NationStates Jolt Archive

Meanwhile.....
recent events in Cairn Tarran

[ooc: a general update to fix some or the rp problems with CT - all is fun]

one The Council of Nine

http://www.coreline.net/tarra/midgard.jpg

the picture showed a panorama of the city of Midguard, a sizable, beautiful and well planned city, built round the trunk of Yagdrassil, surrounded by Midguard forest; the huge forest planted on the largest 'artificial' platform built round Yagdrassil the streets seemed packed with people waving banners and flags with slogans unreadable by all except those skilled in the strange language of the locals. Above the city, in the actual trunk of the enormous tree more structure's were built into or out of the wood, buildings, windows, even smaller platforms, but high above these was a much grander balcony. It looked south towards Ath-Olad, the remainder of the Tarran holdings on Sisgardia and the historical path through the gulf of Ador, where the ruined and war scarred Tarran fleet had sailed nearly 100 years ago. The platform was ornately decorated above and below, the familiar 'tree' of Cairn Tarra was emblazoned in green and gold above it. To each side of this balcony, and at 30 degree intervals were flat 'screens' showing the 'video' feed of the person speaking on the balcony.
The picture switched to that person as he began his speech.

“Honorable people from the tree and from beyond, piece and blessings of luck to you and all those you honor on this day” a small clear went up from the crowd, but most remained silent

“On this day the High Council have venerable decided to make a change, a change to reflect the changes in our society. I stand here in front of you, not as a member of any High Wittan. I serve a mega r regional council near Belfirstchia. But, I serve a greater purpose here as well, I am here as the voice of the Ancients, as the voice of the monks and sages of the hidden city, the lore keepers and the wielders of the ancient knowledges. They have seen our actions, they have seen how we pay lip service to the warmongering dishonorable sociopaths who dominate the remainder of Sisgardia. Above all. They have seen the need AND the DESIRE for us to remain detached from these peoples. But time and time again the council have ruled that we must 'embrace the change that diplomatic and cultural interaction will bring'. WHEN was this the creed of our peoples? When did we loose the ancient words 'Honor Above All'.. Those words STOLEN by some bureaucrat in a county I cant even pronounce, let alone spell. We must Return to isolation, contemplation, progress. We must NOT associate with the scum that would drag us into war after war in the name of THERE goals” This was answered by a much more pronounced cheer of the crowd, the speaker had them under his control, and he smiled as he realized this, a dismissive wave of his hand, amplified on the giant 'screens' and on every public broadcast terminal on Yagdrassil and on Ath-Olad hushed the crowd immediately.

“Today the council has two new members, myself, as the speaker of the south, and one other, to balance my opinion.. he will now say some words in defense.” another speaker stood and addressed the public.

“I will not be so eloquent as my colleague, I will but remind you all of one little phrase – Ansin oheith arbith Onóir nemh an Briste Geal”
there was a absolute silence as the crowd all took this into account, 'a broken promise is the highest dishonor' but at least the council sessions would be interesting.




two Pathbreaker

---a multi-media feed sent to the WTE at Tavishi Island---

“Yo! Remember i was asking about the phase gate technology a few months back? Well...”

the screen shows a ship suspended in air near Yagdrassil, it is clearly of Tarran design, though it appears a lot more functional then the stylized piece-ships of the triumvirate, it appears to be around five hundred meters long, though it is hard to judge the scale without any key to the depth. It departed form Tarran ship design in other ways as well, around the midriff of the ship was an array of 'spikes' and other unrecognizable things. These surrounded four large struts which held a circle around the ship, it too bustled with devices.

http://www.coreline.net/tarra/pathbreaker.jpg

“Thats the Pathbreaker, I wanted to call her enterprise, but the university were having none of it.... Anyway, she is 300 meters long, she has a full solar array, jump drive (for emergences), and effectoral core and she is a drive-technology research vessel. You see, i'am dammed if i remember the details but i have an idea for some FTL systems that are going to do what they say on the tin, for a fraction of the energy. Its still in heave development, and will take some years to get it workin.... but its fun. Were going to send it to mars via the old phase gate system, just to see if it works and stuff, and take some reeding's”

the video feed cut to schematics of the ship itself. Most of the terms are specific to the Tarran engineering components, but the recognizable parts seam to be motley sensors and scientific components. The ship carries no armaments at all, and all the energy is generated by the phase photon decay processors, the trademark Tarran solar sail technology.

“Yeah, erm, thats about it, we don't really NEED to much help, if anyone wants to put another science dude from another country you are welcome to... just give us plenty of warning.”




three Sea of Leaves

over the last half decade in the waters around the Yagdrassil tree the tarran biologists had installed the wheels and motors of the tarran bio-society, whole ecosystems devoted to recycling waste – converting minerals – harvesting salt, even creating energy, at the hart of these huge biological factories the seven ancient machines, the biological synthesizers known as 'makers'
sat. Closer to Yagdrassil the weed and biomass were so dense, it was possible to walk on them believing they were walking on solid rock. 5 miles away form Yagdrassil the rock-weed drooped to open clear fresh-water, on a clear day one could see to the bottom bottom of the gulf, where small biospheres had been constructed to cope with the overspill of population from the tree.
On the south edge of this 'lagoon' was the only clear path to the outer ocean, a huge canyon reaching from the top of the weed to the seabed, about 300 ft wide, this was kept clear by some force, known only to the bio-engineers, to allow ships passage to the inner lagoon.
Beneath the seabed, work continued on the cavern that would house the mag lev station and much needed new real estate.
Several figures walked across one of the less hectic areas of the work flore, they were dressed in the white robes of high council members and were engaged in deep discussion

“Im not saying no. Im just saying that all the contacts I have are more or less obsolete, most of the governments of Sisgardia have changed inexplicably since the tour of the phoenix.”
“is this not an opportunity to expand our contacts. To meet the members of this region we haven't had face to face dealings with, seemingly for an age. Tauanor, and NWA are two examples, NWA specifically is a nation we should be a LOT closer to”
“and FTR – we should be consulting them about the WTE projects, or lack there of. What are we doing with the Craftworld? We cant just let such an opportunity pass by. I am in agreement with you Somn, but i DONT have the resources to meaningfully contact everyone in this nation”
“unless we do another tour of the region” - the voice was that of the only female member of the group, Ja'annis Tolin had been through all this before, and her discontent, coupled with her age was starting o show on her face.
“and I for one would enjoy that”
“if my colleague will remember, we nearly had revolt on our hands the last time so many of the high council left the Tree.”
“I do remember it TREEBORN, I also know that it was before your time.” Lenjhain physically recoiled from Ja'annises stab at his age, he had spoken out of tern, as the administration scribe it was traditionally not his place to speak up. However his council had elected him to the Ardseanad specifically because he did not hesitate to question the decisions of those above or below him. Somn Waldorf, one of the two new seekers, elected directally by the people to stand in council continued to push his agenda;
“Ok. A compromise, we put an invitation out, to all the Sisgardian nations to attend this function...”
“party” - Ja'annis jokingly interjected
“FUNCTION.... *ahem* we will also extend the invitation to one guest nation for each sisgardian nation, should they wish to bring any other representatives. There we will celebrate the region, discuss the craftworld, and formally launch Pathbraker and open the Mag-lev station.... Hows that for many birds with one stone.”
“It will need a vote”
“yes, i will have the proposal prepared for my slot at the next Ardseanad”
The group reached the service and staff lift at the opposite side of the huge cavern and called the elevator. The hum of electric motors brought the somewhat out-of-place looking metal lift to there level at quite a dangerous pace. The group boarded and it began to ascend the side of the cavern at a more subdued pace. The cavern had been hollowed out of the bedrock below Yagdrassal by using the Tarrans rather advanced enzyme technology, as a result the walls were unusually smooth for rock, they looked like polished red marble until one inspected them more closely. A parabolic mirror on the surface, linked to a fiber optic channel and a diffusion lens in the cavern provided warm day light and showed the vast amount of work going on below. The designers and architects and decided at an early age to keep as much of the station rock hewen as possible, however for the sake of variety huge carbon alloy butraces had been grower and installed, they were more for aesthetic values then for structural integrity, there mat black surfaces gave contrast to the red-brown of the rocks. Elsewhere similar materials had been used to help construct the terminal buildings for the mag-lev station.

“how long until this place is finished?” Tsionas made a sweeping gesture to encompass the whole cavern complex, he seemed to have forgotten his earlier objections to Soman's proposal though it played heavily on his thoughts.
Ja,annis and Lenjhain replied in unison - “three to four months” they looked at each other and smiled with amusement, testament to how quick Tarrans were to forget transgressions, Ja'annis continued - “they are having trouble growing one of Yagdrassils roots this deep. Thats there answer to getting transport between the tree and the cave complex”
“they are going to hook it up to the transpiration elevation system”
The lights dimmed suddenly as the lift passed into the closeness of the solid rock service shaft, ascending towards the main body of the cave complex and to Yagdrassal itself.
“Do you think the crisis in DA will be finished by then?”
“it would be nice to invite the members of there new government to it, we may even get some thanks out of them!” - As politically incorrect as the joke was, it extracted a few giggles from the councilors as the darkness of the shaft was replaced by the lights, sights and sounds of the lower cave complex.

[OOC: I am not even mentioned once! :confused:
Bad crm! No cookie! :mad: ]

ooc: eep! /me shambles through archives looking for previous interaction with Tarasovka... i hate that... i know ive done somthing with you recientally but i cant remember what gerrrrr... ok so... DLM, VTX, Tuanaor, Pilon.... i can tremember there rps.... GERR
AHA! ducal corination thred! WIN! :P

Yagamead, Cairn Tarra

The Council chamber was quiet. The nine people sat round the large oak circular table, in its center a holographic projector. Even through the thick ceiling the rain could be herd pounding Yggdrasil, the high winds made the room sway, it was hardly perceptible here, but anyone working near the top of the leaf nodes would be suffering.

“Teo Holtzmann-wisewood has a report on the situation in DA ('http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=341769&page=4&pp=15') and an update on the Pathbreaker ('http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=367707&page=2&pp=15'), Comhairleoir, if you would...”

“Thank you, Lammas, if you would, begin the projection please.”

the center of the room was filled with a map of DA territories, 'Treetown' was shown in green.

“there isn't much to report as concerns the situation in the community, under the guidance of my counterpart Aseus Nanyan, they have established a reliable supply of food and water. The Angstians are for the most part, ungreatful and dishonorable but it is our duty to protect them none the less. Aseus has asked me to clear him to send expeditions to the surrounding areas to try and ascertain the condition of the country, with regards to the establishment of a new national power base. Of source, Tarra will have nothing to do in the new order, we will be pulling out as soon as a formal government is set up.”

nods of agreement spread round the table. It was customary for a vote only if someone raised a contradictory opinion. Everyone wanted to hear about the progress on the Pathbreaker anyway.

“Well.. To continue. As yo all know Isthus guided the Pathbreaker to mars in 37 seconds using the PGTED drive yesterday. His mission was neither success nor failure. The ship survived the journey but sustained moderate damage exiting the phase envelope. Isthus has fallen into a coma and is en-route to Yggdrasil for treatment, expected to arrive with the Stormcaller tonight. The debate of whether or not he invoked treatment with honor is raging, and will be the sole purpose for this evenings debate. Sihlbhar Treeborn-Ennis
has stayed onbord Pathbreaker to oversee repairs. I fully intend, with the Councils support to send Stormcaller and Shadowseeker out with supply ships in order to effect repairs and see all our people safely home”

the progress in the council turned to domestic matters, the wind whipped the giant tree, no one was out, though that would change later.