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Freddy Isnot

There are two factions I've been wanting to see but haven't.
A faction following Frank Herbert's Dune.
Many of them have become addicts to thionite which they refer to as Melange or the Spice. This could provide conflict with the Lensmen.
Actually three groups of people end up in this faction, those fen following Frank Herbert's Dune. Thionite addicts--this faction gives them an excuse for their addiction. And the final group of people are those that are anti-AI and anti-computers.
Subfactions:
Bene Gesserits - All-female group that seek total control over their bodies and use thionite to see the future.
The Mentats - A group that seek to master their minds, and become human computers. They use a derivative of thionite to focus their minds for computation.
The Spacing Guild - Currently experimenting on Fold technology and using thionite to expand their awareness in the universe.
CHOAM - Even among Fen there is greed. CHOAM is a growing corporation in Fenspace. Some anime fen also refer to it as GENOM.
The second faction is the Dorsai--a faction that follows Gordon Dickson's Childe Cycle series.
A group of military and combat specialists that form one of the best and most expensive mercenary groups in Fenspace.
Would it be reasonable to consider adding these factions to Fenspace?
~Freddy Isnot
-Freddy Isnot

"You are now graduated from newbie and are just clueless. Consider that a compliment."
-Zipcode
The Dorsai, certainly; they'd probably work well with the Warsies.
The others... I don't know. I'd think that thionite addiction would destroy the ability to focus on anything other than the addiction; that's what the drug was bioengineered to do, after all. (That would be the exact opposite of "expand their awareness", in my humble opinion.) And "see the future" seems too much like "time travel", which is off-limits to handwavium.

-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Freddy Isnot

Would it be possible to create Melange with Handwavium? Even if Thionite can't be used as a Melange-substitute, I would think that there would be people trying to explore the spirit with Handwavium, and I don't mean the Fenchurch. There are factions, like the Supers, that try to improve the body with Handwavium. Most of the Dune faction is trying use Handwavium to develop the mind and spirit.
I still think there is a place for a Dune faction. Think of them as the new age fen faction.
As for CHOAM, it can be a single corporation with aspirations of achieving a total monopoly on trade.
-Freddy Isnot

"You are now graduated from newbie and are just clueless. Consider that a compliment."
-Zipcode

Kokuten

I can't see Thionite being mixed in with Melange - The Spice was a _net good_, while thionite is a defined evil.. Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

Freddy Isnot

Yeah, I suggested Thionite mostly because of my lack of knowledge in the Lensmen universe. I've been reading up on it, and I agree that Thionite couldn't be a Melange-substitute. The other reason I suggested Thionite, was because of the irony factor--how funny would it be if half of Fendom was trying their best to stop Thionite-use while this one faction was demonstrating the beneficial aspects of it.
On that note, I think marijuana is hilarious.
-Freddy Isnot

"You are now graduated from newbie and are just clueless. Consider that a compliment."
-Zipcode
While Marijuana would be hilarious, I could only see that as being used by the wanna-be Herbertites who are shunned by the Real Thing(tm) and laughed at by all others due to their Otaku-like conviction and stupid-yet-funny results of their Marijuana-Spice Melange experimentations.
The Real Herbertites I could see working on a Handwavium-produced melange that could, in a very real way, have just the same effects as it would in the books. The Water of Life? Produced by a bunch of Bene Gesseret (Seen by some as the epitome of Feminism at it's worst - I won't argue the point too much as there are cases both good and bad in the order) using handwavium? Sure, it'd be lethal to men alright. And while you wouldn't get an acid trip about the future, you certainly could get one about current events and what your actions are doing to influence them. Not exactly seeing the future, but probably a lot more telling.
I could definitely see the Spacing Guild as well, and they'd be every bit as ugly as in the original movie. Because when dealing with Handwavium in such a manner... Sure, you're definitely gonna improve the mind while everything else goes to hell.
Just got a couple of questions. 1) Where the heck does CHOAM come from and 2) How does the Childe Cycle series relate to Dune?
Black Aeronaut Technologies Group
Aerospace Solutions for the discerning spacer
"But first, let's test it on the penguin."
"Meep?" O.o


A tiny, very often overlooked group of Fen: The Foglios.
Fans of the comics of Phil Foglio, a lot of them are either trying to biomod themselves into heavy-worlders (Buck Godot, Zap Gun For Hire)...
...or fangirling the Professor(Girl Genius)...
...just rabid gamers in general (What's New with Phil and Dixie)...
...Or REALLY WIERD!!! (XXXenophile fans)
www.studiofoglio.com/ and www.studiofoglio.com/xeno.html for those who are not familiar with the material.

Kokuten

IWire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

Freddy Isnot

Heh, Foglio. Would the Professor be a part of that faction? It certainly is the place for mad scientists.

The Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles (CHOAM) is the economic power in Dune, an intergalactic, state-sponsored trading corporation. I was suggesting it as either a simple company made of Dune fen or as a possible aid to solving the money challenge, a company trying to making interstellar trading easy by gaining a monopoly on it.
The Childe Cycle has nothing to do with Dune, it was one the two new factions I was suggesting (the other being Dune).
~Freddy Isnot
-Freddy Isnot

"You are now graduated from newbie and are just clueless. Consider that a compliment."
-Zipcode
I can see at least one potential Furry hard SF faction. The members of the EDF or Extraplanetary Defense Force. Fans of Steve Gallacci's Albedo. Fenspace's rabbit members of furry fendom are probably annoyed by the EDF's continuing quest to prove a link between the Boskonian's and the Lapines. "Yeah, yeah, we're not supposed to judge them by their race, but you can't trust the ILR any further than you can throw one of their ships. Why should we trust a bunch of genocidal slavers with itchy trigger fingers."
Hopefully no one has decided to try to make an ILR, since the Republic never met a plan for collateral damage it didn't like (Well okay, in one of the issues one of the ILR scientists does excitedly point out that a well designed, moderately sized kinetic weapon can duplicate a nuke without the pesky radiation interfering with colonization of the newly open world).
If Andrew hadn't joined up with the senshis he might have sought out the fledgling EDF.
-----

Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.
Hm. Thread necomancy in a good cause here. While the Foglios made the list of minor factions on the Wiki, I see nothing about the Dune and Dorsai fen. Are we going to include them? Dorsai would be very good have during OGJ, after all...
ETA:  Correction:  I just realized the Dorsai were down in the Pseudofaction area.  But I'm still curious about the Duners.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Actually, most of the factions made the list in one way or another... and I recall CHOAM being mentioned somewhere in the Wiki. The Herbertites as a whole, though, don't have a page.

Of course, we can't give every faction a page, or we'd be doing nothing but writing faction pages. I think the deciding point was whether the faction had actually done anything in Fenspace. The Barsoomians founded the city of Helium - they're in. The Tarzan Fen rode the Barsoomians' coattails - they're not in. The Harry Potter Fen built Hogwarts - they're in. The IOU Fen haven't even thought of breaking ground on their school - they're not in. And so on...

I don't remember the Herbertites doing anything in Fenspace...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
The Dorsai should definitely be in, they've been a part of fandom for quite a while - longer than Klingons, for certain.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
ECSNorway Wrote:The Dorsai should definitely be in, they've been a part of fandom for quite a while - longer than Klingons, for certain.
You're free to expand http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Dorsai]their stub page.

Edit: And I see http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Herbertites]the Herbertites also have a stub page. I guess they are doing something in Fenspace after all...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
I stand corrected.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.