Through Fiery Trials, Snippet #1

C. O. Thompson wrote:

PeterZ wrote:So, the Inner Crcle has to plan for a return of either 15 or ~100 years. They have to plan on NOT introducing electricity for those periods. If the return happens in 15, then the Reveal resolves the Safehold issues one way or the other. Introducing electricity and other technological advances may begin afterwards, if they survive. If the Return doesn't happen in 15 years, the IC needs to continue their plan of deseminating all tecgnology short of electricity.

Either way, establishing a hidden and shielded production center for more fabbers is almost a necessity.

I did not read the last thoughts as a policy to wait 15 ~ 100 years.
There could be a dozen different ideas introduced at the pending meeting of the IC and I think that we have all seen enough of the willingness to adapt and innovate.

Time will tell.

I didn't read it that way either. Though I agree building a backup location wouldn't be a bad idea.

PeterZ wrote:So, the Inner Crcle has to plan for a return of either 15 or ~100 years. They have to plan on NOT introducing electricity for those periods. If the return happens in 15, then the Reveal resolves the Safehold issues one way or the other. Introducing electricity and other technological advances may begin afterwards, if they survive. If the Return doesn't happen in 15 years, the IC needs to continue their plan of deseminating all tecgnology short of electricity.

Either way, establishing a hidden and shielded production center for more fabbers is almost a necessity.

C. O. Thompson wrote:
I did not read the last thoughts as a policy to wait 15 ~ 100 years.
There could be a dozen different ideas introduced at the pending meeting of the IC and I think that we have all seen enough of the willingness to adapt and innovate.

Time will tell.

ywing14 wrote:
I didn't read it that way either. Though I agree building a backup location wouldn't be a bad idea.

I was asserting that they have to make alternative plans just in case the return is delayed for another 100 years. Their primary plan has to address The Return happening in 15 years. That long term scenario almost requires many different baskets for the technological eggs they have to hide.

Also, that 100 year time frame would let the IC begin building a dispersed production system to get a leg up on when The Reveal happens. I doubt there would be a great number of established dispersed locations in 15 years. There should be a good number of dispersed colonies where such technological hideaways can be established. Even of those colonies are nothing more than places to deposit knowledge just in case the Sleepers succeed in destroying Charis.

PeterZ wrote:

PeterZ wrote:So, the Inner Crcle has to plan for a return of either 15 or ~100 years. They have to plan on NOT introducing electricity for those periods. If the return happens in 15, then the Reveal resolves the Safehold issues one way or the other. Introducing electricity and other technological advances may begin afterwards, if they survive. If the Return doesn't happen in 15 years, the IC needs to continue their plan of deseminating all tecgnology short of electricity.

Either way, establishing a hidden and shielded production center for more fabbers is almost a necessity.

C. O. Thompson wrote:
I did not read the last thoughts as a policy to wait 15 ~ 100 years.
There could be a dozen different ideas introduced at the pending meeting of the IC and I think that we have all seen enough of the willingness to adapt and innovate.

Time will tell.

ywing14 wrote:
I didn't read it that way either. Though I agree building a backup location wouldn't be a bad idea.

I was asserting that they have to make alternative plans just in case the return is delayed for another 100 years. Their primary plan has to address The Return happening in 15 years. That long term scenario almost requires many different baskets for the technological eggs they have to hide.

Also, that 100 year time frame would let the IC begin building a dispersed production system to get a leg up on when The Reveal happens. I doubt there would be a great number of established dispersed locations in 15 years. There should be a good number of dispersed colonies where such technological hideaways can be established. Even of those colonies are nothing more than places to deposit knowledge just in case the Sleepers succeed in destroying Charis.

Ok, I see what you're saying now and I can't say I disagree with it.

thanatos wrote:If it's been 5 years since Nahrmahn's death than the year is 900 or 901. It's probably a typo, along with the 0 instead of an "o" in the "Year of God" line.

I have wondered about the Gbaba on occasion and thought that perhaps their motives, alien though they might be, are also essentially religious. It is possible that they view themselves as the most perfect beings in creation and seek to eliminate all other "demons" in the cosmos. It could equally be a desire to eliminate evolutionary competition as well, but RFC has done that theme in the past (the Kanga/Shirmaksu in the Apocalypse Troll stand alone). I also doubt he'll use the Achuultanni example from the Dahak series (i.e. aliens controlled by a computer that wishes to maintain control over them and is thought to be a god to them). He could of course come up with something truly alien but given the centrality of religion as a force for good and evil in the Safehold series, something tells me the Gbaba's motives might also be religious.

Alien is alien.

Maybe they are an honorable (in an alien way) warrior society where they have decided that their current technological level should be the same as they had millennia ago when they battled an alien race and won and anything else would be dishonorable.

Maybe they are crude space faring barbarians that stumbled onto automated factories that build their ships and they don't understand the technology so they can change the designs.

Maybe their species are biological constructs from an older extinct race and they are hardwired to react to threats, almost like an immune system for a space faring empire.

Maybe the Gbaba is a slave race and the real leaders doesn't allow them to have more advanced tech for fear of being overthrown and the Gbaba is used to eradicate any perceived threats to the leadership.

Maybe the Gbaba is just a fanatically xenophobic race that has become extremely stratified, both socially and technologically.

Maybe the Gbaba has been infected with a parasite or virus that made them aggressive at cost of not being able to innovate.

Maybe the Gbaba is an ant-like society who have lost all their queens who was supposed to imprint new behavior and what's left is just breeders or cloning facilities producing beings with the same behavior for millennia.

And maybe they are just so alien that we cannot understand their reasoning at all because we lack the frame of reference.

Joat42 wrote:

thanatos wrote:If it's been 5 years since Nahrmahn's death than the year is 900 or 901. It's probably a typo, along with the 0 instead of an "o" in the "Year of God" line.

I have wondered about the Gbaba on occasion and thought that perhaps their motives, alien though they might be, are also essentially religious. It is possible that they view themselves as the most perfect beings in creation and seek to eliminate all other "demons" in the cosmos. It could equally be a desire to eliminate evolutionary competition as well, but RFC has done that theme in the past (the Kanga/Shirmaksu in the Apocalypse Troll stand alone). I also doubt he'll use the Achuultanni example from the Dahak series (i.e. aliens controlled by a computer that wishes to maintain control over them and is thought to be a god to them). He could of course come up with something truly alien but given the centrality of religion as a force for good and evil in the Safehold series, something tells me the Gbaba's motives might also be religious.

Alien is alien.

Maybe they are an honorable (in an alien way) warrior society where they have decided that their current technological level should be the same as they had millennia ago when they battled an alien race and won and anything else would be dishonorable.

Maybe they are crude space faring barbarians that stumbled onto automated factories that build their ships and they don't understand the technology so they can change the designs.

Maybe their species are biological constructs from an older extinct race and they are hardwired to react to threats, almost like an immune system for a space faring empire.

Maybe the Gbaba is a slave race and the real leaders doesn't allow them to have more advanced tech for fear of being overthrown and the Gbaba is used to eradicate any perceived threats to the leadership.

Maybe the Gbaba is just a fanatically xenophobic race that has become extremely stratified, both socially and technologically.

Maybe the Gbaba has been infected with a parasite or virus that made them aggressive at cost of not being able to innovate.

Maybe the Gbaba is an ant-like society who have lost all their queens who was supposed to imprint new behavior and what's left is just breeders or cloning facilities producing beings with the same behavior for millennia.

And maybe they are just so alien that we cannot understand their reasoning at all because we lack the frame of reference.

Joat42, I love your byline. Trouble is, people like simple solutions. It excuses them from thinking. Lots of fools out there.

Don

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runsforcelery wrote:Unfortunately, it had not killed them all. Maruyama Chihiro and Androcles Schueler had survived,

I thought Schueler's first name was Frederick. Am I remembering wrong?

elaineofshalott wrote:

runsforcelery wrote:Unfortunately, it had not killed them all. Maruyama Chihiro and Androcles Schueler had survived,

I thought Schueler's first name was Frederick. Am I remembering wrong?

Nope. Schueler is Frederick in the earlier books, Androcles in the later. My guess is that the change is because the name Androcles has some kind of significance, just as Nimue does.

Bluesqueak wrote:
Nope. Schueler is Frederick in the earlier books, Androcles in the later. My guess is that the change is because the name Androcles has some kind of significance, just as Nimue does.

...May it be that they are actually two different Schuelers, or different copies of one personality?

Bluesqueak wrote:

elaineofshalott wrote:I thought Schueler's first name was Frederick. Am I remembering wrong?

Nope. Schueler is Frederick in the earlier books, Androcles in the later. My guess is that the change is because the name Androcles has some kind of significance, just as Nimue does.

Maybe he is one of those people who always uses their middle name and they didn't know that at first.

Maybe Fredrick did die and that Androcles is his partner/child.