NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm going to start one. Anyone interested? Basically, I'm using this RP as an excuse to get all the Holtzmann tech as well as Bene Tleilax stuff.
The plan so far:
• Holtzmann refines equations. Shields tested. Glowglobes put on sale.
• First foldspace flight attempted from Sol-Seven Systems.
• Ship doesn’t end where it’s meant to. Arrives in orbit above desert planet.
• No signs of habitation anywhere in the system. Crew investigate planet, as it’s habitable but devoid of any water.
• Bene Tleilax cult formed on a remote moon in the Seven Systems. Extreme bio-engineers, government keeps tabs on them but doesn’t interfere with their work, recognising possible benefits. Shields tested with lasers; Asteroid blown up
• Worms sighted. Spice discovered. Tastes great, no obvious benefits. Samples harvested. Fremen sighted. Starmaps consulted, position of Arrakis plotted. Beacons dispatched claiming the system as Ineffable territory. Ship leaves by slipstream.
• Leaders go mental over melange. Further foldspace tests indicate a 10% total loss rate of ships since our AIs can’t foretell the future, and a 30% loss rate of ships not ending where they’re meant to.
• Arrakis colonised for melange production. Personal shields developed.
• Loss rate of machinery+men considered too high for something with no actual value. System put up for sale, with the conditions of a contract for melange shipments. CHAOM set up to oversee this.
• Shielded + suspensor tank field tested for no better reason than to take up space. Tleilax produce Face Dancers and gholas.
• Prescience-enhancing properties of melange discovered (melange overdose or something, find an excuse).
• Prescient navigator successfully navigates. Guild of Navigators set up.
• Bene Gesserit? Perhaps...

Later, maybe a second RP:
• Equations refined further; foldspace sensors+mines, no-ships
• Tleilax melange from tanks
• …


So I'd be looking for people to play the Fremen, disrupting spice production, to bid for the planet and run the spice production, to be the Bene Gesserit if you want. I could probably squeeze in Ixians, Mentats etc.
Also, if Fremen, Ix, Tleilax, Melange, Arrakis and so on mean nothing to you, this probably isn't for you.
This could be done without anyone else, but I felt it'd be more interesting if it wasn't just me. If there's enough interest maybe we could even make a Great Convention.
Also, if anyone wants to go on further after this and make a Kwisatz Haderach or something let me know...

Okay, someone made a request for a brief idiots guide to the races of Dune, so here goes:
Normal Folk: 'Nuff said.
Bene Gesserit: Intellectual elite, a Sisterhood of women whose main interest is in perfecting the human race. Have the combined memories of every female ancestor of theirs, thiese memories being released by a poisonous form of the spice. This Other Memory gives them the detatchment and base required to see and learn from historys mistakes. One who has gone through the ritual known as the Agony is known as a Reverend Mother. No male can do it (excepting the Kwisatz Harderach, which will be delved into later if there's enough interest).
Bene Tleilax: Highly accomplished genetiscists. very religious, refer to DNA as the Language of God. Mixture of Sufi and Zensunni beliefs.
Fremen: Zensunni. Hardened to life in the desert of Arrakis (or Dune as it is known), makers of the best stillsuits (suits that reclaim all sweat etc so no moisture is lost to the desert). Fight with knifes made from the teeth of sandworms. Best hand-to-hand fighters anywhere, excepting perhaps Ginaz Swordmasters.
The Guild of Navigators: Prescient beings, capable of seeing obstructions in the path through foldspace before they happen and negotiating to avoid them so that the ship is not destroyed. Mutated by prolonged exposure to melange. Swollen heads, shrivelled bodys. Webbed fingers and toes. Live enclosed in tanks filled with spice-gas. Have the monopoly on space travel.
Ginaz Swordmasters: Possibly the best hand-to-hand fighters in the universe. Trained on the planet Ginaz with millenia-old techniques. Highly prized.
Mentats: Basically human computers. In the Dune universe computers of almost any kind are banned, since humanity was enslaved for millenia/centuries by thinking machines.
Truthsayers: Can tell when a person is lying or not. Pretty simple.
Ixians: From the planet Ix. Have a monopoly on building advanced machinery.
Face Dancers: Shape-shifters, produced by the Bene Tleilax as servants. Advanced versions can copy the minds of a victim if they come into physical contact.
Gholas: Clones grown from the cells of a dead person. Memories of the dead person can be restored in a variety of difficult methods.

All of the above are however human, or variations on that theme,

I've almost certainly forgotten something. I can't be bothered going into Honoured Matres etc. at the moment though, that omission was deliberate.

I would like to play as either the Fremen or a Mentat, preferably a Mentat. (Go Duncan!) Sounds fun to me.

I'd have to brush up on Dune... and I don't like all the stuff... so let's modify the Dune universe to fit in the Nationstates Universe.

But yeah, I'll get in on this.

I love Dune (first book) and the prequels (written by his son) and first two sequels of Dune, but hated the remainder..

definitely interested though, although I would prefer to play one of the various noble houses (run by your standard run of the mill noble)

i already have the fremen baged, i think.

posted elsewere:

QUOTE (New Sigmisund @ Oct 15 2004, 08:21 PM)
k, but i get the duneworms, the fremen and spice!!!

Okay, I'm really, really, really busy OOCly, so I'll telegram you all a plan when I have time.
If anyone else is interested you can still sign up.

Prepares to pull puppet, the Swordmasters of Ginaz, in.

Can we have just based on the Imperium before the advent of Muad'Dib? Your attempt of introduction of a Dune based universe into NationStates will not be a smooth one.

I would like to play as either the Fremen or a Mentat, preferably a Mentat. (Go Duncan!) Sounds fun to me.
Duncan is no mentat

Out of curiousity, how close will this keep to the Dune Universe (i.e. is it just a pseudo-Dune using similar technology etc or is it intended as a faithful representation of the Dune universe right down to the details)?

Depending on the answer I might be interested in playing the Tleilax (or equivalent) given the simularities with my existing nation (the ruling class of O&I are fanatical mystics who make use of advanced genetic techniques and viral manipulation)

Duncan is no mentat
In the sequels to Dune, he is resurrected with Mentat capabilities...

I'm sorry. Considering there is already a region called "Dune", I can't possibly accept any one person claiming the entire planet/system, and for that matter, Dune universe. It certainly sounds like an interesting RP, but I see no reason in either RPing or recognizing RP designed solely to give you claim over land/technology/resources/etc that other people are already a part of.

Please don't take offense, I don't mean any...I only speak blunt (and hopefully not too bloody) truth.