Guys in big robots carrying big guns blowing up other guys in big robots. There’s a lot of story involved, but honestly, what more do you need to have fun? Sometimes I just want to blow something up. Virtually. Then there’s all those multiplayer network games where people play as wizards or soldiers and such. Some of them have amazing stories. Some of them are just excuses for people to get together and talk. Or conduct business meetings and trades. It’s amazing to see some of the virtual worlds that people have created in the networks. I like the real world myself, but then I grew up under warm skies and cool water. Sometimes I wonder if I lived in one of the last places on Earth where that’s normal. Don’t get me wrong. I like the networks. I spend a lot of time in them. I do a lot of work there. But I wonder about all the people who show up as wizards or warriors in them. Me? I show up in a white Stetson and white suit. I’m Captain Jack in whatever world you meet me in. I guess that’s what games say about me.

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Weylan

by on November 10, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The Weylan are a fundamentally trustworthy people if you ask most races. But their Contact with us was not always smooth. The Protestant wing of Christianity that is most strongly concentrated in America does not appreciate blasphemy against God. Naming your child Jesus for instance is simply not done. It would be presumptuous at best. But the Catholic wing of Christianity strongest in the Southern and Central Americas is far different. Jesus is one of their most common names. It is a hopeful name. An honor to wear. The Weylan as it turns out are at least as deeply religious as the Americas are, and that is why their name for soldiers translates into the word Seraph. They are honoring the angels of their own faiths, and pledging to live up to those examples.

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The Essential Galactic Atlas

by on November 9, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Essential Galactic Atlas

The hyperspace routes we used before Contact and in the first century after Contact where highly proprietary. Each major alliance held tight control over our systems and the runs that united them. Alpha Centauri was our largest shared system due simply to the fact that there would have been war had anyone tried to stop anyone else. The other routes were another matter, which is why many strong Alliance systems never saw a Chinese or Russian starship before The War came upon us all. And why we never saw the Chinese or Russian systems. We lived in different worlds until The War brought us all crashing back together again. It was not a happy reunion.

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Hello, my name is Jack

by on November 8, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

So what do we do when the bad guys come calling? We welcome them with open arms, of course. I prefer what the Society for Creative Anachronism still calls a fifty caliber revolver. Yes, it uses gunpowder. And bullets. Lots of bullets. Lots of kinds of bullets. Shotgun shells. Hacker rounds. Stun rounds. Lessons in how to quickly vacate an area via teargas rounds. Lessens in interpretive dance through electrical impulse rounds. To whom it may concern rounds. You name it, I’ve probably fired it at least once. Two or three times just be certain. You know the drill, right? You have to practice if you’re going to be good enough to make a difference when the bad guys come calling. And I prefer to make it a collect call. That way they get to pay all the penalty fees.

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Weylan

by on November 7, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

One important thing to consider about the Weylan is that they are fundamentally a peaceful people. The Albion designed them to be dangerous in battle but to crave peace above all else. That makes them some of the most heavily-armed pacifists in the known galaxy. And it makes Arkadia one of the toughest nuts to crack out there, though that did not stop the Shang from trying during The War. But the biggest reason the Weylan have survived all these years is because they are good neighbors. Many races have built colonies in the surviving habitable systems surrounding them, and they are the heart of a region of calm inside the devastated region of space the Albion once ruled. Most of the other races trust them. That is a very important thing.

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