Topic of the Day: Rising Tensions

[Caelphon]

It is without a doubt that tensions are rising across the Orion Spur, especially with the Phoron Scarcity prompting an approaching economic recession. What do you think could possibly happen? Do you think cooler heads will prevail? 

[Captain Gecko]

I think the biggest conflict possible from these tensions would be a "Tau Ceti vs Sol" one, but considering how things are going for Sol, unless Tau Ceti decides to go monke and take over Sol or something, I don't think there's going to be much conflicts between these two. So yeah, it's probably going to cool off as Sol mostly collapses and picks up the part.

There could be something between the CoC and Sol? But I mean... Due to the Phoron Scarcity? I don't know, there's better targets for Sol (Tau Ceti) if they want Phoron, and the CoC doesn't hate Sol to the point of attacking, nor is really fueled by conquest. Same with Elyra.

The "Small Three" as I like to call them, being Dominia, the Hegemony and the PRA, now there's more reasons for conflicts right there, and you don't even need the Phoron scarcity for that. It really is just three slowly growing powers with more or less imperialistic mindset that are very soon going to have shared borders. Also it's not as if they already had incidents between each other... So we're about to see wome interesting stuff happening there I assume.

[OffRoad99]

The Sol Alliance still controls important territories and assets, and as we're not playing Stellaris, you can't make a nation disappear like that. I'd be even more surprised if Biesel was the one who made the Alliance "disappear". Biesel is barely able to keep Mictlan under control, let alone take over the Alliance. And with the days of the Sol Alliance being the strongest Human nation in the Spur are gone, Biesel is left with an impending recession and the Wildlands to take care of, which is full of rogue Solarian fleets and pirates.

That being said, with the Alliance focusing its attention inward and Biesel trying to keep their things together, I would not be surprised if other factions seized the initiative, like Dominia and the PRA, to quote Gecko. It would also be a cool opportunity to see some attrition growing between non-Human powers, or between monarchies like those who rule Dominia and the Hegemony.
The whole focus of the King of the World act was mostly centered on Human territories, let's now see what the other nations can do.

There's also the whole matter surrounding the Stellar Conglomerate Coalition: it's well-known that it includes the wealthiest and most powerful figures in the galaxy, who lead the most powerful and influent of megacorporations, and when it comes to soft power, the SCC is unmatched. Einstein Engines is on a 1v5 against and it ripped off a chunk of Mendell, out of NanoTrasen's hands. It still remains a powerful and wealthy ally for the organizations, governments and individuals willing to act against the SCC. Putting megacorporations aside, what are the non-Human nations saying about it? Are they worried? Will some of them resort to covert or overt actions to oppose the SCC?

 

TL;DR In my head-canon, the future will bring the freshly-formed SCC and the rest of the Spur (minus Biesel) into a slow attrition.

[Marlon P.]

Im more interested in local affairs, stellarly speaking. Grand strategy lore feels out of scope because its so far detached from my characters.

[stev]

1 hour ago, Marlon P. said:

Im more interested in local affairs, stellarly speaking. Grand strategy lore feels out of scope because its so far detached from my characters.

While that's true to an extent, I think it's important to keep the wider scope stuff changing if only to inform local affairs and act as a driving force for further developments. 

Edited December 15, 2021 by stev

[stev]

16 minutes ago, stev said:

While that's true to an extent, I think it's important to keep the wider scope stuff changing if only to inform local affairs and act as a driving force for further developments. 

Actually, I think this is something that's kinda been lacking recently imo. In the year or so since the end of KOTW and the continuing phoron scarcity since, I feel like we've seen surprisingly little development in the lore driven by these pressures and events. While there have been a few additions focusing on the Warlords and Wildlands (notably the new CRZ arc and additions like Mictlan and Visegrad), I feel like we're experiencing a bit of a drought with news and events stemming from the ongoing crisis pertaining to already-existing groups, particularly the COC and the Hegemony/Unathi at large. While I know there's been kind of little development from them in general, I feel like the ongoing crisis is a really great opportunity for driving these kinds of developments that's sort of being slept on.

(Sorry for double-post, was originally gonna edit this into my initial post but realised it was way beefier a point.)

[Marlon P.]

2 hours ago, stev said:

While that's true to an extent, I think it's important to keep the wider scope stuff changing if only to inform local affairs and act as a driving force for further developments. 

That can be fun when it impacts tau ceti. Sweeping political maneuvers between star nations just doesn't bite characters as easily. Station presence is pretty low. It doesn't feel like anything is happening to the galaxy when i play; no one discusses it. Having impacts on station and soon on ship historically drums up excitement. Hope to see that soon.

[Kintsugi]

I'm surprised to see only one person mention the new and most substantial source of potential for conflict in the setting as-is: the warlord states. In fact, they are written in such a way that war in both the north and south wildlands is inevitable. I suppose this could be chalked up to the fact they've been kept mostly untouched upon since they were released - ideally I hope this changes with the NBT.

[Marlon P.]

48 minutes ago, DanseMacabre said:

I'm surprised to see only one person mention the new and most substantial source of potential for conflict in the setting as-is: the warlord states. In fact, they are written in such a way that war in both the north and south wildlands is inevitable. I suppose this could be chalked up to the fact they've been kept mostly untouched upon since they were released - ideally I hope this changes with the NBT.

What should this mean for the nbt ship and its crew? 

In what ways should we be encouraged to  care?

[ChevyChevron]

17 hours ago, Marlon P. said:

What should this mean for the nbt ship and its crew? 

In what ways should we be encouraged to  care?

It seems rather likely that the NBT ship will visit such regions as the wildlands (among others) and, with rising tensions in such places, it stands to reason that the crew would care if they're flying through contested space. Even if war doesn't break out, it's still entirely possible for the crew to be accosted by rogue Solarian vessels while traveling just about anywhere a group of canny pirates might find easy plunder.

[OffRoad99]

20 hours ago, Marlon P. said:

What should this mean for the nbt ship and its crew? 

In what ways should we be encouraged to  care?

Because the server population is full of non-Biesel characters and what happens to their homeworlds and nations is meant to have a big, personal impact on all of them.

[Marlon P.]

On 16/12/2021 at 07:55, ChevyChevron said:

It seems rather likely that the NBT ship will visit such regions as the wildlands

Thats good. Does make it immediate. What should it mean for the ship?

On 16/12/2021 at 10:43, OffRoad99 said:

Because the server population is full of non-Biesel characters and what happens to their homeworlds and nations is meant to have a big, personal impact on all of them.

Even with my own homeworld being in turmoil, this usually amounts to people replying with "I'm sorry that happened."

How should it emphasise this impact for characters outside these circles?

Ie Adhomai

Edited December 17, 2021 by Marlon P.