[Fallout Equestria] Setting discussions

[Harmony Ltd.]

Anyway,I'm wondering what kind of Arcano-Technology would serve as the "warp drives".

Personally, I think it would be more in accordance with the MLP:FiM background to use a teleportation derivative as the FTL drive.

Not necessarily long "jumps". It can be a continuous series of "short" jumps, where the resulting "speed" is still faster than light.

[Harmony Ltd.]

This may be relevant to the Alliance's "strategy" in Zebrica and around the Marediterranean.

[O. Hinds]

This may be relevant to the Alliance's "strategy" in Zebrica and around the Marediterranean.

It's certainly interesting, and I think you're right that it has relevance.  While the Alliance's (and, as a mostly unrelated aside, I suspect that "Elusive" will eventually be officially dropped from the name just as it's already in and out of universe so frequently unofficially dropped; Elusive himself wouldn't mind so long as it doesn't actually decrease his power) expansion is very much not inadvertent, a lot of the techniques used are similar.  Though, lacking other powers to keep it in check and having the Miliozi as a major member, the Alliance can sometimes be rather more trigger-happy than the PRC in expanding (though there is a limit to what the Alliance can get away with due to internal pressures and later also due to the desire to not antagonize the NCR).



EDIT: THE PREVIOUS SEGMENT OF THIS THREAD IS HERE.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Well, I'd think that in the two hundred years since the end of the war, the vast expanses of Zebrica would have had the time to see the rise of various local powers. And the same could be said for the regions bordering the Marediterranean.

The way I see it, Equestria would be the exception rather than the norm in term of how long it would have taken it to rise again from the ashes of the Holocaust, mostly due to the combination of the Cloud cover and the very high level of contamination of the land before the Gardens got activated ; which rendered almost impossible the formation of any "unified" political entity across the peninsula -minus the GPE, which didn't have to bother about the land itself- as getting an agricultural sector sufficient enough to feed more than a barebone group of survivors was next to impossible. And if you don't have anything to eat, don't even think about starting an industry. Red Eye tried something, but I've already argued in the past why his plan was destined to fail in the long run.

I think that the rest of the world, as the Alliance itself is proof, would have had an easier time rebuilding, having suffered far less lasting damages, or at least the damages done being far more spread out, leaving vast tracts of untouched land between the few hot spots.

[O. Hinds]

Oh, certainly; the Equestrian Peninsula is an outlier. The old lands of the Pax Roamana are in many areas still tribal, that's pretty much always because the people there chose to live that way (even after the industrial revolution and during the war, the Central cultural group still had a lot of tribal elements, and many of them chose to take the apocalypse as an opportunity to return to an older way of life). The place is filled with new states; the only two I've thought of are the Pax Novae Roamae and the Philomeanans, but there are many, many others. The thing is, though, that the Alliance is also an outlier, just in the other direction; the Pax Novae Roamae isn't the only one of the new states to be added to the Alliance, just the only one to join instead of being annexed. The vast majority of states in that area can't hope to actually defeat the Alliance in combat; at best they could wage guerrilla warfare as all the sedentary things they've built are taken over or destroyed. Combine that big stick with all the big carrots that the Alliance can offer (manufactured goods, electricity, modern transportation infrastructure, modern communication infrastructure...), and people tend to fall in line. (The tribal areas actually have big advantages here; they have no infrastructure or big sedentary structures to threaten, they already have skillsets suited to guerilla warfare, and most of them aren't very interested in the sorts of carrots that the Alliance offers. Moving into tribal territory tends to be a much slower, more difficult, and diplomacy-heavy process.) The PNR got to join because it was large and built up enough to make accepting it as a member more practical than breaking it up and adding it to the territory of other Alliance members, but the PNR was significantly larger and more built up than its neighbors. A lot of this is driven by Alliance internal politics, of course; annexing territory increases the power of those doing the annexation, while adding new members decreases all of the old members' percentages of the total power of the Alliance. The expansionist members of the Alliance (mostly just the Elusive Company and the Miliozi, though to a lesser extent also the PNR; Port Maple, Gibhalter, and Las Pegasus are just interested in expanding in their local areas, and Profectum is both not really at all expansionist and sitting in the middle of plenty of empty desert), therefore, all want to annex any territory that they can and prevent said territory from joining on its own. A big part of the PNR's success in joining was that it was so big and, for a non-industrial state, well-developed; it would be quite a big gain for whoever annexed it, and arguments were sure to break out if it was decided to split it up; in the end, the Elusive Company and Miliozi decided that it was better for them individually and for the Alliance as a whole to just let it join.

Interesting thought: currently, the Philomeanans are a city-state centered around their crashed Thunderhead. If New Cloudsdayle does go over there ("there" being, in case you don't remember, the area where Mainbai used to be… though, actually, since there was active Equestrian fighting there at the end of the war, maybe Mainbai wasn't targeted by obliterating megaspells… another interesting idea...), though, and they can get the Philomena flying again, perhaps the new group would try a bit of empire building. New Pegasopolis?

[Harmony Ltd.]

I have difficulties imagining Neo-Cloudsdale being anywhere else than in the Equestrian Peninsula, to be honest with you.

[O. Hinds]

I have difficulties imagining Neo-Cloudsdale being anywhere else than in the Equestrian Peninsula, to be honest with you.

Oh? You don't think that they might want to get away from the NCR? New/Neo (which is it?) Cloudsdayle is one of your things, and I'd like to improve my understanding of it.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Er... I dunno. The pegasi making up the post-GPE-collapse "Enclave" may not really appreciate the NCR, but I'd think they would still consider themselves "Equestrian", at least culturally.

Rebuilding Cloudsdale (New or Neo doesn't matter, they would spin it as just rebuilding the old one anyway) would simply be a mean to signify their independence from the surface.

What you'd suggest would be seen as fleeing Equestria, and recognizing the surfacers victory.


It's a bit complex, really. The whole process isn't rational in the first place.

[O. Hinds]

Er... I dunno. The pegasi making up the post-GPE-collapse "Enclave" may not really appreciate the NCR, but I'd think they would still consider themselves "Equestrian", at least culturally.

Rebuilding Cloudsdale (New or Neo doesn't matter, they would spin it as just rebuilding the old one anyway) would simply be a mean to signify their independence from the surface.

What you'd suggest would be seen as fleeing Equestria, and recognizing the surfacers victory.


It's a bit complex, really. The whole process isn't rational in the first place.

I think that I see (in this case, at least; you're right that the situation is complex); thanks.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Plus, with the land cleaned by the Gardens, and no more qualms about meddling with surface at least to take the resources they need from it, AND knowledge of pre-war technology caches all around the peninsula, there's heavy arguments for them to stick around.


AND, there's still the shipworks of Freidrischorfen that would allow them to actually build new Raptors and Thunderheads if they managed to gather the necessary resources. Add that to the list of incentives they have to not flee to a continent they know nothing about on the promise of some surfacers that the pastures are greener there.

[Harmony Ltd.]

I suppose this is the kind of thing you find in standard on Alliance ships, even civilian : remotely operated turrets to defend against pirates.

Though, knowing how much the Alliance loves its energy weapons, I wonder if it wouldn't be a "laser" instead. Thoughts ?

[O. Hinds]

I suppose this is the kind of thing you find in standard on Alliance ships, even civilian : remotely operated turrets to defend against pirates.

Cool!  And yes.

Though, knowing how much the Alliance loves its energy weapons, I wonder if it wouldn't be a "laser" instead. Thoughts ?

Hm... The problem is that energy weapons are still very expensive.  Pre-SR, gems had to be mined and smuggled off the peninsula through the Alliance's secret hellhound connections, and post-SR gems come mostly from the NCR (though the Miliozi mine as much as they can from their peninsular land and the Alliance is eager to look into trading with other peninsular powers).  Where it can, therefore, the Alliance will avoid using gems; the energy weapons it makes are very good, but they're not the most common type.  That said, the Alliance military at and immediately post SR placed a great deal of importance on anti-air tech (due to their most prominent potential foe being the GPE), and there's no reason why they couldn't add a few more degrees of depression angle to the ship-mounted AA beam turrets.

[Meleagridis]

So I got this half baked idea. Well, actually, I haven't put it in the oven yet. But hear me out.

A star-worshiping zebra tribe that, before The End, sought to bring about an apocalypse that would raze the land, salt the earth, boil the seas, and do all those fun end-of-times things. Naturally when this happened they were very pleased. Then some of them survived and they were very confused. They rationalized it as a purge of the world. Not a cleansing of the wicked, but a cleansing of those that would prevent the rise of a new, perfect Eden (or zebra equivalent). So the surviving necromancing star-worshipers set about helping the survivors, dispensing aid indiscriminately. Almost indiscriminately. Obviously they won't help raiders that would shoot them as soon as look at them, and they hesitate to lend their aid to anyone claiming to be 'rebuilding the old world.' No problem with places like Friendship City, but serious issues with the NCR (assuming they ever got outside of zebra territory, that is). So it's Doctor's Without Borders, and those borders include using forbidden black magic to do things like cleaning drinking water and being midwives.

So... worth pursuing further?

(and, as a mostly unrelated aside, I suspect that "Elusive" will eventually be officially dropped from the name just as it's already in and out of universe so frequently unofficially dropped; Elusive himself wouldn't mind so long as it doesn't actually decrease his power)

That actually makes me a little sad. Gaping, shallow egos are always very entertaining flaws for powerful characters, especially non-villains.

[Harmony Ltd.]

RE doom cult Zebra : I like the idea. So they're literal Folowers of the Apocalypse, then ?  


Yeah, the world at large is so vast, and the fact it runs on literal magic, makes it bound to contain weird things like that.

[O. Hinds]

So I got this half baked idea. Well, actually, I haven't put it in the oven yet. But hear me out.

A star-worshiping zebra tribe that, before The End, sought to bring about an apocalypse that would raze the land, salt the earth, boil the seas, and do all those fun end-of-times things. Naturally when this happened they were very pleased. Then some of them survived and they were very confused. They rationalized it as a purge of the world. Not a cleansing of the wicked, but a cleansing of those that would prevent the rise of a new, perfect Eden (or zebra equivalent). So the surviving necromancing star-worshipers set about helping the survivors, dispensing aid indiscriminately. Almost indiscriminately. Obviously they won't help raiders that would shoot them as soon as look at them, and they hesitate to lend their aid to anyone claiming to be 'rebuilding the old world.' No problem with places like Friendship City, but serious issues with the NCR (assuming they ever got outside of zebra territory, that is). So it's Doctor's Without Borders, and those borders include using forbidden black magic to do things like cleaning drinking water and being midwives.

So... worth pursuing further?

Hahaha!  Yes, I can see that.  :D  Some rogue group of Starkatteri or a similar cult...

I'm not sure what their relationship with the Alliance would be, if any.  …I think that it probably depends on their exact doctrine and possible what happens in Hoofington (if the public gets the impression that the stars actually are malevolent and that these zebras support those malevolent stars…).  Basically, if their doctrine is something like "No, the stars aren't malevolent, just against all the bad people, who are gone now", the various Alliance powers would probably either be fine working with them or capable of being relatively easily talked into it by the others.  If the Alliance public (and certainly if the Alliance public and leadership) get the impression that your cult are basically Harbingers…
And, of course, there's the question of what this cult thinks of the Alliance, which I don't believe I currently have enough information to hazard much of a guess at.

Anywhere in particular in Zebrica you were thinking of locating them?

(and, as a mostly unrelated aside, I suspect that "Elusive" will eventually be officially dropped from the name just as it's already in and out of universe so frequently unofficially dropped; Elusive himself wouldn't mind so long as it doesn't actually decrease his power)

That actually makes me a little sad. Gaping, shallow egos are always very entertaining flaws for powerful characters, especially non-villains.

Well, it's not as if he wanted the name dropped.  Elusive, who is quite open in his belief that he is the being in the known universe best suited to run said known universe, is not exactly humble.  Given a choice between exchanging a bit of symbolic power for more actual power, though, and annoying people he'd rather be building social capital with, he'll choose the actual power.

[Harmony Ltd.]

I just thought of something :

People who have lived most of their lives in Stables or Stable-like condition might be smaller and have weaker bones than surfacers due to chronic vitamin D deficiency ; at least if the place they live in does not have a special lighting giving off healthy doses of UV light or if they don't eat vitamin D supplements.

[Meleagridis]

Don't think Fallout ever addressed that issue. But Fallout didn't have straight up magic. How tough is vitamin D to find in food?

Anywhere in particular in Zebrica you were thinking of locating them?

Well, my lack of knowledge on this front is one of the reasons I'm hesitating to develop them any further. I don't know diddly! Everything I once knew has leaked right through my left ear. I'm just aware that zebra turf is less irradiate but has more horrible monsters and rogue bots.

[O. Hinds]

Anywhere in particular in Zebrica you were thinking of locating them?

Well, my lack of knowledge on this front is one of the reasons I'm hesitating to develop them any further. I don't know diddly! Everything I once knew has leaked right through my left ear. I'm just aware that zebra turf is less irradiate but has more horrible monsters and rogue bots.

Well, anywhere on my Zebrica map look interesting? Most of it hasn't been filled in.

[Harmony Ltd.]

It needs more actual geographical features. Right now most of it is "terra incognita" as far as I'm concerned.

There's already the giant desert surrounding Profectum, with a mountain range in the east of it. I suppose one of the consequences of that is that historically the western par of Zebrica would have been culturally (and maybe ecologically ?) distinct from the rest of the continent as it would have been hard to travel both these obstacles (the mountains and the desert), apart in the southern part of them, where they meet the coast. But at this point you could as well travel by sea, longing said coast.


As for the rest of the continent ? I feel it need some jungles. But I don't know where I'd put them. Some savannas also.

But I'm seriously troubled regarding the climate of the continent : from what I understand, you're going with the planet as not being subject to a coriolis effect. So I'm unsure how the prevailing winds are supposed to function.

Though at a guess I'd say the place would become more arid the more you get inland : jungles on the coasts in the south close to the equator, transitioning to savanna going north as precipitations become less frequent, until you reach the center of the continent and the place where it rains the least.

For added fun, you could put some mountain ranges in some places to block off the inward winds carrying moisture from the sea. If having deserts is what you want, I mean.


Thoughts ?

[O. Hinds]

It needs more actual geographical features. Right now most of it is "terra incognita" as far as I'm concerned.

Sorry.

There's already the giant desert surrounding Profectum, with a mountain range in the east of it. I suppose one of the consequences of that is that historically the western par of Zebrica would have been culturally (and maybe ecologically ?) distinct from the rest of the continent as it would have been hard to travel both these obstacles (the mountains and the desert), apart in the southern part of them, where they meet the coast. But at this point you could as well travel by sea, longing said coast.

Oh, yeah. The Western and Northern cultural groups were both segregated by mountains; that's the main reason they developed into said cultural groups. The Marediterranean and Central groups aren't separated from each other like that, but the Marediterranean group was shaped by being around the coastline of the Marediterranean Sea.

As for the rest of the continent ? I feel it need some jungles. But I don't know where I'd put them. Some savannas also.

Agreed. Though there at least was, I think, some jungle-like terrain not too far south of the border with Equestria.

But I'm seriously troubled regarding the climate of the continent : from what I understand, you're going with the planet as not being subject to a coriolis effect. So I'm unsure how the prevailing winds are supposed to function.

I've had difficulty with that too; climate modeling is hard enough using our rules.

Though at a guess I'd say the place would become more arid the more you get inland : jungles on the coasts in the south close to the equator, transitioning to savanna going north as precipitations become less frequent, until you reach the center of the continent and the place where it rains the least.

For added fun, you could put some mountain ranges in some places to block off the inward winds carrying moisture from the sea. If having deserts is what you want, I mean.

This is sort of what I was thinking, though I did my rain shadow modeling based on north/south air currents (water evaporates in the south, is blown north by convection currents, rains out, etc.). That's what I imagined forming the two big Zebrican deserts and the smaller peninsular desert (though the peninsular desert is probably not fed primarily by the reduced rainfall, given that the reduction isn't as great). The southern coast of the Sea of Equestria, meanwhile, is shadowed from the southern winds and is drier than it would otherwise be, but it's still coastal enough to have plenty of non-desert land… actually, this could explain why, just south of the Equestrian border, there were jungles west of the mountains but just forests east; the west gets the warm, moist winds from the Marediterranean stacking up against the mountains and raining out, while the east makes do with what comes through the mountains or south from the Sea of Equestria… and this could also have helped the development of Northern culture, the environment being so different… Or my modeling could be completely wrong, but I hope that that isn't the case.

Also, I'm a bit tired; hopefully this makes sense.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Sorry.

Why would you be ?  


Anyway, it makes some kind of sense, yes. It's past 4 AM here though, so any answers will have to wait a bit until I have a good night rest.

[Harmony Ltd.]

By the way, I get the Western group was west of the Profectum Desert, but in which neighborhood were the Northern guys ?

[O. Hinds]

By the way, I get the Western group was west of the Profectum Desert, but in which neighborhood were the Northern guys ?

I'm pretty much certain that I've posted that before, but, given that I don't remember all of the states of the NCR that you put up, it would be rather hypocritical of me to begrudge you asking again. :)

The Northern cultural group was, for most of the Pax Roamana's history, on the strip of land between the southern/eastern coast of the Sea of Equestria and the mountains (including the sort of hook at the northern end, though Zanzebra was a cosmopolitan city). Prior to the Pax Roamana and for the first eighty or so years of the PR's existence, Northern culture also controlled and was based on the peninsula (though they were the sole controllers for only about thirty years, between their defeat of the diamond dogs and their own fall).

[Moodyman90]

Well, unless it's explained somewhere in the fluff of Fallout that the lights for the Vault, and thus Stable for Fallout Equestria, are the kind that are able to produce the UV rays required to created Vitamin D, yeah they simply didn't touch on that.


Though Vaults where made to test out how well humans could survive for long durations as a test to see if it was a good idea to try to make colonies in space. You'd hope they would put in lights to promote natural production of Vitamin D in the Vaults despite no need of such lighting in space.

[Harmony Ltd.]

@ Hinds : Thanks, that's what I suspected, but in doubt I prefer to ask, given there isn't really a "bible" written yet about these things I could refer to.

@ Moody : Yeah, I'd think it'd be standard for Vault & Stable lights to give off UV lights. If you want a Vault / Stable idea, you could imagine one where these lamps failed, their ability to produce them failed and they had to build their own incandescence bulbs instead ; and as a result all inhabitants suffer from chronic vitamin D deficiencies. Though to be honest it'd be more probable there'd be at least one or two dedicated UV lights in the place, and everyone would spend 15 minutes under it everyday in a "solarium".

Symptoms of vitamin-D deficiency include (wiki) : rachitism, "weak bones", arthritis, heightened risks of cancer, psoriasis-like skin diseases, diabete, and may even lead to signs of dementia.

[O. Hinds]

Well, unless it's explained somewhere in the fluff of Fallout that the lights for the Vault, and thus Stable for Fallout Equestria, are the kind that are able to produce the UV rays required to created Vitamin D, yeah they simply didn't touch on that.

I don't know about Fallout, but from FoE:

“Still thinking of that dark, cramped cellar that you feared would be your family’s home?  Let the magical light of S.A.S. technology burn those fears away!  Through the magical power of your Stable’s appointed Overmare, each Stable will enjoy fully realistic sunlight even underground, with all the warmth and joy it brings,” Sweetie Belle’s voice boasted.  “And at night, a softer light will fill the halls, provided through enduring earth pony technology.”

So far, the most accurate part of the exhibit was the hall lighting with it’s ever-present, high-pitched whine.  Of course this “night-time lighting” had been sixteen hours a day, every day, all the time.  The realistic sunlight promised through the Overmare had been reserved for the underground apple orchard.  And based on the color and taste of the things we had called apples, I had my doubts about how “fully realistic” it was.

@ Moody : Yeah, I'd think it'd be standard for Vault & Stable lights to give off UV lights. If you want a Vault / Stable idea, you could imagine one where these lamps failed, their ability to produce them failed and they had to build their own incandescence bulbs instead ; and as a result all inhabitants suffer from chronic vitamin D deficiencies. Though to be honest it'd be more probable there'd be at least one or two dedicated UV lights in the place, and everyone would spend 15 minutes under it everyday in a "solarium".

From the games, there's Vault 42.  I had a vague idea of Stable 42 being meant to experiment with making ponies nocturnal (non-overlapping activity cycles with zebra survivors and all that) and turning into a Nightmare Moon cult ("Hey, you know, we're proof that ponies can work out how to survive in endless night, and I bet that zebras couldn't; if Nightmare Moon had won, the war would never have happened.").  I'm not sure where the Stable would be located, though; in the really early days it was in San Franciscolt (the name of San Frantello at that metatime) to be the Hubologists to the Miliozi Shi (which is what the whole thing began as), but, as time went on and things developed, that got dropped.  I still like the idea of Stable 42, but I don't have anything to do with it at the moment.

[O. Hinds]

Hey, I just realized something: if the planet doesn't rotate, the latitude of spacecraft launch sites only matters for orbital plane, not the DV required to get to orbit.  There's therefore pretty much no problem with Equestria's spaceport being located so far north, and future Alliance and NCR spaceports don't need to be built in the south.

I also realized yesterday that hydrogen talismans+heat talismans (and if they have incineration, I expect that they have heat)+an onboard reactor=practically infinite DV (as much as the reactor can provide power for).  I seem to recall that the Equestrian "rockets" actually used some sort of levitation field rather than or in addition to reaction engines, but I think that an infinite-DV reaction engine is something to consider for future space programs.

[O. Hinds]

Semi-related: Harmony, how is Kourou pronounced? I'm afraid that I don't know IPA, but I thought that asking you at least wouldn't reduce my knowledge.

[Harmony Ltd.]

I was going to record the answer, but it seems my mic is dead. Shit.

I'll get back to you when I'll have fixed the issue.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Here : https://soundcloud.com/harmony-ltd/kourou

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