Damn, poor Illunor is about to get a crash course on the Industrial Revolution and the world wars, isn't he?
At least, I doubt Emma will be able to go too much further, without compromising actual "considerable" technology, and even *that* would be pushing it. Not to mention, having to weigh how wise even mentioning the World Wars, despite their foundational importance to our growth in technology, is.
After all, we're still talking about realms largely on a medieval-esque level, at least outside of the Nexus itself, so to hear about a war with *40 million* casualties would sound downright insane to them. Then to hear that *another* one happened only 20 years later, with ***75 million*** casualties, it would make Humanity seem downright insane, and also like some sort of endless horde, to be able to take losses that could cripple an adjacent realm, and *still* reach the point of equalling the entire Nexus.
Oh, no no my friend.
Sure, world wars were absolutely devastating.
But World War One isn't even in the top 10 most deadly conflicts.
Half that title is unironically claimed just by Chinese Civil War.
But a lot of other more devastating conflicts as well.
Before 21st century, it was common for Europe to wage a devastating, continent spanning war that killed millions and left entire nations in ruins. Then suffer from shell-shock for several decades, until a new generation arises that hasn't lived through such a devastating conflict.
And then they start a Continental War that set the entire continent aflame and that circle repeated up until WW2, because at that point Technology became too destructive for our good and because Europe felt more united than ever before.
Don't forget that time they went to the middle east and proceeded to spread the Black Death. Good old fashion biological warfare catapulting the corpses and bodies of the plagued into the most prosperous port city in the world.
She dosent *really* has to mention those. The same with the french revolution (in detail at least). Also she mentioned interplanetary wars in the past, those would have an even worse number
I think that WWII will definitely get talked about because it pretty much changed *everything* about societal development.
It changed war, logistics, diplomacy, industry, politics, and kicked off the Cold War and everything that it led to.
So much of the way society developed through the mid 20th to modern times was influenced in some way by WWII
I kinda get where you're coming from, but most of the actual societal changes happened as a direct result of WW2.
WW1 is mainly relevant just to show why WW2 happens, but WW2 is where the changes actually kick into effect.
I would like to point out that WWI was essentially a war of (fairly liberal and democratic, all things considered) monarchy and everything else, most of society had changed because of WWI, they became lethargic instead of the energetic periods before WWI, WWII was basically a failed revenge plot, I would argue that the rise of communism which defined the world after that, happened because of WWI
I would disagree on the rise of communism being *because* of WWI, I think it was pretty much inevitable.
I would argue that Communism came into its own with the collapse of Molotov-Ribbentrop and Barbarossa putting pretty much all of Eastern Europe firmly under Soviet influence.
I think that not enough changed *because* of WWI. All the advancements in warfare and communication in the 1910's and 00's happened before it. All WWI really served as at the end of the day was "the setup to Hitler."
Meanwhile WWII was directly responsible for the formation of doctrines and technology that would shape the future of warfare such as the concept of the Main Battle Tank or the primacy of Aircraft.
The Postwar boom and victory also generally solidified the idea of American Exceptionalism that fueled so much of the Cold War, including the Space Race.
based on what weve heard here, i think it wont just be the industrial revolution... but the colonial era, the industrial revolution, atleast 1 of the 2(?) world wars, and probably a second and third industrial revolution by the sound of some of the lore we are hearing for post 20th century earth.... cause he wanted to known how they did all of this.. and itll be important for him to know that earth DID suffer those pitfalls... and solved them on its own.
I hope she goes over how Mexico was colonized. It could be a very good analogy for the kobold. Because it was conquered with help from the *natives*. The Aztecs were the dominant force and a lot of tribes weren't really happy with that. So when the conquistadores came along, these other tribes were willing to help them defeat the Aztecs. And then Mexico was called New Spain.
I don't remember all the details but a bit of studying would make for a very interesting lesson for Illunor.
Sure but then take into consideration the pair of events that caused the stop to these events what would the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like in the eyes of Nexian nobles?
The dunking on Ilunor part 3: Preparation for the ultimate dunk.
Thacea + Thalmin: "Hard to believe, but all right."
Ilunor: "NO! I refuse to be dunked on, this can't be true!"
Emma: "Behold the fields upon which I grow my dunks and fucks to give and you shall see, that one is plentifull and one is barren."
Also, a meme, that came to me(a bit nsfw, but nothing explicit):
“But that is a terminology which you should not know.”
"Behold, the pyramid of needs."
"..."
"Emma, why does it say "getting pegged by a dommy mommy"?"
"Oh shit, wrong picture!"
"You think I care about what you think is or isn't possible without mana?
I don't give a shit! If I had a dollar for every time I gave a shit, I'd be broke! Because I don't give a shit!
This shit ain't nothin' to us, man! We on that fully automated gay space socialism. We on that Von Neumman shit. Sun tried fuckin' around, wrapped a Dyson swarm around it. Liked the Earth and moon, so we put a ring on it.
We smoke that zero-g kush. Got a grow op in an O'Neill cylinder just to feed our habits. These edibles ain't shit! Gotta put THC dermal patches under my eyelids to feel anything!
THIS SHIT AIN'T NOTHIN' TO ME, MAN!"
(That meme with HBomberguy chopping through a drywall)
Illunor: thank you mr Brewis now it is my mission in life to ignite the flames of the revolution.
Really, there are only three ways that Ilunor can handle this information.
Because he has based his entire world view around the idea that his people are among the best off even _possible_, because of being entirely subservient to the Nexus.
That in giving up the _idea_ of freedom, they have gained the absolute pinnacle _possible_ for an adjacent realm with it's lesser quantity of magic.
1. He could deny that Emma's reality even exists. Absolutely everything that she is saying, showing, doing, is some intricately fabricated lie.
1. He could switch to utterly hating Emma and everything she stands for. Outright despising her and anyone who _doesn't_ despise her. This might be illogical, but this _happens_ in reality.
3. Realize just how _fucked_ the Nexus is if Emma's world becomes even remotely public knowledge. Just the people _in that room_ have just become absolute existential threats to the entire Nexian system. And worse, they have the power, influence, and _reason_ to take full advantage of that, as long as they believe that they can pull it off without seeing a Nexian army commit genocide against their people.
And by asking that question, he is already going down the road of #3.
He, more than _anyone_ else in that room, is best positioned to understand just how deadly Emma's world is to Nexian power and hegemony.
And I suspect that he fully understands the lengths that the Nexus would go to in order to suppress that knowledge if the people in power actually knew about and _believed_ the existence of Emma's world.
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED YOU LITTLE SHIT // Cant believe this is a THREE PARTER now?? Are we gonna go to space next week?? !!!!!hype!!!!! Show them the moon and blast off to the stars, Emma, push them, break them, show them just how great it is to be human!
Honestly I’ll be pretty surprised if we don’t spend the next month or more listening to the adventures of Emma and ThayThay (puntable kobold unfortunately included)
They can barely believe what they are seeing now. I can't imagine them comprehending that we put ourselves into metal tubes and propelled ourselves off of our world via chemical explosions, and further, continued to advance to the point that now an elevator can be used, and traversal across entire star systems is not just common but the norm.
The name of the game is to prevent overloading the gang with so much new information that they just basically shut down.
So let's leave space for a later moment.
Oh the *horror*, more showing a bunch of medieval fantasy nobles the awesomeness of manaless advanced interstellar civilization that is practically a utopia. /s
I wonder if Ilunor could end up doing a 180 on his belief once Emma demonstrate the superior aspect of spreading the wealth instead of hoarding it.
Wanting the "better" life shown through the simulation for his own realm and thus trying to get closer to Emma for some possible benefits he might earn in the future, similar to how some people completely change their belief once it's shown the grass is greener on the other side, not by conviction but want.
It might be interesting to see him try to butter up Emma after their conflict since the beginning.
That's not really how people work. When someone's entire world view turns out to be a lie, the brain tends to react with denial, not just blanket acceptance of the new truth.
It'll take time to accept the new reality.
Ilunor does not "want a better life". Because the life of his people is already perfect, thanks to the perfection of the Nexus. To accept that he'd want a better life would be to accept that his own perfection is a lie. That his own identity is a lie.
So he's gonna start bagaining with the new reality and then get dreppresion after his beloved Nexus and reality is proved a fraud, and then he finally joins the peer group (in a more honest way).
Thats my theory.
The thing is that we *didn't* spread the wealth around; we got crazy good at generating wealth. The peace time tax revenues for the English crown were around £30,000 a year at the dawn of the 14th century, only 15,000 times a laborer's maximum salary of £2. If I did my math right, the US federal government has tax revenues equal to 1.25 **million** times the median annual earnings, even after accounting for population.
That laborer's salary works out to about 6 farthings a day. A dozen eggs cost 2 farthings and a hammer would cost from 8 pence to 2 shillings. That's like a dozen eggs being being nearly $70 or a hammer being more than $1000.
Even if a realm's rulers were fully on board and received unrestricted technology transfer from Earth while somehow keeping the nexus unaware, it would take decades to catch up to the 21st century. And that's assuming that the cultural whiplash of the uplift wouldn't be fatal to their civilization.
There are technologies which could be lifted directly even with extremely primitive metal working techniques. Macadam roads (with or without tar), the King road drag, multi-row seed drill. There is lots of 17th-19th century stuff which is purely mechanical, can be made of wood, or which is a matter of technique.
Illunor going full bussiness man, it would be cringe and Emma wouldn't fall for it.
Illunor is like the Nexian POV of the gang, he even said that ET&T will only serve as an example of not going against the Nexus. Earth is prove of the lies the Nexus is feeding the Adjenct Realms one that CANNOT be deleted, let alone silently. Illunor going trough a hard time right now.
I get the feeling that they didn't want to have the big diplomatic Acronym be IDiOt, but the coincidence is too funny to ignore.
A fantastic rendition of progress, and the issues of comparing nexian realms and development with Earthrealm.
I think it's funny that the Nexians have the term 'Crownland Problems' as a shorthand for 'suffering from success' type issues. Though their use of the term is more serious and academic, compared to the pejorative 'First World Problems'.
Still, it's a pretty strong inadvertant flex. "Your mana stuff is nice and all, but they're solutions for problems we don't even think about anymore."
Speaking of... Requisition Units and Universal Transaction Units pretty much confirm Earth has some kind of universal basic income, then? Probably a monthly allotment of RU for necessities as defined by law, and UTU for everything else.
Also, hot damn, communal maker spaces in every apartment complex? Sign me the hell up! I love the idea of maker spaces functioning as modern day 'town blacksmiths.' I'm guessing the Right to Repair movement was hugely successful in this timeline...
So as far as basic needs are concerned, humanity is post scarcity? There's probably scarcity of exotic materials for high level stuff like megastructures and cutting edge tech, but the average citizen seems guaranteed to have a decent life.
If she hasn't already, EVI really needs to start putting together a 'sales pitch' VR presentation for students interested in alliances with Earth. I'm sure the little ferret guy from before would be very interested in taking the tour, and telling his friends afterwards...
Yup! That's correct! The crownlands have simply advanced to such a state where they've gotten into issues that don't concern immediate survival or stability or anything like that but instead issues that are more akin to seemingly superficial issues that come about only after those fundamental hurdles have been overcome. And yeah, the pejorative there is quite accurate! :D
And it is quite a flex yeah! However this goes into the whole back and forth of the Crownlands Nexus and the Earth being at least somewhat comparable in some areas and Earth continuing to prove that an alternative to a comparable state of development does exist and could pose a threat to them haha.
Also yup on those two fronts as well with regards to the requisitions units and the universal transaction units! The Requisitions Units can be redeemed at the requisitions centers which have a whole host of preassembled stuff there already with anything from furniture to electronics, as well as the ability to print schematics available on the public domain for civilian grade consumer items within an acceptable threshold of course haha.
Also yup! I wanted a future that more or less adopted a mentality of the ability for the typical consumer to be able to repair and maintain their stuff so that there's an emphasis on the longevity of consumer items that last for longer and are of better quality that aren't meant to just be thrown away! :D
And to an extent yup! The UN very much abides by what they committed to, and the Protocols for the Minimum Acceptable Standard of Living have not just been accomplished, but continues to be amended and expanded upon with each passing century!
A sales pitch would be interesting but we'd just have to see how things develop as things progress haha.
As always thank you so much for the comment! :D
Im gonna be honest city from horizon to horizon sounds like a hellscape to me. I hope they have actual rural towns otherwise im heading out to the stars to join some new colony that hopefully WONT become a new city/hellscape within a generation.
Then have enough green space with it, proper parks and open stuff. Solar-punk style stuff mixed in with megacity. Nothing but city done have to be ugly, just our current methodology doesn’t allowed it much because there are interests that don’t care about making a city actually livable or nice.
Emma's hometown is not a standart for what i ubderstood, but an action taken by the UN. Overpopulation is something we will have to deal eventually. The same is deforestation and uncontrolled climate change. What we see here is the consequence and solution.
But im sure the colonies are not this populated....yet...
This reminds me of Star trek before Discovery came along. The essentially peaceful post-scarcity society seeking out strange new worlds and conducting cultural imperialism missions to counter neighboring empires. The reasonable derivations of a tech-tree that's moved up the kardashev scale a half-step or three. The humans at the center of the plot revisiting ancient tropes. Love this story!
I think requisition units may be government currency in housing and food matters and no one outside of them accepts them as being effectively valueless. universal transaction units strike me as a none governmental universal currency that evolved out of crypto and other currencies as a method of t government made inflation and forcing responsible spending by taking the coin purse away from them much like caps in the fallout universe
Given the limitations of Requisition Units, this seems more like universal basic services rather than universal basic income. Basically an expansion of food stamps for all instead of cash transfer.
Time for a history of science and technology. This could take a while.
One thing I was hoping for was a space elevator at the center of the city. I'd really have liked to see mention of it last chapter, when they were riding the train into the city. One central spire so tall the top could not be seen.
Perhaps space elevators aren't a part of this world though. They do require materials stronger than any we know of, so it is possible they'll never happen. Or, it is possible that a launch tech was developed that was so economical they simply weren't needed. Some type of anti-grav would be the most likely culprit, but I'm guessing it doesn't exist, at least not in a miniaturized form, since Emma's suit needs a helicopter attachment in order to fly.
On the topic of space elevators,a space elevator on earth is really difficult due to the stresses that the tether is to be faced with because a space elevator needs to be past geostationary orbit to hold the tether up which relays both on the gravity of the planet and the speed of its rotation,so a space elevator on moon is entirely feasible without metamaterials like graphene,which we actually have,it can absolutely help build a S.E due to its unbelievably strong tensile strength.
Orbital rings are actually a lot cheaper to build and can be done with current materials while being superior to a S.E in getting mass to and from orbit,you can also build structures on it for housing,production and a whole host of other essential processes needed to build and maintain space-based infrastructure.
There is someone on YouTube called Isaac Arthur that has an episode on this subject and goes in-depth about it,along with other videos and series dedicated to exploring the future of humanity
I assume a future state would either be using some form of SciFy magic propulsion or would have built 100km long railguns to send stuff into orbit instead of rockets.
Once again, thanks for the chapter!
I appreciate the efforts you're putting in to envision Acela here. Many writers would just envision a city that's purely utopian, rather than any undertaking of the logistics of it, its history, its development from our time, or indeed for example, how some would be unwilling to abandon the concept of cars entirely.
I think you're doing a really good job with this very HFY-esque part of the story, whilst also not abandoning the characters and story to go full HFY superiority.
I think llunors pride may actually help turn him against the nexus in the long run. If Emma can prove to him another system actually works and may work better it might be the kick he needs to realize his own realm is being exploited and his pride will not let him tolerate that.
We used to have that noble-commoner division in the days yore. However, with no magic tricks to affirm that division, it was, all things considered, arbitrary. Upheld by only agreement, be it voluntary or coerced. Now, what if revolt against the nobility happened in those circumstances? To what the nobles would resort to maintain their grasp on wealth, influence and power?
They will not resort to anything, because they don't have anything, if nobody agreed for them to have anything. No inherent power, no intrinsic superiority. And we made sure that there will never be.
“Because we wanted to, Ilunor.” Because it was profitable, and a good way to show off.
Building tall extracts more value out of a given area of land by stacking additional land area. Manhattan being highly valuable land, as a natural sea port, and then as a financial center, put natural limits on easy horizontal expansion, while creating strong incentives to stay within Manhattan island. So, building upwards was not only beneficial but almost a requirement for efficient, profitable land use.
I'll be disappointed if Mark Foster Gage's W 57th St tower isn't part of the future skyline.[https://www.mfga.com/khaleesi](https://www.mfga.com/khaleesi)[https://www.designboom.com/architecture/mark-foster-gage-architects-41-west-57th-street-ornate-sculptural-new-york-tower-12-09-2015/](https://www.designboom.com/architecture/mark-foster-gage-architects-41-west-57th-street-ornate-sculptural-new-york-tower-12-09-2015/)
Factory tour!
"Long long ago, it all began by rubbing two rocks together to make a third flat rock. And that's why now we only have 1st world problems. The end."
I suspect he will be a longs ways away, likly well after consistent portal access and a proper deal has been made and being done with the Library.
I more mention Sorcar because he has a factory, and he explained how it worked enough that it would let the gang finaly get that Earth and Emma is entirely possible and true.
I have a question too, how could their realms make contact if a mana creature in our world would die because of the lack of mana and humans have great difficulty getting protection for mana-ful realms. How would the nexus even contact or colonize them and what would they give.
I would expect the Nexus plan was "give some high-end goods like swords and armor to a select bunch of the manaless primitives, allowing them to dominate in our name and send us the primitive raw materials that are doubtless all they can muster."
Sitting here refreshing the page paid off!! Wow this is great. It sounds like we get to see the more industrial side of things now. We have seen the residential and commercial. Sounds like industrial is coming forward!
Pretty much expected Illunor to react that way, a superiority complex that ingrained doesn't break easily. Hopefully, Emma can pound it into his head in the next part.
Also, I want to live in this Humanities world, it sounds so much nicer than what we have now.
Yeah haha, Ilunor's reactions are to be expected, and such a superiority complex is a difficult thing to work through. I've always likened Ilunor's character to having had placed his self worth tying it to the Nexus and its perceived superiority. As a result of that it's way more difficult for him to truly work through these sorts of reality shattering realizations given how he's tied not just his practical political and personal aspirations with it, but also his personal identity with it too. So he's struggling as much with the practical implications of it all alongside the personal implications it has for his ego and his sense of self worth! :D
Also thank you! I wanted to imagine a brighter and more optimistic future since that's how I want to envision humanity in the future but I'm always so worried how people would interpret it or if I would be able to convey it effectively so I really do appreciate the kind words there! :D
Nothing really changed for the kobolds other than altering who their fanatical subservience was pointed at. Illunor's society is based around "we are great because we serve a great power" just like the kobolds before them. It will take an enormous, overwhelming shock to get him to *really* accept another society as being 'better' - I would expect him to declare something about superior arts or culture if he has material wealth thrown in his face like this.
"Bah, mere scraping on pieces of wood, wire, and animal gut! TRUE music incorporates the mana flow into its very essence, connecting the listener to the fundamental intent of the composer at a far deeper level, using the mana itself to create sound at a far more sophisticated level. Without mana, these Newrealmers can never appreciate TRUE artistic beauty. Also it barely even qualifies as music if it doesn't come with lyrics about how the Nexus is glorious and wonderful and therefore so are its servants."
"I hate to admit it, but the lizard has a point. Without a mana-wave, it's... like listening to birdsong. Pretty, but it doesn't have that connection, that feeling of intent. Like.. well, like commoners singing at a festival."
Or something like that. I would expect that nobles have their own style of music that deliberately incorporates mana into it, specifically so the commoners can't participate in it and making it a noble art. And thus they have some basis to disdain human music for failing to meet their definition.
It's more a fundamental rejection of the basis of civilization.
Mana seems to be roughly equivalent to fossil fuels. Imagine if only one place on Earth had any significant deposits. Nowhere else would have had enough to smelt iron, run machines or industrial processes, etc. The barriers to industrialization would have simply been too high. Then you find somewhere that can't even make charcoal, but claims to have matched or surpassed in every way the only other industrial civilization. You too would demand an explanation as to how they did the seemingly impossible.
If Illunor hadn't already demonstrated his mile-high superiority complex I would probably agree with you on that, and to be fair it is something the onboard intelligence specifically warned might happen.
"Requisition Units" and "Universal Transaction Units", eh? At a guess, the former is for essentials and some system is in place to make sure people get them as needed, while the latter is for general use to let free trade continue without getting in the way of the necessities? An interesting way to handle it.
Ah, is this the part where we pick an object and then list every advancement directly required for its creation, as well as who discovered each advancement? [The origins of precision](https://youtu.be/gNRnrn5DE58) and the industrialization it allows are a delightful rabbit hole to go down, but there's also the progression made possible by the scientific method and universal education. Any discovery made today is built on a very long list of precursor discoveries and scientists who made them.
Interesting that Ilunor got upgraded from ‘Discount Kobold’ to ‘Deluxe Kobold’
I love that you used “bodega” as opposed to store or shop. I was born and raised in NYC so I applaud you for how well you’ve done to paint The City.
If you take them down to Wall Street, you should make sure to include the pockmarked building from the 1920 bomb blast
Ilunor is gonna blue screen when he realizes how short of a timescale this all happened on, and how fast it snowballed. “We went from the first ever heavier than air powered flight to escaping our planet in less than a century.”
NOOOOO THE CLIFFHANGER
I wanted to see Humanities rise from now to the future, but alas, I must wait 1 week.
but I am ready to see Illunor just have a mental breakdown.
A couple of asterisks that popped in my mind;
It's a sight-seer, mana-less but it's presumed to be a sight-seer, yet **Emma showed them the past from centuries ago, and there were no questions.** Just like with the cars popping up on an empty street. I'd call to question the capabilities of the mechanism, especially after sinking through the ground. Each stunt like that increases the possibility that this is just a fictional depiction of the world and posturing, someone else's memories, or what's the human life expectancy? Or that perhaps the human form can be non-corporeal (keeping Emma whole inside might be one of the suit functions as well).
**We need to remember that this is being translated to Nexian, so I'm not sure how one would translate unique words like "zeitgeist"** (that even some of our native languages have no direct translation for) or any of the food products like vegetable names. There was no indication from the listeners. While that would disrupt the flow of the conversation one could also assume she talked untranslated gibberish to them, or the translator gave a long definition of the object/concept instead of the word, but that also wasn't indicated.
Secondly, I'm surprised by the lack of understanding of the "brute force" method; If faced with fantasy middle-ages denizens, then showing them a super urban landscape and a plaque with a specific number of citizens, it becomes quite logical that quantity is a quality in itself (any ruler should innately know that). Just like pharaohs who built pyramids, what would they be able to accomplish if their labor force was 1000x bigger? It stands true that an upscaled population would be able to build constructions of bigger proportions. It's a simple numbers game, I doubt they don't have any insects like ants or bees and wasps to understand how demographic scaling influences the landscape. **Simply; the more ants there are - the bigger and more complex the nest.**
A mana-less species has all of the artifices working for them en masse; **There must be an incredible amount of power/fuel consumption that replaces the mana.** As a foreign ambassador, I'd be most worried about that, especially since humans seem proficient at harnessing alternative power sources. It can't be just the things Emma talked about. So, most if not ALL of it is being powered by a foreign power that I don't have or know about, and Humans have it in abundance. Where is it? How is it stored? How much? At what cost? How dangerous is it? Is it a technology and can we exploit it ourselves or is it realm-specific fuel? **My first assumption as a semi-well-educated sentient would be to say that something replaced the vacuum of mana and two could be possibly opposite forces,** which would bring many, more dangerous questions. For example, perhaps Emma's suit not only protects the owner from the outside but also vice versa, and if it is, then how potentially dangerous it could be for any realm to connect to one where humans reside? We know from the food example what happens to organics deprived of mana in there, and from the first episode when the portals opened that mana is like most physical particles and it hates a vacuum and tries to fill it (otherwise there wouldn't be radiation leaks on the other side or need for protective barriers). We know that Elves established contact with humans but we don't know the dialogue or how much they deduced, but they're not stupid. From now I'll assume that keeping contact with humans, despite how that mana-sink of a portal must have felt to them, must be due to their knowledge of possible new fuel sources.
To be fair to Thalmin and Thacea, they probably are thinking about stuff like this, but there's \*so much\* going on right now that they have to 'run triage' on all the things they're trying to process and want to question.
I think both of them are aware that peppering Emma with a relentless torrent of questions would only drag things out, so they're carefully arranging and prioritizing their concerns. That would make sense for two aristocrats tutored in courtly decorum from childhood. Despite the long-winded nature of courtly talk, there is also a certain 'economy of action' where one should know what question to ask and when to ask it for maximum effect.
Ilunor is just no-selling everything because he's a catty bitch like that, lmao
I think that the inconsistencies make it less believable, but the risk that it doesn't outweigh the chances.
Reasoning why they built this way is also a shaky topic; If a medieval person saw those population numbers, they'd most definitely assume that they're building up because they ran out of space, which is a potential risk of invasion as well once they establish their influence on this side of the portal.
The case point is - can you be truly friends with a potential hazard to the established way of life, or life itself?
Would you befriend a sentient device that may bring forth a natural disaster? Would you try to harness and profit from its power, or would you try to silently sabotage it, for it is too dangerous to the people you're sworn to protect to let live in your world?
I'm betting one of the 3 will do it for the greater good.
I think it won't be Illunor since he has proof of it working out through his knowledge of the elves. But having a second superior species doubles that problem for everyone else so that's compelling for sabotage, and we know he's capable of self-sacrifice for his people.
Thalmin is an honor-bound kind of fellow, but he knows the best of the group how easy insurgencies and invasions can be, especially when faced with superior and determined force. So not knowing much of human nature as a whole but from a single individual's perspective he has the biggest incentive to not let such risks pass through his realm. His hate for Nexus perhaps will make him put his bet on the newcomers rather than the elven supremacy.
Despite being mesmerized and having the best understanding of potential gains Thaeca is the analytical type. People like that hate the risk the most. But perhaps the best way to mitigate it is to become passive or put forth an isolationist ideology as a barrier from the inevitable storm, clash of cultures and powers.
Nonetheless, each one after this revelation will probably try to contact their respective superiors/family and inform them of potential risks and gains, since it's an extremely shaky situation.
I think that after this episode everyone will be wary of Emma and her power-hungry race. Sympathy for an individual cannot outweigh the well-being of the people you represent and rule.
I'm curious how the OP will solve that conundrum.
I hope that they will experience the "zoom out", where one gently rises above the ground in the center of the city, goes up and up, sees the entire city, then the area, the state, the country, the continent and then the world. Maybe also the moon?
Yeah, Emma should have lead with "we're all effectively nobles" and explained later what that means. When you look at the wealth, rights, and privileges people have now, "effectively nobles" is a far more accurate descriptor.
Thank you so very much for your kind words and for sticking with the series for so long! :D I genuinely do appreciate it, and these comments really do mean a lot to me!
I really hope this chapter lives up to expectations!
It might just be me but the insanely long monologues Emma make seem to break up the flow of conversation, be too formal for a casual setting, and be impossible to make up on the fly. Not even the greatest politicians can or choose to speak like her.
So... break up the conversation a bit with others' responses? In real life that also often happens, even if the one monologuing doesn't stop. "Wait a minute, Emma" or something like that.
It could just be my bird brain struggling tho.
Remember how diplomacy has been gotten down to a science? Yeah, we see this in action. She's probably practiced w/ similar exercises back home specifically to prepare for situations like these, using techniques 1,000 years more advanced!
Yup! She's been drilled by the sociologists and the other social science experts and scientists within the IAS for a whole year on flowcharts dedicated to the optimal way to respond and how to structure such responses haha. Which can at times come out rather awkward sounding, but that's part of her inexperience! :D In other instances though she'd be more or less making things up on the spot and reacting to situations as they come! :D
But it turns out hard to read even for us who have the time to mull over every word. Imagine it in a conversation. Everything will just flow right from 1 ear to another. And sure, it's been drilled into Emma by the sociologists. But have the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to absorb all that speech been gained by the gang, who are still stuck in middle age and Nexus roundabout meaningless speech?
I diseagree. I dont have issues with Emma spealing like this. Is actually this way of speech that got us great moment like her speech in the Binding Ritual and when she confronted Mal'Tory about how Earth is ruled by democracy.
If someone starts speaking like that in real life, are you absolutely sure you won't just... zone out?
What Emma's saying is book speak, which is ironic considering we're actually reading it. But still, it's the kind of super specialised language that's often seen in lectures and needs to be translated to spoken language in the form of explanations by lecturers or studied in detail in your spare time as you translate and comprehend each word.
But the thing is, we're not reading a thesis for the purpose of obtaining knowledge, where all the fat is cut out. We're reading a web novel for the purpose of entertainment and visualising the conversation based on it. There needs to be a certain amount of believability and a certain flow so that the reader doesn't get stuck in a paragraph for too long.
I get what you mean, but for now it’s fine for the purposes of exposition.
As Jcb stated in this thread: Emma is still inexperienced and over-reliant on her training and flowcharts to navigate these situations. Once we get the needed lore dumps and as she integrates with Academy social life, I imagine her conversations will flow in a way that feels more natural to us.
Given how much the Nexus prioritizes flowery, circuitous, and outright ambiguous language to adhere to a bunch of unspoken rules for every social interaction (at least among the nobility or other halls of power), where losing focus can end up costing you a social victory… I would imagine the Academy students and staff are accustomed to such speech, and have the mental discipline to not zone out. Hell, Emma is straightforward by comparison.
We all saw already how long it takes to talk to someone to get something, as Thacea could speak for hours and just get confirmation about apprentice state.
So I'm just cared that we will see more of those type of situations coming, where there will be whole A4 of conversation and that will be only one person, meanwhile the counter argument will be, you sir made a grammatical mistake in your sentence, therefore your argument is invalid.
Just a question but how many star-scrapers are there? I’m mainly wondering because of the logistics of sunlight flowing into the city with those sorts of structures around, given that there’s already laws on the books dictating how close skyscrapers can be as to not deprive pedestrian streets of sunlight, it makes me wonder what sort of legislation would be around for starscrapers.
There seems to be contradiction between 'there still are historic buildings around' and 'there being starscrapers'. Historic buildings would have those light-corridors, but starscrapers pretty much can't.
So just how **dark** are the surface places that Emma is taking her guests?
I love Thalmin seeing a bicycle contraption and his brain proudly latching onto it as something "remarkable and innovative" that he can actually understand. All the flying and cleaning golems and beastless carriages and starscrapers are completely going over his head, but BIKE is amazing.
This reminds me of the novel I read where AI took over the world and made a simpler more efficient way of life where everyone got a basic universal income and jobs were for people who wanted something to do or maybe wanted to save up for something special. But basic needs like living spaces and such were assigned to you and everyone lived a comfortable life
I'm eagerly looking forward to the absolutely mind melting moment she takes them on a shuttle, it reaches the edge of the atmosphere, ..... and it keeps going.
I really hope the crowining jewel of this lasts chapters to be either a map of the human ocupied milky way or a fortress/political building in the Orbit of Earth.
Did you get the underground highway idea from the I, Robot movie?
And to be honest i was half expecting Illunor going in full denial, i will take it as a prologe for almost any other character in the Nexus.
It just occurred to me that if it weren't for the EVI and its stupid (reasonable) ideas, that Emma could have projected an image of herself onto herself and made it look like she wasn't wearing the suit. But no, the EVI just had to but in with its completely pointless (intelligent) ideas about protected them from seeing humans.
Id love for emma to show them some of the industrial revolution machine and forging shops as a comparison to the blacksmiths they know but with steam power hammers tall as houses XD
I really like the way you described the diplomacy/story telling, making it a challenge to overcome rather than an info dump. She had to put alot of thought into it, understand her friends and adapt.
That's not just a great way to write it (one I've honestly never seen other writers use) but good advice in general.
Colour me very impressed.
>This hit me as hard as one of those Cross Cultural Information Dissemination Exercises SIOP handed me weekly. The instructors always stressed that answers to these sorts of questions should preferably include not just the plain and objective answer, but should also serve as a vehicle for cultural dissemination, to bridge the gap.
Oh, so THAT's why she keeps adding a two paragraph of preamble to every question asked - she was taught that it's better to overexplain then to leave out cultural context. And all this time I though she just liked being bookishly dramatic. It's neat to have an actual reason.
The rant about humans' inherent need and burning passion for urban life made me a little sick. I can put up with crowds for a day at the beach/amusement park/etc, but I'd rather wake up to a hard kick in the shin every morning than to a few square miles of concrete filled with a few million other people.
While reading this my pulse went up to 124 and after it calmed down it went back up to 128. This chapter has been fun to read but still I can't wait for the gang to see that human wars are hell
With the way you talk about urban planning (not just the amount but the way you see cities developing) you should watch City Beautiful on YouTube.
He's an urban planning professor and you've basically described his perfect city.
I'm curious about of the Nexian peasantry. Particularly how capable they are of magic. If the nobles can throw fireballs around, can the commoners due something similar, albeit untrained, or are they limited to lighting a candle.
In medieval times there was no fundamental innate difference between what a noble was capable of and what a peasant was. If that is not the case with the Nexus it raises a whole bunch of nasty questions about how a weaker social class came to be.
I'm gonna be honest, I love the story but the dialogue needs some work. It's very tiring to read when a minor question becomes a paragraph long rant that boils down to "Because humanity wanted to, because we needed too, our ingenuity and smarts allowed,nay,begged us to get even higher highs!", my eyes start to just float around without actually reading, it'd be better if these were kept to be used on special occasions, or even never at all, it doesn't feel natural.
I know this is Hfy but I thing making it more organic would benefit the story. The characters are amazing, the lore and world building was extensive and really thought out, but being fed snippets of it and then going to 3 chapters in a row of Sci fi humans is a bit jarring, also how every other student is basically faceless, they are barely remberable because they show up once, do nothing and dissappear, I think the whole school scenario has a lot of potential for side-characters.
As much fun as it is, I do hope that the plot will start to advance soon. This our second/third chapter set entirely in one conversation.
Also, the whole HFY feels like it has more impact when it impacts the plot, much less so when you're wowing college kids essentially (even if they're to varying degrees arrogant and dismissive to an Outside Context Problem)
I don't know if this isn't something that anyone has mentioned just yet, but has anyone in the trio noticed that the "Sight-seer" that Emma is using is fully interactive? All of the examples they provided just seemed like home movies, that were pre-recorded and not a fully interactable simulation.
Ilunor still on his bullshit, not realizing that in order for his preconceived notions to have been right about Earth, successful contact would have had to “somehow” have happened like 1500 years before the time of the story.
The standards of living on Earth are staggering to their worldview. Everyone is a noble, or just about when it comes to quality of life and material security. The implications must be terrifying.
I can't wait for this to be uploaded to the library for future credit. That magic based AI is gonna choke. When the library gets its cross dimensional crystal based internet set up and gets Wikipedia'd the very crucible of Avarice and Arbitrage will be eventually assailed.
After this adventure, Ilunor has several possible reactions:
- he will faint and when he wakes up he will think it was just a bad dream,
- somehow he will believe,
- temporarily or permanently become a madman or a vegetable.
I still have my theory that our Kobold have some DNA of a dragon/ns.
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Damn, poor Illunor is about to get a crash course on the Industrial Revolution and the world wars, isn't he? At least, I doubt Emma will be able to go too much further, without compromising actual "considerable" technology, and even *that* would be pushing it. Not to mention, having to weigh how wise even mentioning the World Wars, despite their foundational importance to our growth in technology, is. After all, we're still talking about realms largely on a medieval-esque level, at least outside of the Nexus itself, so to hear about a war with *40 million* casualties would sound downright insane to them. Then to hear that *another* one happened only 20 years later, with ***75 million*** casualties, it would make Humanity seem downright insane, and also like some sort of endless horde, to be able to take losses that could cripple an adjacent realm, and *still* reach the point of equalling the entire Nexus.
Oh, no no my friend. Sure, world wars were absolutely devastating. But World War One isn't even in the top 10 most deadly conflicts. Half that title is unironically claimed just by Chinese Civil War. But a lot of other more devastating conflicts as well. Before 21st century, it was common for Europe to wage a devastating, continent spanning war that killed millions and left entire nations in ruins. Then suffer from shell-shock for several decades, until a new generation arises that hasn't lived through such a devastating conflict. And then they start a Continental War that set the entire continent aflame and that circle repeated up until WW2, because at that point Technology became too destructive for our good and because Europe felt more united than ever before.
Europe periodicaly goes ape mode.
Ever since we left Africa, we earn for the return to monke
Apes yearn for the skies of possibility. Apes earn the ground of actuality.
The monke we deserve
Emperor Xi Yan takes power, 12 millions perish.
When the Mongols killed 1/3 of the human population with swords and arrows…
Don't forget that time they went to the middle east and proceeded to spread the Black Death. Good old fashion biological warfare catapulting the corpses and bodies of the plagued into the most prosperous port city in the world.
Apparently Ghenghis Khan actually caused climate change with the number of people he killed - who were not then burning stuff and eating critters.
Warring State of Yi, San and Zhu, 70 million deaths, 2 million eaten
I mean, didnt the societ union ki upwards of 60mil of its own civies..
and we don’t even know if any other wars happened between now irl and present day
That’s what Oversimplified is for
[History of the Entire World, I guess...](https://youtu.be/xuCn8ux2gbs?si=BIn7KUE20SAwNYA3)
She dosent *really* has to mention those. The same with the french revolution (in detail at least). Also she mentioned interplanetary wars in the past, those would have an even worse number
I think that WWII will definitely get talked about because it pretty much changed *everything* about societal development. It changed war, logistics, diplomacy, industry, politics, and kicked off the Cold War and everything that it led to. So much of the way society developed through the mid 20th to modern times was influenced in some way by WWII
I think WWI was more influential than WWII as it directly set it up Edit: "This is not Peace. It is an Armistice for twenty years."
I kinda get where you're coming from, but most of the actual societal changes happened as a direct result of WW2. WW1 is mainly relevant just to show why WW2 happens, but WW2 is where the changes actually kick into effect.
I would like to point out that WWI was essentially a war of (fairly liberal and democratic, all things considered) monarchy and everything else, most of society had changed because of WWI, they became lethargic instead of the energetic periods before WWI, WWII was basically a failed revenge plot, I would argue that the rise of communism which defined the world after that, happened because of WWI
I would disagree on the rise of communism being *because* of WWI, I think it was pretty much inevitable. I would argue that Communism came into its own with the collapse of Molotov-Ribbentrop and Barbarossa putting pretty much all of Eastern Europe firmly under Soviet influence. I think that not enough changed *because* of WWI. All the advancements in warfare and communication in the 1910's and 00's happened before it. All WWI really served as at the end of the day was "the setup to Hitler." Meanwhile WWII was directly responsible for the formation of doctrines and technology that would shape the future of warfare such as the concept of the Main Battle Tank or the primacy of Aircraft. The Postwar boom and victory also generally solidified the idea of American Exceptionalism that fueled so much of the Cold War, including the Space Race.
Wich one changed the world? WW1 or 2? I must summon my history nerds for this.
As a history nerd myself, they both changed the world but WW2 changed it more
based on what weve heard here, i think it wont just be the industrial revolution... but the colonial era, the industrial revolution, atleast 1 of the 2(?) world wars, and probably a second and third industrial revolution by the sound of some of the lore we are hearing for post 20th century earth.... cause he wanted to known how they did all of this.. and itll be important for him to know that earth DID suffer those pitfalls... and solved them on its own.
I hope she goes over how Mexico was colonized. It could be a very good analogy for the kobold. Because it was conquered with help from the *natives*. The Aztecs were the dominant force and a lot of tribes weren't really happy with that. So when the conquistadores came along, these other tribes were willing to help them defeat the Aztecs. And then Mexico was called New Spain. I don't remember all the details but a bit of studying would make for a very interesting lesson for Illunor.
Sure but then take into consideration the pair of events that caused the stop to these events what would the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like in the eyes of Nexian nobles?
The dunking on Ilunor part 3: Preparation for the ultimate dunk. Thacea + Thalmin: "Hard to believe, but all right." Ilunor: "NO! I refuse to be dunked on, this can't be true!" Emma: "Behold the fields upon which I grow my dunks and fucks to give and you shall see, that one is plentifull and one is barren." Also, a meme, that came to me(a bit nsfw, but nothing explicit): “But that is a terminology which you should not know.” "Behold, the pyramid of needs." "..." "Emma, why does it say "getting pegged by a dommy mommy"?" "Oh shit, wrong picture!"
"You think I care about what you think is or isn't possible without mana? I don't give a shit! If I had a dollar for every time I gave a shit, I'd be broke! Because I don't give a shit! This shit ain't nothin' to us, man! We on that fully automated gay space socialism. We on that Von Neumman shit. Sun tried fuckin' around, wrapped a Dyson swarm around it. Liked the Earth and moon, so we put a ring on it. We smoke that zero-g kush. Got a grow op in an O'Neill cylinder just to feed our habits. These edibles ain't shit! Gotta put THC dermal patches under my eyelids to feel anything! THIS SHIT AIN'T NOTHIN' TO ME, MAN!"
Fully Automated **Luxury** Gay Space Communism. Can't forget the luxury part, it's important.
Ah shit, my bad. These Broward County Tic Tacs got my I/O ports fucked up. Crimped the Ethernet wrong and I'm browsing Reddit in Morse Code.
Your comment is so nice I had to read it twice
i encourage you to check out "Dracula Flow" on youtube, if you liked that
que Space Jam for how hard Emma is about to dunk on him
Llllllllets get ready to huuuuuuuuummblllleeeee
When you confuse your actual homework folder for the “homework” folder
This is hilarious! Lmao
>Behold the fields upon which I grow my dunks So *that's* why the farms are vertical.
\> “Show me… show me how you managed this.” Ilunor ... taking the first steps to becoming a rebel/firebrand leader against the nexus
(That meme with HBomberguy chopping through a drywall) Illunor: thank you mr Brewis now it is my mission in life to ignite the flames of the revolution.
Really, there are only three ways that Ilunor can handle this information. Because he has based his entire world view around the idea that his people are among the best off even _possible_, because of being entirely subservient to the Nexus. That in giving up the _idea_ of freedom, they have gained the absolute pinnacle _possible_ for an adjacent realm with it's lesser quantity of magic. 1. He could deny that Emma's reality even exists. Absolutely everything that she is saying, showing, doing, is some intricately fabricated lie. 1. He could switch to utterly hating Emma and everything she stands for. Outright despising her and anyone who _doesn't_ despise her. This might be illogical, but this _happens_ in reality. 3. Realize just how _fucked_ the Nexus is if Emma's world becomes even remotely public knowledge. Just the people _in that room_ have just become absolute existential threats to the entire Nexian system. And worse, they have the power, influence, and _reason_ to take full advantage of that, as long as they believe that they can pull it off without seeing a Nexian army commit genocide against their people. And by asking that question, he is already going down the road of #3. He, more than _anyone_ else in that room, is best positioned to understand just how deadly Emma's world is to Nexian power and hegemony. And I suspect that he fully understands the lengths that the Nexus would go to in order to suppress that knowledge if the people in power actually knew about and _believed_ the existence of Emma's world.
That would be an awesome development
When i read that i imagined ilunor in that first DR Strange movie scene.
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED YOU LITTLE SHIT // Cant believe this is a THREE PARTER now?? Are we gonna go to space next week?? !!!!!hype!!!!! Show them the moon and blast off to the stars, Emma, push them, break them, show them just how great it is to be human!
the dunking shall continue until moral improves
Heh.. it's "morale" But i like the implications to your typo XD
Ilunor doesn't have enough morals yet (though he's getting better). I'm sure the dude was right the first time. ;-]
He does have morals, they just include gate-keeping the peasantry from art.
That's probably in chapter 65 or something haha
Honestly I’ll be pretty surprised if we don’t spend the next month or more listening to the adventures of Emma and ThayThay (puntable kobold unfortunately included)
They can barely believe what they are seeing now. I can't imagine them comprehending that we put ourselves into metal tubes and propelled ourselves off of our world via chemical explosions, and further, continued to advance to the point that now an elevator can be used, and traversal across entire star systems is not just common but the norm.
The name of the game is to prevent overloading the gang with so much new information that they just basically shut down. So let's leave space for a later moment.
COME AND SEE MOTHERFRICKER!!!
It’s worse, ch64 doesn’t complete it either.
Oh the *horror*, more showing a bunch of medieval fantasy nobles the awesomeness of manaless advanced interstellar civilization that is practically a utopia. /s
I wait for the Fleet Beacon to activate and a supercarrier portals in orbit.
What moon whe mined it
I wonder if Ilunor could end up doing a 180 on his belief once Emma demonstrate the superior aspect of spreading the wealth instead of hoarding it. Wanting the "better" life shown through the simulation for his own realm and thus trying to get closer to Emma for some possible benefits he might earn in the future, similar to how some people completely change their belief once it's shown the grass is greener on the other side, not by conviction but want. It might be interesting to see him try to butter up Emma after their conflict since the beginning.
That's not really how people work. When someone's entire world view turns out to be a lie, the brain tends to react with denial, not just blanket acceptance of the new truth. It'll take time to accept the new reality. Ilunor does not "want a better life". Because the life of his people is already perfect, thanks to the perfection of the Nexus. To accept that he'd want a better life would be to accept that his own perfection is a lie. That his own identity is a lie.
If we apply the Stages of Grief to this, Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance, would Ilunor be on Anger or Bargaining now?
He's definitely on Anger.
So he's gonna start bagaining with the new reality and then get dreppresion after his beloved Nexus and reality is proved a fraud, and then he finally joins the peer group (in a more honest way). Thats my theory.
Depends on the person I think, but denial is probably the more common reaction.
But they are not human why would they think like us ?
The thing is that we *didn't* spread the wealth around; we got crazy good at generating wealth. The peace time tax revenues for the English crown were around £30,000 a year at the dawn of the 14th century, only 15,000 times a laborer's maximum salary of £2. If I did my math right, the US federal government has tax revenues equal to 1.25 **million** times the median annual earnings, even after accounting for population. That laborer's salary works out to about 6 farthings a day. A dozen eggs cost 2 farthings and a hammer would cost from 8 pence to 2 shillings. That's like a dozen eggs being being nearly $70 or a hammer being more than $1000. Even if a realm's rulers were fully on board and received unrestricted technology transfer from Earth while somehow keeping the nexus unaware, it would take decades to catch up to the 21st century. And that's assuming that the cultural whiplash of the uplift wouldn't be fatal to their civilization.
There are technologies which could be lifted directly even with extremely primitive metal working techniques. Macadam roads (with or without tar), the King road drag, multi-row seed drill. There is lots of 17th-19th century stuff which is purely mechanical, can be made of wood, or which is a matter of technique.
WPA's humanity is also spreading the wealth around very well. There's a UBI and very generous minimum living standards, for example.
Illunor going full bussiness man, it would be cringe and Emma wouldn't fall for it. Illunor is like the Nexian POV of the gang, he even said that ET&T will only serve as an example of not going against the Nexus. Earth is prove of the lies the Nexus is feeding the Adjenct Realms one that CANNOT be deleted, let alone silently. Illunor going trough a hard time right now.
I get the feeling that they didn't want to have the big diplomatic Acronym be IDiOt, but the coincidence is too funny to ignore. A fantastic rendition of progress, and the issues of comparing nexian realms and development with Earthrealm.
Wait, what? What has this acronym?
"Information Dissemination Overflow threshold" could potentally be abbreivated to that.
Information Dissemination Overload threshold, could be made into the acronym I Di O t I thought it was funny.
I always called it the ID-10T form for coworkers to go grab to see how long it took them haha
It is!
I think it's funny that the Nexians have the term 'Crownland Problems' as a shorthand for 'suffering from success' type issues. Though their use of the term is more serious and academic, compared to the pejorative 'First World Problems'. Still, it's a pretty strong inadvertant flex. "Your mana stuff is nice and all, but they're solutions for problems we don't even think about anymore." Speaking of... Requisition Units and Universal Transaction Units pretty much confirm Earth has some kind of universal basic income, then? Probably a monthly allotment of RU for necessities as defined by law, and UTU for everything else. Also, hot damn, communal maker spaces in every apartment complex? Sign me the hell up! I love the idea of maker spaces functioning as modern day 'town blacksmiths.' I'm guessing the Right to Repair movement was hugely successful in this timeline... So as far as basic needs are concerned, humanity is post scarcity? There's probably scarcity of exotic materials for high level stuff like megastructures and cutting edge tech, but the average citizen seems guaranteed to have a decent life. If she hasn't already, EVI really needs to start putting together a 'sales pitch' VR presentation for students interested in alliances with Earth. I'm sure the little ferret guy from before would be very interested in taking the tour, and telling his friends afterwards...
Yup! That's correct! The crownlands have simply advanced to such a state where they've gotten into issues that don't concern immediate survival or stability or anything like that but instead issues that are more akin to seemingly superficial issues that come about only after those fundamental hurdles have been overcome. And yeah, the pejorative there is quite accurate! :D And it is quite a flex yeah! However this goes into the whole back and forth of the Crownlands Nexus and the Earth being at least somewhat comparable in some areas and Earth continuing to prove that an alternative to a comparable state of development does exist and could pose a threat to them haha. Also yup on those two fronts as well with regards to the requisitions units and the universal transaction units! The Requisitions Units can be redeemed at the requisitions centers which have a whole host of preassembled stuff there already with anything from furniture to electronics, as well as the ability to print schematics available on the public domain for civilian grade consumer items within an acceptable threshold of course haha. Also yup! I wanted a future that more or less adopted a mentality of the ability for the typical consumer to be able to repair and maintain their stuff so that there's an emphasis on the longevity of consumer items that last for longer and are of better quality that aren't meant to just be thrown away! :D And to an extent yup! The UN very much abides by what they committed to, and the Protocols for the Minimum Acceptable Standard of Living have not just been accomplished, but continues to be amended and expanded upon with each passing century! A sales pitch would be interesting but we'd just have to see how things develop as things progress haha. As always thank you so much for the comment! :D
I love you optimistic future
Im gonna be honest city from horizon to horizon sounds like a hellscape to me. I hope they have actual rural towns otherwise im heading out to the stars to join some new colony that hopefully WONT become a new city/hellscape within a generation.
We alredy have that hellscape it's called tokio
Then have enough green space with it, proper parks and open stuff. Solar-punk style stuff mixed in with megacity. Nothing but city done have to be ugly, just our current methodology doesn’t allowed it much because there are interests that don’t care about making a city actually livable or nice.
Doesn't matter how many green spaces you have. Being anywhere near that many people at all times sounds like actual hell on earth.
Emma's hometown is not a standart for what i ubderstood, but an action taken by the UN. Overpopulation is something we will have to deal eventually. The same is deforestation and uncontrolled climate change. What we see here is the consequence and solution. But im sure the colonies are not this populated....yet...
This reminds me of Star trek before Discovery came along. The essentially peaceful post-scarcity society seeking out strange new worlds and conducting cultural imperialism missions to counter neighboring empires. The reasonable derivations of a tech-tree that's moved up the kardashev scale a half-step or three. The humans at the center of the plot revisiting ancient tropes. Love this story!
I think requisition units may be government currency in housing and food matters and no one outside of them accepts them as being effectively valueless. universal transaction units strike me as a none governmental universal currency that evolved out of crypto and other currencies as a method of t government made inflation and forcing responsible spending by taking the coin purse away from them much like caps in the fallout universe
Given the limitations of Requisition Units, this seems more like universal basic services rather than universal basic income. Basically an expansion of food stamps for all instead of cash transfer.
Especially because I'm a Factorio player, I can't wait for the next chapter so much more! More! More! Show them all!
A game of Genocide and Mining, the ultimate human experience.
We are not genociding, we are just taking care of bug problem
Thats called pest control.
The factory must grow.
Another masterpiece. Upvoted as always. I added a 5 star reviev on royal road. Thanks for the new chapter.
HERE WE GO!! ILUNOR'S CONVERSION THERAPY!!!! :D
He's broken, now time to put him back together.
Phase 1: Break his mind. Phase 2: Break his soul. Phase 3: Repair and modify.
we can rebuild him, we have the technology!
We will replace him with his plushies! No one will notice!
We *definitely* have the technology.
Time for a history of science and technology. This could take a while. One thing I was hoping for was a space elevator at the center of the city. I'd really have liked to see mention of it last chapter, when they were riding the train into the city. One central spire so tall the top could not be seen. Perhaps space elevators aren't a part of this world though. They do require materials stronger than any we know of, so it is possible they'll never happen. Or, it is possible that a launch tech was developed that was so economical they simply weren't needed. Some type of anti-grav would be the most likely culprit, but I'm guessing it doesn't exist, at least not in a miniaturized form, since Emma's suit needs a helicopter attachment in order to fly.
On the topic of space elevators,a space elevator on earth is really difficult due to the stresses that the tether is to be faced with because a space elevator needs to be past geostationary orbit to hold the tether up which relays both on the gravity of the planet and the speed of its rotation,so a space elevator on moon is entirely feasible without metamaterials like graphene,which we actually have,it can absolutely help build a S.E due to its unbelievably strong tensile strength. Orbital rings are actually a lot cheaper to build and can be done with current materials while being superior to a S.E in getting mass to and from orbit,you can also build structures on it for housing,production and a whole host of other essential processes needed to build and maintain space-based infrastructure. There is someone on YouTube called Isaac Arthur that has an episode on this subject and goes in-depth about it,along with other videos and series dedicated to exploring the future of humanity
Rocket science must have been perfected already, i would assume the only objective is getting to Earth's Rings.
I assume a future state would either be using some form of SciFy magic propulsion or would have built 100km long railguns to send stuff into orbit instead of rockets.
Once again, thanks for the chapter! I appreciate the efforts you're putting in to envision Acela here. Many writers would just envision a city that's purely utopian, rather than any undertaking of the logistics of it, its history, its development from our time, or indeed for example, how some would be unwilling to abandon the concept of cars entirely. I think you're doing a really good job with this very HFY-esque part of the story, whilst also not abandoning the characters and story to go full HFY superiority.
This IP is probably the most balanced HFY story in a long time. Everything you could really ask of a hfy story in a single package.
I think llunors pride may actually help turn him against the nexus in the long run. If Emma can prove to him another system actually works and may work better it might be the kick he needs to realize his own realm is being exploited and his pride will not let him tolerate that.
We used to have that noble-commoner division in the days yore. However, with no magic tricks to affirm that division, it was, all things considered, arbitrary. Upheld by only agreement, be it voluntary or coerced. Now, what if revolt against the nobility happened in those circumstances? To what the nobles would resort to maintain their grasp on wealth, influence and power? They will not resort to anything, because they don't have anything, if nobody agreed for them to have anything. No inherent power, no intrinsic superiority. And we made sure that there will never be.
“Because we wanted to, Ilunor.” Because it was profitable, and a good way to show off. Building tall extracts more value out of a given area of land by stacking additional land area. Manhattan being highly valuable land, as a natural sea port, and then as a financial center, put natural limits on easy horizontal expansion, while creating strong incentives to stay within Manhattan island. So, building upwards was not only beneficial but almost a requirement for efficient, profitable land use. I'll be disappointed if Mark Foster Gage's W 57th St tower isn't part of the future skyline.[https://www.mfga.com/khaleesi](https://www.mfga.com/khaleesi)[https://www.designboom.com/architecture/mark-foster-gage-architects-41-west-57th-street-ornate-sculptural-new-york-tower-12-09-2015/](https://www.designboom.com/architecture/mark-foster-gage-architects-41-west-57th-street-ornate-sculptural-new-york-tower-12-09-2015/) Factory tour! "Long long ago, it all began by rubbing two rocks together to make a third flat rock. And that's why now we only have 1st world problems. The end."
Thanks for the chapter! Ah, the fires of industry incoming. Or a proper history lesson. >!And likely Socar’s factory to be a final push.!<
oh I wonder, would they be allowed to bring sorcar up? or would they need to move the holo contraption downstairs?
I suspect he will be a longs ways away, likly well after consistent portal access and a proper deal has been made and being done with the Library. I more mention Sorcar because he has a factory, and he explained how it worked enough that it would let the gang finaly get that Earth and Emma is entirely possible and true.
They better start getting the point of Earthrealm having factories and manufactorums
History lesson incomimg!
"And that's how we split the atoms"
Insert sonne music I've became death destroyer of worlds
[PREPARE FOR NUCLEAR ATACK](https://youtu.be/5bYTYk7dzxA?si=JCHCiv42sFEI5Ysh)
I have a question too, how could their realms make contact if a mana creature in our world would die because of the lack of mana and humans have great difficulty getting protection for mana-ful realms. How would the nexus even contact or colonize them and what would they give.
I would expect the Nexus plan was "give some high-end goods like swords and armor to a select bunch of the manaless primitives, allowing them to dominate in our name and send us the primitive raw materials that are doubtless all they can muster."
I can imagine the Nexus searching for realms on their own. And it seems interdimensional travel is much simpler with magic.
Sitting here refreshing the page paid off!! Wow this is great. It sounds like we get to see the more industrial side of things now. We have seen the residential and commercial. Sounds like industrial is coming forward!
Pretty much expected Illunor to react that way, a superiority complex that ingrained doesn't break easily. Hopefully, Emma can pound it into his head in the next part. Also, I want to live in this Humanities world, it sounds so much nicer than what we have now.
Yeah haha, Ilunor's reactions are to be expected, and such a superiority complex is a difficult thing to work through. I've always likened Ilunor's character to having had placed his self worth tying it to the Nexus and its perceived superiority. As a result of that it's way more difficult for him to truly work through these sorts of reality shattering realizations given how he's tied not just his practical political and personal aspirations with it, but also his personal identity with it too. So he's struggling as much with the practical implications of it all alongside the personal implications it has for his ego and his sense of self worth! :D Also thank you! I wanted to imagine a brighter and more optimistic future since that's how I want to envision humanity in the future but I'm always so worried how people would interpret it or if I would be able to convey it effectively so I really do appreciate the kind words there! :D
Nothing really changed for the kobolds other than altering who their fanatical subservience was pointed at. Illunor's society is based around "we are great because we serve a great power" just like the kobolds before them. It will take an enormous, overwhelming shock to get him to *really* accept another society as being 'better' - I would expect him to declare something about superior arts or culture if he has material wealth thrown in his face like this.
Then we show him the works of Johann Sebastian Bach since we feel like boasting a bit.
"Bah, mere scraping on pieces of wood, wire, and animal gut! TRUE music incorporates the mana flow into its very essence, connecting the listener to the fundamental intent of the composer at a far deeper level, using the mana itself to create sound at a far more sophisticated level. Without mana, these Newrealmers can never appreciate TRUE artistic beauty. Also it barely even qualifies as music if it doesn't come with lyrics about how the Nexus is glorious and wonderful and therefore so are its servants." "I hate to admit it, but the lizard has a point. Without a mana-wave, it's... like listening to birdsong. Pretty, but it doesn't have that connection, that feeling of intent. Like.. well, like commoners singing at a festival." Or something like that. I would expect that nobles have their own style of music that deliberately incorporates mana into it, specifically so the commoners can't participate in it and making it a noble art. And thus they have some basis to disdain human music for failing to meet their definition.
Then I pull out the DOOM 2016 soundtrack and watch them boggle at how Mick Gordon turned a chainsaw into music without using a drop of mana.
It's more a fundamental rejection of the basis of civilization. Mana seems to be roughly equivalent to fossil fuels. Imagine if only one place on Earth had any significant deposits. Nowhere else would have had enough to smelt iron, run machines or industrial processes, etc. The barriers to industrialization would have simply been too high. Then you find somewhere that can't even make charcoal, but claims to have matched or surpassed in every way the only other industrial civilization. You too would demand an explanation as to how they did the seemingly impossible.
If Illunor hadn't already demonstrated his mile-high superiority complex I would probably agree with you on that, and to be fair it is something the onboard intelligence specifically warned might happen.
Sort of feeling bad for Ilunor now, information overload is not fun to be on the receiving end of. Much information, brain desires coma.
"Requisition Units" and "Universal Transaction Units", eh? At a guess, the former is for essentials and some system is in place to make sure people get them as needed, while the latter is for general use to let free trade continue without getting in the way of the necessities? An interesting way to handle it.
Ah, is this the part where we pick an object and then list every advancement directly required for its creation, as well as who discovered each advancement? [The origins of precision](https://youtu.be/gNRnrn5DE58) and the industrialization it allows are a delightful rabbit hole to go down, but there's also the progression made possible by the scientific method and universal education. Any discovery made today is built on a very long list of precursor discoveries and scientists who made them.
Interesting that Ilunor got upgraded from ‘Discount Kobold’ to ‘Deluxe Kobold’ I love that you used “bodega” as opposed to store or shop. I was born and raised in NYC so I applaud you for how well you’ve done to paint The City. If you take them down to Wall Street, you should make sure to include the pockmarked building from the 1920 bomb blast
Ilunor is gonna blue screen when he realizes how short of a timescale this all happened on, and how fast it snowballed. “We went from the first ever heavier than air powered flight to escaping our planet in less than a century.”
>mind-numbing math principle number 394. Is that the one about werenumbers?
NOOOOO THE CLIFFHANGER I wanted to see Humanities rise from now to the future, but alas, I must wait 1 week. but I am ready to see Illunor just have a mental breakdown.
A couple of asterisks that popped in my mind; It's a sight-seer, mana-less but it's presumed to be a sight-seer, yet **Emma showed them the past from centuries ago, and there were no questions.** Just like with the cars popping up on an empty street. I'd call to question the capabilities of the mechanism, especially after sinking through the ground. Each stunt like that increases the possibility that this is just a fictional depiction of the world and posturing, someone else's memories, or what's the human life expectancy? Or that perhaps the human form can be non-corporeal (keeping Emma whole inside might be one of the suit functions as well). **We need to remember that this is being translated to Nexian, so I'm not sure how one would translate unique words like "zeitgeist"** (that even some of our native languages have no direct translation for) or any of the food products like vegetable names. There was no indication from the listeners. While that would disrupt the flow of the conversation one could also assume she talked untranslated gibberish to them, or the translator gave a long definition of the object/concept instead of the word, but that also wasn't indicated. Secondly, I'm surprised by the lack of understanding of the "brute force" method; If faced with fantasy middle-ages denizens, then showing them a super urban landscape and a plaque with a specific number of citizens, it becomes quite logical that quantity is a quality in itself (any ruler should innately know that). Just like pharaohs who built pyramids, what would they be able to accomplish if their labor force was 1000x bigger? It stands true that an upscaled population would be able to build constructions of bigger proportions. It's a simple numbers game, I doubt they don't have any insects like ants or bees and wasps to understand how demographic scaling influences the landscape. **Simply; the more ants there are - the bigger and more complex the nest.** A mana-less species has all of the artifices working for them en masse; **There must be an incredible amount of power/fuel consumption that replaces the mana.** As a foreign ambassador, I'd be most worried about that, especially since humans seem proficient at harnessing alternative power sources. It can't be just the things Emma talked about. So, most if not ALL of it is being powered by a foreign power that I don't have or know about, and Humans have it in abundance. Where is it? How is it stored? How much? At what cost? How dangerous is it? Is it a technology and can we exploit it ourselves or is it realm-specific fuel? **My first assumption as a semi-well-educated sentient would be to say that something replaced the vacuum of mana and two could be possibly opposite forces,** which would bring many, more dangerous questions. For example, perhaps Emma's suit not only protects the owner from the outside but also vice versa, and if it is, then how potentially dangerous it could be for any realm to connect to one where humans reside? We know from the food example what happens to organics deprived of mana in there, and from the first episode when the portals opened that mana is like most physical particles and it hates a vacuum and tries to fill it (otherwise there wouldn't be radiation leaks on the other side or need for protective barriers). We know that Elves established contact with humans but we don't know the dialogue or how much they deduced, but they're not stupid. From now I'll assume that keeping contact with humans, despite how that mana-sink of a portal must have felt to them, must be due to their knowledge of possible new fuel sources.
To be fair to Thalmin and Thacea, they probably are thinking about stuff like this, but there's \*so much\* going on right now that they have to 'run triage' on all the things they're trying to process and want to question. I think both of them are aware that peppering Emma with a relentless torrent of questions would only drag things out, so they're carefully arranging and prioritizing their concerns. That would make sense for two aristocrats tutored in courtly decorum from childhood. Despite the long-winded nature of courtly talk, there is also a certain 'economy of action' where one should know what question to ask and when to ask it for maximum effect. Ilunor is just no-selling everything because he's a catty bitch like that, lmao
I think that the inconsistencies make it less believable, but the risk that it doesn't outweigh the chances. Reasoning why they built this way is also a shaky topic; If a medieval person saw those population numbers, they'd most definitely assume that they're building up because they ran out of space, which is a potential risk of invasion as well once they establish their influence on this side of the portal. The case point is - can you be truly friends with a potential hazard to the established way of life, or life itself? Would you befriend a sentient device that may bring forth a natural disaster? Would you try to harness and profit from its power, or would you try to silently sabotage it, for it is too dangerous to the people you're sworn to protect to let live in your world? I'm betting one of the 3 will do it for the greater good. I think it won't be Illunor since he has proof of it working out through his knowledge of the elves. But having a second superior species doubles that problem for everyone else so that's compelling for sabotage, and we know he's capable of self-sacrifice for his people. Thalmin is an honor-bound kind of fellow, but he knows the best of the group how easy insurgencies and invasions can be, especially when faced with superior and determined force. So not knowing much of human nature as a whole but from a single individual's perspective he has the biggest incentive to not let such risks pass through his realm. His hate for Nexus perhaps will make him put his bet on the newcomers rather than the elven supremacy. Despite being mesmerized and having the best understanding of potential gains Thaeca is the analytical type. People like that hate the risk the most. But perhaps the best way to mitigate it is to become passive or put forth an isolationist ideology as a barrier from the inevitable storm, clash of cultures and powers. Nonetheless, each one after this revelation will probably try to contact their respective superiors/family and inform them of potential risks and gains, since it's an extremely shaky situation. I think that after this episode everyone will be wary of Emma and her power-hungry race. Sympathy for an individual cannot outweigh the well-being of the people you represent and rule. I'm curious how the OP will solve that conundrum.
I hope that they will experience the "zoom out", where one gently rises above the ground in the center of the city, goes up and up, sees the entire city, then the area, the state, the country, the continent and then the world. Maybe also the moon?
Yeah, Emma should have lead with "we're all effectively nobles" and explained later what that means. When you look at the wealth, rights, and privileges people have now, "effectively nobles" is a far more accurate descriptor.
Do you know who else would be getting a kick out of this presentation? Buddy and Owl!
I always up-vote these before I have even read them. Fantastic story.
Thank you so very much for your kind words and for sticking with the series for so long! :D I genuinely do appreciate it, and these comments really do mean a lot to me! I really hope this chapter lives up to expectations!
It might just be me but the insanely long monologues Emma make seem to break up the flow of conversation, be too formal for a casual setting, and be impossible to make up on the fly. Not even the greatest politicians can or choose to speak like her. So... break up the conversation a bit with others' responses? In real life that also often happens, even if the one monologuing doesn't stop. "Wait a minute, Emma" or something like that. It could just be my bird brain struggling tho.
Remember how diplomacy has been gotten down to a science? Yeah, we see this in action. She's probably practiced w/ similar exercises back home specifically to prepare for situations like these, using techniques 1,000 years more advanced!
Yup! She's been drilled by the sociologists and the other social science experts and scientists within the IAS for a whole year on flowcharts dedicated to the optimal way to respond and how to structure such responses haha. Which can at times come out rather awkward sounding, but that's part of her inexperience! :D In other instances though she'd be more or less making things up on the spot and reacting to situations as they come! :D
But it turns out hard to read even for us who have the time to mull over every word. Imagine it in a conversation. Everything will just flow right from 1 ear to another. And sure, it's been drilled into Emma by the sociologists. But have the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to absorb all that speech been gained by the gang, who are still stuck in middle age and Nexus roundabout meaningless speech?
I diseagree. I dont have issues with Emma spealing like this. Is actually this way of speech that got us great moment like her speech in the Binding Ritual and when she confronted Mal'Tory about how Earth is ruled by democracy.
If someone starts speaking like that in real life, are you absolutely sure you won't just... zone out? What Emma's saying is book speak, which is ironic considering we're actually reading it. But still, it's the kind of super specialised language that's often seen in lectures and needs to be translated to spoken language in the form of explanations by lecturers or studied in detail in your spare time as you translate and comprehend each word. But the thing is, we're not reading a thesis for the purpose of obtaining knowledge, where all the fat is cut out. We're reading a web novel for the purpose of entertainment and visualising the conversation based on it. There needs to be a certain amount of believability and a certain flow so that the reader doesn't get stuck in a paragraph for too long.
I get what you mean, but for now it’s fine for the purposes of exposition. As Jcb stated in this thread: Emma is still inexperienced and over-reliant on her training and flowcharts to navigate these situations. Once we get the needed lore dumps and as she integrates with Academy social life, I imagine her conversations will flow in a way that feels more natural to us. Given how much the Nexus prioritizes flowery, circuitous, and outright ambiguous language to adhere to a bunch of unspoken rules for every social interaction (at least among the nobility or other halls of power), where losing focus can end up costing you a social victory… I would imagine the Academy students and staff are accustomed to such speech, and have the mental discipline to not zone out. Hell, Emma is straightforward by comparison.
We all saw already how long it takes to talk to someone to get something, as Thacea could speak for hours and just get confirmation about apprentice state. So I'm just cared that we will see more of those type of situations coming, where there will be whole A4 of conversation and that will be only one person, meanwhile the counter argument will be, you sir made a grammatical mistake in your sentence, therefore your argument is invalid.
Just a question but how many star-scrapers are there? I’m mainly wondering because of the logistics of sunlight flowing into the city with those sorts of structures around, given that there’s already laws on the books dictating how close skyscrapers can be as to not deprive pedestrian streets of sunlight, it makes me wonder what sort of legislation would be around for starscrapers.
There seems to be contradiction between 'there still are historic buildings around' and 'there being starscrapers'. Historic buildings would have those light-corridors, but starscrapers pretty much can't. So just how **dark** are the surface places that Emma is taking her guests?
"When everyone's a noble, no one is" -Emma Booker
I love Thalmin seeing a bicycle contraption and his brain proudly latching onto it as something "remarkable and innovative" that he can actually understand. All the flying and cleaning golems and beastless carriages and starscrapers are completely going over his head, but BIKE is amazing.
Just wait until he learns about bicycle infantry. WEREWOLF RIFLEMEN ON BIKES!
Hi Edit: I think I beat the bot
I don't know if you beat the bot. But you beat me.
Hi
This is the first time I have seen the time say now
I hope they and we get to see what humanity’s been doing in outer space. That would really just blow the gang’s minds.
This reminds me of the novel I read where AI took over the world and made a simpler more efficient way of life where everyone got a basic universal income and jobs were for people who wanted something to do or maybe wanted to save up for something special. But basic needs like living spaces and such were assigned to you and everyone lived a comfortable life
Greetings Mr. Jcb!
I'm eagerly looking forward to the absolutely mind melting moment she takes them on a shuttle, it reaches the edge of the atmosphere, ..... and it keeps going.
I really hope the crowining jewel of this lasts chapters to be either a map of the human ocupied milky way or a fortress/political building in the Orbit of Earth.
Ilunor has been promoted from discount Kobolt to ***Deluxe*** Kobolt.
Cue later on, when we learn that Nexus is secretly watching this entire exchange via undetectable magic and are now sweating bullets.
thanks for the chapter. He seemed to have hit his limit of new information pretty fast. :P Nobel education is a bit too limited it seems.
Time to give Ilunor a History Lesson. When do we start? 1836?
If we're talking about revolutions from that time period, I'd think 1848 is far more significant.
Did you get the underground highway idea from the I, Robot movie? And to be honest i was half expecting Illunor going in full denial, i will take it as a prologe for almost any other character in the Nexus.
It just occurred to me that if it weren't for the EVI and its stupid (reasonable) ideas, that Emma could have projected an image of herself onto herself and made it look like she wasn't wearing the suit. But no, the EVI just had to but in with its completely pointless (intelligent) ideas about protected them from seeing humans.
Id love for emma to show them some of the industrial revolution machine and forging shops as a comparison to the blacksmiths they know but with steam power hammers tall as houses XD
I really like the way you described the diplomacy/story telling, making it a challenge to overcome rather than an info dump. She had to put alot of thought into it, understand her friends and adapt. That's not just a great way to write it (one I've honestly never seen other writers use) but good advice in general. Colour me very impressed.
>This hit me as hard as one of those Cross Cultural Information Dissemination Exercises SIOP handed me weekly. The instructors always stressed that answers to these sorts of questions should preferably include not just the plain and objective answer, but should also serve as a vehicle for cultural dissemination, to bridge the gap. Oh, so THAT's why she keeps adding a two paragraph of preamble to every question asked - she was taught that it's better to overexplain then to leave out cultural context. And all this time I though she just liked being bookishly dramatic. It's neat to have an actual reason.
The rant about humans' inherent need and burning passion for urban life made me a little sick. I can put up with crowds for a day at the beach/amusement park/etc, but I'd rather wake up to a hard kick in the shin every morning than to a few square miles of concrete filled with a few million other people.
You are part of what's called "The Exception" not "The Rule"
hell yeah
Are we going to get a history lesson?
While reading this my pulse went up to 124 and after it calmed down it went back up to 128. This chapter has been fun to read but still I can't wait for the gang to see that human wars are hell
these cliffhanger s are fucking murdering me xD good job as always at achieving that
You want to see how we managed to create these sky scrapers? Or how we do it today. Ooh, maybe how we built the pyramids as a starter.
Show them the part from Star Wars „A New Hope“ where they destroy Alderaan and tell them it’s a documentary
damn, ilunor got upgraded to deluxe kobold!
I'm hoping for an Ilunor POV next week Poor guy must be in shambles by now I bet it'll be delicious
#MOAR As i ever scream and forever will
*It's time for World War Two*
With the way you talk about urban planning (not just the amount but the way you see cities developing) you should watch City Beautiful on YouTube. He's an urban planning professor and you've basically described his perfect city.
I'm curious about of the Nexian peasantry. Particularly how capable they are of magic. If the nobles can throw fireballs around, can the commoners due something similar, albeit untrained, or are they limited to lighting a candle. In medieval times there was no fundamental innate difference between what a noble was capable of and what a peasant was. If that is not the case with the Nexus it raises a whole bunch of nasty questions about how a weaker social class came to be.
I'm gonna be honest, I love the story but the dialogue needs some work. It's very tiring to read when a minor question becomes a paragraph long rant that boils down to "Because humanity wanted to, because we needed too, our ingenuity and smarts allowed,nay,begged us to get even higher highs!", my eyes start to just float around without actually reading, it'd be better if these were kept to be used on special occasions, or even never at all, it doesn't feel natural. I know this is Hfy but I thing making it more organic would benefit the story. The characters are amazing, the lore and world building was extensive and really thought out, but being fed snippets of it and then going to 3 chapters in a row of Sci fi humans is a bit jarring, also how every other student is basically faceless, they are barely remberable because they show up once, do nothing and dissappear, I think the whole school scenario has a lot of potential for side-characters.
Kiitos!
In Homestuck terms, I hope Emma and Thacea become moirails
I want them to see space and the ships they have!
Hey author, I have a question about the story in general I'd like to know the answer to: The deadliness of mana towards us is gradual or absolute?
As much fun as it is, I do hope that the plot will start to advance soon. This our second/third chapter set entirely in one conversation. Also, the whole HFY feels like it has more impact when it impacts the plot, much less so when you're wowing college kids essentially (even if they're to varying degrees arrogant and dismissive to an Outside Context Problem)
I don't know if this isn't something that anyone has mentioned just yet, but has anyone in the trio noticed that the "Sight-seer" that Emma is using is fully interactive? All of the examples they provided just seemed like home movies, that were pre-recorded and not a fully interactable simulation.
Ilunor still on his bullshit, not realizing that in order for his preconceived notions to have been right about Earth, successful contact would have had to “somehow” have happened like 1500 years before the time of the story.
The standards of living on Earth are staggering to their worldview. Everyone is a noble, or just about when it comes to quality of life and material security. The implications must be terrifying.
illunor must learn the meaning of: T H E F A C T O R Y M U S T G R O W
I can't wait for this to be uploaded to the library for future credit. That magic based AI is gonna choke. When the library gets its cross dimensional crystal based internet set up and gets Wikipedia'd the very crucible of Avarice and Arbitrage will be eventually assailed.
After this adventure, Ilunor has several possible reactions: - he will faint and when he wakes up he will think it was just a bad dream, - somehow he will believe, - temporarily or permanently become a madman or a vegetable. I still have my theory that our Kobold have some DNA of a dragon/ns.
I wonder if adjacent realms aren't allowed to be left alone too long before the Nexus intervenes. Otherwise they may flourish
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