Okay. It's called "Thy Kingdom Come".
I've been toying with this idea, in several forms, for about...I dunno, almost eight years now. Mind, it's evolved greatly over time, and the current version bears little resemblence to my first notion...
But still, this is literally, the only novel-length original concept I've ever had. I've had lots of ideas for long fanfic, mind you... and serial episodic-style original stories. But this is my only novel-length story idea. Never had another, before or since. I've always wanted to write it. But...
Well, there's problems. The story demands that it be set in an original fantasy universe. And I'm not terribly good at the whole world-building bit. Especially since the concept demands that I come up with effectively two worlds... what was before, and what exists now.
I'm good at inventing characters, at weaving themes and subtext into my narratives... but worldbuilding details escape me. So I need help with that. I've finally broken down and decided to ask on a public forum. I need people to press me on things like geography, political entities, heck, even economics. I need to think about these things, and it doesn't come naturally to me.
I'd also appreciate any comments about my characters. Do you have any questions? The act of answering those questions, that's probably gonna force me to think. They're important, critically important, and so I really need to get their portrayal right. Especially since they aren't your typical fantasy character archetypes.
(Heck, I'm posting this largely 'cause I spent a lot of time talking with Valles last night, and he made a lot of brilliant suggestions that...have already made my story better.)
Alright. Enough ramble. Now it's time to describe the world itself.
But before I do that, the following post contains the opening scene of the story. The setup, as it were. I wrote this bit...two or three years ago, and never really edited it. It's a bit raw, a bit clumsy, definitely overwrought...I ought to rewrite it...
Still, it sets the stage. So...
-- Acyl

This is a long one people, so bare with me. A lot of this was researched (i.e, nicked from) Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lordi and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eur...ng_Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held between active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), in which participating countries each submit a song to be performed on live television; then proceed to cast votes for the other countries' songs, in order to find the most popular song in the competition. Each country participates via one of their national EBU-member television stations, whose task it is to select a singer and a song to go forward to represent the country in the international competition.
The Contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956, and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is also one of the most-watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally. It has been broadcast around the globe beyond Europe to such places as Australia, Canada, Egypt, Jordan, Hong Kong, India, Korea, New Zealand and even the USA; even though these countries do not participate. Since the year 2000, the Contest has also been broadcast over the Internet; with more than 74,000 people in almost 140 countries having watched the 2006 edition online
Over the years, the Song Contest has grown from a mere televisual experiment into an international institution of mammoth proportions. Most countries in Europe have taken part at least once during the Contest's history, and such is the magnitude and scale of the Contest that the word "Eurovision" is one of the few household names to be recognized across an entire continent.
The Contest is historically known for being mainly a bastion of formulaic, orchestrated pop music. However it has featured (although always as unappreciated minorities) a vast, diverse array of songs, including such musical genres as Arab, Balkan, Celtic music, Dance, Folk, Israeli, Greek, Latin, Metal, Nordic, Pop-rap, Rock, and Turkish. Historically very few of these different styles have won the competition, the reigning themes being pop and ballads.

However last year....

all that changed....

Because of LORDI.

Lordi is a heavy metal band from Finland, and winners of the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest, formed in 1992 by Tomi Putaansuu (known as 'Mr. Lordi') of Rovaniemi, Finland. Lordi is known for their constant use of monster costumes and lyrical themes.
Lordi won the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest with a record 292 points, giving Finland its first ever victory. Lordi were featured on the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards in Copenhagen when Mr Lordi presented the award for rock, they were also the closing act playing their single Hard Rock Hallelujah.
Lordi represented Finland in the finals with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" after getting through the semi-finals. The band won by a significant margin, scoring 292 points, 44 points over second placed Dima Bilan, representing Russia with the song "Never Let You Go".
Having been voted for by all countries except Albania, Armenia and Monaco, Lordi scored the highest number of points for any entry in any Eurovision Song Contest to date. They received 12 points from eight countries: Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the UK. Coincidentally, Lordi also scored 292 points in the semi-final held two days earlier. They were also the first Eurovision entrant to win in both the Semi-Final and Final stages.
To celebrate their recent victory in the Eurovision Song Contest, Lordi held a public, free, open-air concert in the Market Square in Helsinki, Finland, on 26 May 2006. The band actually implicitly promised this concert to Finns during the scoring in the Eurovision final in Athens, as it became more and more clear they would win, by holding up a sign saying "Torilla tavataan!" ("See you at the [market] square!") in front of the TV cameras.
At the concert, President of Finland Tarja Halonen made an official appearance to give Lordi a bronze key flag award for exemplary Finnish work. The concert was reported to have been attended by over 90 thousand people from all over Finland and even other countries, some even on their first ever trip to Helsinki. The concert was the biggest public event to that day in Helsinki. On this occasion, the world record for most people ever to sing karaoke was attempted by approximately 80,000 people, singing Hard Rock Hallelujah. The previous record was held by 50,000 Irish rugby fans

I realize that I'm going on a bit about this, but you have to understand I've grown up with the eurovision song contest, and thus dealt with absolute decades of stagnation and repetition, political voting and general cynicism about the whole thing. And then came Lordi, who've broken an incredible barrier of conformity to bring in something different for perhaps the first time in the show's history, and hopefully made a small difference in the overall acceptance of alternative music styles in Europe. THEY ACTUALLY USED PYROTECHNICS AND MONSTER COSTUMES!!! TEN YEARS AGO THAT WOULD HAVE GOTTEN THEM SHOT!!!
I like the song, but it's not really some heavenly (or hellishly) good anthem in my opinion, just a pretty good and catchy metal song.
Here's a group of videos -

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDcpQcUsgqI - The Actual Live Performance at Eurovision
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPU8xXY3wJo - The Victory Performance At The Market Square
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YgOHggUjhk - The Original Video

Okay, so lets get to what we're REALLY here for,
How would Doug's metatalent use this song? I think it'd immediately grab on to it, but as always, a good use of power escapes me. here's the lyrics,

Hard Rock Hallelujah Lordi
Hard Rock Hallelujah!
Hard Rock Hallelujah!
The saints are crippled
On this sinners' night
Lost are the lambs with no guiding light
The walls come down like thunder
The rock's about to roll
It's the arockalypse
Now bare your soul
All we need is lightning
With power and might
Striking down the prophets of false
As the moon is rising
Give us the sign
Now let us rise up in awe
Rock 'n roll angels bring thine Hard Rock Hallelujah
Demons and angels all in one have arrived
Rock 'n roll angels bring thine Hard Rock Hallelujah
In God's creation supernatural high
The true believers
Thou shall be saved
Brothers and sisters, keep strong in the faith.
On the day of Rockoning
It's who dares, wins
You will see the jokers soon'll be the new kings
All we need is lightning
With power and might
Striking down the prophets of false
As the moon is rising
Give us the sign
Now let us rise up in awe
Rock 'n roll angels bring thine Hard Rock Hallelujah
Demons and angels all in one have arrived
Rock 'n roll angels bring thine Hard Rock Hallelujah
In God's creation supernatural high
Wings on my back
I got horns on my head
My fangs are sharp
And my eyes are red
Not quite an angel
Or the one that fell
Now choose to join us or go straight to Hell
Hard Rock Hallelujah!
Hard Rock Hallelujah!
Hard Rock Hallelujah!
Hard Rock Yeah!
Rock 'n roll angels bring thine Hard Rock Hallelujah
Demons and angels all in one have arrived
Rock 'n roll angels bring thine Hard Rock Hallelujah
In God's creation supernatural high
Hard Rock Hallelujah!

I get the feeling this might be a bit to overpowered, as it may summon an 'Arockalypse' or 'Day Of Rockening, and there are a few odd phrases in there as well, 'Striking Down The Prophets Of False'. So I'm submitting it for discussion, suggestions of powers and/or step it would be useful in?

This one cires out for a fanfic to be made for it... There just has to be a City Hunter/Sailor Moon x-over made for this...
www.animemusicvideos.org/...hp?v=89803
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

...I discover that the goodies pack from the COH Collector's DVD Edition is no longer available. I don't care so much about the feelies, but damn! I wanted the in-game stuff!
I can still find the actual Collector's Edition over at Amazon, but I'm not going to spend $80 to get a badge, prestige power slide, and a couple other things...
-- Bob
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Visit beautiful Boston, proud successor to Seattle as
"City Most Scared Of Its Own Shadow

I'd heard that Mercedes Lackey was a CoX player some time ago. I was just reading the Pinnacle forums, and saw a new post by VickieVee (ML herself, I checked her profile). Good to know at least one celebrity is still with us.
Global: @Jimmy Amp
"Broad-minded is just another way of saying a fellow's too lazy to form an opinion." -- Will Rogers

Pulled out from the soil thread, as I think this is interesting enough to be pursued. Suggest insertion into the Glossary (EnFenloPedia?) when consensus has been achieved. Please support Consensus by posting your ideas and corrections and input!

Quote:

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what other minority groups might be "interesting enough" to get into space with handwavium?

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Was just browsing SuperMegaTopia again (warning...at least half the site is NSFW...), and hit this...
www.supermegatopia.com/ga...rmouse.jpg
All it needs is the helmet...or not, given how Doug's speakers can look like ears... ;-)

Song: The 'Tiny Tim' version of 'Tiptoe Through the Tulips.
Power: 'Ninjawalk' (Silent stepping that doesn't set off pressure sensors).
Drawback: He has to listen to that *awful* singing. I'd rather have a polka medley, personally...
Hmmm...actually, that does raise a question--what *do* medleys do to Doug's power, anyway? I'm thinking of Weird Al's polka medleys in particular, one of which includes Black Hole Sun...

Well this was an interesting find -
Admittedly this is a story about WoW and not CoH, but given the penetration that the "Leeeeeeroy!" meme has achieved in the MMO world I think it's an appropriate link. Whether you want to read a big, six-page article about the Leeroy Jenkins phenomenon and the very normal dude behind the "legend," I suppose that's another question entirely . . .
The reporter actually went into the game to interview "Leeroy" himself. As well as, apparently, conducting a follow-up interview him at his home IRL later.
The money quote?
"Santa brings presents and happiness, while I bring death and mild irritation."
-Logan
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"Wake up! Time for SCIENCE!"
-Adam Savage
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Was reading Acyl's cool bit about the island. Also remembered Bob's 4 Corners and the Alaskan guy with the chunk of land refitted to take on asteroid mining.
Suddenly something hit me -
First a question. Both meta and technical.
How big a chunk of land can handwaved devices lift? Is there some sort of upper limit?
Let's cut to the chase here - could someone crazy enough and determined enough and with enough connections and patience lift an entire CITY off the planet?
I'm not seriously considering this as a story element. It was really just - It struck me that someone somewhere might think of that. In fact that it might be yet one more reason why governments are so paranoid about handwavium.
Basically - something of a mind experiment to consider. Follow the premise down to one of the more extreme conclusions.
Now - ramp up the paranoia even further, into the socio-religious aspect.
What if the city that rises up out of the gravity well -
- is Jerusalem?
-Logan
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"Wake up! Time for SCIENCE!"
-Adam Savage
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