White Cell Outline

This was the outline I had for the big, apocalyptic event that would rejigger and reshape Proper: a Grand Army Civil War. As, after all,

Outline for White Cell
Incomplete and not well-thought out in every area. That’s why it’s an outline. What Praxer and the Celpo are doing all this time is probably the biggest loophole, at least re: my stuff. I was planning on having at least some Celpo agents support White Cell, if only to facilitate Torstensson’s return
The Run-Up
There were a few big items I wanted to wrap up before launching White Cell. The first was the sadly-still-half-finished Scandian mega. I probably would’ve felt compelled to finish up the whole Organization of Winter arc afterwards, as it features quite prominently in the Scandian mega. (It basically reintroduces it; I can do without, I suppose, but I still remember firing up my old BoF ROM and seeing “Six Goddess Keys” and thinking that this was a plot I could do.)
That would lead into a “Mountbatten’s Secret War” arc, where Mountbatten takes a slush fund and runs his own private covert operations campaign against the Communist Protectorate. He was going to hire Osprey. And I was finally going to out him as gay, which I’ve been planning on doing since like sophomore year of undergrad. It was going to be really obvious in the never-written Web aerospace expo when his drunken ex-wife tries to kiss him, and he says something like, “I loved you, you know, like a sister” and she says, "…that’s never what I wanted."
Anyway, Mountbatten’s Secret War culminates in a plan to get manufacture a major incident between the Scandian League and Tasnica, in order to get the two of them to go to war (or at least spoil detente.) I hadn’t worked out exactly what this would be yet. Anyway, it goes horribly wrong, its revealed that Mountbatten was doing all kinds of secret nonsense, and he gets fired. (He almost certainly is going to be tried, too, though the trial might take long enough for other events to overtake it.)
Probably the Tasnicans feel guilty enough about the whole affair that when the Scandians demand certain concessions, they feel compelled to give in. (Whatever the Scandians demand isn’t important, the whole point of doing it from Travin’s perspective is to convince the Guardians that the Tasnicans have all become a bunch of commie-lovers.)
Also, I was thinking of having the Conservatives win an extremely narrow majority in the Senate, or at the very least, winning enough to have the Populists have a very narrow majority. The point being that the two major parties were of about equal power. (Since Kenny would still be PM, I feel like I have to give the Conservatives the Senate for this effect.)
I also sorta-wanted to do an incident where the Guardian blockade of Merge accidentally shoots down a Tasnican passenger ship. (Similar to when the US Navy shot down an Iran Air flight or when the USSR shot down a Korean air flight.) But the most important thing was that relations between the Great Powers sink to their lowest point since the Leviathan War.
Torsetensson was going to die, too. He’s pretty old and has a terminal illness, it’s amazing he’s lasted as long as he has.
Optional: A plotline with a battlesuit-wearing bounty hunter. Because I like Metroid. And her name would be Moneta Eul. Last name pronounced “oil”. And as someone clever like Praxer will point out, ‘oil’ is formed under very similar conditions to ‘coal’. (The whole name-trick might go under ‘ideas i thought were neat but now i think are dumb’.) Although my plans to give Leisha a battlesuit may make change her shtick, I suppose one can never have too many chicks in battlesuits running around.
In my wildest dreams, I wanted to do the “Year One” mega dealing with the first year of GACA, as the Celiose/Burzmale scenes would set up everything else nicely.
Eblan Lights the Match
Either the elder Kurita dies, or Edge Eblana V dies. I like Edge, but his is the bigger death more likely to actually cause Awful Stuff to happen.
Said Awful Stuff involves the more racist/fascist elements of Eblan gaining political ascendance (led by the younger Kurita, flush with tales of heroism from Merge.) They pass all kinds of laws that do terrible stuff and have ominous names (“The Law to Protect the Purity of the Nation”.) The New Horizon party, the main political party representing Eblan’s non-ethnic Eblanese Provisional community, literally walks out of the Diet; the democratic institutions of the country effectively collapse.
Scande engineers the escape of communist leader Ichiro Mitsuhama who shows up in the western part of the island which is populated with Provisionals. He declares an independent state (something like “Eblanese Socialist Republic”) and asks the Scandians and the Communist Protectorate for protection.
The Kingdom of Eblan views this as a rebellion and asks the Guardians and Tasnicans for help. Guardia jumps on board for some good-old commie stomping, but Tasnica dissembles.
Tasnica decides that the web must be spared another Leviathan War, and try to use the Alliance Congress to open negotiations with Scande, Guardia, and both Eblanese groups to try to resolve the issue. They’re doomed to fail; both sides are just using them to stall for time. The Guardians regard Tasnica as too favorable to the Scandians; the Scandians regard them as too favorable to the Guardians. The Scandians also view these attempts as evidence Tasnica won’t fight for Eblan, and that this is their best chance to fight a war with Guardia without any other great power getting involved.
Negotiations break down, and the war starts. The first part of the war goes pretty much as expected, as the Scandians achieve initial victories on the ground and the Guardian Space Force cleans the Scandians out of Crystal.
Meanwhile, in White Cell’s Secret Base
(I’m gonna go ahead and spoil one big thing right here: White Cell’s secret base is Foo. I’m totally serious.)
So Torstensson Lenart wakes up resurrected. And he’s a cyborg. (Mike had a whole arc where he established the Celpo can do this sort of thing.) Probably recurring Minder Alfred Chekhov shows up to explain the Celpo connection. Torstensson’s chronic pain is apparently gone; he can now walk under his power for the first time in years.
Bounty-hunter lady shows up and reveals she’s Erdeny Cole. She and Torstensson have a long talk about the Grand Army, and what’s it any good for. The GA is created to protect the Web. Since the Hivan War, it has essentially failed spectacularly in doing so. The Omnisent Conflict happened BECAUSE of the Grand Army. Since then, they haven’t stopped the Imperialist War, the Leviathan War, or dozens of other conflicts. The GA’s tremendous power exists only for the apparently increasingly unlikely prospect of interdimensional invasion.
Inevitably they begin to talk about Celiose, and here’s where I want to hit on one of the plot’s key themes: Celiose can be a very nasty guy when he wants to win a war. I fear he’s become too de-fanged of late. Although I would expect the residents of the Web to gloss over some of his ends-justify-the-means attitude in its hagiography of the war, the writers should know a little bit better. (I regret not communicating very well with Dustin during the Omnisent conflict, as I feel I should’ve conveyed that killing a bunch of innocent Tanes was basically not a problem for Celiose if it meant winning the war.)
Torstensson recoils, as this is essentially the path of Burzmale. Burzmale, he says, left to serve the Dark Gods because he felt that a world ruled by the Dark Gods was better than Celiose’s world of NO gods. (This section might need to be expanded since I’m probably not going to get Year One done.) But Erdeny points out that this world has created things that are like gods, but fail to provide any stability or peace. GACA, the GA, the Celpo–all have tremendous power, but don’t do anything to solve any of the Web’s problems.
Wouldn’t it be better if the GA used all of this vast power to get the Web to stop destroying itself?
Celiose pulled the trigger on the Leviathan War after he had ‘found himself’ in Aryth, but if he were there when the war broke out, would he have done the same? In the LW Scande and Esper were both virtually out of resources, would the same thing work if he were facing countries spoiling for a fight?
The only real solution is for the GA to compel complete the nations of the Web to disarm. Torstensson demurs that this is just “peace at gunpoint”, but Erdeny claims, first, that this is better than no peace at all, and second, it’s not so very different from the state that exists within most of the (stable) countries of the Web. Most importantly, the GA would still be ultimately accountable to the political leadership of the Web through the Alliance Congress, who would still choose the Generalissimo.
Torstensson is beginning to come around to this way of thinking, but he still thinks beating Celiose is essentially impossible. Erdeny claims that he is probably the only person who can do it. “Yes, and I know better than to try,” grumbles Torstensson. He’s probably on the above crisis in Eblan makes another Great Power war imminent, convincing him that stopping the war at gunpoint isn’t such a bad idea after all.
They’ll be some throwaway lines in here about building the conspiracy. I would like to do a few posts to establish it as a subject of concern in the GA. Erdeny reveals a few big GA players on her side, like Victor Velasco of SAGA and the leaders of the ex-GA mercenary unit, the Moonslayers. There’s a scene where Torstensson goes and talks to Model to get him to come in (and he brings the Sixth Army.)

White Cell Strikes
Emerging seemingly from nowhere (Foo!), the White Cell forces engage the Scandians on the ground and the Guardians in space. They catch the Great Powers off-guard and are able to pull off some stunning victories. A mix of tanks and infantry cripple the SLCM’s Dracoforms, and the Executor proves every bit as formidable as advertised in action against the GSF Crystal Fleet. (I was going to ram a Tyrano into it and do hardly any damage, because someone would think of doing this desperate counter at some point anyway, and I wanted to get it out of the way and prove it wouldn’t work. A Blackbird is probably more reasonable, though. Building the Executor up makes Thames’ later triumph over it that much more bad-ass, on the other other hand.) In a matter of weeks, White Cell demonstrates its power by achieving a victory over the Web’s best land army and its best space force.
White Cell sends the Alliance Congress a list of demands, which amounts to: stop all your wars, give up all your weapons. The AC and the House of Lords meet to discuss the situation.
The GA Divided
White Cell-Most of SAGA, Second Army, Sixth Army, Moonslayers (and a few other odds and ends)
Grand Army-(maybe they need a nifty faction name for this, too?)-First Army, Seventh Army, most of the Luftwaffe, most of the Kriegsnavee. I’m hoping to have sea power and traditional air power play a big role at some point.
It’s important to note that White Cell regards itself as part of the Grand Army–in fact, the whole point of the war as for the Alliance Congress and House of Lords to acknowledge White Cell as THE Grand Army. (Which is why they never directly attack the AC/House, and have a big argument over whether attacking the capital of a Great Power is a good idea.) White Cell uses its GA ranks and conducts itself with GA procedures. They even follow the Hosluftgrad Conventions with regard to treatment of prisoners, even though the GA is not a signing party.
Celiose’s Plan
In the center of the huge meeting hall are plaques for two people. “C. Cole, Generalissimo” and “P. Riose, Director of Celpo”. Praxer’s not there. This is bad, because this is exactly the sort of thing he should be concerned with. Nonetheless, the presence of Celiose inspires some confidence. Even though some delegates will no doubt point out that Torstensson is not the first high-ranking lieutenant to betray him, deep down they all know that the Generalissimo is their ace in the hole who can deliver victory in almost any situation.
Probably a few countries think White Cell’s proposal is a good idea. Probably the Scandians and Guardians, who just had a bunch of their soldiers killed by White Cell, are in no mood to agree. I personally like the idea of the smaller and disenfranchised powers being amenable to White Cell’s proposal, while the Great Powers refuse to give up their sovereignty.
Celiose is asked about Ultima weapons. Celiose reveals that though White Cell has significant Ultima weapons in its space fleet, however the GA still retains the entire sea and air based arsenal as well as the key land-based installations of Kefka’s Domain and Death Mountain. Celiose points out that Torstensson, like all GA soldiers, would prefer to capture an objective (in this case, the Web) intact rather than raze it to the ground. The leaders of the Web are a little less then reassured that the professional restraint of Celiose and Torstensson are all that stand between them and fiery Ultima death.
Celiose then presents his plan to win the war. (Someone points out that doing this to such a large audience isn’t wise, but Celiose points out that he and Torstensson know each other so well they both know exactly how this will play out.) The simple fact is that White Cell needs to win big victories, fast, because they have no way of replacing their losses. They have no population or industrial base to draw on; they have no source of replacement parts, new recruits, or ammunition. Torstensson’s first move, if his initial 'shock and ‘awe’ demonstrative victory fails, will be to secure a built-up industrial area. Probably in space, given his huge superiority in that area.
“So space will need to be defended.”
“No, that is impossible,” says Celiose (managing to piss off the Tasnican and Guardian delegates), "the space colonies will need to be destroyed, to deny White Cell the industry and resources.
None of the spacefaring powers like this idea. The Fringe countries also hate it, because they’re effectively written off as well; "Should we in the Fringe also destroy all our industry and technology?"
Celiose, with characteristic bluntness and political deafness, says, “Yes.”
(Note: Might be a good time to adopt less derogatory term for “the Fringe”, like maybe “the Extensions” or whatever, “Core” is still fine probably).
The political leadership of the Web fundamentally rejects Celiose’s “Scorched Space” policy. However, they know that they need to retain him at Generalissimo to win the war. The Alliance Congress rejects the White Cell ultimatum and tells Celiose to prepare for war.
Opening Clashes
So here’s a part of the story that’s a little open-ended; I just had a few vignettes to set the stage for the showdown in Albrook. Mostly its White Cell beating up people, though where there is Celiose, there is victory. Many White Cell units, once confronted with the Generalissimo decide to surrender rather then fight him (part shame of facing him, part his reputation for invincibility on the battlefield.) There’s even a neat trick where Celiose shows himself to an enemy prisoner and then allows the prisoner to escape, so that the White Cell commander KNOWS he’s there in person for sure.
At some point someone (probably some non-Halder Skalice Scandian commander) will decide that the White Cell forces cannot be out-muscled, but they can certainly use superior speed to outmaneuver it. This goes very badly, because the GA invented modern mobile warfare and Torstensson was one of its finest practitioners.
I was also SORTA hopeful that one or two countries might throw in with White Cell out of overall sympathy to their goals.
White Cell is really in a strategic bind, here, even though it wins everywhere it fights, it’s unclear where it should be fighting. Attacking the nations of the Web directly just pisses them off, and is counterproductive to WC’s long-term goal of being recognized as “the legitimate” Grand Army by the Alliance Congress. However, without any resources or factories, they have no way to replace their losses.
Crisis in Tasnica
The Tasnica Republic becomes a giant cluster-fuck.
It takes a little time, though. At first the RAF (not led by Mountbatten, but the inferior Helmut Nicias) is pretty sure it can beat WC’s space forces. When White Cell beat the GSF, it had the element of surprise, and as true Tasnican patriots, they all believe deep down that the RAF is better than the GSF anyway. At first, everyone in the war cabinet is freaking out, as this represents a problem well beyond the existing military capabilities of the Republic (who only planned on fighting another Great Power or so). Nicias is the voice of calm.
And then Admiral Nicias gets his ass kicked in a big space battle that wipes out most of the RAF’s capital ships. White Cell commits heavily to Manaspace because of the large space-based manufacturing infrastructure available there. (In other words, what Celiose predicted would happen, happens.) Velasco’s White Cell forces seize all of the Tasnican space colonies. (And, presumably, Heinlein/Sanctuary.)
And then it all goes to hell in a handbasket politically in Tasnica.
It’s clear to Kenny and his war cabinet that it’s time to do something really, really drastic. In fact, a couple of things that are really, really drastic. Despite the loss of all its space colonies, Tasnica still has a large economy and lots of military potential; unfortunately, it is ONLY potential. What they need more than anything is someone who can turn money into guns.
And that’s how Kenny Brackhaven ends up appointing Damien Gavalian Defense Minister.
Kenny’s well aware that any drastic measures will need the approval of the (Conservative) Senate, so he plans to present all of his proposals to the Senate at once as the “Extraordinary Emergency.” Highlights:

If you have a bunch of raw materials, money, and STUFF, and you need killing machines quickly, there’s an easy answer: ROBOTS! Breaks the treaty with the Guardians, probably pisses off all the robotic voters in Tasnica, requires suspending decades-long interpretation of the Code of Belgememnon, and as everyone knows this can easily go horribly wrong. (Trying to remember if Rajaat’s status as a former robot is common knowledge.) But when you think the country’s not going to make it through the next couple months, you start to contemplate some Seriously Fucked Up Shit.
The Tasnicans also discuss Project Breakout. Breakout was a pre-war study on how fast Tasnica could rapidly produce Ultima weapons should another Great Power break the Hostluftgrad Conventions. (I think I’ll stick them about a year away from an actual weapon. This is largely to establish that making Ultima weapons is Hard; I don’t think I’ll have the Tasnicans go through with it, because part of my desired post bellum is to have fewer Ultima weapons.)
Bundle in a few more (assuredly temporary!) restrictions on individual liberties, and the requirement that the Senate is essentially suspended for the duration of the Extraordinary Emergency (meeting only once a month for a “Yes or No” vote to continue the Emergency). And yes, everyone in the room has Rhodes Palmerston’s Great War leadership in the back of their heads, and knowing that they made it through the Great War without doing anything like this.
Kenny meets with the Senate’s Conservative leadership to discuss the package. Although the Proconsul, Maxwell Nordsten, substantively agrees with the package as a dire necessity, Aggronor Stonebreaker, of the party’s more libertarian wing, goes ballistic. The Extraordinary Emergency would destroy everything about Tasnica worth saving. Kenny worries that Aggronor might lead a walk-out of the Conservatives, which could destabilize Tasnica as it had destabilized Eblan.
The next day the Senate votes on the package. Many Senators make it clear they are Not At All Happy with the state of affairs, as they feel they’ve been bypassed by a backroom deal and been forced to a vote without proper debate through scaremongering. The Extraordinary Emergency narrowly passes, though many Senators who vote for it make it clear they’re doing so grudgingly. Kenny finds Aggronor in a last-ditch attempt to keep him from “doing something crazy, like staging a walkout.” When he finds the dwarf, the Senator brandishes a needle-gun and shoots the Prime Minister. (“So always with tyrants!”) Kenny’s carted off in critical condition. (I can’t bring myself to kill him, though, so I think he’ll just be in a coma.)
So rather than actually wage war, Tasnica starts to argue with itself. With the PM unconscious, Proconsul Nordsten becomes Prime Minister. Under other circumstances, he would’ve sought this position, but the situation is clearly over his head from day one. The Populists aren’t happy because a Conservative just shot the founder of Populism, which resulted in ANOTHER Conservative taking power; the Conservatives are divided over the Extraordinary Emergency. I see Nordsten’s previous political career as behind-the-scenes, backroom operator, so he can’t draw on a huge well of popular support, either.
White Cell totally exploits the situation by fanning flames of dissent in Tasnica’s various extradimensional possessions. White Cell begins supporting independence movements in Carrion, the Moogle States, the Tasnican-Ticonderan Territories, and elsewhere.
At some point (probably AFTER Battle of Albrook, haven’t decided yet) White Cell starts an invasion of the Quad, to secure the valuable industrial areas there. They start with Egmont; Damien Gavalian, unwilling to let his recently rebuilt city get trashed again, buys them off with himself. This leads to the whole Leisha-builds-a-battlesuit-to-go-rescue-him arc I mentioned earlier.
Battle of Albrook
Inevitably, it will come down to a showdown between Celiose and Torstensson. And, of course, the place for that showdown will be Albrook. Torstensson has his best forces at his disposal (Second Army, plus Model’s Sixth) and Celiose has the best ‘loyal’ GA forces defending it (First Army, Rimmel’s Seventh).
Celiose orders an evacuation of the city, which leads some to believe that he’s preparing for an intense urban struggle. Torstensson thinks it’s a bluff, though, and he’s proven right when Celiose choices to engage in a large-scale, mobile, field battle on Albrooker Plain. (The Torstensson v. Celiose matchup has a curious “I had guessed that he had guessed my guess” quality to it. Many of the higher-ups believe Torstensson can actually win, but both Celiose and Torstensson KNOW with absolute certainty that, one way or another, Celiose will always wins.)
Celiose begins the battle by launching Rimmel Coward and his Seventh Army (an “Unstoppable Force”) at Torstensson’s left flank, covered by Model’s Sixth Army (an “Immovable Object”.) Rimmel hates this idea. He’s sorta regretting coming out of retirement to do this, and wishes he was back home with his wife. Rimmel thinks his attack is pointless; Model’s army are well dug-in. Rimmel also feels that his men haven’t had enough time to train with the new Leo mk IV and V tanks. (It’s about time we have them, I’m thinking they’ll be gravtanks, but I’m not sure I’m ready to give up on crushing treads just yet…) Celiose is dismissive of his objections, saying basically, “You need to trust me, because I’m Celiose.” It’s easy to accuse Celiose of arrogance or overconfidence, here, but I can’t imagine anyone familiar with Kupopolis who is reading this would for a minute believe Celiose is going to lose.
Rimmel’s attack is a mess for both sides; the two armies wipe each other out, and Rimmel and Model kill each other. Torstensson is now in a quandary; his main remaining force is Second Army, a tank-heavy force ill-suited to the urban fighting in Albrook that now confronts him. His instinct is to call off the attack, but instead he decides to pour more of his precious front-line infantry into the city. (Important strategic point: White Cell has plenty of technological toys, but with no manpower pool of its own, its always short on poor, bloody, infantryman.)
Tex, way-back-when, suggested that the Hannibal would side with White Cell, and bring the Esperians along with them. I’m thinking that this would be a good time to do it (for Torstensson to suddenly get all the troops he needs), but I’m also wondering if this battle should remain a GA ‘intramural’ contest. But Torstensson takes the city, though he takes heavy losses and ends up trashing all of the city’s fortifications in the process.

As things start to look bad, several of Celiose’s closest advisors (including Shana) urge him to flee. He refuses. “Captains and majors can retreat,” he says, “but Celiose Cole?” He scoffs at the possibility that the White Cell forces will kill him if he is captured. “Torstensson will know better than to even try,” he says.
Celiose does, however, arrange for his family to leave the city, including his mother, who is in critical condition. (He argues with the doctor of whether or not she should be moved.)
When Torstensson eventually storms the GAHQ operations room, he finds Celiose there, in his full dress uniform and Illumina at his side in his scabbard. Torstensson and the soldiers iwth him don’t know what to do at first. Celiose stands up from his chair, and the White Cell men in the room twitch and start, as though Celiose would draw the sword and singlehandedly cut down their whole army right there.
“You have to shoot,” insists Celiose. “That’s the conclusion of all this, isn’t it? You have to shoot.”
“The legend of Celiose Cole needs to die,” says Torstensson. But still he hesitates.
“Why do you hesitate?” demands Celiose. “Is it my weapon you fear?” And he draws out Illumina, and puts it on his desk. "Go on, then."
Eventually one of Torstensson’s soldiers freaks out and pulls the trigger, and Torstensson knocks the man’s arms aside to keep him from firing again. Blood starts to stain Celiose’s uniform; but it was just a glancing hit, and the Generalissimo is still standing.
“You see?” taunts Celiose. "I’m just a man."
After another moment’s hesitation, Torstensson informs Celiose he has been taken prisoner in accordance with the Hosluftgrad Conventions, and has his solders escort him to the ‘General’s Wing’ of GAHQ.
After the battle, Torstensson is talking with Erdeny. She asks why he didn’t have Celiose killed. (Erdeny has a lot of daddy issues, it seems.) Torstensson insists he was right. “Generalissimo Celiose Cole was not born to be gunned down like some dog.” Reflecting on the battle, Torstensson says, "It should not have been so easy."
Erdeny is shocked. "Easy? We’ve lost all of Sixth Army, Second Army took heavy losses…this wasn’t easy at all."
Torstensson says, “Defeating Celiose Cole, at Albrook, with his best troops available–that’s something that should have been impossible.” He reflects on the losses and what they mean for White Cell’s strategic position. Albrook’s fortifications are all destroyed, and White Cell’s position is now exposed and vulnerable. The supply depots of Albrook are not nearly as large as hoped, and the city has little in the way of industry. White Cell’s inferior navy means that Albrook’s position near the sea-based Albrook Portal Set is worthless. Rather than a commanding fortress dominating the Core, Albrook is now open to attack from the entire Core. And White Cell has lost huge numbers of its best troops, and one of its best commanders (Model), which it has no way of replacing.
Erdeny is dismissive. “You need to sacrifice your pawns to win the game.”
“You sacrifice your queen to win the game, if that’s what it takes,” says Torstensson. "And that’s what Celiose has done. Your father is a great tactician, but an even better strategist. A tactician wins battles; a strategist uses battles to win wars. Celiose has lost the battle to win the war."
Erdeny points out that Celiose that if this was Celiose’s strategy, he’s in no position to run the next part of it. The GA’s ground forces are all in terrible shape, too, and there’s no Celiose-like figure who can coordinate the Great Powers.
After Albrook, White Cell suspends operations temporarily. They reissue their demands to the Alliance Congress, with one modification: that they name a new Generalissimo.

And that was as far as the outline got. I had some notions about how the rest would play out:
-The nations would fight over each other over which one of them got the new Generalissimo, with Admiral Thames and Halder Skalice emerging as leading candidates after having some success against White Cell forces in Gatespace and Ticondera
-The Scandians devise a chemical weapon that can suck the energy out of magitek, and use it against White Cell. Since White Cell uses GA equipment, its almost all magitek, so the Scandians are able to secure a decisive land victory.
-White Cell demands the Alliance Congress expel Scande because of their use of illegal weapons, even if the weapons didn’t actually hurt any people. (Travin’s response: “You’re a sore loser.”)
-Erdeny takes the Executor and the White Cell fleet into orbit of Dragon III and start nuking cities from orbit. This leads the rest of the Web to organize a fleet under Thames to save Scande (who, in the pre-White Cell runup, was pretty much at odds with everyone. OH THE IRONY!)
-Celiose (apparently) gives his life to self-destruct the Executor

Post White Cell:
-Scandian League broken up into various warlords
-Tasnica essentially intact, but loses almost all of its territory outside the Mana Dimension
-I was going to leave it to other writers to decide if the GA should continue to exist; I personally think GACA is sorta central to the story’s universe, but if there was a time to build it all newer and better, this would be it

In other discussions, I had considered the igniting incident to happen in Ticondera, instead of Crystal. The basic idea was the same, though: The Great Powers come really close to War, and White Cell comes virtually out of nowhere to kick all their asses.

In various “Kupopolis Reborn” discussions I had with Matt, White Cell came up a lot, and there were generally two different thoughts about it:

  1. This is huge, and wraps up lots from the old story – it should be the FIRST thing we do in Kupopolis Reborn.
  2. This is huge, and wraps up lots from the old story – at the start of Kupopolis Reborn, it should’ve already happened, to be part of the background.

I kind of lean towards (2). I liked the idea of flashing forward maybe a decade or so with White Cell already having happened, as a way to start with new characters and plots wherever I wanted, but not so distant or removed that I couldn’t bring across familiar elements that I wanted to.

Honestly, that’s just the sort of thing that would be a perfect “Season _ Review”, segueing comfortably from the old state of affairs and providing a fleshed out reason for why things are how they are now (whatever that might be). I think, at this point, it’s best suited for (2).

Damn. Just… damn.

So, a few thoughts. There’s a lot to cover here, and this was fun to read. It definitely brought me back.

[quote=“Celiose”]2. This is huge, and wraps up lots from the old story – at the start of Kupopolis Reborn, it should’ve already happened, to be part of the background.

I kind of lean towards (2). I liked the idea of flashing forward maybe a decade or so with White Cell already having happened, as a way to start with new characters and plots wherever I wanted, but not so distant or removed that I couldn’t bring across familiar elements that I wanted to.[/quote]

I agree with your view, Travis. I think this is fantastic, but I think it works better as a set-up to start telling new stories. We have something that cripples the GACA and the Great Powers; we could pick up ten years later, and have a lot more freedom. People can feel free to change their things and pick up new things. Why is it different? A whole lot changed.

That said: flashback posts would rock.

Now, for a couple of specific things/wishes:

Hannibal

Because my flagship character comes first.

I think Hannibal would support White Cell, but would not pull the Esperians into things. I thought about this, and one thing that developed from Hannibal’s last big arc was that he came to believe a few well-trained, well-armed men (such as his Hundred) could be more decisive than scores of soldiers. When he tried to shape the Web with a nation, he caused one of the worst wars in the modern Web. When he did it with a hundred pilots with ridiculously powerful mecha, he saved the Web from a titanic conspiracy. Hannibal throws in with Torstensson, but he wants to create a leaner, meaner Grand Army.

What I would love is if he ended up fighting his old friend Derik, who ultimately talked Hannibal down while the two had a massive knock-down, drag-out fight. Afterward, Hannibal vanished before the Grand Army civil war ended. No one’s seen him since. Lemme know if this is cool, Matt.

But, he disappears. I have stories I’d like to tell, and I think “what happened to Hannibal?” is a good way to start that.

Esper Union

Where’s the EU during this?

I’ve thought a lot about what becomes of the Esperians. I’m going to deviate for a moment for something I’ve thought about, planned about, and want to do. The EU has a massive social problem looming. Early on, part of how MIc Hosluft solidified social control over the EU was to make widespread magitech infusions with his supporters; Rinster devised a method that was cheaper using magilyte, and the end result was they not only had the dangerously powerful STORMs, but they had people in a variety of fields – most quite well off – with magical powers. Hannibal clamped down on this, limiting it to government officials; you couldn’t just buy one by 33 WR, but it was still widespread. Halberg realized the danger of this, and he quickly clamped down on them – at that point, only special approval could get government agents infusions. Unfortunately, the damage was done.

Basically, the EU had a good ten years of widespread magitech infusions. What they started finding out in the mid-40’s WR, as the children of these people came of age, was the magical abilities could be inherited. It became part of their genes. By the late 40’s WR, you had a group of twenty-somethings who had magic, who were often of means (after all, these were businessmen, the wealthy, and government officials under the de’Zama reign). The result was, suddenly, a new class in society: people with innate magic, who sometimes eclipsed their parents in power. We’ll call them the Imbued, for now; I figure the name “the New Magi” has also been thrown around.

The Imbued needed to be integrated into society; they started getting government and military posts, being publicly hailed as the future of the country, while the people with more limited infusions at the top tried to protect themselves. Members of the public resented them; the Imbued quickly began to become more like nobility and aristocracy, thanks to their resources.

So, the Esper Union began to stagnate. Halberg’s assassination removed his charismatic leadership, and an oversized bureaucracy beholden to these new magic-capable golden children and Tasnican corporations had its hands full. It didn’t participate in the White Cell conflict. It didn’t even capitalize on the situation to retake the Scandian occupied areas. This has sat very poorly with the military, which has a disproportionate number of Imbued, who were ashamed at Esperian inaction. So, in the wake of it, the EU has a rise of a new powerful class that’s outraged, feels used, and feels superior to regular people. Bad times.

Also, the Scandian occupied area probably became a country like East Germany… and may outlast the Scandian League?

What Could Kupopolis Reborn Look Like?

This is last because it’s most important. I think an outcome I like is that the White Cell conflict burns out the Great Powers and Grand Army; maybe White Cell is defeated, but it’s a pyrrhic victory. Things like SAGA and the Sky Riders throw down and cripple each other. Guardian and Scandian forces crush Torstensson but it’s a near-ran thing. Hannibal stumbling away from a battlefield, the Malakim shattered, him wounded by Derik, and Zion and Reynolds staring at all the destroyed Seraphim.

So the Web leftover has fewer armies. The stakes are higher; wars are more costly than before. And if something bad comes… it’s not a tie of white and gold that saves the day. It’s some people – to get to the adventurers, the individuals we talked about. If the Hajes or the Hivans come calling, it’s not gonna be waves of Leo tanks, but the actions of characters. This is kinda rough, but I feel like this could set up what we talked about nicely.

And leave room for some awesome epic wars if we wanna?

[quote=“Tex”]

What Could Kupopolis Reborn Look Like?

This is last because it’s most important. I think an outcome I like is that the White Cell conflict burns out the Great Powers and Grand Army; maybe White Cell is defeated, but it’s a pyrrhic victory. Things like SAGA and the Sky Riders throw down and cripple each other. Guardian and Scandian forces crush Torstensson but it’s a near-ran thing. Hannibal stumbling away from a battlefield, the Malakim shattered, him wounded by Derik, and Zion and Reynolds staring at all the destroyed Seraphim.

So the Web leftover has fewer armies. The stakes are higher; wars are more costly than before. And if something bad comes… it’s not a tie of white and gold that saves the day. It’s some people – to get to the adventurers, the individuals we talked about. If the Hajes or the Hivans come calling, it’s not gonna be waves of Leo tanks, but the actions of characters. This is kinda rough, but I feel like this could set up what we talked about nicely.

And leave room for some awesome epic wars if we wanna?[/quote]

Absolutely. This really does free up room for the individual, vs the nation. Though to be fair, I don’t know that Kupop can nor should escape epic wars. They were done so well by you guys, that I really do hope for a return to them, particularly if seen through the eyes of heroes and villains, vs. war rooms, labs and senates (though those are great perspectives too).

[quote=“Tex”]

What Could Kupopolis Reborn Look Like?

This is last because it’s most important. I think an outcome I like is that the White Cell conflict burns out the Great Powers and Grand Army; maybe White Cell is defeated, but it’s a pyrrhic victory. Things like SAGA and the Sky Riders throw down and cripple each other. Guardian and Scandian forces crush Torstensson but it’s a near-ran thing. Hannibal stumbling away from a battlefield, the Malakim shattered, him wounded by Derik, and Zion and Reynolds staring at all the destroyed Seraphim.

So the Web leftover has fewer armies. The stakes are higher; wars are more costly than before. And if something bad comes… it’s not a tie of white and gold that saves the day. It’s some people – to get to the adventurers, the individuals we talked about. If the Hajes or the Hivans come calling, it’s not gonna be waves of Leo tanks, but the actions of characters. This is kinda rough, but I feel like this could set up what we talked about nicely.

And leave room for some awesome epic wars if we wanna?[/quote]

Yup, that’s the idea.

And a Web that is overall more rough-and-tumble. The same political players still exist, but they don’t exert the same power and reach that they used to. Much of the Web is looser, more lawless, more dangerous, but also more open to adventuring.

In fact, I would go so far as to say after White Cell, the Web at large is almost reflexively distrustful of large organizations. I suspect the Charter Alliance still exists, but I don’t know about rebuilding the Grand Army. Perhaps the GA nations themselves haven’t decided yet, preferring to spend their limited resources repairing their destroyed cities.

…of course, we still have plenty of opportunities for epic wars. My thumbnail sketch of the Dragon Dimension is basically a bunch of different warlords constantly fighting each other for territory.

Agreed! I think Kupop without war would be weird, but I think by the end, we’d kinda ditched the war room stuff; Neo was basically all on the front lines by the end.

One idea that I had was to do, like, a forum called “Dispatches” and use that for quick in-universe news wire stuff on things we don’t wanna do full posts about. Kinda keep that feel of a deeper universe and showing what’s happening in quicker form. Reading it in an old timey WW2 news reel voice optional.

[quote=“Celiose”]And a Web that is overall more rough-and-tumble. The same political players still exist, but they don’t exert the same power and reach that they used to. Much of the Web is looser, more lawless, more dangerous, but also more open to adventuring.

In fact, I would go so far as to say after White Cell, the Web at large is almost reflexively distrustful of large organizations. I suspect the Charter Alliance still exists, but I don’t know about rebuilding the Grand Army. Perhaps the GA nations themselves haven’t decided yet, preferring to spend their limited resources repairing their destroyed cities.

…of course, we still have plenty of opportunities for epic wars. My thumbnail sketch of the Dragon Dimension is basically a bunch of different warlords constantly fighting each other for territory.[/quote]

I like it.

I was also thinking we could say the Sky Riders and SAGA just blew the everloving shit out of each other in one of the biggest space battles in Web history? And the SRAN is now heavily reduced in numbers and stuff. Maybe they took the Executor out with targeted asteroid strikes. but lost a huge portion of their fleet keeping SAGA from blowing the asteroids up.

I also sort of think we could have a Grand Army, but… it’s a shell of what it used to be. So there could be stories about the few brave men and women left in the GA, realizing how undermanned and even hated they are, with a job that’s much harder?

“Gods, this place has gone to hell.”

I’m all for the irony of SRAN blowing up SAGA in order to save the Scandian League from orbital bombardment.

Perfect. Then SRAN limps back to Esper and is basically reduced to being the EU’s space force again?

I figure the United Crystal States might also form out of this mess. Toria, Damcyan, Fabul, and Baron are like “sooooo um oh my god you guys maybe we should hang out more?” and it finally happens, but it’s busy trying to get its shit together. Maybe there’s a charismatic guy named Daumme who’s a commander of the nascent Armies of a Free Crystal, who has an amount of political clout people find disturbing.

And then elsewhere, TOTALLY UNRELATED, AND NOT FORESHADOWING FOR 80 SOMEODD YEARS FROM NOW*, a guy named Harmer shrugs and goes back to his petunias.

  • In some universes.

Dammit, I go off to class for a few hours and people are already posting responses. Grumble.

GImme an hour or two to brave the freeway, empty my bowels, settle in and read everything, and then you shall hear all of my takes/followups on White Cell, plus a (hopefully brief) discussion of the Unravelling megapost that never happened. Or, was maybe 2/3 written before the site went kaput.

btw: Hannibal vs. Derik:
Hannibal: "Just like a Guardian, brings a sword to a gunfight."
Derik: ::casts Balefire::
Hannibal: “Oh shit!!” ::barely ducks under the beam of erase-o-magic::

[quote=“Scen”]btw: Hannibal vs. Derik:
Hannibal: "Just like a Guardian, brings a sword to a gunfight."
Derik: ::casts Balefire::
Hannibal: “Oh shit!!” ::barely ducks under the beam of erase-o-magic::[/quote]

I approve of this concept.

Also I feel like somehow this has to result in another Mister Bones vs. Manta. DO YOU HEAR ME, JAY?

[quote=“Tex”][quote=“Scen”]btw: Hannibal vs. Derik:
Hannibal: "Just like a Guardian, brings a sword to a gunfight."
Derik: ::casts Balefire::
Hannibal: “Oh shit!!” ::barely ducks under the beam of erase-o-magic::[/quote]

I approve of this concept.

Also I feel like somehow this has to result in another Mister Bones vs. Manta. DO YOU HEAR ME, JAY?[/quote]
Mister Bones vs Manta? Mister Bones isn’t stupid enough to go up against Manta. Mister Bones hates using guns, and you’d need ALL THE GUNS (ALL OF THEM) to take down Manta. And even then, you wouldn’t turn your back on the smear that was left.

I believe Mister Bones would also say something on the lines of, “Me? Take down -ing Manta? Not enough money in the -ing Web for me to take that job.”

I had a time-travel plot which had the whole point of pitting Avarael Cole against Manta to prove who was the “Ultimate Killing Machine.”

Actually, I had a number of plots that involved Manta fighting someone, now that I think about it.

That’s what my dreams look like right now.

(In all seriousness, I hope Mister Bones returns, I loved that dude.)

Oh, oh, Trav. What happens to Albrook?

If there’s no preference, Communist Esper could just drop down and add it to their holdings. (I need to stop using Crusader King 2 terminology.)

You’re not the only one. Trust me, he’ll come back one day.

My thinking was that Albrook would be a free city, an independent political entity. (I have a soft spot for Merchant Republics in CK2, what can I say?)

I do like the communist Esperians becoming their own thing, especially since I totally see the Scandians “liberating” them at some point as a way to look good…very ironic that they would end up a player in their own right.

Also, Tex, I’d like your thoughts on:

Neo-Returners Front
Terrorist Organization
Though, as the saying goes, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.
The Neo-Returners Front is an Esperian Supremist organization with its roots in resistance to the Scandian occupation. Many of their leaders, including founder Graegor Idran, are former military veterans who felt betrayed and sold out by the new Esperian government, and they vowed to restore Esperian unity and greatness. The Returners venerate Hannibal de’Zama as a God, and see themselves in the tradition of Esper’s greatest heroes like Mic Hosluft, Alexander Colby, Terra Branford, and Celiose Cole.
The Returners are extremely well-supplied; they have plenty of sympathizers throughout Esper and beyond willing to provide them with weapons, including Ifrit battlesuits and other military-grade hardware.
Though many sympathize with their grievances and political goals, the Neo-Returners have embraced terror attacks on civilian targets to garner attention for their cause, seized and destroyed medical supplies from the Organization of the Red Ankh as a protest against “Tasnican influence”, and have tried to murder anyone attempting to bring peace and reconciliation to the dimension, including Rhodes Palmerston (who was facilitating secret peace talks), Alice Halberg (who organized free Esperian elections), and even Halder Skalice (who was visiting Nikeah to sign a treaty ENDING the Scandian Occupied Zone.)
Although they are ideological fanatics, the Neo-Returners engage in plenty of more mundane criminal elements to fund their activities. Despite Webwide protests, Esperian authorities cannot (or will not) bring them to justice.

…which is a thing I wrote up knowing nothing of what you just wrote. (Though, I suspect no matter who is in charge of the EU, there will be SOME faction unhappy with it).

Makes sense, regarding Albrook. I can dig it.

And yeah, I was thinking the occupied zone might become something like the People’s Republic of Greater Tzen (PRGZ or “Porgs” in some slang). The irony, given trends in the EU, is they might be more Esperian: they might have established more trade with Crystal and Tasnica on fairly equal terms, considered elections, and made overtures towards social democracy. Whereas the classic EU has increasing class divisions, the Imbued are resulting in somewhat divisive local politics, and I’m thinking a very recent change is an Imbued-only order of knights ostensibly on the Guardian model.

Also, I like the Neo-Returners. They could also be lashing out against the large social changes? They might (correctly) perceive the Esper Union as leaving its roots behind entirely.