Charisian Imperial Parliament

Isilith wrote:

n7axw wrote:
Perhaps the EOC could annex Armaggedon Reef... They'd be safe there. Who knows, they might even get used to it!

Don

I am already on record as saying that Armageddon Reef is well within the sphere of Charis, and should be annexed and settled as soon as possible.

Why?

I mean, as why not's go, there's that it's ground zero for Shan-wei's touch upon Safehold: colonizing it will not play well in Peoria. (Pyohrya?)

But beyond that, it's off good routes from almost any useful A to B. I suppose if you were going from Manchyr to Samson's Land or vice versa, you'd come across an exception, but really, southern Charis should do.

The EoC is not hard up for land to settle. There's no population pressure in Tarot, Charis, Emerald, Chisholm, Zebediah, or Corisande. Margaret's Land is a bit thin for people; Silverlode, the Raven Lands, Fallos, Hammer Island, are all very, very thin on people.

If there are copious natural resources down that way, tht may be something, but again, all those seriously underpopulated areas already shine for that. There are references to fishing down near Armageddon Reef, but for that, Samson's Land (if you feel like crowding Desnair permanently) or southern Charis and Silverlode will do nicely.

Surely the EoC has an interest in preventing someone else from claiming Armageddon Reef, but when that's currently and for any foreseeable future moot anyway, there's no compelling need to claim and occupy it themselves to prevent it.

Do we know why Alexandria was there in the first place? Just to be out of everyone's way, or were there desirable resources?

Maybe Armageddon Reef could be a penal colony for the seditious fraction of the Temple Loyalists, a sort of Devil's Island if you will.

From what David Weber has said, the original plan was that there would be at least two out-of-the-way settlements where the crew would hide the secrets of high technology while the rest of the settled territory would be completely low tech.

Eventually, the crew would reveal the knowledge concerning the truth about Safehold and begin to create a new high tech civilization on Safehold.

Even though Langhorne had "changed" the plan, what is now Zion was the northern most of the "out-of-the-way" settlements hiding the secrets of high tech.

The Alexandria settlement was the southern most of these "out-of-the-way" settlements.

Expert snuggler wrote:Do we know why Alexandria was there in the first place? Just to be out of everyone's way, or were there desirable resources?

Maybe Armageddon Reef could be a penal colony for the seditious fraction of the Temple Loyalists, a sort of Devil's Island if you will.

Expert snuggler wrote:Do we know why Alexandria was there in the first place? Just to be out of everyone's way, or were there desirable resources?

Maybe Armageddon Reef could be a penal colony for the seditious fraction of the Temple Loyalists, a sort of Devil's Island if you will.

Alexandria was there to be out of everyone's way. Alexandria was set up to be the secret repository of knowledge for Safehold. After 500 years, the knowledge in the repository was to be released. Alexandria was supposed to be a small quiet colony, far from the usual travel lanes, known but easily forgotten. A place where no one would suspect secret knowledge was hidden.

This was part of the original plan, before Langhorne revealed his new plan. Once the colonists were actually awakened, Shan-Wei established the Alexandria colony as planned, but Langhorne kept interfering. The dispute which resulted in the Rakurai strike on Alexandria was because Shan-Wei refused to destroy the repository when Langhorne ordered it.

Actually my previous comment was intended tongue in cheek. But on the other hand, except for the popular associations focused on what happened to Pei Shan-wei, I suspect that it's more desirable than Zion.

I've always windered what would be turned up with an archeologic dig of Armageddon Reef.

Don

n7axw wrote:Actually my previous comment was intended tongue in cheek. But on the other hand, except for the popular associations focused on what happened to Pei Shan-wei, I suspect that it's more desirable than Zion.

I've always windered what would be turned up with an archeologic dig of Armageddon Reef.

Don

Probably not much, given how enthusiastic the bombardment was. Granted, Terran Federation construction is built to last. (All of RFC's high tech cultures seem to over-engineer the bejesus out of things from our perspective.) But nothing in Alexandria was likely built with an idea of surviving TF-technology weapons attacking it, and Langhorne's Rakurai swept it so much the geography got radically altered. There may be broken bits under the ocean and an eon's worth of silt there, but that's not a promising venue for a dig.

I suppose one thing more RFC could have included so far but didn't, in the interest of taming word count a little bit, is underwater SNARC runs down there.

What's still above water, yes, definitely is a gentler climate than Zion. (Which isn't saying much more than "habitable by humans, in a pinch"!) But it remains out of the way, and a lot of it is probably chillier than one would like much of the year.

JeffEngel wrote:

n7axw wrote:Actually my previous comment was intended tongue in cheek. But on the other hand, except for the popular associations focused on what happened to Pei Shan-wei, I suspect that it's more desirable than Zion.

I've always windered what would be turned up with an archeologic dig of Armageddon Reef.

Don

Probably not much, given how enthusiastic the bombardment was. Granted, Terran Federation construction is built to last. (All of RFC's high tech cultures seem to over-engineer the bejesus out of things from our perspective.) But nothing in Alexandria was likely built with an idea of surviving TF-technology weapons attacking it, and Langhorne's Rakurai swept it so much the geography got radically altered. There may be broken bits under the ocean and an eon's worth of silt there, but that's not a promising venue for a dig.

I suppose one thing more RFC could have included so far but didn't, in the interest of taming word count a little bit, is underwater SNARC runs down there.

What's still above water, yes, definitely is a gentler climate than Zion. (Which isn't saying much more than "habitable by humans, in a pinch"!) But it remains out of the way, and a lot of it is probably chillier than one would like much of the year.

Just looked at a map...actually the whole island there is bigger than Charis. Except for its history, there is no reason for it not to be settled. Some folk could vote for out of the way of it meant being left in peace. Lots of out of the way spots settled on Terra in our own timeline.

Don

To cover a few points brought up.

1) Charis would be stupid to NOT take Samson's land. The "coaling station" idea has already been floated to be placed there. Crowding Desnair AND Delf needs to be done. A base right off of their coasts sends a strong message.

2) Claiming Armageddon Reef is for the future, when population pressures and need for more resources will force settlement. Something that will be progressively made easier by breaking the grip of the CoGA.

3) As was said, you claim it to make sure no one else tries to move in there.

4) Claiming Armageddon Reef means you claim all the islands around that continent as well, all of which aid a maritime power like Charis.

Isilith wrote:To cover a few points brought up.

1) Charis would be stupid to NOT take Samson's land. The "coaling station" idea has already been floated to be placed there. Crowding Desnair AND Delf needs to be done. A base right off of their coasts sends a strong message.

2) Claiming Armageddon Reef is for the future, when population pressures and need for more resources will force settlement. Something that will be progressively made easier by breaking the grip of the CoGA.

3) As was said, you claim it to make sure no one else tries to move in there.

4) Claiming Armageddon Reef means you claim all the islands around that continent as well, all of which aid a maritime power like Charis.

And which will also aid their enemies in proclaiming the the spawn of Shan-Wei.