unforum

[cassandra]

Unfortunately, back in Project Syzygy (and occasionally still) people did domain name research and posted the finds. Perhaps I shouldn't have brought it up at all.

However, the excavation I was referring to was discussed by Violet:

[Jakeo]

right, going to throw out the things that have occurred to me as I read this thread.

Firstly, directly related to the site. Looking at what Orpa Chazani is giving 'guided discussions on' reminds me of the legend of Romulus and Remus. I'd be willing to bet that the discussion being held by her relate to the foundation of Anjsbourg.

Incidentally, that means the name is older than any of the cities we are aware of, and probably the name of some famous God(dess) or legend.

The implication is that rather than all this information being written down electronically, people will be giving it 'the personal touch'. I reckon it would be useful to know what exactly each of these people consider to be their area of expertise, as we'll probably need to speak to them about it.

With regard to the neighbours that are no more, I'd like to point out that PXC is not a walled garden with wasteland around it. Scarlett gave us this map (http://www.thescarlettkite.com/hikemap.jpg) that clearly marks Tanraga town on it. Therefore there must be people outside the city walls. Also, judging by the scale of the map (consider how long Scarlett planned a single hike to take), PXC is a reasonable distance away from there.

This probably means that when the museum talks about not having neighbours, its referring to areas of land and not city walls.

[Mokey Fraggle]

[Scott]

[PuzzledPineapple]

[Spankit]

[cassandra]

unsurprisingly, so do I

However, names often have a stronger..resonance, I suppose, in narratives, so we shouldn't discount the similarity simply on the odds of it being coincidental or superficial.

Anja (and Ilja) need not be "real" children, but perhaps objective correlatives, manifestations of a collective consciousness, a way to address indirectly the psychological trauma of the time. Perhaps Anjsbourg was destroyed or conquered around 35 BC - we don't know yet...

[Jakeo]

[Leeravitz]

The war's duration is a bit *odd*, I agree. Perhaps we are right to see it as a conflict of lengthy duration which proceeded over years through small scale skirmish, ambush and other such 'minor' progressions. Another alternative might be that it was a war similar in style not so much to modern conflicts (which have tended to *relatively* speedy), but to medieval era -conflicts like The War of the Roses/ The Hundred Years War etc. - which alternated between periods of active war and interspersed peace.

What is a little hard to credit is the fact that a war could go on for so long amongst very close neighbours (probably all city - states by the sound of it) if it was being waged with high - tech devices. Wars between city - states would necessarily be pretty brief in ancient times - true, the Peloponnesian War is an honourable exception - but then again, this was not a war that was waged in any kind of 'total' sense at all, and went through lulls and peaceable periods. 'Wars' between the Italian renaissance states weren't anything like modern warfare (fought as they were by mercenary companies). So, for the war to have a significant impact on Perplexian society and culture, one would assume that it would have had to have more in common with modern 'total' war - Napoleonic style effects, or those of WWI and WWII. But then the length of conflict is hard to credit - unless this was not really an 'open' war or the protagonists kept shifting...or something...

The logical conclusion might be that a war of initially limited technology progressed steadily until it reached the point at which the weaponry used became so terrible that it put paid to the City's neighbours and the then - current Perplexian society (anlaogical, I suppose, to the A - bomb being exploded in 1945). Another idea (less commonsensical) is that a terrific weapon was used early on, and society thereafter stagnated...but the war continued, fought with increasing less sophisticated tech...until it petered out, or a treaty was finally signed etc.

Certainly, the War does not appear directly comparable to anything in our history per se...

[[PCGF]Jay]

Maybe Perplexians naturally suck at aiming

[SheRa]

Forgive me, I'm a tad fuzzy on my Perplexian history, but isn't it possible that they had a Hundred Years' War-type war, with relatively unsophisticated weaponry, and then this uberweapon appeared on the scene and ended it in a swift stroke?

SheRa

[sixblueten]

I'm with SheRa on this one. Maybe not exactly as stated, but I do think that the complex scenarios posited are going a bit far. That is, this is a game, after all, and not a real history. I think we MAY be looking too hard at this, looking for too many details to align too perfectly. I seriously doubt that Mind Candy composed a 3000 page "History of PXC". Which isn't to say that the whole mess isn't boggling and absolutely genius. Just. . .back up a step and simplify.

[Scott]

[Scott]

By the way, fFor a comparison of similar time fFrames, consider the american revolution.

Of course the bulk of fFighting as we know it was done between 1775 and 1783. However the colonials had been struggling with their fForeign rulers as fFar back as the fFrench-Indian war, which began in 1754. And even after the Revolution ended, The fFledgling nation had a very hard time being recognized in the global market, which brought on the war of 1812. fFor no less than 60 years, America was essentially at war with The British, with pauses here and there. What began as economic strife shifted to greater and greater legislation, which led to blockades, declarations on both sides, and the metter wouldn't be resolved until the treaty of Ghent on December 24.

The parallel I'm drawing here is this: We know perfectly well the perplexian war wasn't a continuously bloody affair. There were pauses and ceasefires fFrom time to time. we don't know when and how often, but we know they happened. The Academy history specifically mentions renewed conflicts in 60BC, while other sources say the war started in 70BC, fFor example. So fFor a time there was a pause here; and a couple other similar references which elude me at the moment.

Another example of a many-year war would be the Cold War, which of course wasn't so much a war, as a series of messy debacles. So I suggest the Perplexian War could well have been a staunch stand-off between nations, each holding on to their various respective Doomsday Devices -- until one of them accidentally went off.

possible scenarios.

[sixblueten]

Okay, I'm with you Scott. Could well be a massive timeline, but it is the minutiae that sometimes gets too-thoroughly analyzed that makes me wonder. Drawing parallels with real-world histories is, of course, critical because the Mind Candy genii can draw their inspiration from nowhere else!