With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[DAT_NOOB]

I was referring more so to the unity that having The Silent King back would bring than the pylons themselves, as while removing The Warp is one of the big goals The Necrons have their main issue has mostly been that they were scattered and not very inclined to work with each other in the modern day.

Now that that's changed however... well the galaxy might survive, it isn't going to be without wounds that they might not be able to afford to take.

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Don't most of the Necrons have a bone to pick with the silent king over the whole flesh removal thing?

 

[Assblaster5000]

Don't most of the Necrons have a bone to pick with the silent king over the whole flesh removal thing?

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Some probably do, but they all have had varying reactions to it, some fully embracing it and taking a very Mechanicus "The flesh is weak" approach to things, with others fully subsuming themselves in the C'tan's goal of just murdering everything with a Warp connection, a full Dynasty basically telling the rest of the galaxy to piss off so they can do science, and I think you get the idea by now.

And the ones that are a bit rattled over the whole thing might only be that way because they forgot about The Silent King's last order before he fucked off for a few million years, which was to get their old flesh bodies back, or at the very least return to a basic semblance of life beyond what their necrodermus forms provided.

Edit:Something else I forgot to mention is that, as far as I can recall, most of The Necrons that are perturbed about being glowwy robot people now tend to blame The C'tan for giving them the ability to do that, The Old Ones for basically forcing the decision on them, or both.

Edit 2:I could be wrong about some, or all, of this though. It's been a hot minute since I so much as looked at the lore (primarily through Dino Boi The All-Knowing), so I could be getting some stuff wrong. It's also GW, so who knows what they've retconned/cocked up this time.

Edit 3:Spelling is hard and I should check what I type before posting.

 

[Mr Zoat]

And on a WTR note, I wonder if any of this is happening offscreen in P'aul's story... Given Mr Zoat's thoughts on recent 40k stuff, I'm betting it's not, or is a long way off in the timeline.

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It's several decades off, if it happens, which it won't. Not because of the SI but because it's REALLY STUPID.

 

[Ngamer11]

It's several decades off, if it happens, which it won't. Not because of the SI but because it's REALLY STUPID.

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I'm honestly more interested in the version of Paul in the Warhammer Fantasy world. He's made an alliance with a prince after showing him a new way of life and has made a city of mummies indebted to him. Where will he go next?

 

[Mr Zoat]

I'm honestly more interested in the version of Paul in the Warhammer Fantasy world. He's made an alliance with a prince after showing him a new way of life and has made a city of mummies indebted to him. Where will he go next?

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Mallobaude isn't actually a prince. He's a noble in his own right as he's completed his deed of erranty, but the only way he'd become a prince is by marrying into the title.

 

[Stsword]

Marvel does superhero schools more often.

Xavier's of course, the fantastic four's Future Foundation, Avenger's Academy, the British Braddock Academy, the Wakandan School for Alternative Studies, and the Pan-Asian School for the Unusually Gifted.

The Shield academy from ultimate spider-man.

DC has a couple- Legion Academy in the LoSH future, Crucible Academy is an interplanetary alien school for heroes that has shown up in Superman family- Supergirl attended, as did Superman's latest science pal Shay Veritas.

Oh and the alternate reality Magic U, I suppose, where the likes of Zatanna and Sebastian Faust studied.

 

[Darko]

Marvel does superhero schools more often.

Xavier's of course, the fantastic four's Future Foundation, Avenger's Academy, the British Braddock Academy, the Wakandan School for Alternative Studies, and the Pan-Asian School for the Unusually Gifted.

The Shield academy from ultimate spider-man.

DC has a couple- Legion Academy in the LoSH future, Crucible Academy is an interplanetary alien school for heroes that has shown up in Superman family- Supergirl attended, as did Superman's latest science pal Shay Veritas.

Oh and the alternate reality Magic U, I suppose, where the likes of Zatanna and Sebastian Faust studied.

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And if I remember correctly in recent comics Dr Strange opened up his own magic academy.

 

[WereDragon]

Because... Obviously a Qwardian super-predator doesn't have any way to bypass shields?

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And? They are clearly no actual threat regardless. Why violate previously established facts so they can be slightly more of an inconvenience?

Additionally it would be equally out of character for them to have something that is actually effective against a Kinetic Barrier (Qward-edged teeth or some such) without Paul making a note of it in his internal monologue.

 

[Darko]

And? They are clearly no actual threat regardless

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Yes but that doesn't mean that they can't do some damage.

Why violate previously established facts so they can be slightly more of an inconvenience

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I don't think he's violated any facts.

Additionally it would be equally out of character for them to have something that is actually effective against a Kinetic Barrier (Qward-edged teeth or some such) without Paul making a note of it in his internal monologue.

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Unless he's too busy trying to beat them to put much thought in it.

 

[BartlettMagic]

It's possible.

Kalmin mentioned that they brought alien animals to their planet, so these could be Czarnian animals.

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you know who could address this for us? fraggin' Lobo.

 

[Darko]

you know who could address this for us? fraggin' Lobo.

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Now I'm thinking that these things were his pets.

Kalmin better watch out.

 

[Doccer]

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The second image isn't showing for me.

 

[Rafin]

Because... Obviously a Qwardian super-predator doesn't have any way to bypass shields?

Thank you, corrected.

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Will we learn how they bypass shields then? Or is it just "they're from Qward so they should have something, but I can't be arsed to decide what". Because that would make it feel like Qward just happens to be a high level area in an MMO without level adjustment, and you usually avoid such things.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Will we learn how they bypass shields then? Or is it just "they're from Qward so they should have something, but I can't be arsed to decide what". Because that would make it feel like Qward just happens to be a high level area in an MMO without level adjustment, and you usually avoid such things.

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You do understand that kinetic barriers are basically seat belts, right? They're explicitly not space military equipment, because just about any advanced weapon will ignore them.

And yes, actually, Qward is a very dangerous place.

 

[Stsword]

And if I remember correctly in recent comics Dr Strange opened up his own magic academy.

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Ah yes, students include a frost giant, some asgardians, a fairy, a zombie queen, a demon, a crystal man-thing, and Doyle Dormammu.

 

[Coda]

Zoat it has been established by you several times that the kinetic barriers need HUGE amounts of kinetic energy before they FLARE as in literally Superman is punching you with all he has and it takes several punches for the barrier to flare. Are you telling me these allosaours wannabes are biting harder than superman punches? Than Captain Nazi?

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Will we learn how they bypass shields then? Or is it just "they're from Qward so they should have something, but I can't be arsed to decide what". Because that would make it feel like Qward just happens to be a high level area in an MMO without level adjustment, and you usually avoid such things.

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You do understand that kinetic barriers are basically seat belts, right? They're explicitly not space military equipment, because just about any advanced weapon will ignore them.

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It should be noted that kinetic barriers are, y'know, kinetic. Bite force is pressure. Pressure is not kinetic. The damage doesn't come from two massive objects colliding at speed; it comes from continuing to apply force after contact has been made.

To make a Dune reference: The slow blade penetrates the shield.

 

[Maxx Crowley]

During/Post Marvel Civil War, they had the Initiative.

The Idea was to have each American state with it's own government backed super hero team on standby.

Each team would be trained and equipped by SHIELD, and they did have a central training center where (Registered) superhero's would be trained.

The fact that anyone With powers was forced into being Registered, and if they Wanted to use those powers were Required to go to Training was part of the Civil War issue itself. Cloud Nine is one of the characters they created to show what this process was like. Random person with the power to fly, was recruited when War Machine just Shows Up in Full Gear and tells her if she wants to fly, she required to go to training or go to Jail or be forcibly de-powered.

The Problem, was that they stuck Henry Gyrich in charge of it. A long running marvel character and a real bastard. Most know him from the X-men where he's very much a 'screw their rights, they're walking WMDs' camp, but he's also been placed in charge of dealing with the avengers when they were government backed in the past. He was one of the folks that was overjoyed when M-day happened, because that meant that random super powers were back to being SCIENCE, rather then a global genetic lottery, and 'MERICA had the leading edge on producing heros that way.

So he militarizes the whole training program, where children get boot camp complete with live fire exercises with alien death rays, and hires a super villain by the name of Taskmaster to help with training. This KILLS a kid, which he covers up with cloning and threats. He also spins off a Black Ops Team, that he tries to use to take down unregistered heros.

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Yes, perhaps I should have stated it, but feel it was sort of implied that the hero creation/schooling should explicitly NOT be evil.

We've had loads of evil programs that churned out heroes. Usually from Canada.

things is the idea of creating hero's means your no longer the 'hero' archtype you are now the mentor archtype and that is a completely different kind of story that a lot of people are not used to telling.

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People do seem to struggle with that yes. I've been on an MHA Kick recently, and for fun have searched "Izuku with a quirk" on Ao3.

This was a terrible mistake.

I've waded through 50 pages of pure shit those far. Just grim-derp this, Vigilante bullshit out the ass (Did people miss the part where they are kids going through actual school to become licensed professionals?!) far...far too many Fem-Izuku's with a healing quirk (and "She' will ALWAYS have a fucking healing quirk.) and finally...page after page after page of "Trans" Izuku....who will horribly abused by Inko because if you're going to be shit, by GOD you should go for the shittiest you can be.

The second image isn't showing for me.

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There is no second image. I played hell trying to get the friggin thing to post. I literally did nothing different with the one that did take, and the dozen or so that didn't. The second "Image" is the same thing that apparently I didn't delete.

 

[Vaermina]

Though if any of this is happening with P'aul around, which is unlikely to happen anytime soon given where he is in the timeline, I imagine that he'll have gotten a decent enough powerbase to make an attempt to do something about all this nonsense. Just making sure Cadia doesn't fall might stop The Great Rift from forming in the first place and Girly Man is halfway reasonable, so a decent plan and some negotiation should work wonders.

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He shacked up with the Tau.

His ability to meaningfully effect the greater galactic stage is effectively zero at this point.

 

[Assblaster5000]

He shacked up with the Tau.

His ability to meaningfully effect the greater galactic stage is effectively zero at this point.

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I want to preface whatever I'm about to type by saying that this is an emotional response, one made from my unending disappointment, but still an emotional response. So if you were aiming for that then... congratulations I guess?

To begin I'm going to try and unpack what you've said in the post I'm quoting. There's a very real chance that I'll fail for one reason or another, but I'm still going to try.

Point 1) "He shacked up with the Tau." P'aul has, from what we've seen, allied with The T'au, this is correct. Though he has kept his general modus operandi intact, which, while not important for this point, is something that must be said as it is important.

Point 2) "His ability to meaningfully effect the greater galactic stage is effectively zero at this point." In what way? You can't mean because he isn't able to go somewhere and do something about whatever morally objectional thing he finds in that area, he has a power ring with functionally infinite charge thanks to it tapping The Warp for power, so what? Is it because whatever he finds there will be too powerful? Is it because the galaxy can't be saved? Or are you saying that, because of the political ties he's chosen to forge with one of the only races in the galaxy that would be willing to listen to reason, he has near-to totally nullified his effectiveness in any and all engagements?

Well I have no clue what you mean, so I guess I'll just cover all of those in this.

Let's start with the "Too powerful" one for ordering's sake.

To avoid beating around the bush I'll just list something that we know can incapacitate a ring slinger if used correctly, psionics/inhibiting their ability to emotionally focus. That leaves us with a number of active (non-minor race because I don't know enough about them) threats: The Orkz, The Eldar, some of The Dark Eldar's machines, The Imperium, Chaos, The Tyrranids, and The Necrons.

That's a majority of the major races/factions in 40k, but there's something we can do to remove most of them. Biology. In 40k, and arguably Fantasy, it has been demonstrated on numerous occasions that genetics play a large part in someone's ability to access The Warp, to given a basic example The T'au evolved a miniscule connection to The Warp after their homeworld was caught in a Warp Storm.

P'aul, being from our world, does not have these. He practically can't have them since The Warp seems to be locked into the Warhammer parts of the multiverse, and there would be absolutely zero reason for our biology to include genetics that access the magic brain dimension since it doesn't exist here.

Which removes anything besides either hitting P'aul really, really hard for a sustained period of time, which is likely going to be their preferred solution anyways, or The Necrons, many of whom might consider slapping one of their Mindshackle Scarabs on him just to take down the odd glowing man that wants to negotiate as dishonorable and thus simply not do so, which itself assumes that said Scrabs can get through his environmental shield, his desire to be whole/undamaged, and whatever mental defenses he has. (Though I will admit that depending on how exactly the Scrabs work in P'aul's timeline the mental defenses may be a moot point)

Now we move onto option two "The galaxy can't be saved."

This I don't really have anything concrete to work off of for a counter argument, it may even be right, but given the fact that reason isn't actually dead in the galaxy, it's just memed to be, then if P'aul can get enough reasonable and powerful people to sit down and discuss how to actually fix things instead of just shooting each other until the other guys are all dead then a compromise can almost certainly be found.

Yes, I know that argument basically amounts to saying "People aren't that bad/stupid" and "Dude trust me" but it's the best I got.

Option number three now, "Political ties."

For this one I'd like to add something, more speculation than absolute fact assuming no Word Of Zoat that either hasn't come or I don't remember/never saw, but P'aul was likely involved in The Crisis Of Infinite Pauls, so he would have the full database Paragon and the others assembled and shared.

The Inquisition might know, some Farseers might know, Chaos might know, The Necrons might know, hell The Nids might know, but do the average citizens? Would they care if the magic glowing man that came down and turned their atmosphere from sulfur and acid and pain into breathable air had ties to the weird blue people on the other side of the galaxy? The Inquisition can't silence everyone, and Exterminautus is only a solution if they know and if it doesn't happen to dozens of worlds and if those worlds don't get systems installed by the strange glowing man to defend against it.

The Imperium didn't bother with Krieg because it wouldn't have been worth the resources to take it back, how would they be able to take and hold worlds that have been free of their control for years that have the backing of a man, and the empire backing him, with access to technology that can match up to some DAoT tech? These worlds could come equipped with singularity projectors, enhancements that make the average person equal, even surpass, an Astartes, methods of power generation and matter fabrication that makes them wholly self-sufficient, and non-Warp based FTL.

Sure, he could spend entire lifetimes working at making 40k a halfway livable place to be and still have more work to do, but you don't have to smash down all the walls of a house to take it down, you just find the supports keeping it up.

Chip damage might be small, but if you can't be hit and the other guy can't heal up fast enough then it will work.

Finally, we come to the conclusion of this rant.

I'm disappointed in you Vermina. it's not a rational thing, not even slightly, I just woke up today, saw the alert that said you had quoted my post, read what you had said, and found myself unimpressed because I expected better. You manage to get such a rise out if people I thought that maybe if it happened to me it would be interesting, a novel experience I could look back on with something approaching fondness.

Instead I've spent an excessive amount of time typing up a response to something that was better left ignored and have feed the troll.

tl;dr Please try harder with you witticisms internet person, I want to be cyber bullied on the tidddy forum because I think it would be neat.

 

[ABZB]

I found this story... probably in 2017 or so? and read it and loved it.

I want to reread and get up to date, but I'm very confused as to which thread-version I should be reading.

I'd much prefer to read it as an epub, but the epubs in the OP seem to be rather old, and the standard programs seem to... get very very confused when they try to grab from the thread (they seem to only be grabbing one chapter per arc or something?)

 

[scooterboo]

Gingold? Like 99%+ of the population I'd die in horrible agony if I tried consuming it in the doses needed to gain the preternatural elasticity Mr Dibny uses it for.

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"Would" instead of "I'd" here, I think?

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

I found this story... probably in 2017 or so? and read it and loved it.

I want to reread and get up to date, but I'm very confused as to which thread-version I should be reading.

I'd much prefer to read it as an epub, but the epubs in the OP seem to be rather old, and the standard programs seem to... get very very confused when they try to grab from the thread (they seem to only be grabbing one chapter per arc or something?)

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For just the story, go to the Story-only here, also linked in the first post or Mr Zoat's signature. The threadmarks there will take you to the first post of each 'episode' overall, so you can quickly catch up (threadmarking each and every post would probably break the system given the length.) As for the EPUB files, You'd have to PM the respective creators about updates.
In the meantime, welcome to the madhouse that is the discussion thread. Enjoy the yahoos, feel free to likebomb Mr Zoat and don't pay any heed to the resident naysayer.

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th July 2012
15:32 GMT

"We're being punished anyway."

"Oh?" Kalmin sounds mildly curious, though his face remains impassive. "On whose authority?"

I set my ring to restore my armour to normal while adopting a 'waiting for orders' stance. I don't really have a reason to intervene; I can't imagine that anything Kalmin learns won't horrify him.

"Whoever's in charge of our Youth-Training Centre. I don't think any of us angered anyone enough to be singled out."

"Then you are to be congratulated for correcting that state of affairs. I am most certainly singling you out."

He forms a new qwa bolt in his right hand, but this time it… Stabilises, becoming more solid. Like the ones the Thunderers keep in their quivers. Several of the q'ardajin stare at it, their envy obvious even without empathic vision.

Such a feeling, to hold so much destructive power in my hand.

Fortunately I don't try and grab it, though the only reason I don't make a noticeable twitch is my armour. Kalmin told me that the ability to manipulate qwa energy is the defining skill of a Weaponer, and I knew that Weaponers were in charge of q'ardajin society. But I hadn't considered exactly how they'd feel about qwa energy manipulation. I suppose it's like a Christian priest personally witnessing a miracle. Only more evil.

I consider the burning cage.

Than usual.

"I would rather die from the Anti-Monitor's blessing than meet the fate I've been assigned. Here." She pulls a scroll out of her utility harness and unfurls it in his direction. "See."

"Experimental medical duty? Were you unduly inattentive in class?"

"Check for yourself. Our assessment results are public data."

He returns his hammer to his belt and waves his left hand, creating a programmable plasma suspension in the air. The writing on it… Appears to be a grading system of some kind.

"Adequate. Experimental medical duty doesn't necessarily mean that they intend to use you for early-stage trials. Many of Qward's heroes have been adapted in various ways by such places. All implants that are now commonplace were first installed in people trained to give feedback on their utilisation."

"That may have been true once. Check the survival rates now."

The numbers hovering in the air next to Kalmin change. They don't mean anything to me, but his eyes narrow slightly. Then the changes become more rapid and I just have my ring analyse them instead.

Significant fall in survival rates. Significant change in recruit profile. Both shifts were gradual, beginning when Varnathon became High Weaponlord.

What traits were selected for?

Initially, low physical and mental scores resulting in early-stage experimentation. High endurance and obedience selected for late-stage experimentation if lacking other assignments, or if specific characteristics were required. Now, individuals with initiative and creativity are selected.

I frown.

Why?

Stated reason is 'maintenance of order'.

Varnathon is sabotaging his own society to shore up his position? Is he focusing on particular families? No, doesn't.. look like it. And… He's doing it worldwide. It would be interesting to see if anyone's reviewed that.

Confirmed. Thunderlord Brikan.

The number two in the q'ardajin hierarchy and head of their armed forces. So does he..? Genuinely value obedience, or is he… Complicit? Does he owe Varnathon his position?

I suppose that it doesn't exactly matter to me, but I'm curious as to how Kalmin will respond.

"I see."

And so do I.

"Though this does not explain why you attempted to kill me rather than High Weaponlord Varnathon."

"You let yourself be overthrown by him. If you'd killed him then he wouldn't be in position to do this. We… Couldn't get to him, but I hoped that you might have weaker defences."

"I imagine that I do. But even in my reduced state I am more than capable of surviving an attack by delinquent juveniles."

He waves away his plasma suspension.

"Still, since I plan to kill Varnathon anyway, you may find that your assignments change before you're called upon to take them up. It would be a waste of the effort that has already been put into your education to kill you out of hand, and each of you has at least some useful capabilities."

"Kill..?"

"Surely you're familiar with the concept. Unless Varnathon has gutted the curriculum as well you should have vivisected at least one living creature by now."

"So you want to become High Weaponlord again?"

"No. But I set enough score by the position that I hate the idea of it being occupied by someone so clearly unworthy. Do you have any idea which other Councillors might serve as adequate replacements?"

"Ah..?" The school graduates look at each other. "No, why.. would we? I can only recognise the Councillors from Q'edion because I've seen them in the city. I don't know if they're worth anything."

"Ah. A pity. What life-assignment were you expecting?"

She… Hesitates for a moment.

"Technical specialist."

"A disappointing lie. I don't know what you think I would do if you told me the truth, but I also don't care. Whatever comes next, I won't be responsible for you." He floats up into the air. "I am going to speak with a meeting of the Council. You can go back to your barracks, you can shoot yourselves, you can stay here… Or you can come with me and perhaps learn something. The choice is yours. Robot, follow."

"By your command."

He rises into the air, stowing his qwa bolt and drawing his hammer. I follow him as he accelerates in the direction of one of the cities I noticed during my first visit. Behind us, the q'ardajin cluster around to discuss what they're going to do. But the apparent leader instead heads towards one of the still-functioning vehicles and shouts something to the others.

"Not a complete waste of time?"

"I expected to need to burn all of Varnathon's working to the ground. I have no idea why he was perverting our education system and even less of one why the other Weaponers tolerated it."

"I would guess because it didn't affect them or theirs personally."

"I don't know why I'm still surprised. That's a horrifying abdication of responsibility. Weaponers are to improve and maintain all of the weapons of Qward, and that includes its people. Every Weaponer in a city where this… But no more delays. This requires immediate correction."

 

[Mr Zoat]

"Would" instead of "I'd" here, I think?

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No, it's an abbreviation of 'I would'.

 

[Darko]

Youth-Training Centre

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So they're kinda like Qwardian Hitler Youth.

The you are to be congratulated

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'Then you'

Such a feeling, to hold so much destructive power in my hand.

Fortunately I don't try and grab it, though the only reason I don't make a noticeable twitch is my armour.

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Okay, so his new power up comes with drawbacks.

I'm now picturing him fighting an enemy that really wants to fight the OLC and Paul is overwhelmed and attacks his own side.

Wouldn't be surprised if Grayven actually manages to do this.

He managed to overwhelm Dox and he may do something similar to Paul.

Now, individuals with initiative and creativity are selected.

I frown.

Why?

Stated reason is 'maintenance of order'.

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So he's dumbing down the population to more easily control it.

. It would be interested to see if anyone's reviewed that

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'I would be' or 'would be interesting'

"I see."

And so do I.

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Please answer these questions.

Can Paul still see the other emotions, aside from avarice, after his second enlightenment?

Is his ability to see the other emotions on the same level as it was previously, or has it changed?

If it's changed then is his ability to see the other emotions weaker or stronger now?

speak with a meeting of the Council.

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'member of'

 

[Handlewithcare]

Ah yes, the traditonal method of making an evil teammate more palatable: make the other guy worse

 

[Mr Zoat]

So they're kinda like Qwardian Hitler Youth.

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No more than any other high school graduate.

'Then you'
'I would be' or 'would be interesting'

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Thank you, corrected.

Please answer these questions.

Can Paul still see the other emotions, aside from avarice, after his second enlightenment?

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Yes.

Is his ability to see the other emotions on the same level as it was previously, or has it changed?

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About the same.

'member of'

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No, that's correct.

 

[Vaermina]

P'aul, being from our world, does not have these. He practically can't have them since The Warp seems to be locked into the Warhammer parts of the multiverse, and there would be absolutely zero reason for our biology to include genetics that access the magic brain dimension since it doesn't exist here.

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That's not how the Warp works at all...

It's not some special genetics that let people connect to the warp, it's actually the opposite where there has to be special genetics to keep emotions which naturally effect the warp from doing so.

This I don't really have anything concrete to work off of for a counter argument, it may even be right, but given the fact that reason isn't actually dead in the galaxy, it's just memed to be, then if P'aul can get enough reasonable and powerful people to sit down and discuss how to actually fix things instead of just shooting each other until the other guys are all dead then a compromise can almost certainly be found.

Yes, I know that argument basically amounts to saying "People aren't that bad/stupid" and "Dude trust me" but it's the best I got.

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The thing you seem to be missing here is that none of those people care.

Option number three now, "Political ties."

For this one I'd like to add something, more speculation than absolute fact assuming no Word Of Zoat that either hasn't come or I don't remember/never saw, but P'aul was likely involved in The Crisis Of Infinite Pauls, so he would have the full database Paragon and the others assembled and shared.

The Inquisition might know, some Farseers might know, Chaos might know, The Necrons might know, hell The Nids might know, but do the average citizens? Would they care if the magic glowing man that came down and turned their atmosphere from sulfur and acid and pain into breathable air had ties to the weird blue people on the other side of the galaxy? The Inquisition can't silence everyone, and Exterminautus is only a solution if they know and if it doesn't happen to dozens of worlds and if those worlds don't get systems installed by the strange glowing man to defend against it.

The Imperium didn't bother with Krieg because it wouldn't have been worth the resources to take it back, how would they be able to take and hold worlds that have been free of their control for years that have the backing of a man, and the empire backing him, with access to technology that can match up to some DAoT tech? These worlds could come equipped with singularity projectors, enhancements that make the average person equal, even surpass, an Astartes, methods of power generation and matter fabrication that makes them wholly self-sufficient, and non-Warp based FTL.

Sure, he could spend entire lifetimes working at making 40k a halfway livable place to be and still have more work to do, but you don't have to smash down all the walls of a house to take it down, you just find the supports keeping it up.

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The first, and last, time the Tau were even so much as a pinprick bother the Imperium sent an Execution Force of four people who basically owned their entire army. At which point they lit an entire sector of space on fire effectively burning out that entire Sphere of Expansion.

Here you are suggesting something so far beyond that that the Imperium's response would be "Let's send in the Dark Angels".

That is The Rock, it's the size of a moon, and could take literally everything the Tau have without so much as blinking.

And that's just the Imperium, because it's a literal act of author that Trazyn the Infinite hasn't show up and stuck him in a stasis field yet. Or the Dark Gods haven't exploded his head. Or the Eldar haven't altered fate so he get's his ring stolen by a Null and then shot in the head by some random thug with a stub gun.

 

[Lord Ernest]

I... don't think Varnathon is worse, he's just... inefficient? I think? Everything that may be happening is something that was already happening to other people. The experimental medical duty happened to under performers early on, then to people that were loyal or could cope with the procedures in later, more successful stages; now Varnathon is behaving like a more "normal" dictator and targeting possible malcontents or people that in the future may represent a danger to him, the ones with "initiative and creativity", i.e. the ones most likely to advance to higher Weaponer or Thunderer ranks, I think.

In fact, Kalmin is definitely more dangerous and wors, because he's an unapologetic omnicide zealot and who knows how the mission to Qward would have gone if he was still in charge at the time, really.

 

[Citizen]

"I would rather die from the Anti-Monitor's blessing that meet the fate I've been assigned.

Click to shrink...

'than'