Thanks, Mike, I've scanned some paras with blurred eyes and moved on but
mostly skipped the messages in this thread.
> [Dave: Some 1248 discussion here. Feel free to move on â¦]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> In 1248, there seem to be good/bad versions of every major race and
>> culture.
>
> OK, I totally grant you the whole âgood Solomaniâ and âevil
> Solomaniâ empires. That is 100% true. But for the rest? I dunno. There
> was only one Vilani empire; it got uppity, then got crushed, then
> mellowed. So unless you are counting the single empire has transitioning
> from good to evil (or evil to good), I donât see it. And, while there
> were two primary Zhodani pocket empires explicitly described, neither were
> good or evil. One was traditional and one was very different, but both
> were (at least supposed to be) nominally âgoodâ. They were definitely
> not evil. And the Vargr were the Vargr. There have always been
> âhostileâ Vargr and âfriendlyâ Vargr. None of that is new and it
> should definitely be expected from the Vargr, regardless of setting.
>
> On the Regency front, I can definitely see where you might get that idea
> about the Imperial Regency and the League of Deneb. And, yes, the IR was
> the âbaddieâ of the Spinward States. However, the League of Deneb was
> not necessarily particularly âgoodâ, and the IR was not really evil.
> They were proud and misguided, angry and aggressive, but they were not
> truly evil. It was intended for the two states to contrast each other in
> some interesting ways. With the IR, you had a fairly monolithic approach
> with a fairly unified technology base. With Deneb, it was much more varied
> in both categories. Also, from a leadership perspective, Deneb was much
> nicer, as each world had the freedom to be organized as they saw fit. The
> IR was much more rigid and much less flexible. But, for the general
> population, the IR was probably better to live in. Since the Deneb worlds
> were free to run themselves, all sorts of totalitarian and nasty nonsense
> was able to flourish. With the IR, while the interstellar government was
> autocratic, the world governments were forced to be much more open. The
> average IR citizen probably lived a freer life (in a good way) than a
> typical Deneb citizen. So, while the two empires were intended to contrast
> each other, it was far from a âgoodâ vs âevilâ type contrast.
>
> But you are absolutely correct on the Solomani. It was one âgoodâ
> empire and one âevilâ empire. If they had been given the time to
> produce a Terran sourcebook, then there likely would have been some
> additional nuance added to the story, with various other minor empires (of
> varying small sizes) introduced to add more flavor and character. But the
> emergence of Mongoose Traveller cut 1248 much shorter than desired.
>
> Again, I certainly don't speak for Martin. However, I can speak for
> myself, so can explain anything you want out of the Spinward States or the
> sliver of Terran client states from the Freedom League book.
>
> Mike West
>
>
>
>
mostly skipped the messages in this thread.
> [Dave: Some 1248 discussion here. Feel free to move on â¦]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> In 1248, there seem to be good/bad versions of every major race and
>> culture.
>
> OK, I totally grant you the whole âgood Solomaniâ and âevil
> Solomaniâ empires. That is 100% true. But for the rest? I dunno. There
> was only one Vilani empire; it got uppity, then got crushed, then
> mellowed. So unless you are counting the single empire has transitioning
> from good to evil (or evil to good), I donât see it. And, while there
> were two primary Zhodani pocket empires explicitly described, neither were
> good or evil. One was traditional and one was very different, but both
> were (at least supposed to be) nominally âgoodâ. They were definitely
> not evil. And the Vargr were the Vargr. There have always been
> âhostileâ Vargr and âfriendlyâ Vargr. None of that is new and it
> should definitely be expected from the Vargr, regardless of setting.
>
> On the Regency front, I can definitely see where you might get that idea
> about the Imperial Regency and the League of Deneb. And, yes, the IR was
> the âbaddieâ of the Spinward States. However, the League of Deneb was
> not necessarily particularly âgoodâ, and the IR was not really evil.
> They were proud and misguided, angry and aggressive, but they were not
> truly evil. It was intended for the two states to contrast each other in
> some interesting ways. With the IR, you had a fairly monolithic approach
> with a fairly unified technology base. With Deneb, it was much more varied
> in both categories. Also, from a leadership perspective, Deneb was much
> nicer, as each world had the freedom to be organized as they saw fit. The
> IR was much more rigid and much less flexible. But, for the general
> population, the IR was probably better to live in. Since the Deneb worlds
> were free to run themselves, all sorts of totalitarian and nasty nonsense
> was able to flourish. With the IR, while the interstellar government was
> autocratic, the world governments were forced to be much more open. The
> average IR citizen probably lived a freer life (in a good way) than a
> typical Deneb citizen. So, while the two empires were intended to contrast
> each other, it was far from a âgoodâ vs âevilâ type contrast.
>
> But you are absolutely correct on the Solomani. It was one âgoodâ
> empire and one âevilâ empire. If they had been given the time to
> produce a Terran sourcebook, then there likely would have been some
> additional nuance added to the story, with various other minor empires (of
> varying small sizes) introduced to add more flavor and character. But the
> emergence of Mongoose Traveller cut 1248 much shorter than desired.
>
> Again, I certainly don't speak for Martin. However, I can speak for
> myself, so can explain anything you want out of the Spinward States or the
> sliver of Terran client states from the Freedom League book.
>
> Mike West
>
>
>
>