Point- The Elder Gods are known to exist.

Point- Other gods, from Tsunami on down, are or expect to be at war with them.

Point- This conflict (or, more precisely, the mortal galaxy's role therein) will be central to the action of Act III. It is logical to assume that the gods, having funky information sources and such, are aware of at least the broad strokes of this.

Point- Seiryuu is a god.

Point- One of Yui's wishes to Seiryuu was "the power to do what I must."

Point- Gundam is one of the sources for the Commonwealth, which means that they have Newtypes in addition to other various Talents.

Point- It is known that those who survive the Madness Maze are granted great and not-very-clearly defined powers.

Point- It is known that these persons are capable of great feats when operating together in a gestalt.


Hypothesis- Madness Maze Survivors are Newtypes.

Hypothesis- Yui's Wish made -her- a Newtype, too, and an exceptionally powerful one.

Hypothesis- The natural Newtypes are created as a result of prenatal divine meddling.

Hypothesis- The gods are hoping that all the Newtypes in the galaxy can be brought together in a single gestalt, which will then be able to match/defeat the Elder Gods.


Blessed be.
-yble

The first two hypotheses work.

The next two... I don't know about. I'm especially leery about the idea of a Newtype super-gestalt, since it seems like too pat a deus ex machina.

---
Mr. Fnord
GSV _Suppressed Transmission_
http://fnord.sandwich.net/

Fair enough. Of course, all of these should be taken with a biggish grain of salt - having seem no more Gundam than the first half of 08th MS Team, I actually know only slightly more than -jack- about Newtypes.

Blessed be.
-n
(They're empaths, right?)

>I actually know only slightly more than -jack- about
>Newtypes.
>(They're empaths, right?)

It's never really well defined in Gundam in general, but yeah, it's a sort of broadcast empathy, maybe a limited telepathy thing.

---
Mr. Fnord
GSV _Suppressed Transmission_
http://fnord.sandwich.net/

Note, this is nbased more off fanfction thatn any offical continuity, however:

A common suggestion is that Washu, Tokimi and Tsunami are sisters (in a similar manner to, say, the three Norns). Each deals with other, younger beings/races in their own way - Washuu moves amongst them, Tsunami watches over them and Tokimi remains apart from them. On the same line of thought, Washuu created Ryoko, Tsunami empowers Tenchi and Tokimi recruited Dr. Clay et al.

Stepping aside, an common theme in fiction is that Gods/Higher Powers (read Knight of Shadows by Roger Zelazny for an example of the latter) play games with mortal lives. So, supposing that 'Newtypes' are part of a plan by the 'Young Gods' to oppose the 'Old Gods', would it not be more apporpriate for them to be relative pawns in a vast, subtle and complex scheme - most of them important in and of themselves but as a whole with enormous impact once the final and most significant pieces act.

Obviously these particular mortals would have had to be prepared with great care to ensure they would act in accordance with the grand plan. And it's not as if the workings of the plan need to be worked out - just the results. The rest can be 'faked'.

To use Undocumented Features as an example:

Odin doesn't want to lose Ragnarok, so he arranges matters to enure that there will be mortal warriors supporting Asgard in the battle. To set this up he arranges for q to be expelled from the Q Continuem (sp?) and sent to Worcester, leading to q creating CLULESS and retroactively format the universe to favor the Wedge Rats. CLULESS creates Largo, who provides the Wedge Rats with a motivation to create the Wedge Defense Force - an organisation with ideals that will lead them to a natural alliance with Asgard. Meanwhile, GENOM recruits R-Type, as a prospective leader of the company who can lead them to join the WDF as Asgardian allies once Largo has escalated the enmity between the two forces to the point that sufficent force exists to threaten Loki's forces. Largo removed, the prospective pool of allies is now substantial and by granting Keiichi a wish via Belldandy, Odin brings Skuld and Gryphon into contact so that there is a bond of loyalty that can pull the WDF into the fight.

I'm not saying that this is true (in fact I'm sure Gryphon has no such meta-plot in the workings) but it's certainly a plausible explanation that could have been used to 'justify' substantial areas of the plot even if they had not been previously considered.

Something equally grandiose could very well be the over-riding plot of the Shining Spiral.

drakensis

A Toast to the Federated Commonwealth! Conceived 3022, born 3055, shot 3057, expired 3067.

>A common suggestion is that Washu, Tokimi and Tsunami are sisters (in a similar manner to, say, the three Norns). Each deals with other, younger beings/races in their own way - Washuu moves amongst them, Tsunami watches over them and Tokimi remains apart from them. On the same line of thought, Washuu created Ryoko, Tsunami empowers Tenchi and Tokimi recruited Dr. Clay et al.<

As a side note, I've never cared much for the idea that Tenchi's powers came from an external source - for one thing, this would mean that, like the treeships, he'd be exactly what Sasami was afraid of being: a puppet allowed life only by the whim of Tsunami (Sasami isn't because, unlike the link with the trees, her link is fully two way).

My preferred concept is that, while Tsunami, err, modified him rather heavily during his near-death in the Kagato incident, he was never actually absorbed.

>Obviously these particular mortals would have had to be prepared with great care to ensure they would act in accordance with the grand plan. And it's not as if the workings of the plan need to be worked out - just the results. The rest can be 'faked'.<

Or simply not mentioned - similar to the origins of the Templates. It is enough that the thing be known to the authors, and there to shape their choices.

Something that might be considered - gods are wise and knowledgeable and powerful, but they -don't- know everything. If the Newtype super-gestalt is built up to properly as a climax/solution/salvation, then -fails- (which, given the effect SAHBs have on even the least perceptive human minds, could quite possibly result from an inabiltity to hold unity in the face of such -alienness- (I'll further note that I consider the 'wierdness can cause insanity' concept seen in Lovecraft and Greene to be both sloppy, unlikely, illogical and pointless. It's pretty demonstrated that the human mind is -far- more likely to simply -fail- to register mental input that doesn't meet its parameters than to be affected as described. But, c'est la vie, it's part of the source, so I can work with it.))

Now, to change the subject...

>[2.2.2.1.4] HYPERSPACE WITH DISTANT TRANSMITTER
In this variant, a fixed machine is needed to access hyperspace, but
the machine need not be at either the original location or the
destination. I've never seen this in SF; included for completeness.<

If you're the Authority, this concept could be called 'Doors'. These are distinct from Teleportation devices in that teleporters, like UF's fold drive, are instantaneous. Doors work through hyperspace - even when dealing with planetary distances, there's still a measurable duration between departure and arrival.

Blessed be.
-n
(What about vacuum? C'mon, they're the -Authority-.)

>>[2.2.2.1.4] HYPERSPACE WITH DISTANT TRANSMITTER
>>In this variant, a fixed machine is needed to access
>>hyperspace, but the machine need not be at either
>>the original location or the destination. I've never
>>seen this in SF; included for completeness.<
>
>If you're the Authority, this concept could be
>called 'Doors'. These are distinct from Teleportation
>devices in that teleporters, like UF's fold drive,
>are instantaneous. Doors work through hyperspace -
>even when dealing with planetary distances, there's
>still a measurable duration between departure and
>arrival.

Hm. So basically a sort of point-to-point wormhole generator? (In the sense that it gets you from point A to point B faster than regular hyper, but still takes time to transit.)

It certainly would explain how the Authority can be everywhere, not to mention how the Carrier manages to cross the Commonwealth several orders of magnitude faster than a magsail barge has any right to.

Also, if the Guild ever found out about the widget, they'd move heaven and earth to posess the sole copy.

---
Mr. Fnord
GSV _Suppressed Transmission_
http://fnord.sandwich.net/

>Hm. So basically a sort of point-to-point wormhole generator? (In the sense that it gets you from point A to point B faster than regular hyper, but still takes time to transit.)<

Er, no, not really. Door observed velocity is actually rather low, by interstellar standards. It's just, the distances traveled are so (relatively) short that it seems really fast.

>It certainly would explain how the Authority can be everywhere, not to mention how the Carrier manages to cross the Commonwealth several orders of magnitude faster than a magsail barge has any right to.<

No, it just uses Metatron based armor.

>Also, if the Guild ever found out about the widget, they'd move heaven and earth to posess the sole copy.<

Why bother? It's just a funky mutant QI drive. Their QII units beat it all hollow. So, for that matter, does the telaport gadget they got from the Joker Cluster.

Oh, and Eric? You've heard about Diamond's releasing that?

Blessed be.
-n

>Er, no, not really. Door observed velocity is
>actually rather low, by interstellar standards. It's
>just, the distances traveled are so (relatively)
>short that it seems really fast.

Ah. Well, it's probably all for the best. Letting the Authority rampage at extreme long range would probably be almost as bad for the Spiral as Big C and his Star-Spawn Orchestra. Almost.

>Why bother? It's just a funky mutant QI drive. Their
>QII units beat it all hollow. So, for that matter,
>does the telaport gadget they got from the Joker
>Cluster.

Still, with the Guild obsession with wormholes, anything resembling an artifical generator would attract their attention. And considering the Authority's natural level of secrecy considering their little tricks, well...

At the very least it could make life hectic for the Authority for a little while. Not to mention set up some damn cool Mortar Headd v. Superhero fights. %)





---
Mr. Fnord
GSV _Suppressed Transmission_
http://fnord.sandwich.net/

>Still, with the Guild obsession with wormholes, anything resembling an artifical generator would attract their attention. And considering the Authority's natural level of secrecy considering their little tricks, well...<

Well, yeah, there's that.

>At the very least it could make life hectic for the Authority for a little while. Not to mention set up some damn cool Mortar Headd v. Superhero fights. %)<

MH: Hold still so I can swat you!

SH: Dammit, why can't I hurt you?!

As far's I can see, the biggest difference in scale between MHs and Evas is that MHs wear bulkier armor.

This makes putting up an interesting fight with something that is, proportionally, about two or three inches tall kind of difficult.

Blessed be.
-n
(Playing with the idea of what a Joker System... argh. It's either meight or meister - and the other one makes Fatimas - but I can't remember which. Mecha designer. ...would do to an Eva if he got ahold of one.)

>>Hypothesis- The natural Newtypes are created as a result of prenatal divine meddling.

Hypothesis- The gods are hoping that all the Newtypes in the galaxy can be brought together in a single gestalt, which will then be able to match/defeat the Elder Gods.<<

>The next two... I don't know about. I'm especially leery about the idea of a Newtype super-gestalt, since it seems like too pat a deus ex machina.<

Even if that is the gods' plan, humans have this nasty habit of not doing what they're expected/supposed to do. Besides, even Gods can make mistakes. 8P

"I'm *A* god. I'm not *THE* God." - Bill Murray (Groundhogs Day)