The Future of Wednesdays

I think once I finish my Warlord Wednesday run, my next comic series to review (unless I get a better idea between now and then) will be Jim Starlin's Metamorphosis Odyssey. It's a cosmic science fantasy tale that first appeared in serialized fashion in Epic Illustrated in early 80s. It also introduces Vanth Dreadstar who will go on to appear in his own series.

I'm still entertaining suggestions, though, if you've got 'em.

Android's Dungeon

I've been reading Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross, which takes place in a posthuman future where the civilization of humankind's android/bioroid creations have spread out into the stars. These beings can look pretty much human and act pretty much human--including eating and excreting biological material. The difference is that they are made of mechanocytes instead of biological cells that must "learn" to form organs and "tissue" types and their brains have soulchip backups they can be placed into a new body if their old ones are destroyed. Interestingly, priests (like those of the Church of the Fragile, who seek to disseminate old style "fragile" humanity in the galaxy) have "powers." Special structures and training that allow them to control the mechanocytes of others to heal or alter forms.

All of this sounded like a good way to in-setting rationalize traditional dungeoneering rpg tropes, if you're into that sort of thing. Imagine a future where humankind is extinct and its android descendants live in a pseudo-medieval society--except for things like soulchips (or something of that nature) and clerical healing. The androids (who would just think of themselves as "people," of course) would go down into the underground ruins of old humanity (who they probably wouldn't realize were any different than themselves) to wrest treasures from less socialized posthuman intelligences, i.e. monsters.

What would be the point? Well, it would be an interesting mystery to add in the background of a science fantasy sort of campaign (like a variant Anomalous Subsurface Environment, maybe). Also, the increased durability and easy resurrection of posthumans would explain some things about how D&D works as written, but could also be used to ramp up the carnage to Paranoia-type levels. Death wouldn't necessarily mean starting with a new character most of the time, it would just mean starting with the same character, poorer than before or owing a debt to somebody.

Warlord Wednesday: The Final Issue

My issue by issue examination of DC Comics' Warlord continues. The earlier installments can be found here...

"Storm Over Skartaris!"

Warlord (vol. 4) #16 (September 2010) Story & Art by Mike Grell.

Synopsis: Joshua and Alysha meet with Machiste to ask his help against the alien threat to all Skartaris. They must have convinced him, because we next see him helping McBane find Morgan's crashed SR-71. McBane finds something he thinks he can use.

In the Age of Wizard Kings, Mongo is teasing a shrunken Deimos by letting him jump at his magic mirror. He can't get through because the other side is broken. But in Shamballah, little Morgana is re-assembling Jennifer's broken  mirror...

Alysha's and Joshua's next stop is a tavern where they find the crew of the airship they took down last issue. They need the airship crew's help, but Captain Bloodhawke wants to fight Joshua to first blood for crashing her ship. He accommodates her:

McBane takes the radio from the plane wreckage. He plans to get it working so they maybe they can get a signal out and warn the surface world about what's coming. Tara oversees the removal of some the defensive guns from Shamballah. They plan to mount them on the airship. McBane asks how they plan to power them. Shakira replies they're going to use magic, just like Deimos.

Mariah and Machiste arrive to take over the defense of Shamballah. Mariah notes that even the Therans have joined them this time. Joshua and Alysha are astride the hippogriff and everyone else boards the airship.

On the surface world General Ketchum is pretty surprised to get a message coming in on a polar comsat from the SR-71 of Travis Morgan. McBane tells them about the coming alien invasion. His warning is soon confirmed by the "bogies" breaking through the missile defense. McBane tells the General to have his fighters hold outside the arctic circle. The ship of "the united people of Skartaris" will take care of things from there. The general demands to know what's going on; McBane promises to transmit a digital file that will explain.

Most of the airship crew gets off at the polar opening. Only Joshua and Shakira go on from there. The alien ships are heading toward Skartaris through the passage. When the airship is in position, Shakira places the last piece of glass in Jennifer's mirror. The conduit to Wizard World is re-opened!

Morgana and Jennifer channel the magical power to begin collapsing the passage. Joshua blasts the incoming aliens with the airship's weapons. Deimos, raging against the seed of Morgan, tries to get through the mirror, but Shakira keeps holding him back.

As the tunnel collapses, Joshua and Shakira escape the now-trapped airship leaving Deimos behind.

They ride away on the hippogriff. The polar opening to the outer world is seal and the aliens and Deimos are crushed in its collapse.

On the surface, the general and his staff begin watching the file they downloaded. Ewan McBane is reporting from Skartaris:

Things to Notice:

• This issue lampshades (finally) Morgan's ability to carry around enough ammo for his pistol despite never having any place to carry it.
• Joshua accomplishes what his father never did: uniting all the people of Skartaris (at least briefly).
• This issue is the very anti-thesis of decompression; There's enough incidents here for 6 issues, easy.

Commentary: 
Grell gives his series a decisive ending: closing off the polar opening that was Travis Morgan's entrance to Skartaris to begin with. Most of the Grell-era supporting cast winds up with at least a cameo in the final issue, too, though Ashir and Faaldren are absent, as they have been from this whole run.

Still, Grell leaves open the possibility of further adventures of the new Warlord. The story teases the possibility of a new setup for fantasy adventuring: a world where characters are actually trying to build a better society instead of just talking about it. 

Born for War

The thrax are famed soldiers of the Alliance sphere in the Strange Stars. They are a clone race, created long ago by an unknown culture who put them to use in a plan to conquer the galaxy--slowly. Asteroids were turned into habitats and launched toward certain worlds, manned by robots and carrying an army of clone embryos. The sublight voyages afforded more than enough time to grow and train the embryos into warriors before planetfall. 

It's possible the creators of the thrax were dead before any of their attacks met their targets. In any case, the ai administrators and bot trainers were unable to impart anything to the thrax other than their mission parameters. Thrax did subjugate some worlds, but others resisted their assault. Their appearance probably helped to disrupt the Radiant Polity and hasten its end.

Contact with other cultures gave the thrax goals of there own. They destroyed the machines that had nursed and trained them and took control of their own destiny. Still, from the moment of their decanting as infants, thrax are evaluated for and trained in capacity for war.

Appearance and Biology: Thrax are tall, powerfully built humanoids, with whitish gray skintones. They have somewhat pronounced and heavy brow, and nasal slits rather than an external nose. Neither sex has much body hair, but females do have head hair. 

Psychology: Thrax are taciturn, serious, and greatly concerned with honor and discipline as defined by their warrior's code. Some allow themselves displays of emotion in the heat of battle, but others view this as excessive display. Their possessions are few and their quarters tend to be spartan. Rarely do they use intoxicants, and very few would do so at any time they thought combat might be imminent.

Thrax express their individuality through their armor, which they are allowed to individualize within parameters set by their unit.

Stats: Stars Without Number: Thrax have a minimum Strength of 12. No thrax has psychic abilities.

Where is Your Mind?

Just as morphological phenotypes are variable among the sophont entities of the Strange Stars, so are the mental structures. In fact, the science of noetics recognizes different levels of mental structure that can be combined in different ways:

The base level is neuroform. This describes the basic functional arrangement of the mind. For most, this is the hierarchy inherited from paleo-humanity, but others (like the Magi and Circeans) have different arrangements to favor other states of consciousness, supress emotion, or increase task focus. It should be noted that neuroforms can be coded in actual cellular structure (like biological brains) or digital emulations.

Technology allows the linking of individual neuroforms into larger structures.  Network arrangements are referred to as compositions. Member minds of a composition may be independent, fully integrated, or somewhere in between. A composition might be two or more independent consciousness inhabiting one body or one hive-mind sharing many bodies. The ruling Consensus of Smaragdoz is an example of a composition.

Another facet of larger mental integration is distribution. A beings nervous system may be self-contained or may be involved in any number of mental sharing schemes. Though a degree of distribution may go hand in hand with composition, these are actually somewhat independent considerations; Individuals can share perceptions through a composition while still retaining independent consciousness, for example. Also, distribution can be limited certain aspects of consciousness rather than its entirety. Memory sharing or dream sharing are examples. Conversely, one could share a personality without real-time sharing of memories or experiences.

The Hidden Land--Revealed!

Thanks to the artistic talents of Michael "Aos" Gibbons, my lost world setting The Hidden Land is lost no more:

I wanted something in the mode of several old comic book maps, and this is just about perfect, Future posts will give details of some of the locations, but right now bask in the mystery!

Baroque Space

Sustained on tales of heroes and finding little solace in the numbing pleasures and controlled comforts of Earth, some youths seek escape to the stars. They buy passage (or stow away) on the barrel-shaped lift-boats of Earth, luminous fungal vessels of Venus, or a swift clippers from the outer worlds and go to seek an adventurer's life.

Some will find a swift death and others a somewhat slower end on a penal asteroid, but some will eventually find means to arm themselves with energized sword and phlogiston pistol and armor themselves against the weapons of foes and the harshness of the void. So arrayed, they can find work. Ever bellicose Mars is always in need of mercenaries. The heliocephalic Mercurian Emperor welcomes new armigers to his court, so long as they dress as well as they fight. The Doge of watery Venus seeks to employ guards of cunning, able to devise (and survive) intrigues both real and simulated.

Beyond the asteroids, the outer planets loom, and there are monsters to be slain and fortunes to be won by the fortunate and the daring.

Art by Einherja