What’s going to give the IC away?

So. Assume there are now archangels wandering around Safehold. What is going to give away the fact that Charis has some serious backing by Shan-wei?

Having a mysterious wizard named Merlin ought to be a red flag, doncha think? And a king with a sword called Excalibur.

Tararoys wrote:So. Assume there are now archangels wandering around Safehold. What is going to give away the fact that Charis has some serious backing by Shan-wei?

Having a mysterious wizard named Merlin ought to be a red flag, doncha think? And a king with a sword called Excalibur.

Basically yes. The Charisian tech progress would be obviously unnatural for anyone who even remotely knew the Earth history. Not only too fast, but far too perfect, "too good to be true". And as soon as Archangel would knew about Seijin... it would be obvious who to seek out.

Tararoys wrote:So. Assume there are now archangels wandering around Safehold. What is going to give away the fact that Charis has some serious backing by Shan-wei?

Having a mysterious wizard named Merlin ought to be a red flag, doncha think? And a king with a sword called Excalibur.

Much would depend on how they're wondering Safehold. As Merlin noted, he disqualified the chance of PICA bodies since that would have made his mission impossible. Nor would they have hesitated to maintain their operation indefinitely since it would have ensured they continue to influence the Church and Safehold for over a millennia. So that leaves something like a virtual personality that collects information via it's own SNARCs and projects itself wherever it can place a projector. And it would still need to somehow interact with the physical world outside its VR, which again would require a SNARC or a remote (a "holy servitor") as Merlin did in HFQ when he attack the prisoner march. Also, with the IC going to wetware rather than audio communications, it better move fast if it wants to pick up on casual conversations of the IC since I would assume that their communications are not easily hacked.

As for identifying the IC, it would need to somehow identify Merlin as a PICA and that would probably require use of active sensors that would be detected. The presence of a sword made of advanced alloys however is unlikely to catch their attention, as they handed such swords in the WATF and it would need to bother with getting a sample of the alloy and testing it in order to determine it's date of manufacturing. What might catch it's attention is Merlin's actions, assuming it's managed to monitor them without being detected (which means passive sensors that manage to catch him at a time when he uses his "powers". And that still would mean a SNARC of some kind, which the Fallen had managed to evade for a very long time.

The speed of technological progress would cause some consternation (as their whole purpose was to prevent the emergence of this sort of industrialization. Yet the fact that they seem to have few, if any, set backs and that they suffered very few accidents in the R&D phase (because they are cheating) would probably be what gives them away. But that too would require them to employ passive sensors over a reasonable period of time and catch Howsmyn at a series of improbable moments of inspiration.

Don't forget the Arabic numerals. Those are (presumably) the same symbols as on Earth, and the moment any Archangel/AI heard about them it would be obvious that there was tampering. Those numerals came from Charis, so if they learn that they'll have even more reason to look.

New words are also being introduced like hydraulic and pneumatic. Assuming those are the words we use and not a translation (I assume words like gunpowder and muskets are not the literal sounds they use because there's no reason for them to), it's another obvious sign of Earthly contamination.

Tararoys wrote:Having a mysterious wizard named Merlin ought to be a red flag, doncha think? And a king with a sword called Excalibur.

The tech innovations would be more likely to trigger an Archangelic investigation than a couple names.

Nimue Alban was familiar with the "Matter of Britain" because 1) she was born there and 2) she was named after one of the characters in that legend cycle. That does not mean that the Arthurian legends were taught to every student in the TF. Depending on where the Archangel in question grew up, s/he might not recognize those names.

(True story: several years ago, a couple I know were guest judges for one of the bigger regional convention masquerades. The rest of the judges on the panel were all from the local anime fandom. One contestant entered a spot-on reproduction of Christopher Reeve's Superman costume, and my friends were the only judges who recognized the character.)

Julia Minor wrote:(True story: several years ago, a couple I know were guest judges for one of the bigger regional convention masquerades. The rest of the judges on the panel were all from the local anime fandom. One contestant entered a spot-on reproduction of Christopher Reeve's Superman costume, and my friends were the only judges who recognized the character.)

Which regional?

Years ago, my wife's late older brother Bill told a story about a D&D game he played in.

One of the rooms in the dungeon was described as containing a "chrome gray dragon". They had a priest with a scrying spell, so they decided to peer a bit before entering. The dragon had something written on the side:

BOLO MK XXXV...

When Bill stopped having apoplexy, he tried to explain just what that was, and they decided to give the room a miss. Bill was the only one who had read Keith Laumer's Bolo stories and knew what the lettering meant.

The DM said that all other parties burst in, swords swinging and spells blazing, with a life expectancy in micro seconds once they had.
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Dennis

I don't think they even mentioned which regional it was, to be honest. They were telling the story as part of a panel discussion in the costuming track, and the point they were making was "always provide documentation when doing a re-creation costume (which contestant-Superman hadn't)". It may have been a west coast convention.

Julia Minor wrote:I don't think they even mentioned which regional it was, to be honest. They were telling the story as part of a panel discussion in the costuming track, and the point they were making was "always provide documentation when doing a re-creation costume (which contestant-Superman hadn't)". It may have been a west coast convention.

Okay. Some of the recreations are astonishing. I know a chap in Boston who is a huge Batman fan, and has made other Batman costumes. After the last Batman movie, he decided to make the suit the real Batman would wear if he existed, including the Kevlar body armor and titanium fittings. It's astonishing.

He got contacted by a woman from a West Coast FX firm who wanted him to come work for them as an armorer. He said "No, thanks. I appreciate the offer, but I'm an upholsterer by trade, and I like my work. Costuming is a hobby. Besides, I have a family and a kid in school and I don't want to uproot them. She replied she understood, but her shop was thinking about opening a Boston office, and if they did he would hear from her again...
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Dennis

That's all pretty awesome. And I'm going to have to remember the bit about the Bolo for some of the stuff I DM in the future. An interesting way to cross the genres.

Fireflair wrote:That's all pretty awesome. And I'm going to have to remember the bit about the Bolo for some of the stuff I DM in the future. An interesting way to cross the genres.

Another DM story I heard was about a female DM who had a room in her dungeon filled with 10,000 sleeping babies in cradles. Enter the room and make any noise and you would wake one and it would start to cry. That would wake the others. Your party couldn't leave the room till all 10,000 were fed, changed, and asleep again.

Men in the game didn't get it. Women players with experience with infants cringed in horror.
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Dennis