vendile
Enginseer
The doodler
Posts: 234
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Post by vendile on Feb 1, 2007 22:58:12 GMT
that does actually make sense, though does this mean the hive-bergs are run by more of a Monarcy-style system?
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Post by Doug on Feb 1, 2007 23:07:57 GMT
Well, it depends on the hive - certainly, some would be (cue vicious succession politics) - but others will be ruled by groups of powerful families, or by elected councils, or...etc...
Essentially, the name could simply be that of the family most powerful in that group at the time of founding, to keep it simpple, and leave the individual politics of each hive open for future discussion
EDIT: And here's my new proposed basic timeline, complete with suggested pre Imperial stuff:
Sometime in 2M the first alien civilisation begins to arise. At this point, the world is radically different, with two continents, and an ocean somewhat milder. Over the next five millennia, the civilisation flourishes on one continent, and is making its first tentative steps onto the next when it suddenly suffers some sort of terrible collapse. Only the buildings are left in the end, and their strange technology in parts, all decaying and overgrown.
Over the next fifteen thousand years, the world begins to undergo massive geological change. Slowly, the two continents begin to drift towards each other, colliding sometime around 15M, driving up a spine of often volcanic mountains still present on the modern continent. Meanwhile, and possibly as a result of this, or some other global cataclysm, the composition of the oceans begins to change, shifting radically. By the end of 21M, it is roughly what it is in 42M - a broiling sea of self perpetuating chemicals which, when refined properly, make excellent fuel.
Also towards the end of 21M, the first humans arrive, settling form vast arc ships onto the jungle continent. Their civilisation, almost prefabricated, is built directly upon ancient alien ruins, which fascinate the settlers, and eventually become the centre of their worship. They survive through a number of means, and draw fuel for their own often bizarre technology, which mixes human and alien thought almost equally, from the oceans, piping it from coastline refineries to the inland centre of their civilisation, and indeed off world.
However, this was not to last. By the end of 25M, during the age of strife, a rampaging warlord falls upon the world with all his forces. He is held off by a combination of alien technology and human ingenuity, but the civilisation is smashed in the meantime. With their only city in charred ruins and nothing to repair it with, the people flee to smaller towns in the jungle, or simply set up their own settlements. In the thousands of years that follow, civilisation regresses even further, until the jungles are inhabited by a number of feral tribes, many of whom are totally hidden by the jungle.
During 35M world is discovered by Lord General Martius during the *** Crusade which has been until then suffering with serious supply problems due to supply lines being cut off by chaos attack, upon closer inspection by the Adeptus Mechanicus the petrochemical oceans are uncovered, a static base is established and refinery which is used during the remainder of the crusade as a secret fuel depot which plays a key role in the Crusades Success.
Lord General Martius is the awarded system in gratitude for services done to the Imperium; the world is reclassified as St. Martius' Hope in recognition of the fact that without its fuel the crusade would likely have been doomed.
Latter Half of M35 The static base grows (known as the Cove of St. Martius), and is named the capital as three Floating Refineries are established to better harvest the fuel, colonisation developed from these refineries with full cities being built upon them. At this time, contact is made for the first time with a few tribes. News of this is strictly regulated to the planet’s aristocratic elite. .
Start of M 36 A number of static refineries are established in a wide ring around the island, collecting yet more fuel. By now, it has been decreed that the land based capital, the Cove of St. Martius, shall act only as a political capital, and also as a space port for the fuel – strict population control is enforced there..
37M More Hive Burg's are established to meet demands for fuels from the Imperium, the quickly develop as fresh workforces are brought in from off world with promises of new wealth and better lives, The Original Hive Burgs continue to grow and develop. Also at this point, the world comes dangerously close to open civil war following a vicious dispute between the Merediles and the Andiles, two of the most ancient aristocratic families of the planet, who each dominate one of the first hive bergs. It is only averted by the timely intervention of Cardinal Harman, who threatens to do excommunicate both families
38M After a period in the infamous, “Daemon’s Square,” a patch of ocean in which small trawlers disappear on a regular basis , one of the original Hive Burgs suddenly and inexplicably vanishes from radar, no communications are received when other Hives attempt to discover the situation, when sent to investigate teams are unable to locate the burg and it is presumed to have sunk beneath the waves.
Latter half of 38M Reports of a Ghost Burg are starting to appear, suppressed as wild rumours to stir up fear, investigations turn up nothing although several teams dispatched never return, presumed to have claimed by the sea, case is closed.
39M After several small conflicts and numerous disputes, tensions flare up between the Andiles and Merediles, this time erupting into a vicious war which spills over across the planet. Hives begin to take sides, with the conflict even spilling out onto the continent. The capital changes hands in this period several times, until eventually the Andiles manage to gain the support of the church, which declares the Merediles to be heretics (on charges assumed by many at the time to be trumped up and false), and orders its allies to lay down their arms. Faced with the censure of the church, and thus the Imperium, they comply, though the Andiles are sensible enough not to push for harsh treaties. The Merediles, however, suffer a massive purge, with a few survivors fleeing from the capital into the jungle…they are not seen again. Several expeditions are mounted to find them, which fail, but encounter even greater numbers of tribes in the interior.
Later Half of 39M Ghost Burg is formally recognised by two Hive Burg’s as a lost Hive Burg, all attempts to reclaim the Ghost Burg fail for unknown reasons. All other attempts abandoned.
M40 Chaos incursion, results in the loss and recapture of Hive Burg 4, as Chaos forces are forced from the Hive Burg they ignite the fuel reserves causing severe damage to the top side of Hive Burg 4, fires ignite ocean fuels, planetary government takes steps to stop the spread of fire and Hive Burg 4 is forced to move on, past the vast walls of fire which to this day still burn, known as the incendia unda
Later Half of M41 An incident on Hive Burg 9 involving high winds and an independent trawler result in the loss of the hive Burg as resultant Explosion from the transports crash causes Hive Burg to sink taking with it close to 5 billion souls. The government begins to tighten security procedures once more. Also, they begin to feel that the strain on the capital land port of St. Martius’ Cove is too high, and order the construction of a new space port, St. Martius’ Gate elsewhere on the continent to help relieve this pressure. Workers begin to riot in the capital, fearing that they may lose their jobs, but it goes ahead anyway
007 M42 “Present day” The static Base names the Gate of Martius is 65% complete, work has been hindered by attacks from unknown saboteurs, speculation indicated indigenous tribes but are unconfirmed and security is increased with a permanent guard of PDF. Several Explorer and patrol teams have gone missing whilst investigating the landmass for any signs of indigenous tribes. One such Explorator team’s camp was discovered by a PDF patrols showing signs of ancient ruins of unknown origin. Adeptus Mechanicus establish a base of operations as does the Inquisition to investigate.
Thoughts? When we've come to some sort of conclusion on the matter of a timeline, I'll put whatever the result is in a locked sticky at the top of each forum, as it may be quite important
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Post by takaetun on Feb 2, 2007 3:21:56 GMT
Few things: One, are we going with 'burg', as in suburb, bastardisation is seems of 'burough', or 'berg', as in 'iceberg'? Or are people just being lazy in their spelling? Secondly: Ghost hive doesn't really work. How are they surviving? The rest of the Hives survive by a combination of shipped in food, parts and, I'm assuming, some home grown fungi or something. The Ghost hive doesn't have any of that stuff. When did we decide that the world wasnt going to be called The Cove of Saint Martius? I don't think that the aliens should have been established by only the second millenium. I'd go with the option of Next, If this world has so many hives, and the land mass is so incredibly small (To an Australian at least ), then wouldn't the entire mass be developed? These bases seem very small. There'd be damn long waiting list. Beat even Newcastle. (Sorry, Australian joke. Well, doubt anyone else would understand it, but still!) Geological problem: It would take many millions of years more for two continents to collide and a mountain range form. Australia will take about ten thousand years to move a single kilometre. I object to the idea of a Hive being 'established'. They're too big for someone to say 'Yay, let's make a Hive!'. A Hive would start of, in this case, probably as an ocean going trawler. Then we run into the problem of how to build it up without causing the whole damn thing to sink. Whilst I love the idea, implementation is gonna be a bit difficult. Berg/Burg 4 moves on. How? This thing is houses a population larger than our entire world. It's not exactly gonna win the Indy 500. More shortly.
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Post by Doug on Feb 2, 2007 6:28:49 GMT
Who said that natural, pure humans that needed that sort of sustenance were on the ghost hive....for all we've discussed, there could be something very chaosy about it...
We didn't their filler names, most of them....though to ve fair, quite a few people have said they prefer the capital being St. Martius' Cove
Option of?
It's not necessarily - I'd disagree with Vendile's suggested size, and go with something more like twice the size of China...plenty of room for the tribes to hide in then...
Fair point, I'll change that to something a little more long term...though to be fair, the rate at which the continents move might depend on the planet, to a certain extent
Easily fixed, "floating refineris," are established in theproper version...as for the sinking....we'll think of something in the appropriate thread...
Well, a combination of a very (very) large fleet of big boats pulling, and some sort of massive propulsion system on the back might work...
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Post by takaetun on Feb 2, 2007 7:18:47 GMT
...MIGHT work...
Ahem. "Option of the species having been dead for many thousands of years before humanity arose from the trees."
Descended.
Whatever.
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Post by Doug on Feb 2, 2007 16:49:13 GMT
Well, I suppose that makes sense - if we're going to have them at the time when the planet was radically different, we might as well shift them back a long, long way...
EDIT: Unless there are no other objections by morning, I'll edit in those changes and make the stickies - so we've got a provisional timetable, at least
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vendile
Enginseer
The doodler
Posts: 234
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Post by vendile on Feb 3, 2007 14:04:24 GMT
Quote from the new locked timeline:-
As i have mentioned in the "resource" topic, i do not think it should be fuel being extracted from the ocean, more something like a naturally created surface scum, which can be harvested and refined to create the imperiums best engine coolant.
Because of this, it would change the important of the planet when it was first discoverd by Martius.
Perhaps this previously uncharted system formed the perfect strategic linchpin for Martius to spring-board his forces forward and thus take the enemy completly unawaress - re-taking world after world via our planet, eventually causing so much damage to the enemy forces as a whole that the campaign changed from a desperate defense into a vicious imperial counter-attack that was so successful it is considered the defining thing that both saved and won the campaign.
the resurce was a secondary consideration in the crusade, useful, but not esential at the time - what was truely important was the strategic placing of the planet.
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Post by Doug on Feb 3, 2007 14:16:01 GMT
Perhaps - I think we should finish that discussion before changing it though
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Post by thenephew on Feb 6, 2007 16:54:43 GMT
It looks like the fuel is the favoured choice on the resource thread at the moment. And on the same thread, you [Vendille] OK'd the fuel rather than the coolant. I think it would be perfectly reasonable to have it as an advantageously positioned planet, but that would suggest a heavy garrison of IG or similar Imperial forces - it's not often an army will leave such an important strategic point as lightly guarded as we have it at the moment. I'm not too fond of the idea of increasing the military presence on the world either. If it was used as a minor forward base, that allowed easier staging of attacks on a nearby system that was a thorn in the side of the main thrust of the crusade, then the balance of military importance and military presence would be restored. As the ideal launchpad for a devestating attack on any nearby system, it would be as much a military airstrip as a refinery/trade world, due to the danger it would pose in another's hands.
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vendile
Enginseer
The doodler
Posts: 234
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Post by vendile on Feb 6, 2007 17:16:07 GMT
there would be no need for a military presence other than the PDF in the "modern-day" though, as the whole sector/sub-sector has been reclaimed by the imperium in the aforementioned crusade - which was about 5,000 years before. All i suggested was that, at the time of the crusade, the positioning of the system was extremly useful from a tactical perspective.
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Post by thenephew on Feb 6, 2007 21:47:32 GMT
A reasonable point, I guess. Admittedly I've not been following the origins as closely as the rest of this planet, so I may just plead ignorance and step out of this thread. Having taken the time to read the full history, the crusade assault staging post thing looks pretty good.
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Post by Doug on Feb 8, 2007 17:53:49 GMT
Right - that's got its own thread now....in the meantime, I think this thread has served its original purpose, so I'm going to move it to the Completed discussions forum - if anyone objects, PM me and I'll put it back
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