Nonsense. Why would the Federation cause any problems at this time? They haven’t been a major threat in years and we’ve got bigger issues on our plates right now. I’m sure they’ve been minding their own business and will wait until the rest of the universe settles down before making any moves.
As far as I am concerned the Federation poses as big as threat as ever. The war against the invading Federation army on Edwardiana still is ongoing and the recent discovery of their force in Texas on St. James with their ‘mind altering books’ shows they are far from a spent force.
I think it is more likely that they will move when the “rest of the universe” is diverted with the Thelbane situation. Less people paying attention to stop them.
Very much so……I’m sure plans are already in motion….
However, I wonder exactly where Randol & Swayvanna might end up outside….. Oh Thelbane…right into the middle of the Civil war perhaps…. exactly when Mandor needs allies….
(Hi Sergei, its been a while, perhaps next time I’m on St. James we can take in the ballet? I’ll treat this time.)
Its a bit hard to say where they may find themselves, but I tend to agree with you and Sergei about the level of concern.
Thelbane is possible but they would be going in empty handed at the moment so it could be a little tough to show up just now unless they have something to deliver to one side or another…which maybe they have figured out an answer to, again difficult to say. I think Swayvanna would feel kinda crappy showing up come a begging as it were, so I imagine they’d put something together if they headed that route.
And Randal is a Creation spin off…going back as a loser? That’s not going to work for him I bet. He’s going to need an angle of some kind.
We do have evidence of technical and tactical collaboration between Gou’ald and Federation. It is possible that lacking other allies and needing to recoup, and with little political capitol at the moment, they might make a move in that direction. They might have connections there.
The Feds have been trying to simulate some aspects of the GOu’ald/magic/tech interface for some while. It has been a pretty clunky result so far but that might always change.
There have been hints that there has been collaboration in needs/wants/resources as well. Gou’ald collect slaves for naquata mining and hosts on St. James…there were some hints that they might be collaborating on breeders for the Fed food program. Or maybe sort of a joint venture kind of thing? Or recycling for humans collected that aren’t choice hosts or decent slaves?
I tend towards Sergei’s view though. I think that this could be a good time to grab stuff that the civil war participants may leave lying on the table to use to mount their own efforts back in the Federation.
They have Giselle with them potentially as well, Ani ran into her on Paradiso. Giselle might have some ‘ins’ left to call on.
But they could potentially abscond with resources from both sides of the conflict for a while before either side cottons on that they aren’t just battle losses, natural attrition, or the other side f ing with them. Mandor and Merlin aren’t likely to be chatting and saying…’Hey, did you see where my 3 extra divisions went? Was that you?’
‘No man, wish it were, tough luck to you losing them like that.’
‘No seriously, it was you right?’
‘Sure, it was totally my guys.’
At that rate they could swipe a lot of men and material, divert it to their cause, and be out of town before either side really clued in.
At any rate, Randall IS the metaphysical icon of the Federation. I’m not sure it matters a bit who claims to be president over there. Can it really last when the guy who owns local reality and knows how to manipulate it decides to start exercising his power?
Its a pretty interesting situation. All the creators with opposite twins must be thinking about this pretty hard right now.
The other question is exactly who did Swayvanna go to for help getting Giselle out? That could be a key bit of information to know and might make things much uglier.
Giselle stole a Tom Brady from St. James (she is his wife here, supermodel I seem to recall) for use as a ritual sacrifice in Paradiso.
Lydia was on those missions according to ANi’s diary, you may confirm with her for her perspective.
Giselle was evidently held hostage for Swayvanna’s cooperation while Randall was regenerating according to the report we are getting above.
We also are led to believe that Swayvanna spent her time shuttling materials and personnel to improve the combat readiness of the Wolfe pack.
We’ve seen them in action in Casablanca before we kicked their butts out. I fought in those engagements and the Wolfe pack have some rather interesting and unpleasant tactics, including a communications method which is very hard to break as it includes mental conditioning which only allows a recipient to understand a message under specific circumstances. To an outsider its nearly complete rubbish.
They are very competent and gave our forces a difficult time. Strong and effective leadership and good tactics…and with the mental controls their troops never run or break.
So, best bet the Wolfe pack will be at Swayvanna’s beck and call for any ‘events’ that might pop up needing their unqiue talents, because that is a pretty useful piece and if Swayvanna’s having to do the shuttling you know she’s deceiving at the same time.
Hell, she may not need to do so with Randol along with her. As you said, he is the Federation figurehead.
Well I’m not sure. As you say, shuttling supplies and manpower would have been a great opportunity to get her claws into the Wolfe’s and she is the ex-first lady after all. It just depends on where the Wolfe loyalties truly are, and I don’t think we know what the new president has offered them or if they saw Swayvanna’s diminished fortunes in a bad light. But if Randol were to appear with her…I’d say there’s a good chance they might swing his way.
I think there’s a stong chance though that you may turn out to be correct in the long run. At a minimum if political fortunes change, the Wolfes are likely to jump back in Randol’s direction easily enough.
The thing is, the new president is looking to use that troop build up somewhere somehow. We can make guesses on the where. But the when is likely to have moved up.
When Swayvanna sprung Giselle the president had to get at least a bit worried even if he didn’t know about Randol’s return.
The information suggests that Swayvanna seems to feel the Fed’s new leaders were too self absorbed and busy playing with new toys to have really paid attention to the central issue, real power. It would be interesting to know how accurate her assessment is in this regard. Certainly now that Randol is back if they didn’t gain some kind of connection to the power while he was gone, he’s going to have the upper hand.
It would make most sense to wait until the new president extends himself and then strike or turn the tables. Whether the Feds are successful in their offensive or not Randol stands to win, either by arranging an unfortunate combat death to the new president during a nearly successful offensive and then riding in to save the day in the confusion (possibly at the head of purloined assets from the Thelbane civil war at his back), or if the new president loses badly on the field all Randol has to do is walk in and point to the malfeasance…he’d have license to clean house and restore his previous rule. Either way he gets his old position back, his political capital is restored and he can punish or eliminate anyone he wants, and if the offensive is successful he stands to gain a juicy and useful bit of new territory.
If Lydia knew about this it would worry her. Swayvanna was troublesome enough working for the Federation. Having her running around as a free agent makes her far more dangerous.
Oh, and just putting this out there, but does anyone believe that Swayvanna, the Goddess of Deception, is actually telling Randol the truth? I find it hard to believe that someone with that experience and aspect couldn’t make use of ‘a bunch of greedy bastard underlings suddenly freed of any loyalty to anything except their own selfish desires’.
Seems unlikely doesn’t it…..or maybe I’m just being paranoid.
I think they temporarily had her by the short and curlies by taking Giselle and Swayvanna is smart enough to know that Randol’s return was going to be her ticket to a permanent return to whatever power a woman in the Federation can actually have.
I don’ think you’re paranoid, I’m sure she’s playing her own game. And I’m completely sure Giselle will be playing her own objectives as well.
I’ve always found Swayvanna mystifying. Its hard to imagine why a high ranking, nobly born princess in Thelbane would accept a position in a regime that still requires her to spread her legs for anyone that can cough up enough dollars, no matter how high her personal price may be.
It could be in some really convoluted way she actually loves Randol, albeit in a relationship most of us couldn’t figure out with a playbook, a map, and a team of shrinks.
But ambition is not precluded by love. And for someone like her the sort of semi-betrayals, reunions, helping while appearing to betray and betraying while appearing to help…may just add spice to life.
Suddenly I feel a profound sense of personal foreboding…
Nonsense. Why would the Federation cause any problems at this time? They haven’t been a major threat in years and we’ve got bigger issues on our plates right now. I’m sure they’ve been minding their own business and will wait until the rest of the universe settles down before making any moves.
As far as I am concerned the Federation poses as big as threat as ever. The war against the invading Federation army on Edwardiana still is ongoing and the recent discovery of their force in Texas on St. James with their ‘mind altering books’ shows they are far from a spent force.
I think it is more likely that they will move when the “rest of the universe” is diverted with the Thelbane situation. Less people paying attention to stop them.
Very much so……I’m sure plans are already in motion….
However, I wonder exactly where Randol & Swayvanna might end up outside….. Oh Thelbane…right into the middle of the Civil war perhaps…. exactly when Mandor needs allies….
(Hi Sergei, its been a while, perhaps next time I’m on St. James we can take in the ballet? I’ll treat this time.)
Its a bit hard to say where they may find themselves, but I tend to agree with you and Sergei about the level of concern.
Thelbane is possible but they would be going in empty handed at the moment so it could be a little tough to show up just now unless they have something to deliver to one side or another…which maybe they have figured out an answer to, again difficult to say. I think Swayvanna would feel kinda crappy showing up come a begging as it were, so I imagine they’d put something together if they headed that route.
And Randal is a Creation spin off…going back as a loser? That’s not going to work for him I bet. He’s going to need an angle of some kind.
We do have evidence of technical and tactical collaboration between Gou’ald and Federation. It is possible that lacking other allies and needing to recoup, and with little political capitol at the moment, they might make a move in that direction. They might have connections there.
The Feds have been trying to simulate some aspects of the GOu’ald/magic/tech interface for some while. It has been a pretty clunky result so far but that might always change.
There have been hints that there has been collaboration in needs/wants/resources as well. Gou’ald collect slaves for naquata mining and hosts on St. James…there were some hints that they might be collaborating on breeders for the Fed food program. Or maybe sort of a joint venture kind of thing? Or recycling for humans collected that aren’t choice hosts or decent slaves?
I tend towards Sergei’s view though. I think that this could be a good time to grab stuff that the civil war participants may leave lying on the table to use to mount their own efforts back in the Federation.
They have Giselle with them potentially as well, Ani ran into her on Paradiso. Giselle might have some ‘ins’ left to call on.
But they could potentially abscond with resources from both sides of the conflict for a while before either side cottons on that they aren’t just battle losses, natural attrition, or the other side f ing with them. Mandor and Merlin aren’t likely to be chatting and saying…’Hey, did you see where my 3 extra divisions went? Was that you?’
‘No man, wish it were, tough luck to you losing them like that.’
‘No seriously, it was you right?’
‘Sure, it was totally my guys.’
At that rate they could swipe a lot of men and material, divert it to their cause, and be out of town before either side really clued in.
At any rate, Randall IS the metaphysical icon of the Federation. I’m not sure it matters a bit who claims to be president over there. Can it really last when the guy who owns local reality and knows how to manipulate it decides to start exercising his power?
Its a pretty interesting situation. All the creators with opposite twins must be thinking about this pretty hard right now.
The other question is exactly who did Swayvanna go to for help getting Giselle out? That could be a key bit of information to know and might make things much uglier.
Giselle?
Giselle is Swayvanna’s daughter.
Giselle stole a Tom Brady from St. James (she is his wife here, supermodel I seem to recall) for use as a ritual sacrifice in Paradiso.
Lydia was on those missions according to ANi’s diary, you may confirm with her for her perspective.
Giselle was evidently held hostage for Swayvanna’s cooperation while Randall was regenerating according to the report we are getting above.
We also are led to believe that Swayvanna spent her time shuttling materials and personnel to improve the combat readiness of the Wolfe pack.
We’ve seen them in action in Casablanca before we kicked their butts out. I fought in those engagements and the Wolfe pack have some rather interesting and unpleasant tactics, including a communications method which is very hard to break as it includes mental conditioning which only allows a recipient to understand a message under specific circumstances. To an outsider its nearly complete rubbish.
They are very competent and gave our forces a difficult time. Strong and effective leadership and good tactics…and with the mental controls their troops never run or break.
We were able to prevail fortunately.
So, best bet the Wolfe pack will be at Swayvanna’s beck and call for any ‘events’ that might pop up needing their unqiue talents, because that is a pretty useful piece and if Swayvanna’s having to do the shuttling you know she’s deceiving at the same time.
Hell, she may not need to do so with Randol along with her. As you said, he is the Federation figurehead.
Well I’m not sure. As you say, shuttling supplies and manpower would have been a great opportunity to get her claws into the Wolfe’s and she is the ex-first lady after all. It just depends on where the Wolfe loyalties truly are, and I don’t think we know what the new president has offered them or if they saw Swayvanna’s diminished fortunes in a bad light. But if Randol were to appear with her…I’d say there’s a good chance they might swing his way.
I think there’s a stong chance though that you may turn out to be correct in the long run. At a minimum if political fortunes change, the Wolfes are likely to jump back in Randol’s direction easily enough.
The thing is, the new president is looking to use that troop build up somewhere somehow. We can make guesses on the where. But the when is likely to have moved up.
When Swayvanna sprung Giselle the president had to get at least a bit worried even if he didn’t know about Randol’s return.
The information suggests that Swayvanna seems to feel the Fed’s new leaders were too self absorbed and busy playing with new toys to have really paid attention to the central issue, real power. It would be interesting to know how accurate her assessment is in this regard. Certainly now that Randol is back if they didn’t gain some kind of connection to the power while he was gone, he’s going to have the upper hand.
It would make most sense to wait until the new president extends himself and then strike or turn the tables. Whether the Feds are successful in their offensive or not Randol stands to win, either by arranging an unfortunate combat death to the new president during a nearly successful offensive and then riding in to save the day in the confusion (possibly at the head of purloined assets from the Thelbane civil war at his back), or if the new president loses badly on the field all Randol has to do is walk in and point to the malfeasance…he’d have license to clean house and restore his previous rule. Either way he gets his old position back, his political capital is restored and he can punish or eliminate anyone he wants, and if the offensive is successful he stands to gain a juicy and useful bit of new territory.
If Lydia knew about this it would worry her. Swayvanna was troublesome enough working for the Federation. Having her running around as a free agent makes her far more dangerous.
Oh, and just putting this out there, but does anyone believe that Swayvanna, the Goddess of Deception, is actually telling Randol the truth? I find it hard to believe that someone with that experience and aspect couldn’t make use of ‘a bunch of greedy bastard underlings suddenly freed of any loyalty to anything except their own selfish desires’.
Seems unlikely doesn’t it…..or maybe I’m just being paranoid.
I think they temporarily had her by the short and curlies by taking Giselle and Swayvanna is smart enough to know that Randol’s return was going to be her ticket to a permanent return to whatever power a woman in the Federation can actually have.
I don’ think you’re paranoid, I’m sure she’s playing her own game. And I’m completely sure Giselle will be playing her own objectives as well.
I’ve always found Swayvanna mystifying. Its hard to imagine why a high ranking, nobly born princess in Thelbane would accept a position in a regime that still requires her to spread her legs for anyone that can cough up enough dollars, no matter how high her personal price may be.
It could be in some really convoluted way she actually loves Randol, albeit in a relationship most of us couldn’t figure out with a playbook, a map, and a team of shrinks.
But ambition is not precluded by love. And for someone like her the sort of semi-betrayals, reunions, helping while appearing to betray and betraying while appearing to help…may just add spice to life.
It bends my mind when I think too hard about it.